Contractor Talk Articles

Every business owner experiences problems and frustrations (bottlenecks). A bottleneck is anything that prevents us from achieving the results we desire. It may be jobs that go over budget, insufficient leads, poor performance, equipment that is forgotten, etc. Problems and frustrations seem to go with the territory.

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LA Remodeling

usually when a business hits a 'bottleneck' there's a psychological issue, it's not about getting more organized and improving employer-employee skills - it can help but there's usually a bigger issue.

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LA Remodeling - Remodeling and Construction in Los Angeles, California.

Aggie67

In our case, we let a project manager/estimator go, so now everything is on my shoulders. My 2 partners (money and HR guy, and the sales guy) look at me and wonder why the same volume of quotes aren't go out the door that 2 estimators did last year.

I'll agree that some bottlenecks are psychological. In my case, however, the door is only so wide, so only so much will move through it.

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Contractor
Construction Estimating Service
New Jersey Licensed Structural Engineer

willworkforbeer

You're telling me, thats why I switched over to cans.

Vince_B

There was a bestselling book published a few years ago about manufacturing. I can't recall the name, but they dealt with "bottlenecks" in that book.

It gave me some ideas for my contracting business. For instance in manufacturing, production is controlled by your bottlenecks, or the least efficient part of your process.
It ends up being a moving target. You lose a good foreman and production becomes your bottleneck. Then your marketing program starts gaining traction and sales starts becoming overwhelmed.
Pretty soon you are like a guy trying to keep the plates spinning on the end of sticks.


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