1) Keep your mouth shut, the less you say about your business to your employees, clients and supply houses, the less they have to spread around and distort.
2) Don?t do work without a contract and clearly defined scope.
3) Make a standard scope letter and continually update it with the ?gotchas? you discover each job.
4) Read your contract, and be prepared to walk away from the deal if you can not negotiate a deal that will make you money.
5) Work smart and don?t take short cuts that endanger your employees or license.
6) Follow the construction process, do your submittals, RFIs and documentation for every contract job.
7) Always pay your employees and suppliers even if you don?t get paid.
8) Keep your word, don?t comp numbers, and don?t shop your quotes.
9) Make money; never forget that there are people counting on you for their living too. If you don?t make money then you are not doing it right and you will go out of business.
10) Don?t let your insurance lap, and make sure you have enough.
11) Don?t let your lien rights run out.
12) Never trust your bookkeeper, don?t tell them anything they don?t need to know, and make them sign a confidentiality agreement.
13) Crank out way more estimates than you can possibly do if you go them all, its only a problem if you get the all then it?s a good problem.
14) Keep your mouth shut, when you run a business the people around you tend to hang on every word you say and take them to mean things you never intended.
15) Use that college education and do a 5 year plan.
16) Take a look at small commercial work, it is by far much more profitable for me than residential.
2) Don?t do work without a contract and clearly defined scope.
3) Make a standard scope letter and continually update it with the ?gotchas? you discover each job.
4) Read your contract, and be prepared to walk away from the deal if you can not negotiate a deal that will make you money.
5) Work smart and don?t take short cuts that endanger your employees or license.
6) Follow the construction process, do your submittals, RFIs and documentation for every contract job.
7) Always pay your employees and suppliers even if you don?t get paid.
8) Keep your word, don?t comp numbers, and don?t shop your quotes.
9) Make money; never forget that there are people counting on you for their living too. If you don?t make money then you are not doing it right and you will go out of business.
10) Don?t let your insurance lap, and make sure you have enough.
11) Don?t let your lien rights run out.
12) Never trust your bookkeeper, don?t tell them anything they don?t need to know, and make them sign a confidentiality agreement.
13) Crank out way more estimates than you can possibly do if you go them all, its only a problem if you get the all then it?s a good problem.
14) Keep your mouth shut, when you run a business the people around you tend to hang on every word you say and take them to mean things you never intended.
15) Use that college education and do a 5 year plan.
16) Take a look at small commercial work, it is by far much more profitable for me than residential.
