I Guaraaannnteeee!

I can still remember as a kid sitting with my dad (usually because I was being punished) on Saturday afternoon watching PBS. There was a guy who had a cooking show and his catch phrase was "I guaraaaannnteee".

As a contractor this word, guarantee, can be very tricky. When asked "Do you guarantee your work?" the first tendency is to respond "Of course I do!" As if to say "How dare you ask me such a question." But let's look deeper at this.

We'll use the HVAC trade for example since it is the one that I am the most familiar with. Most HVAC contractors give a 90 day guarantee on repairs and service work. This is because when you are dealing with a complex mechanical system that has so many moving parts there are things that can change in the system that you have no control over and may directly or indirectly affect the work that you have done on another part of the system.

As an HVAC contractor I also give a one year warranty on installations. This warranty covers the labor that I do, not the equipment. The equipment is covered by the manufacturer's warranty which is usually between 5 and 10 years. So the labor warranty basically covers if I make a mistake in the installation that causes a problem. Usually this means that I wired something up wrong or I didn't properly charge the unit with refrigerant. However, if the equipment fails within the first year even though the cost of the equipment is covered by the manufacturer, the labor to replace or repair the equipment is not and I charge the customer for this.

Another big aspect of the question of a contractor guarantee involves the customer and their willingness to do the job the right way. I will give two examples to illustrate.

1. I was recently involved in a project where the customer (the owner of a commercial building) had a leak about 5 feet below ground on a six inch water line in a parking lot. The customer called the contractor out. The contractor dug up the parking lot and located the leak. It seems that when the pipe was put in 15 years earlier the installer used the schedule 40 pipe instead of schedule 80. Because of this and the fact that the pipe had been damaged on installation, there was a leak in a portion of the pipe. The contractor suggested that the building owner replace the entire pipe. The building owner opted for a cheaper route and chose to have the contractor simply repair the leaky spot on the pipe. Three months later the pipe leaked at another spot.
Now the building owner is trying to get the contractor to come back and do this repair under warranty. NO WAY!

2. A customer of mine needed a new HVAC system. I gave her a price for the job which involved a new Air Handler and evap coil inside and a new Condensing unit outside. But she said she couldn't afford both and just wanted the outside unit replaced. I explained to her that while this would work it would be less efficient and would lead to the premature failure of the system. She wanted to do it anyway. Needless to say she was calling me back less than a year after I did the install. Needless to say I did not offer any warranty or guarantee on this job.

I know you all love those shows on HG TV like Holmes on Holmes. You know those shows that make contractors all look like money hungry idiots that don't know the difference between a wrench and a hammer and are out to take your money and ruin your house. While those shows do a good job of showing the shoddy work that contractors do, they don't show the part where the contractor explained to the homeowner how the job should be done and the homeowner explained to the contractor how they couldn't afford to do it that way and asked him to take a shortcut to save them money. Anybody can look like a hero when they have an unlimited budget, a thousand tv camera's, and some cool overalls!

Your Money is in Their Pockets, Get it OUT!

Why waste your money on phone book adds, van skins, corny tv commercials, or even worse corny radio commercials, or expensive internet marketing firms?

Between Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Myspace (does that even still exist), and Linked In there are almost a Billion people using social media. True, the majority of these people still live with their parents, or in a dorm, or are not old enough to drink (is the creator of Facebook even old enough to drink, i don't know). But in a couple of years they will all have their own houses with sinks that need fixing, grass that needs cutting and roofs that need replacing. A lot will change in their lives.

What won't change is the fact that they live on Social Media sites. That means that if you want to have access to this portion of the market and their money, you need a service that will advertise your company via social media.

It's great to have a nice website, but soon that method of advertising will be old fashioned and out dated. Look at it this way. Our parents used the phone book to find a plumber, we use Google to find a plumber, and the next generation will use social media to find a plumber.

So having a nice website that is not connected to a social media outlet is like having a nice billboard for your business and putting it on a back road.

In order to get your website seen it needs to be in a high traffic area, on a major highway, connected to Social Media.

