Hiring Subcontractors: How Do You Screen and Vet to Avoid Costly Mistakes and Rework?
At our company located in Mansfield, Ohio, we provide the majority of interior and exterior services. We use all subcontractors, most who typically strictly work for our company. We have had many issues hiring subcontractors who have done bad work, which has caused us to spend more money/time sending other subcontractors back out to fix the mistakes. It is also pushing our schedule back completely. This issue has set back our company in the last year because of multiple different crews. We have a few good, reliable crews, but the workload is too much for them. What can we do/use to help us with the process of elimination when it comes to hiring? Are there any types of quizzes/tests that we should provide? Any specific questions that we should be asking? Are there any places we may not be thinking of to find reliable subcontractors?
How do you make sure a job is still profitable before submitting a bid?
I’m curious how other contractors handle this. Before submitting a bid, what numbers do you always check to make sure the job isn’t underpriced? I usually think about labor, materials, overhead, break-even cost, and target profit margin — but I’d like to know what others actually use in the real world. Do you use estimating software, a spreadsheet, or mostly experience?Roll Call! Meet & introduce yourself to other Construction and Home Improvement pros
If you’ve ever thought, “How are other businesses like mine handling this?” you’re in the right place! This space is for Construction and Home Improvement pros to connect, compare notes, and talk shop with others who understand the day-to-day realities of running your type of business. 👋 Introduce Yourself Drop a comment and tell us: Your name Business name Industry Years in business Location (City/State/Province) Let us know if you’re joining us for LIVE networking on March 17 (more details below) The more context you share, the better connections you’ll make. 🙌 Pro tip: Search your city or state in the forum to easily find other pros in your area. 📅 Want to connect LIVE? We’re running a pilot to host virtual weekly LIVE Industry Networking starting on March 17, running until April 7. If you’d be interested in joining for the first or following sessions (don’t need to commit to all but you're welcome to join!), make sure to let us know in the comments. 🤝 Culture of this space Think of this forum board like a room full of peers who understand your world. Share what’s working. Ask real questions. Talk through challenges. The goal is to power your success and raise the standard of home service industries together. 💬 Looking for conversation starters? This space works best when conversations are industry-specific and experience-based. You might jump in with something like: “How are other [industry] pros pricing this service right now?” “Is anyone else seeing this shift in their market?” “What’s been working for you when it comes to ____?" 🤔 Why are industries grouped together? We’ve intentionally clustered similar industries to keep conversations active and relevant. These groupings reflect shared business models, operational challenges, and pricing conversations so you can learn from peers who “get it,” even if they’re not in your exact trade. If your question applies to all home service businesses, feel free to post in our broader forum boards. Pro tip: Check out the industry tags to get even more specific Looking forward to seeing this space come to life. 🚀
Handyman - how are you guys figuring out what a job actually needs to pay?
Hey guys, I'm a Handyman myself and got tired of pricing jobs by gut feeling, so I built something that calculates pricing using my actual income goal, overhead, billable time, travel, materials and markup. After the job, I entered what actually happened and it starts building my own personal price history and price booklet. I'm curious about what else eveybody else uses. If somebody has something that works better i'd love hear about it or switch to that system. I ran into some guys and they were still using spreadsheet, jobber/joist, a set price book, or mostly experience/gut feeling?
Small Family Business Relationships
Looking for advice from other family-owned construction businesses: How do you separate family from employees and create accountability? We are a small family-owned construction business that I started about 11 years ago. I come from a family of nine kids, plus our parents, and over the years most of us have worked in the company at one point or another. Building the business from the ground up has taught me a lot—one of the biggest lessons being that family does not always work well together in business, and I can't create a position for or help everyone just because we're related. Over the years, I've gone through several employees both inside and outside the family, but somehow we always seem to fall back to the same two or three people carrying most of the workload. I understand that finding good employees is difficult in general, especially in construction, and our industry has its ups and downs. But instead of blaming everything on the labor market, I've been trying to look internally and figure out what problems within our company may be creating bottlenecks or preventing us from growing. One issue I keep coming back to is the family dynamic. Our family is extremely close. Most of the nine siblings see each other every few days. We play bar-league sports together, attend birthdays and holidays together, and spend a lot of time around each other outside of work. Because of that, it can be difficult to maintain the mindset of, "At work, this is my boss—not just my brother or friend." For the most part, I think we do a decent job separating business from personal life, but it gets complicated when spouses or other family members get involved in discussions about pay, company vehicles, hours, responsibilities, etc. For example, let's say one of my brothers normally clocks out at 3:30 PM. At 5:00 PM, a customer calls because a breaker was accidentally left off or a jobsite wasn't cleaned up properly. If I call and ask him if he can go back and correct it—and he's being paid for his time—it sometimes creates tension at home. The attitude can become, "You own the company, so anything outside normal hours should be your responsibility." That's just one example, but it illustrates the larger problem. I've mentioned that if nobody wants to occasionally volunteer for those situations, then we may eventually need formal on-call rotations, or employees may have to leave company vans at the shop so another person can access the tools and vehicle if needed. Another challenge is flexibility. I'm a big family person myself, so I've always tried to be extremely understanding with everyone, whether