Putting a period at the end of the construction proposal.

The discussion of “Building a Better Proposal” began with the problems that arise from poor communication. We talked about this being the responsibility of the contractor and some of the reasons this is a problem. Previously we laid out the “Blueprint for Building a Better Proposal” going over the different parts of the system, and putting all of the pieces together into a proposal so that it's ready to be presented to the customer.

Once you have a signed Proposal, you should conclude with a Contract.

The Contract completes the Proposal process and covers things beyond construction. Things like funding, additional documents, property boundaries, time within which the project will be started, and terms and conditions.

The thing to remember about tools Is…they’re only good if you use them.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have discussed why it’s critical to save money for those big irregular expenses and unexpected emergencies. Next, we began the process needed to start building a “Rainy Day” fund by determining how much and for what. The Savings Transfer Sheet is like any other tool, it doesn’t do you any good if you don’t use it.

As is the case with everything that’s worth doing, starting is the hard part. Saving money is no different. It’s like digging a hole.

A shovel is a simple tool that’s easy to use. It can fix a problem before it gets too big, but only if you use it. If you don’t, the outcome can be devastating.

This is one of the tools you should have in your Business BUILDing Toolbox. Last week I wrote about the importance of having savings, both individually and in business, and the high percentage of people who don’t. The tendency to spend everything you have is a problem when the unexpected happens. I’m not saying that after you pay the bills every dollar should be saved. What I’m talking about is having money ready for big, planned purchases or unexpected emergencies. This way you can use your own money and don’t have to pay someone else to use theirs.

Setting up a “Rainy Day Fund” for your business can help keep it afloat.

We’ve just passed a painful time of the year…INCOME TAX SEASON. This can be stressful but doesn’t have to be if you’re prepared.

It’s common for people to spend everything they earn and not save anything for future investments or emergencies. For the most part, as a society here in America we have become comfortable.

We have forgotten how important it is to save money.

The question is, how do you know if you have the right one or not?

If you’re not careful, building the home of your dreams can become a nightmare.

The number of times I’ve heard people say that building their new home was the worst experience of their life is too many. This is not how construction projects should be remembered.

So, as a construction customer, how can you avoid this from happening to you?

I recommend using the 5-step BUILD process.

That’s why it’s important to know who your builder is. Building a new home is expensive, but the same is true for remodeling. Let’s face it…construction of any kind costs a lot. The final price comes down to what you want in your home.

The final building blocks in the 5-step foundation of your business.

Learning to build a building isn’t instantaneous. You don’t show up on a job site your first day knowing everything about building. You come back the second day and learn more and the third and the fourth. And years later you have learned how to build.

Building a business is the same. You can’t just wave a magic wand and have your business running like a well-oiled machine. It takes time and effort just like building a building does. This also becomes a part of who you are.

After Becoming aware of and Understanding your problems, next you’ll need some INSTRUCTION on how to IMPLEMENT this INFORMATION. 

The amount of information it takes to run a successful construction business can be overwhelming. Asking someone for help can be scary, not to mention time-consuming. Ultimately, it comes down to you making a decision. You can decide to keep doing things the way you’ve always done them or…

You can decide to do something different and change things.

This Requires an UNDERSTANDING of your Problems and Having Solutions to Fix Them. Last week we talked about the high number of construction companies that fail and some of the reasons this happens. So why is it that construction companies fail so often? We discussed some of those reasons last week. They included things like – a lack of funding or poor cash flow, poor production performance on projects and not having a good business plan. If you want to BUILD your dream construction company, you need a plan…a Blueprint for BUILDing a Better Business.

It Has More to do With Business and Less to do With Construction. We’ve all seen construction companies get started and then go out of business. The real factors that brought about construction company failures are internal and within the owner’s control. The good news is, that the next generation of construction businesses can learn from their forefathers’ mistakes and avoid failing for the same reasons. Owning or managing a construction business is a hard thing to do. And to do so successfully is especially hard. The solutions to problems that can put construction companies out of business may not be easy. It takes a lot of planning, production management, hard work, and discipline to keep the business running successfully.