As a humble installer fairly experienced in everything except voip, self employed through a prime then a sub I make about 1k a week on average, it is slow around here. You have to take into account your expenses, mine are roughly...... gas 75/wk, insurance 100/week(i'm looking for a better deal this is what company offers(10%)), cell phone 25/wk. Tools(mainly meters) finally paid for , were approx 10% of gross per week. If you don't bring in a valid vehicle to the mix add another 100 per week.
I think I get decent routes fairly close to my house, some much more upscale than my middle class neighborhood.so I think I'm an asset to my bosses, when I first started I worked in the ghettos(lotso cancels) most days. Expect some crap when you first start out.
As a sub you get alot of cleanup work thats too time consuming or nasty for the in house folks. I could write volumes about the bs situations I run into after seeing an mso or hack contractor was there a day or 2 before. You do get some gravy jobs occasionally that almost make up for it. If your good/stupid you end up doing what 75% of the installers(contractor or in house) give up on or refuse to do.
I did Primestar satellites eons ago, the long drives and tech paid cable steered me away from sat. installs when I first decided to get back into this buisiness, if I'd have had tools, service vehicle, and more $ at the time , sat may have been a better gig. One thing I've noticed is apartment installs would suck, and I see dishes galore in apts around here. With Primestar I had to run all the cable since it was 2 lines. I run very little cable with the msos. When I do it is a bitch, many times running a drop on an $8 digital upgrade.
I guess my humble advice is to check prices paid, evaluate what your good at, and above all do what makes you happy. If your great at what you do advancement will come. I hope my comments provided some insight.
I don't see many installers chime in, theres a bunch of us out there. I would like to see a steam room here. Would provide some intresting reading. I could write about two jobs today.
Re: In House Vs. Sub Con.
There are 2 replies to this message
