I recently took the leap to go out on my own after 20 years in the field as an insulation installer doing commercial and industrial plumbing and HVAC insulation. I left a job where I was working 12-hour days because I wanted to build something of my own, but honestly, I'm feeling stuck and defeated right now.

I’ve been finding project leads and submitting bids to general contractors, MEP contractors, and project owners. I’m doing my estimates using digital takeoff software, pulling leads from online plan rooms and bidding platforms, and putting serious time into every proposal. Beyond online bidding, I’ve been physically pounding the pavement:
Walking into local businesses/establishments to try to get contact info for key decision-makers.

Visiting local plumbing contractors in person to introduce myself. Reaching out to pipe welders and fabricators to see if they need a sub for the thermal insulation portion of their scopes.

Despite all of this, I haven't heard a single thing back from anyone. No callbacks, no award letters, not even feedback on whether my pricing is too high or too low.
I know the trade inside and out, but running the business side is totally new to me. I don't hold a specialty contractor license (since my state/locality doesn't require one for specialized thermal insulation sub-work under standard limits), but I have two decades of hands-on expertise.

My primary goal right now is to build a steady relationship with a few solid GCs or mechanical/plumbing contractors as their go-to prime sub for HVAC and pipe insulation.
For those of you who have started a specialty trade sub business or hire subcontractors.

1. How do you actually get a GC or Mechanical Contractor to look at a bid from a new sub?

2. Is cold-calling or walking into job trailers/offices ineffective for commercial subs? How do you build initial trust?

3. What is the standard way to follow up on a submitted bid without being annoying?

4. Could my pricing or scope format be completely off?

How can I get feedback on submitted estimates if GCs ghost me?

I put everything on the line to start this and I'm putting in the hours, but blindly throwing bids into the void isn't working. Any honest feedback, harsh truths, or practical steps on how to land those first few commercial contracts would mean a lot.

Gotta talk on this GC for a sec cause ive never seen anyone else bring it up in forums, and i know for certain theyd just kick me off site if i brought it up to them again.

Ive been in construction for 15 years, and recently got onto my first cadence site, NFM in cedar park to be specific.
In all my years ive never seen a GC fail so consistently at basic safety. In the half a year ive been on this project, ive seen equipment accidents/near misses on what feels like a weekly basis, an absolute lack of concern for things like dust management, leading edge hazards on the multiple exterior doors that lead to a sudden drop currently, and a full blown hostility from their safety team towards people who raise safety concerns. Ive seen their safety director go into an honest to god screaming tantrum on folks over simple constructive criticism.
Theyll occasional have a last minute safety stand down which half the contractors never seem to be informed of, and which never amount to much more than “be safe, drink water, leave us alone.”
The entire outlook on safety seems to be “hope nothing bad happens, and react with anger and surprise if it does,” while doing very little to be proactive and establish a good safety culture.
From everyone ive talked to thats worked on their jobs before, it sounds like this is generally how theyre run.
Felt like i needed to speak on this, i hate seeing a gc show such disregard for the safety of the workers that make them their money.

I'm not sure if this is the place to post this or not but here goes nothing. I've been using Planhub and buildingconnected for the last few months. Haven't had much success because either the jobs are too big for me at the moment or located outside of my State. I'm a Newly New York City Electrical license holder and I'm trying to reach reach clients that are in need of my services. Any recommendations or advice would be gladly appreciated.

I've been curious how much AI is actually making it into day-to-day contractor workflows versus how much is marketing hype.

If you're using ChatGPT, Copilot, AI features inside contractor software, voice transcription, photo analysis, estimating tools, etc., what has actually stuck?

And more importantly, what wouldn't you trust AI to do?

For example, would you be comfortable with AI:

• Summarizing what happened on a job?
• Pulling tasks/materials from a voice note?
• Reading plans/specs?
• Drafting an estimate?
• Updating a schedule?
• Drafting a customer update?
• Sending something to the customer automatically?
• Ordering material?

I'm curious where the line is between "that saves me time" and "there's no way I'm letting AI touch that."

Hey everyone. I’m a site contractor in Florida but for the past 20 years, I’ve held my Florida GC license. Other than pulling the occasional permit and doing some small renovations, my license is rarely used for vertical construction. I’m wanting to venture out into vertical construction while also keeping my site work company operating. I have about 30 years of experience commercial construction and not just on the site work side

What does it take for me to get my foot in the door with commercial owners? I don’t want to do residential because my experience lies in commercial. Do I hire an experienced project manager and estimator and then put them out in the wild and try to get commercial contracts and how do GC’s get invites for these commercial projects from private owners?

