Construction Business Management: What Every Construction Contractor, Builder & Subcontractor Needs

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• The duties of the owner of a successful construction business.
• Essential terms and conditions to include and exclude in contracts.
• Commandments to follow to ensure you're paid what you're owed, including step-by-step change-order procedures to avoid disputes and non-payment.
• Strict do's and don'ts of mechanics' liens including when an owner goes bankrupt.
• What must be done administratively before breaking ground on every project.
• How to select, hire, and keep "golden" employees.
• Ways you can target, check-out, land, and retain profitable customers.
• Effective marketing even the smallest contractor can afford.
• How to identify the accountants, lawyers, and insurance agents that are right for you.
• The What, When, Where, and Why of licensing and registration.
• The advantages of specializing, including the opportunities in chain store construction.
• More than 40 construction, government, and other valuable online resources.

Whether you're a contractor, a key employee, a subcontractor, a student, or a facility executive, you'll find many ideas you can immediately add to your management and leadership toolbox. Adopting even a single one of them will pay dividends now and throughout your career.

Here are some of the specific issues discussed in this book:

• How to know whether you're cut out to own and run your own business.
• What you must know and do as the owner of your construction firm.
• The clear advantages of specializing within general contracting.
• Ways you can target, check-out, land, and retain profitable customers (the lifeblood of your company).
• How to select, hire and keep golden employees (the heart).
• Terms and conditions to include in your bids and your contracts with owners to reduce the chance of disputes and misunderstandings.
• Commandments you must follow to best endure that you will be paid what you are owed, including step-by-step change-order procedures necessary to avoid disputes and nonpayment.
• The strict do's and don'ts of mechanics' liens.
• The What, When, Where, and Why of licensing and registration and the extreme risk you take if you ignore the rules.
• Terms detrimental to contractors that are often present in owner-prepared construction agreements.
• Subcontract terms and conditions most likely to result in best outcomes.
• What must be done administratively before you break ground on a project.
• Proactive selection and use of accountants, lawyers, and insurance agents to steer you through the minefields in their areas of knowledge.
• The common, sometimes fatal judgement errors contractors make, often during their most profitable times.
• The potentially ruinous pitfalls to avoid in insurance coverage.
• Why a strong reading habit is so important to your success.
• The personal philosophy and attitude required for success in construction.
• Corporate organization and administrative methods.
• Links to useful construction, government and other resources online.
• The supreme importance of the human factor, as seen most clearly in chapters exclusively devoted to describing the contractor's role as owner of his firm, selecting and keeping the right employees, marketing, creating customer loyalty, assessing the required personal characteristics contractors must possess, and selecting the right outside professionals.

Contents

* Preface * Acknowledgements * Chapter 1: Do you have what it takes * Chapter 2: Your role as owner of your construction firm * Chapter 3: Sales, marketing and business development *Chapter 4: Creating customer loyalty * Chapter 5: Business considerations * Chapter 6: Controlling your finances * Chapter 7: Bidding * Chapter 8: Building it. * Chapter 9: Accounting and record keeping * Chapter 10: Contract terms and conditions * Chapter 11: You and your employees * Chapter 12: You and your subcontractors * Chapter 13: Banking and finance * Chapter 14: Insurance and bonds * Chapter 15: Specializing in chain store construction * Appendix 1: If you're just getting started * Appendix 2: Useful Web site links. * Appendix 3: Regional cross reference of construction-related organizations * Appendix 4: Potential questions for interviewing job applicants * Glossary * References * Index.