Coachcasts Archives - Page 112 of 154

E418: Collecting Lien Waivers

March 23, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

Collecting lien waivers may take some effort but the results are well worth the time.

Liens and lien waivers
1. Liens are legal filings against a property that contractors and suppliers place when they have not been properly paid
2. Lien Waivers are documents that release the rights to file a lien
  1. Conditional – a conditional release is based on a payment
  2. Unconditional – is a full release that should only be signed in exchange for final payments
3. Filing requirements – they vary by location and you need to follow the proper rules – we will discuss filing notices associated with liens on a future Coachcast
Collect lien waivers is you are paying
1. If you are paying any vendors, suppliers, subcontractors, etc. you should be collecting waivers
2. You may already be providing waivers to your clients – are you collecting them from your vendors too
3. If you do this well you can promote it as one of your unique selling propositions
  1. Teach potential clients of the hassles associated with liens and let them know how you protect them
Get the rigth stuff without too much effort
1. Make sure you are collecting waivers with the proper language for your project location
  1. Zlien launched an amazing site for this at https://app.zlien.com/waiver_exchange/
2. You can create standard pay request forms that contain the appropriate conditional waiver language so all pay-aps have a lien attached
3. Collect them for your files and pass along to your clients as well
4. At the end, collect an unconditional waiver

E417: Know Your Potential Customers

March 22, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

Get to know your target clients before launching your next marketing campaign.

The fundamentals of good marketing
1. The right message
2. The right audience
3. The right time
4. How can you figure this out if you don’t know your customers?
Know your customers first
1. Create Avatars of your ideal customers
2. Develop the full bios with a lot of details
  1. Where they shop
  2. What they eat
  3. What they read
  4. Almost like a dating profile
3. Use this information to target your next marketing campaign
  1. Create a message that resonates with your avatars
  2. Post the message in the right places

E416: Ask Coach – Dealing With Difficult Client Employees

March 21, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

Take the high road when dealing with difficult managers.

Q: What is the best way to handle a project manager that is doing a bad job?

A: First, protect yourself. Second, try to help them improve and/or let the company know.

We run across them from time to time – those difficult people
1. The PM that is a moron
2. The superintendent that doesn’t know how to coordinate
3. People with an ego bigger than the door
How can we best deal with them?
1. Ask, can you fire this client after this project?
2. Yes:
  1. Document everything in writing
  2. Follow the contract to a tee
  3. Charge them for anything that is wrong
3. No: (this makes it tougher)
  1. Avoid making a knee-jerk reaction and calling management (try to fix in field first)
  2. Document everything in writing – present your concerns in a nice manner (avoid arguments)
  3. This difficult person may eventually see you are there to help and change tune
  4. Approach management after the project is complete
    1. If you approach them during the project they may feel you are trying to get out of something

E415: Keeping A Positive Mental Attitude

March 18, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances.

How do you look at things?
1. Is the glass half full?
2. Is an issue a problem or a challenge?
3. Are things possible or impossible?
4. How you look at things will have a huge impact on your ability to succeed
The are massive benefits to a positive mindset
1. You have more gratitude for what you have
2. It gives ou confidence to take on challenges
3. Allows you to be creative and find solutions
Learn to keep your attitude meter in the positive 51% of the time
1. Learn to watch your self-talk
  1. Stop every 20 minutes and write down what you thoughts are at that time then review at the end of the day – where there more positive thoughts?
2. Avoid the constant attacks of negative news in te media
  1. Understand that the media is not really focused on educating you on current events, they want to sell ads
3. Get outside in nature
  1. While you are at it skip and whistle

E414: Leadership Style And Your Culture

March 17, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

A solid management team should be congruent in their management style.

There are many types of leaders
1. Authoritarian / Paternalistic / Democratic / Laissez-faire / Transactional / Transformational
2. Each type will have an impact on your company culture
3. Your style should match your vision
Create the leadership that builds your business
1. Best is democratic and transformational
  1. I recommend learning to be about 75% democratic and 25% transformational
2. Worst types are transactional and authoritarian
3. As Elite Contractors we want to:
  1. Empower our employees
  2. Follow a vision
  3. Create a great culture
Keep the styles congruent throughout your organization
1. What is your style?
2. How about other managers? Do they match?
3. Make sure to create a culture that has congruent management

E413: Managing The Schedule In The Field

March 16, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

Good communication is key to managing a project schedule in the field.

