Business Process Improvement Projects For Architects, Builders, Remodeling Contractors And Other Members Of The Home & Garden Industry.
From the one person solo operation to mid-sized companies with hundreds of employees we can help your company with:
Estimating, Markup & Pricing
If you’re just starting out as a contractor and are looking for basic estimating help or an experienced mid-sized contractor looking to really buckle down and improve your ability to hit your company’s profit goals understanding that Estimating, Markup, and Pricing strategy make up a “Trinity of Profitability” is key.
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Project/Production & Quality Management
We provide not just help with the implementation of project management software but also the training and instruction in the methodologies that lead to better project and supply chain management solutions: CCPM, PERT, Lean, Theory of Constraints, Critical Chain, and Drum-Buffer-Rope, and tools from the TQM & Six Sigma methodologies.
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Web Design & Social Media
We have the capabilities and expertise to provide your business, no matter what the size, with a web presence solution from a single one page web billboard, through various package offerings, to custom designed sites of any size utilizing PHP or Cold Fusion to connect you web site to the ata in your desktop or network data. And we can host it for you too.
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360 Difference Software
360 Difference is our own brand of custom designed FileMaker database solutions. 360 Difference is a business management software core that can serve as a powerful foundation for building custom business management application for Macintosh, Windows and iOS devices that can even be extended further out onto the web.
Branding, Marketing, & Sales
The first rule of branding is ‘if you don’t brand your company, someone else will‘. Your brand is you company’s personality as seen through the eyes of your clients and potential clients. It’s how your company is seen and perceived in the media. We work new and established companies to build their brand and design their marketing and sales systems to deliver a more targeted exposure and ultimately increased profitability.
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CRM - Customer Relationship Management
Is real genuine CRM practical and feasible for small to mid-sized contracting businesses? We think it is and we think it’s important too. We can help you help identify and target your best customer based on you company’s brand message and work with you to develop methodologies and deploy tools to generate quality sales leads, and plan and implement marketing campaigns with clear goals and objectives.
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Strategic Planning & Business Plan Development
Regardless of if you’re looking for help in establishing the budget and target numbers you need to hit or are an established business looking to develop a business to arrange financing or organize an expansion we can help you develop the written plan and financial spreadsheets you need.
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Information Technology: Recommendations & Support
We offer a wide range of IT Consulting and Outsourcing Solutions to the solo, small, medium and large companies. Our services include instruction and training in desktop applications, network design, implementation, and the maintenance & support of those networks.
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Working with Macs & iOS
While we work with the Windows platform we’re also Mac enthusiasts. If you’re thinking of making the “switch” from Windows to the new Mac OSX Leopard we can help you with that. We can look at your current systems and design a migration plan to help make the transition smooth and easy.
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The Paradigm Projects: Activity Based Pricing Seminar
How Much Should I Charge?
Activity Based Markup & Pricing for Builders Remodelers & Contractors
Back in the later 1980s I took a one day seminar sponsored by New England Builder Magazine (which later became The Journal of Light Construction) taught by the late Irv Chasen called How To Survive & Prosper in the Contracting Market in which I was introduced to the PROOF Pricing Methodology which a few years later I would see described in David Gertstel’s 1st edition of his classic book Running a Successful Construction Company as Capacity Based Markup. In the 35± years since then and numerous other seminars it remains the most important and most memorable training seminars I ever took in regards to running a building and remodeling company.
30 Plus Reasons Why Contracting Businesses Fail
I originally wrote this blog article back on Dec 11th of 2005. To the best of my recollection I was reading the Construction Contractors' Survival Guide by Thomas C. Schleifer and chapter 2 was entitled Elements of Contractor Failure and was inspired to do more...
The History of Markup Methodologies in the Building & Remodeling Industries
So while spending some long days of waiting in doctors waiting rooms I decided to dig around and try and see exactly what this COPE stuff was so I listened to The Contracting Handbook: Michael Anschel of OA Design Build on the Cost of Project Execution (C.O.P.E.)...
