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Self employment =/

S

Supertastic Fool

Golden Member
I'm a carpenter and haven't had any work for about 2 weeks now. Yay for the economy sucking eh... Even applied to a few jobs and they aren't hiring even for 1/2 my hourly rate.

/end sadstory

ps. if you need anything done in the tulsa area give me a shout =p... like anyone here is from tulsa though ha!
 
Originally posted by: Insomniator
Sounds like your hourly rate is too high.
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between "free bids" gas prices (yes they are dropping) materials runs and people giving me the run around, insurance costs, not to mention I didn't mention my hourly rate I'm glad you gave me some insight that makes understand why i dont have work!
 
Please, this isn't the bad economy's fault. My dad is a self employed contractor/framer/carpenter and always has trouble finding work when winter comes up. Truth is nobody wants anything done to their house in the winter for obvious reasons. Mix that with the flooding of cheap foreign labor (both legal and otherwise) and it's getting hard to find work in your field period. I wouldn't blame the economy though, as at least around here (colorado) that type of work has sucked for at least the last 5 years.

I'd suggest broadening what you do, like get into flooring or bathroom refinishing (tile, etc) if you don't already. You can also try making some cheaper furniture like desks and stuff, and sell them through craigs list or something of the sort. College kids LOVE cheap furniture.
 
Live near a university with dorms? Start a side business constructing lofts for college kids when they move into the dorms in August / September (maybe some in January too, as people graduate / move around). I remember we had to wait weeks for ours to be installed my freshman year of school, because the companies doing it were so backed up.

Not tremendously helpful ATM, I guess...unless you can get some takers in January...
 
If only homeless people had money, you could make a mint building little shelters for them. Hell, you could charge them $600 to build something. Go to Sears, buy a $500 dryer, keep the dryer and the $100, give the homeless guy the box and you're both happy.

I call this... hobo boxing.
 
Originally posted by: gorcorps
Please, this isn't the bad economy's fault. My dad is a self employed contractor/framer/carpenter and always has trouble finding work when winter comes up. Truth is nobody wants anything done to their house in the winter for obvious reasons. Mix that with the flooding of cheap foreign labor (both legal and otherwise) and it's getting hard to find work in your field period. I wouldn't blame the economy though, as at least around here (colorado) that type of work has sucked for at least the last 5 years.

I'd suggest broadening what you do, like get into flooring or bathroom refinishing (tile, etc) if you don't already. You can also try making some cheaper furniture like desks and stuff, and sell them through craigs list or something of the sort. College kids LOVE cheap furniture.
Click to expand...

Wise words.
 
Originally posted by: Supertastic Fool
I'm a carpenter and haven't had any work for about 2 weeks now. Yay for the economy sucking eh... Even applied to a few jobs and they aren't hiring even for 1/2 my hourly rate.

/end sadstory

ps. if you need anything done in the tulsa area give me a shout =p... like anyone here is from tulsa though ha!
Click to expand...


i am a cabinet maker and haven't worked on anything with wood in like 5 years at least. im in sallisaw lol
 
Originally posted by: gorcorps
Please, this isn't the bad economy's fault. My dad is a self employed contractor/framer/carpenter and always has trouble finding work when winter comes up. Truth is nobody wants anything done to their house in the winter for obvious reasons. Mix that with the flooding of cheap foreign labor (both legal and otherwise) and it's getting hard to find work in your field period. I wouldn't blame the economy though, as at least around here (colorado) that type of work has sucked for at least the last 5 years.

I'd suggest broadening what you do, like get into flooring or bathroom refinishing (tile, etc) if you don't already. You can also try making some cheaper furniture like desks and stuff, and sell them through craigs list or something of the sort. College kids LOVE cheap furniture.
Click to expand...

