[yendor28]

Originally Posted by gattaca

I started a Sewer and Drain Cleaning Company in January of 2006 . We had a very rocky start because my partner was stealing from the company and I didn't know about it, and he also was not answering the phone when he was on call.

I bought him out in August of 07 when we had about 4 weeks left before we were going to be shut down for not paying our Phone Book Ad bill . It only took 2 weeks to get things rolling along well. I mended some relationships, secured some contracts, worked WAY fucking harder and smarter, slashed costs, and raised prices. Our first winter (Nov 06-March 07) we averaged only 1/2 job per day. This last winter, my company averaged 2.5 jobs per day. Also, we went from 6 total sewer replacements in year one to averaging one every 3 weeks ($1800 profit in 1.3 days)
I got into sewer work in a weird way. I owned 20 rental properties and had to have the sewer line cleaned in one one day. The guy came and had this cool machine and after 20 minutes, he was done and I paid him $75. When he left I did some math and thought "that's a sweet gig". This was Feb 2004. The next year in the summer (2005) I had a guy working for me and one day he mentioned that he used to clean sewers. So I pitched the idea to him that we start a company since he knew the technical stuff and I knew business stuff. So we did. But he turned out to be a real retard. So now he's bought out and I work and average of 4 hours per day and average over $100 an hour.

I actually make $85/hr most of the time, but when we get big replacement jobs, you make about $130/hr so it averages out to over 100.

Anyway, it's tough to say how long it took to get rolling along good. On one hand, if it were not for my partner and his contacts, the company would have had a slower start. On the other hand, if he had not been such a goof, we would have been profitable after 8 months instead of 20 months (with him gone).

Every year though, new companies start up and they don't last long at all. they just don't get it.

You know why lawyers are rich? They don't undercut the other lawyers. There's an unwritten price and they all use it as a minimum. When new sewer guys come in, they slash their price to get market share. But that's based on the assumption that the customer places price as a priority. My own research shows that customers, when their sewer is backing up, don't care about price. They care about how fast you can get there. So I kick ass because I'll be there
fast and charge you a high rate. These other losers book jobs around their schedules and then charge cheap rates and if they do not have a good financial setup, they wil be out of cash in no time.

Anyway. This is too long already. Drop out of business school, but some good business books, read them and read them again and then read them again and grow some balls and start a company.

Great post, love your style!

thanks