What is an outsource mechanical estimating service and what do they do.

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 Not sure what an outsource mechanical estimating service is? Listen to this short podcast and I will explain it. 

 Mechanical outsource estimating is growing in popularity. Companies involved with HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, and several other trades are looking more and more to outsource some, if not all, of their construction project estimates. Some companies get too busy and need additional help for just a short time, while many other companies have found they are better suited to outsource all of their project bids to a professional that they can trust and count on. 
 This episode digs into exactly what an outsource estimator, and more specifically a mechanical outsource estimator is and. I also explain some details of the services estimators are expected to provide to theirs clients.

In this episode I will discuss: 

• What an outsource estimating service is.
• What MOES stands for.
• Different options when hiring estimating services. 

If you haven't subscribed yet please do so now so you can be alerted every time a new episode is released. I release a new podcast every Wednesday packed full of practical advice and tips.

Leave some feedback below about your thoughts on this episode. I read through all the posts on each episode so I can deliver a podcast you want to listen too. The Six-Figure Tradesman Podcast is here to help you will your venture as an outsource estimating service.

Do you want or need some additional coaching or education? Check out www.sixfiguretradesman.com for tons of additional information to help you start, grow, and manage your mechanical estimating business. There are several FREE online courses for you to enjoy at your leisure. Plus, I have some fantastic blogs here you can read also about all things concerning the future of your estimating business. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the six figure tradesman podcast.
This is season one, episode six.
What is an outsource estimatingservice?
I am your host, Jamie Henry,creator of the estimating
business in a box.
I have a question.
What comes to your mind when Isay the words?
Outsource estimating service.
I mean, what do these words meanto you?
You know, they might mean alittle something to everybody
else and so I've had people askexactly exactly what is an

(00:33):
outsource estimating service.
What does that mean?
I want to, I want to take a fewminutes here and I just want to
discuss what for me, what thatis and what that means.
So an outsource estimatingservice is someone such as
myself and I call myself, I callthem MOES mechanical outsource
estimating services.
So we are people who are hereand available for contractors to

(00:53):
hire us.
Those contractors will typicallyhire us to bid commercial
projects like schools orhospitals, box stores, chain
stores, restaurants, whateverthat commercial property is.
And the reason why they hire us,there's a multitude of reasons.
Let's start with the little guy.
So the small guy sometimes willhire us because they're
residential people and that'swhat they pretty much know, but

(01:15):
they want to get into thecommercial world and so they
hire us because based on ourexperience, they know they can
trust that we know how to bid acommercial project for them
because they don't bid the sameas residential.
And if you're an estimator, youknow that.
And if you are a experiencedseasoned tradesman, you know
that these are two differentworlds.
Residential is a lot different.
So they hire us to to bid theseprojects for them.

(01:37):
And usually they're smallerprojects.
You know, it might be a, a, asmall store, like maybe a small
McDonald's or something likethat.
Those are why the little guysmight hire us or the little guys
might hire us because they haveone guy, or this might even be
the mid sized companies too.
They have one guy, but he's toobusy.
They can't really find anybodyelse that they trust to hire in
house right now.

(01:57):
So this is a temporary fix andthey just want to hire us to
help them get through that.
That period where they need somehelp.
And so that happens a lot.
And so they may not be with youforever.
Well, when I say they're notwith you forever, they may not
hire you every week, all yearlong, every year.
But if you do your job right,they are going to be your
customer for life.
They might work with you today,they might work with you next
month, then you might go awayfor a few months and then they

(02:18):
come back.
I can't tell you how manyclients I've had that need me
and they come to me and whenthey don't need me, they go
away.
But when they need somebodyagain, I'm the guy they come to,
they come back to me.
So do this.
Right.
And you'll have them forever,even though you don't have them
all the time.
And another guy that might useyou is the big guys, the really
big guys who are just wayoverwhelmed, there's more jobs
that they want to bid.

(02:39):
They don't have enough manpower.
Um, so they, they outsource that.
They hire guys like us to helpthem out.
And sometimes it's just what wecall a takeoff, which is where
we just count all the materialthat's on the blueprint.
We count all the equipment andthen we give that back to them
and they take those counts andthey put them into their
spreadsheet and they add all theextra costs, you know, the
permits, all the other addedproject management, taxes,

(03:01):
whatever else.
They'll add all those up node,they'll do it themselves and
finish it up.
But you just never know who'sgoing to hire your why.
And so that's, that's what anoutsource estimating services we
are on standby 24 seven at theirready so that when they need us,
they can contact us and we canhelp them prepare any project
they want in a very quickmanner.
So that's what we specialize in.

(03:21):
That's, that's what makes usvaluable.
If you've got clients that arecalling you and they want this
job in one to two days, I knowsome guys they say, well I can
do that in about three days, butthere's an expedition fee.
I got to expedite that throughmy, my system.
So I've got to put other stuffaside and I got to pick yours
up.
And in order to do that, I gotto make it worth my while.
I got to charge a little extra.
I've never done that.
I've never, in fact, some guyseven charge extra for addendums.

