Masonry Magazine June 2005 Page. 56
News
The event was held in conjunction with the SkillsUSA Georgia Construction Competition, where more than 100 of the state's top high school students took part in trade competitions. The winners of these contests go on to the National SkillsUSA Competition in Kansas City, June 23-24.
For information about CEFGA, call (770) 685-1332 or visit www.cefga.org.
Kansas City
SkillsUSA returns to Kansas City June 20-24 for the 40th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC), a showcase of career and technical education students.
More than 12,500 people - including students, teachers and business partners - are expected to participate in the week-long event.
The SkillsUSA Championships will be held on Thursday, June 23 in H. Roe Bartle Hall and Municipal Auditorium. More than 4,000 outstanding career and technical education students - all state contest winners - will compete hands-on in 77 different trade, technical and leadership fields.
Students work against the clock and each other, proving their expertise in occupations like masonry, electronics, computer-aided drafting, precision machining, medical assisting, culinary arts and more.
Contests are run with the help of industry, trade associations and labor organizations, and test competencies are set by industry.
The competitions will be open to the public and free of charge. For more information, visit www.skillsusa.org.
Massachusetts
Reported by The Salem News, "Mello wins 43rd annual Student Athlete Award." April 8, 2005:
...[Kynan] Mello was announced as the 43 annual [Student-Athlete] winner last night at a banquet held at the Hawthorne Hotel. He beat out an impressive group of 12 other student-athletes from local high schools to become the first North Shore Tech student to win the prestigious award...
Mello is the North Shore Tech valedictorian for the Class of 2005. He has a 4.13 GPA, is a member of the National Honor Society and won the Superintendents Award for 2004-2005. He also won the North Shore Student Masonry Award, the Massachusetts Trowel Trade and the North Shore Tech Leadership Award.
He was captain of the football, basketball and baseball teams as a senior and led the Bulldogs football team to the Division 3A Super Bowl last season. He was the Commonwealth Conference MVP as a senior and a league all-star for three consecutive seasons. He was also a two-time league all-star in basketball and a baseball all-star as a junior...
News continued on page 52
Pricing Your Work
# MASONRY NEWS CONTRACTOR TIP
Who is pricing your work, you or someone else? Sound like a strange question? Think about it. Are general contractors and owners dictating to you what the going price is in your area? And if so, do you do their work for that lower price even if you know you can't be profitable? No one knows more about what it costs to get a job done than you do. You are the expert in the masonry field; the general contractor isn't. So, how does he or she know what you should be charging? The truth is, the general contractor doesn't.
Let's say you bid $60,000 on a masonry project expecting to earn a net profit of $10,000. The general contractor says that your bid is too high, he or she only put $48,000 in their estimate. Should you do the project for that amount? Absolutely not! As a mason contractor, what makes us think that a general contractor knows more than we do about what it costs our company to do the work? Again, the truth is they don't, and if we take the job at the lower price, we will lose money. So, although it's hard to turn down work, tell the general contractor, "Sorry, but we can't do it for that price."
Now it is about to really get interesting. You've probably been in this situation, too. The general contractor wants to know what you are charging for labor per block laid. You say $4.00 per block. The general contractor says, "That is way too high. The going price is only $2.75 in your area." How are you going to find out what the going price really is in your area?
I attended a seminar at the World of Masonry where Charles Vander Kooi shed some light on this subject. Charles said 70% of mason contractors go out of business in the first three years, and only 15% make it to the 10th year of business. So, what's the going price in your area? It is what the contractors who are going out of business are charging. With that being the case, do you want to work for the going price? I don't. The key to survival is to know what it costs to do the work so you can make sure you cover your cost plus get a fair profit out of the work.
As a mason contractor, I recommend that you do production studies on your own employees to find out what it costs your company to get the work done. Then, based on the results of your studies combined with what your overhead costs are, price your own work. And by the way, don't forget to put a little profit in there for yourself. That is why you are in business to start with. Then, the next time the general contractor calls and says your bid is higher than what the going price is in your area, say, "Thank goodness!" It is a good sign that you are probably not one of those contractors pricing yourself right out of business.
Provided by Damian Lang, President of Lang Masonry Contractors, Inc. and EZ Grout Corp.
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