Construction Estimating: The Basics
The basics of construction estimating, so you can create more accurate estimates in a shorter time.
Your Price is Too High
“Your price is too high” means you haven’t done your job as a salesperson.
Guidelines for Success
Guidelines to a more successful construction-related business.
Ten Cardinal Rules for Construction Business Owners
Ten Cardinal Rules for a successful construction-related business.
Employees Can Generate Sales Leads
Employees, properly motivated, can generate a lot of new business for you.
Close Out Package
As you’re walking out the door on a finished project, you want your clients to remember you as the company that went the extra step for them.
How Do I? (Frequently Asked Questions)
Start a construction business, price jobs, write contracts, get leads, estimate, find employees, work with subs – construction contractors.
Contract Cancellations
Cancellations happen, even with the best of salespeople. Clients have all kinds of reasons to cancel an agreement, and you need to be prepared.
Overhead Creep
Overhead creep is one of those subtle things that business owners often don’t notice. It leads to cash flow problems real quick.
Watermelons and Sales Leads
You might not think of watermelons, but one of our clever coaching clients shared a method he’s used to attract new leads for his business.
Payment Schedules for Cash Flow
A good payment schedule keeps you paid for the work you are doing. If you're using a 1/3, 1/3 and 1/3 schedule, you are financing most of the job out of your pocket.
Rounding Up, not Down
When we talk about making money, it's rarely about big chunks of change. One overlooked item that costs money is rounding numbers. For instance, your markup.
Employees to Volume Ratio
In our book we talk about the ratio of employees to dollar volume of business. Many contractors ignore this ratio and get caught up in the urgency of building a job.
Cost-Plus – A Homeowner’s View
A very nice gentleman called me last Friday. He related a story about his home remodeling project. It was done a Cost Plus job, the "plus" was negotiated at 18%.
Marketing is just like planting seeds
For those who don’t understand the need for an ongoing marketing and advertising program for your business, let me try this analogy:
Transparency
Transparency, as I understand it, is opening your books to your potential clients and showing them all the numbers pertaining to a job you are quoting.