Thursday, November 20, 2008

Sub-Contractor to Contractor



Making the leap from Sub-Contractor to Contractor


The major difference between Sub-Contractors and Contractors or Builders is that Sub-Contractors work for Contractors only, and Contractors sell their services and sub-trades work to Builders, Architects, Companies and Private Clients.


Carpentry sub-contractors are often talented specialists. It is all about efficiency. They are builders that specialize in Stairs, Handrails, Framing, Trim, Windows and Doors, Flooring, Decks, Fences etc.


They manage to source help and since they specialize in one trade rather than many, they devise ways to get more accomplished than any general woodworker or carpenter could in a given time.

Sub-contractors often lack knowledge of how to price the entire job, how to sell, how to organize the different activities involved the whole job. In my general experience, any good sub-contractor possesses the ability to learn these tasks. If you can be good at one trade… chances are that you can be good at a few trades given the chance.

A Builder or Contractor needs to know about Marketing. What works, what doesn’t.

They need to learn how to sell to private clients. You can read a few books on the subject, we give our builders a sales and marketing guide. Sales is more about mood and attitude and doing what we know we should than anything else.

In this economy you need every tool and advantage you can get to survive.

A successful Contractor needs to have consistent leads. It used to be that you could just pay the yellow pages to get leads. You didn’t have to do the best looking work in town if you could afford a good ad. With the onslaught of Google those days are gone.

To dominate the web you need to do the most beautiful work in town, and you need to use techniques that last longer and you need to treat every single customer like gold. The internet has ways for unhappy clients to exact their pound of flesh from your future sales if they feel maligned.

When you are ready to become a successful Deck, Fence and Pergola Builder click here for information about our Deck Builder Group and then get in touch with Lawrence Winterburn at 888 293 8938

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