TELECOM · ELECTRICAL AND TECHNOLOGY · FIXED BY STEP 08

Links Fail in November, Cable Was Crushed in April

Forty links fail at certification in November. The HVAC crew crushed them above the ceiling in April and demobilized in June.

WHY IT'S A TELECOM PROBLEM

Most trades install work that stays visible until somebody accepts it. Your product disappears above a finished ceiling within weeks and doesn't get proven for a year, which makes telecom the only trade on the job that finds damage after every possible defendant has left the site. The months between install and proof are where the money goes.

WHAT IT COSTS

The size of it

Hundreds of unbudgeted crew hours hit at the moment the job should be closing and turning cash-positive, and the closeout delay pushes retention release out another quarter.

OVERHEAD AT $1M–$5M

15%

CFOS target 14% for telecom.

GROSS MARGIN AT $1M–$5M

22%

CFOS target 24.5% for telecom.

NET PROFIT AT $1M–$5M

CFOS target 10.5% for telecom.

By the time the tester tells you, the evidence and the responsible party are both gone. Your cable lives above ceilings and inside walls for six to eighteen months between rough-in and trim, with sprinkler, HVAC, grid, and drywall crews working around it and no one watching. Permanent link certification runs at the very end, so a bend radius crushed in the spring turns up the week you thought you were closing out. Without dated photos and a signed rough-in inspection, the backcharge doesn't stick, and the repull, the re-termination, and the retest come out of your pocket. Final payment is gated on passing results and manufacturer warranty registration, so walking away from the failures isn't an option either.

WHAT TO DO

Three moves, in order

STEP 01

Photograph and date every tray run, J-hook run, and wall penetration before the ceiling closes, filed by area and sheet number.

STEP 02

Walk the rough-in with the GC superintendent and get a signed acknowledgment of cable condition before grid goes in.

STEP 03

Certify a sample of links at rough-in, not only at closeout, so damage gets a date and a suspect while that trade is still on site.

THE FIX

Step 08: Standards and accountability

Five hours a month of owner time, spent projecting the work.

CFOS-08 · CHAPTER 8

Five hours a month, spent projecting the work

What this step changes, what it depends on, and how to tell it's installed.

BENCHMARKS

Telecom by revenue band

All 7 bands are published. The CFOS target is beside the figure up to $10M to $25M, and the 4 bands above that are labelled modeled.

ACROSS EVERY TRADE

PMs aren't accountable for margin

Your PMs are measured on schedule and on the client being happy. No role in the company is measured on the number at the bottom.

SAME TRADE

What else costs telecom contractors money

TELECOM · CFOS-01

You Pay the Pole Owner Months Before You Hang Strand

You cut a check to the power company in March for work your crews don't perform, and the first foot of strand goes up in August. In between there is nothing to bill.

TELECOM · CFOS-06

The Inspector's Signature Starts Your Pay Clock

Twelve thousand feet went in the ground in June and the invoice didn't move until September. The crews got paid in June.

TELECOM · CFOS-06

A Pre-Term Trunk Cut Wrong Is Scrap You Own

Pre-term trunks run eight to twelve weeks and get cut to a number you took off the ceiling grid. Miss the number and you own an assembly no one can use.

TELECOM · CFOS-07

Month-Three Retainage Comes Back in Month Twenty-Four

You pulled cable in month three and saw the retainage on it in month twenty-four. In between, you mobilized four more times against the same lump sum.

TELECOM · CFOS-02

Standby Days Cost What Bore Days Cost

You get paid per foot. The bore rig, vac truck, and four-man crew cost the same whether you shoot 1,200 feet or wait all morning on a locate that never got marked.

SAME MECHANISM, OTHER TRADES

The same mechanism in other trades

CIVIL

Trench dips appear inside the bond window

The parking lot settled over your sewer line eighteen months after acceptance, and who pays comes down to whether the density test for that station and that lift is in a file.

DEMOLITION

They Found A Tank A Year After You Demobilized

An old UST turns up under the pad twelve months after your last load left, and every finger points at the contractor who isn't on site anymore.

DRYWALL

The eleven-month callback hits this year's payroll

It's March, two of your best guys are in a truck all month fixing houses you finished last spring, and none of those hours bill.

QUESTIONS

What telecom owners ask

Another trade damaged my cable above the ceiling who pays for the repull?

Forty links fail at certification in November. The HVAC crew crushed them above the ceiling in April and demobilized in June.

What does it cost?

Hundreds of unbudgeted crew hours hit at the moment the job should be closing and turning cash-positive, and the closeout delay pushes retention release out another quarter.

What do I do first?

Photograph and date every tray run, J-hook run, and wall penetration before the ceiling closes, filed by area and sheet number.

What are telecom contractors supposed to be making?

Telecom runs 22% gross margin, 15% overhead and 7% net profit before taxes at $1M–$5M. The all-trade average is 7%, so this trade is right on it. The CFOS target is 10.5%.

Which part of the system fixes it?

The step is number 08, standards and accountability. Five hours a month of owner time, spent projecting the work. It comes from chapter 8 of CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System.

OR HAVE IT HANDLED

Everything on this page is something you can install yourself, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for telecom contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, run by the same author.

What a fractional CFO does for telecom contractors

AUTHOR

JOSH LUEBKER

MASTER ELECTRICIAN · 150+ PROJECTS · $2.1B+ MANAGED

Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.