by Jake Smithwick | Dec 27, 2025
… Read the rest “About the Journal”
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 | Jan 17, 2025 | Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Project Selection, Project Selection, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
Profitability in construction begins with project selection. Ours is the only industry that signs a binding contract to sell our service for a fixed price, not knowing exactly what it will cost to provide that service. What’s worse, we bid in a highly...
by Simplar | Nov 7, 2024 | Built Environment, Business, Strategic and Project Planning, Financial Management and Risk, Financial Management and Risk, Leadership, Project Selection, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
A Case Study I was very young when I found myself running the field operation of the contracting firm my brother and I started. After a number of years, we were the successful bidder on a church nearby. We diligently submitted our first payment requisition to the...
by Simplar | Jan 25, 2024 | Project Selection, Project Selection, Risk Management, Risk Management, Weekly Construction Message
I have railed against low bid contracting for many years as the root cause of shrinking contractor profit margins and increasing contractor failure. In principle, it is an insane way to do business (selling a product for the lowest price rather than the highest price...
