Hiring other Firms for QCC's 3

[waytsh]

I recently made the leap and started my own business and things are going very well. I am currently a one man show, however, I have plans in the near future to bring on another PE. In the meantime I was considering hiring local firms to perform quality control checks on some of my larger projects. Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing? Particularly how the process should work and things to look out for when dealing with other firms in this manner? I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

waytsh

 

[GregLamberson]

waytsh:

Personally what I do is bring on the staff that is needed on a contract basis under me and manage them as my own resources.

You will need to make sure you have a Staff Rate sheet that your client has signed off on, ask him to review your staff plan and bring them on board. Make sure you have a percentage markup for handling them.

Greg Lamberson, BS, MBA
Consultant - Upstream Energy
Website:

http://www.oil-gas-consulting.com

 

[TrafficDesigner]

You might also consider having them sign paperwork that states to the effect that they will not try to compete with you for this client or type of work.

 

[csd72]

one option that you may consider is to approach a similar sole engineer that you know and make a mutual arrangement for checking each others work as required. Trafficdesigners point regarding non compete is a very good one, you dont want them stealing your jobs.


I have not done this yet myself yet.

A firm I once worked for had a major client who had two engineers designing their projects (us and one other). If we designed the job then the other firm would check it and vice versa. This worked well.

csd

 

[waytsh]

GregLamberson, this is an interesting idea and one that I had not considered although I think it might not be a good fit since most of my "large" projects are not big enough to warrant this kind of effort. Most of the projects I am dealing with would probably require about 40 - 80 hours of review time. Unless I am misunderstanding what you are saying I will probably reserve this option for when I begin dealing with much larger projects. Thank you for the suggestion.

Trafficdesigner, good point!

Csd72, I had thought about this since I do know of another local one man show. I was leary of approching him since I was not sure how he would feel about me starting my operation so close to him. I thought it would benefit both of us to develope a relationship. Not only for the reason I mentioned above but also for possibility of balancing work loads when I have too much to handle or visa versa. I just wanted to bounce the idea off you guys before approaching him or possibly one of the other larger firms in the area.

Thank you all for your input, keep it coming.

~waytsh

 

[csd72]

waytsh,

I would say that you should approach this person with care. And have a signed agreement before you give them any information regading your clients. If it is not going to work both ways then dont do it.

Sounds like you need to find someone to do work for you after hours, I am sure there are many in your region that would be interested.

csd

 

[atlas06]

80 hours to review a project. It must be a very large project for that kind of time.
I review projects on a moonlighting basis for a friend who has an engineering firm and a decent project (say a 70,000 SF school) would go around 40 to 50 hours. In those 50 hours, I'd have 250 comments at $135.00/hr. QA/QC work is billed at a much higher rate (department head rate). Typically I review constructibility, code analysis, check calcs, floor plans, controls, coordination with other trades, and value engineering. I don't review his specs, I do them for him on a separate contract.

Also, I require that I be issued a W-2 and the guy pays for social security, etc, don't want to deal with self-employment tax at the end of the year. It's been working great, I also do his peer review projects in the process.

A relationship with a really knowledgeable moonlighter is your best bet.