Investors and operators in electrical space

July 08, 2024

by a searcher from Harvard University - Harvard Business School in Seattle, WA, USA

I would love to connect with operators or investors in the electrical contractors space to learn from their experiences and understand any potential red flags about being a business-oriented owner rather than an electrician in this field.

I'm looking into a deal in the electrical space. The company does a nice mix of industrial and commercial work. I got excited by their diverse project base (which indicates resiliency) and strong pipeline of new projects (the need for electrification is only going to get stronger in all areas).

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Reply by a searcher
from George Mason University in McLean, VA, USA

I am an electrical engineer, master electrician, business owner, and have been involved in the electrical industry since childhood. I can tell you from experience and education that industrial electrical work is much more complex than your typical residential work, and cookie cutter office work, which anyone can do. Depending on the size of the company, you'll need electrical construction project managers, project engineers, field managers, a director for all of these people, and even then there will be many questions and conflicts that need resolution, and they look to either deep experience or industry knowledge for the answer. Submitting bids is more than just estimating and finding schedule time for your electricians, it involves the owner because you need to weigh the risk with reward. Not knowing the risks as the owner is a big risk. Now I don't want to be negative, and say it cannot be done, because it can, but you need a company large enough to have redundancy at every position, as well as engineers and project managers with deep knowledge to resolve conflicts and construction issues. Basically, you will need 4 or 5 operator level people in that company to support all of the complexities.

Reply by a searcher
from University of Oxford in Calgary, AB, Canada

I wanted to post about this because I have a similar question and would reach out to you ^redacted‌ ^redacted‌ ^redacted‌‌

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