Contractors News, Tips and Information

FIVE Top Reasons Why I Believe Fuel Costs Will Skyrocket Shortly!

2012-01-19T12:15:00.000-05:00

NOTE: I originally wrote this to my Golden Hard Hat mentoring members last month. I've been informing them to update their fuel pricing index in all estimates to cover the oncoming increase in fuel. I'm now sharing this with you with hopes you may find it of value to you and your construction business.

Before theholidays I emailed all of you and suggested that you increase your fuel indexprice for fuel consumption in your estimating. Fuel pricing dropped at the pumpbut barrel costs still hovered at the $100 per barrel. However, I emailed youagain and told you I thought this was temporary and to keep your higher priceindex for future estimates. The reasoning was that this would cover future jobswhen pricing shoots up. This still holds true.

Crudepricing is based on supply and demand. Raise the supply or lower the demand,and prices retreat. The opposite holds true.

As we lookaround us, the global economy is in a state of disarray. Some Europeans areseeing riots in the street and severe cutbacks. Something we should watchclosely, since we are also in the same state of disarray.

With allthe major events happening and the fact that any one or two can cause the priceof oil to go up, we need to take a prudent position and cover our bases. If weare wrong, we can also, and very quickly, change positions.

Here arethe FIVE top reasons why I believe we will see a sharp rise at the pumps soonerthan we can imagine.

#1 The “lack of” value in the U.S.dollar: Bad outcome

Much to the great dismay of some oil-producingcountries, oil is priced and traded in U.S. dollars. Everything else beingequal, the price of oil varies in relation to the fluctuation in the value ofthe dollar.

The two are inversely correlated. When the dollar is up, oil is down. Thereverse is also true. The dollar will likely remain the primary money thisyear, given all the issues in Europe, and to a lesser extent, Japan, and theBRIC who would want it changed to some other currency or precious metal.

The fact that crude prices are up simply highlights the complex interactions ofthe many factors that affect the price of oil. However, the runaway andill-thought reasons for printing money without anything backing it will in factcome back to haunt the Fed and our delicate economic system. See Figure 1, theFRED Graph and note how many dollars have been recklessly printed during theObama Administration to fund his progressive agenda.

Each time the Fed print dollars, the value and/orbuying power decreases.

Figure 1

#2 U.S. Fuel Supply: Bad for us

Because ofthe recession in our economy, fuel demand in the U.S. has dropped. The resultis that now for the first time in history; U.S. refineries are exporting moreoil than they are producing for domestic consumption. This is happening for tworeasons. One, domestic demand is down, two, foreign demand and the pricing isbetter.

In thepast, jet fuel was always the leader, however, that has changed. Now, gasoline anddiesel are leaving our soil and heading overseas. The other main concern isthat our fuel storage or supply for these grades of fuel is pathetically lowand one catastrophic event or run-on will raise panic with our system.

#3 Iran – Mideast Powder Keg: Badfor everyone

No doubtabout it, Iran and its saber rattling is enough to start a stampede of panicwithin the world markets, let alone if it finally owns a nuke!

Grant you,the U.S. Fifth Fleet would make a quick disappearance act of the Iranian Navy,but there would be a cost. Imagine if they are able to sink ships and block theStrait of Hormuz? Imagine for one minute if they elect to set off a “dirty”bomb, not a nuke in some large city somewhere in the world. They can easily dothis using a third party terrorist organization. This could be forced upon themby the sanctions that Obama is working on.

What if,Israel decides its safety is in great danger and they need to strike, what willthat do to the flow of oil from the Mideast to the world? Thissituation could explode at any moment. We're talking about Ahmadinejad here,and a country whose desperation level is growing by the day.

#4 OurNational Debt – Really bad for us

The debtthat has been recklessly and thoughtlessly run up by our politicians is unforgivable.Imagine for just a moment this scenario. For every dollar you need to spend,you have to borrow fifty cents from someone. Could you survive?

