By now you are well on your way to implementing the first nine steps of this entrepreneurial excellence series. You are getting close to owning a business that works without your constant attention, direct supervision, controlling, micromanaging, and everyday decision...

I'm playing golf and my cell phone rings. It's one of my best customers who tells me he just signed a lease with a manufacturing company for a new 60,000 square foot building to be built in Anaheim, California. He then asks me the magic questions: "Do you want to...

All of your construction projects must be running smoothly. As you walk from office to office asking your project managers how things are going. Their responses include: "Everything's O.K." "99% complete, just a few little things left." "I think we'll finish on time."...

When is the last time you had a job go according to your plan? Do your field crews perform their work exactly the way you want it done? Do key people make good decisions without asking you first? Do your superintendents meet their schedules and commitments? Do your...

Has this ever happened to you? You negotiate an easy project to build with a great customer who trusts you, doesn't question your costs, and awards you the job at your price. Then, seven months later, you discover your estimator didn't put enough in the labor budget...

As your construction business grows, you get to the point you can't do it all yourself. You really don't like paperwork, accounting or bookkeeping. But you have to pay your bills, balance your checkbook and collect your receivables to keep your doors open. So you try...

Have you noticed the construction business is a lot like the circus? You spend your days juggling, taming lions, fire eating, sword swallowing, getting shot out of a cannon, walking tight ropes, dealing with clowns, cleaning up after the elephants, and working with...

If I followed you around for a day, what would I see? What would be your focus? Would you be spending your time on details, scheduling crews, making sure materials are on the jobsite, bidding work, meeting with customers, showing your foreman what to do, or completing...

Imagine you owned or managed the perfect construction business. What would it be like? In my perfect business, I would come in to the office two or three days a week. Check-in with my managers; review their projects and progress; give them some encouragement and...