Latest / Contractor Business Builder Podcast / I Wish I Knew This Before I Started General Contracting
Transcript
- 0:01Contractors Back in my early days as a GC, running the
- 0:05business felt like driving through thick fog.
- 0:09I was constantly guessing, trying to stay on the road,
- 0:12hoping I wouldn't crash. When I started out as general
- 0:15contractor, I had no idea what I didn't know.
- 0:18Years of trial, error and hard lessons later, I finally found
- 0:22clarity through systems, mindset shifts and hard won experience.
- 0:27If I could roll down the window and yell advice to my past self,
- 0:30here's exactly what I'd say. If you're starting out or even
- 0:34years in, this list will save you pain, money and time.
- 0:38Here it is. SO50 lessons of business wisdom
- 0:41from the last 20 years. Number one, work hard or your
- 0:47hard work will pay off. You just need to stick to the
- 0:50plan #2 understand your clients is the most important part of
- 0:56marketing. Understanding your client #3
- 0:59revenue is vanity, profit is sanity #4 systems will set you
- 1:06free. Number 5, when things are going
- 1:09well, plan for hard times. Number 6IN hard times, focus on
- 1:15fundamentals and stick with it #7 invest profit outside of the
- 1:21business #8 Focus is your superpower #9 prioritize one
- 1:28thing and get it done. Pretend Surround yourself with
- 1:33winners. 11 Plan your day, week, month, year, and life. 12 Treat
- 1:42everyone fairly. You never know where they'll be
- 1:45in five years. 13 Check your ego and ask for help #14 The gap to
- 1:52your goals is a deficiency of skills #15 just working hard is
- 1:59a scam. 16 Commit to one business until you're
- 2:05successful. 17 Meaningful relationships take years. 18
- 2:11Happiness comes from service. 19 Listen to your gut 20.
- 2:18Niche down and own a space. You'll grow faster with higher
- 2:22margins 21. Develop a bigger mission.
- 2:26Inspiration is greater than motivation. 22 Who is more
- 2:32important than how? 23 People don't remember what
- 2:37you said, they remember how you made them feel. 24 Always seek
- 2:42to give 1st 25 Build an e-mail list ASAP. 26 Market big and
- 2:51don't meet demand so you can choose clients and projects. 27
- 2:57Invest 20 to 30% of your personal income into wealth
- 3:02building. 28 Become obsessed with process systems and
- 3:08leadership. 29 Learn finances, overhead, cost of goods sold,
- 3:14work in progress, margins, taxes, profit for 30 Double down
- 3:20on what's working, cut what's not. 31 Don't rush to higher in
- 3:25good times. Layoffs and slow times are
- 3:29costly 32. Set client expectations before
- 3:33starting a project. 33 The success of a project is
- 3:37determined by preconstruction planning. 34th You make your
- 3:44money when you estimate poor budgets can't be fixed later. 35
- 3:50In sales, think in one hundreds and one thousands. 100 calls or
- 3:561000 emails equals one good lead. 36 Simple scales Keep
- 4:03everything as simple as possible.
- 4:07Online fraud matters and stick to it. 38 Learn from mistakes
- 4:12and move on quickly. 39 Get an accountability partner and share
- 4:18weekly top one to three objectives. 40 Join or create a
- 4:24business mastermind. 41 Know your competitors.
- 4:29Collaborate when you can 42. Stay consistent.
- 4:34Business is a marathon, not a Sprint. 34.
- 4:38Invest in high quality, time saving software and stick with
- 4:42it. 44. Replacing bad habits with good
- 4:46ones one step at a time. 45. Appreciate feedback and don't
- 4:52get defensive, it makes you wiser. 46 Do a risk assessments
- 4:59for your business and projects. A 47.
- 5:02If you don't like something, change it or change yourself. 48
- 5:07Don't just learn for knowledge, learn for action. 49 Keep 6 to
- 5:1312 months of overhead in savings because you will need as 51 day
- 5:20You'll look back and be proud of all the hard work your past self
- 5:24put in. This list took me 20 plus years
- 5:28and more mistakes than I would like to admit to figure out.
- 5:31Hopefully it saves you from a few of those mistakes and
- 5:34accelerates your growth. We'll talk soon.
- 5:37PS Do you want to grow a contracting business that can
- 5:39earn you more money in less time?
- 5:43Visit rapidresultcreators.com We've got a ton of resources as
- 5:47well as services to help you grow, span, scale your
- 5:52contracting business, your general contracting business,
- 5:54get your time back and make more money.