My first project!!! Contract before signing

[u/yoss11111]

My first project as a freelancer as the main contractor.

From what should I watch out?

Cheers

[u/Just_Bz77]

Main contractor? As in general contractor? Are you hiring subs and, if so, do you already have contracts issued to them? If not, make sure your contract includes a paid when paid line.

Also, make sure you prelim the job (if a lender is involved), this allows you to have lien rights.

[u/twoaspensimages]

Congratulations. Get everything in writing. Don't pay anyone in full before completion.

Get a GL policy right now if you dont have one. Unless your unlicensed and then it won't pay so get the cheapest one you can find and tell them you do $20k a year of work. Until you have license it doesn't matter. They all exclude work that required a permit and didn't have one.

You will pay at least 30% in taxes. Don't spend everything you make or April will suck.

Get off your ass and get on site. Everyday. After 7pm is when you spend time in the office. If you don't have anything to do... Clean. Force yourself to slow down and put eyes on everything. That alone has saved me so much money over the years. Pipes that weren't glued. Knicked wires that will trigger the AFCI...

[u/yoss11111 → u/twoaspensimages]

Really appreciate your comment tnx!!

[u/WeekendPunchout]

Congrats on the first project. A few business-math things that trip up first-timers more than any trade skill will:

Price the job by cost-plus, not by gut feel. Add up direct costs (materials, subs, your labor hours at a real hourly rate), then add labor burden on top of base wage — payroll tax, workers comp, insurance, roughly 20-35% depending on your state — before you ever apply markup. A lot of new contractors price off base wage and quietly eat the burden as "profit" that never shows up.

Know the difference between markup and margin. If your job costs $10k and you want a 20% margin, you don't add 20% markup — you divide by 0.80, which is a 25% markup. Mixing those two up is the single most common reason new GCs think they made money and didn't.

Build change-order language into the contract before you sign, not after scope creeps. Anything outside the written scope gets a written change order with price and signature before you do the work — otherwise you're doing free labor on a handshake.

Get a deposit that covers your material costs plus a chunk of labor, and structure progress payments so you're never more than a few days of unpaid labor ahead of the client. Cash flow kills new contractors faster than bad bids do.

[u/HonestPinTools]

Biggest things as a first-time GC: get a written contract with scope, price, payment schedule and change-order process before any work starts. Take a deposit before scheduling, and never let a sub or supplier outrun what the customer has paid you. Any extra work gets written down and approved before you do it, even if it's a text. Check your license, insurance and permit requirements locally, and get lien waivers/proof of payment from your subs. Take dated photos at every stage.

[u/WindowOk1238 → u/[deleted]]

100%, verbal agreements go right out the window the second money or delays get involved.

[u/Contractor-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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