by Simplar | Jul 23, 2026 | Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Growth, Leadership, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
“If you don’t know where you’re going – you’re probably not going to get there.” I quote this ancient Chinese proverb every time I talk about strategic planning. The contracting business does not lend itself to long-term planning....
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...
by Simplar | Apr 9, 2026 | Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Leadership, Organization Transformation
We are discussing how unexamined beliefs about the nature and structure of the construction business transaction have had a corrosive effect on contractor profit margins for the past 50 years. The resulting standard business practices followed by all construction...
by Simplar | Feb 12, 2026 | Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Project Delivery, Weekly Construction Message
Most construction companies start out as simple closely held operations that can be run by the seat of any rational person’s pants. A unique feature of the construction industry, however, is that mom and pop businesses can grow very quickly into large complex...
by Simplar | Jan 22, 2026 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Project Selection, Project Selection, Weekly Construction Message
The human mind is a problem-solving machine. It takes in data through the 5 senses then stores and classifies the data as either good or bad for survival of the entity. The brain then amplifies the “good” classification with neurotransmitters like...
by Simplar | Jan 10, 2026 | Built Environment, Business Development, Business Development, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Labor & Labor Issues, Leadership, Project Delivery, Weekly Construction Message
Even as the New Year has dawned, I offer these final thoughts on the year just passed. If I could sum up this past year’s dialogue into one overall theme I would say, “Managing a construction business is a completely different activity from managing a...
