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. 🚀
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
Need guidance: How to start a business while still working a full-time job?
Hi I’m new to this community but to sum it up I’m a dad of two looking to become self employed and I’m ready to branch out on my own but I have no way of securing enough jobs to maintain my finances and I need to go all in to make it happen but at the same time my current full time job won’t allow me to what can I doWhat’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!Before You Give Up on Your Dream, Read This.
There was a moment in my life when I was physically run over by a garbage truck. Most people would assume that was the hardest part of my story. It wasn’t. The hardest part was choosing not to let that moment define the rest of my life. Instead of giving up, I got back up. I went back to school—twice. I invested in myself when it would have been easier to make excuses. I kept learning, kept growing, and kept chasing a vision that only I could see. Every setback became another reason to work harder, not quit. If you’re an entrepreneur reading this, I want you to know something: The journey will test you. There will be days when the money isn’t there. Days when nobody believes in your vision. Days when you question yourself. Days when you wonder if you’re falling behind. But don’t confuse a delay with defeat. Some of the greatest victories are being built in seasons where no one is clapping for you. I like to think of life as a rose. Before anyone admires its beauty, it must first push through the darkness beneath the soil. It endures storms, strong winds, and little insects trying to destroy its roots before it ever blooms. Entrepreneurship is no different. Critics will come. Failures will come. Rejections will come. Doubt will come. But if your roots are grounded in faith, purpose, and perseverance, nothing can stop what God has planted within you. So if you’re feeling discouraged today… Keep showing up. Keep learning. Keep sharpening your craft. Keep believing in the dream that was placed on your heart. One day, people will see the flower. They’ll celebrate the success. But only you—and God—will know everything it took to bloom. To every entrepreneur in this community: don’t give up on yourself. Your story isn’t over. Your purpose still matters. And what you’re building today may become the blessing someone else needs tomorrow. 🌹💙Is it better to own 100% of the business ? Or add investors ?
Hello fellow colleagues , I've ran this contract business for about 10 years and gradually increased in overall revenue. But it seems I've hit a peak due to inflation and competition. Not to mention the economy is not doing too well. I've considered adding investors and sell portion of the company to keep investing but I also know the potential we have in a healthy economy and dont want to regret bringing investors and having to pay big percentage of the earnings . Any advice for those that possibly went trough this or have a strategy that are in a similar situation ?
