Aug 25, 2017
Value of Time – Your time as the Contractor is
the most valuable. I hope you are doing the tasks that only you can
do. Yes, you can do your contractor bookkeeping. My question is:
Why Would You?
Your answer – I have a cash flow
problem. Spending hours doing your bookkeeping will not solve
that.
In fact, doing contractor bookkeeping
yourself will be painful, take time away from the things you do
that make you money and take a lot longer than having someone else
do it.
Why, because every piece of paper has
a story and your brain wants to replay the story (fast or slowly
depending on the story). Say for example you waste an extra minute
on every piece of paper. How long will it take you to finish all of
the bookkeeping chores for the day, week, month or longer? This is
after you have QuickBooks setup for your construction
company and you know exactly what to do with that piece of
paper.
As a Contractor who is serious about
their business. There is only one answer to cash flow issues.
Sell Your Way Out of A Problem (author unknown). With money in
hand, you can make better decisions.
You are choosing what to purchase and when
Since the beginning of time Children have figured out how to get where they want to go
Mom and Dad are usually the favorite sources for transportation depending on the activity. It is much easier to take all the soccer equipment, baseball equipment, and football stuff other activities.
Who sold who on the benefits of after school activities? The
Parent or The Child?
The bigger commitment, in the beginning, is the parent in both time
and money. We want the best for our children, and that includes
additional activities, opportunities to make friends and preparing
them for their future will skills and opportunity for college (if
desired).
I remember a year juggling multiple after school activities – that
was a busy season. It took planning to do multiple drops, pickups
and spending time watching each sport in action. The practices, the
games, and the matches. Yes, I pushed our children to do the
activity. Some they liked, some they didn’t.
The selling begins when our children become teenagers and want to
learn to drive and then borrow the car. Before then, it was all
practice.
Because we want them to grow and mature, we plan from the moment
they arrive until the moment they launch out on their own. We still
plan, nurture and support from afar. Isn’t email, instant chat,
Facebook and other social media wonderful? We can offer suggestions
and try not to be offended if our children roll their eyes, chat
with others and say “there goes Mom or Dad again” Of course, our
children miss the humor when we as parents refer to each other of a
Classic Movie or TV Series.
Many of you have searched Fast Easy Accounting.com website, read the blogs
and listened to our podcasts. Thank you! We try to be as clear as
possible, in our opinion what works, and what doesn’t.
We understand Construction Contractors and Construction Bookkeeping
and Construction Accounting.
Offer One Hour Free Consultation To
Chat About Your Business.
Discussion includes the following:
In Our Opinion - Biggest issue contractors have paperwork.
Part of that paperwork is creating proposals, contracts, changes
orders, invoicing the client, collecting the money which all needs
to happen before you can pay the bills.
Hint, vehicle expenses, liability insurance, cell phone and other
overhead costs happen even if you never make a sale.
Sales 101 – Signed
Documents. In an age of electronics, just sending
an email with a proposal and getting a verbal “Yes” is great until
the customer decides not to pay.
Sales 201 – Signed Change
Orders. Customers already remember when you are
deducting something.
Many times customers conveniently forget the part where what they
are adding costs additional and is replacing what you deducted.
Sales 301 – Get The Money,
Invoice early and often. Especially on big ticket
items. The longer you wait between billing periods, the more likely
your Customer will look for reasons not to pay. Call it a draw if
you need to but get the money. I cannot stress this too often. The
Term OPM (Other People’s Money = Job Deposits)
Sales 401 –
New Trend I have heard stories of customers (not clients) altering
the pricing on the proposal document.
Sales 501 –
You add value to the lives of your clients. Homeowners are not
going to offer a check when they sell their house. Hint – many
contractors create deals with Investors where they will get paid a
percentage of the profit when the house sells. Don’t count on it!
We see the paperwork from Builders, General Contractors, Specialty
Trade Contractors, Handyman. It is heartbreaking when a Contractor
goes out of business due to poor paperwork.
We continue to look for new ways to help our clients with improved
processes, additional software that works easily. As a Construction
Contractor, you already have too much to do. We are here to lessen
the load, not make your life harder.
Never Too Small - We specialize in working with the Brand New
Startup, Handyman, Specialty Trade Contractor or General Contractor
who is doing all the work (no employees to less than ten
employees). As a Construction Contractor, you can choose the type
of contractor you want to be:
This Wonderful Soul - Has a heart as big as the outdoors and likes working alone. They are easy to get to know. They usually have either a pick-up truck or a van with a dog sitting in the passenger seat hanging his head out the window watching and occasionally barking hello to folks and other dogs while feeling the breeze as the contractor zooms down the road.
They Do Not Think About - Retirement and when asked about it the reply I get most often is something like “Retire, nope, I don’t need new tires yet.”
These Contractors - Enjoy being their own boss, doing what they want when they want, how they want and works hard. They typically do not feel the need or desire to grow the business or hire employees since they would only get in the way.
Most Of Them - Run their business as a sole proprietor
They Generally Earn - $20K to $40K a year after all expenses
This Wonderful Soul - Also has a big heart; just not quite as big as all outdoors. They like having employees because they do not want to work alone. As their business grows, they like to take time off and enjoy travel and vacations.
