All in or different direction
Discussion
First time I’ve ever used a site like this but I kind of need some outside perspective, rather than from my inner circle as sometimes they’ll tell me what I want to hear rather than the truth.
To give you a brief back ground of myself.
I own a successful building company, we do small to large renovations, loft conversions and extensions, booked up for the foreseeable future which I’m fortunate for.
I’ve done this since I was 16 if not younger because my dad had a trade but not a building company. I’m now almost 32 and have had my business for 5-6 years.
In the last 4 years we’ve done two of our own self development projects. 2 bed flat renovation and more recently a 4 bed bungalow, which we stuck another whole floor on which turned out to put my family in a great position because the amount of profit and risk. We will probably have about 400k plus some savings to move forward and going into another project or different business. Please note the equity is in our house.
So why am I here?
More recently running my building company has quite frankly been getting on my nerves.. sometimes I feel like more of a therapist than I do a contractor. I don’t feel like the guys who for me really appreciate the hours that goes into running everything. They’re all quite happy to do the last amount possible and rob me blind. Of course there are a few exceptions! When they’re good is great but when it’s bad it seems to being extremely challenging.
I just want to know and whether this is the place or not but as a young ambitious man with a family who wants the best not only for himself financially but also to provide the best for his family is developing the way to go. Or has someone here got experience and the construction industry is just an absolute nightmare. I’m at a point in my life now where I’ve got options and I don’t really know what I want and where to go?
Do I go all in with construction and stick more to developing and out source everything?
Do I start a new venture entirely?
Thankyou for reading and I appreciate any advice or criticism. I understand that potentially everything im writing may come across as I’m bragging? Or I’m being ungrateful because of other people’s situations. I just want some perspective or someone who has experience, in the industry or has done extremely well financially to give me their two pence.
To give you a brief back ground of myself.
I own a successful building company, we do small to large renovations, loft conversions and extensions, booked up for the foreseeable future which I’m fortunate for.
I’ve done this since I was 16 if not younger because my dad had a trade but not a building company. I’m now almost 32 and have had my business for 5-6 years.
In the last 4 years we’ve done two of our own self development projects. 2 bed flat renovation and more recently a 4 bed bungalow, which we stuck another whole floor on which turned out to put my family in a great position because the amount of profit and risk. We will probably have about 400k plus some savings to move forward and going into another project or different business. Please note the equity is in our house.
So why am I here?
More recently running my building company has quite frankly been getting on my nerves.. sometimes I feel like more of a therapist than I do a contractor. I don’t feel like the guys who for me really appreciate the hours that goes into running everything. They’re all quite happy to do the last amount possible and rob me blind. Of course there are a few exceptions! When they’re good is great but when it’s bad it seems to being extremely challenging.
I just want to know and whether this is the place or not but as a young ambitious man with a family who wants the best not only for himself financially but also to provide the best for his family is developing the way to go. Or has someone here got experience and the construction industry is just an absolute nightmare. I’m at a point in my life now where I’ve got options and I don’t really know what I want and where to go?
Do I go all in with construction and stick more to developing and out source everything?
Do I start a new venture entirely?
Thankyou for reading and I appreciate any advice or criticism. I understand that potentially everything im writing may come across as I’m bragging? Or I’m being ungrateful because of other people’s situations. I just want some perspective or someone who has experience, in the industry or has done extremely well financially to give me their two pence.
I've mentioned on here before, I think in the finance section, but I've been involved financially backing a number of JV construction projects and stand alone developments in the last 20 years.
Some have gone really well, both financially and smoothly, others very, very badly, with a couple of companies being liquidated and lots of personal issues, I feel your pain!
Currently we're in a 12-24 month project that has turned into a 8 year battle with the local council, due to the building being built 50cm too high.
We've been issued a demolition order and have appealed against that. A public enquiry is sheduled for the end of September, The hearing itself having been delayed twice and now 2 years behind the original sheduled date (the UK courts system hasn't recovered from Covid delays)
I'm in my early 50's now and this will be my last project, can't deal with the stress and the financial upside isn't as attractive as it was in my 30's.
