The Friday March 22 edition of the Wall Street Journal contained a nice surprise for us. The front page of the Marketplace section had the following headline “Plywood Becomes Hot Item as Housing Market Recovers”. What a breath of fresh air.

Not be a political but I lean toward skepticism regarding official government statistics. The WSJ article and mention of potential plywood shortages in the near term was the first legitimate sign of a housing recovery I’ve come across.

We need the housing market to recover. It is starting. Next we need the job market to recover. The commercial real estate market is not going to heat up significantly until employment gets going and more companies need office space.

We have a long ways to go but the sun is finally starting to break through.

After much bantering back and forth over the past several months, we have decided to adjust our RISK-FREE offer for club membership. A new membership now has two types of guaranteed satisfaction.

You can sign up for a free 30 day trial membership OR take advantage of our three month or annual membership discounts complete with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Don’t wait too long to take advantage of this most generous offer. As soon as we strike our deal with a third party service provider who shall remain nameless, the $19.98 monthly full access price for new members will go away.

We will still offer a base rate of $19.98 but it no longer give new members access to our presentations and other advanced features.  Existing members will be grandfathered as long as they keep their account in good standing.

Act now and gain full access to all of our proven solutions for 30 days absolutely FREE. Click here to join.

The headline could, and maybe should, refer to punching out a job but today it refers to installing processes and systems in your business. Just like with construction projects, finishing off the last 5% of the implementation of a new business procedure seems to take 50% of the total time. The last 5% is painful, boring, and annoying…but it must be done!

A recent marking email I sent out to my newsletter reader list brought this point to mind. In the email I promised to share the secret to keeping crews on time and in budget. (Side Note: marketing emails to the list are few are far between.)

A bunch of contractors emailed or called in to learn the secret as they were struggling with their crews. A handful of these contractors had 95% of the solution in place yet they hadn’t completed the last few steps and therefore weren’t receiving the desired results.

It really drove home the point that if you don’t finish something 100% you will not receive the benefits you seek. In the case of construction projects that translates to not getting back your full retention.

So here’s my tip: Dad was right. If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

Don’t let up until you’re done. In some cases, such as with keeping crews on budget and schedule, the follow through requires daily action.

Hope this helps you move forwards.

Take care,

Ron Roberts,
The Contractor’s Business Coach
913-961-1790