How many Staff do I need in a New Construction Company

[Annunciata R.]

I would like to start my own construction I already have the inventory - Land The idea is to build 5 - 6 new homes each year and buy 5 to 10 new lots each year. Finance is already in place for these projects but what I would like to know is roughly how many staff will I need on board and also what sort of pay. Is it even feasible to have my own in-house crew on such a small scale development. My goal is to have 10 staff in the company and that includes managing the existing let properties. At the moment the let properties only require 1 part time staff so I have a long way to get the numbers up.

[Chris Winterhalter]

@Annunciata R.

A few things to note...you will not be able to get around having a CA contractors license. If you employ people for anything construction related in California including something as minor as window cleaning or installing drapery you will need to be a CA licensed contractor. Also most small business work comp comes from the State Insurance Fund in California. I know we had to provide our CA contractors license to even get coverage (we are doing two hotel projects here this year). I'm not sure if you have dealt with the EDD in the past however they are extremely strict in everything that they do. My business partner and I run a hotel construction company...we did three large hotel projects last year with a total of close to 500 rooms including full public space guts with less than 5 employees. We spend more time finding really good quality subs at great prices. Lower subs prices generally come at a price...which generally relates to needing really good project management and supervision. We pay more however have a lot less headaches. There's a difference from being a true GC and having an all in house operation. Scaling in the development/investment side is challenging enough. Adding in a full in house construction crew would make it even more difficult. It's definitely possible however like mentioned above you will need additional team members to handle the work productively and efficiently. I would start with a mix of sub-contracted work and a few in-house crew members. A project manager, 1-2 carpenters, and 1-2 general laborers. It's always easier to add employees than deduct employees. Good luck!