If You Are A Contractor You Are My Hero!

The rough and tumble world of construction company ownership is not for the weak or the timid. It is an arena where the price of admission is a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and long nights and lost sleep, with peaks of enthusiasm and depths of despair.

It can feel like riding a roller coaster operated by a mad man trying to convince you to get off, get out and go do something more relaxing like teaching a pig to sing!

If you work it right you can end up with a construction company that is like a money tree that can take care of you and your family for a lifetime and leave a legacy for your heirs.

To get to the truth about your construction company you must go on a journey. It is four levels deep and like most successes in life it is simple but not easy. 

The Four Levels

Number One - What contractors want to hear

Number Two - What contractors want to believe

Number Three - Everything else

Number Four - Truth

A Story To Illustrate The Four Levels

What Contractors Want To Hear - One evening after work a group of contractors met at the Contractor Business Round Table which is the neighborhood tavern with a round table, pitcher of beer and four contractors. They talked about how tough it is to get profitable jobs no matter what the economy is like. When times are good it is hard to find employees, when times are tough the phone doesn't ring. Everyone agreed there was nothing anyone could do about it.

What Contractors Want To Believe - A short while later they talked about making money and agreed that really big contractors make most of the money and little contractors were doomed to struggle.

Everything Else - One of the contractors suggested maybe they could ask one of the larger more profitable contractors and find out what they did that made the difference. This of course made the other contractors a bit uncomfortable. Then it happened and they all heard and felt the dreaded Snap-Crackle-Pop! The contractor who suggested asking for help experienced a paradigm shift and broke through to the other side. This contractor began leveling up! Suddenly they all remembered what that The Contractors Accountant, Randal DeHart, had said about leveling up. "As you develop your Business Strategy your income is likely to increase. The impact on your friends will not be pleasant as you will be proving that good people can win in the construction game by playing it with high moral and ethical standards and the willingness to try something different."

Truth - Is whatever you believe and you will look for evidence to support your truth. Part of my truth comes from some of the writings of Og Mandino:

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The Salesman’s Prayer

Oh creator of all things help me for this day I go into the world naked and alone, and without your hand to guide me I will wander far from the path which leads to success and happiness.

I ask not for garments or gold or even opportunities equal to my ability; instead guide me that I may acquire ability equal to my opportunities. You have taught the lion and eagle to hunt and prosper with teeth and claw. Teach me how to hunt with words and prosper with love so that I may be a lion among men and an eagle in the marketplace.

Help me to remain humble through obstacles and failures yet hide not from mine eyes the prize that will come with victory. Assign me tasks to which other have failed, yet guide me to pluck the seeds of success from their failures. Confront me with fears that will temper my Spirit yet endow me with courage to laugh at my misgivings.

Spare me sufficient days to reach my goals; yet help me to live this day as though it be my last.

Guide me in my words that they may bear fruit; yet silence me from gossip that none be maligned. Discipline me in the habit of trying and trying again yet show me the way to make use of the Law of Averages. Favor me with alertness to recognize opportunity, yet endow me with patience which will concentrate my strength.

Bathe me in good habits that the bad ones may drown; yet grant me compassion for weakness in others. Suffer me to know that all things shall pass; yet help me to count my blessings of today.

Expose me to hate so it not be a stranger; yet fill my cup with love to turn strangers into friends.

But all these things be only if thy will; I am a small and lonely grape clutching the vine, yet thou hast made me different from all others.

Verily there must be a special place for me. Guide me, help me, show me the way to become all you planned for me when my seed was planted and selected by you to sprout in the vineyard of the world.

Help this humble salesman, guide me God.

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Well, it is late on a Friday night and only one more day to go so I will wrap up this article. If you got value from this please let me know and pass it along to whomever you please. If you did not get value or simply want to share your thoughts and feelings please let me know and feel free to pass that along as well.

Do not spare my feelings as I have been in construction and construction accounting longer than dirt is old, and I have grown a thick layer of "Contractor Deflect-O-Matic-Skin".

If you suspect that I care deeply about all Four Types of Contractorsand their families you are right! Another one of my truths is contractors deserve to be wealthy because they bring value to other people's lives!

QuickBooks Expert Specializing In Construction Bookkeeping Services