Jack spends as much time behind the wheel of his pickup each day, as he does at the jobsite. Spreading his time between two projects, Jack spends all of his time fighting fires and running from place to place. His being overstretched winds up slowing down his crews, increasing mistakes and rework, and costing him money. At the same time, his clients feel left out. He's harder to get in touch with, and they often have to wait to get questions answered or issues resolved.

Management for a small contractor is simple. It's you! You make the decisions, you talk to the clients, and you hire the subs and supervise the crew. As long as you are there to make the decisions and keep an eye on things, the project goes just fine.

The challenge comes as you grow. The fact is, if you do your job well, eventually your reputation will get you more business than you can handle by yourself.

As business grows, many small contractors find themselves managing two, three or four crews at a time with the same inevitable results. Clients are unhappy because they can't talk to you when they have questions. Crews fall behind, mistakes get made, timelines slip, supply costs go up, and quality goes down. With problems like these, your reputation isn't going to last for long.

Anyone who's been in that position knows that a good reliable foreman or supervisor is priceless. And not having one is frighteningly expensive! A good foreman or supervisor makes the difference between success and failure for a growing contractor. He keeps things going, keeps crews working and on task, and controls costs and quality. He works with clients to up sell additional work, and talk them thru concerns and disagreements.

A good foreman or supervisor is the one essential “tool” that you need to tackle more and bigger jobs without losing control.

The problem is how do you find that guy. The luckiest contractors have found their key man by pure luck or trial and error. Sometimes it's a sub or crewmember that worked out well. Occasionally a newspaper ad, referral or job posting does the trick. Often it's a relative, teammate or friend that just happened to have what it takes!

Just as often we hear about the mistakes. The foreman that looked great at the interview, had a drinking problem. The brother in law that could hammer a nail but had lousy people skills. The wrong person will cost you money, happy customers and very possibly, your business!

But there are answers. Contractors are borrowing modern tools that have been used by corporate America for decades. Finding the right person is never easy, but with the right tools and partners, it can be safer and more economical.

Profile testing: Testing has been used by corporate America for decades to help select the best candidates for jobs ranging from salesperson to CEO. Today, more and more people are using these same types of tests to evaluate workers in the building trades.

Many programs allow your applicants to take their analysis on-line. We’re not talking about typing speed or knowing how to drive a nail. These tests give you insight into how well an applicant can make decisions, work with others, interact with customers and dozens of other traits. Just as importantly, these tests will provide you with coaching points and problem areas to watch, allowing you to make the most of new and existing employees. (Take one yourself! You might be surprised what you learn about your own strengths and weaknesses!) In addition they can match your prospect against your “ideal” candidate and point out areas of concern or strength.

On Line Job Boards: Taking their lead from corporate America once again, more and more contractors, builders and tradesmen are using sites like Craig's List, CareerBuilder and Monster to find the people they need. These sites can provide you access to thousands of people looking for jobs. But Be Careful!!!! It takes a lot of time, and effort to sort thru the choices. And just like with on line dating and chat rooms, people are on these sites are not always what they say they are. You need to be extra careful, interview carefully, call references and thoroughly screen to find the good applicants among the bad. The right person is out there, but be willing to invest the time you need to find them!

Recruiters: The last area where the trades are catching up with corporate America is in recruiting. Corporations have long understood that finding the right person for the right job is difficult, expensive and time consuming. This is why recruiting companies have been counted on for decades to find professionals for management, sales, information technology and even clerical positions. Corporations routinely and gratefully pay tens of thousands of dollars to find just the right person for their key positions. They understand that getting the right person, when they need them will save them much more.

A growing number of specialized recruiters are starting to focus on working with builders, contractors, and remodelers. Working with their extensive network of contacts, resources and tools, a good recruiter will find, qualify and refer high quality candidates that have been screened, interviewed, qualified and even background and drug tested. A good recruiter will save you the time, effort and expense of sifting thru candidates and can give you a choice of several qualified candidates to choose from.

When using a recruiter, the ultimate responsibility for hiring the right person still lies with you. You will want to carefully interview and perhaps even work with the applicant before making a decision. However most good recruiters offer a 90-day replacement guarantee on placements, giving you plenty of time to make sure you have gotten the right person for the job.

At first glance any of these options appear expensive. It is important to understand how they work, and the best ways to use them. The bottom line is that tools like these can make the difference between building your business and losing your business! Take a hard look at your business and see if these solutions might help you. Having the right people on your team will make all the difference in the world!

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