These Contractors - Have one, two or three employees because when the employees get out of line, the contractor can hold two of them by the throat; one in each hand and eyeball the third one! This is called “Construction Management.”
This Group Will Usually Invest - Some money to build a retirement nest egg.
Most Of Them - Operate their business as a C-Corporation, LLC or Sub-S
They Generally Earn - $40K to $60K a year after all expenses
This Wonderful Soul - Also has a big heart; they just tend to keep it under cover. This group tends to have more employees and have a structured approach to their construction company treating it more like a firm.
These Contractors - Tend to have 1-20 employees with formal organizational charts, processes, and systems in their contracting businesses including a formal documented business plan which is updated and regularly reviewed with a board of advisors as outlined in my article on the subject.
They Invest Heavily In Marketing - Their businesses. They understand their target market; they use The 80/20 Rule to understand the demographics and psychographics of their prime customer, the ones who generate 80% of the cash and income. And they seek to acquire more of them and will do whatever is economically feasible to turn those customers into lifetime repeat business.
This Group Usually - Engages the services of a competent financial planner, banker, and accountant to work together in helping plan and develop a financial estate that can take care of them in their senior years and be passed on to future generations.
Most Of Them - Operate as a C-Corporation, LLC or Sub-S or Partnership.
They Generally Earn - $100,000+ a year after all expenses
These Construction Firms - Have 100+ employees and generate enormous revenues. Most of the owners and managers earn about the same as a well-run professional contractor. In a lot of cases, their life span is shorter than any of the other contractors due to the enormous stress they suffer trying to navigate their construction companies through the ups and downs of the Business Cycle.
The Managers Deal With Issues - That is beyond anything the previous groups even think about, including labor unions, government oversight, massive risk and are constantly under pressure to increase shareholder value at any cost.
Seagull Management - All too often a board member or powerful outside influence without a clear understanding of all of the moving parts involved in running this type of company feels the compelling need to fly in, crap on everything and everyone with their crazy ideas and fly out leaving a disaster to unfold. Then when things go bad, the managers are the ones most likely to pay the price.
The Odd Thing Is - It always looks like a fun job until someone gets into it. Having worked with a few of these firms, I understand the enormous pressure they are under and have decided my life is too short to spend one more minute with them. All I can do is pray for the managers and ask that all of them will receive divine guidance to stop them from making a long-term decision like suicide or worse, based on short-term problems.
I Am Sincerely Concerned - About the health, wealth and spiritual well-being of all contractors. I have found the other three types of contractors to be well grounded spiritually. However, the special challenges of running an enterprise construction company I sincerely ask you as a friend; someone you may not have met, and may never meet on this plane of existence, that you will seek the goodness of an everlasting and ever loving God, whatever you conceive him to be, so we can meet in the future in a better time and a better place.
Do you want to do all of your Contractor Bookkeeping beginning to end? See a list of solutions that may help you save time, money and aggravation at FastEasyAccountingStore.com
We are here to help if you need additional assistance. Looking
forward to getting started.
Enjoy your day.
Sharie
About The
Author:
https://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/free-one-hour-consultation-bookkeeping
Sharie DeHart, QPA is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood Washington. She is the leading expert in managing outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services companies and cash management accounting for small construction companies across the USA. She encourages Contractors and Construction Company Owners to stay current on their tax obligations and offers insights on how to manage the remaining cash flow to operate and grow their construction company sales and profits so they can put more money in the bank. http://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/sharie-dehart/ 206-361-3950 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com
I trust this podcast helps you understand that outsourcing your contractor's bookkeeping services to us is about more than just “doing the bookkeeping”; it is about taking a holistic approach to your entire construction company and helping support you as a contractor and as a person.
We understand the good, bad and the ugly about owning and operating construction companies because we have had several of them and we sincerely care about you and your construction company!
That is all I have for now, and if you have listened to this far please do me the honor of commenting and rating podcast www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast Tell me what you liked, did not like, tell it as you see it because your feedback is crucial and I thank you in advance.
I trust this will be of value to you and your feedback is always welcome at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast
This Is One more example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that, and a lot more valuable to construction contractors like you so stop missing out and call Sharie 206-361-3950 or email sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com
Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services?
Click On The Link Below:
This guide will help you learn what to look for in outsourced construction accounting.
Need Help Now?
Call Sharie 206-361-3950
Thank you very much, and I hope you understand we do care about
you and all contractors regardless of whether or not you ever hire
our services.
Bye for now until our next episode here on the Contractors Success
MAP Podcast.
Enjoy your day.
Sharie
About The
Author:
https://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/free-one-hour-consultation-bookkeeping
Sharie DeHart, QPA is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood Washington. She is the leading expert in managing outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services companies and cash management accounting for small construction companies across the USA. She encourages Contractors and Construction Company Owners to stay current on their tax obligations and offers insights on how to manage the remaining cash flow to operate and grow their construction company sales and profits so they can put more money in the bank. http://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/sharie-dehart/ 206-361-3950 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com
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