"Contractors" Posts

Contractors are urged not to overlook issues that help determine profitability.

For many businesses, on-the-job training can be an important part of success. No matter how well a student learns the craft, the teacher still retains a certain amount of critical information. If a secret technique or important concept is withheld, the student can lose his or her edge. Never underestimate the importance of on-the-job training. It takes good business sense to sustain growth and profitability.

In the construction industry, most contractors come up through the ranks with little or no formal business training. They must rely on what former …

By Douglas DeRubeis as featured in Construction Today

Successful contractors see the recession as an opportunity for improvement.

You were certain you had done everything right. You won the bids. You generated the sales. Revenue was great, even in this economy. You had dreams of finally taking that vacation. And then, the end-of-year numbers came in—and you actually lost money. You couldn’t believe it. You made the accounting department run the numbers again, but they were right. How could this have happened?

It may sound like a bad dream, but for too many construction companies, it is reality. They seemingly …

By Al Bachman as featured in Construction Today

Do unionized contractors really hold the competitive advantage? Proper management – union or non-union – is the key

When a construction company struggles to succeed, it’s tempting for the owner to find a scapegoat. There’s certainly no shortage of them, whether it’s a soft economy, skyrocketing business costs, cut-throat competition or this perennial favorite: labor unions. Such finger-pointing, however, is an all-too easy way for poor managers to deflect responsibility from themselves. When an owner ignores the real causes of unprofitability long enough, the result is nearly always the same: One more …