We feel your pain.

Finding skilled, creative, affordable web designers borders on the impossible.

We’ve been searching for a graphic designer who could create a couple of dozen minor images for our website. The design needed to be consistent with the color scheme of our new logo and banner. Most of the images were identical except for text.

My normal, incredibly talented and fun, designer was swamped remodeling her house and couldn’t get to us any time soon. So we had to branch out and find a substitute designer. Who would of thought it would take us three months to find one that was (1) qualified (2) available and (3) interested. We’ve got our fingers crossed he will work out well for us.

We will not bore you with the dozens of stories we’ve heard from contractors who have ended up being held hostage by their web programmer. Suffice it to say it happens more often than not. So if you have been suffering these types of problems, don’t feel like you’re special. You a member of a very, very large group.

One of the most pleasurable parts of being an adviser to contractors is visiting with the field workers.  Not only do they tell it like it is, they are ground zero for the industry. They’re in it for both a living and a lifestyle.

I had an interesting conversation with a field guy the other day. My gym decided it was time for a  “freshen up”. New paint, TVs, ceiling tiles, lights, etc. The gym would be closed for 9 days while the work took place starting at 10:00 PM on a Friday night. Naturally, the contractors were allowed to start prepping Friday morning.

As I walked into the locker room, I ran right into the scaffold a drywaller was working on. He looked familiar and sure enough we had met a couple of years earlier on a large prison project. I asked him how things were going for his company – an outstanding union drywall sub that is well run.

He proceeded to tell me that when we last saw each other the company was keeping 225 field guys busy. Last fall (2009) they were down to the 18 senior foremen. Those 18 guys were the only field workers at the company. He felt fortunate to have remained fully employed the entire way. The company had since crept back up to about 25 field guys. Remember this is a very well run company, that enjoys a great reputation among GCs, that can perform both new construction and tenant renovation. Their work load had slipped 90%!

This is not a doom and gloom blog. Things are turning around. Just thought you might appreciate reading about the depth of destruction this recession has had on our industry. Even the best run companies took a huge hit and the impact was felt nowhere harder than on the front line.

Hope your world is considerably brighter than this company’s.

Ron & Guy

While describing the type of business he didn’t want to be,  my client threw out an abbreviation that I thought was golden: AFAB

Anything For A Buck

He understood that his recent pattern of doing anything for a buck (AFAB) was re-enforcing several poor habits among his team – himself included. It was teaching them to act like typical me-too contractors who fight clients and designers every step of the way over every little cost add as he had no other choice due to the manner in which the jobs ended up in their hands (by being the low bidder).

All the result of AFAB.

Companies that grow do not pursue AFAB. They identify profitable niches and customers they can excel with and build their businesses around those customers.

That’s what my client is working towards and that’s what you should be working towards too!