Hello all, I've been in business for two years now and it has been going well. I have a 2 ton excavator with 12", 18", 24" and 36" buckets and a 360 Lazer and machine receiver set up. In addition to this I have a hydraulic post knocker, a 6ft rake,6ft broom and a large bucket that the machine blade pics up. My non excavator equipment is a 16ft equipment trailer, 12ft dump trailer and a plate compactor. I do driveways with recycled asphalt, grade yards, dig ditches and french drains, clear trees, knock down small buildings and do hammered in fencing for pets and horses. I haven't done any advertising and go through spurts if too much work then no work. I'd like to get ride of the "no work" times now that the wife and I have a child. What have you done that took you from doing good to doing great? I'm working on a web page and I am thinking about visiting various local plumbers, electricians and contractors and let them know what I do and see if they can use my help. Here are some pictures from my last fencing job, 8" diameter 8ft posts with 3dt drive into the ground. Threw in some other job pictures for good measure. I always do my best.
I'd rather not buy new equipment but I have been thinking about a chain trencher to get into trenching fiber optic lines for a local company the other option would be making a 4" wide by 36" deep trenching bucket for the excavator. I've done some trench work for them but theyd prefer me to have something narrower than my 12" bucket.
Website would be nice, but make sure you have taken a lot of pictures and can file them according to work. This way you can show examples of before and after type work. I’m a firm believer of business cards, but some might disagree with the technology thing now days. Also make sure your google profile is up to date, phone number, website, name, etc. I use this all the time when I’m looking for something.
A good website really helps, and having it optimized so that it shows up near the top of the search page as often as possible. Having slow times is part of being new to the business, two years of exposure is not a lot, but over time it builds on itself. As long as your customers are happy and they pass your info to others when they need something. That adds up over time. Contacting other contractors is a good idea, I did that for years when I first started and it helps. Also, I would consider adding a small CTL to your equipment list. Being diversified really helps in keeping yourself busy. A loader with some key attachments would help keep you moving.
Business cards are still so important, might not use them a lot but I still get people stopping by jobs asking for one. A website helps, but i've found the number of excavation companies in my city with a decent one are few and far between, it's definitely not too important here, as long as you have one. If you pay the right person to do it, you can get on top google results quite easily, something I keep putting off doing. Keeping customers happy is huge for repeat work and referrals. As 1 guy I find it's always going to be hard to always be busy, but not too busy you can't do it all, I personally am done with the 7 days a week 90+ hour weeks to keep people happy I did when I was starting out. If you want to stick with 1 machine and doing it yourself I would try to get in with a utility or electrical companies trenching for them. I've done some of it and none of them want to rent equipment and pay their guys to do it, they are slow and have no idea what they are doing, i've found most just use whoever is doing the earthworks on the job, but if you are good you could probably get companies to always use you.
A lot of contractors in my area put up small professionally made signs with their info on them when they are doing a jobs. A friend of mine is a one man concrete contractor and his signs are 18" x 24" plastic with his info printed on them.
Granted, I'm not in the business, but simple things like asking your customers to recommend you to their friends and neighbors (here's a spot for those business cards, leave them a few!) and once you have a website gently ask customers to review you through Google Reviews (can be a double edged sword though, some reviewers are jerks). I don't know where you are but in rural areas it seems like there's always someone that knows everyone, maybe consider finding that guy and trading him discounted services for his word or mouth advertising. I've got a neighbor like that down the way and if I let him he'd probably keep me busy, between his own work, and people he knows for 30-40 hours a week, for a while.
Amen to that, I've seen horrible reviews because of one tiny thing on a perfect job. Had a customer even put an ad in the paper complaining and warning people. She ordered a load of topsoil. it was explained to her that there would be rocks and debris in the load unless she wanted screened topsoil, but it was more money. Said she wanted the non screened, and then read the riot act all over town. Nice jobs in the photo's by the way. Look into screw piles. Not sure if it's a thing where you are, but really taking off here. Buddy of mine bought a mini excavator, and bought into a franchise installing screw piles. He took it on as a side gig, but he is so busy that he quit his full time job, and just installs screw piles for post tec I think it is.
