Story of my business, starting from the trunk of my car

Aliate · 2017-06-16T02:33:38.000Z

So Ive always been a member of this forum and lurk around from time to time. A lot of people on here might want to start a business, especially in excavation but they might believe that the barrier to entry ($$$) is too high. Ive been meaning to share my story but Ive wanted to wait until I hit a good milestone to start. In later posts I will go into more details about my progression with more pictures. I worked for a large excavating company, about 300 employees for about a year, while living in seattle. I have be around some form of utility and excavating work my whole life, but did not have much hands on experience, aside from a natural ability for operating, and learning very quickly from my mistakes, which were many. I wanted to start a business because after my first child, I no longer wanted to work for someone else into the 7 to 8pm days while my wife was waiting for me at home, while being lucky to take home $1,000 in a week. If I was going to be working late, Id do it for myself and make the money accordingly. I grew tired of people telling me to stay off equipment if I didnt know what I was doing. Which was true, I really didnt have a clue while I was learning. So off I went, put in my two weeks notice, had about $5,000 saved up, a plate compactor and demo saw I bought used off of craigslist and my ford fusion that I would need to take the car seat out of so I could go do a job. I go a phone from sprint that had unlimited minutes for about $35/month with their framily plan, a PO box to use as my mailing address and a registered agent to use as a physical address, which to this day I still use. I do not like to associate my home address with the biz. And I was off!! I had recently moved to Seattle a few years back so I knew basically no one, the only thing I knew from a previous business when I was younger was that property management companies had tons of small jobs, like concrete sidewalk panels, that would be perfect for me. So I started cold calling, 4,000mins a month, local property management companies, and kept track of who I called and how often I would call them back to hound them more. The first year was rough, I did $19k gross. Terrible. Anytime I got a job, I would either use my car, or go to U haul and rent a pick up truck to get done what I needed. I learned to fit a 8' form in my car and actually got quite a bit done that way. After property management companies picked up in the second year, I moved into digging in utilities for comcast, doing house burials. I saved money from that, which was a huge battle by itself, and started purchasing equipment. We now do commercial foundation backfills, excavating and utilities. We do very little residential work. As time goes on I will add to this thread, I hope some use it as motivation/inspiration to get started on their own. If you have the determination, nothing is impossible and this thread will be proof of that. This was taken in 2014, somewhere around June And this was just a few weeks ago (2017)

