after highschool, i want to eventually start my own home renovation company (high end, large scale renovations like 2nd story additons, etc). i would manage the company, supervise construction, do estimates, etc and subcontract the work out. do you think there is a demand for this business, would i do well? what experience and education would I need? can you tell me what kind of university or college programs would be helpful? thanks.
With any business it’s hard to predict who will do well without knowing more about the individual – but you’ve got a good chance since you’re already looking at what you need to do and the type of experience and education you’ll need.
The housing, and by connection, the home renovation business, is slow right now in Western Canada (where I live), I suspect that’s true in North America. However by the time you’re finished with school and college the market will likely be ready for you.
I’d strongly recommend that during summer school holidays and semester breaks that you try to do work for a renovation company – get your experience with that type of work.
Re education – obviously some trades training (such as carpentry, framing, plumbing, electrical – find one or more of these programs so that you have a specialty and a profession). Also you’ll want to understand basic bookkeeping and accounting, entrepreneurship, leadership, sales and marketing, human resources courses – they can be found at most college/university.
Good luck.
There is a demand for this as many folks prefer to stay in a house and upgrade it rather than buying new homes. The problem with starting out of high school will be the fact that you will have no experience and people will be reluctant to hire you – especially as you are going after the top end. You should definitely get project management courses, probably general business administration and some introductory accounting classes, check into vo-tech schools to see about estimating courses.