Going from planning to execution
1. Gantt charts provide a high-level view of the schedule
2. Lack the details needed for proper field coordination
3. Make the connection and keep you projects on schedule
The troubles we encounter with typical Gantt chart schedules in the field
1. Overall project schedule is too vague for construction
2. Often lack the overlap and trade coordination
3. Misunderstood by the trades
Get it right with better communication
1. Field information needs more detail and is more task oriented
2. Field information needs to have milestones
3. Be clear on expectations

A great tool for this is a 3-Week Look-Ahead Schedule like the one provided in the resource tab.

E412: Create Customers For Life

March 15, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

Make it a goal to build customers for life.

(Having technical trouble uploading the Coachcast – Click Here to listen on iTunes)

A key to building an elite organization is repeat customers
1. Create customers for life or until we fire them
2. Set goals to retain customers
3. It costs 5 times more to get new customers
Build solid relationships with these key things
1. Be open and authentic
2. Add value
3. Solve problems
Creating the culture
1. Make it a priority
2. Train your people
3. Put customers first – that doesn’t mean you have to roll over

E411: Ask Coach – Dealing With A Loser

March 14, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

It happens to the best of us, a loser project. The best solution is to jump in and correct course.

Q: I have a project that is losing money. What is the best way to deal with it?

A: Go into attack mode and limit the downside.

It happens, even to the best in the business – A loser project
1. Hopefully, you know early
  1. If you practice what I talk about you know as soon as things start to turn bad
2. There are many reasons projects go bad
  1. Clients / People / Productivity / Management / Estimating / Etc.
3. The common reaction is too often to cut cost and hope it goes away
  1. That’s not the best approach
The right approach is to attack the problem
1. Don’t let a loser drag you down
2. Find out what went wrong
3. Put a full court press on getting the project done and behind you
Be open and creative
1. Don’t be embarrassed, we all have them
2. Be open with the people involved – let them know you are struggling (they probably already do)
3. Talk to your team, suppliers, subs, client and others involved – solicit their help
4. Get outside help – a different set of eyes can often find better solutions
5. Ramp up productivity
  1. If it’s possible, ramp up the productivity and get the project complete as quick as you can

E410: Stop Waiting, Start Building

March 11, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

If you want to be a great dancer, you have to get on the dance floor.

I close every Coachcast with “Stop Waiting, Start Building”
1. Don’t wait for some trigger to start taking action
2. Don’t wait for the next big job to start acting like a big contractor
3. Don’t wait to reach $5M to develop procedures
If you want to become something, you have to start acting like you already are
1. Want to be a $20M company, start acting like a $20M company
2. Want to be a great parent, start doing what a great parent does
3. Want to have a bid bank account, start saving
Opportunity Only Knocks Once – don’t wait for the knock
1. Common interpretation of this proverb makes you believe that opportunity will come to you and you should act when it does – it’s wrong
2. I look at it differently – Opportunity will only knock once if you sit and wait for it, however, opportunity is everywhere if you start opening the door
3. I am not waiting for some sign or knock at the door, I am being the person I want to be even if my bank account doesn’t reflect it
Practicing “Stop Waiting, Start Building”
1. Set your vision and be clear on what you want
2. Visualize what that would look like
  1. How would you act if you had $10M in your bank account
  2. What would your business look like if it did $20M in revenue
3. Start doing and acting like that now, the universe will catch up

E409: Provide Value To Your Stakeholders

March 10, 2016 TonyB 0 Comments

Focus on providing value to project stakeholders and watch your profits soar.

Successful businesses provide value
1. Business is a value for value exchange
2. Great success follows providing great value to many
3. Contractors (all businesses) often get short sighted and focus on client value only
Errors of many businesses
1. Putting shareholders (profits) in front of stakeholders
2. Profit is the reason for business, but not at the expense of others
3. Easiest path to greater profits is bigger value to more people
Put stakeholders first, not shareholders
1. Stakeholders are everyone that comes in contact with the project (during and after construction)
2. Consider the value you can add to each stakeholder
3. Work every day to improve the value you provide
You don’t have to give up profits to add value
1. Make phone calls to update vendors about payments
2. Provide information to the public
3. Consider the end-user of your project

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