# Commercial Roofing Newbie



## jhogan0101 (Sep 3, 2011)

I've been doing residential work last 15 years but i can't get ahead, these russians keep lowballing and my quotes are getting canned' WTF:thumbdown:? 

Anyway i been getting invites to bid on epdm/tpo work. 

My question is how do most of these GCs pay? right now for residential i'm doing 50/50.


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## 1985gt (Dec 21, 2010)

Most GC's pay with a check or direct deposit and very slowly. A lot of them wont pay until they get payed, if you don't bid to a general but to an owner (think big facilities) you can get paid a % per project completion. Filling out the paper work is more of a hassle so we just request for payment at the end of the job. Seriously though commercial work is just as bad. It will be very hard to compete in this market with little experience doing this type of work. I've seen bid jobs going outrageously low prices just so people can work there guys. The beginning of the year was bad, its a little better now.


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## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

Learn to attract the right customer, that goes to having a marketing plan and properly written advertising pieces. As for GC's that's the problem right there. A vast majority of the GC's I have met can care less about quality. They care about two things, cheap price (cheap price means more money in their pocket) and when can you get it done (means they can move onto the next job, and put more money in their pocket). That's it. So you are targeting the wrong customer. The more levels of separation between yourself and the actual person writing the check (property owner) the less money will be for you, the less you can convince the actual end user to care about paying more. I have made suggestions to GC's before to improve on a project only to have them stone wall me without even taking the suggestion to the customer, saying "they won't want that", how does the GC know what the customer wants. Really what he was saying is "I don't want to be bothered, and don't care."

Either way there will always be low ballers. LEARN TO SELL. No I don't mean polyester suit, gold chains, and high pressure... I mean meeting each customer face to face, I mean explaining what you are going to do different, I mean really being different, I mean being able to articulate WHY you choose to be different, and what the customer's benefit will be. 

GC's pay slow no matter what. 30 days is a treat! 60 days can be a norm and be prepared for legal battles.

Breaking into commercial is not something you are going to be able to do over night. I have been trying for years and although we are making process, it's a lot different animal that residential.


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## jhogan0101 (Sep 3, 2011)

Thanks for the response guys. Definitely good to know. 
I guess i need to find a way to access the actual customer.


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## 1985gt (Dec 21, 2010)

Not hard to do, although a good start is doing low sloped homes, get a bit of practice in before taking on big stuff.


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## [email protected] (Jul 13, 2012)

*commerical considerations*

Hi,

There are a few who can get deposits and after that it's a pay when paid situation. Grumpy is right though, market your company and schmooze.... Have you tried BOMA?

Good luck.


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## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

BOMA is good if you have the time to network. I for one would fail at all those types of groups because I don't like, nor do I have the time to network.


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## Gladys_christabel (Dec 13, 2012)

First of all Never give up your attitude to all low ballers speech.Instead of asking their talks you can think and remodel your business.Try to explain all the details to your customer which you have and also trying to do.Checkout all GC's pay outside and demand that.
All the best.Keep on Hardwork.
________________________________________________
retail construction Los Angeles


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