Construction Secrets

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This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023.

What happens if your head contractor stops paying you next month?

If you read your termination clause, the answer might be "nothing." They can terminate you for convenience. You can't terminate them at all.

So you keep working. Keep spending. Keep hoping. While the rumours about their cashflow get louder.

That's the trap most subs don't see until they're in it.

Listen to the full episode now.

Timestamps:

(5:28) - The worst contract in the whole chain goes to the guy that hasn't got the resources to deal with

(5:44) - That is probably the systemic issue in the construction industry where so many subcontractors actually don't understand how to negotiate and they don't understand what to negotiate either

(8:15) - Successful companies in construction have a long-term view

(12:18) - You got to look at your local laws as far as payment terms and things like that because you can leverage those laws on your behalf

(14:28) - Whatever you prefer to put up as security, you want to make sure it's tied to your own specific contract and not to the head contract

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

Work With Me - Click Here

Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - Click Here

(Book comes with the free audiobook and a full video masterclass)

- 0:00 The lie killing your construction profit margin

- 0:33 What every losing subcontractor project has in common

- 2:16 What a mentor in Iraq taught me about real margin

- 3:11 Two electrical subs, same $10M job only one made money

- 5:00 Margin isn't priced. Margin is managed.

- 5:23 Pre-award: how to negotiate a contract worth signing

- 6:57 Post-award: the day-one habit that protects every variation

- 8:27 Why the best subs bid lower than you and still win 

Most construction business owners think their profit margins get locked in the day the contract gets signed. They don't. The subcontractors winning the bids you can't compete with and still making money figured this out years ago.

In this video, Cian Brennan breaks down the lie quietly killing margins on subcontractor jobs: the idea that margin gets priced. It doesn't. It gets managed.

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023.

If you've ever held back on a notice or a variation because you didn't want to "rock the boat," read this.

The subs who get taken advantage of are the quiet ones. The ones who absorb the hits, mitigate the delays, and never tell anyone.

Lovely humans. Terrible business owners.

You've got to tell everyone. Every delay. Every variation. Every notice. That's not being difficult. That's the job.

Don’t miss out - listen now.

Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in contracts managed, Quantum Contracts' proven framework is designed to help you negotiate fair contracts, secure faster payments, avoid disputes, and improve cash flow.

Work With Us: Here

Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book: Here

Timestamps:

(4:17) - If you want to be seen as professional and you want to be respected and have a good reputation, you don't get that from rolling over and doing what you're told nonstop

(9:59) - If you're contractual, you will be more profitable

(15:37) - Being contractual in inverted commas for the listener is not something that you shouldn't do. It's something that you should do because it completely and utterly protects you

(16:04) - No main contractor is going to come to you and start attacking you for being contractual if you're delivering on your promises

(20:04) - It's better to get a bad document in than waiting to get a perfect document because you can always revise about documents

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023.

You can sit at the table having spent 500 grand. Or you can sit at the table having spent a tenner.

Same argument. Very different leverage.

That's the whole game when a variation isn't getting approved.

Tune in!

Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in contracts managed, Quantum Contracts' proven framework is designed to help you negotiate fair contracts, secure faster payments, avoid disputes, and improve cash flow.

Work With Us: Here

Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book: Here

Timestamps:

(5:46) - It's about getting an outcome, getting paid, getting stuff approved

(11:18) - The transaction of money more and more is bound by the contracts and less by handshakes

(11:46) - Too often subcontractors get the short end of the stick, and that's largely because their resource is not the resource of whoever they go after

(18:54) - The first thing in catching that fundamental problem is going into the contract and negotiating that out and saying, no, no, we're not doing that

(19:47) - When I'm talking about contract and I always say it's not just contractually it's about strategy

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023.

The truck driver on the mining site who heard about self-driving trucks had two choices.

Do nothing and get made redundant. Or learn the tech and end up running five trucks from a joystick.

That's where construction is with AI right now.

Hit the play button now.

Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in contracts managed, Quantum Contracts' proven framework is designed to help you negotiate fair contracts, secure faster payments, avoid disputes, and improve cash flow.

Work With Us: Here

Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book: Here

Timestamps:

(4:17) - It's a race to see who loses the least amount of money

(7:12) - The law is above the contract and the contract falls as part of that

(11:25) - Just control what you can control

(16:53) - Media is leverage

(18:39) - By using AI, you can deliver things quicker

(25:04) - If you can get that business to pay for itself, you're essentially getting relationships and leads for free

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023.

Three things the longest-lasting subs all do:

They negotiate hard, every single time. They walk away from risky contracts, even good ones. They protect their margin like it's oxygen.

That's it. That's the whole game.

Listen up.

Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in contracts managed, Quantum Contracts' proven framework is designed to help you negotiate fair contracts, secure faster payments, avoid disputes, and improve cash flow.

