Mountain West Builders

I find that people in some industry segments (especially the tech and marketing sectors) have some pretty interesting (and amusing) viewpoints on those of us that are in service based industries. During a recent discussion about remote work, I tried to explain to someone how most service businesses are small companies with support teams that multitask in a variety of ways and therefore making remote work unsuitable. The responses I got were comical. “Is your payroll clerk going to go out in the field and help guys dig?” My response was “No, but they could certainly deliver a bid when an estimator has to run out to look at an emergency project.” As the discussion evolved (or perhaps I should say devolved), other notable comments were “So are you trying to tell me that the call center person in the Philippines has to be in the same place as the factory worker in Iowa?” It dawned on me that all of these people work for large corporate entities and believe the entire world does as well. Another favorite was “I got stuck in a parking garage once when the gate wouldn’t open and when I pressed the button, the person who answered was in Pittsburgh, I guess you think he should have been there to open the gate for me.” ?? Many of you already know that 99.9% of all Americans work for what's defined as “small business” (less than 500 employees) BUT you probably didn’t realize that 99% work for companies of less than 100 people. Here’s a few other interesting stats: ? 33,000,000 firms are considered small businesses. ? 49% have 1-4 employees ? 29% have ?5-19 workers. Obviously what I am trying to bring out is that small businesses are the backbone of America and a staggering percentage of them are in service based industries, making the skilled trades an excellent path toward entrepreneurialism. According to a survey from HomeAdvisor : ?60% of residential service companies are sole proprietors. ?The average age of those business owners (age 43) is 30% younger than the average age of a CEO in the US (age 59). ? Career Satisfaction surveys show over 93% are happy with their career. What makes the skilled trades such a great pathway toward business ownership? The reasons a pretty basic: ?Low start up cost. ?Typical company size is small. ?Nature of recruitment makes it easier to hire entry level people. So if you're convinced that "corporate greed" is what's keeping you from being successful, maybe it's time you consider a plan to Bring Back the Trades, Inc and introduce your son or daughter to the skilled trades. #BringBackTheTrades #skilledtrades #careeropportunities