Product Description

This detailed overview of the construction contracting business delivers an invaluable collection of best practices, forms, templates, and checklists designed to reduce risks and increase profits. Contractors will learn everything they need to know about the make-or-break areas of estimating, pricing, bidding, project management, and financial management.

• The author is well-known in the industry, with a weekly newsletter, website, online digest, regular column for Contractor magazine, and 70-plus seminar bookings for 2006
• Extensive examples and illustrations help readers apply the insights offered

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #246903 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-19
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 406 pages

From the Publisher
You will not find a book with as much information and practical application for construction contracting. I have worked with construction firms since 1994, traveling the continental United States (and still do). As you know, people do things differently in all regions of the country. There is no one way to manage your business. Having more than one approach makes a contractor flexible and profitable. We have captured and interpreted all these practices and present them in this book.

What your will receive:

- In-depth overview of the business of contracting - Analysis of the three major business processes of every contractor - 140+ best practices in the construction industry. - Time saving business tactics for construction. - Forms that help you stay organized - Examples of reports, and other necessary management information - Illustrations that capture insights of the business. - Examples to help you apply the insights. - How to reduce risk and increase profits

From the Author
We feel that this book serves a real need. There 600,000+ construction firms in the United States and not many share their business practices with each other or the young contractor ready to start his firm. Now, there is a place that construction people can go to learn effective business strategies, practices and methods to increase profits while reducing risk.

We give to you the answers to:

1) What are the top 3 productivity enhancing practices of most contractors? 2) How do you consistently leave less money on the table? 3) What is the one reason for not having enough work? 4) What are the proven methods of adding overhead cost to a job? 5) What is the difference between profit mark-up versus margin and which should you use. 6) What is the cost of rework? 7) What kind of compensation system makes employees act like owners. 8) What the top 50 Best Practices that all Contractors use? 9) How do you manage people more effectively? 10) What are the accurate sources of financial data and compensation information for the construction Industry? 11) How do you calculate the true return on invesment of a job and what should be your minimum requirement in most cases. 12) How do you caculate your "walk away number" 13) What are the habits of the top foremen in the country? 14) What do the top 25% of all estimators do? 15) Technology - what is the best software in the world for the construction contractor?

From the Inside Flap
Stevens Construction Institute, Inc is a Management Consulting firm, which works only with Construction Contracting Organizations.

Our Consulting and Training Practice assists Contractors in working smarter in the areas of Estimating, Pricing and Bidding, Project Management, Financial Management. In other words, we help our clients improve technical processes and people skills.

We provide training and consulting to General, Building and Specialty Contractors nationally. We work privately with construction companies and give public seminars with associations. In a sentence, we consult and train with construction people on construction processes.

Our value to our clients is:

Business Evaluation - an evaluation of a company's people and processes. We gather extensive information about a company, analyze it and then present a detail report. The report includes among other things an action plan to improve the company's operations.

Productivity Improvement - reducing lost time and thus increasing the amount of installed work is a goal of all contractors. We assist construction companies in identifying the contributors to wasted time and create processes that speed the proceses of construction.

Estimating, Pricing and Bidding - Consulting and training for contractors who want to improve their estimating skills or want to know different pricing and bidding strategies.

Project Management - We help and train contractors work smarter in the areas of project management and project control. The field is where we make or lose money. This area will always be a focus of the industry.

Financial Management - Limited financial resources need to be managed. We assist and teach contractors current financial management practices to keep them fiscally stronger.

Negotiating / Client Skills - we teach contractor focused skills and strategies to earn and sell better agreements and keep those agreements fair. Working with a client is critical to keep from leaving money on the table and to win referrals.

Company Business Process Manuals - We document your processes - new and existing - and produce procedure manuals for the above areas. This keeps confusion low and compliance high to your process among staff members.

Customer Reviews

Managing a Construction Firm is a must read
I am the owner of a medium sized heavy civil construction company. I have attended many management courses over the course of my 20+ year career. In addition, I have read many books on this subject matter. For those of you who are currently in the industry in management roles, I will venture to guess that when you read this book, almost instantly, the light will go on. You will see things that are familiar, things you are doing right, as well as things that you could do better. For those of you going through the higher education prior to starting out in the work world, this is an outline of how to do it right. Everyone employed in construction management should read this book. It is up to speed on current construction management practices, and the economy as it exists today for contractors.

Where is the CD with 60+ spreadsheet templates?
While the contents of the book are every bit as good as what has been mentioned in the other review, there is no accompanying CD with the 60 spreadsheet templates that I believed was included. It's just the book.

Competent and specific advice from an experienced professional
Mr Stevens provides information that will be useful to the new construction contractor as well as to the seasoned veteran. He discusses a wide variety of construction management problems from an academic viewpoint and then introduces hard practical advice that could only come from long personal experience. He provides solid examples of efficiencies and cost-effective alternatives always providing a path to save time and money and to improve company performance. He encourages understanding and use of tools one may already have rather than suggesting new expenditures - such as practical use of spreadsheets with many examples given.
The author has learned from his own experience, he has consulted for many firms of varying size and position in the industry, he has talked and studied with his students, his clients, his partners and competitors over years and he has developed an organized collection of useful advice about best practices for construction firm management in today's competitive markets.
I liked the book, I learned from it and I recommend it.