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Agreements Prevent Disagreements - Agreements Prevent Disagreements - Preventing the Need for Change Orders.
Alternative Dispute Resolution - Your contracts should have a clause for an ADR, or alternative dispute resolution. This diverts any dispute from going to civil litigation, meaning instead of the courthouse- and suffering the costs involved in that- you have an alternative means of achieving a solution.
Are You In Uniform - Are you uniform? How inconsistent marketing can lead to inconsistent work.
Book Your Booth - Are you uniform? How inconsistent marketing can lead to inconsistent work.
Change Orders More Money - There are trade shows and expos for just about everything these days! Pets, extreme sports, bridal, children and more. But perhaps the most popular and most long-standing of all is the home show.
Construction Contract Clauses - If your company is not using change orders, you could be missing out on some income potential, as well as missing out on an opportunity to increase your credibility. Here’s why.
Customer Service Starts At The Top - Have you ever walked out of a store because a salesperson was rude? Perhaps took your business elsewhere because no one bothered to ask if you needed help? The success of your company is directly related to the quality of the individuals you have on the payroll.
Estimating CostRecords Key To Accuracy - When faced with a current situation on what to do, one of the first questions we ask ourselves is, “What has worked in the past?” The only way to look back to keep good records- this way, you have archives to study.
Getting Your Clients Ready - Before you even pull up to the site with your crew and tools in tow, you’ve spent a lot of time with your clients. You’ve spoke with them on the phone, visited their site for an estimate, talked over the project with them, discussed designers, materials and more. But still, through all this, you want to make the transition to the job itself to be smooth. Keeping your clients in the loop, especially as to what their responsibilities are, is important.
Getting Your Final Payment - You’ve got a down payment; most of the materials are paid for. The job is done, you’ve cleaned up and went home. Your customer thanks you and says the check is in the mail for the final amount owed.
Improving Your Sales Pitch - You are a master of your trade. Doing the job is the easy part. But sometimes, it is getting the job that is the most trying part of the business. This article will give you some pointers on how to land the job through a killer presentation.
Making Your Shop The place To Work - In the trades, your people are your most important asset. Hiring a competent, professional and hard working crew is absolutely vital to the continued success of your business. Perhaps the easiest way to find excellent people is to make your company someplace people want to work.
On The Job Training - Training new employees, or those with general skills, can be done in two different ways, planned and spontaneous. The focus of this article will highlight how training on the spot can be a real treat to your employees, as well as increase immediate productivity.
Paying Your Employees - Are you employees paid under the table? That is a common practice among the construction industry. However, there are some major benefits to your employees by paying them with a legitimate paycheck.
Permanent Wood Foundations - Permanent wood foundations (PWF) have been in existence for many years. Yet, talk to many contractors and you’ll find relatively few have actually investigated this method for building a warm, dry and comparatively easy basement or crawlspace.
Polishing Communications Skills - You may be the best darn man for the job, but the slightest miscommunication can result in an unhappy client. This can be combated my taking a quick look at how you are communicating with your customers.
Preparing The JobSite - Before you get started on a project, you must set up your job site properly. Having an organized site will allow you job to run efficiently, as well as make your employees, subcontractors and clients happy.
Referral Program Revenue - Face it. When people have something nice and new, they like to brag. If someone builds a new home, they have a housewarming party. If someone gets a new deck, they have a barbeque.
Scheduled Training - With changes in technology occurring everyday- and will continue to occur, even the most senior and skilled employees you have will need to be trained to adapt to changes. There are several things you can do, aside from on the job training with your company to maximize training efforts.
Talk To Everyone - Looking for a free way to advertise your business? You are thinking, yeah, word of mouth, right? Sure, that’s great. But, you probably are thinking word of mouth in a sense of customers telling their circle of friends. You are probably not thinking about your own mouth. I have a story to tell you that will show how an opportunity could be lost in the blink of an eye.
Tis Always The Season - In a previous article, we discussed direct mail. There is another method using the good old postal service that can get your message out there, in a more of a disguised advertisement.
Using The Web To Generate Leads And More - These days, anyone can set up a Website for his or her business. But, missing key is ‘why?’ Are you setting up an Internet home just to have a web presence? If so, there is nothing wrong with that, but you need to have a clear goal in mind when designing your site.
What To Avoid On Your Sales Call - Some previous articles gave contractors tips on what to do to make a successful sales call. In this piece, we will tell you some things NOT to do.
Where To Find Skilled Workers - When you need to find some good employees, but do not know where to look, consider these options as an alternative to your typical ‘Help Wanted’ ads.
Wide Open Spaces - As comedian George Carlin once said, “A house is just a place for your stuff. You get a bigger house, you get more stuff.” But what if you have a lot of stuff, but do not have the means to get a bigger house? Welcome to an opportunity for business- making space!
Winning Government Jobs - There’s an enormous amount of work needed by government agencies. After all, these local, state and Federal agencies are the people we pay taxes to in order to keep our infrastructure up and running. So why aren’t you seeing any of the work? Obtaining government work can be frustrating and tedious, but with the sheer volume of work available, any contractor would have to be in a coma not to be at least tempted to go after some of the contracts being offered.
Your Portable Office - You have an ample office with all the amenities an office should have. But do you find yourself away from the office most of the time? If you are on the road quite a bit, you may want to equip your car or truck with a scaled down version of your business office.
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