Top Issuse/concerns/help For Contractors

srao

Hi All,
I am a MBA student who is doing a paper on contruction industry. My friend is a contractor and adviced me to this site. Very very informative and I have been reading boards for last one week.

I am trying to gather as much information as possible to understand the contruction industry and more specifically, GCs and Subs.

1. What are your biggest challanges? like generating leads etc.
2. If someone want to help GC and Subs what kind of help would you seek?
3. What are all the major issues GSs and Subs face in your da-to-day operations?

Thanks a lot
srao

PS:
1. All question are related to managing and growing your business.
2. I am really sorry, if I am misusing this forum, but, I am good at heart and will not use the information in any harmfull way.
3. I really appriciate all your valuable feedback.

dirt diggler

hmmm .... so this is a term paper??


shouldn't we have our own individual PayPal accounts set up for this kind of stuff??

dougchips

Debating on being a wiseass or serious.......

high quality leads at a low cost
high quality materials at a fair cost
high quality labor at a fair cost

wish list
on-line permits (I hear they have them in parts of the country)
jail time for people pretending to be contractors
jail time for building inspectors pretending to building inspectors
running water or that gel in the porta-johns (clean hands)
more starbucks and less dunkin donuts
more dumps or cheaper transfer stations


my 2 pescos

__________________
To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

J87513

we are contractors, we no communicate with you "smart people".

dirt diggler

HAHA - --- wait ---

THAT is my daily burden in life

SPCarpentry

To add to what Doug said.

Jail Contractors who use iligal workers to lower the price.
Hold all contractors responsable for what they do. Maybe this would be a start for weeding out the scum.
Find better ways to educate the consumer other than the crappy TV shows, and HD/Lowes commercials. Nothing like having a HO tell you your doing it wrong because on DIY they did it another way!

__________________

Ed the Roofer

Continuity in the inspection processes from one village to another and more specifically from one inspector to another.

Rigid adherance to required specifications and if not done, then the guilty party to be held to full accountability.

Methods to check out competing contractors who farm out all of their jobs to sub-contractors, who in turn only carry an "Exempt" workers compensation policy. That is the real biggie financially to assure contractors are competing on similar grounds.

A bathroom somewhere nearby every time I get out of my van, especially in cold weather.

A requirement for a manufacturers warranty to have a paid for inspection process to initialize the warranty from the manufacturer. As it is now, relating to roofing, over 90 % of all residential roofs installed do not meet the criteria set forth by the manufacturers specifications, but the failure does not occur until at least 12 to 15 years down the road, so the customer who thinks all roofs are nearlly the same in regards to technical know how and the good contractor who does do things right and has to charge more for doing so, are both screwed.

A contractors guide to Spanish as a second language, to enable better commuinication, especially in regards to potential safety hazards and risks trying to be averted. They have English as a second language, but that does me no good to communicate with them from my end. It should be simplified to address common construction phrases and terms and common risks which occur on job sites and also so I know what is being said after I give an instruction.

Ed

realpurty2

1. Challenges for one business may not be the same as for others. Most every business at some time or another struggle with cashflow issues, time management, lack of skilled employees who are company oriented, lead generation, slow periods, weather delays and stoppages, problematic clients, problematic jobs where nothing goes as planned, and I could go on and on.

It isn't really about WHAT challenge you face, it's how you deal with it and overcome it. There are solutions to every challenge if you work toward finding the one that best suits your company.

2. If someone wanted to help GC's and subs... again, there are so many answers to that question. If I had to cast my vote for only one, I'd say make it impossible to "be" a Contractor just because you got laid off at your factory job. It's the unlicensed and illegals that make it tougher to compete in the market. I can't decide to be a doctor just because I watched a TV show about it, but in some states, it takes nothing more to be a contractor than the decision to start offering services.

3. What are ALL the issues we face in our day to day?? That would fill a book. Of course any day that we are vertical and able to go to work is a good one, but it goes down hill shortly after clocking in. haha

There are those rare days when everything stays on schedule, nothing goes wrong in the field, all tools were returned in the same working order they left the shop, and the HO was so tickled with the work, they paid a bonus and told all their friends about the service they received, but those are few and far between.

Most days, contractors are all actors... we smile when the homeowner is nitpicking a perfect job apart trying to get a deduction on the final bill, we smile and tell our foreman that we understand his daughter has a recital and he needs to leave early on a time sensitive day, we stiffle the urge to scream and yell when a new apprentice thinks a wet saw means it can be submerged in water because it has wet in the name, we don't commit murder when a sub doesn't call that he will not be there until noon even though he promised to be there at 7am, we hold back the laughter when someone applies for a job as a lead carpenter and professes years of experience only to answer the question "What's the real measurement of a 2x4" and they say "8" (true story ) and above all else... we get up and do it again the next day...

__________________
Woman in a Man's World.

realpurty2

If they are HERE living and working, it shouldn't be up to you to learn their language. If I up and decide to move to France, I wouldn't expect all of France to learn English to accomodate me.


Sorry Ed, just a personal pet peeve...

