How to Stop Working for Free
Lesson 5—Summing it All Up
Welcome back. In Lesson 4 you took a detailed look at what an RFI actually is. By now, you know that there’s a philosophy that goes along with the RFI: a winning philosophy produces a “Winning RFI”. And we want to win.
Because you need to get the full story on the entire change order process, and what it takes to consistently win, become an expert on it. As always, I suggest my book, “Get Paid for a Change!”, which is subtitled, “The Contractor’s Blueprint for Turning Extra Work into Extra Money—Through Change Orders”. It’s short enough that it cuts through the excess junk you don’t really need. It’s not a textbook. It’s just a practical book that you can read in a couple of nights, and put it to work immediately.
You see, we only looked at part of the RFI process in this mini course. There are more pieces involved in getting your actual change order for your extra work, but those pieces are no more difficult to work with than what you just went through. You can do this, as long as you have step-by-step help.
One of the things that frustrates me when I try and learn a new program on the computer is when the genius that did the programming assumed that I knew more than I did! Their instructions just gloss over everything, because they figure that I don’t need as much help as I do. Well, I do! And I don’t mind saying it. What I want from those guys is what I call “click-by-click” instructions. Assume nothing. Tell me everything. Click-by-click. Know what I mean?
In many ways, my approach to teaching change management in general, and collecting what’s rightfully yours, in particular, is to assume that you’d like things laid out in a logical sequence, easy to follow. And that’s what the book does.
But you’ll want to know, once you get an answer to your RFI, how you convert that into actual dollars. How do you keep track of this stuff? What do you do when the client says “No”? Heck, what do you do when he says “Yes”? How do you maximize your leverage when extra work comes up? Surprisingly, contractors do have times when they can and should be in control, but too often let it slip by. There’s a lot of stuff to know.
There is a science—albeit a simple one—to doing all of this. You can do it the hard way or the easy way. I’m betting that, since you are looking at this course, you already tried it the hard way and found that it cost you a few thousand—or maybe, much more. So I’m going to suggest that you try it the easy way, spend a few, tax deductible bucks on the book, and begin generating way more revenue than you are now.
You’re also going to find that you want to be a part of the private, Full Contact Team Website, where you’ll get strategies and info that most of your competitors will never have. And you’ll find that the private site will cost less for a year’s membership than just an hour or two of your attorney’s time! Plus, it should save you several hours a year of that person’s time. And, I think you’ll find it a lot more fun and maybe even a bit more valuable.
You can get the book by going to www.FullContactTeam.com. I’m sure you know that by now. There’s also some plain, ol’ free stuff there, articles and audios, as well. Oh, and for some of you, I’ll be sending you an occasional article that I think might be helpful to you. I hope that’s okay with you.
If you want to be a great PM, then get serious about it. Learn all you can. Education for your career is normally tax deductible, and pays huge dividends. Someone once said that, if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.
Lead your projects. Be a leader at your company. Leaders are learners. So, if you’ve read through five of these lessons already, that qualifies you as a learner! Keep learning all you can.
That’s it for the mini course. I hope you learned quite a bit, at least gained some confidence. If I can help you further, please let me know. I am available for consulting and for speaking, and I’d love to work with your company or speak with your group.
Copyright 2009 Gary Micheloni
www.FullContactTeam.com