CLEAN UP YOUR BOOKS

CLEAN UP YOUR BOOKS

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...
Insights into the Risk of Failure

Insights into the Risk of Failure

INSIGHTS INTO THE RISK OF FAILURE If that’s all it takes to succeed in the construction business is a pickup truck, a box of tools, a cast-iron stomach, and a forgiving wife, why do so many contractors fail? Check next to the causes listed below that you believe most...
How to Go Bankrupt

How to Go Bankrupt

“How did you go Bankrupt?” “Two Ways…gradually…then suddenly.” (The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway) Subject: financial planning Ernest Hemingway, apparently knew more about business failure than some executives, scholars, and politicians gathered around the recent...
Current Construction Recovery

Current Construction Recovery

Current Construction Recovery Top Line vs. Bottom Line   Since 2012 the construction industry has been enjoying a robust recovery. In this blog I have been alerting contractors to the business risks hidden in the euphoria of construction market upswings. Now that we...
A Negative Bias

A Negative Bias

A Negative Bias We called this blog “Let’s Talk Business” (letstalkbusiness.net) because we wanted to emphasize business management issues in construction as opposed to operations, engineering, or design. Many senior managers in the construction industry started as...