Great Article - Why Contractors Work To Hard & Earn To Little

DamionR

Found this article - it has some EXCELLENT points in it.

Let me know your feedback on the article. This could start an interesting discussion.


www.netprofitsinc.com/1.pdf


NOTE: I had to upload this to my server as it exceeds the 100K file size allowed by the forum. If this can be done another way, please do so!

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ultimatetouch

Very true. This brings up the things that I know I have to change this year. It all starts with marketing enough and then selling enough jobs so you could filll the job slots. I would like to be three months booked for at least two crews and then i will be where I want.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

dougchips

It is like a machine, imagine 3 gear wheels each being driven by a belt.

Gear wheel #1 marketing, #2 Sales, #3 Production and the belt that drives them is Management. If control of one of these wheels is off the whole machine will fail in time. Most small companies have one person who does the job of all three wheels and the belt. Ideally all three wheels should be replaced with employees or subs but that takes capital which requires all three wheels to generate. So for most companies one wheel is outsourced at a time. Then that one will will spin quicker than the others causing the need to outsource another wheel and this process continues until all wheel are outsourced. Once the wheels are outsourced the management will need to become a master of keeping the wheels in sync.

Gaius Baltar

That article was clearly plagiarized from the book The E-Myth Contractor. Entire paragraphs are just pasted from the book. If you haven't read the E-Myth Contractor, you should. It should be required reading for a contractor's license.

Grumpy

I've said it 100 times and the hard core owner-operators get pissed at me every time I say it, but I stand steadfast by my statement that: Business skills are more important than trade skills when running a trade business. However having both business and trade skills is even better!

I've read over and over again that not being able to delegate responsibility is the #1 hurdle to business growth. However I have also witnessed this first hand time and time again, and read about it in this very forum over and over again. Infact I even have to work very hard to seperate myself from the overall minutia of the nitty gritty daily details.

Instead have choosen to build a system, and train the necessary employees and represenatives of my company in using that system. I train a person what their duties and responsibilities are, and then it is my job to simply make sure they are living up to those responsibilities. Other than that I try hard to let them roll with it and make their own decisions.

"What if they make a mistake?" You may be thinking. We all make mistakes, and it's not an issue. Show them how to correct the mistake, explain why it is a mistake so they don't repeat it and move on.

I think the biggest reason contractors struggle is themselves. We are sometimes our own worst enemies. I see the sell low cycle killing most contractors. What's stopping them from selling higher? They don't think they can. I see the guys who can't let go struggling to keep up. Why? Because they are wearing too many hats and trying to do too much. Therefore by trying to do too much, they end up not doing anything as well as they should.

Do what YOU do well! Hire someone to do what you do not do well, do not enjoy doing, or do not have the time to do. For example, I suck at book keeping. I admit this, so I pay someone very well to do it for me. I don't have the time to manage the salesmen and the production so I promoted a production manager. I love sales, but don't have time to make the necessary sales to sustain my company so I have hired multiple salesmen. I also understand the more salesmen I have selling, the more work we can do, so I will continue to hire salesmen. I hate the tediousness of office and paper work so when I am sure I can afford it I shall be hiring someone to manage the office.

DamionR

Amen Grumpy....

Business skills will get your farther than being the best (insert your trade) in your state.

And you are right... people do get pissed when you tell them that. Denial is the first stage.

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ruskent

After reading two paragraphs, i knew it was almost right out of emyth.

I can not imaging pouring 30-40 years of my life into a business, and see it all vanish when i decided to retire.

How can someone do that?

Thats why you need to build systems so you have something sellable that will be around for generations!

I don't want to see my baby die.