O'no

OK now IM in big trouble, I called the competition and sounds like he wants to meet with
me to take over on some jobs that he doesn’t care to do because he’s doing other type of
work thats probably more profitable, but being the new guy on the block I might have to
take what I can during my start phase mainly Vent Hoods. What do you suppose Im in
for, and what can I expect from this. I have talked with several business owners and are
just as excited for me.

Mikey,

Check it out, but the guy is going to OFFER you the OPPORTUNITY to do ORIENTAL HOODS, Your worst nightmare! Which, when having been done in by one of these jobs - you will go away. If you can't resist a lot of anxiety; get plenty of sharp scrapers and long poles and prepare for a long night. Use potassium hydroxide based cleaner and tons of HOT water. If you talk to the restaurant owner he'll tell you whatever you charge, which should be 3X what you are thinking about, is too much, too much! Charge at lease a grand, since it hasn't been cleaned in 3 years, even though the cook says 6 months. (As I am writing this I'm getting that smell of oriental cooking in my nose.) Do yourself a favor and refuse the jobs and go to DELCO for the training with Phil Ackland, you'll thank me later.

Best wishes,
Jones

hey indy, where yah at in indy?

It is worth checking out anyway, maybe it's not oriental work he is offering you, if it is then don't do it, you don't want to start there. Does he know you are new to this business? No offense but I would have a hard time subbing out Grease Exhaust work to a newbie, too much liability there.
The way I look at it is like this, if you have no work and he is offering you work take it, Maybe he can help you out.
You need the experience and maybe this is a way to get some. You should still take a class, at least order a video.

The problem here is that you called him and he's giving you this work. You're probably falling into a hornets nest here. It's bad enough that he couldn't find anybody else to give it to, I'd be very careful about how you approach this work. We give out work to other guys when we're too busy, but they are all relatively established and we know they do a good job. We don't like to tick off our customers. If this guy is willing to give this business to the new guy on the block without knowing anything about you or your experience, he really doesn't want this work.

There's two sides to every situation, so it may work out. Just make sure you walk into this with your eyes wide open and don't let the excitement of getting some work cloud your better judgment about what to charge or whether to even do the work in the first place. Keep in mind a very easy way to keep your competition struggling or to put them completely out of business is to send them the crap jobs that don't make any money so they aren't competing with you for the profitable jobs. On these jobs even if you try to charge what you think is appropriate, he might tell you it's too high and act like you don't appreciate the favor he's doing for you. It's done all the time, just don't be the sucker if this guy is just trying to screw with your ability to grow your business.