Hand over the keys and the way the company makes money
A son, a daughter, a nephew, a partner or a key employee is going to run your construction company after you. They know the work. The money side usually lives in the owner's head, and CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System writes it down.
The handoff most owners plan skips the money
The plan covers the keys, the customer list, the bonding letter and the bank relationship. What the next owner also needs is how the company actually makes money: which work pays, what overhead has to be, how much cash to keep in the account. Most owners hold that in their heads. The next owner finds out in the first bad quarter, when the bank calls and asks about numbers they have never seen.
CONTROL, for the next owner
Written by a master electrician who ran real jobs before he wrote about money, so it makes sense to someone who knows the work and not the ledger.
What to actually say
Give it before the handoff, not after. Try: "I want you to see the money side before you're the one signing." Then read the first two chapters together and fill in one template with the company's real numbers. That one hour teaches more than a year of hearing about it.
What owners ask
Is this right for a son or daughter who has worked in the business for years?
That's who it's for. They know the work, the crews and the customers. What most of them have never seen is how the company makes its money, because it was never written down anywhere but in your head.
What if they didn’t grow up in construction?
The book is written in plain language, with no accounting background assumed. Someone who's smart and new to the trade can follow it from the first page, which is more than can be said for most finance books.
Will they think I don’t trust them with the company?
Give it as the opposite. Something like: "I want you to see the money side before you're the one signing." It says you expect them to run it, and it gives them the part that usually gets skipped.
How early should I give it?
The earlier the better, and a year or more before the handoff isn't too soon. The sixty-day plan in the book is short, so it's easy to run it together while you're still there to answer questions.
What if I’m the one buying in, not turning the company over?
It works the same way. A partner or long-time employee stepping into ownership needs the same picture, and reading it before a buy-in tells you what you're actually buying.
Should I read it with them?
Go through the first two chapters together, then let them work through the rest at their own pace. You'll answer the questions that only you can, like why a certain job was priced the way it was.
$9.99 ebook, $24.99 paperback
Get the paperback. Six chapters include a QR code meant to be scanned off the page, and a book given across a table means more than a link in an email.
Planning a handoff? Leave an address and I will tell you the day it publishes.
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Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.