So for you, you've realised nice and early it may not be for you. But, I would say, the grass isn't always greener elsewhere!
What are you thinking of doing instead? That's the big question
HairyFootedMan said:
First time I’ve ever used a site like this but I kind of need some outside perspective, rather than from my inner circle as sometimes they’ll tell me what I want to hear rather than the truth.
To give you a brief back ground of myself.
I own a successful building company, we do small to large renovations, loft conversions and extensions, booked up for the foreseeable future which I’m fortunate for.
I’ve done this since I was 16 if not younger because my dad had a trade but not a building company. I’m now almost 32 and have had my business for 5-6 years.
In the last 4 years we’ve done two of our own self development projects. 2 bed flat renovation and more recently a 4 bed bungalow, which we stuck another whole floor on which turned out to put my family in a great position because the amount of profit and risk. We will probably have about 400k plus some savings to move forward and going into another project or different business. Please note the equity is in our house.
So why am I here?
More recently running my building company has quite frankly been getting on my nerves.. sometimes I feel like more of a therapist than I do a contractor. I don’t feel like the guys who for me really appreciate the hours that goes into running everything. They’re all quite happy to do the last amount possible and rob me blind. Of course there are a few exceptions! When they’re good is great but when it’s bad it seems to being extremely challenging.
I just want to know and whether this is the place or not but as a young ambitious man with a family who wants the best not only for himself financially but also to provide the best for his family is developing the way to go. Or has someone here got experience and the construction industry is just an absolute nightmare. I’m at a point in my life now where I’ve got options and I don’t really know what I want and where to go?
Do I go all in with construction and stick more to developing and out source everything?
Do I start a new venture entirely?
Thankyou for reading and I appreciate any advice or criticism. I understand that potentially everything im writing may come across as I’m bragging? Or I’m being ungrateful because of other people’s situations. I just want some perspective or someone who has experience, in the industry or has done extremely well financially to give me their two pence.
Congrats for building a good business (pun unintended)To give you a brief back ground of myself.
I own a successful building company, we do small to large renovations, loft conversions and extensions, booked up for the foreseeable future which I’m fortunate for.
I’ve done this since I was 16 if not younger because my dad had a trade but not a building company. I’m now almost 32 and have had my business for 5-6 years.
In the last 4 years we’ve done two of our own self development projects. 2 bed flat renovation and more recently a 4 bed bungalow, which we stuck another whole floor on which turned out to put my family in a great position because the amount of profit and risk. We will probably have about 400k plus some savings to move forward and going into another project or different business. Please note the equity is in our house.
So why am I here?
More recently running my building company has quite frankly been getting on my nerves.. sometimes I feel like more of a therapist than I do a contractor. I don’t feel like the guys who for me really appreciate the hours that goes into running everything. They’re all quite happy to do the last amount possible and rob me blind. Of course there are a few exceptions! When they’re good is great but when it’s bad it seems to being extremely challenging.
I just want to know and whether this is the place or not but as a young ambitious man with a family who wants the best not only for himself financially but also to provide the best for his family is developing the way to go. Or has someone here got experience and the construction industry is just an absolute nightmare. I’m at a point in my life now where I’ve got options and I don’t really know what I want and where to go?
Do I go all in with construction and stick more to developing and out source everything?
Do I start a new venture entirely?
Thankyou for reading and I appreciate any advice or criticism. I understand that potentially everything im writing may come across as I’m bragging? Or I’m being ungrateful because of other people’s situations. I just want some perspective or someone who has experience, in the industry or has done extremely well financially to give me their two pence.
What you’re saying regarding your staff is sadly pretty standard. Most staff dont realise or appreciate the work that goes into running a business and there is often jealousy of the financial success of the business owner. Some staff, mainly older ones, realise the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes though and appreciate it more!
Purely speaking from my experience though, so maybe it depends on industry, and the staff in question
So in short you are running a significantly profitable business with a good order book but are considering a complete change of direction largely because your staff don’t appreciate your efforts?