What aboutif you had to borrow half of every dollar you owe on just the interest on thefunds you borrowed 30 years ago, 10 years ago or even last year. Could you doit? Not one dollar going to pay off the principle. Just the interest you owe.

What aboutif the bank or person who always lent you the money, suddenly decides that itis not in their best interest to lend you anymore. What would happen to you?

That is thesituation we are in at this present moment. Our country now owes more than itbrings in, more than the entire country produces, and with a staggeringcompounding of interest, it can’t keep up.

Our countryis bankrupt and the present group of politicians is more worried aboutre-election than fixing their problem. Sooner or later, that person who lendsto the government will say no more and then pricing will go through the roof, thedollar will crash, riots will erupt in the street and a complete breakdown willtake place in our system.

However,the right change in the mindset of Americans and its leaders can quickly putthis on the right track. Hopefully, they see the light at the end of the tunnel,stop the spending and running up deficits and come up with a plan to payoffthis debt.

By no meansam I “chicken-little” here, however, it deserves our attention and we shouldall be closely monitoring what is happening and have a strategy in place incase all hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, it does have a profound impact on thepricing of commodities such as oil, as it plays out.

#5 Oil Reserves – Someone is missingthe boat here!

We have alot of problems in our country at this time. One is jobs, and the other is theeconomy besides what I’ve already mentioned. It behooves me that any politicianor leader of the world’s greatest nation would ignore the fact that we haveenormous gas, oil and coal reserves in this country. We should be drilling foroil not trying to capture the sun or wind and lining the wallets of our cronieswith taxpayer’s monies instead.

We alsohave easy access to oil from our great friend Canada who wants to ship oil tous. The proposed Keystone pipeline would create jobs, bring billions into oureconomy, solve one of our pressing oil problems, and release us from some ofour foreign oil dependency. Instead, this president would rather lend money toBrazil for deep water drilling (which he refuses to let happen here without stringentand almost intolerable procedures and barriers), and then buy the oil fromBrazil. Makes no sense whatsoever to me, but who am I.

America hasmore oil than Saudi Arabia, who is running out and a lot more natural gas thanwe could use in the next 200 years or so. Yet, it remains untouched because ofprogressive policies and the whacko environmentalist.

Meanwhile,we as business owners must recognize that anyone of these ‘things’ could have aprofound impact on the price of oil. In the ‘micro’ view of things it would beprudent to use a higher price for our fuel needs in all future estimates. Imight also be considering storing fuel to handle the short-term panic if ithappens. Your choice.

Let’s coverour bases and watch things play out. If it changes for the good, we can alwaysreduce the index.

Also, have you caught my radio show every Monday from 12 noon until 1 PM? If not, go to: http://tobtr.com/s/2771393

Six Resolutions For a Better Construction Business in the New Year

2011-12-31T10:36:00.000-05:00

Every year at this time we tend to make resolutions to improve our lives and businesses. These are important decisions and determinations that we hope will stimulate us to improvement. Of course, you may very well have made New Year's resolutions in previous years, and yet before January was out you have already given up on them.

That's not going to happen this time, because in this article I'm going to provide you with a sharper focus.

As a specialist in showing contractors how to significantly improve their construction businesses, working with hundreds of you and seeing at close hand the problems you needed to overcome in order to become successful, here are SIX that we all need to work harder on resolving in our businesses.

