Your contracting business can gain a powerful and permanent advantage over the competition by practicing expert business management. Learn how to build your company's business skills up to the same high level as your trade skills. This course gives you hands-on, practical management tools to help you design and construct a superior business operation that serves your customers better and keeps them coming back. This course will show each person on your business team how to understand your entire operation so they can help improve the management process. Production managers will see how the sales people and estimators rely on their performance to meet timelines and project costs. Finance and administration people will learn how to keep other managers and staff current on critical company operations while keeping a pulse on the financial health of the company. The contractor/owner will discover how each part of the management team can affect and improve total company operations. Discover how to get your management group working as a well-informed team. This course will provide you with clear and simple directions to give your contracting company the strongest possible business advantage.

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Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

How can your new or existing contracting business gain an advantage over your competition? That's what you'll learn in this course. Good trade work is important in contracting, but business skill is what produces profit and personal satisfaction. In our first lesson, you'll learn that the real advantage to having a successful business is in practicing good business skills. You'll also learn the importance of applying general business practices to the special demands of operating a contracting business.

Friday - Lesson 02

Today's lesson is all about the business plan, which is similar to a blueprint of a building. As you know, along with the building's specifications, a blueprint details how the building is to be built. So a business plan details how the business is to be built and operated. Each trade person involved in the construction project can look at the plans and specs and learn exactly what their part of the project is. You want to approach your business plan like a general contractor deals with the construction of a building. During construction, the general contractor may do some of the work personally and hire others for specific trade work. You should also plan to do some of the business management yourself and hire someone to do the work you aren't familiar with, especially at the start.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Marketing is a critical part of your contracting business plan and operations. It's also an area where many contractors run into trouble. But if you market your company even a little better than the average, you can stand out ahead of the competition in your community. In today's lesson, we'll deal with how to use general marketing principles in marketing your contracting business, how to set up an effective marketing plan as a part of your overall business plan, and effective ways to market your contracting services through a regular process of informing the public of what you do. Nothing you do for your business will give you more control over its destiny. With effective marketing comes business stability, the most important business asset you can have.

Friday - Lesson 04

Effective marketing produces sales leads. Today, you'll learn to turn those leads into sales. Anything you do in your contracting business requires that someone purchase something from you. When you know the basics of good selling, you gain another advantage that can make the business of contracting easier. Whether you or someone else in your company does the selling, you want to know that you're getting the most results for the time you've spent. In this lesson, we'll explore the people skills of selling, how to use a sure-fire sales process, and how to turn the benefits of good customer service into easy sales.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

It seems too obvious to say that because you're a contractor, you must deal with contracts. Yet many contractors hate the paperwork of contracting. In this lesson, you'll find out how to turn the paperwork demon into your friend. First, we'll look at how contracts are made and how they work in construction contracting. Next, I'll show you how to take charge of your contract form and put it to use in your business. Finally, we'll explore some basics of construction liens and how to work with them. You may be surprised to learn how easy it is to deal with contracting paperwork.

Friday - Lesson 06

Next to the marketing plan, I believe the financial plan is the most important process within your business plan. In a small business, the financial plan details how the contractor will manage the money that flows into and out of the business. The financial plan is the focus of your business activity. In today's lesson, I'll help you through a simple process of identifying financial objectives that your business can provide for you. We'll also review some accounting basics. You'll learn helpful ways to handle your financial records and create financial statements. We'll also look at ways to find money for your new business, to expand your business, and to keep your business financially healthy.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

In this lesson, we'll deal with an estimating system that produces accurate costs and works well for your type of contracting. First, we'll look at the process of gathering information for your estimate. Failure to uncover all the cost details of your project means that you're going to pay for part of the project yourself. Next, we'll look at a sample estimating process in a step-by-step manner. My sample can serve as a model for you to consider what process is best for your type of contracting. Then you can build your own model and use it for your benefit. Finally, we'll look at the art of pricing. This activity deals with marking up your estimated project costs to secure all of the overhead costs of your business operations. Here's an opportunity for you to find another advantage for your business.

Friday - Lesson 08

Effective project scheduling enables you to manage the time and the flow of production. With a well-organized project schedule, you can manage the activities of a construction project as well as the transition periods between projects. Proper scheduling keeps life sane for the general contractor and the specialty contractor, too. It's the best way to keep both personal life and business activities manageable. There's a lot more to it than just having materials and workers arrive at the project on time. In today's lesson, you'll see how skill in scheduling can give you an advantage. The customer will get another opportunity to see your business in a favorable light.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Construction contracting is a means of providing a personal service to another person, usually a property owner. The owner wants a specific task done. Property owners and general contractors who hire contractors and subcontractors are more and more concerned about the status of the contractor they're hiring. That's why it's important for you to be able to demonstrate that you are, indeed, a contractor or subcontractor. There are simple requirements for independent contractor status that every construction contractor has to meet, and we'll go over them in today's lesson. We'll also look at employee issues including the laws and taxes involved. You might not know that, by law, you're either defined as an independent contractor or an employee. I'll help you look at your own contracting operation so you'll get the full benefit of the services from employees and subcontractors with the least risk.

Friday - Lesson 10

Nothing will ruin your day quicker than a phone call from the project site reporting a serious injury to one of your workers. Construction workers seem to be risk takers. They believe they're able to work without diligence to safe work practices. In this lesson, I'll show you why safety is such a good business practice. My reasoning involves issues of labor costs and project management. When your employees are working safely, you're likely to generate greater profits and more satisfied customers. Risk management involves the idea that you can control the risk factors on the project site. We'll explore various safety techniques that will help your crews to work safely. This includes regular attention to their work practices. The idea is to educate your crews to recognize risks and reduce their exposure to injury. After all, construction isn't without its hazards. The idea is to recognize them and remove the danger to the workers.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

People live and work in the buildings you build. Because you're a contractor, you have people looking over your shoulder judging your work. There are two main reasons for this. First, they have to be safe in the buildings and be able to get out quickly, if necessary. Second, construction produces waste byproducts that aren't always healthy, and people want to know that your work will not adversely affect them. In this lesson, we'll look at ways to make issues with building codes and the environment less of a problem for you. The idea is to know how the code affects your work before you do the project—not after. The growing consumer awareness of environmental issues will affect your company. If you market them properly, these environmental issues can provide you with some advantages.

Friday - Lesson 12

Your office is a critical business tool that you have to learn to use as you build advantages into your contracting company. Fortunately, it isn't hard to set up and maintain an office if you start out by matching your office needs to your business operating needs. Let me assure you from personal experience that organizing your business activities makes a huge positive difference to your business success. No matter the size, a well set-up office makes life easier. In our final lesson, you'll find suggestions on how to equip and set up your office to fit your type of operation. The more people you have in your company, the greater your need to have their activities organized. People have to know how to do their work to help the company with its efficiency. Use your office operations to enhance your company in the eyes of your customers. Believe me—this will separate you from the competition in a very positive way.

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This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Gene Fessenbecker.

Gene Fessenbecker brings his years of experience as a remodel contractor, custom home builder and construction manager to a focus in his books and self-study courses about the business of contracting. His published works include the "Advantage Contractor Business Success Series," "Construction Management Excellence," and 13 accredited self-study courses for the Oregon Contractors Board Education Program. Gene speaks to regional and national contractor association conferences about the business of construction contracting.

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Requirements:

Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

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