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 | Mar 20, 2025 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
It’s tough to build something on time and exactly as specified. It is even tougher to make money doing it. It seems like the deck is stacked against us. A project in progress is like a leaky vessel that oozes money out of every crack. Cracks can appear in...
by Simplar | Mar 13, 2025 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Risk Management, Risk Management
If risk recognition and assessment is so fundamental to the construction transaction, why do so few contractors engage in formal risk management? This is a question I have been asking myself for 30 years. To begin with contractors are Type A risk takers or they...
by Simplar | Mar 6, 2025 | Built Environment, Business of Construction, Financial Management and Risk, Risk Management, Risk Management
Financial risk is embedded in the nature of construction transactions. Project risk management begins during project selection. Signing a legally enforceable performance contract, for a complexity of services, to be delivered over an extended period, is a high-risk...