Unless you are certain you can match those earnings in a one-man business you should probably stick with what you are already good at, the grass will be exactly the same colour wherever you go when it comes to staff.
Unless you are certain you can match those earnings in a one-man business you should probably stick with what you are already good at, the grass will be exactly the same colour wherever you go when it comes to staff.
Finding, training, managing and retaining good staff is your main responsibility. It's also the most stressful part if you don't have processes for it, but one of the most rewarding when It all comes together.
However it's a constant churn.
I think the real decision you have to make is whether you want to commit your efforts to the above tasks or not. You should be actively working on recruitment, training, and retainment all the time. Is this something you want to do?
However it's a constant churn.
I think the real decision you have to make is whether you want to commit your efforts to the above tasks or not. You should be actively working on recruitment, training, and retainment all the time. Is this something you want to do?
Just a few thoughts.....
if the main issue is staff attitude/work ethic/etc is that at least in part down to you? Is the staff situation in construction so dire that you have to put up with any old scrote who comes along, or can you chose the staff more wisely? If you've got 15yrs in the trade, don't you have a small number of folk you work with regularly and trust? We've just had a small project completed to convert our garage into a studio. The contractor set 'his' lads going and they worked brilliantly. We chatted quite a bit and the contractor (probably about your age actually) simply only uses reliable subbies he's worked with many times before.
is there a way to better incentivise the staff working on a particular project? I've no idea if it would work on the kind of projects/developments you do, but could you create a small profit share scheme or equity kicker. If staff feel they've got a bit of skin in the game, maybe their approach, work quality, attitude may be a bit better.
the other thing of course is that if what you do was easy, everyone would do it. You're unlikely to come across schemes that pay out like the one you describe without quite a bit of hard work, stress, risk and general hassle. If you try and dial down the stress/hassle side of the equation, that is likely to dial down the profit/reward side too.
if the main issue is staff attitude/work ethic/etc is that at least in part down to you? Is the staff situation in construction so dire that you have to put up with any old scrote who comes along, or can you chose the staff more wisely? If you've got 15yrs in the trade, don't you have a small number of folk you work with regularly and trust? We've just had a small project completed to convert our garage into a studio. The contractor set 'his' lads going and they worked brilliantly. We chatted quite a bit and the contractor (probably about your age actually) simply only uses reliable subbies he's worked with many times before.
is there a way to better incentivise the staff working on a particular project? I've no idea if it would work on the kind of projects/developments you do, but could you create a small profit share scheme or equity kicker. If staff feel they've got a bit of skin in the game, maybe their approach, work quality, attitude may be a bit better.
the other thing of course is that if what you do was easy, everyone would do it. You're unlikely to come across schemes that pay out like the one you describe without quite a bit of hard work, stress, risk and general hassle. If you try and dial down the stress/hassle side of the equation, that is likely to dial down the profit/reward side too.
I would say that this is actually an age thing. If you're good at your job (which you evidently are), you'll have reached the point of becoming 'expert' in it after 15 years - early to mid thirties. The challenge/personal growth has gone and now you only see the s
t so you feel the need for change. It's kind of a mid career crisis for want of a better way of explaining it.
It might not be a staff issue (although I get that it is), it could be a you issue. Not sure if looking at it through that lens helps at all?
As others have said, staff are a complete PITA regardless of sector, so you're likely to face similar issues no matter what you do.
On a more practical level (as a developer and someone who's been on the professional side of construction all my career). You need a good number two, a sergeant major. If you're from the tools, you're used to doing the work yourself because that's what you do. That habit is hard to break but now you are running a business. It's a different job/role.
By promoting or bringing in a number two to do the day to day, it'll free you to actually run the business. It'll cost more and you'll make less in the short term but that's (literally) the price you pay for not having to deal with the st. The flip side is that it'll free up more of your time to either win more work and grow or give you some space to try something completely different whilst keeping what you've already built going.
