Contractor Success Map With Randal Dehart | Contractor Bookkeeping And Accounting Services

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0133 And It Will Be About Unique Successful Contractors Operate In Reverse To Poor Contractors Successful Contractors Do The Exact Opposite Of Poor Contractors The First Place to start is to understand how The 80/20 Rule applies to your construction company. It simply states that the top 20% of your clients generate 80% of your profit and the bottom 80% of your customers generate only 20% of your construction company profits.It Stands To Reason if you want to more cash flow and profits and more freedom in your life you would copy the operations of highly successful and very profitable contractors. They outsource as much as possible especially their Contractor Bookkeeping Services Needs so they can focus on finding and satisfying the needs of high-value, high-profit clients and leave the price shoppers, tire kickers, carpet pilots and web-surfers to the poor dumb contractors who prefer to work hard rather than smart, do everything themselves and end up wasting their lives in pain

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0132 And It Will Be About Maximizing Vs. Optimizing Your Construction Company The First Place - To start is to understand how the 80/20 Rule applies to your construction company. Some Construction Company - Owners feel that all staff members from the laborers to the Project Managers need to hustle and run everywhere and if they are giving less than 110% to the job they are not doing enough. Some Contractors - Like to make sure everybody knows they can be replaced at any time day or night which makes people uncomfortable and likely to search for another job elsewhere. If someone wastes ten minutes a day on your payroll click here to see what it could be costing you! When Contractors - Treat their tax preparer, banker, construction accountant, suppliers, construction attorney, financial planner (what should have been his Board of Advisors) vendors, bookkeeper and everyone they come in contact with like an enemy they are likely to lose money due to bookkeeping errors, slow service

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0131 And It Will Be About How High Profit Jobs Send Contractors Into Bankruptcy You have what appears to be a high profit job and now you are thinking you have it made and I hope you are right! The problem is high profit jobs have a way of turning into low or no profit jobs and in some cases they can bankrupt your construction company because you bid the project using whatever model you are accustomed to using and in the end you wind up with cash flow problems. Construction company owners who understand Construction Psychology and the need for Business Process Management (BPM) System also know the importance of being process dependent, not people dependent. One will bankrupt you and the other will make you wealthy.A lot of problems can be traced back to the "Halo Effect" which happens when a contractor thinks "We are so good at (fill in the blank) we should expand into (fill in the blank). They have the attitude "I am going after Moby Dick in a row boat with tartar sauce!"The mo

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0130 And It Will Be About Tips For New Contractor Startups  So You Are Starting A Construction Company. Perhaps yours will be building houses, a handyman business or a specialty contracting company like a plumber, electrician, HVAC, concrete or Landscape Company. Whatever it is congratulations you have or will be taking a big step toward being the Master of Your Own Destiny! Two Paths Are Open In Front Of You One Leads To Pain And Misery (P.A.M.) The Other One Leads To Success And Happiness (M.A.P.)   P.A.M. = Production Accounting Marketing = Pain And Misery “Failure In Construction Is A Few Simple Errors Repeated Everyday” - Randalism This Is The Most Popular - and yet the hardest and least profitable way to operate a construction company. Contractors thinking and doing what they did while working for somebody else instead of thinking and doing what a business person does. Production First This Is The Most Popular - and yet the hardest and least profitable way to operate a co

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0129 And It Will Be About Five Unique Bookkeeping Tips For New Contractor Startups So You Are Starting A Construction Company. Perhaps yours will be House Builder, Handyman Company, Specialty Contractor like a Plumber, Electrician, HVAC, Concrete Contractor or Landscape Company. Whatever it is congratulations you have or will be taking a big step toward being the Master of Your Own Destiny! I Trust This List of Five Accounting Tips For Contractor Startups Will Help You Many surveys and reports show nearly half of all new construction companies close their doors within the first five years of opening them. When we speak with contractors who failed most of them say it was due to lack of cash flow. Pretty obvious and yet when questioned all of them said they were "Blind-Sided" and were not aware they were running out of cash until it was too late. There is a point when a contracting company starts to fail and nothing short of a massive cash infusion can stop it and a domino effect