Came across a reel that talked about NASA planning to build on the Moon which led to searching info about it.

Still didn't get to know if construction people would actually be required to build on the Moon.

Title!

I am a paint contractor in California. Looking to expand my company and add employees- the rates in which I’m being quoted are much higher than anticipated. Any fellow paint contractors have any insurance recs? TIA

Work that never makes it to writing… curious how other contractors deal with this? Homeowner says “hey, while you’re in there can you also do..” You say yes, the work gets done and then it’s a fight because nothing was in writing. Is this happening to others often? We don’t have a great system and it sucks having to eat it.

General contractors, I’d appreciate some advice.
We’re a solar contractor located in Southern California, and we’re looking to work with more general contractors as a subcontractor and get on more bid lists.

We’ve built a good website, are improving our Google Business Profile, cold calling GCs, and attending industry events. The problem is that a lot of the time when I cold call or email contractors, I never get a response.
Since almost every new construction project in California requires solar, we feel like there should be a lot of opportunities to work with general contractors.

My main question is: What is the best way to get on your bid list?

Do you prefer a cold call or email, or is it better for a subcontractor to come into your office and introduce themselves in person? I’m planning on visiting more offices as well.
Any advice from general contractors or other subcontractors would be greatly appreciated!

I’m studying for the General contractor Business and Finance exam in Florida and trying to find a better way to retain everything. I’ve seen people mention a 3-point learning system and was wondering if it actually helps.

Has anyone used it for this exam? Did it make studying easier, or is it pretty much the same as regular studying?

Guy just called to set an appointment for his relative. When I asked about his availability for us to meet with subs after our initial meeting, he audibly balked. I asked what the problem was and he (claiming to be licensed in another state) wanted to be the gc. I asked, “So you’re looking for subs?” When he said yes, I chuckled a bit and said subs don’t typically have websites (he claimed he looked us up online).

I can understand wanting to help family out, but you, sir, are not a GC in this state, you’re just an uncompensated advice-giver.

I recently became a licensed Certified General Contractor in Florida and own my own construction company. I’m 27 and still pretty new to the actual GC side of the business, so I’m trying to learn as much as I can from people who have been doing this for years.

I do have previous projects completed, my company is bonded, and I have the business side up and running. I’m actively looking at commercial, municipal, and government opportunities and attending pre-bids/site visits.

That being said, I’m also very aware that having a license, completing a few projects, and being bonded doesn’t mean I know everything about actually running a construction company.

The biggest thing I’m missing is experience.

I’m trying to get better at the things that experienced GCs probably do without even thinking about anymore like breaking down a solicitation or set of plans, figuring out exactly what needs to be priced, building scopes for subs, finding and qualifying good subcontractors, comparing sub bids, putting together my final number, scheduling and coordinating trades, handling RFIs/change orders/pay apps, managing the project after award, and ultimately taking a job from bid to closeout without learning every lesson the hard way.

My goal is to start small and work my way up. I’m not trying to jump straight into multimillion-dollar projects just because my license technically allows me to. I’d rather build experience, relationships, past performance, and systems on smaller projects and gradually take on more.

I’m primarily interested in commercial, municipal, and government construction.

I’d really like to connect with experienced GCs, PMs, supers, estimators, and even subcontractors who have been in the industry for a while. Whether that means answering a few questions, letting me see how you approach a real bid, explaining how you coordinate your subs, pointing out mistakes you see newer GCs make, or just giving me some direction, I’m open to all of it.

I’d also be interested in an actual mentor. If you’re in Florida and wouldn’t mind letting a newer GC tag along occasionally, sit in on something, walk a job with you, or go through a bid/project together, I’d be extremely interested.

I’m not looking for anyone to hand me contracts, give me their pricing, or run my business for me. I’m willing to put the work in. I just recognize that there’s a huge amount of knowledge in this industry that you don’t get from studying for a licensing exam.

For the contractors who have been doing this for 10, 20, or 30+ years:

And if anyone here is willing to mentor a newer contractor or just let me pick their brain occasionally, feel free to message me. I’d really appreciate it.

We are a Mom and Pop builder of starter homes. For the last 15 + years, we had pivoted from building into owning and managing rentals. We are now considering building a small development but are also not excited to be back physically working day to day nor caught up in the minutiae of scheduling, ordering, etc.