In my experience there are lots of gobby people in construction who talk the talk (and are therefore a PITA because of their jealously as you say), but there are also people who are good at their job but just can't or simply don't want to set up on their own as they like the safety/security of having a job. You need to find a good one of these.
t so you feel the need for change. It's kind of a mid career crisis for want of a better way of explaining it.It might not be a staff issue (although I get that it is), it could be a you issue. Not sure if looking at it through that lens helps at all?
As others have said, staff are a complete PITA regardless of sector, so you're likely to face similar issues no matter what you do.
On a more practical level (as a developer and someone who's been on the professional side of construction all my career). You need a good number two, a sergeant major. If you're from the tools, you're used to doing the work yourself because that's what you do. That habit is hard to break but now you are running a business. It's a different job/role.
By promoting or bringing in a number two to do the day to day, it'll free you to actually run the business. It'll cost more and you'll make less in the short term but that's (literally) the price you pay for not having to deal with the s
t. The flip side is that it'll free up more of your time to either win more work and grow or give you some space to try something completely different whilst keeping what you've already built going.In my experience there are lots of gobby people in construction who talk the talk (and are therefore a PITA because of their jealously as you say), but there are also people who are good at their job but just can't or simply don't want to set up on their own as they like the safety/security of having a job. You need to find a good one of these.
Sorry for the delay in repsonse, the forum hasnt allowed me to reply because im a new account in order to stop any spam accounts.
I'm apreciative of all the feedback and some of has defnitely resonated with me.
Options; or other business ventures.
1. Start a window manufacturing company that allows the consumer to purchase custom made windows mainly business to business rather than clients.
2. start a raffle company. not cars! everyone is doing that! But is it fad, quick money earning scheme that will die off soon?
3.Entirely different business, would require somewhat some brain storming.
Alot of have hit the nail on the head to be honest, i obviously started out on the tools have slowly made a transition into becoming the boss over the course of 4-5 years, as the projects grew i brought people in as i needed them. We're now a team of 5, 6 including myself. majority of the time everybody gets on, no argueing and theyre all extremely hard working. Just on occassion some of them have mental health issues or bayliffs are at the door, i jsut personally feel sometimes that anybody really good is working for themselves. The having to absolutely everything is killing me and its a very lonely existence.. do any of you feel this way?
"lizardbrain"
So currently i actually have sit down meeting every 6 months, i have 1 appprentice which attends college 1 week a month. Also on occassion i buy tools for some of employees as well as putting certain people on training courses. A labourer, who is getting more handy ive just paid for a plastering course for him.
"ezra"
I agree with the skin in the game its certainly something i defnitely look into, the issue id have is how much skin in the game do you give because i dont get paid for my time as all of our projects are on price work and i get a margin. My business charges 0.37% out of that i aim to recieve 20% and my business gets 17% which pays for fuel, insurance etc etc.
have you got any exp with this?
"Ben5575"
I genuinely feel like youve hit the nail on the head. As i sit here now, i just genuinely feel exhuasted dealing with the ups and downs all by myself. Although the finance gains have been brilliant, the juggling of everything is always none stop, even when i sit with my wife and kids i can never shut off. I love the buzz of getting business and dealing with people and the chase to be honest comes extyremely natural to me, i dont have to force that. I would say im a natural leader.
You're right, letting the control go especially when people make mistakes and it costs me is extremely hard to do. I've tried this as well which gave me a horrible taste about 1.5years ago. I employed a small general builder who was on paper and after the first interview brilliant, great with clients.. his work was clean and he had a vast amount of knowledge.. some would say it was almost to good to be true..and boy was i wrong. he cost me almost 18-20k last year out of my own pocket in damages.. which more of less all came at once.
The cracks started to show when we started a reonvation project for a high profile client. He slowly start dicating his own hours, which forced my other members of the team to follow suit.. i just started to get more and more stressed about it because everytime we spoke about this issue he would say his part but i always left the conversation feeling uneasy.