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0128 And It Will Be About Why Downloading From The Bank Destroys Job Costing And Profitability Downloading from the bank is easy and saves time; however, it does not allocate the transactions for accurate Job Costing Reports. The two main reasons highly profitable construction contractors use Job Costing Reports: #1 It is the foundation of your construction company unique "Job Costing Library".  This helps you estimate new projects using historical data. #2 It is part of your Business Process Management Process that can help you understand when, where, how, why and who you make and lose money. Every Transaction In Your Construction Company QuickBooks File Needs To Be Filtered Some transactions will need to be split into parts for example a loan payment may have part of the money assigned to Principle and the rest to Interest. Bank feeds and downloading from the bank works great for roughly 80% of the businesses and the other 20% like construction it causes major disasters which

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0127 And It Will Be About Unique Strategies For Contractors Preparing To Meet Increasing Demand Having Lived Through Several, Recessions Beginning In The Mid 1960's I Sincerely Understand And Empathize With The Challenges That All Construction Owners, Workers And Support Staff Have Faced For The Past Several Years The Good News Is Everything Is About To Change For The Better! There is natural ebb and flow in the business cycle, which in normal times operates, somewhat predictable. In normal times, contractors who pay close attention to their Five Key Performance Indicators financial reports and stay aware of the macro global economy and the micro local economy can plan ahead and earn a normal profit after paying the owners a reasonable salary. The past several years starting in late 2008 have been anything but normal and frankly, we are having a tough time with the economic forecasts models we follow including our own internal ones. Something similar occurred during the period

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0126 And It Will Be About Uniquely Profitable Contractors Use Single Source Suppliers Contractors Who Are Hard-Ball Negotiators Can Skip This Article Fair Minded Contractors Who Want Extreme Wealth Keep Reading! Relationships can make you or break you; financially, professionally and personally. Stephen R. Covey has written and spoken extensively on this subject and most notably in his book The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. The idea is when you first meet someone you automatically credit that person with a small amount of emotional trust and they do the same for you. In due time you both make deposits and withdrawals into and out of each other's emotional bank account. The key is to make far and away many more deposits than withdrawals and keep the withdrawals to a minimum. Do Something Good For Someone And You Made A Deposit Do Something Bad To Someone And You Made A Withdrawal If your word Is Law and you keep your agreements, no matter what, you will make massive deposi

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0125 And It Will Be About Unique Bad Bookkeeper Thirty Eight Traits Kill Contractor Profits It is important to understand the difference between Professional Bookkeepers, Regular Bookkeepers and Bad Bookkeepers. Professional Bookkeepers invested the minimum of 10,000 hours that it takes to master the profession. And they continue to learn, and educate themselves with formal and informal class room training, seminars, webinars and related tools Regular Bookkeepers learned most if not everything they know about bookkeeping by experience and by letting you pay for their education in the form of excess taxes, fines, penalties, un-invoiced work, overpaying bills and late fees. It is painful for them and you. They have good intentions and do not want to cause contractors any grief and they are sincere with their apologies. Of the thousands of Regular Bookkeepers I have met they all have good hearts and really do mean well. Bad Bookkeepers also learned most if not everything they know

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0124 And It Will Be About New Contractors To Seasoned Builders We Know What To Do We invested over 20 years owning and operating construction companies including service and remodel firms. We sold our last construction company in the year 2000 which means we are not your competitor, rather the opposite. We are experienced contractors helping contractors get more from their accounting system. A google search of construction accounting software will return over 17,000,000 results. It is estimated there are over 4,000 companies that produce construction accounting software. Among the top 10 the costs range from several thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. QuickBooks is listed in only a fraction of the google searches for construction accounting software and yet it has a massive number of contractors who use it. A google search of construction accounting services will return over 52,000,000 results and www.FastEasyAccounting.com is always on the first page. The reas