Remove all debt. Debt is a terminal disease, and like a cancer, you need to remove it from you businesses and lives. Starting this year, make a concerted effort to pay down all debt. To get started, list out on a piece of paper all your debt. Next, develop a plan to pay it down or negotiate terms you can work with. Third, do everything in your power to funnel any available funds to paying it down. If you save money on what item, take that 'extra' money you saved and pay it towards your debt. Make a genuine effort and you will be rewarded because then ... and only then ... can you focus on resolution number 2.
Save cash. Cash is always king. However, if the economy changes for the better, you will need cash to fund your work. Sit down and establish your Capital Requirements and plan how you can set aside enough cash to manage your business if work comes your way. Another consideration is how long it takes you to collect your receivables. Whatever this is, one month, two months or more, make certain you have enough cash on hand to fund your operations. You should also make the same effort in your personal lives.
Build a budget. You wouldn't attempt to build a project without a set of plans, would you? Hope not, so why would you try and build a business without a budget? A budget is your plan on producing sales and controlling expenses in order to produce a profit or desired end-result. I suggest you start by putting all of last year's spending on a spreadsheet, including sales for each month. Then take a hard look at them. Is there anything that you could improve? This exercise helps you to develop a good, tight budget for the upcoming year. Try it!
Organize your office. This is one that really helps. We spend a lot of time in our offices. A clean, well-organized office improves our outlook, makes us feel better and automatically increases our productivity and creativity. Here is how you can start. Take a look aorund you. Can you better organize your desk, files, office equipment to help you? I bet you can, try it! Don't you feel better already?
Develop a cost effective marketing plan. No business can survive without customers and sales. That means marketing in order to drive sales to your business. Spend some time and find out which one of these four 'things' are specific to your best type of customer. What is their need, desire, want or problem? Now, how can you provide them with a service or product that satisfies them? Remember, these are emotional triggers that 'make' your customers buy. Next, how can you get that message out to them in a cost-effective manner? Work on that. Do you need to spend some time handing out flyers in a specific neighborhood? Do it. Do you need to write a dynamic sales letter and send it to your propsective customer type informing them that you have what they want? Do it. Plan and do, it is as simple as that. In time, you will start generating leads and then turning them into sales!
Find peace with yourself, your family, friends and your God. Many people think that it's only marital difficulties, business or financial problems that affect our lives. That's not true. Not telling our love ones that we love them, that we care about them and need them, as well as our God has a profound negative impact on our lives. The same goes for helping those in need. As Americans, our biggest asset is our willingness to extend a helping hand to those in need. I myself give a gift card from our local supermarket every week in our church's poor box. Not too long ago I was standing in the checkout as a young mother with food and her babies in hand was paying for her groceries with gift cards. I don't know if any of them were from me, but I felt good knowing her children wouldn't be going to bed hungry. That good feeling makes it worth the effort.

These 6 Resolutions for the New Year - seven if you do them - may seem overwhelming or not, but they do work together to make for a better business and life for those that do them.

How to Navigate This Stagnant Economy!

2011-12-19T16:06:00.001-05:00

With all the uncertainty in the economy, here are some tips to help you survive and thrive.

Tip #1: STOP Reading and Listening to the News and Media. Accept where you are right now, and focus on your business and family. They need to come first. No one, including the government is going to step up and bail you out. No one is going to give you a magic wand, or pill that will make things better. You are going to have to do it yourself, and the sooner you get started, the quicker you can get things moving in the right direction.

Tip #2: Slash Your Debt! Cutting back and eliminating debt is the first objective. Cut back on your expenses, steer any additional money towards paying off the old debt. You can't survive with the hangman's noose of debt tightening on your throat, and choking the life out of you. Trim the fat or unnecessary spending to make this happen.

Tip #3: Increase Your Productivity. Take a look at your day and ask yourself: "How can I get more done out of my day?" In a down economy, you'll have to do more yourself, and you cannot allow your day to be stifled by the unimportant things. You will have to make more phone calls yourself. You will have to do more tasks yourself. Times are tough and when you can't afford the luxury of hiring people to do these things for you, you'll need to organize your schedule to be more productive.

Tip #4: Save Cash! The banks aren't lending. Money is tight. You'll need to fund your operations yourself. Start saving money after you've paid off your debt. The sooner you can become your own banker, the sooner you can start getting back on your own two feet.

