Things To Do In SW Florida

If you’re a contractor, you need to market yourself. How else will people know you exist? As a contractor licensing company, we wanted to share with you a few tips on how you can market/promote yourself as a contractor, so you can get yourself the most business.

• Word of mouth – Spread the word to family and friends that you are officially licensed customer. Let them know what you do for work and your skillset. Give them a business card.
• Social media – Make yourself a professional social media page on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Take photos of your work and share it. Engage with people. Talk about your services.
• Website – Build yourself a website or hire a website development company to make one for you. It’s 2019. If you don’t have a website, you’ll find behind. People want to go online to look at your credentials, work, testimonials, etc. if you don’t have a website, potential customers may not think you’re professional or credible. Even if you are a one-man operation, a website is still necessary. A website, id an online calling card. Your website is an online presence. The internet is where people turn to for information on everything. It’s the new yellow pages. By typing into the search engines, they can easily find you based on keywords like “general contractor in Naples, Florida.”

You need an online presence as a contractor. If you’re not online, you’ll be missing out on so many potential customers. The internet is where your customers are!

If you’re in the processing of becoming a contractor and need a license, we can help you with this process. We can do the paperwork for you faster and get you licensed faster. We have helped thousands of contractors in Florida and in other states get their contractor license. We know what the contractor licensing board is looking for, and we make sure everything is properly included in your application.

We will complete and file all necessary paperwork for the application. To get your contractor license, click Florida contractor’s license page to learn more or call 239-777-1028. read more

In order to become a contractor in the state of Florida (legally), you need a contractor license. In order to get a contractor license, you need to pass the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board’s construction contractor exam. To pass the exam, you must score a 70 percent or higher. The test takes two days and takes place several times throughout the year across the state.

In August 2018, the general, building, and residential examinations began to be administered in a computer-based testing format, while plumbing examinations are still be administered in a paper and pencil format in Orlando

This year’s Florida construction contractor exam dates and locations:

Test date:

February 12-13, 2019 (Deadline: January 12, 2019)

April 16-17, 2019 (Deadline: March 16, 2019)

June 11-12, 2019 (Deadline: May 11, 2019)

If you want a tower Specialty, Demolition Specialty or Industrial Facilities Specialty license, you need to  pass the general category examination of three parts: Contract Administration, Project Management and Business and Finance. read more

Can you believe it’s 2019 all ready? Happy New Year! Where did the time go? What’s your new year’s resolution this year? Have you been putting off getting your contractor’s license? Now is a better time than any to get it done! Remember, in the state of Florida, you can not work as a contractor legally without a Florida contractor’s license.

You’ve probably thought to yourself, “getting a contractor’s license is a lot of work,” which is probably why you’ve been putting it off. Well, it doesn’t have to be hard!

As a contractor licensing company in Florida, it is our job to help you get licensed. Below, we’ve detailed some steps that you need to take to get licensed.

1. Figure out what license you are applying for. General contractor’s license? Electrical? Plumbing? HVAC?
2. If a test is necessary for this license, sign up for a prep class and take the test.
3. Figure out what requirements are necessary for the license. You want to make sure you have enough experience and education for you to be approved.
4. Look at what fees you need to pay.
5. Send in your application to the state so the Contractor Licensing Board can review your application.

Now, many people send in their applications with errors or missing information. It can be overwhelming to send in a “perfect” application – there is a lot to account for. As a contractor licensing company, we do all this work for you. We know what the Board is looking for. We know how to write/phrase items in your application. We know what qualifications, tests, and fees you need. We make sure we have everything before we mail out the application. We do all the heavy lifting, which makes getting a contractor license easy-as-pie for you. read more

A general contractor is skilled. Often, he/she is skilled in many ways, but that does not mean he/she knows everything. Projects can be complex and require the expertise of someone else or you need more than one person to handle the job.

One contractor cannot easily handle a residential or commercial project alone. Sure, if you’re toilet is broken, one plumber could easily come over and fix the problem. But when it comes to residential and commercial construction, it can be nearly impossible for a single person to do everything that needs to get done by themselves, within budget, and on schedule.

Planning. Buying. Organizing. Invoicing. Budgeting. Doing the job. These are a lot of tasks. Therefore, it makes much more sense to hire a team. A general contracting business made up of many employees and subcontractors tend to have better success in projects and reviews.

When a contractor works with a team, he works together with differently professionals who specialize in a different part of the project. From designers and electricians to foreman and managers, everyone has a different but important role to play. The number of people working on a project will depend on the size and complexity of the project. read more

If you’re a licensed contractor who wants to start his/her own business, there are certain things you should do, have, or think about that will likely guarantee you will grow your business or create a business that can last long.

Get the right systems in place to run your business efficiently. From invoicing and scheduling to bookkeeping, use a system that helps you and your employees be efficient and effective.

Look for customer referrals.

How are people reviewing or rating you? Try to get positive customer reviews, especially publicly.

Do you have a high or low turnover rate? If people keep leaving, ask yourself why, or find out.

Focus on areas you need to improve your business before expanding your business in any way. Stay small to keep your cash flow higher if your profits are not going up. If your profits increase, then you can justify hiring more people for your team.

Work on communication skills and customer service.

Hire skilled, intelligent, independent workers who you don’t have to worry about.

Be available to your clients/customers.

Always pay attention to your finances so you don’t come up short in the end. Be prepared for all scenarios.

Join an industry association where you can network and work on forming and developing better skills.

Market your business on a website, social media, through email, and more. Go to networking events in your local area.

Work with or have someone with more experience than you to guide you.

Go above-and-beyond for customers so they will call you back and become repeat customers and refer you to others.

Make your business stand out. Choose a specialty to master.

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