Short answer - It just takes time. What are you most profitable at doing? Fencing, grading, driveways, clean up?
Never heard of a screw pile before, just looked them up and they look pretty slick!
I'll save everyone from spending time googling screw piles ! Very slick indeed ! SCREW PILES
around here, the cost is about the same as concrete, but you can start building as soon as they are in, and there is little mess
Referred to as helical piers here. Friend of mine is making a killing installing these on houses but it does require an engineer stamped drawing and a franchise to start.
He had to buy into the franchise, and supply the machine. They supply the piles, and the hydraulic head, and remote. Here, you need a building permit to make any substantial changes to your home. I know guys that installed the supersize version of these in the oilsands in Alberta. I think there are 3 different suppliers in my area now. They each have their own claim as to why their product. Might be something to look into if the OP wants to expand.
These are the larger version. If you want to build an addition to your house, or a deck, they use a compact excavator for the install. https://www.technometalpost.com/en-...TPKbsfMCy9UOI1qrbKFn0dzh_mK2swSoaAsanEALw_wcB
Thanks for the thoughtful replies! I had a busy day and gotta help with the baby now. I give detailed responses to yalls questions as soon as I get a chance.
You don't say what your soil conditions are like there, but around here all fiber is bored in, no trench.
Thanks, I just made a Google profile and have and give out business cards. Yeah so far almost everything had been word of mouth advertising. I'd love a CTL with a Harley rake, hoping to get one this year. I'm trying not to finance anything else though. Right now my debts are fairly low so when I do have the slow times it isn't that stressful. Thanks,, @Tinkerer I need to get one of this signs made, a few customers have asked if I had one and said they'd be happy for me to out it out front. @cuttin edge right now I only know of one person that would give me a bad review and that's a neighbor I did a job basically for free for. Lol The fencing jobs were my largest bills but took along time and also were harder on my body that most dirt work jobs. Even with a excavator post knocker and wire unroller, all the nailing and bending wire is tiring. I try to price it so I'm making the same per hour no matter what I'm doing. I do think I under price my fencing jobs bit I don't have a reference to go by. @cuttin edge I sent an email to a screw pile maker about becoming an installer, thanks. Most places a few inches of topsoil then either clay, sand or clay sand mix. Roots are the only obstacle. Last year I did a couple jobs with a subcontractor of a subcontractor, lol. The way I understand it the company pays alot more for boring or directional drilling($9ish/ft) while trenching it in with a chain trencher or excavator pays($3.25/ft). Much of the work is in rural areas so they only use the boring equipment to go under roads and for the fancy neighborhoods. I did it enough with a 12" bucket to make good money on those jobs, but think with a 4"w x 36"deep trenching fang I could make those days great. Mainly from the less dirt to move backfilling.
Everyone's situation is different, and everyone has a different take on debt. We survived the 2008-2010 financial melt down, it was not easy as anyone that was in construction during that time would say the same. What I did learn from that was cash is King. Money has been cheap for a long time (sounds like the Feds will be changing that very soon) and to keep cash on hand, I will loan on a piece I wouldn't need to. I use steep downs payments so that I could never be upside down, but having cash on hand gives you options, having your cash tied up in equipment, especially when equipment values tank like they did then. You have fewer options. You couldn't give equipment away back then to cash yourself back up. This strategy works for me due to low interest, it may not when rates go up. This topic could be its own thread and has been in the past. However, if the CTL will generate significant income, then it might be worth having now. I am not advocating you follow my strategy, just offering a different perspective.
Lived that era and have the scars to show for it.. .
I can relate to ksss. We have a couple 0 percent loans absolutely no reason to pay those off early. But if your buying used your not going to get that so you will have to weigh the options When I buy used I typically pay cash in full my view point is if it doesnt eat and is not working then it cost nothing to sit there so keep that in mind but when paying cash for equipment dont deplete your operating reserve to buy iron that can get you in trouble faster than payments
Agree with KSS and AZ on keeping ample operating cash and not overextending your credit lines. My philosophy is either have enough reserve cash to write a check for the entire amount you owe or at least enough cash to write a check for the difference in a fire sale without going broke. If you can't financially do one of those two things then one doesn't need to finance a tractor IMO. 2009-2010 taught the ones who suffered through it that equipment can be worth next to nothing is no one is willing to buy it. Now I'll play devils advocate for our seasoned business owners - since all these newly printed dollars are causing massive inflation, the most your dollar is going to be worth is today. So if you need a machine and have the work to pay for it then it might be time to buy. Equipment is only going to cost more money.
