Words from a Concrete Contractor

The following is simply a transcript that I made from the narration of an online video – it’s the voice of a contractor who specializes in pouring concrete. My reason for copying it is that I’m intrigued by his message and the way that he delivers it.

Construction contractor
narrating a film of his crew at work 

So, we’re gonna get started, here. We’re workin’ for U.S. Trans – we’re takin’ out the curb and the gutter and the sidewalk, and cutting the street. I wouldn’t suggest takin’ these kind of jobs: you have to do a meeting with U.S. Trans; you have to get OK’d by U.S. Trans; then you have to meet U.S. Trans out there and walk the job. You gotta close the street, which is three thousand bucks for two weeks – and you can only close it for five hours at a time, and you got ten guys there, and you gotta gangbuster for, I don’t know, five hours, but after you unload everything you’ve got about four and a half hours to work with, and seven eight guys out there. 

You gotta saw-cut the street. First, you gotta put the cones out. For the three thousand bucks, the first day, the guy comes and puts out the cones, sets em in the street. End of the day, the city comes and kicks you out, five hours later. You move the cones onto the sidewalk; now you’re blocking the sidewalk. In the morning, you put the cones back out into the street and block the street. And it just goes on and on: inspection, this, that. I wouldn’t suggest doin’ these. 

So many people out there wanna start businesses, and they doubt themselves. There’s no one that can stop you from doin’ it except for you. The best thing you can do is: Don’t listen to people. But just don’t start with these kind of jobs: you know, U.S. Trans contracts. Start with other driveways, patios — residential stuff, not commercial. And if you end up goin’ this commercial route, and you’re runnin’ a tight ship with an accountant, and, you know, you’re pulling permits and withholding payroll tax, and you wanna do all that, then you could do this stuff; but it’s just not what I wanna do. 

The picture you’re looking at right now is me standing next to Hippo Construction. That’s Loel: he’s one of the owners. And Ryan’s with me. We do some of these jobs together. So we’re gonna saw-cut the street. But these things are a total pain in the ass. And it’s not quite the money that people think they are. 

So, when you start your own business, start off with cash flow, not all these heavy insurances – you need a three million dollar bond to go into the street. It might be six million: I don’t remember. You gotta pull permits, inspections, you know. The IRS knows what permits you pulled. There’s a lot of factors to this. 

You know, just start your own thing. Start different ways. If you’re not scared of your dreams, you’re not dreamin’ big enough. Just keep dreamin’ bigger and shootin’ for the stars. When you start your own thing, there’s no one to stop you, except for yourself. And I wouldn’t listen to other people – that’s a big problem with people that have anxiety and different stuff: they listen to what other people say, and, you know, I’ve been guilty of it: I’m not sayin’ I’m — I’m not: I’m just talkin’ from experience. 

Everything I talk about in my videos is straight 100% not misleading: I know for a fact, cuz I’ve done it. Other stuff, when people ask me and I don’t know, I just say “I don’t know”. Like, on jobs, if customers say “Could you do this, or this?” I just say “I don’t do it”. I don’t ever say I can do anything I don’t do or I don’t wanna do. 

So the advice I give, when I’m talkin’ on here, it’s exactly what I’ve gone through in my life. And it may not work for everybody, but somebody will get somethin’ out of it, hopefully. That’s the goal, right, with putting stuff up here, sharing the work online, and tryin’ to inspire people; and showin’ em: look at the video and your skill. 

You know, the proof’s in the pudding of what you do and what you know. You know, I could get these commercial jobs all day long, but do I really want that kind of stress? I’ve seen people do it — but, I wanna be known more for what kind of dad I am around my kids: I try to make a living so that I can be around them at all their events and all their things. And I do really good financially, so I don’t really want to have a big company, and I don’t need to. 

I could go bigger; I could easily be a multimillionaire, getting this stuff and doin’ it, havin’ all these employees and all this stuff. But, what I noticed before was, I had it so big, I really couldn’t tell if I was makin’ money off people or breakin’ even, or what — it got so out-of-hand that it just, I just let it go — and when it blew up, and I did the numbers, I wasn’t. There was so many pit holes and, you know, the dump trucks I had, the too-many employees I had, the too-many insurances I had. But the bill would come in, and I would just send the check and pay it – I didn’t have time to mess with it. 

Then, once the recession hit, I reassessed everything: I got baptized by that. That’s why I’m at the point I am now, the way I speak. And, you know, why be cavalier about business or advising people and young guys and people who wanna do this and go on their own. I would just dream big, and there’s no one who can stop you except yourself. 

Seems like, generally, people are their own worst enemy. That’s been my issue: too critical of myself and, you know, things I do. And, you know, there’s a lot of things: sitting and doin’ other stuff and not goin’ lookin’ at jobs. Or you can get depressed. There’s a lot of, you know, things that go on in life. And the way they got it ramped up now, with all the Covid this, that; the gas prices; the prices of everything: You can get stressed out really easy. Which will play a lot of tricks on your mind. 

Stay focused, you know. You wanna make a lot of money? If that supports you, I would tie it to a church. I’m not preaching, but that’s what I would do. That’s what I do, for me. And it’s just a good model to do. Pay your toll. 

But these jobs suck, to be frank. I can’t stand it – I’ve done so much of this stuff when I was younger, when I first started, I did a lot of it – like 80% of the stuff I was doin’ at one point was commercial, and then one day I woke up and said “I don’t wanna do this again”. You think that you’re a big hit or that you’re makin’ all this money, you have all these employees, all this insurance, but, in reality, the way I’m runnin’ it now, I’m a fat cat financially, the way that I do it. So that’s why I’m telling you: don’t even go after this stuff, unless this is something you wanna do and you’re good with paperwork. 

So I hope you like the advice. And thank you very much for watching The World’s Best Concrete Pumper.