Posted on 08/04/2010 4:34:49 PM PDT by Windflier
Even before Obamanomics made a shambles of the US economy, Mom & Pop construction businesses were hustling hard to stay busy. Unfair competition from contractors who utilize illegal alien labor to undercut fair market prices has been hurting small construction businesses for well over a decade, and many have lost the battle to keep their doors open.
Those Americans in small business who’ve resisted the lure to play in the mud with their less-than-ethical competitors, now face an almost nightmarish scenario in their chosen fields of expertise, because a downturned economy has been added to the equation.
I am intimately aware of these pressures because I’m one of those Mom & Pops. In years past, my wife and I kept up to eight, skilled North Texas Americans employed, installing high-end steel and copper rain gutter systems. Today, we’re lucky to get just enough work to keep Dad busy.
I now take work twice as far away as I’ve ever done, and charge half the price that I did five years ago for the privilege of getting a day’s work. And I still deliver the same quality service that I’ve always done. So do hundreds of thousands of small business construction professionals who are in my same boat.
In these tough times, it would be good of other Americans to realize that professionals like myself are out there – that we’re struggling, and that we stand ready and willing to serve your needs – with a skill-set and an old-fashioned, American “can do” attitude that you won’t get from our less-than-ethical competitors.
Small Mom & Pop construction businesses are hurting like never before. Most of us have decades of experience and old-fashioned American values to bring to any project, large or small.
Please consider calling a smaller shop if you need repairs, maintenance, or remodeling work done on your home.
Thank you
AGREED...
I’m in construction and it sucks now.
Underbid work. Less hours. Contractors wanting to rush to get the job because the job is a hard bid.
It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it, by far.
“Contractors wanting to rush to get the job because the job is a hard bid.”
Correction: Contractors wanting to rush to get the job COMPLETED because the job is a hard bid.
My neighbor commutes to Virginia to work on an office building project, he comes home every other weekend. We live in Georgia.
It’s tougher today in this business than I’ve ever seen in my 30 years in the trades. We’re still charging the same rates we did 10 years ago because of the unfair competition from illegal labor, although our costs have risen a great deal.
Still, we soldier on. I know that people like me still have a place in the business community. There are a lot of Americans who prefer an honest, old-school tradesman, who knows how to “do it right the first time.”
Americans can help other Americans get back to work by simply choosing us over our competition. I hope my post helps some folks to make that choice.
Agree completely. We have an electrical contracting business and work has picked up quite a bit in the past couple of months but prior to this, we weren’t making ends meet.
My husband found that customers would take his bid, shop it around until they found someone who would do the work for nothing. One guy’s bid didn’t even cover the cost of materials.
We’ve found that some “contractors” will scrounge material from dumps and other construction sites and pass it off as new. The homeowner and inspectors never know they’re getting used wire, used fixtures, etc. because much of it is hidden in the walls.
His business is now down to just him, which is really hard on days when it’s really a two-guy job, but it’s been hard to find some of his regular helpers who can or will work just that one day. Last week we took him lunch, and the kids and I had to help out!! LOL
Thanks for posting this, Windflier.
In my neck of the woods, the compliance Nazi's have beat on the local gas station for over a decade in an attempt to have his underground tanks modernized (to the tune of $$$$$$)
Unable to find anything wrong with the tanks that have been in place since the 1950's, they finally got him with Ethanol.
His tanks are not "Ethanol" compliant.(Thank you George W. "Freedom First" Bush!)
Regular UnEthanol gas is no longer distributed in the area and he has sold no gas for over six weeks.
He cannot afford any hit to his income and he certainly cannot afford to replace the tanks.
Meanwhile the Proprietor of the neighborhood tobacco shop has spent countless (unpaid) hours at Goobermint mandated lectures on what constitutes drug paraphernalia, what age people are allowed to enter his shop, what activities can occur (he refuses to post No Smoking Signs) etc. etc.
His business is down to the few and hardy cigar and pipe smokers of the town.
I have yet to see the look of terror in their eyes that will precede absolute chaos, but I suspect the day is not far off.
