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Learning How to Get a Construction Project Started Out Right

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John Gets Excited About His First Meeting with Gene

As usual John had been on the go, nonstop, trying to keep construction projects moving forward, collecting money, paying bills, meeting with new potential customers when he realized, he had six projects that needed proposals. As he thought about this, he realized it had been more than two weeks since he had talked with Gene about how to do proposals.

He picked up the phone and dialed Gene’s number. “Hey Gene, this is John, have you got a few minutes?” “Sure,” Gene said, “What can I do for you?” “I just realized that I’ve got six projects that need priced. This reminded me of our conversation a few weeks back when you offered to go through your bidding process with me. Does that offer still stand?”

“Sure,” said Gene, “when would you like to meet?” John thought for a minute realizing he wasn’t sure when he would have time to squeeze this in. “I don’t know Gene, as usual I’m booked pretty full.” Gene waited for a minute and then said, “I understand. Think back to what you said in our previous conversation. Do you remember how frustrated you were?”

“Your situation isn’t going to change until YOU decide to make it change.”

John rubbed his forehead. He knew Gene was right. “Okay”, John said, “I can squeeze in an hour or two Saturday. Would that work for you?” Gene shook his head and smiled, remembering what it was like to be where John is.

Then he said, “John I appreciate where you are, but the process of getting from where you are, to where I am, isn’t going to happen in an hour or two. I’ve been doing it for forty years. If you can commit to four hours Saturday, I will be glad to meet with you.”

“Realize, YOU are the only one that has the power to make this change.”

John sat there with all the things that needed done, bouncing around in his head. Then he thought about how tired he was of feeling out of control. Once again, he knew his mentor was right. Gene had taught him so much about construction and how to build things.

Now it was time to learn about the business part of construction.

“Okay,” said John, “How about we meet at noon on Saturday and I’ll bring the pizza.” Gene said, “That sounds great and we can get started, but that’s all this meeting will be…getting started. Like I said before I’ve being doing this for years. It takes work, it takes commitment, but the end result is worth it.”

“It’s more than just learning. It’s a lifestyle change.”

“John, most people in construction never learned the business side of operating a business. This is where they struggle until they get to a point where they give up. Bring an open mind and an open heart and be ready to have them both filled.”

“Nothing is going to change until you take action and do something.”

Now John was getting excited and looking forward to meeting with his friend and mentor and making some changes in his life. He was beginning to realize that a getting a construction project started out right, begins long before any construction takes place.

What is “Business Clarity” and How Do You Find It?

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A Lack of Knowledge and Inexperience Threatens Your Dreams

Once again, John was alone at the office late on a Saturday night working to get at least one more proposal done, before going home. He had promised four different customers their proposals this week. If all goes well, he’ll have this second one finished before midnight.

As John crunches numbers hoping he hasn’t forgotten anything, he asks himself, “Why am I doing this? I could go to work for somebody else and make more money and work less hours. This sure isn’t how I pictured it five years ago when I started the company.”

“I had no idea that running my own business would be this hard!”

John rubs his eyes and stretches his back and thinks, “I must be doing something wrong. When I was working for Gene at XYZ Construction he made things look easy. I wonder what he was doing different.”

John has been working like crazy all week long. Between production help not showing up, materials not being delivered on time, cost overruns and computer issues…projects are behind schedule, he’s losing money and even if he works tomorrow he’s going to have to disappoint at least one of the customers waiting on a proposal.

“How am I ever going to turn this around?”

When John finishes the proposal and looks at the clock, it says 12:40. It’s already Sunday he thinks and he still needs to proofread it, print it and sign it. Something has got to change! “I’ve been leaving home early and getting home late all week. I haven’t even spoken with my wife for days. I’m calling Gene Monday to see how he did things.”

First thing Monday morning John called Gene. After a few minutes of catching up, John asked Gene the question that he couldn’t quit thinking about. “Gene, I’ve been working day and night trying to keep up. When I worked for you it seemed like you had everything figured out. You weren’t stressed and when things didn’t work out as planned. Your customers understood what to expect with their projects and were happy when they were finished. What am I doing wrong?”

That’s the question that almost every business owner asks themselves.

“Know this,” Gene said, “When I started my business, I was just like you. I struggled to keep up, worked too many hours, neglected my family, was mad at myself for letting down my customers, my family and myself. I kept asking myself that same question. What am I doing wrong?”

“By the time you were working for me, I had figured some things out. It’s amazing what you can learn when going to the “school of hard knocks”. Keep in mind this is the most common process but isn’t the most effective.”

“What really turned my business around was when I found out about Solution Building’s, Blueprint for Building a Better Business.”

Think about how much easier and better a construction project goes when you have a plan. The same thing is true for a business. A plan gives you direction, keeps everyone involved working together and improves the odds for a successful outcome.

“John, if this is something you would be interested in, I would recommend starting with the, ‘Blueprint for Building a Better Proposal’. This is the most important and most neglected part of construction communication. If you’d like I would be happy to meet with you and go through the process and answer any questions.”

“If you know of any other construction companies that you think could use some help doing proposals share this information with them and they can meet with us too.”

“There’s a lot more to the ‘Blueprint for Building a Better Business’, but starting out, you should focus on the proposal system. After you get this part implemented, we can discuss which part of the business blueprint system would be best for you next.” After talking with Gene, John thought, “I’m sure glad I made this call. For the first time in a long time I feel like there might be a light at the end of the tunnel that wasn’t an oncoming train.”

The New Website Is Here, The New Website Is Here

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“Things Are Going to Start Happening to Me Now”

Just like Navin R. Johnson in the movie, The Jerk, we all want to be somebody. Being somebody is more than just having your name in print in the new phone book…

or having a new website.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be excited about the newly rebuilt Solution Building website…because we are! It’s been a long process but totally worth it. Thanks Stacey with Custom Internet Services, for another fantastic job. This site is every bit as good as the Timber Creek Construction site.

Like Navin, we all start out wanting something but aren’t sure what it is or where we’ll find it. Navin’s search is filled with up and downs, successes and failures. He could have avoided some of his heartache if he’d only had access to a website where someone was sharing what they had learned from similar experiences.

Struggles are a part of life but can be reduced if we’ll some get help.

My hope for this new Solution Building website is twofold. First it is to help prevent construction companies who are struggling with a lack of business knowledge and understanding from becoming overwhelmed and unprofitable. Second is to help their customers avoid disappointment and frustration by knowing what to expect from the construction process.

We will do this by providing businesses with systems and training to make them more efficient and profitable while educating customers in what to expect through the entire construction experience.

When construction companies have the tools they need and customers know what to expect, both can achieve their dreams.

The first tool that we’re offering is the Blueprint for Building a Better Proposal. This tool consists of templates, samples and instructions on how to use the system. We are also offering a day long live workshop coming up on March 13th, where you will be given more in depth teaching and training.

You can find out more about this in these posts:

This is designed to help companies in the construction industry prepare consistent, clear accurate proposals for their customers. If you or someone you know would benefit from this Blueprint for Building a Better Proposal system, send them this link so that they can build better proposals.

Deciding What Should Be First on The List

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It’s Amazing How Things Become Clear with A Limited Amount of Time

 

There are so many things trying to get on the “to do” list and each one competing for the top position. Deciding which one should get that spot is tough. There are so many great and important things that we need or want to do.


It’s easy to say that we have limited time, but hard to actually schedule that way.


My computer’s battery is not lasting as long as it did when it was new. Recently while working out of the office, without the power cord, I had 2-3 things that I wanted to get done before the computer shut down. This limited time forced me to sort and prioritize them.


How do we decide what to say yes to? 


Emergency situations often require triage. This is the process of prioritizing patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition and the resources available. In these situations, victims are divided into three categories.

 

  • Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive;
  • Those who are unlikely to live, regardless of what care they receive:
  • Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome.

 

These choices aren’t easy and often require a quick “gut decision”. A pre-determined system, training and experience aid in the process and provide for the greatest number of survivors.


Another life and death choice is deciding who gets a transplant when there are a limited number of organ donations available. Take for example a set of twins who both need a liver transplant and their father has one liver to give. Which little girl gets it? The early thoughts of a father would be to give half to each. The problem with this, half would help neither. The final decision will be determined by which one needs it most or which one is most likely to survive.

 


Most of the choices that we make in business aren’t this critical…or are they? The decisions we make can mean life or death for our business.

 

In medical life or death situations there is a system and plan in place before hand. This same type of system should be implemented in our business. We should predetermine how we are going to choose the most important thing to the life of our business. This is where things get hard.

 


What makes one thing more important than another?


 

What should be the highest priority? Should it be production or proposals, record keeping or customer service, marketing or staff? We’re faced with tough decisions in business every day.

 


I can’t answer this question for you, but I’m tired of struggling with this dilemma and plan to design and implement a “business triage” system going forward.


What will give my business the highest chance for survival?

How To Win The Race Of Business

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You Win by Never Quitting

 

It’s NASCAR race weekend in Kansas City. My brother-in-law and I have already enjoyed Saturday’s race. There were several things that happened late in the race that changed the expected outcome. The winner of the race was not the one who lead most of the race, but he kept racing until the last lap and won.


Currently we are sitting in the hotel lobby, waiting to get back into our room, which we are locked out of and our stuff is inside the room. It appears that the battery on the electronic code reader is dead. Technology’s great…when it works.


I’m writing this on the hotel’s computer in the lobby since my computer is locked in the room.


Most people would say the only way to win a race, is to finish ahead of everyone else. I would argue that there are other ways you can win. For me winning is as much about staying true to values and core principles as it is finishing first. There are races inside of the race. Points accumulated toward the championship, sponsor visibility, etc.


When racing you need to be ready for whatever challenge is around the next corner. (Like being locked out of your hotel room.) There are other drivers, wrecks, breakdowns, all things that are out of your control. Things learned in this race or this season, help me to race better. Winning is how you deal with difficult situations.


This doesn’t mean you should race without passion or a desire to win.

 


In racing there are pit stops and caution flags that give you a chance to catch your breath and regroup. The same is true in business. Take advantage of these opportunities when you get them.


It takes more than a driver to win a race. It takes a good team, a good system and good equipment. Business is no different.


Winning the race is about how you run it.


Galatians 5:7, 2 Timothy 4:7 and 1 Corinthians 9:24


Three hours and we’re back in our room. The hotel was very apologetic, they comped our room, gave us free breakfast coupons and additional points. They had a computer and it served me well.


I’m going to call it a day so that tomorrow we can race another day.

When you win…remember to celebrate.

This video is from the Sunday race, 10/20/19

How To Balance Passion and Profit In Business

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It Doesn’t Have to Be One or The Other

 

Why is it that the owners of small businesses struggle to even make minimum wage? When you factor in the number of hours and amount of stress that most small business owners endure, often it’s less.


I had this conversation with a local contractor last week. The same conversation I’ve had with different contractors, including myself, repeatedly over the years.


Self-employed people are generally in business for one of two reasons. They either love what they do or they’re in it to make all the money they can. The ones who focus on quality and service usually don’t put enough effort into profit. On the other side, the ones who focus on profit, do so while neglecting the quality and service.


Let’s look at some of the reasons for this problem.


In a Score Contracts blog post, “8 Reasons Why Small Businesses Are Not Making Money” they list eight reasons. Most of these you have heard or experienced, but some are worth repeating.


#2 – They don’t know what they’re doing. They are technicians or trades people trying to run a business. They need to have a business plan in place and use it.


#5 – Poor thinking. Most are hard workers but have poor thinking habits. They spend more time planning their meals, vacations and daily chores than they do their life.


#6 – Lack of education. Not formal schooling, rather self-motivated expansion of knowledge like reading, studying, courses, on the job training.


#8 – Self-doubt or fear. Most people quit before they even get started. They look at the options and then talk themselves out of even giving it a real try.

 


Here are some additional reasons that small businesses find it difficult to make money, found in a blog post “17 Truths About Running Your Own Business”. 


#1 – You can’t be everything to everyone. You need to decide what your priorities are, be selective and learn to say no to the things that aren’t.


 

#6 – Your business isn’t a piggy bank. You can’t just spend money on everything you want without a plan. You need to be sure to have money for taxes, equipment or building repairs, investments, etc.

 


#8 – You can’t do everything. You need help. You need a team and they need to be good. You need to know what that looks like and how to get them.


#10 – Your customers are your most important asset. Treat them as such.


#17 – You are your own most important client. You need to spend some time every day working on your business and not in your business. If you don’t take care of the business, it won’t last.

 


What are we going to do to make our business profitable while being true to our passion?


As is the case generally, everyone’s specific situation is different. The important thing is to listen, learn and apply information learned. If you learn new things and don’t use them, they’re worthless.


Application is the hard part.


Because we have struggled ourselves with finding a business system to fit our needs, we decided to develop a user-friendly business system that can be tailored to different business’s needs including training and implementation support.

 

 


It doesn’t have to be only passion or profit; IT CAN BE BOTH.


Here are some previous posts about some of our business system thoughts and struggles.


Building Your Business Is Critical to The Survival of The Business
Be Careful About Short Table Legs
What Does It Take to Be a Builder?
The First Next Thing to Building A Better Business

 

Share business struggles that you or someone you know has had in the comments below. This will be helpful to us as we design the system.

 

 

Rome Wasn’t Built in A Day and Neither Is A Colossal Website

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A Website Isn’t as Important as Rome, But Pretty Close

 

 

We’re in the process of rebuilding our Timber Creek Construction web site to freshen it up and provide a clearer and more informative message. Whether building Rome or a website, both are big projects. I thought it would be good to share –


The reasons behind the rebuild


A sneak peek at what’s coming

 

Why does anyone even bother having a website anyway?


According to How Stuff Works, “A website lends an air of credibility – it lets people know that you’re serious and ready to do business. It’s a guaranteed sales booster and a whole lot less expensive than buying ads.” So, if you’re in business and you want to connect with someone who might need your product or service, having a website is a good thing.


Okay, but we already have a website, why do we need to rebuild it?


 

 

That’s a good question and one that I asked myself. What’s wrong with the site we have? It’s not that old. We built it when we started Timber Creek Construction…in…2003. Okay, so that’s a little longer ago than I thought. It was cutting edge then but now…not so much. It took someone on the outside to bring this to my attention.

 


We need to clarify our message.


There is a whole list of issues that customers typically have with building contractors, almost all of them come down to one thing – poor communication. Good communication takes two, but in a business to customer relationship the majority of this responsibility lies on the contractor. Clearer, better communication is one of the main things that we hope to accomplish with the new website.


One way to improve the communication is to improve contractor’s business systems. Most small construction companies knew how to do their trade when they started their business but didn’t have any idea how to manage the operational part of their company.


As I looked closer at the Timber Creek website, I discovered that both Timber Creek Construction and Solution Building’s messages at the foundation were the same. In both cases we help people find solutions for building their dreams, whether that’s constructing a building or an operating system to run a more effective business.


Helping small businesses develop and implement business systems and informing and educating the customer is the purpose for Solution Building.

 


Let us know about any issues or problems that you’ve have with construction projects or operating your business in the comments below.


We will be sharing progress updates and more details of both Timber Creek Construction and Solution Building in future posts.

One of the Biggest Issues in Business Is Over Promising

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Why in the World Do We Do This and What Are We Going to Do About It?

 

 

I received a phone call from a gentleman asking about a problem he was having with a leaking metal roof on his shop building. As normal when confronted by a situation like this I began asking questions.

 


Early in the conversation I found out some important pieces of information. First, he thought he had called his contractor neighbor. Second, they live almost a hundred miles away. I pointed out the distance and unlikeliness of my coming that far to do a project.

 


This didn’t stop him from needing answers to questions.

 

 


As the conversation continued, he shared about his problem and I (being the solution seeking contractor that I am) continued to discuss his situation with him. Then I found myself looking for ideas to solve his problems, all the time thinking to myself, why are you doing this when you know he’s so far away and you’re already doing too much.


Near the end of the discussion, I agreed that if he would send me some pictures and a written description of what the problems were, I would give him an estimate…strictly from a consulting perspective of course.

 


You know you have too much to do. Why did you do that?

 


As we ended the conversation, I told him that I was busy and would get him something as quick as I could. He proceeded to tell me a story about several experiences he had with people in the construction industry that had made promises and then not kept them. He asked why this happens? I’ve asked myself this question many times.


The question of over promising is rampant. I know that in my business it raises its ugly head daily, whether it’s sub-contractors, suppliers, IT people, mechanics or my own schedule. I certainly believe that most of the situations of over promising that I experience are not done from a place of malice. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s still being done.


Why does over promising continue and what am I going to do about it?


 

Maybe this isn’t the right question. Andy Andrews says that “The quality of your answers is determined by the quality of your questions.” I’m thinking that maybe my question isn’t very good.

 

 


This is a big issue, as you can see from these previous posts.

Over Promising Is Easy When You Have A Servant’s Heart
5 Ways to Stop Over Promising and Under Delivering
How to Create Realistic Expectations for Customers – Part 1
Honesty Is the Best Policy – I Don’t Care How Hard It Is

 

 

I’m not going to stop looking for an answer to this question.

 

 

Is Real Customer Service a Thing of the Past?

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It Doesn’t Have to Be

 

Customer service is a term that has been thrown around a lot. It’s often a marketing slogan rather than a core value. In this fast paced, information overloaded time that we’re living in, it’s easier now than ever to become part of the noise and make unrealistic promises.


Customer service is found in the heart, not the head.


When running a business, it’s easy for our focus to be on the bottom line rather than the customer, not that bottom line isn’t important. Bottom line is head thinking. Heart thinking is about serving the customer’s needs. It’s finding out what the customer’s goals are and helping them achieve them.


