Al Schwartz
Increasing income through diversification
How do you make your money these days? Are you a service shop? Are you a commercial, residential or industrial contractor? How about a retrofitter or a remodeler? While it is difficult to pigeonhole what we all do into one of these groups, it is also true that many companies categorize themselves in this way. ...
Your service truck is a shop on wheels
Are your vehicles just trucks or are they platforms from which your personnel conduct your business?...
Managing your business for operational consistency
Gaining and keeping control of the little things that siphon your profits and working capital is not hard to do. Sometimes making the decision to do it is the hard part. If you are an organized person, you probably already have some system in place to catch some of the waste, so turning that system up a notch should not be all that difficult....
Contracts, negotiations in 2011 and beyond
The marketplace today has changed so drastically, and in so many ways, that it is difficult to form a complete list. The one constant though, is that contractors still exist (at least for the immediate future) and subcontractors still engage in commerce with them....
Trade, craft and technology; ever evolving
Looking at our trade from a strictly historic viewpoint, and disregarding the political and economic conditions of today, we see a steady if not always constant progression of improvements in the way it has grown and evolved....
Boldly marching into the brave new world
How you deal with the changes and how you incorporate those changes into your business plans will, ultimately, tell the tale of your survival or demise. As we all know, being in business, especially the construction trades, is a tough way to go....
Suppliers, wholesalers: allies or adversaries?
If you look at your suppliers as adversaries, or have the opinion that they are all trying to take advantage of you, you are missing the big picture. Everyone is trying to stay in business and make a profit....
Contracts & subcontracts: That's why they call it contracting
The fact of the matter is that just about every business in the world today operates on some level of contractual obligation....
Expand into the green market for fun, profit
For plumbers and HVAC contractors, diving into the green pool is a good way to add an income stream to your shop, as well as moving the cutting edge of our trade into the 21st century. The challenge now is to change our normally skeptical mind set and embrace the new technology, insofar as it is profitable to do so....
Trucks: the modern contractor’s beast of burden
At the turn of the 20th century, when the automobile was new, most heavy lifting and hauling was done by horse, mule or oxen. The term “horsepower” is not a quaint colloquialism, it had real relevance when the internal combustion engine was new. ...
Adapting for survival; what do you do when nothing is working
It is becoming more difficult to find topics for this column that point to an upbeat outlook for our current economic malaise. I’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know when I say work and job prospects, across the board, are in the tank. ...
Customer relations: Put yourself in the customer's shoes
Some attention needs to be paid to a very important, and often neglected, part of your business: customer relations. For service businesses, customer relations are the fountain from which word of mouth referrals and a great deal of future work springs. Repeat customers are what make up the bulk of service businesses income stream....
Marketing: Websites, the Internet and beyond
It really isn't all that surprising that many contractors are not computer literate, or as computer literate as they need to be in this era. After all, they are out trying to make a buck in a crummy economy with no real light at the end of this particularly dark tunnel. If they are not up to speed on computers now, the thought of spending the time to learn how to use them effectively is not a high priority. ...
To market or not to market … what a question!
As a vendor in today's marketplace, where do you fit in the greater scheme of the marketing machine and what can you do to take better advantage of all the opportunities available to you?...
Maximizing profit in a tight economy
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you are in business and reading this publication, you are in it to make a profit. I've never met anyone in this industry (or in most others industries, truth be told) who was working at it for fun or some noble purpose other than the profit motive. After all we are capitalists. We take our money and invest it in a venture that, we sincerely hope, will provide profits and a "return" on our investment....
Being ethical in an unethical industry
Today personal integrity and moral and ethical relationships are the cornerstones of your business. It is not only good business, but good for your business to act with personal integrity when dealing with clients and customers....
Is it an ill wind or can you make lemonade?
The title of this column refers to two adages that pretty well sum up our national economic situation. The first is "It is an ill wind that blows no good." The second is "When life gives lemons, make lemonade." The two sayings both have optimism at their cores; the ability to find some good or to try to make the best of a bad situation....
Are you ready to get out of the truck?
While there are some plumbing companies that start up from “business models” where the principals are not journeymen, it is far more common that a company begins life as a one-man show. ...
Rolling stock: "Yes, we've got that"
Whether your business is service, repair and remodel, residential or commercial construction work, not having the right material at hand can be frustrating and costly. As an employer or business owner, not having enough of, or the right material, on site or in the service truck means the loss of both time and profit....
What’s in a name?
In many articles that I've read lately in trade magazines, "plumbers" are referred to as "techs" or "technicians." Now, I am completely aware of the tendency toward political correctness in our society at large and the trend toward "specialization" in all sorts of jobs, but techs or technicians? Really?...
Let's get organized: how to handle project details
It would seem that the dam may be starting to spring a few leaks. According to my sources here in the Southwest, it looks like the worst of the economic tsunami we’ve been experiencing may be over and there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for the construction industry … let's hope the light is not a train....
The ‘dance steps’ of getting paid — Part 2
My previous column dealt, generally, with the problems many contractors experience with getting paid. ...
Getting paid — Part 1
Being a contractor, or a subcontractor, is not for the faint of heart in the best of times. With market conditions as they are today, nerves of steel are a prerequisite. The age old problem of timely payment has been drawn into even sharper focus as projects become scarcer and funding niggardly. General contractors are being squeezed by the architects, the architects are being squeezed by the owners, and the owners are being squeezed by the banks to get the most for their money in the fastest time possible. ...
Is there a silver lining?
The current state of the national (and international) economy is anemic, at best. The prolonged recession (depression?) has sapped almost every ounce of life from the construction trades. I am amazed and dismayed at the toll it has taken here in the Southwest, and can imagine that the rest of the country is faring just as poorly....
The customer is always right even when he’s wrong
Scenario No. 1: ABC Plumbing & Heating gets a service call about a commode that keeps on running. The dispatcher assigns the call to “Ramblin’ Rick,” one of his best service plumbers. Rick rolls on the call and arrives at the appointed time to the “Mr. & Mrs. Customer” residence. So far, so good....
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