by Simplar | Apr 10, 2025 | Business Failure, Business Failure, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
My portrayal of the start-up process of most mom-and-pop contracting firms (which represent a huge portion of the $ 2.1 trillion industry) in last week’s blog was meant to describe the natural recruiting and training process that founders engage in as firms...
by Simplar | Apr 3, 2025 | Business Failure, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Leadership, Leadership, Leadership, Weekly Construction Message
The First Projects “How recruiting and training begins.” After a contracting company gets underway, the founder rarely works on the job site. In the startup stage, the founder is usually involved in procuring materials and looking around the market for the next...
by Simplar | Mar 27, 2025 | Leadership, Leadership, Project Selection, Weekly Construction Message
The construction industry is a significant part of the U.S. economy with total construction spending reaching $2.1 trillion in 2024, produced by over a million individual construction companies. To get a clearer picture of how this vast industry works, and how these...
by Simplar | Feb 13, 2025 | Built Environment, Business Development, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Change Management, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Growth, Growth, Labor & Labor Issues, Leadership, Leadership, Managing Subcontractors, Project Selection, Project Teams, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Designers avoid risk, owners prefer to pass it along, and contractors absorb it. Today’s construction risk environment is dramatically different than it was in the last several decades, and risk factors are mutating just enough to be almost unrecognizable. It is...
by Simplar | Feb 6, 2025 | Built Environment, Business Development, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Leadership, Organizational Change Management, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Contracting is a risky business that works because contractors are risk takers. Every time we acquire a new project we are leaping into the unknown. No one has ever built this next project, and no one can predict its uncertain outcome. Is there uncertainty that the...
by Simplar | Jan 30, 2025 | Business Development, Business Failure, Business of Construction, Business, Strategic & Project Planning, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Leadership, Leadership, Project Selection, Project Selection, Weekly Construction Message
Don’t let the project pick you. In other words, don’t be tempted to take any project that comes along. Too many contractors scour the marketplace for any project they might be able to snag. They fashion a bid that they think will be competitive but often...
