Electrical Man Sees the Way

I was halfway through an interview with electrical contractor Jim Fabiszewski (he goes by Jim Fab) when he started talking about why he decided to run his own business. It reminded me of why I wanted to leave Syracuse, N.Y., 20 years ago, thinking there was something more to see and experience beyond Upstate New York.

"I grew up in a family of four in Silver Spring, and I wanted to do better than my father," he said. "I thought the harder I worked, the more I will make. And I can't do that working for somebody. You just don't know what you don't have until you get out in the world."

Amen.

Fab, 49, has good values. Works hard. Lives beneath his means. Self-effacing. Saves.

He wasn't a very good student at Springbrook High School, but he was smart enough to know it. After graduating in 1978, he went into construction as a laborer because, he said, "I thought I could do this."

Fab was 18 and working for an Ashton, Md., bricklaying company, mixing mortar and stacking blocks for bricklayers, when he met an electrician on a job and decided to become an electrician's apprentice.

He spent nine years in electricians school and working as an electrician. In 1987, he decided he wanted to go into business for himself. He was making about $12 an hour and figured the only way he could make some real money was to go out on his own.

"I wanted the freedom," he said. "I just thought that the one thing I needed was money, and I thought I could do it by being self-employed."

He bought a used van for $500 and had some business cards printed. He started passing out cards to people he met. He pitched himself to anyone who would listen, promising he would work harder and longer. He stuffed fliers in mailboxes. He put up postings in convenience stores. He ran ads in the Gazette newspapers.

"I started getting calls," he said.

In 1987, the first year Fab Electric was in business, Fab worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week. He charged $25 an hour and grossed $80,000 or so. Most of the money went for trucks, equipment and tools. He kept about $20,000 to live on. He ran the business out of a home he had built in 1983 at age 23.

His first employee was an unemployed colleague who was a certified electrician. As the jobs flowed in, he grew the company gradually, hiring electricians and putting them through a program run by the Independent Electrical Contractors. His niche became light commercial work (fitting out office buildings) and home remodeling. He stayed away from new residential construction because it was difficult to get paid by general contractors.