Tip #5: Remember Your Customers! This is important. Start developing a great economical way to keep in touch with past customers. Two things are possible from doing this. One, they may decide to buy some more of your construction services. Two, they may have a friend or relative or someone else they know who has a need for your services.

Tip #6: Find Out Why Your Customers Buy From You. Not everyone buys from you. That means that the ones that do are a powerful resource for you. They can help you figure out how to get more them. Sit down and write a set of revealing questions, some really hard questions as well. Uncover what they like and didn't like about working with you and your company. You've just uncovered some great things to build on and things that need your immediate attention in correcting. Better yet, you've got some powerful research material for Tip #7!

Tip # 7: Discover How to Drive Business to YOU! Marketing your business is a key skill you need to learn and develop. Marketing drives sales to your business. Anyone can master it. In my own businesses, marketing is what brings in the sales, not me, my name or anything else. The same goes for your business. Not sure how to get started? Would you be willing to spend less than $45 to get your hands on how? One sale is all you need and the others are strictly gifts from the gods. Buy this book and get started. "How to Market & Sell Your Construction Services Like Magic!"

Bottom-line is that this economy is going to be with us for a while. Waiting for this economy to bounce back will do you and your business more harm than good. You can't afford to wait it out. Start doing the things that will help you survive and thrive and in themselves will make things get better.

My Christmas Message to America

2011-12-15T15:30:00.000-05:00

Dear America:

Times are tough, and things could always be better. Do not allow your hopes and dreams to be buried by the skepticism of today. Things always get better when you feel they are at their worst. Remember, all minds, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

In our lives, we will make errors. Things will go wrong. Times can be difficult, if not a strain on our collective will. However, if you believe, if you can dream, if you can correct your errors, you can make all things better. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. It starts as a dream, a mere seedling, then it sprouts into a vision and with the proper care and nourishment, it grows itself into a reality.

Things will get better, and things will change, as soon as you decide to correct the path you are presently on. The greatness of you has yet to see the sunrise of all ages. You have only begun to advance the innovations that man can create. Let no man or ideology put you down. Let no one diminish your future. Let no one snuff out your dreams. Stand up; believe in the truths of your Founders. Repair and make strong the foundation of your Constitution. Defend your Bill of Rights, and most importantly, adhere to your values and principles. They are the thread that holds you together.

You may tear apart that which weaves you together, but there is a veil covering the unseen which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, charity, and believe can lift the veil and reveal the greatness that belongs to you as a people and country.

You are the shining city on the hill. The beacon that those less fortunate search for in their darkest hour. You are the rock that mankind will stand tall upon to free all men of all nations and guide them to be free and self-governing for themselves. It is your principles and values that the wicked will always try to corrupt. Use these values and principles to defend yourself for they are your shield.

Consider and fear the natural tendencies of the iniquitous to oppress people. Prevent them from doing their evil. You have shown all men; that man can rule themselves, he needs no master, since only God gives us our inherent rights. It is up to you to preserve order and be prosperous as a nation. You are that beacon that shines the truth for all mankind.

In the words of a great believer of America, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!" Our strength is within ourselves as a people united in our fundamental rights transferred to us by our Founding Fathers.

God Bless America!

The Truth About Markup

2011-12-06T14:02:00.001-05:00

If you're using a markup rate that you found or heard of, you are probably leaving precious hard-earned money on the table!

The truth is, many contractors have no clue on what their markup should be. They either use a guess, or some "number" they read or heard about.

Markup is derived from carefully calculating your costs and the amount of money you want to earn as profit at the end of the business year.

Costs must include all your field expenses and your overhead amounts. In your overhead, you MUST have a reasonable salary for yourself. If you haven't ever included it, then you are shortchanging yourself.

If you never realized this before, realize it now. Overhead is a 'burden.' It doesn't make a profit and should be lean and mean, but still does the job of administering your field operations.

Working for the draw

Too many contractors work for a draw. What I mean is this. If you have any money left over after paying all of your bills whatever is left is your salary. This is the wrong approach!

