contracting

A Face-to-Face Meeting Gets a Contract Signed

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I just put together a bid for a potential customer.  He found me through my website, which is cool because that lets me know local people are finding us on the internet.  That’s huge. So I went out to the prospect’s condo a few days ago.  This guy is not a referral, so I don’t [...]

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Bringing Professionalism Back To Contracting

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I don’t know about you, but being a professional in every aspect of your contracting business is so important today.  You must not overlook anything. Your company vehicle. For the small independent, you must attempt to obtain a newer vehicle sooner or later.  People will look at what kind of vehicle you drive up to [...]

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How Valuable Is Failing?

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I don’t want to be a failure.  No one wants to be a failure.  “How can there be any value in it?” one might say.  I’d like to share a story. Many years back, I contracted with a commercial company to maintain a dozen or so apartment buildings.  The scope of work entailed repairing, installing, [...]

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Take Your Tools With You

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It is beyond me why some contractors leave their tools at the job site overnight.  It is your livelihood.  Why the hell do they still do it? I make it a rule of habit:  NEVER leave any tools!  If you are to tired to pack your stuff up at the end of the day, you [...]

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Concerned Citizens Corner: Contractor Got Punched In the Mouth

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So this contractor was contracted to do some patchwork in an area of Baytown.  A citizen got pissed off because the guy was runnin jackhammers at 6 am on a workday.  He was contracted to do cement repair work. [Six AM! C'mon!] The white male punch him in the mouth after telling the contractor, Edward [...]

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How To Put Together A Custom Point Of Sales Package

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When it comes to sales, you’d better be ready when the opportunity presents itself.  Look at every open door invite to a prospect’s home or business as a chance to refine your selling approach. Free Estimates. Companies just starting out should certainly offer free estimates because a regularly practiced dress rehearsal makes a sale.  I [...]

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The Official List Of Contractors’ Overhead Costs

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Here’s my official list of what it takes to be a contractor and stay viable in business.  Over 90% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years. Make sure you account for every part of your overhead.  Some of you will have more entries than others.. “Overhead..” Photo: beloblog.com 1. Rent/ Mortgage 2. Electrical/ [...]

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This Is Really For Us, Contractors: The RRP Rule.

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Much has been discussed by fellow contractors about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Renovation, Repair, and Painting for Lead Safety Final Rule (40CFR 745) that requires that renovations conducted for compensation, must be conducted by Certified Firms (your construction company) by Certified Renovators (you).  If a house was built before 1978, you have to apply [...]

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How To Submit Your WP Blog To Webmaster Tools

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I spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon trying to submit a site to Google’s Webmaster Tools.  Not knowing the ins and outs of how to do certain things like submitting a blog; I dug into Google’s website. Google offers 3 ways for you to prove a site is yours by inserting code into [...]

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Will You Babysit My House?

the-beans

Our house is pre-1978.  All houses built before that time were painted with  products that contained lead.  Lead can cause all types of learning disabilities and disorders.  There’s lead in them damn walls.  Photo: freakingnews The new RRP Lead Rule. If a home was built before 1978, the new lead rule in-acted this year in [...]

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