Business of Contracting

Contract types, the clauses that matter, lien rights, getting paid, and the licensing-law trap.

Job costing, WIP schedules, percentage-of-completion, AIA billing, and retainage.

Cash flow, construction loans and draws, and surety bonds — bid, performance, payment, and more.

How to joint-venture a project — especially work you have not done before: why it works in your favor, how the JV agreement is structured, and how the partners work together.

The business side of contracting: systems, planning, pricing for profit (markup vs. margin), job profitability, sales, and leadership.

Build accurate estimates, recover overhead, bid the right work, and lock in your margin at buyout.

Why cash—not profit—kills contractors, and how to bill, collect, and forecast so you never hit the crunch.

Build a team, delegate outcomes, structure the company, and grow on purpose without breaking quality.

Run jobs on time and on budget: the PM role, scheduling and the critical path, submittals/RFIs, change orders, quality control, and closeout.

Win and keep clients: why service wins, consultative selling, managing expectations, handling complaints, and building referrals.

Protect your business: the key policies (GL, workers' comp, builder's risk), certificates of insurance, and managing risk beyond insurance.

Get a steady flow of the right work: your niche, website and Google presence, reviews, social media, and lead generation.

Negotiate fair, durable deals: the basics, negotiating with owners and with subs/suppliers, the contract terms that matter, and protecting the deal.

Get more done and keep your profit: why productivity matters, planning the day, cutting waste and rework, managing your own time, and the habits that help.

The step-by-step launch: is it time, setting up the business, getting legal and licensed, pricing and first jobs, and setting up for growth.

Win and run public projects: how public bidding works, bid/performance/payment bonds, prevailing wage and certified payroll, prequalification and set-asides, and managing the compliance.

Run subs like a pro: when to sub work out, finding and qualifying subs, the subcontract, scheduling and coordinating, and paying/handling problems.

A beginner's walk-through of where work comes from, how to read bid documents, do a takeoff, price a bid, and submit a winning proposal — without the rookie mistakes.

The categories of construction software and which beginner-friendly, low-cost tools to start with for takeoff, project management, scheduling, the field, and the back office.

Financial literacy for contractors: how the books work, reading the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow, the ratios and KPIs every GC should track, and financial controls and working with your CPA.

How owners contract for design and construction — Design-Bid-Build, Design-Build, CM at-Risk, CM Agency, multi-prime, and IPD — and how to choose the right one.

A deep dive on scheduling: why it wins or loses jobs, CPM and the critical path, building and updating a schedule, the Last Planner System, delay and recovery analysis, and the tools.

A deep dive on construction estimating: estimate types & accuracy, quantity-takeoff mastery, pricing labor by production rates, materials/equipment/subs, general conditions and markup, contingency and bid/no-bid, assembling the bid, and estimating systems & data.

The field leader's job, start to finish: what a super owns, mobilizing the site, the daily routine and daily log, coordinating subs, field quality control, safety leadership, and the paperwork that protects the job.

A role-based deep dive for PMs and PMs-to-be: the career path, project kickoff and the execution plan, buyout, cost control and the monthly cost report, owner relations and reporting, managing risk and claims, and financial closeout.

The working accounting system of a contractor, beyond the basics: why construction accounting is different, cost codes and the job budget, committed costs and subcontract accounting, cost-to-complete and profit fade, the WIP schedule in depth, overhead and equipment costing, and the month-end and job close.

How a contractor's systems fit together and how to choose them: construction ERPs and when you need one, project management platforms, a step-by-step method for building a schedule, a step-by-step method for estimating a project, which estimating and takeoff tools fit which company, and the cost, wage, and bid databases available to you.

Work that falls between trades gets paid for by the GC unless it is caught first. Where gaps hide, leveling bids and building a gap list before award, closing gaps in the field with pre-installation meetings, and the asbestos survey, abatement and ownership questions every renovation has to answer.

The meeting system that keeps a project free of surprises: the game plan meeting with every sub before work starts, the owner-and-contractor rhythm, safety orientation for everyone on site with a designated trainer and named competent persons, toolbox talks with the subs, weekly progress and coordination, reporting up to the owner of the company, and how to run a meeting people respect.

Why jobs run late and over budget and how to stop it: what an overrun really costs, the six root causes and their warning signs, planning and scope discipline, risk registers and weekly cost-to-complete reviews, keeping a skilled crew, how integrated software (ERP) and project-management tools fit, and a one-page prevention plan you build for your own company.

Quick, high-level overviews of the software you will hear about on every job and in every office: Procore, Buildertrend, Autodesk Construction Cloud, Bluebeam Revu, Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, QuickBooks for contractors, Foundation, Sage, Acumatica, and CMiC. What each is for, who it fits, what it costs you to run, how they integrate with each other, and how a CRM helps a contracting company. Not product training: a map so you can choose and ask good questions.