Starting A Construction Company

This article is about starting a construction company, and as there are many different types of construction companies we will touch base with a few of these.  Whether you are starting an oilfield construction company or a home building construction company or anything in between the initial start up methods will be very similar.  Different construction companies will have different costs to get started, and the marketing for the different types of construction companies will vary.

When starting a construction company of any kind you will need to have a business name, business license, business insurance, and money to get started.  This first initial step will be the same for any kind of construction company that you are starting.  To license your business you will need to fill out forms and pay the license fee that is required by the town or city you live in.  While you are there you should ask if there are any other requirements that are necessary for the type of business you are starting.  Every city and state or province is slightly different so you will need to ask at this point.  If the answer is I don’t know then you need to ask who will know.  If you are getting the run around then talk with you lawyer.

Once you are licensed and have all the different types of insurance that might be required for you then you should get your business cards made up and create a website.  Your local printer can get your business cards for you and you can build a website yourself without too much trouble.  If you are stuck then check out what we have to offer.

Hiring or Sub Contracting

Depending on the type of construction company you are starting will dictate whether you need to hire someone right off the start or do the work yourself.  If you are a tradesman that is a sub contractor then you can start a construction company by doing all of the work yourself.

I should explain here the different types of sub contractors.  A home builder will almost always contract out the plumbing, electrical and other trades.  These are all sub contractors.  Sometimes a plumbing company will hire employees or hire sub contractors to do the construction jobs necessary.  Same goes for other trades as well.  This means you need to decide if you will be hiring an employee or finding sub contractors to do the work for you.  Of course if you are a home builder then you really have no choice but to hire sub contractors.  However you may still have some employees that do certain areas of work within the homes you are building.

After Starting a Construction Company you Need Clients

This part is quite a bit different depending on the type of construction company you have started.  No matter what type you have started you need a web presence of some kind.  Even a short 4 or 5 page static site will be enough when you get started.
Differences in Marketing Construction Companies
A home builder will market their company very different to a plumber or electrician.  The tradesman that does contracting can market strictly to the larger companies that are working within that industry.  For instance I had a plumbing company at one point and I marketed my services to home builders and renovation companies.  While they had to market their services directly to the home owners they were building for.  The difference between this is one is a B2B and the other is a B2C.  This stands for business to business and business to consumer.

Business to Business Marketing

You can of course use similar strategies, but creating a rapport with the business you want to do business with can go a very long way for you.  In fact if you want to be a smaller company just one contract might be all you need.  You can still market to these people with postcards, yellow pages, online methods, and other ways to get the door open, but the medium you use might be slightly different.  For instance instead of a newspaper you will advertise in a trade journal.

My greatest success with marketing to these companies is networking, my website, and cold calling.  In fact at one point I was so busy that I cancelled my yellow pages, closed down my website, and stopped cold calling and networking.

Business to Consumer Marketing

This type of marketing can encompass many different methods.  The old ways of newspaper and yellow page advertising to the new ways of online marketing including pay per click, search engine optimization, and email marketing.  Of course postcards will always work for this type of marketing.  People will be looking in their mailbox for years to come so if you construction for homeowners then targeting the right homeowner with a postcard will do you well.  For instance a landscaping company, irrigation company, fence builders, can all target new homes in a newer subdivision.

Types of Construction Companies to Start

Here is a list of the different types of construction companies that are out there.

Oilfield construction
In most cases this is companies that search for oil.  Surveyors, drillers, seismic, trucking, grading, road building, to name the most popular types.

Plumbing construction
Plumbing construction can take place in commercial, residential, or industrial buildings.

Electrical construction
Electrical construction includes oilfield, industrial, commercial and residential.

Building construction
This includes all aspects of building, such as home or house building, garage building, deck building, fence building as well as commercial and industrial building.

Road construction
This is done by larger companies.  The reason I list this here is that road builders will often subcontract smaller companies to take on some of the tasks.

Bridge construction
This is similar to road construction.  Mainly done by engineer firms, but again there are companies within this industry that can work for these companies.  Such as welders.

Commercial construction
This includes any construction that is done for businesses.  From buildings to tenant improvements inside the buildings.  This also includes all of the trades that work within this market.

Residential construction
As compared with commercial construction this is work that is done for the end user who is going to live there or already lives there.  Houses, decks, fences, landscaping, plumbing, electrical, concrete, stair building, roofers, garage builders, heating, air conditioning, irrigation, siding, stucco, painters, framers, carpet, hardwood, brick layers, fireplaces, tile setters, and much more are all part of the residential construction industries.

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