It's transitory, give it 2 months and it'll be back to normal. (they said 6 months ago)
The inflation we are seeing now certainly adds a wrinkle to everyone's balance sheet. Totally agree that, at least for the short term, money is only decreasing in value. Costs of doing business are certainly not decreasing. What saves us right now is the amount of work, if that falls off (like it did in the late 2000's) then no matter your strategy, it is going to get tough. Some of the things that kept us moving then was diversification. Having a decent spread of commercial and private work, now we also do a lot of Gov. work. So hopefully this will serve well if ****** times return again. As to the OP's situation, having the ability to do small excavator and loader work can help keep the phone ringing. Being a one trick pony can be a little dangerous.
It doesn't seem like equipment prices have skyrocketed as bad as trucks and trailers. IMO I wouldn't be buying a truck or trailer right now unless I really needed it, prices will come down back to reality and a lot of people will be upside down on stuff, though if you had a ton of work for something it could offset it. I do agree with diversification. Which is why I don't just rely on new construction and do foundation repairs, weeping tile repairs, etc to older homes, that is work that will never dry up. As far as paying cash compared to financing I think it varies depending on size of company. If you only have a few pieces and some financed you don't necessarily need enough cash to pay them off, it's just as important how much other debt you have and what you need to bring in to live on, and maybe could get by if you had to go work for someone else. Whereas if you're bigger and have 5 digit equipment payments it's a totally different story. Guy I know just spent about a million bucks on trucks and equipment. Has about a dozen dump truck and wants to break into civil, all brand new fancy stuff. 3 loaded f450's, cat 302, 306,308, 2 299 CTL's and 2 goosenecks and still thinking about a new 200 hoe and a tractor trailer to haul it which would be like $650k more I bet. Hope it goes well for him but I think when he starts to work it come spring he's in for a rude awakening about how hard it is going to be to pay for that stuff. There is never any shortage of companies going bankrupt because they financed too much. Canada didn't get hit as bad with the recession and I was fresh out of high school working for my dad so I can't say I paid much attention I was still working full-time. While I hope it doesn't happen, I know even if things get bad will get through it no problem, having everything paid for brings a lot of security. No matter what happens though I will never finance another piece of equipment, if I can't pay for it in cash i'm not buying it.
The equipment inflation on new iron is just getting started but I would guess new iron going to reflect how used equipment has gone up in value Auction prices here are unprecedented right now and since new orders are months out I see everything continuing to go up in value till the music stops and it's my belief that the harder the market pushes work the more dramatic the rug pull will be I bought a jd 35 mini ex last year for 45 grand with 20 hours on it right now out the door with no hours is pushing 60 grand that's just one example I am pricing some new backhoes its 7 months to delivery and there about 15 percent more expensive than 2 years ago and it wouldn't shock me if they go up more in February if I dont order now So cm how far does your crystal ball see cause the way I see it we are making growth decisions for equipment a year ahead of actual machine use and a year ahead of starting a potential operator
That's my worry that the train is about to slow down, it almost has too. However big institutional, industrial and gov't should be fairly robust for the next couple of years. If the majority of our work (it's not) was single family residential I would be diversifying right now - just my $.02. Multifamily here is robust and demand appears to be strong over the next 12-18 months. At least here it would be tough to make any real money with that spread of iron doing general civil works. Now if he was into something specialized like foundation repair, synthetic turf, wet utilities - maybe. Otherwise an outfit like ours with 2 - 50K hoes, 2 - D5's and support equip will run circles around that line up doing small commercial jobs.
