So what does it take to be a good estimator? Being great with numbers? Having a desire to color on drawings all day? There are a few key traits I have found in my career that really separate the great estimators from the rest of them. Let's recall how I defined an estimator's job as: finding the lowest cost solution to the project as would be acceptable to the client while identifying the potential ......

By now most of us have seen the change order and contract boat image that has been circulating around the internet over the past several years. The big boat is rightly called the change order and the small dingy is called "Original Contract". This brings forward a very interesting question about how people think. When you view the image it enters into your mind that this must be Contractor's set-up ......

I have been reading and having discussions on whether it is worth it to save money on safety. Excuse me? Why are they mutually exclusive? If you execute a smart and well orchestrated safety program it actually reduces your cost, it does not add to it. The easy items are the insurance rates you experience and your ability to win projects based on your safety program and performance, but there is ......

For those of us in the construction industry, we know the Estimators that are more cynical than the average Joe. They appear to be more prevalent than the fun loving young estimator. The duties of an Estimator change that fun loving young kid into the cynic through years of performing one of the most difficult jobs in construction. So what makes it such a difficult job? The most difficult part of ......

For subcontractors, the best way to control and increase profit is by managing labor productivity. Too often, project managers, foreman, and executives focus on material buyouts, squeezing subcontractors, and cutting back on overhead to make gains on profits, but these actions pale in comparison to what can be accomplished by having highly productive labor. There is no doubt money to be made by being ......

As subcontractors we buy the vast majority of our material through Distributors. The system was established well before my time and benefited almost everyone along the supply chain. Manufacturers had someone that could stock their materials locally and provide credit and payment for delivery (thus insulating manufacturers from Owner's, General's and Subcontractor's inability to pay). The subcontractor ......

In Construction the #1 rule is safety. Without the principal of safety, the things we build and the people we employ will not be around once we finish. I hope that fact is not up for debate, so then the question is what is the second rule of contracting? Cost Control. This past weekend millions of citizens went to their local Home Depot, Lowes, or other hardware store to purchase a new light fixture, ......

It’s that time of year again…time to put together your company projections for 2012! You may be in the process of crunching numbers to let your partners, bankers, and other stakeholders know your company’s outlook for 2012. Hopefully, 2012 will shape up to be a great year! Instead of rewriting what has previously been written in past articles, below are some articles to reference to assist you in ......

If you have been involved in bidding work you have probably at one point in time been apart of the Best and Final Offer (BAFO) routine. In private work it is typically called "scoping out" the sub numbers. It is a process where you are expected to give your best and final proposal for the work after you have turned in your actual bid number. It may be preceded with a list of questions or changes in ......

So what does weight loss and construction productivity have in common? If you track the inputs you are much more likely to get better results. In 2008, a study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that shows that keeping a “food diary” may double your weight loss. What they actually found was that the more participants recorded what they ate, the more weight they lost in the ......

When managers in construction start beating the drum of more production, the message that is typically received from the crews is “you need to be working harder”. While this may be true in some instances, most of the time this is not what is being said. In construction, especially for subcontractors that are performing the labor, money is made or lost in the amount of work being put in per hour charged ......

Measurements are critical to good construction. Not just in constructing walls, placing tiles, and balancing mechanical systems, but also in tracking contractor's performance on the project. A minute cannot go by where workers are not measuring boards, conduits, walls, concrete volumes, and hundreds of other things on a construction site, but are contractors measuring things for their own betterment? ......

Measurements are critical to good construction. Not just in constructing walls, placing tiles, and balancing mechanical systems, but also in tracking contractor's performance on the project. A minute cannot go by where workers are not measuring boards, conduits, walls, concrete volumes, and hundreds of other things on a construction site, but are contractors measuring things for their own betterment? ......

Business management for years has taken the advice of statisticians: that if you don’t or can’t measure something, then you can't manage it. In construction, this simple truth is the key to being successful. Management of bidding, projects, labor, or profits is not just a group of tasks that you must perform, it is taking in facts, analyzing those facts, coming to conclusions, taking action, and then ......

Best and Final Offers (BAFO) are probably the fastest growing trend in construction, especially given the economy today. In a previous blog, I talked about the ethics of the BAFO process. There are legitimate reasons to utilize the process, but you have to have integrity from everyone involved or you may just be another bid shopper. When dealing with vendors you need to ask yourself several questions ......