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0123 And It Will Be About A Unique Contractor Investment That Can Exceed 100% Return How Many Places Can You Find With Strong Chance Of 100% Return On Investment?Let Me Say - If something seems too good to be true it probably is and you should stay far away from it. However, if you have read anything I have ever written you will know that I do not gamble! I did lose fifty cents in a Casino in Vegas in the early 1970's and have not gambled since; and I am still mad about it! I Do Like Managed Risks - Which is anything I can control the input and have a greater than breakeven chance of making a profit. I pay close attention to the higher levels of math and how it is used to predict with a degree of accuracy probable outcomes. Decision Modeling Is One Of My Favorites - Decision modeling use reliable QuickBooks reports to generate predictions of profit and loss based upon re-allocating resources and aligning your Business Process Management system processes to present to you a varie

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0122 And It Will Be Interview Of Daniel Eric Bowling From SmartTradesmen.com   Tell us about your background and how you came to be where you are now I once co-owned a custom furniture design company, I have done many construction jobs including commercial drywall finishing, and most recently I have jumped into the world of online business.Upholstery is the trade that I am most known for.  I spent the last 10 years mastering this dying trade.  As I was mostly self taught and also younger than most in the trade, I brought in a fresh perspective.  While everyone else has this idea of a cookie cutter business with overhead and lots of expenses… Once I left my for company, I went a different route.  Low overhead and double my prices.  What I do is an art, so why not treat it as such.There are times that work gets a little slow, but when you charge what you're worth it is easier to make up the difference.  I have found that in the slower times, I can make GOOD money.  But when everyt

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0121 And It Will Be About Pressures of Life, Family Operating Your Unique Construction Company This Podcast Is From An Article Written By Sharie DeHart Sharie is voice on the other end of the phone when you call us at 206-361-3950 Calls come from Construction Contractors, Wives, Mothers, Bookkeepers, Advisors and others all wanting to find someone to reassure them that they are not crazy and what they expect and what’s expected from them is not unreasonable. On rare occasions there unreasonable expectations from all sides. Sharie will chat about your business, challenges, employees and spillover of personal stuff. Discuss The How’s Do I? (fill in the blank), What About’s, What’s Next, Can You Help?    Starting Point is with whoever calls in or emails asking her to call them. Chat may be from 10 minutes to over an hour as needed. It’s confidential – you are talking privately about your life and your concerns. Sharie is an impartial observer, for that special “Moment In Time” hope

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0120 And It Will Be About Contractors Who Turn Their Wives Into Construction Bookkeepers Are Headed For Divorce There is a storm brewing on the horizon and I have to address it before it is too late in an effort to help save a few good marriages. Lately there has been a surge of contractor's spouses who have left and filed for divorce and a lot more are on the edge. Girlfriends do not have as many reasons to stay so they usually pack up and leave early. I was very fortunate to meet a wonderful woman in high school, Sharie, and we married the year after we graduated while I was attending college majoring in accounting. As it happened I was raised in a family that earned a living as contractors. Sharie and I spent many years working side-by-side starting, owning and operating several construction companies so this article comes from the heart as someone who lived it. One fine sunny day in 1991 after I had been especially arrogant and short-tempered Sharie said to me: "Enough is e

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0119 And It Will Be About What Is Ten Minutes Costing Your Construction Company Profit Drain #1 In-House Bookkeeper Until Your Construction Company - Reaches at least $5 million in annual sales you cannot afford to hire a qualified bookkeeper or construction accountant.For Example - You Hire someone with bad habits who is a Cheap Bookkeeper part time at  $15.00 an hour for 10 hours a week thinking you will save money. The problem with that is you may not understand the true cost to have them on your payroll, including overhead, is closer to $25.29 per hour. Click Here For More   Every Ten Minutes Your Bookkeeper Is Costing You $4.21 Every Ten Minutes A Day Of Unproductive Office Labor Could Cost Your Company $273.93 Every Year At 10% Profit You Need $2,739.30 More Sales To Maintain Profit MarginIn Some Cases - We can do more work for less money by providing you with real construction bookkeeping and accounting + payroll processing + monthly and quarterly tax reports + year end W

