by Simplar | Jun 12, 2025 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Leadership, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Contractors often wait too long to employ the business management expertise of a qualified Chief Financial Officer. Small and mid-size businesses across all industries have traditionally left accounting to a bookkeeper, hiring an outside accounting firm to close the...
by Simplar | Nov 3, 2022 | Built Environment, Business Failure, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Weekly Construction Message
CLEAN UP YOUR BOOKS Thomas C Schleifer, Ph.D. While operating the nation’s largest workout firm for sureties, I had occasion to audit the financial statements of hundreds of construction companies that had failed mid-project. While the causes of those failures varied...
by Simplar | Jul 16, 2026 | Business of Construction, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Leadership, Leadership, Organizational Change Management, Succession Planning, Succession Planning, Weekly Construction Message
In my long career as a contractor to a consultant, I have had the good fortune to work with young people who had recently inherited a construction business. Most of these young men and women were already working in the family firm in a middle management or executive...
by Simplar | Jun 25, 2026 | Business Failure, Business Failure, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Risk Management
The instrument rated construction company financial management that we have been discussing these past few weeks is not simply a metaphor. Most of the contractors that failed mid-project when my company was completing construction projects for sureties were surprised...
by Simplar | Jun 18, 2026 | Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Cash Flow (Getting Paid), Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Weekly Construction Message
Managing a day-to-day construction business using the three traditional financial statements alone leaves an important financial metric (Cash Flow) difficult to determine accurately on a real time basis. Using the percentage of completion accounting method results in...