__________________
Woman in a Man's World.

tinner666

If they can't speak and understand English, send them home.

__________________
Frank Slate Roof Repairs, Richmond, Va.

dirt diggler

thread's getting off topic with the language thing


and i TOTALLY and ENTIRELY agree with both of you - send em back if they can't "talk right"


on the other hand ... if I want to retire at age 60 ... that doesn't give me a whole lot of time to do much.

society is what it is ... nobody's sending anybody back AND nobody is going to be learning English (unless it was made a law)



At 8 AM on a Wednesday ... I need things done ... I need money ... and that's not really a time for debating sociological and cultural issues

I hate it as much as the next guy ... but it is what it is and I'd rather put my energy towards making the dollars than "fighting" it


unless it became a law for them to learn English ... nothing will change. And even then --- why bother making a law --- if they're here illegally - they've already broken the law


give em the sh*t work

Ed the Roofer

The crew I have all know how to speak English, with the bottom level grunt being the least conversational.

We all trade several words and phrases on a regular basis. As Dirt stated, things are what they are too. If I want to lessen the instructional curve, I will take some of the linguistic responsibilities upon myself to make an easier transition for those employees who in turn would like to do the same back.

The only outward discriminations I have, is when either culture is unforgiving of the others and too stubborn to attempt to adapt to each other. Lets skip down one to two generations, and the clamor will inevitably ablout some new race and culture invading our borders.

Possibly those North of the border?

Ed

Ed the Roofer

With the exception of the French. I would expect that entire country to change to accomodate me if I moved there.

Je me s'ppelle Eduard.

Quesque viou s'appelle?

Excuse the spelling, it's been a long time since French class.

Ed

dirt diggler

exactly


im not waiting for everyone to learn English so I can grow a business


im not a hypocrite ... just a capitalist


como esta b*tchies!!

Mud Master

Ed,

What is wrong with a guy who sub's out all his work? I understand the want to have similar grounds, but is it not the contractors right to decide to sub out everything rather than employee men and be forced to keep them busy? With subs, you don't have to pay workers comp, payroll taxes, payroll in general,etc..and you only use them when you need them.

I employee 16 men now, and am expanding to more, however when I first started out I subed it ALL out, and managed from my truck & office. I can see how it makes it harder on the guys the employee people, but they should not have to go out of business because they don't want to added tax of having employees.

I know residential drywall contractors who charge 55 dollars a sheet and sub everything out to hispanics for $7.00. I also sub my single family homes, and basically anything under 1100 sheets, because it is not worth my time to pull my men off a six figure job to hang a 1500-2000sf house.

It may hurt the contractor who employs men rather than sub to them, but they should not have to be out of business because it in essence, hurts another contractor.

__________________

Ed the Roofer

And within your own statement lies the crux of the matter.

It is not that I am against subbing out work for a particular reason, but more that the "subcontractor" is not actually paying into the taxes and/or workers compensation pool.

I highly doubt that the $ 7.00 per sheet guys are in reality paying out their work comp. How could they afford to?

Isn't the more common reality, that each of them if they are a partially legitimate company, calling themselves an individual sole proprietorship, self owned company, with no additional employees? If so, then on there work comp policies, they are probably "Exempting" themselves from the work comp and just paying the base industry minimum amount for their Standard Industrial Code, (sic), work classification.

Oh, there is nothing wrong with that, .......... until either a full audit takes place requiring all subs work comp policies to be reviewed for exemptions or if someone actually sustains a substantial injury on a job site.

In essence, even when you sub out the work, the workers comp, payroll taxes, payroll in general, etc... is still actually being paid by the primary contractor who subbed out the work. It is just that they did not need to do the integral paperwork to break down all of the individual costs related to those sub category items.

The primary "convenience" of subbing out the work is that you do not have to always find or create work for them if you hit a soft spot on your schedule.





[quote=Mud Master;237417]Ed,

With subs, you don't have to pay workers comp, payroll taxes, payroll in general,etc..and you only use them when you need them.

I know residential drywall contractors who charge 55 dollars a sheet and sub everything out to hispanics for $7.00. I also sub my single family homes, and basically anything under 1100 sheets, because it is not worth my time to pull my men off a six figure job to hang a 1500-2000sf house.

quote]

john elliott

This guy may well be interested in the answers to the questions he has posed, but, with spelling, grammar and punctuation like that, he's no 'MBA student'.

John

__________________
Ed the Roofer said "John too, in his crass and blunt demeanor.............."

Ed the Roofer

I noticed that too, John.

But, I defer to the speed at which I am sometimes trying to post which allows for many typo errors in my own posts as well.

You will invariably see "last edited by Ed the Roofer" after at least 1/3 of my posts, just so I can catch and fix the really obvious ones.

Ed

Ed the Roofer

Mud Master,

Go check out the new post regarding work comp waiver some guy just placed.

It further defines a potential risk and loophole in the system, which hurts those that pay work comp on all of their employees.

Ed

dougchips

Nice of the original poster to check back on his thread.

__________________
To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.