The steady growth of residential construction is followed by the increase in demand for fencing, be it for added property value, security or aesthetic reasons. If you are looking for small business ideas and aren’t averse to working outside, this may be the chance for you.
However, fencing industry isn’t homogenous, and there are several different types of businesses you can start in it. Which one is the choice for you? Let’s try to sort things out.
Types of fencing businesses
There are three business models you have to consider if you want to work in this sector:
- Fence manufacturing (to sell to fence installers or property owners);
- Fence supply (purchasing from manufacturers and selling to installers and property owners);
- Fence installation.
Taking into account that you intend to start a small business, manufacturing is probably something a little out of your league as it requires considerable upfront investment. This leaves supply and installation, which can be done either separately or alongside each other. Fencing suppliers often provide additional installation services either by themselves or through outsourcing.
The advantage of this business model is that such a company can be created with relatively small startup capital: you don’t need to hold a lot of stock, doing with samples or even with photos in a catalogue to show to your clients. After you finish negotiations with a client and agree that he, for example, needs custom railings to be installed, you buy them from a manufacturer, gather up your crew and head out to the location.
There is also an option of supply-only business, catering mostly to the people who install fences for their properties on their own or with the help of several non-professional helpers. However, this market is relatively limited, so don’t stumble into this if you don’t know what you are doing.
As you can see, the best combination of accessibility and profitability would be a fence installation business. It doesn’t incur a lot regarding upfront costs and can bring you some serious money if you play your cards right.
Where you should look for customers
Aside of dealing with individual homeowners who want to improve the value of their property or intend to install a fence for some other reason, you should concentrate on establishing relationships with housing developers – from them, you can get huge contracts for new housing tracts. If your newly-founded company is capable of dealing with such an offer, it can bring you much more in one go without you having to spend an inordinate amount of time looking for individual customers.
It may be a good idea to stay in touch with insurance adjusters and tree removal services – if you can persuade them to refer their clients to you, it will bring you new customers after every natural disaster that inevitably damages and destroys fences.
And remember – every little bit helps, especially when your business is still in its early stage. You can do yourself a lot of good even by noticing damaged fences personally and knocking on the doors of their owners offering your services – you can never know when you may meet a good client this way.
What is required of you?
Depending on whether you are going to do construction work personally you may or may not need physical strength and stamina – after all, you can hire people to do actual physical work in your company. However, you do need either construction skills and some knowledge of contracting law before you will be able to start out. As you are going to work directly with a lot of people (your employees, suppliers, clients and so on), communication skills will also come in handy. While you can hire someone to do most of the technical tasks for you (although it is highly recommended to be sufficiently tech savvy to understand the inner workings of your company), you cannot delegate communication to your subordinates, lest you lose control over what happens in your business.
As you can see, starting a fencing business is not only doable but also highly profitable in the current situation – and we hope that this article will help you make the right decision about it.
