Garage Door Company...Any Associations?

[Heineken77]

Hello,

I have opened my own garage door company, and I'm wondering if anyone could offer me some advice on increasing business. I'm in Toronto, ON Canada, and would really appreciate it if some of you could take a moment and give me some advice.

At the moment, I'm focusing soley on the residential market. I'm interested in gathering property management accounts who own and manage townhouse complexes in order to do their service and installations. I would also be interested in doing work for new developments, installing new doors.

I'm considering joining an association, however I don't know what the best association would be in order to expand my clientele, especially in terms of the property management firms that manage townhouse complexes etc.

At the moment, the two associations I've found are:

(Toronto Home Builder's Association) and (Toronto Construction Association).

Even after reading through the available information, I'd still like to hear from some who are either in my position, or who have been part of an association themselves, and can offer me some insight on their experience, and how much it actually helped their business flow to justify the cost of membership.

I'd really enjoy reading any input any of you folks can offer on this, or any other advice you would be willing to offer.

Thank you very much for your time! Arjay

[MUADIB®]

In the area I live, there are many "Big Name" builders that often take bids on common installations per home or apartment construction, and will use the best priced offer. Some will not accept "new" bidders as they are used to using and dealing with a company that gives them more than average time to pay for the work or something of that nature.

I think you have a good idea for start. However, I'd suggest you start hounding some of the local builders inthe area, and see if you can get a foot in the door with some very busy builder, by offering to fill in in a pinch for the same amount as another company or maybe a bit cheaper till they get a chance to see the quality of the work and product you are offering. Build from there.

I suppose you have the money for some stock to set aside for sometimes as long as 180 days to pay???? Some are that bad. Some are not. But you WILL have to foot the bill for a time for them anyway............nature of the business in my area.

Like I said. your original Ideas are great. If you can make it doing just residential service and new installations on older homes, I'd say stick with that till you have more work than you can handle and move up from there.

Good luck!.............I wish I were doing something similar. (starting my own business anyway)

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MUADIB®

one small step for man,..... One giant leap for attorneys.

[Chris Carruth]

You may want to directly contact the area's largest builders versus going through the trade industry. Local planning and inspection departmetns keep tabs of builders and can tell you who is stable, who is building like you know what, and who is fading. They cannot endorse or recommend, but they have the raw numbers from which you can figure it out.

[Rich]

Most reputable builders will sub-contract their work to reputable installers. If they hire some "unknown" it is usually because they are handing off a job to a low bidder. In which case they're more concerned about the price rather then the quality of the workmanship (their business is probably failing). This leaves much to be desired of the builder. In this scenario chances are you are not going to get paid on time if you get paid at all. A good builder would sub an experienced installer with references.

The money is not in installations but in the repair of garage doors and operators. Think about the profit you would make on an installation job. Consider the time it will take you to go the job site, give an estimate, close the deal, pick up the materials, do the job, get paid. As opposed to a repair job where the majority of the repair parts will/should already be on your truck and the customer is going want the job done right away.

Take out nice sized ads in the telephone directories around your area. It may be a little costly but the returns make it justifiable.

(Toronto Home Builder's Association) and (Toronto Construction Association).