Happy New Years -
Make New Years Resolutions Attainable.

Now that the holiday seasons is quickly fading from our memories, we need to find away to pay for all those items we purchased during the holidays. Goals are very important and from conversations with many people across the country I know that most people have goals. The difference is that the goals I am looking for are written down, not a thought that we would like to attain something soon. Perhaps we can avoid this conversation next year by setting ourselves up to succeed during 2010 so the need to buy items next year on credit may not be needed, we can just pay cash for those items that we want to get for our loved ones.

I would start setting my goals up utilizing a business plan, nothing fancy just a written plan outlining what your business purposes are for this year, be bold while writing this plan and set goals for 5, 10 maybe even 15 years from now. Set yourself up for success, this plan can be your firm’s rudder and direct the path you’re going to take in the near future.

Have a systematic approach to how you’re approaching your prospective projects in 2010. Avoid the traps that will have your estimator bidding on work that is outside of your firm’s expertise. When you do decide to bid a project have a method of estimating that is consistent from project to project. This consistency will benefit the estimator by completing the work the same way for every project, also it will make their review and that of any reviewer easier because the systematic approach is always the same. This will make the project managers work easier for the very same reason - the consistency makes it easier for the manager to spot opportunities that could benefit the firm. This consistent manner of estimating will also benefit your field. I always try to give my field supervisor a copy of the estimate (along with all the estimator notes) and a color copy of the takeoff drawing that were used to takeoff the job. The field supervisor is generally going to live with the project from the start of the project to its completion and will spend weeks, perhaps months working the project, I like them to have a copy of my estimate as they often find ways to complete the project cheaper or easier - that I never thought about. I rely on this as we make our money in the field and the person with the responsibility to complete the installation often makes decisions that take a slim estimate, into a money maker. If you give them the chance!

Project management techniques should also be systematic and automatic. Having your procedures on how you manage every project outlined for your staff can reduce the number of mistakes that routinely fall through the cracks and get overlooked. Having methods to determine what projects to bid, how to bid those projects, how to review the bid will help set up new projects in a fashion that will make the management easier. Having procedures on how to manage each project will make those projects that fall outside of the normal project range that more transparent at the start and alert those that need to stay on top of those unusual projects so items that are not normal do not get overlooked. Having everyone use the same formats for items like Request for Information (RFI), Purchase Orders, both major and day to day commodity material, bid logs, time tickets and a variety of other items will cost you to set them up originally, but will continue to pay dividends from every project that you use them on, the proverbial gift that keeps on giving.

One item that needs to be addressed is the need to make changes slowly and generally make very few changes at the same time. In our classes whether it is Fundamental Estimating or Contractors Guide for Success - Project Management, we cover many various topics. For those that have no work history we suggest that they utilize our system for both positions. For those that are in the trade in either position we recommend that after our class either estimating or project management to pick the item that makes the most sense to you and implement that item into your process, once you begin to see beneficial results from that item then pick the next most logical item from the class and begin to use that method. This will of course take longer to implement then just accepting everything and adopting a whole new method of either estimating or project management practices. It seems foolish to think that some of the practices that many contractors have utilized for years need to be trashed and a totally new system implemented. Utilize baby steps when considering a new method, after all the methods you have used since the inception of your firm has worked to this point.

We started this topic off with make attainable goals - believe it or not that is really what this whole tip is all about, attaining your goals. Make them realistic, if one of your goals is to make a million dollars in the first quarter of 2010 and the most you have ever made annually is $200,000.00, I hope you have a really good plan. It just does not seem reasonable to me, however if you wanted to increase your volume by ten percent or retain your volume and increase profits by five percent, these seem like more realistic goals, if you have a plan on how to do it!

At JDE & Associates we have two primary classes, one is Fundamental Estimating and the second is Contractors Guide for Success – Project Management. Both classes have various class methods from on site classes to webinar classes to home study classes (one on one with the instructors). We also hold field productivity classes for various firm’s field crews. Our mission statement is “We Get to Help People Succeed!” and we believe in that statement. You may not need (or want) to attend a class - you may have a question about a particular area that may be able to be answered quickly. Give us a call or email us with your question we may be able to help you - we have never been a hard sell company and intend to stay that way. What have you got to lose?

Our wish for you is for a happier more prosperous New Year - if possible we would like to help you achieve that goal.

Any input to these ideas are more then welcome.

Thank you for reading ours.