The people running your jobs are spending your money
You own a construction company, and your project managers, superintendents and foremen decide how it gets spent every day. CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System gives them the same picture of how the company makes money that you're working from, in the words a crew already uses.
Every money decision has an owner
A project manager approves a change order on Tuesday. A foreman orders material on Wednesday. The office pays a sub on Friday. Each of those is a money decision, and the person making it has never been shown what the job was supposed to earn. No one told them, so they guess, and guessing on a fixed-price job costs margin. You see it a month later as a total, and by then it belongs to no one.
CONTROL, for the people who run the work
Written by a master electrician who ran real jobs before he wrote a word about money, so it reads like somebody who's been on a site.
What to actually say
Give them out at a project meeting or a job kickoff, one copy for each person who approves spend. Say the real reason: "You make money decisions every day, and I want you seeing the same picture I'm working from." Then pick one chapter and go over it together at the next meeting.
What owners ask
Which people on my team should get a copy?
Anyone who decides how money gets spent: project managers, superintendents, the office manager who pays the bills, an estimator. A foreman who orders his own material counts too. Start with three or four and see who asks for another.
Will they think I’m hinting that they cost me money?
Tell them the real reason, which is that you want them to see the whole company the way you do. The book is written for an owner who's busy and doing well, and it reads the same way to the people working for that owner. Nothing in it points a finger at a person.
Will a foreman or a project manager actually read it?
Every chapter ends with one thing to go do, not a summary to remember. Somebody who reads a chapter a week for two months has still put something real in place by the end of it, and that's a lower bar than finishing a book.
Should I read it before I give it out?
Yes, at least the first few chapters. A book you haven't opened reads as homework, and one you've read lets you say which part you want the team to look at first.
Paperback or ebook for a team?
Paperback for anyone who'll use it. Six chapters include a QR code that opens a working file, and those are meant to be scanned off the page with the book open beside you. Ebook works for a project manager who lives on a phone.
What do I do after I give it to them?
Pick one chapter and go over it at your next project meeting. Ten minutes on one step does more than a book everyone got and no one talked about.
$9.99 ebook, $24.99 paperback
Order the paperback for anyone who'll use it. Six chapters include a QR code meant to be scanned right off the page, and a book on a desk gets picked up more than a download does.
Planning a team handout? Leave an address and I will tell you the day it publishes.
A handful of emails between now and release, then it stops. Nothing is sold on and one click unsubscribes.
Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.