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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.

Unless you are planning on never retiring, you are going to need a sizable financial nest egg. You know that. I know that. Everyone knows that.  But, most of us are so preoccupied keeping our businesses going that we never fully consider whether our business is on course to create the wealth we need to reach our retirement goal.

Beating a lower priced competitor is something all contractors struggle with and it is a problem that will never go away. There will always be a low-ball competitor lying in the weeds waiting to steal your work. The way to beat a lower priced competitor is to help your prospect realize your services better meet his needs.  This is referred to as "selling." You've probably heard of it.

Do you know how much you are making on every job? How does your estimate compare to the costs when you complete the job? Is your margin comparable with industry standards? If your margins are higher than industry standards you better step back and be sure that you are getting all your costs to the job.

At some point in time, if you are going to grow your construction business beyond $2 million, you are going to need someone working on sales full time. Now, maybe sales is your thing and you want to do that full time. Fantastic.

It's almost always best when a business owner is committed to selling. But even if you sell successfully, you may still end up wanting to add another salesman.

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. 

What does customer oriented mean? It means you completely focus on the customers wants and needs only. It's not about making the sale, and it is not about how much commission you make. Your focus is solely on the customer. How will this make you more money?