What a Contractor Really Needs to Know (It’s Elementary)
Reprinted with permission from Monroe Porter and PRO Magazine

Monroe Porter is president of PROOF Management Consultants, a firm that moderates networking groups for contractors. Over the years, he has observed the positive and negative actions of numerous contractors which led to the creation of a checklist of some of the mistakes often saw being made. He calls it 29 Things I Should Have Learned in Contractor Kindergarten.

As Porter says: “If I list something you should do…well, just do it. The things you get done never come back to haunt you.”

Here are some of the “things” on his list:

Terminate difficult employees. The employee you fire never keeps you up at night. If you have a person who complains, drinks, misses time or whatever, let he or she go. In a few weeks, you will ask yourself why you did not fire him or her years ago.

One job at a time. Don’t start several jobs at once in an attempt to keep customers happy, because you’ll end up with no one happy. Do one job until it is finished and then move on to the next one.

Collections. Have a collection policy and stick to it. Make one person in the office in charge of collections. Follow a written procedure which includes filing a lien for past-due jobs.

Keep a time card on yourself. Want to make a six-figure income? Then you have to perform tasks that are worth six figures. Keep a time card on yourself in 30-minute intervals and then put an hourly rate by every task you perform. Delegate or eliminate tasks that do not generate income.

Subs versus employees. Don’t cheat; it is not worth the risk. You know whether someone is really an employee. If it smells like a fish, looks like a fish…well, it is a fish.

Hire work ethic, teach skill. Hire people who will show up. If people have a work ethic problem, you probably cannot change them. But you can teach skills to a dependable hard worker.

Set job targets. It is hard to win or run a race when you do not know how far you are going to run and how fast you need to get there. Set job targets and milestones so employees can use them as a production guideline.

For the complete list of “29 Things” contact Monroe Porter at Monroe@proofman.com.