Many people are just one straw from a broken Camel's back.
I know we are all supposed to look for the silver lining but sometimes you have to discuss the dark cloud that surrounds it.
Best regards,
He is trying to starve the self employed out of business. He hates capitialism.
Pray for America
Many people are just one straw from a broken Camel's back.
I hear ya. In my particular situation, it's harder to pinpoint a single source for what ails us. It's seemingly everywhere we look in our trade.
The introduction of illegal aliens into the construction workforce has forced honest business people to cut their prices to almost bare subsistence level.
If they succumb to the market forces at work, they begin hiring illegals themselves, to "fight fire with fire", so to speak. If they don't hire illegals, they have to cut their prices to stay competitive, which robs most of their profits.
My wife and I have been dealing with this destructive equation for over ten years now. What we've found, though, is that persistence and educating the public goes a long way to securing jobs, and in creating a long-lasting reputation.
It’s terrible with what they do with the illegals i.e. undercutting the competition.
Even if the illegals had skills, they will do what their boss tells them anyway—good or bad they do what they’re told, but it’s mostly bad.
All I see anymore is Gov’t work, and it comes with extremely anal quality control to the point I don’t know how anyone could meet schedule. Everyone had to sell their souls to get the jobs, and then they lose big because of by-the-book-inspectors that hold the job up.
Pretty soon there will be an advertising phrase in the phone book - “We do not hire illegal aliens.”
Wow.
If Mrs. Windflier posted here, she would probably have written your post, word for word. Our situations are nearly identical (except work hasn’t picked up for me).
I am totally familiar with being unfairly underbid by unscrupulous contractors and “fly-by-night” operators. I’ve found that it’s become absolutely essential for me to educate my prospective clients about that problem during our first walk-through.
If you can get them to understand that 90% of the people who show up to their homes are on “the dark side”, you’ll close more bids. It’s sort of become incumbent on all of us to do this. We simply MUST put out the word, in all of our business dealings. If all of us consistently do this, it will have a widespread effect on the overall market.
Alrighty. You keep hanging in there, and don’t ever give up. The fight to take our country back extends into all aspects of our lives - including our businesses.
“One guy’s bid didn’t even cover the cost of materials”
I see a lot of change orders. But that trick is becoming more and more difficult to pull. I don’t know how a company can feel good about underbidding something and then hoping it can take a profit on a few extras.
I don’t how prevalant change orders are in the electical field, but if they’re not, I’d say some of your competition are going to be out of business very soon.
One man electrical contractor in NC, here. Preach it from the mountain tops brotha!
I've taken exactly ONE government job in all the years I've been in business, and that one job made me swear off gov't work forevermore.
Working gov't projects is everything you say it is, and worse.
I ran into a Construction Superintendent a few years ago who was doing an Advance Auto parts. Apparently he had built a few of these stores and was telling me a tale of a previous store he had built.
An under qualified individual bid the sanitary and storm line installation on his previous job. Work had taken place over a few weeks and then the design engineer decided to stop by for a visit. After a little observation the design engineer felt that something wasn't quite right. So the engineer had the surveyors come in and shoot inverts and grades. What he found was that most of the gravity drained pipes were installed BACKWARDS in terms of grade. Everything flowed the OPPOSITE way! They found out that the man who did the installation had no experience with sanitary and storm installation and held a previous job running a fork lift in a warehouse. It seems to me that they should have done a little background/reference check on the guy before they excepted his bid.
I've actually seen contractors advertise that they're "All American", and such, but I haven't yet seen anyone come out with something as bold as what you said in their ads.
You may be right. The pressure exists for folks to start coming right out with it. I already do it face to face. Have been for years.
There are a lot of us Joe The Plumbers out here.
Hope you're keepin' yer chin up, bro. We've got to keep fighting for our market. Same way we're fighting for our country.
Well, Obama can suck it. I'm never giving up.
We proud American tradesmen need to make it clear that we're not going to be run out of our own market (that most of us have worked a lifetime for), and let Obama's friends take it from us.
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