Our number one objective is to create a social media platform, a business network, that will allow you to showcase your business in the format that is popular with the millions of Facebook and Twitter users. Our network is fully connected to these social media outlets. That means that once you are connected to our network you receive instant advertising and exposure to millions of people. Best of all, ITS FREE! So sign up, log on, upload, participate. Come be a part of something unique and useful!

The ultimate prank, or the ultimate tool?

If you've been in business for yourself for longer than a minute I'm sure you've had it happen to you. That customer who you built that deck for, or drew those blueprints for, or charged up his AC, or delivered those 5 crepe myrtles to. He hasn't paid you yet and now he won't pick up the phone when you call.

He knows your cell number, your office number, and even your home number so if you call from any of these he doesn't pick up. And forget about blocking your number, do that and he certainly isn't picking up. We all know this guy. Now we have a new weapon against him.

Introducing Spoofcard (and services like it). These services allow a person to do the ultimate prank call. They also make for an excellent tool for debt collection and tracking down deadbeat customers.

These services allow you to call someone and have your phone number show up as any number that you chose. That means that if you know a person's home phone number and their cell phone number you can call their cell phone and have your number show up as their home phone number. They are sure to answer that call, don't you think?

Not only that but some of these services allow you to change your voice, record the call, and send text messages from any number that you chose.

I will leave it up to you to investigate the legality of these services and if or how they can be useful to you in your debt collection efforts. Be sure to check state, local, and federal laws to make sure you use services like this in a way that is legal. As always, one of the main objectives of our company is to protect contractors from dead beat clients. So when we come across technology like this we are quick to share it with you!

is BBB a bunch of BBBS?

There has recently been a lot of talk on both local and national news programs about the Better Business Bureau and its inadequacy. As I've watched these news specials I've laughed to myself because they are just touching on a topic that we've been talking about for the past year.

The fact that it makes no sense for homeowners and customers to rely on a service, be it Angie's List or the BBB, that rates contractors and businesses who are paying customers of said service. Anyone with common sense can see that this scenario creates a huge conflict of interest, a situation in which contractors and businesses can essentially BUY a better rating!

In order for a service to be ethical, honest, and useful in regards to rating businesses, it can't also be making money off of those same businesses that it is rating.

We ascribe to the philosophy that it is better for a service like this to find other sources of income, such as advertising. Also, rather than trying to rate a contractor or a business based solely on the info received from customers of said business, we prefer to create a platform by which the business can showcase itself and its work and then allow potential customer to use this info to make their decision. Why? Because the customers that write in to the BBB or services like Angie's List often have their own agenda. They could be a competing business disguising itself as a customer in order to give their competition bad pub. They could also be the business disguised as a customer giving itself a good rating in order to give itself good pub.

Rather than weed through all of this foolishness, why not use a service that allows you the contractor to promote yourself and shape your own image by posting pictures, info, articles, etc. about your business? The harder you work, the better your rating. Oh yeah, and it's free. That's the goal of Watch Dog Contractor Service. So join us. Sign up, participate, post, blog, be a part of something unique and useful.

So much done, So much to do!

It's been almost a year now since my partners and I began working seriously on the development of our website and our company. In that time what have we accomplished?

1. First we came up with a really good idea. A website that would give contractors an edge by letting them know about homeowners and other clients who had a history of not paying.

2. We developed a website and set up a database that would effectively accomplish this goal.

3. We expanded our vision to include a business network where contractors, suppliers, and vendors could communicate with each other and share ideas about everthing industry related.

4. We promoted this idea and website through tradeshows, direct advertising and marketing, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets.

5. We gained over 3000 friends and followers on social media and over 200 members on our own web based network.

6. We learned a lot about the business of networking and social media and formed several lasting and meaningful business relationships and friendships with the hardworking contractors that build this country and this world.

What do we have left to do?

Everything!

We still have to finish the development of our directory which will allow contractors to advertise to homeowners. We still have to increase our on the ground presence here in the South East. Most importantly we have to keep the contractors, vendors, and suppliers interested and excited about our network.

We have a big job ahead of us, but with your help I am sure that we can do it! Thanks for being a part of something unique and useful.

