The work on the other side

What a commercial general building license opens up, and what it is worth.

What commercial contractors earnThe Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wages for construction managers, which describes employed staff rather than business owners. An owner's incom…
What the license opens upA commercial general building license permits bidding commercial projects, often including public work, and the NASCLA exam extends that across sevent…
From tradesman to licensed contractorTrade experience covers the trade categories on the exam and a fraction of running a business. The gap is contracts, estimating, bonding, financial ma…
Bidding your first commercial jobA commercial bid is a response to a defined set of documents under defined terms. Pricing is one part; reading the instructions to bidders, the genera…
Starting a commercial contracting businessBeyond the license you need an entity, insurance, a bonding relationship, working capital sufficient for the gap between doing work and being paid, an…
Building a bonding relationshipSureties assess capital, capacity and character. Bondability is built over time with clean financial statements, completed projects of increasing size…
Working across state linesA NASCLA transcript removes the examination barrier in participating states. Each state still requires its own license, bond, business registration an…
Is the NASCLA exam worth it?It is clearly worth it for a contractor licensing in more than one participating state, since one exam replaces several. For somebody who will only ev…
Qualifying for someone elseA qualifying party lends their qualification to a company and takes on responsibility for its licensed work. States expect genuine involvement, and ar…
Residential to commercialThe technical work translates. Contract administration, payment cycles, bonding capacity and documentation do not, and each of those is a reason a com…
Public works and prevailing wagePublicly funded construction typically requires paying prevailing wage rates set by a wage determination and submitting certified payroll records. Bot…
Hiring your first project managerA project manager takes the contract administration off the person running the work. The trigger is usually not job size but the volume of documentati…
What the license does not coverA license authorizes a defined scope in one state. It does not substitute for permits, insurance, bonding, trade licenses held by others, or complianc…
Insurance costs for a new contractorPremiums are driven by payroll, revenue, trade classification, claims history and limits. A new company pays more because it has no history, and the f…