Advice to get business going | GTAMotorcycle.com

Advice to get business going

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mimico_polak

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Alright ballers, since we've got a lot of you here need some advice.

Went up to the cottage with dad so had a chance to chat. He's getting close to retirement, but is one of those guys that will die the minute he stops working unfortunately and he needs SOMETHING.

He wants to re-fire up his old contracting company and focus on small gigs moving forward. Having done so much work with him all of 2023 I figured it would be a good chance to learn more for me, and keep him busy, as well as spending as much time as we can together (he's turning 70 in the spring of 2024).

Any recommendations / thoughts / pointers in how to get this re-fired up again? He used to do a lot of contracting back in the day, but now has obviously slowed down due to me taking up his time, and old age. He said he wants to focus on the sub-20k jobs as the competition may be smaller since everyone wants the big 50-100k jobs and finding smaller contractors is proving to be an issue from what he's seeing.

General carpentry, painting, deck building, etc. He wants to do it on his own, but obviously I'd help him out.

This is assuming that insurance and WSIB are taken care of, as I know that's obviously a priority.

Any and all comments are appreciated (positive and negative).
 
Congratulations on the new endeavor.

This is a huge topic, so glad that winter is here to get the discussion going.

Not saying this in a bad or negative way but if you think that you have no time to ride now and want to balance full time gig, family/kids and helping your dad/starting new adventure, just wait.


New adventures can be fun and challenging. I'm sure you will make it work. Take it easy and enjoy it.
 
Part time above board companies are a rough ride. Sadly the sunk costs (insurance, accounting, licensing, etc) aren't that much cheaper for a part time operation. Income is lower, expenses are almost the same. Ugh. Now, it can still work, especially if you are tax-efficient with your expenses but profit from the first few jobs may just cover overhead.

@Clutt-225 runs a carpentry business IIRC. He may be better able to comment.

To SS's point, a family patriarch I know ran the family business for decades. His retirement job was estimator for the business. One time he had a brain fart and underbid by five figures. Company had to eat that to save reputation and honor. It was an expensive lesson in keeping the elderly busy and involved. After that patriarch still priced jobs but another estimator also ran the numbers separately.
 
Scuba Steve said:
1 st question are you going in on this full time? Are you ready to be responsible for it if his health goes downhill.

Sent from the future
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It would be full time for him, but part time for me.

He's always done this work full time, but when he got his full time union gig he did it part time for 20+ years. Usually on weekends and evenings with clients he setup over the years.

Those relationships are primarily done now because they've either retired, died, or just moved on from their involvement with whatever they were doing.

Considering my job, I can easily take a week or two off if a job gets bigger to help him for a solid week or two at a time. Obviously that is only a handful of times.
 
oioioi said:
Congratulations on the new endeavor.

This is a huge topic, so glad that winter is here to get the discussion going.

Not saying this in a bad or negative way but if you think that you have no time to ride now and want to balance full time gig, family/kids and helping your dad/starting new adventure, just wait.


New adventures can be fun and challenging. I'm sure you will make it work. Take it easy and enjoy it.
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Thanks. In all honesty riding is the last thing on my mind nowadays the last few months.

I've had bigger issues / commitments to deal with...that riding is about 4th on the list of requirements in my life right now. Although I have opened up to the idea of keeping the Scrambler...
 
I'd say.

Cash business and word of mouth advertising is a good way to start if it is for small jobs. The only tricky part is insurance as no one wants to deal with a hurt old man on their property. But this way you can scale up or down the business as required. Maybe go the sole proprietor route.

I know I could use a "handy man" for a few jobs in the future.
 
Jampy00 said:
I'd say.

Cash business and word of mouth advertising is a good way to start if it is for small jobs. The only tricky part is insurance as no one wants to deal with a hurt old man on their property. But this way you can scale up or down the business as required. Maybe go the sole proprietor route.

I know I could use a "handy man" for a few jobs in the future.
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This is how he did it for the past 20 years. But as he got older he slowed down and just took more OT at his main job.

I'll talk to him again this weekend, as I could def be persuaded to take this on with him.

Just not sure how big of a market there is for small reno works on weekends / evenings when clients are home.
 
mimico_polak said:
This is how he did it for the past 20 years. But as he got older he slowed down and just took more OT at his main job.

I'll talk to him again this weekend, as I could def be persuaded to take this on with him.

Just not sure how big of a market there is for small reno works on weekends / evenings when clients are home.
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Exterior should be an easier sell than interior. Although, if you try to cater to people with cottages, they can come home to a finished job. They may prefer that to a typical M-F contractor.
 
GreyGhost said:
Exterior should be an easier sell than interior. Although, if you try to cater to people with cottages, they can come home to a finished job. They may prefer that to a typical M-F contractor.
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Never considered that option actually!

I figure the primary benefit would be in terms of cost savings compared to the full time contractors. But it would have to be a substantial savings...which in this economy shouldn't be tough.

Hell as I had said before, my reno cost me about 30k...compared to quotes of 55-70k...but it did take all summer.
 
