Author’s Intro

I entered the construction industry a few years after college with no formal education in construction.   I began in the flat concrete business  primarily doing sidewalks, patios, basement floors, and in 1971 we did a whopping $75,000 in sales with three employees and myself!!!  To give  my “nickel” version I’ve made my mistakes and in spite of it all, in 1995, I became president of a commercial construction firm outside of New York City, doing approximately $7 million dollars annually with no bonding program.  By 2008 we had three office locations in the NYC metro area doing over $100 million in sales and a bonding program in excess of 60 million dollars per single limit.

I have learned a lot over the years. “The Hard Way” and as I reflected on my mistakes it really made no sense to me that I needed to go down that road of mistakes.  So, I decided someone should document, memorialize, and standardize forms and checklists for growing contractors and employees.  I began accumulating information to educate contractors and their employees, thus helping them build a better organization.  I believe most employees and contractors are really trying to do the right thing.  They simply need the necessary support so not to make the same costly errors due to the lack of this information. It’s a book of experience spanning my construction career learned from working  with colleagues and customers.

I have attempted to provide a reference guide to help contractors become more efficient dealing with administration and operational responsibilities in our industry   By having this information, the construction professional can utilize a system that assists with sales, estimating, operations, administrative controls, safety programs, quality control plan, closeout procedures and numerous types of notification form letters.  You don’t need your employees spending wasteful time creating their own correspondence but rather I have provided pre-written support documents so they can just fill-in the blanks.

I believe this book will be useful to general contracting companies primarily working with the private client market with revenues from approximately 5 to  200 million dollars annually.  I also feel that Trade Contractors, Owners, and Facility Managers will find numerous sections valuable.  Any construction related firm that does not have the resources or time to develop effective controls would embrace this information.  I call it “The Ultimate Construction Checklists”.

I just want to be clear:  I did not author everything in this book, but most of it.  I’ve accumulated this information over the years from all avenues and I want to thank all of the people who have contributed so we can help others.    I do not want to imply that my forms are legally correct; I am simply sharing what has worked for me.  You might make the same mistakes that my colleagues and I have made, or you can possibly learn from this information to save yourself time, grief, and MONEY.