Work With Us: Here

Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book: Here

Timestamps:

(2:46) - I was seeing so many companies losing money and going out of business because they didn't understand the contract

(15:12) - Lowest price technically qualified doesn't mean you're going to have the lowest total cost of ownership

(16:28) - If you've got a reasonable margin, you can afford better people

(23:43) - The most successful ones tend to be family-run businesses like full-family businesses

(24:47) - Making a reasonable margin on a low-risk job is better than making a high margin in a high-risk job over time

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in April 2023.

Most subs think the money is made on site.

It's not. It's made in the terms.

I've seen tier ones win projects at a loss because they know they can claw the margin back post-award through variations and EOTs.

Meanwhile the subs underneath them are signing the worst version of the contract, because nobody told them there was a game being played.

If you've ever felt like you're doing all the work and somehow keeping none of the profit, tune in.

Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in contracts managed, Quantum Contracts' proven framework is designed to help you negotiate fair contracts, secure faster payments, avoid disputes, and improve cash flow.

Work With Us: Here

Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book: Here

Timestamps:

(1:44) - The returns are in the terms, that's where your money is made

(5:10) - Liquidated damages are to compensate your client for the delay and the cost of the delay

(8:37) - A lot of times there's an option to submit an alternative bid

(18:56) - There can only be one angry man in the boat

(22:24) - Chat GPT is very very powerful so it's just gonna continue to get better

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in April 2023.

Two electrical subs. Same project. Same scope.

One made a killing. The other nearly went under.

And here's the thing, right? The one that nearly collapsed actually did the better job on site. But their variations never got approved. Their EOTs weren't submitted properly. Their scope looked late on paper. And the head contractor hit them with liquidated damages.

The other sub? Quietly contractually savvy. Got every variation paid. Protected their margin.

Same site. Same scope. Nothing to do with the quality of the work.

In this episode, we break down what separates the subs who scale from the ones who get quietly bled dry, one small variation at a time.

If you've ever finished a job and wondered where the margin went, have a listen.

Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in contracts managed, Quantum Contracts' proven framework is designed to help you negotiate fair contracts, secure faster payments, avoid disputes, and improve cash flow.

Work With Us: Here

Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book: Here

Timestamps:

(6:40) - Negotiate the right things in the right way

(10:20) - Lawyers would get you out of the problem that you're in

(14:52) - Scale brings complexity

(21:49) - How we've done over 2600 contract reviews and negotiations

(28:50) - Approximately 26% of all bankruptcies of all businesses are from the construction industry

(31:54) - If you try to negotiate they'll just give the work to somebody else

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in April 2023.

Most construction companies don’t go broke because they can’t build. They go broke because of the contracts they sign.

Risk gets pushed down the chain, and the smaller the contractor, the harder the hit when things go wrong. Relationships and good work are no longer enough when the paperwork decides who gets paid and who absorbs the loss.

The companies that survive are the ones who get contractually sharp before the job even starts.

Don’t miss out - tune in!

Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in contracts managed, Quantum Contracts' proven framework is designed to help you negotiate fair contracts, secure faster payments, avoid disputes, and improve cash flow.

Don’t let contract issues hold you back—gain the confidence to focus on growing your business. Ready to take control and make more profit per project?

Click here to GRAB the FREE Industry Standards Guide: quantumcs.co/ISYt

Click here to IMPROVE your contracts using the Quantum Contract System: quantumcs.co/Yt2025

Click here to GAIN expert advice weekly for FREE: quantumcs.co/YTNewsOptIn

Timestamps:

(1:14) - Don't transfer the title until you get paid!

(3:00) - How to pass on the risk to someone else.

(5:00) - Your project managers manage your project as a side hustle only.

(8:13) - What to do when you get into a dispute.

(11:00) - Advice on how to properly manage contracts

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

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This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in April 2023.

Great builders still go broke when they ignore the contract.

This episode explains how cash flow, risk, and payment terms decide whether you make profit or lose it, even when the work is done perfectly. It also covers why so many construction companies fail and how smarter contracts can change the outcome.

If you want to protect your margin and stay in business long term, this one is worth your time.

Listen in.

Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in contracts managed, Quantum Contracts' proven framework is designed to help you negotiate fair contracts, secure faster payments, avoid disputes, and improve cash flow.

Don’t let contract issues hold you back—gain the confidence to focus on growing your business. Ready to take control and make more profit per project?

Click here to GRAB the FREE Industry Standards Guide: quantumcs.co/ISYt

Click here to IMPROVE your contracts using the Quantum Contract System: quantumcs.co/Yt2025

Click here to GAIN expert advice weekly for FREE: quantumcs.co/YTNewsOptIn

Timestamps:

(2:24) - What Quantum does is we are a smart contracts management contracts administration solution for construction companies

(6:44) - I wanted to help the construction contractor subcontractors with the contract administration process because so many of them were losing money

(10:02) - Anything where you're looking at a contract that has fifty to a hundred 200 pages

(12:42) - You know what would you say you know makes a good contract and what makes a bad contract

(15:06) - Moves that will make a huge difference to your cash flow

DISCLAIMER: The content of this podcast does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice, and can not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any matters you or your business may have.

Follow our Socials and let's get connected! ⤵️

⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter