Practical, simple record-keeping, contracts, bidding, management for the small contractor. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

How you can make your construction company more profitable. A 'must read' before you price your next project.Many construction companies fail despite the hard work and knowledge of their managers and owners. Some companies even start well, earning good profits, building successful projects, and the company grows - only for it all to come crashing down, often leaving a mountain of debts behind. So why do construction companies fail? Is it due to bad luck?This book explores important aspects of managing a construction company that impact its success and profitability. Obviously managers should have an understanding of running a business as well as the appropriate technical skills. But, it's usually more than this. The chapters in this book focus on the importance of selecting the right project, how to find projects, tendering correctly, winning the project, delivering the project, avoiding unnecessary costs, increasing revenue, financial and contractual controls, managing the company, the importance of good people, growing the company and ensuring the company has a good reputation.The chapters are set out in an easy to read format, filled with practical tips, which provide a step-by-step guide to growing profits, remaining profitable and running a successful construction company.

Revised edition of Start your own construction and contracting business, 2013.

This detailed overview of the construction contracting business delivers an invaluable collection of best practices, forms, templates, and checklists designed to reduce risks and increase profits. Contractors will learn everything they need to know about the make-or-break areas of estimating, pricing, bidding, project management, and financial management. The author is well-known in the industry, with a weekly newsletter, website, online digest, regular column for Contractor magazine, and 70-plus seminar bookings for 2006 Extensive examples and illustrations help readers apply the insights offered

This incisive, practical guide provides a thorough breakdown of the ins and outs everyone needs to know when turning contracting skills into a business. From summoning the motivation to start your own business to the intricacies of being your own boss, Claudiu Fatu artfully turns his personal experiences and those of other successful contractors into advice on every aspect of building a business. The chapters focus on: Developing a business structure, including bank accounts, tax registration, insurance, and branding Handling legal and accounting hurdles Managing employees and dealing with clients Using marketing systems to find and book work Estimating and bidding on jobs Writing contracts Creating invoices and a billing system Controlling costs, keeping records, and understanding profit margin Planning retirement and other benefits for the self-employed By teaching contractors to anticipate problems that can arise when dealing with clients, and to build a business plan that can support a contractor’s talents in the best way possible, Starting Your Career as a Contractor is the ultimate manual to getting the job done right! Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

Only 43 per cent of U.S. construction firms remain in business after four years. Why? Inadequate management, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. This is surprising because most construction firms are formed by ambitious construction project managers, executives and tradesmen who have excelled at what they have been doing. But as experienced as these entrepreneurs may be, they are not likely prepared to take on the full range of responsibilities forced on them in managing the business of construction in its entirety. While this business failure rate and its causes are based on U.S. experience, available data from a number of other industrialized countries shows they are similar. This book describes in detail what the business side of the construction equation requires of the construction firm owner. The contractor who quickly learns these requirements can identify and avoid or manage around the pitfalls that cause the high failure rate in our industry and put his or her construction firm on a level playing field with the best-run companies in the business. The detailed duties of the owner, whether in the U.S., U.K., Australia or Canada, are a common theme throughout the book. The author, Nick Ganaway, speaks peer-to-peer, and the book is sprinkled with supporting examples from his own experience. He is immersed in the industry and this book is "based on the things I've learned, used, and refined as a light-commercial general contractor in the course of starting and operating my own construction firm for 25 years." The contractor doing $5 million or $50 million or more in annual sales or the equivalent amount in other countries, or the entrepreneur who is just starting up, can use the tried and proven material in this book to build a business that is profitable, enjoyable, and enduring. Additionally, the book devotes a chapter to specializing in chain-store construction.

The turnover rate for companies in the construction industry is high. This book identifies the ten key elements of contractor failure and shows how to avoid them. Each element of failure is defined, illustrated by real examples, and ways are discussed to avoid or minimize the risks involved. The final chapter shows how to bring all these elements together to develop a positive and workable management strategy. This survival guide should prove invaluable to the 1.4 million individual construction-industry businesses in this country.