Things got worse.. towards the end of the job, we started to clean the job up and handover and at face value the project was great, clients were happy and paid too. But the builder or bob we'll call him admitted the sparky that he cleaned out the tiles before they were grouted with a chisel?! in the process he damaged the underfloor heating.. needless to say, the sparky being a very close friend of mine and i spent hours trying to figure out where it was damaged, we chased it back as far as we could but unfortunately the entire groundfloor has be torn up and relaid. marble tiles.. from here it just got worse, i took it on the chin and the job done by another professional to avoid upsetting anyone and took it as a learning curve.
Between the next job the guys were doing some work at my house in the garden. Bob had his daughters birthday on the friday and asked me whether he could take the rest of the day, obviously my garden work wasnt pressing so i said of course..
The following day i was walking around marks and spencers and i get a random phone call from a women moaning about bob, saying he's ruined her daughter life. What i later found out was that he fell out with his partner and took his personal audi 4x4 on a drink drive joy ride. He hit 3 vehicles on dual carriage way and instead of stopping ran from the scene.
People obviously called the police, luckily no one was hurt.. he some how managed to get it back to his house and abandaoned the car in the middle of the road, it was on its alloys may i add...
he then proceeded to jump in my van and drive that around! and hit another 4 vehicles.. he wrote my vehicle off completely, my transporter van and first van. I was gutted. the insurance company because of the drink driving i got nothing but the scrap value of van.
I do completely agree with you, i want to progress i just think ive had some big knocks in my early years and although my wife says i always bounce back, i just feel frustrated sometimes espeically when i see other businesses of people i know never have issues such as this.
Bob doesnt work for me anymore haha
My question to you is, where do i find my sergeant major, because honestly for the right man. I would treat him like royalty.
Thanks,
Hairyfootedman
I'm apreciative of all the feedback and some of has defnitely resonated with me.
Options; or other business ventures.
1. Start a window manufacturing company that allows the consumer to purchase custom made windows mainly business to business rather than clients.
2. start a raffle company. not cars! everyone is doing that! But is it fad, quick money earning scheme that will die off soon?
3.Entirely different business, would require somewhat some brain storming.
Alot of have hit the nail on the head to be honest, i obviously started out on the tools have slowly made a transition into becoming the boss over the course of 4-5 years, as the projects grew i brought people in as i needed them. We're now a team of 5, 6 including myself. majority of the time everybody gets on, no argueing and theyre all extremely hard working. Just on occassion some of them have mental health issues or bayliffs are at the door, i jsut personally feel sometimes that anybody really good is working for themselves. The having to absolutely everything is killing me and its a very lonely existence.. do any of you feel this way?
"lizardbrain"
So currently i actually have sit down meeting every 6 months, i have 1 appprentice which attends college 1 week a month. Also on occassion i buy tools for some of employees as well as putting certain people on training courses. A labourer, who is getting more handy ive just paid for a plastering course for him.
"ezra"
I agree with the skin in the game its certainly something i defnitely look into, the issue id have is how much skin in the game do you give because i dont get paid for my time as all of our projects are on price work and i get a margin. My business charges 0.37% out of that i aim to recieve 20% and my business gets 17% which pays for fuel, insurance etc etc.
have you got any exp with this?
"Ben5575"
I genuinely feel like youve hit the nail on the head. As i sit here now, i just genuinely feel exhuasted dealing with the ups and downs all by myself. Although the finance gains have been brilliant, the juggling of everything is always none stop, even when i sit with my wife and kids i can never shut off. I love the buzz of getting business and dealing with people and the chase to be honest comes extyremely natural to me, i dont have to force that. I would say im a natural leader.
You're right, letting the control go especially when people make mistakes and it costs me is extremely hard to do. I've tried this as well which gave me a horrible taste about 1.5years ago. I employed a small general builder who was on paper and after the first interview brilliant, great with clients.. his work was clean and he had a vast amount of knowledge.. some would say it was almost to good to be true..and boy was i wrong. he cost me almost 18-20k last year out of my own pocket in damages.. which more of less all came at once.
The cracks started to show when we started a reonvation project for a high profile client. He slowly start dicating his own hours, which forced my other members of the team to follow suit.. i just started to get more and more stressed about it because everytime we spoke about this issue he would say his part but i always left the conversation feeling uneasy.