Started by AliateJun 16, 201741 replies

AliateJunior MemberJul 4, 2017#21
Dozerboy said: Congrats man that's quite an accomplishment in 3 years. Good luck in the future. I find the reasons for you starting your own business interesting. Since I didn't take over my father's business for those exact reasons just a different point of view. When I was off work I wanted to be off work. Not worrying about vendors, jobs, employees, and etc. Your story reminds me of one of my old employers. He started out just like you pretty much. He would remove concrete slabs by digging a hole underneath the edge. Using an old mechanical jack he bought from the railroad so he could lift it to break it easier with a sledgehammer. Then he would hand loaded all the broken concrete in it in the 1970s ear F150 that he converted into a dump bed. Click to expand... I wished I had a dump bed, I was breaking them out with a sledge hammer and loading them into a U haul truck. Hand unload at the dump! CM1995 said: Congrats on the company you've built. I too have followed the old threads on HEF and your company FB page and enjoyed watching the progress. Hard work and determination still gets results. Just a question about the commercial backfill jobs. Here the initial site contractor usually takes all foundation backfill, I do in my contracts. Just curious as to why the GC's break out the foundation backfill in your work area. Click to expand... Another contractor did the sitework on that one then passed on the foundations, some projects go that way, other times the sitework contractor will deliver the finished product. I would imagine because the foundation work is usually very time consuming being that there is so much sidewalk grading and small work, weve been on this job since november just doing backfills and grading.
WasteproNew MemberJul 4, 2017#22
Nice work Aliate. When people work hard, good things can follow. Couldn't agree more with Junkyard on this one --- I didn't document the startup of my business because I would rather not remember the 4AM to 11pm work days. First truck I bought for my business 1982 Toyota long bed with 22R. Still got er, and runs better then ever. I'm and always amazing at people complaining about not being able to find work, If only they would work at finding a job! Good Luck Aliate.
murphy777New MemberJan 16, 2019#23
Wastepro said: Nice work Aliate. When people work hard, good things can follow. Couldn't agree more with Junkyard on this one --- I didn't document the startup of my business because I would rather not remember the 4AM to 11pm work days. First truck I bought for my business 1982 Toyota long bed with 22R. Still got er, and runs better then ever. I'm and always amazing at people complaining about not being able to find work, If only they would work at finding a job! Good Luck Aliate. Click to expand... I love to hear other peoples start up stories....great stuff! my first "work Truck" was a ford focus with a roof rack.....Haha! Second work truck was an 88 f350 dump, with so many holes every where your feet would get wet if you drove through a puddle....
TVAJunior MemberJan 16, 2019#24
Very good story! The only problem is whiners cryers and lazy complainers is not on this forum! This would be story for them! I still catching a lot of flack about my 1997 F450 as being too old and that I wasted money and should have bought newer truck! Well, I bought it because it has 7.3 in it and 6000# crane instead of 2000#! And I can fix it myself! After reading this thread - I understood that I actually started out pretty good! Compare to OP and lots of other people who had to start out like that. And people who criticize me for buying old truck - can kiss my ass every time they sign the payment check for their trucks!
murphy777New MemberJan 16, 2019#25
TVA- well put! Ive also have 97 f350 with the 7.3 and a dump....I love it... Let it be known I also have a 2016 f350 6.7 Love the power windows, hate the payment!
TVAJunior MemberJan 16, 2019#26
murphy777 said: TVA- well put! Ive also have 97 f350 with the 7.3 and a dump....I love it... Let it be known I also have a 2016 f350 6.7 Love the power windows, hate the payment! Click to expand... The mirror heaters and power window, at least on passenger door is what I lack!
Birken VogtSenior MemberJan 16, 2019#27
TVA said: The mirror heaters and power window, at least on passenger door is what I lack! Click to expand... Think about how much it would cost to have that option. Think about how much [little] time you lose wiping it with a rag vs. how much time it would take you to earn the money to pay for that option, that is what I do.
AliateJunior MemberJan 26, 2024#28
2024 update : Crazy to look back at this thread. So I’m still at it and we’ve grown a lot. We own about 10 excavators now, 2 dozers, 2 loaders, dump truck etc. We’ve gotten into design built work and went union. Also purchased 5 acres of industrial zoned property for our yard and office. We bought a new D71pxi and HM300 as a package deal for a job we’re about to start.
AliateJunior MemberJan 26, 2024#29
Some more pics. Just wrapping up this hospital we’ve been working on for 3 years. Edit - seems like it’s hard to upload pics but maybe I’ll try when I get to the computer.
skyking1Super UserJan 26, 2024#30
congrats to you on your success and for going Union, brother. (Local 612 in Tacoma).
CM1995ExpertJan 26, 2024#31
Fantastic man! You have worked your arse off over the years and it shows. Keep up the good work and keep us posted.
AliateJunior MemberJan 27, 2024#32
skyking1 said: congrats to you on your success and for going Union, brother. (Local 612 in Tacoma). Click to expand... That’s funny, we’re 302 and 612. Next big job is in Lakewood.
AliateJunior MemberJan 27, 2024#33
CM1995 said: Fantastic man! You have worked your arse off over the years and it shows. Keep up the good work and keep us posted. Click to expand... Thanks I appreciate it. We demoed the D71 against a cat D6 btw. You should try out some of the new komatsu dozers!
skyking1Super UserJan 27, 2024#34
They balance nice, the visibility is better.
AliateJunior MemberJan 27, 2024#35
skyking1 said: They balance nice, the visibility is better. Click to expand... Way more power and $100k cheaper
skyking1Super UserJan 27, 2024#36
Yikes 100K?
CM1995ExpertJan 27, 2024#37
Aliate said: Way more power and $100k cheaper Click to expand... Yep that's a decision maker. Bought a D6R XW new back in 2007 and it was right at $300K. What are they going for now - $600-650K? Our D3 has appreciated in value since we bought it back in 2021. Never in my 20 years of owing yellow scrap iron has that happened. Crazy times.
AliateJunior MemberJan 28, 2024#38
CM1995 said: Yep that's a decision maker. Bought a D6R XW new back in 2007 and it was right at $300K. What are they going for now - $600-650K? Our D3 has appreciated in value since we bought it back in 2021. Never in my 20 years of owing yellow scrap iron has that happened. Crazy times. Click to expand... The D6 with GPS was about 695k. A D6 is not even a true comparison to a 71, with the 71 slightly larger. 71 with GPS was right around 600k brand new. Our best dozer hand and myself ran both machines all day, the 6 was a really nice machine but the 71 just felt like something that was 5 years ahead. Way more pushing power, better control, amazing visibility. You can see the top of the blade from where you sit. The 6 XE stacks up better to the 71 with what is basically a hydrostatic drive but I’m sure that’s even more expensive. They didn’t have one we could try out. Just the standard 6 non LGP. We buy all cats but they’ve gotten out of control with their pricing. I told them flat out too. The 71 is hands down a better dozer than the 6 and someone who says otherwise hasn’t ran both.
CM1995ExpertJan 28, 2024#39
Man you gotta move a lot of dirt for $600K. I could get 2 - D3's with GPS and have some change left over but then you would have to find another but to put in the seat.
AliateJunior MemberJan 28, 2024#40
CM1995 said: Man you gotta move a lot of dirt for $600K. I could get 2 - D3's with GPS and have some change left over but then you would have to find another but to put in the seat. Click to expand... We pushed out a few thousand yards of dirt in a day with those two machines. Two D3s couldn’t even keep up with the 71. I have a D3 also, it’s a great machine. Around here though you can’t always take an extra few days to get the dirt moved, you gotta beat the rain. An operator also costs about $95/hr.

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