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Will Hiring A Safety Manager Matter? Source: Blogs
The vast majority of subcontractors in the country do not have a dedicated Safety Manager, so will hiring one make a difference? Short answer, yes. The real answer is much long...

Subcontractor Projecting 2010: Part 2 Source: Blogs
In Part 1, we talked about how to start coming up with a realistic look at 2010 by looking at your continual or flow work. In this part, let's take a look at the next part of th...

Where is 2010 going? Source: Blogs
...ate Commercial Jobs Good luck. Outside of very large projects that take time from companies that need the facilities internally, I would expect 2010 to look like 2009. Not too many people will be o...

How to Improve Construction Productivity Source: Blogs
pro·duc·tiv·i·ty (prō'dŭk-tĭv'ĭ-tē, prŏd'ək-) n. The rate at which goods or services are produced especially output per unit cost of labor. Or if you prefer how much does it c...

Need a Safety Program? Try a Culture First. Source: Blogs
...nd for good reason. Good talent is very difficult to find and none of us find any project so important that we need to hurt anyone. Back in the early days of high rises, it was considered acceptable...

Keys to being a Great Estimator Source: Blogs
So what does it take to be a good estimator? Being great with numbers? Having a desire to color on drawings all day? There are a few key traits I have found in my career that ...

Contract Sales: How to Understand Your Performance Source: Blogs
Last week we bid a few jobs. This week we bid a few jobs. Next week we will bid a few jobs. I am sure we all know which ones we won and which ones are lost, but do we really k...

MEP Coordination: why it’s expensive to be cheap Source: Blogs
MEP Coordination: why it’s expensive to be cheap. You’re a contractor and you have been awarded a contract to do what your good at, build a building. You assemble a team to ma...

MEP Coordination: It’s Expensive to be Cheap Source: Blogs
MEP Coordination: It’s Expensive to be Cheap. You’re a contractor and you have been awarded a contract to do what your good at, build a building. You assemble a team to manage...

Quality Control, Be in Control Source: Blogs
When you ask Owners what their top priorities for their next construction project, quality control is always near the top if not at the top. With the slow down in the economy th...

Bid Work? Risk Taker, Price Taker! Source: Blogs
... clearing price. Good luck out there, and go win some work

Life of An Estimator, Tougher than You Think Source: Blogs
For those of us in the construction industry we know the Estimators that are more cynical than the average Joe. They appear to be more prevalent than the fun loving young estima...

Risk Mangement, What is Your Role? Source: Blogs
In construction, talk to anyone about the single greatest challenge in surviving in the industry and it is risk. "Based on the risk, add more profit to it." "I am not goi...

What Makes A Good Estimate? Source: Blogs
Construction companies stand on three (3) pillars that define good business; Get Work, Do Work, and Monitor Work. If all three of them are done correctly and efficiently than th...

Creating a New User Account Source: Help System
In order to create a new user account, follow these instructions: Click the create new user account link at the top right below the login or click here. As the new page com...

Subcontractor Projecting 2010: Part 1 Source: Blogs
As 2009 closes, most of us are in the process of deciding what we think about 2010. If you have done your job right you already have this answer and if you have been lucky 2010 ...

Subcontractor: Projecting 2010 Part 4 Source: Blogs
Well, we are almost done. We have now compiled all of our revenue and gross margin amounts for our 2010 year. You should have a spreadsheet that has totals that mirrors the fol...

Subcontractor: Projecting 2010 Conclusion Source: Blogs
So we went through all of the steps of producing a good business plan for 2010, now what? First let's review what we have covered so far. Part 1: Building our Flow Work Pa...

Is the Economy Affecting Your Ethics? Source: Blogs
Contracting is a tough business. Our industry has a reputation among the community of having little or no ethics. That reputation is earned due to our poor communication, but d...

Revit: An Asset or a Cool Cartoon? Source: Blogs
Revit: An Asset or a Cool Cartoon? According to Wikipedia, Autodesk Revit is architectural building information management (BIM) software for Microsoft Windows, developed by...

Construction News U Can Use 2.10.2010 Source: Blogs
Construction related news that you might of missed and can help you in your business. Mobile Data Traffic: 3.6 Billion Gigabytes a Month by 2014 All things Digital is reporti...

Construction News U Can Use: 2.24.2010 Source: Blogs
Some of the more interesting news from around the Construction Industry: Margin Pressure Will Worsen for Nonresidential Contractors Reed Construction Data is reporting that ...

The Art of Estimating Source: Blogs
Sun Tzu wrote the Art of War in the 6th Century BC. Since that time military experts have considered it a complete view on how to operate a military machine and business scholar...

Construction: The Lost Decade Source: Blogs
Yesterday the Department of Commerce came out with the July 2010 construction numbers and the current state of affairs is not very attractive. The numbers represent the seasonal...

Can Contractors Change? Source: Blogs
The past two years have been the worst global economic times in more than a generation and it is anyone's guess if we are coming out of it or if there are more challenges ahead. ...