Things got worse.. towards the end of the job, we started to clean the job up and handover and at face value the project was great, clients were happy and paid too. But the builder or bob we'll call him admitted the sparky that he cleaned out the tiles before they were grouted with a chisel?! in the process he damaged the underfloor heating.. needless to say, the sparky being a very close friend of mine and i spent hours trying to figure out where it was damaged, we chased it back as far as we could but unfortunately the entire groundfloor has be torn up and relaid. marble tiles.. from here it just got worse, i took it on the chin and the job done by another professional to avoid upsetting anyone and took it as a learning curve.
Between the next job the guys were doing some work at my house in the garden. Bob had his daughters birthday on the friday and asked me whether he could take the rest of the day, obviously my garden work wasnt pressing so i said of course..
The following day i was walking around marks and spencers and i get a random phone call from a women moaning about bob, saying he's ruined her daughter life. What i later found out was that he fell out with his partner and took his personal audi 4x4 on a drink drive joy ride. He hit 3 vehicles on dual carriage way and instead of stopping ran from the scene.
People obviously called the police, luckily no one was hurt.. he some how managed to get it back to his house and abandaoned the car in the middle of the road, it was on its alloys may i add...
he then proceeded to jump in my van and drive that around! and hit another 4 vehicles.. he wrote my vehicle off completely, my transporter van and first van. I was gutted. the insurance company because of the drink driving i got nothing but the scrap value of van.
I do completely agree with you, i want to progress i just think ive had some big knocks in my early years and although my wife says i always bounce back, i just feel frustrated sometimes espeically when i see other businesses of people i know never have issues such as this.
Bob doesnt work for me anymore haha
My question to you is, where do i find my sergeant major, because honestly for the right man. I would treat him like royalty.
Thanks,
Hairyfootedman
Edited by HairyFootedMan on Monday 5th August 16:39
HairyFootedMan said:
My question to you is, where do i find my sergeant major, because honestly for the right man. I would treat him like royalty.
The million dollar question. Unfortunately it's trial and error as you're finding out. It's usually an old timer, who's been around the block, doesn't have the character to do it on his own, just wants his money and enjoy coming to work but can't/won't do the manual stuff anymore as he's getting on. You're not necessarily paying him to build a wall (although you are and he'll build it for you slowly), you're paying him to be on site and manage the lads, be good with the Clients and make sure the work's done on time and to standard. For him, after a life on the tools, this is easy street to retirement. For you it's manna from heaven.
It's easy to make the mistake of hiring people like yourself, we've all done it. You need complementary skills (and/or different stages of a career) to balance it all out.
Good luck. As has been pointed out, if it was easy, we'd all be doing it!
After listening to some of your advice and really doubling down. I started approaching some investors. I’ve found 2 who are keen to work with me and my team.
The most experienced out of the two who is happy to work with me. His budget is around 700k. He’d be acting as more of a silent partner, he’ll help me with finding the deal and the design. But after that it’ll most probably me project managing, taking it through start to finish.
In your opinions, what do you think it fair split? He’s currently living in Palma, semi retired. From how he talks I already get the impression that he wants as little involvement as possible. I don’t want to insult the man as if this first project is successful then it may lead on to more engagements.
My team and I will be doing all of the construction work.
I was thinking of renovating 1-2 homes at a time and flipping them he’d rather by a block of flats and open them up. To increase of the value of the apartments as they will be bigger/more appealing. By doing the homes you’d be looking at clean business profit of 42% if we find the right deals. Locally to the southwest you can quite easily stick within the parameters of permitted development and add 100k/250k+ with ease. Which would allow both us to build up our pots to scale.
His method could mean a lot more planning involved, it would totally depend on the project of course as where where we’re based you can buy 12 box room apartments for 500k run down. We’d knock them all through and drive the price up because of the obvious. You’d look to sell each one for 180k.
