Construction Business Basics 2024
Session 1
Building a Learning Community &
Kicking Off Your Business Vision
Presenters
Kate Stephenson, Paul Eldrenkamp, Jeanette Millard, Tia Garcia
Agenda
Welcome, Goals & Introductions
Course Outline & Homework Expectations
What is your 5 year vision?
Final Session Preview
Recording
Homework
1. Choose a leader (community, church, school, friend, work) whose style you appreciate and be able to tell us why.
2. Fill out this leadership survey (these results will not be shared with the group)
3. Choose 3-5 traits/adjectives that describe your OWN leadership style.
4. Post your purpose statement (If your business didn't exist, why would it need to be invented? What unique purpose does it fill in your community?) and practices (What current practices will you keep, modify, and jettison to better be aligned with your purpose?) on the Course Forum.
Session 2
Your Leadership Style
Presenter: Jeanette Millard
Agenda:
What is Leadership?
Leadership vs. Management
Strategic Thinking
Elements of Effective Leadership
Your Leadership Assessments
Your Learning Path
“Red Thread” of Intention and Commitment
Slides
Recording
Homework
Bring a copy of your company's 2023 Profit & Loss statement and 12/31/23 Balance Sheet to next week’s session. (If you don't have one, bring your most recent business tax return.)
Session 3
Building Financial Literacy
Presenter: Kate Stephenson
Agenda
Building financial literacy - understanding and telling your financial story
Key financial metrics - what we track and why
Profit & Loss vs. Balance Sheet
Margin vs. Markup
Case study exercise
Reflection
Slides
Recording
Resources
Finance Glossary of Terms by Peter Taggart
Homework
Refine your purpose statement from Session #1
With that purpose statement fresh in mind, draft your good client/good project criteria. (If its easier for you to start with the good client/good project criteria, that’s OK. You can refine your purpose statement from your good client/good project criteria
Post your good client/good project to the Course Forum (copy and paste text from the worksheet)
Think about a recent sales meeting that had an ambiguous ending and be prepared to share with the group as a case study
Session 4
Sales: “Yes,” “No,” “Maybe”
Presenter: Paul Eldrenkamp
Agenda
Sales as Service
"Yes" = A signed pre-construction agreement; "No" = Referrals to other contractors who might be a better fit
How a good sales process makes everything that follows easier, and how a bad one sets you up for frustration and failure
The art and science of ballpark estimates
Challenges and Tips
Slides
Recording
Resources
Homework
Read: JLC Online Article PDF_Healing Your Inner Underestimator
Read: JLC Online Article PDF_Keeping the Design Phase on Track
Read: JLC Online Article PDF_My Piano Teacher’s Advice Helps Me Run My Remodeling Business
List five surprises that came up at any point (before, during, or after construction) on any recent projects regarding budget, schedule, or scope of work, and post to the Course Forum.
For each of the five surprises, note whether you think you could have prevented it, and if so, when in the process you could have.
Session 5
Pre-Construction
Presenter: Paul Eldrenkamp
Agenda
Understand the benefits of minimizing surprises during the pre-construction phase.
Explain the importance of a consistent pre-construction process, to reduce the chances of surprises and to give you and your team a chance to practice doing their best work from project to project, rather than making it up new from project to project
Slides
Recording
Resources
Homework
Review the Pre-Construction Process Map and list 10 steps from the map that would be in a Pre-Construction schedule
Session 6
Project Management & Scheduling
Presenter: Tia Garcia
Agenda
The four responsibilities of a Project Manager– Schedule, Budget, Scope, and Quality
The schedule as a PM Tool to mitigate surprises and document process.
Working with Predecessors
Slides
Recording
Resources
Homework
Review this bathroom plan and make notes about how you would approach the estimate this project.
Session 7
Estimating
Presenter: Tia Garcia
Agenda:
Present Sample Project to Estimate (Bathroom) and an approach to creating an estimate
Orientation to HELM's estimating tool
Markups
Presenting an estimate to the client
Challenges & Tips
Slides
Recording
Homework
Read Reap the Bottom-Line Benefits of Active Job Costing - Doug Phelps before session #8
Session 8
Job Cost Accounting
Presenter: Kate Stephenson
Agenda
Why bother?
3 Legs of the Stool: estimating, cost tracking, invoicing
CSI codes
What's possible
Job costing analysis
Where to start
Slides
Recording
Resources
Homework
Hiring and Onboarding Homework
Job Cost Accounting Homework, 2 options:
If you’re feeling ready to take your job costing to the next level, review HELM’s sample CSI/Cost Code list (download the file first) and adjust it to match your business and services. This Excel format can then be uploaded to QB. Note, there are 2 tabs in this file, one for the 16 CSI Divisions, the second for the codes HELM uses. The first 2 numbers in each code refer to the CSI Division.)
If you’re already doing job costing, review a job cost report from a recently completed project and identify at least 2 things you learned from it that will inform your next estimate.
Session 9
Hiring and Onboarding
Presenter: Kate Stephenson
Agenda:
Imagine your future team
Best practices for hiring & onboarding
Creative recruiting
Your hiring strategy
Plan for onboarding
Establishing inclusive company culture
Slides
Recording
Resources
Homework
In order to expedite the process of building the budget, I’d like you to start to pull together a few things:
If you have any kind of budget/forecast/projection for the year that you’ve already done, bring it!
A list of 2024 projects - including ones completed, ones under contract, and ones that may just be coming together. We’ll want to know the total contract $ for each one and what portion of that will be received in 2024
A list of everyone on your team and what you pay them per hour (bonus if you have detailed info on cost of benefits)
A Profit & Loss statement from 2023 (or tax return if you don’t have a P&L)
Session 10
Building Your Operating Budget
Presenter: Kate Stephenson
Agenda
Forecasting revenue
Your team
Burdened labor calculator
Overhead expenses
Target GPM
Slides
Recording
Resources
Homework
Gather any documents you have that describe your company’s (existing or future) vision and mission. Read them and choose the 4-5 words that are most important to include in your draft vision.
A VISION STATEMENT:
* Communicates what the world will be like if you succeed: Your North Star
* Contains important values
* Is concise, pithy, and memorable (1-2 sentences)
* Guides your planning and decision-making
* (Usually) remains the same even when most things change
* Should excite you and motivate your teamWatch these two short videos (less than 30 minutes total):
a. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action (view the first 11 minutes if you are pressed for time; otherwise watch all 17!)
b. The Best Way To Answer “So What Do You Do?” | Clay Hebert (12 min)Then write a 2-3 sentence statement that summarizes the key points of your company’s vision: You can use either (or both) of the Ted Talks’ suggestions. “I do this (because I am passionate about it,) and this is why” or “I create/help/build X to help (people? The planet?).”
Session 11
Enlivening Your Vision
Presenter: Jeanette Millard
Agenda
Elevator Speech overview and guidance
Practice and feedback from Jeanette
Slides
Recording
Homework
Read through the intentions you have shared (Kath will email you a summary of what you’ve said)
Session 12
Reflections & Commitment Launch
Presenters: You all!
Agenda:
Course Overview, Recap
Reflections
Commitment Launch
Next Steps (one on one session)
Course Evaluation
Recording