I'm a semi-retired broadcast engineer / electrical contractor, I started out in the mid 70' doing communications wire-work was contracted by Jefferson-Pilot Communications WNWS/WLYF to assist with rebuilding a transmitter site and three on-air studios, one AM and the other two FM, the GM was impressed by my work and asked me if I would consider coming on full time, which I declined to do, that actually worked out better as I needed to be flexible with my time for my other clients, plus the CE wanted me to work on a contractual basis, because that way I could work as needed overnight and weekends, versus an 8/5 M-F.
They paid well, on time and it was a nice group of people to work with.
Then things began changing and not for the better, the parent company Jefferson-Pilot Communications was acquired by Lincoln Financial Media and while they stated we would stay the course, that was a myth, one of the first changes was they wanted me to move from a per job billing basis to monthly billing, which was paid out corporate, versus locally, that changed me from getting paid within a few weeks upon completion, to over sixty days from billing to receiving a check.
Then I was advised I would need to lower my fee to match what they paid other contract engineers in other parts of the country, with no way for me to actually confirm the numbers they where offering.
So we parted ways.
It didn't work too well for them, oh well.
At the time I had just acquired my state electrical contractors license and shifted from broadcasting to commercial electrical work, great work and excellent money, at one time I had nine guys working for me and rather than pay them a straight hourly amount, they where paid by the number of hours a job was estimated to require, this worked well for everyone, they could work a job estimated at 260 hours and if they completed it in 200 they still where paid for 260 hours.
They did quality work, as rework would cost them additional time and I got work done quickly and properly, which equated into getting paid for the work promptly, customers lose faith in a contractor who has lots of excuses and cannot deliver on time, but get the job done inspected and passed ahead of schedule and your first in line for the next job they put out for bid or many times no bidding, just go over the plans and submit an estimate for approval.
And doing commercial work kept us in the loop with broadcasters because in addition to commercial electrical work, we could also do low voltage cabling (IT) and audio wiring.
But sometime in 1984 I became bored and decided to sell the business, I notified my guys of my intentions, four of them banded together pooled some money and offered to buy me out, they had a decent down payment, but not enough for a buyout so I co-signed a note for the rest, the note was to be paid off over five years, they paid it off in three.
I walked away with a nice retirement and they are still in business and doing better than ever.
But retirement wasn't for me so I got another job working for a tier 1 communications company, great work, easy work and a lot of useful training, eventually I retired from them with a pension and a 401k.
And now I am working on developing a consulting and design business specializing in electrical grounding, bonding, SPD systems and lightning protection systems, I was also recently granted FCC statewide private carriers license, which if planned out properly wil be able to provide LMR communications services anywhere in the state which is important for business's where cellular is not avliable.
They paid well, on time and it was a nice group of people to work with.
Then things began changing and not for the better, the parent company Jefferson-Pilot Communications was acquired by Lincoln Financial Media and while they stated we would stay the course, that was a myth, one of the first changes was they wanted me to move from a per job billing basis to monthly billing, which was paid out corporate, versus locally, that changed me from getting paid within a few weeks upon completion, to over sixty days from billing to receiving a check.
Then I was advised I would need to lower my fee to match what they paid other contract engineers in other parts of the country, with no way for me to actually confirm the numbers they where offering.
So we parted ways.
It didn't work too well for them, oh well.
At the time I had just acquired my state electrical contractors license and shifted from broadcasting to commercial electrical work, great work and excellent money, at one time I had nine guys working for me and rather than pay them a straight hourly amount, they where paid by the number of hours a job was estimated to require, this worked well for everyone, they could work a job estimated at 260 hours and if they completed it in 200 they still where paid for 260 hours.
They did quality work, as rework would cost them additional time and I got work done quickly and properly, which equated into getting paid for the work promptly, customers lose faith in a contractor who has lots of excuses and cannot deliver on time, but get the job done inspected and passed ahead of schedule and your first in line for the next job they put out for bid or many times no bidding, just go over the plans and submit an estimate for approval.
And doing commercial work kept us in the loop with broadcasters because in addition to commercial electrical work, we could also do low voltage cabling (IT) and audio wiring.
But sometime in 1984 I became bored and decided to sell the business, I notified my guys of my intentions, four of them banded together pooled some money and offered to buy me out, they had a decent down payment, but not enough for a buyout so I co-signed a note for the rest, the note was to be paid off over five years, they paid it off in three.
I walked away with a nice retirement and they are still in business and doing better than ever.
But retirement wasn't for me so I got another job working for a tier 1 communications company, great work, easy work and a lot of useful training, eventually I retired from them with a pension and a 401k.
And now I am working on developing a consulting and design business specializing in electrical grounding, bonding, SPD systems and lightning protection systems, I was also recently granted FCC statewide private carriers license, which if planned out properly wil be able to provide LMR communications services anywhere in the state which is important for business's where cellular is not avliable.