I would agree with you but I have had a 5 year stretch of having work in the fall/winter. It slows down, yes but never remotely near this extent, the illegals have something to do with it but there hasnt been a vast difference in the last few months of illegals working in oklahoma... So what you say is in part true, but every repeat customer that I had work lined up for has lost quite a bit of money or is affected in some way (one of my biggest customers is a steel scrap reseller and he was selling steel for 1.30 lb a few months ago and can sell it for maybe .08 atm...)
 
Originally posted by: silverpig
If only homeless people had money, you could make a mint building little shelters for them. Hell, you could charge them $600 to build something. Go to Sears, buy a $500 dryer, keep the dryer and the $100, give the homeless guy the box and you're both happy.

I call this... hobo boxing.
Click to expand...

Just bill the taxpayer... that's what all the cool companies are doing.
 
Originally posted by: Black88GTA
Live near a university with dorms? Start a side business constructing lofts for college kids when they move into the dorms in August / September (maybe some in January too, as people graduate / move around). I remember we had to wait weeks for ours to be installed my freshman year of school, because the companies doing it were so backed up.

Not tremendously helpful ATM, I guess...unless you can get some takers in January...
Click to expand...

:laugh: Companies... we all built our own. I built one with a system of pulleys that allowed us to winch our beds all the way up to the ceiling.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: Black88GTA
Live near a university with dorms? Start a side business constructing lofts for college kids when they move into the dorms in August / September (maybe some in January too, as people graduate / move around). I remember we had to wait weeks for ours to be installed my freshman year of school, because the companies doing it were so backed up.

Not tremendously helpful ATM, I guess...unless you can get some takers in January...
Click to expand...

:laugh: Companies... we all built our own. I built one with a system of pulleys that allowed us to winch our beds all the way up to the ceiling.
Click to expand...

Is this your bed???




 
I don't know why some of you think the economy isn't a factor. If people are cutting back overall, I'm sure the OP would be affected too. I've had less work lately and I certainly have drastically reduced 'discretionary' spending.
 
You just need to move south, at least once a year a good sized storm comes though and tears stuff up, and as an added bonus every decade or so a hurricane comes and demolishes almost everything made from wood. Houston is still recovering from the last hurricane, and we need skilled carpenters.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: Black88GTA
Live near a university with dorms? Start a side business constructing lofts for college kids when they move into the dorms in August / September (maybe some in January too, as people graduate / move around). I remember we had to wait weeks for ours to be installed my freshman year of school, because the companies doing it were so backed up.

Not tremendously helpful ATM, I guess...unless you can get some takers in January...
Click to expand...

:laugh: Companies... we all built our own. I built one with a system of pulleys that allowed us to winch our beds all the way up to the ceiling.
Click to expand...

We thought about putting our own up, for about 0.02 seconds. That would have required somehow getting lumber / supplies from HD to the house (no cars allowed for freshmen at MSU), renting / buying at least a circular saw, getting all the measurements right the first time, figuring out how to properly stabilize it, lining everything up, buying or making a ladder, etc...not to mention actually constructing it. We could have done it if we had to, but didn't really want to go through the hassle. After thinking it all through, we figured $120 split 2 ways for everything wasn't so bad.

The guys across the hall put their own loft up...it fell down in the middle of the night with both of them in it a few months later 😀 Whoops!
 
What do you do as a specialty? My dad started as a carpenter, but he moved towards general contracting, mostly specialized in renovations. Diversify your work a little bit. If you do carpentry because you're sort of artistically-minded, just don't sub out that work. I've seen my father do that a lot, the jobs just give him a place to be creative.

Remember, people don't know how to do jack shit themselves. The American way is to go to college and become a desk jockey (and I've definitely become one), so everyone has to call someone. There's always going to be work for you.

Hell, take a part time job at home depot, maybe you can score some work by talking to customers. I wonder if they have rules against that?
 
My brother is a GC and always uses the same crews on his houses. He really doesn't want unproven subs ruining his reputation. Is there a way you could contact custome builders or 'community' builders for work? The economy has really put a damper on new home sales and even though my brother only builds 7 to 10 homes per year he is having a little difficulty selling in even the most desirable areas.
 
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