In today’s episode, Nick gives a step by step guide on how to launch a business building fences that can bring in $112k a year. After living in his house for around 2 years and doing renovations in his basement and different projects around the house, he’s talked to many contractors and workers about projects and work. Because of the fence he recently had built, he calculated some numbers and watched how they built the fence, and shares that info with you to show how you can start a business building fences.
Nick sent photos, descriptions, and layouts of the kind of fence he needed for his yard to several different businesses. Only one got back to him quickly and quoted him a pretty steep price. Finally, Precision Fence works in Athens got him a good quote and came out and did the work for him.
For this job, it was quoted at $4,500 for a 200 ft fence with two gates. It took two guys two days working 10 hours each to finish the job.
The cost of wood and concrete was roughly $1,800. If you’re buying in bulk, the prices will likely be lower. If the men are making ~$25 an hour accounting for worker’s comp, that’s $1,000 of labor for the whole job. Subtracting those numbers from the $4,500 job, that’s still a $600 profit for the company itself.
How do you make this a reality?
Visit the Essential Tools page to get a detailed list of everything you need to have or do to get your business up and running. That page will tell you all you need to know about business name, logo, website, and anything else you need to get it started.
To get customers, we’ll turn to marketing. Make an ad on Facebook Marketplace, on Craigslist, and give a price that’s just cheaper than most businesses ($18-20/sq ft). Record a video of you in your company polo in front of a fence talking about your business and post it to Youtube. Go to neighborhoods that are middle/upper class with dogs, children, families, and post flyers on their doors or knock on doors and offer your services. If you can get in contact with contractors and builders and become their go-to fence guy, that will go a long way for your success.
If you are the business owner and do the work yourself with one other person, you can make ~$1000 every two days accounting for smaller expenses and travel. Start out small and keep enough business to keep you busy. After a while and you start growing, the business is easily scalable. Hire the partner you’ve been working with to be a crew leader or manager, and hire other employees to expand the labor you can get done in a week.