Does he need the money?
Does he need the grief and stress?
If he is or will be collecting CCP, OAS & other pensions what will the tax ramifications be?
After my father retired from farming he became a carpenter's helper and they only did small jobs of a few hundred dollars just to keep busy.
Habitat for Humanity is always looking for talent.
Home Depot is always looking for experienced people.
The money and hours suck but you can walk away anytime you want.
If you are working for pin money sole proprietorship is the way to go.
I have been an employee and all company managers are the scum of the earth!
I have been an employer and all employees are the scum of the earth!
 
guzzirider said:
Does he need the money?
Does he need the grief and stress?
If he is or will be collecting CCP, OAS & other pensions what will the tax ramifications be?
After my father retired from farming he became a carpenter's helper and they only did small jobs of a few hundred dollars just to keep busy.
Habitat for Humanity is always looking for talent.
Home Depot is always looking for experienced people.
The money and hours suck but you can walk away anytime you want.
If you are working for pin money sole proprietorship is the way to go.
I have been an employee and all company managers are the scum of the earth!
I have been an employer and all employees are the scum of the earth!
Click to expand...
If they run it as an incorporated company, that opens up avenues for tax-efficiency and income deferral/allocation.

Gas card for the company van probably pays more than working at home depot and it is tax-free.

I know people where the lower income spouse owned the company and the potentially higher income spouse was the sole employee. Employee pulls out some money but most of the profit is taken by the lower income spouse as the business owner (and can be left in and pulled later if it is advantageous to have a good or bad tax year).
 
There is such a need for this "level" of contractor. It is hard to get anyone out for a "small" job. Our last house was a new build so outside of decorating there wasn't a lot to address (thankfully).

We moved to Waterdown about 5 years ago and our "new" house is likely late 1960s /early 1970s. Even though a lot of renovations were done it constantly needs mild repairs and updates. Hard to find someone to take on these smaller jobs or even to get back to us.

As others have mentioned the issue is that the overhead is the same for your Dad essentially as a company with say 4 contractors on multiple jobs.

If it gets going feel free to PM me. We have windows, doors, interior TLC, wood floor repairs, weather stripping etc, etc, etc. Several neighbors in the same boat.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
 
Zoodles95 said:
Feel free to PM as a client. We need exterior doors, some windows etc, etc, etc.

We are in Waterdown.

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Thanks I'll let him know!

guzzirider said:
Does he need the money?
Does he need the grief and stress?
If he is or will be collecting CCP, OAS & other pensions what will the tax ramifications be?
After my father retired from farming he became a carpenter's helper and they only did small jobs of a few hundred dollars just to keep busy.
Habitat for Humanity is always looking for talent.
Home Depot is always looking for experienced people.
The money and hours suck but you can walk away anytime you want.
If you are working for pin money sole proprietorship is the way to go.
I have been an employee and all company managers are the scum of the earth!
I have been an employer and all employees are the scum of the earth!
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, for him it's more a matter of keeping busy and just filling that void of working in his life. In all honesty I'd assume he's going to do primarily cash jobs so he isn't too concerned about the tax.

But any larger job I'm sure he'd have to do on paper.
 
GreyGhost said:
If they run it as an incorporated company, that opens up avenues for tax-efficiency and income deferral/allocation.

Gas card for the company van probably pays more than working at home depot and it is tax-free.

I know people where the lower income spouse owned the company and the potentially higher income spouse was the sole employee. Employee pulls out some money but most of the profit is taken by the lower income spouse as the business owner (and can be left in and pulled later if it is advantageous to have a good or bad tax year).
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Hey the guy is 70 its time to have some fun not worry about how much money you are not paying in taxes!
 
Zoodles95 said:
There is such a need for this "level" of contractor. It is hard to get anyone out for a "small" job. Our last house was a new build so outside of decorating there wasn't a lot to address (thankfully).

We moved to Waterdown about 5 years ago and our "new" house is likely late 1960s /early 1970s. Even though a lot of renovations were done it constantly needs mild repairs and updates. Hard to find someone to take on these smaller jobs or even to get back to us.

As others have mentioned the issue is that the overhead is the same for your Dad essentially as a company with say 4 contractors on multiple jobs.

If it gets going feel free to PM me. We have windows, doors, interior TLC, wood floor repairs, weather stripping etc, etc, etc. Several neighbors in the same boat.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
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This is also some things I heard about from neighbours and colleagues. Everyone they call only want the large job, nothing short of 50k is 'worth it' to them.

I have some door/window guys that did work for us if you'd like me to pass that along, just let me know. They did our door and the installation price wasn't even worth the effort for us to do it (maybe $400 or so) for full install...although I'm not thrilled about it with a keen eye.
 
mimico_polak said:
Thanks I'll let him know!


Thanks for that, for him it's more a matter of keeping busy and just filling that void of working in his life. In all honesty I'd assume he's going to do primarily cash jobs so he isn't too concerned about the tax.

But any larger job I'm sure he'd have to do on paper.
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You have to be really careful with this line. Insurance and/or WSIB combined with cash jobs are a bad combination. If something happens on a job with no invoice, you are in deep crap. Personally, I would either go strictly shadow economy or almost entirely legit (with only the occasional shadow job). Mostly off the books is just asking for issues imo.
 
Huge need for small jobs.
Keep it honest and keep it cash.
If you stick to exterior, ground level jobs. (Painting, deck work, general maintenance etc.)
I think it will be enough to keep it enjoyable and somewhat profitable.
 
Jampy00 said:
Huge need for small jobs.
Keep it honest and keep it cash.
If you stick to exterior, ground level jobs. (Painting, deck work, general maintenance etc.)
I think it will be enough to keep it enjoyable and somewhat profitable.
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Thanks! I'm sure of it. Hell I wouldn't mind starting to hand out fliers here in our area to see what type of reception there is to it, especially for the smaller jobs.

But that's dad's decision, not mine. I've lost count of neighbours that have come by asking who has been doing the work on my house...
 
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