Where Can a Skilled Trade Take You? From Electrician to Business Owner

⚡ **Where can learning one skilled trade actually take you?** For **Craig Harris, Founder and CEO of New Beginnings Electrical Services**, the answer has included the field, purchasing, warehouse management, project management, estimating, executive leadership—and ultimately business ownership. Craig has spent **35 years in the electrical industry**, but his path didn't begin traditionally. After becoming incarcerated as a teenager, Craig was assigned to a maintenance detail where he worked alongside a master electrician. That's where electrical work began to stick. After returning home, he entered a four-year apprenticeship program and started building a career that would eventually take him far beyond the field. In this episode of **The Commercial Builders' Network**, we're talking about what a career in the skilled trades can actually become. We discuss: ⚡ How Craig discovered the electrical trade 🛠️ Apprenticeships and hands-on training 🔄 Creating a new career after incarceration 💼 Moving from the field into project management, estimating and leadership 💰 Six-figure earning potential in the skilled trades 🏗️ The shortage of electricians and other skilled tradespeople 🎓 Why college doesn't have to be the only successful path 👷 Why hands-on experience matters 📈 Moving from skilled tradesperson to entrepreneur 💵 The difference between revenue and profit 🏫 What construction education could look like in high school 🤝 Why today's contractors need to expose the next generation to the trades Craig also explains one of the biggest lessons he learned when transitioning into entrepreneurship: **There's a difference between a business and a hustle.** Making enough money to pay yourself isn't necessarily the same as building a profitable company with money on its balance sheet. And for anyone looking for a career pivot or second chance, his advice is simple: **Decide what you want. Do the research. Start walking toward it.** A skilled trade doesn't have to be your backup plan. **It can become your career, your livelihood, your business—and your new beginning.** 🎥 Subscribe for conversations about construction careers, skilled trades, contracts, business ownership, development and economic opportunity. **Construction can change your life—and it's starting to look a lot like you.** #SkilledTrades #ElectricalCareers #ConstructionCareers #Electrician #Apprenticeship #ConstructionJobs #WorkforceDevelopment #SecondChances #ConstructionBusiness #TheCommercialBuildersNetwork