We all tend to naturally lean in one direction or the other, heart or head. It’s important for us to be clear which we are and adjust accordingly. Once we acknowledge that we can compensate accordingly.

 


If we’re operating our business well, both heart and head will be in sync.

 

 

The problem with heart thinking is that in an effort to help the customer achieve their dream, we over promise. We create unrealistic expectations and then when they aren’t accomplished there is disappointment. We need to be clear with customers and ourselves on what’s realistic and share that with them honestly.


Customer service is not about telling them what they want to hear. It’s about telling them the truth. It is hard to tell someone things that they don’t want to hear, but that’s better than telling them a lie. This kind of honesty is hard for a people pleaser like me. By wanting to help everybody with everything, ultimately, I do the customer and myself both a disservice.


This past week I encountered both sides of the customer service experience.


First – Our air conditioner at home quit one night this past week. The next morning, I made a few calls to HVAC contractors that I use as subs. The only one that answered his phone said that he was busy until later in the day. Then in a few minutes he called back and said that he could be out within the hour. Once there, he diagnosed the problem, it was going to require a new part that he could order and have the next day. Or if I would go to Wichita and get the part he would come back out and put it on. I did and he did, by 1:00 that afternoon the AC was working. Thanks Jim Finney with Finney Heating & Air for great customer service.


Second – I was meeting with a customer about a project that was going to include some painting. I have done a lot of work with this customer over the years and several of them included painting. While talking about the painting the customer told me they didn’t want “that painter” to do the work. When I asked why, they told me about some issues on some separate painting projects they had used him on. These consisted of using lower quality paint than they thought they were getting, scheduling delays, and lying. They had been working with him on a parent’s home painting project that the start date had drug out over two years. They even said they would have been okay with the timetable if the contractor had just been upfront and honest with them.

 

 


We need to start by being honest with ourselves. Figure out who we are and who our customer should be. We can’t’ be everything to everybody and we shouldn’t try.

 

How To Keep A Finger On The Profit Pulse Of Your Company

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Accomplished by A Weekly Profit Comparison

 

Have you ever been shocked when preparing your year-end financial paperwork and you find that profits were not what you expected?

 


You had, what you thought, was a good year. You were busy and working hard all year long. This was an unexpected and disappointing surprise. What happened?

 

There is so much required to operate a business and it’s hard to keep everything balanced. There are three support columns that hold up a company and financial health is a crucial part of one of them. If you neglect to regularly monitor finances, by the time you realize it, that support leg may be too weak to keep the company stable.

 


It’s easy to lose track of things if you aren’t intentional.


Profit and loss reports are easy to prepare, especially if you use a computer bookkeeping program. The problem I had with the profit and loss report was that it didn’t answer questions that I wanted answered, not without doing a lot of extra work. We all struggle with not having enough time to get everything done so, it gets put off and the next thing you know the year’s over.

 

Been there done that. That’s why I developed a Profit Comparison report.

 

I wanted, at a glance, to know if we were on target for the current year’s financial goals. This way adjustments could be made before the financial support leg got too weak. I also wanted to be able to see how the company’s income and expenses compared with last week or last year at any time throughout the year.


The Profit Comparison is an Excel spreadsheet that within a few minutes can be filled out and ready for review. We take information from a standard profit loss report, enter it into the proper places on the spreadsheet and with a few clicks of the mouse it lets us see what the “profit pulse” is. By filling it out and reviewing it every week we can stop bleeding before it becomes fatal.


The Profit Comparison report provides:

  • Comparison of the current Gross Profit to last week, last year and this year’s goal.
  • Comparison of the current Overhead Expenses to last week, last year and this year’s goal.
  • Comparison of the current Net Profit to last week, last year and this year’s goal.
  • Revenue deficiencies or surpluses, providing an opportunity to make necessary adjustments to get and stay on target.
  • Job cost overruns, providing an opportunity to make necessary adjustments to get and stay on target.
  • Excessive overhead expenses, providing an opportunity to make necessary adjustments to get and stay on target.


One of the biggest problems that businesses struggle with is the lack of time to get everything done, this is especially true for small to medium size companies. Financial reports are one of those things that get put off because they aren’t “directly connected” to generating revenue.

 


This simple report can easily provide the “profit pulse of your company” weekly.

 


We are working on developing this Profit Comparison Report complete with instructions into a product available for use by others. If you or someone you know would be interested in this, please let us know in the comments below.