Construction and Contracting Business. Entrepreneur magazine
or graduate degrees in their field. Four years of college are required for an undergraduate degree and an additional two years for a master’s degree. Many colleges will allow students to earn a master’s degree even if their undergraduate degree is in a field unrelated to architecture, landscape architecture, or engineering.
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The website www.collegeboard.org has an extensive search engine for finding colleges of all types throughout the United States.
There are excellent opportunities for those who do not wish, or are unable, to attend a full four-year college program. Technical schools, usually offering two-year degree programs, are a great place to learn a new trade or to improve a skill you presently have. These programs do not require the rigorous high school curriculum and pre-admission testing needed to be accepted at four-year colleges. Technical schools offer degrees in the construction trades such as plumbing, carpentry, and landscaping. They also offer programs in business management, marketing, and real estate for those who intend on someday starting their own business in the property development industry. Currently nearly 2,000 technical schools in the United States offer associate degree programs in the construction trades and/or horticulture/landscaping.
Those of you who have been in the military likely understand the term “OJT.” After surviving eight weeks of torturous basic training, you were given an MOS (military occupational specialty) and assigned to a post. If, for example, the Army decided that it needed a clerk-typist, you might be assigned to a company headquarters office to learn typing and filing. No experience needed; just show up for work, and your superior would show you what to do. Over the following weeks and months, you’d learn your job while doing it. Little, if any, formal education was provided. If you learned the job quickly, you’d be promoted from private to specialist, and hopefully to sergeant. Each promotion would bring more responsibility and higher wages.
In the construction business OJT is a common way for employees to learn the trade. New, inexperienced employees are assigned to a work crew led by an experienced foreman or crew leader. It’s the job of the foreman to complete each job or project according to the specifications established for the project and to finish it at or under budget. Her job is also to train new employees on how to do their particular tasks. As in the military, new employees are given simple tasks at first and then move on to more complex and skilled work as they master each task. Repetition and familiarity with the necessary tools will help facilitate OJT.
An important part of OJT is making mistakes! All employees (as well as bosses and business owners) will make mistakes at some time during their career, and new employees typically make more mistakes than more experienced ones. The key to mistakes is the ability to learn from them. As a boss or business owner, you should make it a point to encourage employees to understand what they did wrong and move forward. Those who do learn from mistakes and errors eventually become much better and more productive employees. And, most important for those who intend on starting their own contracting business, understanding and learning from your past mistakes will make you a better teacher of new employees; the result will be that your business is more productive, successful, and profitable.
Your first reaction is probably “Who?” Well, back in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll music, before the Beatles became famous, an up-and-coming singer from New Orleans named Lloyd Price released a hit record called “(You’ve Got) Personality.”
Now don’t get us wrong, were not saying that business owners who have a strong personality will instantly become successful. However, personality is part of what can set you apart from your competition. People do business with other people, especially those with whom they like spending time. Why do people pay more at specialty shops when most items can be found for less money in big-box stores or on the internet? They have developed a rapport with the store owner, manager, or even someone working in sales. Consider the spokesmen and women for businesses; they speak on behalf of the company because they have personalities to which others gravitate. This doesn’t mean you have to be boisterous or even outgoing. All it means is that you need to be personable, polite, attentive, respectful, and communicate well with others, which also means being a very good listener. Being personable is just one of several character traits that will help you as a business owner; here are a few others.
Think about great professional golfers in both the PGA and LPGA. They all combine their natural athletic ability with discipline and determination. They are disciplined in the way they practice and in the way they approach each shot. Week in and week out, they practice and set up each shot in precisely the same way. They are also determined enough to keep their minds on the game and their goal (of winning) always in sight. They have incredible ability to focus on the task at hand; the last shot they made, good or bad, is a distant memory and has absolutely no effect on their next shot. They also persevere through good times and bad. Consider golfer Phil Mickelson, who won the Masters Tournament in 2004 after laboring on the PGA tour for 12 years. Likewise, you need to have the determination to make a project fit the needs of the client(s) and the discipline to stay on task no matter what goes wrong along the way (and something always goes wrong). Very few projects go smoothly form start to finish, so you must stay the course and be determined that it WILL work out well in the end.
Self-confidence is critical. Business ownership is often a lonely life. President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that read, “The Buck Stops Here,” indicating that he was responsible for decision making. He could not pass crucial decisions on to someone else. Similarly, in order to start and run a successful contracting business, the owner must be willing to make key decisions, often alone. However, one of the biggest decisions that most business owners make is deciding when they need to call in someone else. Self-confidence should not be confused with stubbornness. We all have our knowledge and skill sets, but we also have to know what we don’t know and reach out for help when necessary. Heads of Fortune 500 companies and leaders of industries do not get to those positions by trying to do it all alone; they reach out to experts in all kinds of fields for help. That’s real self-confidence.
Operating a contracting business is both physically and mentally stressful. Early mornings, followed by long days, and six-day weeks are very common throughout the contracting industry. Contractors must be in excellent health, both physically and mentally, in order to achieve success. Exercise and a good, healthy diet is advised.
Excellent Time Management Skills
A well-organized manager earns the respect not only of fellow employees but also of clients. Every day an owner is bombarded with requests, and often these are really demands on his or her time. Foremen ask for direction about a current project; an assistant requests clarification of information needed to complete a job estimate; a client calls asking why some service was not done properly; a supplier calls to reschedule a delivery; and a magazine salesperson calls needing information for the current advertisement, which has a deadline of today. All this, and the owner has an important meeting with a prospective client in one hour. Oh yes, and don’t forget to sign today’s payroll checks. Most contracting businesses are like a busy beehive, especially in the morning. An owner must be able to prioritize his tasks,