I've been almost purely residential since launching for the simple reason that I enjoy it. Lately, however, I've been getting a lot of requests to bid on commercial (i.e. retail and office LV/AV), so I am revisiting this.

I still want to be at least 50% res, but if I could build a profitable commercial side to the business without getting into a mess, that certainly sounds appealing.

It's not so much that I have specific concerns about commercial. Rather, it's that I don't know enough about commercial work to know what concerns I should have.

On the residential side, my bread and butter is audio, video, lighting, hvac and network. I'm not sure how to think about what my bread and butter might be on the commercial side?

What are the key difference between res and commercial? What mistakes would I be likely to make tackling commercial work with a residential background? Where will I run into trouble with codes/compliance (I'm in the NYC area?)

I'm not sure if I'm asking the right questions. Any thoughts on commercial vs. residential would be appreciated.