re: Starting a Fencing and Decking Company

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hanks man, I appreciate the sincere advice. I think ICs will allow us to scale faster, at least since we already have some lined up that are trusted. Once we (hopefully) outgrow these couple guys, I'm sure it's going to be a little tougher.

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I ran something similar. Don’t count on ic’s and always have a plan to cover the amount of work you got. Make sure you negotiate up front rates and make sure you can be profitable. When I first started out, i was trying to establish market share so I over paid my ic’s to provide enough labor to cover all my work. Also, IC’s will leave you in a heart beat for better money even if they are contracted to you. Also a lot of ic’s, especially Hispanic ic’s go home for Xmas and the holidays so if you have work then, you are f’d. You are gonna want to have a 20/80 mix of employees to ic. But for starting out ic’s are great. Just make sure the rates allow you to make profit and that they are insured.

I’m not a fan of this option but your competitors may be. Other option is for your dad to run a crew of Hispanic guys he picks up from Home Depot and pay them. You can get cheap labor to do this sort of grunt work while your dad handles the more technical part of the job. Literally this is the sort of work that he can learn a few Spanglish phrases and point. He may even build up a small regular crew of these guys who will be happy to make cash. But this options has all negatives too so weigh your options.