Qualifying the company I work for?

[JDC]

Hey all,
I just got my EC here in florida and the owner of the company I work for is looking to have me qualify the business. He currently has a qualifier (that runs his own electrical company) that I'm told has 51% of the company that I work for.
The owner (my boss) of the company I work for has 49% or so he says but has said he'd rather have me qualify. Since I work there it would make sense however I'm struggling to understand how that arrangement would work. We are suppose to sit down and (crunch the numbers) or so I'm told.
Anyone do a change of qualifier in a situation like this? Not even sure what I would be getting as compensation for qualifying.

There is a part of me that would rather go out on my own however my current employer has a strong back office already in place and excellent credit and assets. I am currently the field manager and lead electrician etc... blah blah blah...
We do mostly commercial and residential service just fyi...
Hope I'm making sense. It makes sense in my head anyways hahaha

 

[Hv&Lv]

You kind of have to ask yourself why the 49% owner doesn’t have his EC, and why a majority owner is busy running his other company rather than this company he owns the larger percentage of…

 

[texie]

This is an area where you want to tread carefully as there can be some serious personal liability. Especially in FL. I qualified a FL company on a temporary basis years ago but it was someone I knew well and only for a short time until he could become licensed in FL as he was licensed in other states. You need to be make sure insurance is in place that names you for errors and omissions. And taking on this responsibility should come with appropriate compensation and authority. Hv&Lv raises a good question. I would have others as well.

 

[Coppersmith]

To become a qualifier, you must petition the electrical board. You may have to appear in person to answer questions. They generally don't deny the request if you are not currently qualifying a company. You can qualify multiple companies (up to five I believe). So if you decide to form your own company, you can qualify it and this one.

By being the qualifier, you are making yourself responsible for supervising all the electrical work done by the company by Florida law. I suggest you read the statutes that apply to qualifiers so you know all your responsibilities. Supervising means at minimum you inspect the work yourself prior to having a county inspection. (This best done in person, but could also be video or photos.) You must have the authority to stop work and to require rework until you are satisfied the work is being done to code. It's to your benefit to have this authority in writing. If the company won't grant you this authority, don't qualify for them.

If the company violates the law by doing unpermitted work, you are the one that will be held responsible. You can be called before the electrical board for sanctions. You should not accept a qualifier role if you think they are doing this. You should have a personal liability insurance policy which the company pays for. You should receive significantly increased pay to reflect your increased responsibilities.

I don't know how having another qualifier in the company (who may supersede you) changes any of the above. The statutes may say.

 

[Coppersmith]

You kind of have to ask yourself why the 49% owner doesn’t have his EC, and why a majority owner is busy running his other company rather than this company he owns the larger percentage of…

I have run into a lot of journeymen who don't want to take the masters test for various reasons. You can still own an EC firm without a master's license. You just have to hire a qualifier.

I became an apprentice at 46 and almost immediately decided I wanted to become an EC. I had the money to start the company, just not the master's license (because you need 12,000 hours of experience before you can test.) I could have hired a qualifier and started that company immediately. I asked many journeymen I worked with if they wanted to partner. All they had to do was get the license. I would supply all the money. No takers. Instead I waited 10 years and qualified myself.

 

[JDC]

Thank you for all the replies,
Just to address some of the questions,
My boss and I have a great working relationship and the deal is he wants to retire and have me (take over).
Sorry the quotation marks on my keyboard aren't working so i have to use parenthesis. haha

He approached me about qualifying him a year ago so i went and took the exams etc and filed as inactive. The company paid for my exams and all study materials etc. I don't know if that entitles them in anyway to my license. There have been no contracts or anything other than conversations of his retirement and me taking over and that it would be (worth my while). Thats when i found out about him having 49% and the qualifier having 51%. I will note this is a small company of about 6 employees and 4 service trucks.

I currently oversee ALL of the electrical installations as it is, so the idea that I would be responsible isn't as much of an issue for that reason.
I honestly couldn't give a good answer as to why he never got his EC. When I asked he just said he didn't have the brains for it.... aye i know...
It seems to me that the majority owner aka qualifier is just that, just a qualifier that is (leased) or whatever for lack of a better term. I know the guy and see him occasionally but honestly I oversee everything. Ive worked for multiple companies in florida over the past 20 years and hardly ever saw a qualifier on a job site unless something had gotten severely screwed up.
I was just thinking that if you have your own company that you qualify for AND you choose to qualify another company, would you automatically have to have 51% of that other company since you have to have (total control) as its put in F.S.489?

Coppersmith as to what you said that is kinda the situation I'm talking about. He supplies all the money... I have no idea what his arrangement (contractual/payment/revenue) is with the current qualifier. However its a small world in the electrical business, as i am sure everyone here knows, and i don't want to be stepping on anyones toes.
Eh I guess I will have to see what its gonna be when we negotiate but I don't know how you can drop a qualifier who accordingly owns 51% of your company... Hell I have a feeling he doesn't even know....
The biggest issue I feel here is if I decline to qualify him it most likely is gonna effect our working relationship as well...

 

[petersonra]

before I would get involved in such a deal I would want some idea of what he is going to want in the way of compensation for 49% of the tiny company he wants you to buy from him so he can retire. most times the majority owner has considerable say in who can buy into the company. probably there is a clause in the deal that allows the majority owner first crack at buying the 49% he does not own.

a company with 6 employees is probably not worth all that much, especially if the 49% guy is doing most of the sales work.

you might just be buying a job and those situations are rarely worth getting involved in.

jmho

 

[Coppersmith]

Companies are generally valued at:

The value of the physical assets (buildings, trucks, office furniture, etc.) +
The value of the inventory +
The value of one year's projected profits -
The value of the liabilities.

Any amount the seller wants over that value is called goodwill. Goodwill should always be considered suspect but represents the business the company will due in future years. I wasn't sure you were buying into the company or not. If you are acquiring 49% of the company, your payment to buy in should be approximately 49% of the above value. This assumes you receive 49% of the profits. Make sure you get a written partnership agreement you can live with. Once you buy in, you are stuck with whatever set of rules you agreed to. As a minority partner, you will have little control of the direction of the company.