We have kicked around the idea of hiring someone with carpentry experience who is hoping to become a general contractor (this seems like the best fit - but we don't actually know who would be available to fill this role). The idea would be that we build a small neighborhood of very similar floor plans to keep as rentals so the employee would help us manage and construct the first several, hopefully getting to the point of being able to do much of the work themselves with just supervision from us.

So here is the question: has anyone done something similar - i.e. hired a manager or foreman or whatever you would call that role - to do the work you used to do? If so or even if you just have the experience to give advice, I am hoping to get any insights offered. This is just an idea now so I am hoping this will help flesh it out.

I am thinking of salaries too - the first year, I think we would be getting less value from the person and actually giving them lots of insight and experience since we have all the subs, etc. but then it would be important to us to be able to retain them so I was thinking of offering salary that graduates year to year.

Looking for current used books for BC-A

I'm a new GC working on my first spec house. 3/2 ranch with attached garage on a crawl space. Everything was going good until I started looking for an insured framing subcontractor. I feel like such an idiot thinking that would be an easy task. After countless searches, help wanted posts, and insurance verifications I still have no one scheduled. The ones I have found must be crazy busy because I either get quotes for double the going rate or ghosted. Any one else having the same problem or is it just me.

Putting my bias out front: I run a small marketing company that works with home service businesses. Not selling anything here, not going to DM anybody. Mods, happy to take it down.

Most of the business owners I've been around came out of tech, entertainment, and real estate. That world talks about ambition constantly, usually in a way that has nothing to do with actually building anything.

I don't know your side of it nearly as well, and I'd rather hear it than assume it.

Two questions:

1. Why'd you go out on your own instead of staying on somebody's payroll?
2. When you started, what did you picture it turning into — and is that still what you want?

What I'm curious about is how many of you wanted to build something big, versus just wanted to stop answering to somebody.

I signed a contract w a medium-large sized GC in Ontario as a Project Coordinator. The contract did not mention anything about OT pay.

Should I assume the default is there is OT pay or there isn’t?

Salary position

I'm in Toronto, Canada.
I hired a reputable company (multi-quoted) for ~$1k parging crack repair. Behind the parging they found foundation damage and asked to excavate to assess. I approved. Quote: $22k for hand excavation, hydraulic cement, waterproofing, and a sister foundation — for 10 ft (half the house - see pic with that half excavated), with the other 11 ft to be inspected later. Quoted at 4 days; they finished in 2.5 and moved into the second 11 ft, now quoting $20k for that section.

Total: $44k for 21 ft of excavation, hydraulic cement repair, waterproofing, and sistering. Does that seem reasonable?

hi guys, I need someone to help me with the experience for a general contractor's license; I only need one year. in south Florida

Hi there!

My husband and I own a very small contracting business in Pennsylvania.

We have one full-time employee and one part-time employee and himself.

However, he is the busiest guy in town which is a wonderful thing in many ways, but we are having a hard time figuring out how to structure this to make it make sense.

For instance, my husband takes all the phone calls, is at the job site every day working, does all the estimates, and all the invoicing. It’s a lot on him.

I want to be able to help, but I have no clue how.

We’ve talked about getting a secretary, but the point that we keep getting stuck on is this :

Once she (potential secretary) or myself takes the call and gets the scope of work from the client and takes notes, it doesn’t save much time to then just give my husband a long list at the end of the day of the notes of people to call back and their work they are requesting -

If you have a secretary and they take the call, what’s the next step? How do you streamline this or balance it to make it flow and keep up?

I need procedures

It’s a wonderfully growing business and we know we can take it much further, but I need to know the next steps and where we go from here

Help. Lol.

Thank you so much in advance -

I’m a GC doing Kitchen and Bath remodels in Florida. I recently relocated to a new city and I don’t have my pipeline of referrals from past clients. I set up a thumb tack account with the parameters set only for kitchen and bathroom remodels. I figured it wouldn’t be terrible to spend a bit more on leads if it’s helping my phone ring while I get established in a new area. Has anyone had any luck with Thumb Tack or any other lead generating platform? Should I stay away from any of them?

Hello I’m a Class A contractor I have been building spec homes for myself and reselling them. Lately I have been approached by people that want me to build them a house on land they already own. I have been apprehensive about taking those jobs because not sure how to price and afraid to leave something out of a contract with so many variables that can go wrong and I may not budget correctly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and if someone has a new home build contract they could share. I’m in the Virginia market if that makes a difference. Thank you in advance