(03:44):
Sometimes a lot of addendum'scome out, make a lot of changes.
Some people will charge extramoney for that and I don't have
a problem with that.
That's fine with me, but Idon't, I charge you a nice,
good, large, fair price up frontso that whatever happens, I got
you covered and it works for me.
It doesn't work for everybody.
Some people really don't want topay the extra up front, so they
just, they would rather get thecheap guy.
I'm fine with that too.
There's, there's plenty of workout there for all of us.

(04:05):
So you've got to figure outwhich guy you want to be.
So as a mechanical outsourceestimator, are you the cheap
guy?
You know who, who is just doingreally good mid-level work
really quickly.
Who is charging for all theextras?
Where are you?
The expensive guy who charges alittle extra up front no matter
what, but never charges an extrafee on the backend.
You know, you kind of have todecide that going into this, and

(04:26):
for me that was the guy whocharged more upfront, never
charged anything extra on theback.
You listen to my podcast, youknow I'm a mechanical outsource,
estimated mechanical HVHC is mybackground.
I've been in the HVAC worldsince 1996 it's the thing I know
I do plumbing, I've doneplumbing and sulfation.
I've done all the mechanicalinstallation for plumbing and
HVHC.

(04:46):
That's my world.
That's, that's my wheel house.
So I referenced mechanicaloutsource estimating all the
time.
In reality, outsource estimatingcan be done by anybody.
I may can be a roofer or aconcrete guy.
I'm the landscapers.
Every project has 26 divisionsof work.
There's multiple divisions.
And so there's work for all ofus and we can all outsource the

(05:07):
service.
So if you are a roofer forinstance, and you say, well, I'd
like to get into this world, youcan do it.
There's, there's plenty ofbusiness out there for the
roofers.
There's tons of jobs that areoutsourced every day.
So whatever your Gianna is,whatever Nisha come from, that's
what you're going to apply thisto.
I just stay mechanical becausethat's where I come from.
To me that is what an outsourceestimator is.
That's your responsibility is tobe available to be able to help

(05:30):
your clients on very little toshort notice of any kind with
any project of any size and ourworld.
We might have to work longnights or weekends, but that's,
that's the luxury of what we do.
You know, we might work thenights and weekends and then we
can, uh, kind decided to takesome time off.
That's what we do.
So for those of you who arestill wondering what is an
outsource estimator, it'ssomebody who's for hire,

(05:51):
somebody who works forthemselves, they've got their
own office, home office,whatever it is, and they, they,
their services to thecontractors, to the guys out
there.
Some people have actually workedwith, with engineers.
I know estimators who specializein working with engineers to
help them figure up job costs.
So you know, you could go thatroute too.
But to me that's what it is.
And so if you're interested inthis career, you know, I know

(06:12):
everything about it, I can tellyou whatever you need to know.
Follow my podcast YouTubechannel.
If you need to get someeducation.
I've got some free education outthere and I've got some paid
courses, six-figuretradesmen.com I've got a whole
store full of all the coursesthat I offer.
Some of those are free.
So I encourage you to go checkout the free ones, check them
out, see what you can learnthere.
Maybe I can teach you somethingnew.
If I don't teach you somethingnew, maybe I can at least remind

(06:35):
you of something that youalready knew, but you might've
kind of forgot.
You know, because that's kind ofmy goal.
My goal here is to, uh, toeducate you and to motivate you
and to make you a better versionof yourself.
So go out there and see if youcan find something of any value
that I might have to offer.
So I've got a task for you.
Before we leave here, I want youto write down what makes you a
professional estimatingoutsource service.
What makes you a professionalestimator?

(06:56):
It's not a trick question and Iknow it seems really simple, but
sit back and give this someserious thought because you've
got competition.
You're not the only one outthere doing this.
And so you need to answer thisquestion.
If a client asks you what makesyou the premier professional
outsource estimating service forme, if you can't answer that
question, you're going to lose aclient.
I want to be, I want you to beprepared for that because it

(07:17):
could come up.
Um, I've had people, I have hadpeople ask me, what makes you
qualified for me to hire you?
Why would I hire you over theother guys?
I've had people ask this.
This is like a job interviewthese days.
So I want you to, I was to sitdown and write this down.
What makes you a professionaloutsource?
Estimating service that way whensomebody asks, you know your
your locked and loaded ready togo.
So I hope you learned somethingnew.

(07:37):
If you didn't learn anythingnew, I hope I at least reminded
you of something that youalready knew, but maybe you kind
of forgot and now you can startto implement that again.
I want to see you, hopefully Isee you on our next episode,
episode seven for season one isgoing to be what is bid result
tracking and why is itimportant?
So I'm going to talk a littlebit about what a, a, a bid
result tracking process is.
And I'm wondering, most of all,I'm going to tell you why that

(07:58):
is so important.
And as an outsource estimator,that's actually another service
you could provide to yourclients that can make you some
more money.
So hopefully you join us forepisode seven.
My name is Jamie Henry, creatorof estimating business in a box.