Let me know your thoughts
The most experienced out of the two who is happy to work with me. His budget is around 700k. He’d be acting as more of a silent partner, he’ll help me with finding the deal and the design. But after that it’ll most probably me project managing, taking it through start to finish.
In your opinions, what do you think it fair split? He’s currently living in Palma, semi retired. From how he talks I already get the impression that he wants as little involvement as possible. I don’t want to insult the man as if this first project is successful then it may lead on to more engagements.
My team and I will be doing all of the construction work.
I was thinking of renovating 1-2 homes at a time and flipping them he’d rather by a block of flats and open them up. To increase of the value of the apartments as they will be bigger/more appealing. By doing the homes you’d be looking at clean business profit of 42% if we find the right deals. Locally to the southwest you can quite easily stick within the parameters of permitted development and add 100k/250k+ with ease. Which would allow both us to build up our pots to scale.
His method could mean a lot more planning involved, it would totally depend on the project of course as where where we’re based you can buy 12 box room apartments for 500k run down. We’d knock them all through and drive the price up because of the obvious. You’d look to sell each one for 180k.
Let me know your thoughts
Edited by HairyFootedMan on Sunday 11th August 10:17
I've done exactly this, as the finance side.
IMHO you'd set up a new LTD company with you both as directors, he'll take 1st charge on the land/property as security.
You'll need a shareholders agreement that covers you both, you MUST get paid professional advice on this.
I've done it on a 50/50 split which I feel is fair, but everything is negotiable. I've also taken a slightly lower split but interest on the loan.
Personally I'd avoid anything without planning, especially at the start of a new business. Planning = unknown timescales
If I did it again, I'd always want 3 people with an equal split share and voting rights.
This has been the best, as you always have a majority vote, no stalemate on any conflicts that arise / decisions that have to be made.
You mention 2 possible investors, so that could work well.
IMHO you'd set up a new LTD company with you both as directors, he'll take 1st charge on the land/property as security.
You'll need a shareholders agreement that covers you both, you MUST get paid professional advice on this.
I've done it on a 50/50 split which I feel is fair, but everything is negotiable. I've also taken a slightly lower split but interest on the loan.
Personally I'd avoid anything without planning, especially at the start of a new business. Planning = unknown timescales
If I did it again, I'd always want 3 people with an equal split share and voting rights.
This has been the best, as you always have a majority vote, no stalemate on any conflicts that arise / decisions that have to be made.
You mention 2 possible investors, so that could work well.
Edited by PoorCarCollector on Sunday 11th August 14:45
Fortunately my wife before becoming number 1 mum. Was a solicitor, which as you can imagine is a real asset in these areas!
We’re yet to sit down properly but I know off the batt he’s said 70/30 and he isn’t charging my interest on the loan. I’d be happy with 60/40 to start but on the next one I’d argue 50/50. A percent of something is better than nothing.
Like you said three investors might be worth looking at I can see from what you were saying and why.
I’m going to get a business plan drawn up over the next couple weeks and get it over to him. He hasn’t asked for one yet but I figured I’d persuade my case, in the short term I feel like it’s the way to go.
Here’s a question, long term. How have you found working with a builder who hasn’t got skin in the game and is just being paid to do the job? Do you still feel as an investor you still make enough money for the amount of risk involved. Because moving forward if I was earning enough I’d probably outsource the construction part and just oversee it all.
We’re yet to sit down properly but I know off the batt he’s said 70/30 and he isn’t charging my interest on the loan. I’d be happy with 60/40 to start but on the next one I’d argue 50/50. A percent of something is better than nothing.
Like you said three investors might be worth looking at I can see from what you were saying and why.
I’m going to get a business plan drawn up over the next couple weeks and get it over to him. He hasn’t asked for one yet but I figured I’d persuade my case, in the short term I feel like it’s the way to go.
Here’s a question, long term. How have you found working with a builder who hasn’t got skin in the game and is just being paid to do the job? Do you still feel as an investor you still make enough money for the amount of risk involved. Because moving forward if I was earning enough I’d probably outsource the construction part and just oversee it all.
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