Challenge:  The construction industry is constantly changing. Continuing education is vital for estimators and preconstruction professionals to maintain quality and stay current with the latest developments, skills, tools, devices, software, etc. Contractor continuing education is critical not only to renewing licenses and satisfying requirements, but to ensure optimal bids, project completion, and company success.  However, taking the time toRead more

Challenge: Subcontractors usually receive construction project documents from general contractors in five formats: PDF; Paper; Excel spreadsheets; Sharepoint, or other cloud document formats; and Building Information Models (BIM). Organizing, coordinating, and using this project information to submit an accurate bid to the general contractor can be a formidable challenge for subs. For large or complexRead more

Challenge: Can you think of a construction project that you have worked on that didn’t require any power tools? What about software tools? Yeah, neither can we. Both types of tools are needed to successfully complete a project, however many times contractors overlook opportunities to optimize these set of tools. If you and your employeesRead more

Challenge: With today’s construction demands, projects are becoming larger, more complicated, and involve more people, processes, and collaboration than ever before. Which means there are more items for construction firms to manage and stay on top of during the building process to make sure they complete a successful project. A critical component to ensuring projectRead more

Challenge:  Whether you’re an owner, a general contractor or a subcontractor, getting an accurate construction estimate on each project line item can feel like the most difficult step in the preconstruction process. If you estimate too high, then the bid may go to someone else. Estimate too low, then win the bid and it turnsRead more

Challenge:  If you’re a general contractor, you want to submit the most qualified construction bid to the owner, so that you can win the project. However, many times, GCs overlook an important step in the preconstruction process that could help them produce the most optimal project proposal. This step is attending the pre-bid meetings which areRead more

Challenge:  If you’re a general contractor, you want the lowest bid proposal price and the highest-quality subcontractor work. Many times, as a GC, we forget to be transparent with our subcontractors on where they stand within the project bid tabulations. This overlook results in the subs providing the same price for the same work continuously through the bid management phase – AKA they’ll never know if theyRead more

Challenge: Unfortunately, we’re all humans, meaning none of us are “Superheroes” and we get sick, injured or have emergencies that prevent us from working 24/7, 365 days a year. So, if you’re a general contractor and you’ve been working on a construction project for a couple of weeks and you’re ready to bid the project,Read more

Challenge:  There are many ways a general contractor can get off track during the preconstruction process – going over budget, going over schedule and ultimately, not winning the project. When the GC does not thoroughly track and compare historical invitation to bid data, they can run into bottlenecks and costly delays. For example, inviting bad/unqualified subcontractors to bid, taking on project types they continue to lose, or working with owners on projects that haveRead more

 Challenge: So, you have sent out your invitations to bid to your subcontractors on a project, now what? Usually general contractors will have to go through the dreaded process of following up with these subcontractors (multiple phone calls and emails) on whether they are going to send a bid proposal, using a ton ofRead more