Addresses the full range of financial & legal concerns of the more than 800,000 small-shop contractors & tradespeople in the U. S., from submitting accurate bids, including overhead & fixed costs in their bids, & charging a fair price for their work.

Have you ever wondered what designers and builders really think about their clients, or why it matters? David Skuodas spent the past several years asking vendors in the construction industry the following question: "Why does it matter to be a good client?" Skuodas interviewed over 50 consultants, contractors, and client project managers about this topic. He asked them what differentiates a good client from a bad client, and how the client affects the cost, schedule, and quality of a project. He also asked vendors what conditions allow them to do their best work, and conversely, what might an owner do that makes it difficult for vendors to do their jobs effectively? This book allows you to peek behind the curtain and find out how designers and builders really differentiate between good and bad clients. You will learn how client behavior affects the price and quality of work - and even how designers and builders choose their clients. That's right, just because you have a project to bid doesn't anybody has to bid it. This book offers practical advice on how you can improve your standing with designers and builders so you can become a client of choice. Make no mistake: owners are in competition with each other for a very limited pool of capable designers and builders. Being a desirable customer is smart business, this book will show you how.

This book is written in grey hair and wrinkles! The truth is you don't need a lot of time- or a business degree- to build a million dollar construction business. You just need the simple systems that everyone else is keeping a secret . Construction millionaires not only exist, they are created every day. Most have made their fortunes not because they got one lucky break, but because they figured out how to work smart, not just hard. Once you finally understand the secrets to success there is absolutely no limit for where you can take your company.Dominic Rubino creates construction millionaires- and multi-millionaires. He's done it for himself, and he has shown others how to do it as well.This book is the blueprint on how to work from the neck up. How to work smarter, how to grow and leverage the right systems and ways of doing things in your business so you can skip the trial-and-error that could literally waste your entire life.You should read this with the goal of getting first to 1 M in revenue, then using the same information to get you to 1 M in profits.There are secrets to success. Unfortunately they don't get taught in school, and people who know them usually don't share them. Now, I'm sharing them here. I have to.

"The Contractor Fight" is what HGTV host and best-selling author Tom Reber calls the battle between your ears. We all have stories and experiences that have formed us into who we are. We are what we think, and the battleground is our mind. The Fight is not with the people you think are "cheap customers." It's not with the unlicensed competitors or the "illegals," as many contractors think. The Fight is with yourself. Sadly, most of the struggles contractors have are self-imposed. It's friendly fire. The negative ways we think about ourselves and our worth... friendly fire. The growing debt, working too much, small bank account... friendly fire. Winning the Fight is a choice. You're noble and full of integrity. You bend over backward to serve your family and clients. You have taken it on the chin more times than you can count. Now, it's time to get yours. Earn what you're worth. Create a business that serves you and energizes you, instead of one that beats you down. Choose to own your crap and get better today.

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.

Construction industry business coach, speaker, and author, Shawn Van Dyke, has taken the core concepts of Mike Michalowicz's Profit First and customized them to address the specific needs of the construction industry. Profit First for Contractors addresses the major struggles contractors face and provides clear and actionable guidance on how to overcome them. Shawn shows contractors how to go from simply getting by to becoming permanently profitable. This book is for every construction business owner who dreams of prosperity. Using Van Dyke's Profit First for Contractors system, readers will learn how to break out of the "craftsman cycle" - the seemingly never-ending loop of urgent tasks and responsibilities that keep contractors from gaining traction toward their important goals. He guides construction business owners how to understand their financial statements and how to use them to determine the markup and margin that lead to profits. You will also learn hot to develop solid rules of thumb for the operation of your construction businesses, and how to implement an effective cash management plan that simplifies accounting and leverages normal human behavior. Using real-life stories from actual construction business owners, step-by-step advice, and his conversational twang, Van Dyke puts permanent profitability within reach of every construction business owner.

In order to succeed in a construction business you have to be able to mark up the price of your jobs to cover overhead expenses and make a decent profit. The problem is how much to mark it up. You don't want to lose jobs because you charge too much, and you don't want to work for free because you've charged too little. If you know how much to mark up you can apply it to your job costs and arrive at the right sales price for your work. This book gives you the background and the calculations necessary to easily figure the markup that is right for your business. Includes a CD-ROM with forms and checklists for your use.