Will Distributors Have A Place in Tomorrow's World Source: Blogs
As subcontractors we buy the vast majority of our material through Distributors. The system was established well before my time and benefited almost everyone along the supply ch...

How to Create More Construction Jobs Source: Blogs
... that create jobs?" Good question. Jobs have always moved to the most productive in society. If you look at a off-shoring of telemarketing jobs, they are moving because the actual amount of work pe...

Why would Add A Project Only (With no Estimate)? Source: Help System
If you have tooled around with the Pipeline tool, you have noticed that you can enter a project without an estimate. So why would you want to do such a thing? If you are mana...

What are we really selling? Source: Blogs
As subcontractors, especially during tough economic times, sales is a tougher and tougher battle. In the US there are approximately 800,000 specialty subcontractors, which means...

Boating from an Owner's Perspective Source: Blogs
If you read the first part of this series, you have looked at the photo of two boats and hopefully gained a different perspective about the photo that has been circulating around...

So What is BIM? Source: Blogs
Building Information Modeling (or BIM) is all the rage in today's commercial and industrial construction markets. I am unaware of many large General Contractors that haven't inv...

Subcontractor: Projecting 2010 Part 3 Source: Blogs
In Part 1 and Part 2, we looked at projecting the flow work and the backlog, now to get a total picture of 2010, we need to look at work we don't have yet, our pipeline. The pip...

Why BIM? Source: Blogs
So why would anyone BIM, or Building Information Modeling? Unless you are doing a power plant or some very specialized industrial job, our guys in the field can work things out,...

Tracking Productivity is the Key to Productivity Source: Blogs
Productivity is defined by economists as the amount of output per unit of labor. For example the number of light fixtures installed per labor hour worked. As a subcontractor I ...

Sustainable Yes! LEED be Careful Source: Blogs
When LEED was introduced it became a revolution in the construction industry changing the way Owners, Designers, and Builders approached jobs. The major objective was to create ...

Revit: No Place for Amateurs Source: Blogs
Revit: No Place for Amateurs Let us look at the typical building information modeling services firm and how things are done. Typically, a CAD manager is hired to create all of...

Customer Service, It is About the Little Things Source: Blogs
... be as difficult. Good luck, and if there is anything I can do for you, please email me at cpierce@constructionmonkey.com.

What Value Do You Add? Source: Blogs
In any economy and in any service industry, there is a very fair question: "What Value Do You Add?". This question goes for companies and employees and in this economy it become...

What Can the Rig Disaster Teach a Subcontractor? Source: Blogs
Last month a terrible accident happened aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, killing 11 workers on the platform and creating an oil leak that is still no fully contained. The i...

Is PM software a Waste of Money? Source: Blogs
Almost every construction company out there sees the value in Estimating software and utilizes some form of it. I will agree that not every company is utilizing a specifically d...

Be A Master in Construction Source: Blogs
Where are the true Masters in Construction? I am not talking about those that have ventured out to get a Masters License in their prospective trade, I mean real masters. Americ...

What Financial Reform Means for Construction Source: Blogs
The current Congress has passed the 2,300 page Financial Reform Bill which will have major impacts to the construction industry. After the 2008 elections there were three bills ...

Do You Know What You Are Building? Source: Blogs
In today's world of CADD, fast track projects, out sourcing, reduced design staffs, it is impossible to get through a project with at least a dozen new sets of drawings and hundr...

Are Trade Shows a Waste? Source: Blogs
As spring approaches so does one of the two trade show seasons. With the economy difficult, it begs the question: Should we spend money on attending a trade show? Just a busine...

What Makes a Specialty Contractor so Special? Source: Blogs
In construction there are the general trades and then the infamous specialty subcontractors. Ever think what is so special about the specialty trades? The construction industry...

Construction News U Can Use 4.20.2010 Source: Blogs
...nufacturer. Have a Good Week

So What Does the Project Manager Do Anyway? Source: Blogs
At the expense of offending Project Managers as wells as the Monkey: A woman was looking at the animals on display in a pet store. A few minutes later, a man walked in and sai...

This Bonus Sucks! Source: Blogs
...ed by the system. Good luck and hopefully this year will yield bonuses for everyone

News U Can Use: Feb.3.2010 Source: Blogs
In a new weekly installment, we will be scanning the news sources to find the most interesting news items for contractors and summarize what it means to them. For our Februrary ...

Cost Control is Construction's #2 Rule Source: Blogs
In Construction the #1 rule is safety. Without the principal of safety, the things we build and the people we employ will not be around once we finish. I hope that fact is not ...

Where Have the Good Craftsmen Gone? Source: Blogs
One of the largest complaints I hear is "the quality of the workforce is not what it used to be". Whether I am talking to union or non-union, family owned or large business, the...

What Does Your 2010 Look Like? Source: Advertisements
What does your 2010 look like? This was a very typical question at the end of 2009 that sent most managers in a company scrambling to work on a spreadsheet to develop the busine...

Dashboard Source: Advertisements
All of the important information you want and need to know on one page: PM Dashboard (All Projects) See all of your projects listed on one page! View Project...