You have to be a little stubborn as a contractor. It’s hard work and you cannot let people make their own decisions about what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, budget and time frame. It’s a balancing act between keeping your client happy and making sure the work gets done correctly. As you begin to handle a bigger workload, there are some things you can do that will make your job a lot easier. However, they may not all be things you want to do. Give them a try and you will notice a much better working situation:

• Ignore price: When you are hiring a subcontractor, you want to hire someone that is going to charge you the least. It makes sense because the less you are charged, the more money you save. The problem is if the sub doesn’t do a great job it can create more problems for you down the road including delays and poor work. Ignore price; go with an experienced team whether it’s for crane rental, plumbing or something else.
• Ask for help: Even the best builders don’t know everything. If you need to rent a crane then the best thing to do is to make sure that you know exactly how much time you need and how much money you need to put aside for the budget. Therefore, make sure that you ask a subcontractor for a bid so you know what to apply to your bid before sending it out.
• Clean out your truck: Every contractor can be blamed for this one. Our trucks turn into our mobile office which includes a file cabinet. You will probably find hundreds of receipts, notes, blueprints and other things that should be found in your office, not your work truck. Make sure you keep organized and keep your paperwork in one spot.
• Start emailing: You can settle things with a face to face conversation or talking on the phone. So why would you ever want to have a conversation via email? The reason is because you need to protect yourself. If you are speaking with a client and misunderstand what they say or they misunderstand what you say then make sure that you are getting the conversation in email so that there is a record of what was said. Even if you do talk with them via the phone or in person, send them a recap email later on so that they can confirm everything.

If you can follow these simple tricks you will notice a much more relaxing work environment as you aren’t stressing with the same issues you usually have. Organization is key and it may take time to get used to it, but once you do you will be glad that you took the time to develop these new habits and you will see your business improve as well.