Creating the perception of leadership
I once had a foreman who was about 30 years old with 10 years' experience and wanted to become a project manager so bad he could taste it. He read every...
Marketing lessons from a Boy Scout trip
I went on an outing with my son and five Boy Scouts. We were really roughing it, camping out in the shadow of our one-year-old lake house that's far nicer...
The 10 best things to do on service calls
Here are the top 10 ways service techs can gain credibility: 1. Put the customer's mind at ease regarding her immediate problems within the first two...
Run multiple print jobs on all network printers
If you find juggling the printing of multiple project plans and change orders for bidding and RFPs and other distribution a hassle, here is a program...
Daily reports can nip problems in the bud
Most general contractors on commercial and public construction projects are required to generate and submit daily reports to their customers. Sometimes...
Think Your Kid's Stock Will Survive A Divorce?
By Irving L. Blackman Tax Authority Are you thinking of transferring stock to your kids, or does one or more of your kids already own stock in your closely...
A New Age In North American Hydronics
By Mark Eatherton Hydronic Heating Contractor During the ISH Frankfurt show in March 1999, I was exposed to a product that made my mind race. I saw, for...
Service Management Tools For Field Work
By William and Patti Feldman Computer Authorities Here are two solutions for contractors active in service work. Both take advantage of evolving technologies....
What's Wrong With This Picture?
By Patrick Linhardt Hydronic Heating Authority THE CALL: On the line was a contractor who has been a oneman shop since his dad retired from the trade....
Service Management Tools For Field Work
Here are two solutions for contractors active in service work. Both take advantage of evolving technologies. Electronic Service Control (www.desco-soft.com,...
Letter To Dean Of College Construction Program
The following is a letter that I recently sent to the dean of a college construction program. I was asked about the school's current curriculum and what...
Estimates For Some Jobs Pulled ... From Thin Air
By H. Kent Craig Project Management Authority It's been a long-standing practice in mechanical contracting to throw numbers out on some jobs that are...
35 years later, your value is still front-page news
By Bob Miodonski Publisher and editorial director The headline over the lead story on the front page of our May issue states that manufacturers should...
Arbitration: Do You Want To Use It?
By Susan Linden McGreevy Construction Attorney I know that no one reading this column wants to think about getting into disputes. You just want to concentrate...
A High-Tech And Personal Relationship
By Adams Hudson Marketing Authority My sister is coming to visit in a couple of weeks. Oh, and my other sister is too plus at least one of their children...
Add-ons work like magic
By Matt Michel CEO, Service Roundtable THE EASIEST WAY to boost your company's profitability is to increase add-on sales during service calls. For a profitable...
When bad things happen to good drains
I'VE BEEN CLEANING drains for 36 years; you'd think by now I'd have a pretty good idea of what causes drain lines to clog. In all those years, I've worked...
A matter of grave concern, part 4
I EXPLAINED HOW I believe I contracted Legionnaires' disease in my May column. What I didn't explain was the good news/bad news scenario. ...
No more excuses for not having good Website
A WEBSITE IS the easiest way to show off your company to prospective clients and communicate up-to-date information about your business. If you don't...
What good do employee non-competes do?
IT IS THE UNUSUAL employer that would not want to restrict the ability of its employees to leave the firm and go into competition with it. Beyond just...
How the IRS clipped the Yankee Clipper
IT'S JUNE, SO let's talk baseball. Unfortunately, this is a story about a strikeout. Joe DiMaggio, unquestionably one of the great baseball legends of...
Plant seeds to harvest next generation of PMs
I SAW A help-wanted ad in the 1980s that I remember to this day. With precious little exaggeration and a ton of implied irony, this company said it was...
Plumbing marketing tips from my accountant
OVERLY ORGANIZED, rigidly restrained accountant leaned over the lunch table as he spoke. "I don't know how to tell you this, but the plumbing at our office...
Learn to learn as an organization
IN HIS BOOK "The Fifth Discipline," Peter Senge suggests that companies become learning organizations. He defined a learning organization as an "organization...
Whats on Your White Board?
By Mark Matteson When Jeff Bezos was a college student at Princeton, he slept at the Math and Computer lab, literally. As a result he enjoyed a 4.3 GPA....
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