Not working is FREE!

A couple of days ago there was a question posted on the Watch Dog facebook page that asked if a contractor could have "too much" work. In these tough economic times you might think I'm crazy for saying yes, but my answer is YES!!!
But let me clarify. It's not just having too much work, its more about having the wrong kind of work. What I mean is this: When I first went into business for myself doing HVAC I had a plan. My plan was to do mainly installs. I figured that I could do one or two of these a month and after paying my helper still clear 60 thousand a year only doing service calls here and there just for extra money.
What I didn't plan on was the fact that this would be a huge pain in the butt! Even though I can do an install in a day, its usually a long day. Upfront cost to myself for the equipment is much higher. There is much more that can go wrong on an install than a service call. There is also much more that can go wrong after the install is done. The call backs don't pay because the work is under warranty and if you do an install for the wrong person (an annoying over obsessive person) they will call you back constantly just because they can even if there is nothing wrong.
After a year of running my business I realized that it made alot more sense to stick to doing service calls and preventative maintenance. I can do a service call in an average of two hours and make two hundred profit off of it. Any call back I get from a service call usually means more profit because there is something else that has gone wrong. This makes more dollars and more sense also.
If you take jobs for clients who nit pick and change their mind in the middle of the job you are in for a headache and if you don't bid the job right you'll do good to break even. Also, if you get in over your head or take a job that you aren't set up to do you could be in for a big loss.
The moral of the story is that "It's not just important to get work, it's important to get the right kind of work. Because the wrong job can windup costing you money." Not working might not sound profitable, but it doesn't cost you anything either.

No Honor Among Thieves, What About Contractors?

There is a common expression that "there is no honor among thieves". In the recent months I've begun to wonder if this applies to contractors. Here are a couple of scenarios that I have either been a part of or heard about in the past couple of months that have prompted me to write this article.

1. A contractor that I do work for called me the other day and told me that he is calling all of his subcontractors and asking them not to pass out their own business cards when working on a job for him. He said that recently some of his subs had been doing this and some of his customers were starting to bypass him and call the subcontractors directly.

2. The same contractor told me that he was recently subcontracting for another general contractor. While he was off site, his superintendent gave his business card to the customer that the work was being done for. When the general contractor that he was working for on the job found out about this he was livid. Because of this mistake on the part of the superintendent, the contractor may have lost hundred of thousands of dollars of business a year because the other contractor no longer trusts him and may not use him anymore.

3. One of the members of our Watch Dog Network recently contacted us and informed us that she had put in a bid to build a million dollar house for a customer. The customer told her that her bid was too high. The customer then proceeded to go on her company website and facebook page and find out which subcontractors she used. Then the customer contacted these subs and hired them directly to do the job cutting out the contractor completely. Fortunately for her, her subs were loyal enough to let her know what was going on. They even asked her if she minded if they took the job.

Here are a couple of thoughts about this:

1. Congratulations if you have subs, or are a sub, who is honorable enough to do what the above mentioned subs did. Most subs that I know would have taken the job and not said anything about it. However, as a sub it is always better to be loyal to the general contractors that use you on a regular basis. Yes you may be able to sneak in a couple of jobs here and there behind their back. And if you are loyal it may cause you to lose those jobs. But the jobs that you will lose if you ruin a good relationship with a general contractor far outweigh the couple of jobs that you could get away with stealing.

2. As a subcontractor when you go on a job for a general contractor you have to have the mindset that you are on that job working for and representing that general contractor. Some general contractors will ask for you to wear their uniform or t-shirts. Personally, when I am working on a job for a general contractor I avoid having direct contact with the customer. Even when the customer tries to have contact with me or ask me questions or make requests about the project, I direct them to the general contract. This might seem like an unnecessary extra step but it keeps the proper chain of communication and builds trust between myself and that general contractor.

3. As a general contractor it is a good idea to one, use loyal subs who are not just good at what they do but are also good people, two, don't make it public knowledge who you use as subs. Your subs are like a trade secret that gives you an edge over the competition so you should guard them like a trade secret.