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0118 And It Will Be An Interview With Jason Sturgeon From Arcade Consultants The first step of every client’s journey with me is the initial conversation. Whether across a table over a cup of coffee or lunch, on the telephone, or across distance via Skype, it’s important, as a consultant, to have a deep, meaningful conversation about what an organization needs, how it breathes and what the working pieces are, before we can talk about solutions. The exchange of information, during these chats, is not one sided, either. Prospective clients need to know more about me. Who am I? What, exactly, do I do? How do you know that I’m the right consultant for your organization? Over the course of many of these conversations, it has become clear that the first few questions are always the same – clients need all the same answers before they are ready to move on to the part of the conversation that pertains more directly to their own situation, and I am happy to have that discussion. However,

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0117 And It Will Be About When Your Accountant Says You Don't Need Job Costing It's Because They Don't Need It To Fill Out The Annual Tax Return! Contractors like you regularly ask us if there is a way to have Job Costing Reports and have their annual tax return prepared and the answer is Yes! 99.99% of the time we find out the same company that is providing the contractor bookkeeping services is providing the annual tax preparation services. As you may or may not know there is a whole lot more money in preparing tax returns than there is in providing contractor bookkeeping services. So if an accounting firm provides both contractor bookkeeping services and annual income tax service or if they have a related company which they STRONGLY RECOMMEND then you use to prepare your income tax return then you can bet your bottom dollar they will do everything possible in QuickBooks or Xero to make filling out the annual tax return as quick and painless as possible no matter what it costs

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0116 And It Will Be About Live Plan For Contractors Plan Your Work Then Work Your Plan - Who Has Time To Plan? Easy To Say And Harder Than Jumping The Grand Canyon In Two Leaps! Do you know of a contracting company that runs smoother than yours? They have the same challenges you do: Getting enough qualified leads to bid on and winning enough of them at a price that is profitable Finding employees who will arrive on time, do the work and not steal time, materials or customer Having enough cash to pay the bills before the end of the month and cash left over for the owner Until now putting together a formal Business Plan more painful than a dentist working on you without any painkiller. We found the answer. A simple financial forecasting tool that links to your Contractors QuickBooks file and does most of the work for you and it's...PAINLESS! Business Planning The Old Way: We have developed hundreds of Business Plans. Some for our internal use for our contracting companies when w

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0115 And It Will Be About Why Emailing Your Contractors QuickBooks File Invites Identity Theft Postcards Are More Secure Than Email! The reason is because fewer people have access to postcards send in the mail than have access to your email. A lot of contractors are told to email QuickBooks contractor data files to their tax preparer, bookkeeper or any number of places and continually put themselves at tremendous risk of identity theft or worse. In cases where they have stored data about their present and past clients they put their clients at risk too which if it is traced back to you could mean bankruptcy or worse. Any network carrier can see the contents of your email. Most of them never pay attention or track the content; however, there is always the chance that someone with proper clearance and software can intercept a copy of your QuickBooks contractor data file. We have warned against this practice for several years and in most cases nobody pays any attention until it is

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0114 And Today We Have A Guest On The Show, Patrick Ingram, Construction Contractor Marketing Specialist Patrick Ingram is an experienced contractor and a highly skilled marketing specialist who truly understands the challenges you face as a construction contractor in developing and executing a marketing plan for your construction company in this highly competitive environment. The Following Is An Outline From Patrick Ingram's Guest Appearance On The Contractors Success M.A.P. Podcast which you can listen to below. It is on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Pocket Casts and all popular podcast directories.-----------------------------------------------------------------Editor’s Note: I have known Patrick Ingram for many years, I trust him and find him to be very knowledgeable and capable on the subject construction and mentoring emerging contractors as well as helping contractors who are facing current challenges to turn around their construction companies and put them back on the road to