they're family or not. Doctor appointment? Go. Need to leave early for your kids? No problem. Need personal time during the busy season? I usually try to make it work. The problem is that I sometimes feel that flexibility becomes expected instead of appreciated. Then, on the rare occasion where I genuinely can't allow two people to take off at the same time or I need someone to stay and finish something, I get pushback—especially from family employees. I've also noticed a similar problem with some non-family employees. We've had several good employees who seemed motivated when they started, but after about six months they became comfortable, expectations slowly changed, and accountability became harder. Pay is another difficult subject. When I'm negotiating compensation with a sibling, it's hard not to feel like I'm personally controlling their financial situation. If I tell an employee what a position is worth, I'm making a business decision. But when it's your brother or sister, it can feel personal to them—and sometimes to me too. It becomes even harder because some family members see what we're billing customers and think the difference between the hourly labor rate and their paycheck is pure profit. They don't always understand everything that comes out of that revenue: payroll taxes, insurance, workers' comp, office staff, estimating time, vehicles, fuel, tools, equipment, warranty work, callbacks, advertising, software, shop expenses, non-billable hours, and hopefully some actual profit left over for the company. So I've been considering making a major change in how I operate at work. I'm wondering if I need to redefine myself completely while I'm on the clock—less "brother/friend/family member" and more strictly "owner/boss." Maybe that means discussing very little business outside of work and creating a much clearer separation between our personal relationships and our working relationships. Before I go that far, I'd really like advice from people who have dealt with this successfully. For those of you who own family businesses, especially in construction or the trades: How do you separate the family relationship from the employee/employer relationship? How do you set and negotiate pay scales when employees can see what the company is charging customers? How do you explain overhead and company profit without feeling like you have to defend every dollar? How do you prevent employees—family or not—from becoming complacent after they've been with you for a while? Have you used an outside HR company, consultant, or PEO to handle things like pay structures, policies, reviews, discipline, and employee concerns? Could an outside HR person realistically act as a middle ground between employees and ownership so everything doesn't have to come directly through me? I'm not looking to stop being close with my family. That's one of the most important things in my life. I'm trying to figure out how to build a professional company with clear accountability without damaging those relationships in the process. I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar—what worked, what didn't, and what you would have done differently.
Is there a need for this niche?
iFab does electronics repair down to component level, plastic welding, and obsolete parts manufacturing, remaking discontinued pieces nobody stocks anymore. Rare skillset, not something most shops offer. Genuinely asking, is this a gap anyone actually has use for. If you had a fried circuit board, a broken plastic part with no replacement/feasible replacement, or a discontinued piece you needed remade, would you look for a shop like this, or is it too niche to matter to most people.Trying to gauge real interest, not just told it's cool. Thank you, Matt
Grants
Statement of Appreciation: Grant Phase 2 Completion "As we officially wrap up Phase 2 of this process, I want to express my sincere appreciation for the opportunity to apply for these grant funds. Running a heavy fabrication business requires balancing intense daily physical production with the constant need for strategic, high-tech upgrades. Opportunities like this grant are game-changers for independent shops like ours—allowing us to fast-track our capacity, invest in our crew's safety, and scale our operations to the next level. Thank you for your time, consideration, and dedication to supporting local trades and businesses. We are excited about the potential to put these funds to work and build a stronger future for our team and our community." Diego Iron CompanyWhy your 'Best' work still gets you 3-star reviews
After 30+ years in the industry—from project managing hotel builds and overseeing regional engineering to running my own construction and painting companies—I’ve realized a hard truth: A project can be technically perfect, but if the communication was poor, the client won't remember the quality—they'll remember the frustration. In my experience, managing expectations is at least 50% of the job. Whether it’s arrival times, scope creep, or project delays, the 'technical fix' is rarely the hardest part of the business. The hard part is the human element. You can deliver a flawless renovation, but if you didn't manage the expectations surrounding that job, you’ve left a door open for a headache. I’m curious—what’s the one 'service expectation' you’ve struggled with the most while trying to grow your business? Let's break down how to standardize that process so it doesn't break your workflow.What’s your biggest green flag (or red flag) during a property walkthrough?
Hey everyone! Let’s talk about that initial interaction with a potential client. We’ve all walked onto a job site or a residential property and just known instantly how the experience was going to go—before we even handed over an estimate. Sometimes it's a subtle cue from the homeowner, and sometimes it's the state of the property itself. When you're quoting a job, what is one major "green flag" that tells you a customer will be amazing to work with, or a "red flag" that makes you consider raising your prices or walking away? Let’s swap some stories and see what common signs we all look out for! 👇
How are you getting the most out of Jobber AI?
Hi everyone, I'm curious to hear how people are getting the most out of Jobber AI, particularly for quote drafting.How are you using it in your day-to-day workflow? Are you relying on it just for writing quotes, or have you found other features that save a lot of time? I'm especially interested in: How you structure prompts for accurate quote drafts Whether you're using it for customer communications or follow-ups Any workflows or automations you've built around it Tips or best practices that have genuinely improved your efficiency I'd love to hear any examples of how you're using Jobber AI to save time or win more work. Thanks in advance!
