Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 201 pages
- Published by: RSMeans
- Edition: 1st Edition October 16, 2006
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0876298250
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0876298251
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
- Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Description
Only 43% of construction firms are still in business after four years. Make sure your company thrives with essential and very readable guidance from a pro with 25 years success. Find out what it takes to build all aspects of a business that s profitable, enjoyable, and enduring. Includes: Contract Terms & Conditions (to include and to avoid); How to Make Sure You re Paid What You're Owed; Dos and Don'ts of Mechanics Liens; How to Select, Hire, and Keep Golden Employees; How to Choose Accountants, Lawyers & Insurance Agents; How to Target, Check out, Land, & Retain Profitable Customers; Effective Marketing Even the Smallest Contractor Can Afford; Opportunities & Requirements of Retail Construction; and much more ideas that will pay off right away & throughout your career. Whether you re a contractor, a key employee, a subcontractor, a student, or a facility executive, you ll find many ideas you can immediately add to your management and leadership toolbox. Adopting even a single one of them will pay dividends now and throughout your career.
From the Inside Flap
In this book, the author, Nick B. Ganaway, shares what he has learned--sometimes the hard way--to help contractors, builders, and subcontractors minimize the pain and risk of operating a construction business, especially in their first few (riskier) years. While not every risk can be eliminated in construction, or any field, it can be managed if its elements are identified and understood.
Throughout the chapters, Nick speaks directly to the construction business owner as an equal, using his own experience to show the risks in various situations and how to avoid them. His message is, "based on my own 25 years' experience as a general contractor, this is what I believe you must know and do if you are going to survive in this business for the long term." From the construction company owner's role, to finding and retaining the right key employees, to marketing the company, there is strong emphasis on the "human factor" so crucial to success in construction.
The book also makes the case for specialization, or niche contracting, a strategy that allows a contractor to become more knowledgeable in a field, be seen as an insider, become sought after, and achieve a more profitable business.
Reader ReviewsThis is the first straightforward, down-to-earth book on how to run a construction business that I have come across. A realistic account of what it takes to start an enterprise and what it's like to be a contractor. Anyone contemplating starting their own construction company should read this before attempting it and every contractor already working at it should study Nick's work to learn how to do it better and to realize that they are not alone when they discover just how challenging and difficult the struggle for success can be. Everyone associated with the construction industry should read this book to gain an understanding of how the business really works. Thomas, C. Schleifer, Ph.D. Visiting Eminent Scholar Del E. Webb School of Construction Arizona State University Author, Construction Contractors' Survival Guide
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