Fluvial
The Ditch Witch
And, by the way, direct all your business to me !!
Eight years ago this month, I started a consulting engineering firm. I ran it out of my house. It was quite a struggle, as I was a single mom with no other source of income. Through a lot of hard work and late hours, I became successful and now my company has a good reputation in the area. I get along well with other engineering firms in the area; I get enough work to make it worthwhile; my work is respected by the regulatory agencies; and I love what I do.
There is another firm in town which does exactly the same kind of work I do. This is a partnership of two gentlemen (let’s call them Moe and Joe) who retired from a government agency about twelve years ago. When I first started out, they would occasionally call on me to subcontract certain projects for them. As time went by, I’ve done more and more subcontracting of their work. I even rented office space next door to them (in the same building) 4 years ago to make it easier for us to do work together. By now about ½ to ⅓ of my business is subcontracted from these guys. They’ve also picked up another subconsultant who comes into the office and works for them on a part-time basis.
A couple of years ago Joe cuts down to working only 3 days a week. This past year he has decided to retire altogether at the end of December. Moe starts saying things like “there’s no need to have two separate companies” (meaning mine and his), and saying he’d like to cut down to working only 3 days a week. More recently, Moe has been emphasising that we subconsultants need to be sure to help him continue the business next year. We have some casual “what-if” conversations about ways to do that.
Finally, about the beginning of this month, he mentions (a couple of times) that the three of us could set up a 3-way partnership. Moe wants all of my future work to come into the partnership company (rather than through mine). I’m interested, and so is the other subconsultant. We start talking about moving the office location, and looking at office space. The other sub and I start talking about ways to structure the partnership, and ways to divvy up the project management tasks. We also talk about streamlining the business and modernizing the way they do business. I’m getting jazzed up about finally being able to manage my own projects over there, and about revitalizing the company.
Then on Thursday, Moe comes back from a meeting with their accountant, and he says: “Accountant tells us that I’d be better off hiring you two as employees, instead of doing the partnership. So that's what I'd like to do”.
I asked, “So, you still want me to direct all of my future business to your company?”. “Yes”. “Including my expert witness work?” “Yes, of course”.
:blink:
(deleted rude comment)
:madgo:
Eight years ago this month, I started a consulting engineering firm. I ran it out of my house. It was quite a struggle, as I was a single mom with no other source of income. Through a lot of hard work and late hours, I became successful and now my company has a good reputation in the area. I get along well with other engineering firms in the area; I get enough work to make it worthwhile; my work is respected by the regulatory agencies; and I love what I do.
There is another firm in town which does exactly the same kind of work I do. This is a partnership of two gentlemen (let’s call them Moe and Joe) who retired from a government agency about twelve years ago. When I first started out, they would occasionally call on me to subcontract certain projects for them. As time went by, I’ve done more and more subcontracting of their work. I even rented office space next door to them (in the same building) 4 years ago to make it easier for us to do work together. By now about ½ to ⅓ of my business is subcontracted from these guys. They’ve also picked up another subconsultant who comes into the office and works for them on a part-time basis.
A couple of years ago Joe cuts down to working only 3 days a week. This past year he has decided to retire altogether at the end of December. Moe starts saying things like “there’s no need to have two separate companies” (meaning mine and his), and saying he’d like to cut down to working only 3 days a week. More recently, Moe has been emphasising that we subconsultants need to be sure to help him continue the business next year. We have some casual “what-if” conversations about ways to do that.
Finally, about the beginning of this month, he mentions (a couple of times) that the three of us could set up a 3-way partnership. Moe wants all of my future work to come into the partnership company (rather than through mine). I’m interested, and so is the other subconsultant. We start talking about moving the office location, and looking at office space. The other sub and I start talking about ways to structure the partnership, and ways to divvy up the project management tasks. We also talk about streamlining the business and modernizing the way they do business. I’m getting jazzed up about finally being able to manage my own projects over there, and about revitalizing the company.
Then on Thursday, Moe comes back from a meeting with their accountant, and he says: “Accountant tells us that I’d be better off hiring you two as employees, instead of doing the partnership. So that's what I'd like to do”.
I asked, “So, you still want me to direct all of my future business to your company?”. “Yes”. “Including my expert witness work?” “Yes, of course”.
:blink:
(deleted rude comment)
:madgo:
Last edited by a moderator:
Right now I'm leaning towards a "do-nothing" policy. Continue subbing work from him and getting to know his clients (although I have a good working relationship with most of them already). Continue to promote my business at conferences and things like ACEC meetings. He can decide what he wants to do when he finally gets ready to retire for good.
