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. 🚀
Electrical flat rate VS assemblies VS t&m
I’ve been using AccuPrice Lists for my material pricing since it syncs right into Jobber and saves me from having to constantly update material prices manually. I saw they’re adding flat-rate pricing and assemblies, and I’m curious which direction you guys have found works best for electrical service work. Do you prefer a true flat-rate price book, assemblies that build out the labor and materials, or some combination of both? For those of you already pricing this way, what’s been the easiest for your guys to use in the field and the most profitable? Trying to figure out which direction makes the most sense before I change up my current setupBest ways to track material costs?
Tracking material costs in the electrical contracting industry is critical because supply prices (wire, conduit, breakers, panels, etc.) fluctuate frequently due to market demand, copper prices, and supply chain changes. A strong system protects profit margins, improves estimating accuracy, and helps maintain consistent pricing for customers. How does your company keep track?Are You Building a Business or Just Creating Yourself Another Job?
It’s easy as a small business owner to get caught up doing everything yourself. At what point do you start delegating, hiring, or putting systems in place so the business can operate without you being involved in every job? I’d love to hear how other owners are making that transition while still keeping quality and customer service high.How Often do You Enforce the Fine Print?
In our contracts, it clearly states that if the scope changes and we are not able to do the visit, or if we are sent away for reasons outside of our control we will charge them $300 (for reference our min charge is a half day which is $500). I had a customer who's assistant asked us to install an undermount sink. It was in the contract, they signed it. We had done a visit with them months before and our technician mentioned a top mount sink would be easy but they specifically asked for an undermount. So we order the sink, show up and the owner not the assistant that coordinated the contract) says they want a top mount. Our technician says ok we'll have to come back. We tell them the charge for the new sink plus the cancellation and they think it's unreasonable. I definitely know, no one actually reads the contract. Should the technician have said, if you send me away, it's $300 charge extra. But they also are changing the plan. I'm a softee so I'm not going to charge them the cancellation but what do you think about a situation like that? Maybe the cancellation charge is too much? It's basically enough for me to give the technician something for planning their whole day around the job plus make a very small amount of profit. Thoughts?
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.Remodelers - What Kind Of Job Take Off Form Do you use?
We've started doing a lot bigger jobs and I've typically been the one to walk the job with the lead for the job, then they take it from there. No drawings, no real written plans outside of the job scope in jobber and the daily notes and conversations we have. Luckily we have some really good guys but I'd like to make this easier for everyone. For those of you that do 2-4 weeks jobs (so not big enough to always involve official drawings), what strategy are you using to make sure everyone gets the details and follows what your vision for the project is?
How do contractors handle clients who keep requesting changes after the job is done?
When is enough? I operate a remodeling company. I have never had an issue closing out a job. We deliver a high quality product. Recently, I have a client who is intent on finding issues, however minor. The final invoice has been paid and they are extremely happy with the work. All that said, I keep getting texts and pictures of incredibly minor items, some of which are created by the homeowner, 3 months after the job completion. How have people dealt with this in the past, and when is enough, enough?
