I never thought I would really get into the America’s Cup competition this time. I had consigned it in my mind to “mega rich egos playing with the rules to suit themselves” type of carry-on. Maybe it’s the fantastic TV coverage or the closer than expected racing at times on these ridiculous boats; but I…
It was sad to read in the NZ Herald today that a roading contractor wins an industry award one day and the next day is put into receivership. What’s up with that!? How could an obvious industry best practice operator get it so wrong? Also, how could the judges of the awards get it so…
Today at a networking breakfast I listened to a humorous, inspirational, structured and relaxed presentation on how to put a pitch together to win business. It was by a local expert in the game, Hugo Meares from Sparkplug. www.sparkplug.co.nz The presentation itself was a pitch in its own right, as you might expect, but was…
I came away from a client meeting last week with a building company owner really pleased to hear that a new staff performance review system we had introduced had been a great success with the field staff. There is always a risk of these more “corporate-like” processes being resisted strongly by the guys on site…
Securing that Last Client Payment At a finance and legal seminar I co-presented with Trina Lincoln (construction law specialist) one of the key topics of discussion and frustration by the builders present was securing the final building client payment on a project. Several builders recounted past issues of being strung out by owners at…
Can you identify with this situation? You are very good at what you do. You are a great tradesman and take pride in completing jobs to a high degree of quality. You enjoy being on the tools. This is what you enjoy most. But the other parts of your business also have to be done.…
Let’s face it. Most tradies would rather be forced to watch replays of marathon chess matches than put time into creating a budget for their business. I can understand their reluctance, but I would also like to show them the error of their thinking. Creating a budget for your business can be one of the…
Over the past couple of months I have been working with two semi-group coaching programs, called the the Business MasterClass. One at my office in Albany and one in Greenlane. Participants are well through the early modules and already seeing the benefits of coming on-board. I knew from my experience that participants would receive tremendous…
This week I hosted a mini seminar for a software developer who has produced a simple, cost effective and smart costing and project management program for builders. I am always on the lookout for tools like this to help my clients make their business more efficient and this program was no exception. The developer was…
Want to know the best way to respond to a question from a prospective client on why they should go with you? The following is the beginning of a post on the INC.com website that I read the other day. While they were primarily talking to salesmen in big companies, the 2 suggested sentences are…