Too many contractors do too much extra work for free! Ahh, “Extra Work”. “Extra” revenue. The dream of every contractor-sometimes contorted into a kind of a nightmare! Even though you expected it to be a kind of a good thing, something has happened and it has caused you all kinds of grief. The reason you are reading this book right now is because you already know that to be true. You’ve tried being the “nice guy” or “nice gal”, but found that your clients often took advantage of you. On account of that, the profitability of your projects has suffered.
Maybe your abilities as an estimator or project manager are being questioned. Worse, maybe you are beginning to question them, yourself. Let’s stop that right now! You are going to learn how to be the best and to “play” against the best. Take a hint from NFL defensive standout David “Deacon” Jones, who learned his craft so well he once said, “I’m the best defensive end around. I’d hate to have to play against me!”
You’ll soon learn a profound truth, once you get a chapter or two into this book: the problem definitely isn’t you! Fact is, many clients think that they can take advantage of a contractor, because they believe that you, the contractor have tons of profit built into the job, and they’d like it if you would share that with them. That is why this course had to be developed.
Timeout!
At this point, I need to call a timeout, have you all come back over to the sidelines, and give you a bit of a disclaimer. It’s critical. Here it is, and I know it seems obvious: most of the clients we have are all pretty decent people; most of our jobs are okay; most of the time we do get treated fairly; all clients are not evil! I don’t want to make it seem that way, at all.
But-and it’s a big but-some are stinkers! And one real stinker can ruin your whole year. Get a couple of stinkers, and your company can be in real trouble.
So the purpose of this course is twofold: 1. to protect you from the occasional stinker; 2. to give you an effective strategy that you can put in place which will not only make you look more professional, but the existence of this strategy will cause you to be treated with proper respect by your many good clients, and will keep you from getting hurt by the others. Got it? Good.
Okay, time is in-get back on the field. Here we go!
So, what’s the Training Camp course all about-what will it do for you? It’s going to do three things for you-and right now! And, it’ll do these three things on that problem project that is bothering you the most. You know the one. There are others, but you know the one I’m talking about-the one that caused you to pick up this book in the first place. Here are the three things the book will teach you to do-call them “the 3 S’s”, if you like:
1. Stop working for free. You’ll learn how to do this in the vast majority of your cases-even your worst cases.
2. Start getting paid for your work. You’ll learn that, when extra work comes along, somebody is going to pay for it to be done. There are only a few possibilities: the owner (including the design team); the construction manager (if there is one); the contractor (that’s where you come in). Our premise is simple: since you are the one being asked to do this work, you ought to be fairly compensated. Reasonable?
3. Simply expect to get paid because you deserve to get paid. You’ll learn to evaluate each incident of possible extra work on its own merit. No more of this nonsense from your client, “Well, just keep track of the costs and we’ll deal with them later.” You’ll be changing your mindset to pursue, discuss and negotiate each item as it comes along. After all, “It’s just business.” Nobody needs to get his feelings hurt. It’s just math-plus or minus. Right now. Simple. After all, if your client intends to take advantage of the situation, and you, and ultimately not pay you, wouldn’t you really rather know right now?
Sound good? Of course it does! Will it work? Of course it will! Will it work for you? Overall, yes it will, in the vast majority of cases, and the results are guaranteed. In fact, if you bought the print book, “Get Paid for a Change!”, it actually came with a guarantee! Just look:
Performance Guarantee: 100% Satisfaction
How does it work? Follow these few simple steps:
1. Read the book completely within thirty days and take notes. (You’ll probably read it in just one or two nights.)
2. Pick out at least five strategies that fit your situation the best. (There are at least twice that many which will work for you.)
3. Implement at least three of these strategies over the next three months. (If you don’t implement at least six, I’ll be stunned. They’re that good and make that much sense.)
4. That’s it!
If those strategies don’t directly contribute at least $1,000.00 in additional revenue to your company, return* the book to the publisher for a full refund.
*Book must be returned to publisher, within six months of purchase, in saleable condition, with a copy of your receipt. That’s it! Note: e-books are not returnable because there is nothing to return. SECOND NOTE: Guarantee applies to print book only, and is included here to illustrate how powerful this course is.
You might think that the publisher had some risk here. Actually, the risk belongs to you and your company, because it is virtually impossible to implement even one of these strategies and not achieve an amazing return on your investment. In fact, over a period of a year, your projects should realize an improvement in the tens of thousands of dollars. That’s how powerful these strategies are.
What’s Inside? What’s So Different?
Briefly, there is no other course like this one in the known contracting universe! This is not some long, boring academic tome. It’s nuts-and-bolts stuff, easy to read. Some of it so obvious you’ll wonder why you never thought of it yourself before.
Plus, you’ll be “coached”, rather than taught. And the coach just happens to be the one of the most widely-read project managers regularly writing today on construction issues. Your coach gives you a complete gameplan. It’s step-by-step. Nothing is left to your imagination. This approach gives you a blueprint for success. You’re being given a shot at becoming a winner as a PM.
“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.” Larry Bird
Also because you have a good coach, you’ll be provided with inspiration and wisdom in the form of quotes, from athletes to business people, to help cheer you on to your success. And be on the lookout for all of the “Coach’s Tips”, which appear in most of the sessions. If that’s not enough, then look in the various appendices at the end of the Sessions. These will show you exactly how you can do something.
“A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” Ara Parsheghian.
After reading through this book, you’ll find that your batting average will improve dramatically when you deal with changes and other issues on your projects. You’ll be paid more fairly, more often. And all of this comes in a system that any contractor can integrate painlessly into his or her ongoing operation.
So, how do we get started? We begin at the beginning, which is the title of the next Session. See how easy this is?