I think he is really out of touch, he use to work for a good size civil company that most of their work is city stuff, but that was at least 8 years ago and what I heard is the owners of that company are no longer fond of him. There is tons of large companies out there no way will he be able to get in with the city directly (doesn't have equipment for it anyway), maybe as a sub but even then there's so many guys in it right now. It's insane the amount of new iron around the city in the last few years, hate to say it but in the next few years I think quite a few won't be around. Probably biggest problem is while he has good dump truck drivers, has no one with any operating experience besides himself but considering how long ago it was, I think even if he has the work it will not go very good. His hope is city work like water repairs, sewer replacement, new subdivisions, etc. Fond dream, but doesn't have equipment, experience or contacts for it. I think he also forgets who gives him a lot of his work, he is in with a few big generals for trucking, but if they find out he's trying to compete for same work he may find he looses a lot of trucking. I think best case is he will get some work subbing out the equipment by the hour but hard to make any money doing that. He knows he can't even try starting out in residential basements even if he buys a 20 ton as he will loose money trying to compete. Not sure how much iron has actually went up, said a new Cat 210 was $275k without thumb or extra attachments, definitely not cheap but no idea what they use to be either.
The one price I am baffled by is trailers. Like it's getting to the point why not just make trailers out of diamonds or gold, they'll be cheaper! $30k for a 3x10,000lb gooseneck, I remember in 2015 when I was looking same trailer was $14k. Or worse, trailer I bought last april $9k now over $13k and you can't even find one if you wanted to pay that much. Really thinking hard about selling dump truck, 25 ton trailer, pickup and said trailer probably get $100k easy buy tractor and lowboy and go down to one truck and make out like a bandit and pocket $50k.
Now that's a loaded question... My crystal ball is fuzzy. Currently our work load is steady within our markets - commercial and institutional. Our local industrial market is strong with distribution and manufacturing projects. We don't do any single family residential but do have 2 multi-family projects on the discussion table. These projects are 2-3 story concrete parking decks with 4-5 story wood wrapped apartments on the southside of the city. Same here on equipment - looking a year out which is difficult to do. Bought a new D3 last year, our 2 - 279D's are in great shape, 953 doesn't get used much but has age, D5G has some hours on it but will make a great back up machine and the 321DL has 7K hours but still runs strong. This year I would like to trade in our 325FL for a next gen 325 or 335. Thinking about going up a size for larger jobs, the higher lifting capacity is nice with larger pre-cast structures we are starting to see more of. Crack dealer told me 325's and 335's are 5-6 months out however we can get a 330 or 336 rather quickly. A month ago they had a couple on the lot. As an insurance policy over the last couple of years wife and I obtained our GC license, Sub license and State DBE status as both GC and Sub. Those designations will help with government and large institutional contracts when the private commercial market slows down. As far as labor goes our county has the lowest unemployment rate in the entire state so finding qualified help is non-existent. To counter that we're going to invest in newer equip and tech to the extent we feel comfortable economic wise with. This year I would like to add full auto GPS to our D3 and upgrade to a next Gen hoe. We'll see how the workload goes.
I get the tech I just bought a laser box for the skid steer for doing ABC grading for concrete work i looked at gps but half the slab grading work is already under roof so went the laser route
Usually we do the same. Bought an '18 305E2 last year and decided to pay nothing down and finance through Cat Fin. at just under 4% for 4 years. Payment is roughly $1200 a month which is a weeks worth of rental with all the fees included. We use it on average more than a week per month so it made sense to finally buy one with money as cheap as it is.
The laser boxes are fantastic for slab work, the larger the better. The laser is more accurate as well on flat or single slope grades. Bought one back in '18 for a warehouse addition. 2 operators put down 1500 TNS in 3 days to 1/2" tolerance over 50K SF. Never could've done that with blue tops.
Company I'm with has been in the business since 1945. They were big, then they got small. They got big again, then they almost lost everything. Had to be bailed out by 2 other companies. They stayed small, and paid off a lot of debt, then grew, and got to the position of paying cash for a lot of stuff. WE get most of the city stuff. Water and sewer, paving, concrete. We have our own quarry, and gravel pits. Crushers, asphalt plant, trucks and equipment. Our crusher spread is fairly new, and they keep the loaders new every 5 years or so. Asphalt plant is from the 50s and 60s with a few upgrades, dust collection and butane burner. New kid on the block jumped in, and bought a bigger newer plant. Can't seem to figure out how to pave. Had to redo some city streets, and everything they pave is full of waterholes. Can't get any government work for this reason, and that is a big plant for paving 10 ton driveways. The big boys come it every now and then and take most of the government paving, but it's hard to compete against us for city work because we don't have to haul material in from out of town. Work has been steady, but someone is going to have to pay for covid pretty soon.
