• Book Name: Construction Business Management by Nick B. Ganaway
• Author: Nick B. Ganaway
• Pages: 224
• Size: 2 MB

Construction Business Management Pdf Free Download

Most general contracting firms start small—formed by smart and ambitious construction project managers, executives, tradesmen, and occasionally even students right out of construction training, but as accomplished as they may be at what they’ve been doing they are not likely prepared to take on the range of responsibilities forced on them in managing the business of construction in its entirety. I believe this is the primary reason for the high four-year failure rate that start-up contractors in the United States face. According to research published by the Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics, US Bureau of Labor, by Amy E. Knaup, only about 43 percent of US construction firms that started up in the second quarter of 1998 were still in business four years later.

A contractor or someone planning to become one can better these odds by identifying and managing the elements of risk. This book offers that opportunity. It is based on the things I’ve learned, used, and refined as a commercial general contractor in the course of starting and operating my own construction firm for twenty-five years. It spreads these tools and the reasoning behind them out on the table, makes suggestions for their use, and offers a proven business philosophy—knowledge a contractor can set in place from day one to put his construction business on a level playing field with the best-run companies. The information presented here is born of missteps as well as best steps, and both are instructive in building a business that is profitable, enjoyable, and enduring.

Construction Business Management Pdf Free Download

My guiding theme in planning and writing this book has primarily been to make available in one place as much as possible of what I learned the hard way (due to not knowing enough in the beginning about running a business despite having an engineering degree and several years’ experience on the project-owner side of construction) so that interested readers may minimize the pain and risk that rush to fill the knowledge void. Of course, not all risk can be eliminated in construction or in any field, but that risk certainly can be managed if its elements are identified and understood. Secondly, this book also makes the case for niche contracting, especially chain stores and other light-commercial construction. Niche contracting, or specialization, is a strategy that allows a contractor to become more knowledgeable in a field, be seen as an insider, perhaps sought after, more profitable, and better satisfied with his place in construction.

These chain store characteristics practically beg the innovative general contractor to focus on chain store construction. It is my experience that the bid lists are shorter, profit margins higher, negotiated work more common, and owner–contractor working relationships a lot better than are usually found in the open-bid private or public work in which bid error is often the factor that determines the bid-winning contractor (note that I did not say determines the “successful” contractor). The business management principles and techniques presented throughout this book apply to light-commercial building contractors, subcontractors, and to owners of any small business, regardless of industry.

Construction business management pdf free download.