The New Daily Reality of Project Management
One day this spring, we woke up to a new reality. We joined the rest of the world in paying a very high-price for gasoline, food and other personal commodities....
Tuning Up an Appliance for Optimum Efficiency
As mechanical contractors, you do an amazingly good job of keeping your customers' systems in good health. You clean drains, save water with low-consumption...
Site Offers Small Business Management Tools
Cloud computing occurs when software applications and all information generated within them are stored entirely online on an array of interdependent servers...
The Right Way to Value Your Family Business
Do you own all or part of a closely held business? Like it or not, some day you'll have to value that business. ...
Hydronic Radiant Heating Options, Part 6
At the end of last month's column, I promised that I would share the results of the most recent Kansas State University ABOVE tests being performed on the Radiant Glass Industries LLC Power *e Heated Glass product....
What Are You Going to do About the Weather?
In this industry, we get so used to certain issues that we sometimes don't notice when they gradually drift away from where they started. Then, we end up changing the risk allocation between owner and contractor or contractor and subcontractor that we were used to. The way weather is treated in contracts is one of those issues....
Be a Saver, Not a Hoarder; Be Thrifty, Not Cheap
We all know that contracting is such a ruthlessly cutthroat business that we literally try to save a penny or two here or a nickel or two there every...
Misinformation Caused Needless Disposal Ban
Mayor Charles Meeker and the City Council of Raleigh, N.C., recently found themselves steeped in hot water! It's no wonder. In addition to banning garbage...
Learn the Strategies for Beating the Estate Tax
The typical reader of this column (we'll call him Joe) who calls me for estate-planning help has two basic characteristics: First, he has been successful...
In Tough Times, the Tough Protect Themselves
This is not the first economic downturn that most contractors will have experienced. This one, however, seems to have hit construction first rather than other segments of the economy....
Features for Fleet Tracking Solutions Vary
Fleet tracking and management solutions are increasingly popular in the service industries, enabling awareness of where all your service trucks are when technicians are out in the field (typically within three meters) and a lot more data covering how they got there and when....
Discover the Magic of Condensing Boilers
Condensing boilers are the newest great thing. But what's so special about them? Do they actually work? And what about the old fact that condensation kills boilers?...
Marketing to the Mass Affluent, Part 1
It never fails. The same sentiments that have haunted business owners for years still persist. Willie Loman, who was convicted after numerous successful...
Alternatives to Hydronic Radiant Heating, Part 5
At the end of last month's column, I promised I would tell you about the results of the operational efficiency tests of radiant glass. ...
Adding an Extra Degree of Effort Has an Impact
Most of us know that an open pot of water sitting atop a constant heat source at 211F basically sits there doing nothing. As long as the heat source is...
Two very differing business succession plans
It's true: Real life is stranger than fiction. Here are two true client tax stories with almost identical facts involving transferring a family business...
Drafting confidentiality, non-compete pacts
Unless you are a one-man operation, your company has to consider the consequences of having an employee leave the firm. The more valuable the employee...
Yet another reason to leave it to the pros
The Call: The contractor on the phone wanted to be very careful with this boiler replacement because it was located near where he lived. People talk,...
Websites are modern marketing tools
Only about half of the small businesses in the United States with less than 10 employees have Websites. With eight out of 10 Americans spending as much...
Boiler to indirect water heater union, Part 2
At the end of last month's column (p. 30), I detailed the options available to a retired couple interested in replacing their boiler. OK, let's review...
Hydronic radiant heating options, Part 4
At the end of last month's column, I promised to tell you more about radiant glass windows. As I stated in the last column, this device seems to defy normal logic in more ways than one....
Make sure you get invited back
Everybody has his own definition of marketing it seems. To me, marketing means to ethically acquire and keep paying customers. is lead generation. is...
The new paradigm of coopetition
Many subcontractors will do almost anything if they think there's another nickel's profit or another month's company survival in it for them. General...
Buy-sell agreements: how to do them correctly
Do you have a buy-sell agreement or are you thinking of signing one? Most buy-sell agreements (B/S/A) happen like this: You meet with a lawyer and have...
Do you know your insurance requirements?
A contractor who promises in a contract to obtain insurance that he can't get (or chooses not to buy for cost reasons) can be in breach of contract, but this area is so complicated that who ends up being the loser can turn on some pretty technical points....
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