I too like stuff I can write a check for lol, even better if I can put it on a card and pay it if it's small enough plus I get points. Even better if I can have on of my equipment customers do it for me and avoid buying it all together lol.
I hear ya. Last month we put a $19K dumpster bill from a demo on our AMEX since the roll off company accepted credit cards... Wife and I our going on an Alaskan cruise in August and it looks like we'll be flying 1st class to Seattle with miles.
You are not kidding on trailers, last year I was going to buy a new gooseneck Diamond C trailer 32' 24K. I was stupid and didn't buy it. I had to buy it this year, and paid 7K more for waiting a year. I got good money for my used Walton which was 20 years old same size and GVW, but still I was floored at how much trailer prices have increased. If this one lasts as long as the Walton, it will be a spread out for a long time but dam waiting a year was very expensive.
I wouldn't buy a new trailer ever, they're all ****, overpriced ****.
Same here. Prices on used ones too are just outta sight. Might as well buy new if you need it bad enough.
Does anyone have a lead on a trencher or vibratory plow machine that has the setup for boring under driveways? I got hooked up with a company that can give me all the work I want but I have to be able to go under driveways. Right now none of the dealers around me have any of these machines in stock... Machine must weight under 8k lbs so I don't have to buy a new truck and trailers.
Way late, but I would seriously consider one of these for crossing driveways. I haven't used one, but their pipe burster works awesome.
That is cool but slow especially considering the two pits dug. Doing the cable drops is all about speed(and not messing things up) if you're going to make any money. I ending up buying a ditchwitch vibratory plow and with the roto bore attachment and rods/etc. 95% of the time boring goes as planned, everyonce and a while it ends up going deeper than I want on the exit but that happens less and less the more I do it. The most I've done is 4 driveway bores in one day. Having the plow and cable contract is working out nicely. I make decent money and it gets me out talking to people and giving out cards for the excavator work that pays great. So for I've gotten a few goods jobs from it and the money from drops is steady and reliable.
Man, it's amazing what humans come up with.
I'd really like to see a video of that entire process. I scanned all over youtube and can find partial vids of boring under a driveway, but nothing on how you get the wire drop pulled through to finish the process.
With my set up you have bore rods with a drill head. After you bore under the driveway into the hole on the other side you take off the drill head and put on an eyelet that a Chinese finger attaches to with a shackle. Then you back the machine up pulling the conduit under the driveway.
That little boring machine is more set up for plumbing and gas lines that need a larger bore. I wouldn't mind having one for the occasional shot underneath a road or driveway.
colson- I thought at about 7:20 of the video above that was what was happening?
I didn't watch that video. I went to youtube to see how the machine @keif is using does the job. I have seen large directional boring rigs operate and drill under roads, buildings etc. I didn't realize until now that he's doing the same process, just with smaller equipment. We hired a HDD crew to bore a new water line under our barn a few years back. They did a 300 ft bore, and pulled back a 2" water line in a couple hours. Then the plumbers broke out concrete as needed to connect new supply lines to the drinkers. The old 1" galvanized line was failing and chock full of lime deposit and couldn't keep up with the cows on real hot days.
Here's a video of a roto witch doing a cable drop. I'm kinda shocked @keif was able to get ahold of one. My local Ditch Witch dealer has had nothing on the lot for months.
I really got lucky someone had it ordered a long time ago then backed out and I pounced on it! I just got great news today, RDOF is starting back up and I'm going to be trenching main line for fiber on that. Probably for the rest if the year!! Great $$, the drops have been good but my little vp30 is going to be getting a break for a while.
Thank you for sharing that. I missed that video when I was searching youtube. I'm amazed that I've been around residential construction most of my life, amd yet, I'm just now learning about this.
Deeper!! Got a handy tool that makes the job, seemingly, pretty easy. Go deeper! I'm being a turd that is just frustrated with digging in my own yard.
should of turned left at Albuquerque