It is a simple process to make money in this business. Our philosophy has been to simply go the extra mile, do better work than the next guy, for a fair price to both parties. That has been our SOP from the start and has served both parties well for 40 years. We don’t bid the jobs so low that we can’t make money and pay our help well.
I had a bonding company tell me that we had not successfully bid a bonded job recently. I told them that we never unsuccessfully bid any job. Just because someone else is awarded the job below my cost, does not make our bid was unsuccessful. Since we did not lose money on that job, I consider that a successful bid. As an example; One particular bonded bid had 3 bidders. The engineers estimate was $1.2 million. 2 of us bid within $4000 at $1.4 million. The bid was awarded to the low bidder for $896,000. They left over half a million dollars on the table. The company that was awarded the bid was not the successful company in my opinion. BTW They are out of business now and the other 2 companies, ours included, are still going strong.
So the moral of the story is simple; do not complain about low pay, rather do something about it. Know your ALL your costs. Then only take jobs that exceed your costs and make you money. MOST IMPORTANTLY, REJECT ALL JOBS BELOW COST & PROFIT MARGINS!