What you need to do is include a reasonable salary for yourself in your overhead amount. This is commonly called "Owners Salary." If you often work out in the field, taking the spot of a hired worker, then you would cover your salary in the estimate to do the work for the amount of time you would be working on the project. The difference of time when you are working in your office doing estimating or administrative duties, would be covered in your reasonable salary in overhead.

If you are not including your own reasonable salary somewhere, field or overhead, your markup is shortchanging you!

Making a Profit

As a business owner you have an obligation to make a profit. Profit is not a dirty thing. You need profit to grow your business, market your services, carry you through difficult times, and take care of your customers.

What is the right profit amount? I hear this often from contractors. Years ago, many in the industry thought making 10 or 12% was a good thing. I suspect that if you can make more, go for it. As long as you make it legally and morally correct there is nothing stating how much you can make. The truth is, right now we are in a difficult economic time for some, therefor, making whatever you can is probably the best answer.

This is an important subject that as a business owner you must get a proper handle on. This is a business skill you must learn and master.

The bottom-line is ... your markup must cover your expenses, provide you a reasonable salary and make you a profit.

If you would like an invaluable resource, check out my book on markup. It has sold over 10,000 copies and will easily guide you through the process. It is also a down loadable product that will pay for itself quickly. Click on "How to Calculate Your Money-Making Markup!"

What did you say? (A simple secret to closing more deals)

2011-11-15T13:14:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been in a sales situation where the prospective client is listening and you're feeling you've got the deal, but you still lost the job?

Over the years, I've sat through a number of sales presentations where the contractor spend most of the time talking about themselves. They talk about their years of experience, the jobs they have done, how wonderful they are, but never do they listen to the client.

Talkers are those who measure the value of their conversation by how much they talk about themselves. They never run out of things to say about themselves, and they never listen.

If you want to close more deals you must do these two things.

Focus your attention on the needs of the client. Remember, it's all about them, not you.
Ask revealing questions and don't be afraid to drill down with more questions.

People buy for emotional reasons. Those reasons are:

They WANT something.
They NEED something.
They DESIRE something.
They seek a SOLUTION to their problem.

They resort to low price when they can't satisfy their emotional reasons. With that thought in mind, focus on them, ask revealing questions and dig deeper to get to their bare bone emotions for seeking your services.

The secret to closing deals is to ask questions and listen.

How to Squash Your Fears and Worries!

2011-08-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

Two of the greatest executioners of success and achievement is worry and fear. Both work together in retarding your progress and creating inaction just when action is really needed. You are not born with fear. It is instilled into your very being by those you love the most. They teach you fear out of their concern for your safety. How often have you been told not to do something, or else it will hurt you?

When you were little, did you ever have your Mom tell you not to run out into the street because you might get hit by a car? The truth is, lots of people run, walk or whatever into the street and never get hit by anything! Instead, your Mom out of love for you instilled fear into your being in order to protect you.

Our Moms, as well as others, meant to teach us caution and good common sense, but instead instilled fear. Caution is a mental process; while fear is a destructive emotion.

Fear is also extremely dangerous because it produces a 'reaction' of automatic avoidance. By enacting 'avoidance' we sabotage our dreams and goals. We inadvertently avoid achieving them. Fear creates a brick wall between you and your destinations. To achieve your goals and dreams, there is no doubt that you will continuously face the things you fear. This gives you a choice. Give up on your goals and dreams, and settle for mediocrity, or face your fear.

In everything, you do, business or personal. You must always sail in uncharted waters, doing things you may have not done before. The longer you hold onto your fear, the more likely it is that you will never reach your destination. You'll find yourself taking the longest route possible, missing opportunities just so you can avoid your fears.

Worry involves the concern about the outcome of future events that have not occurred, and may never occur. It is a mental, negative and destructive energy working in our minds. It is highly focused and a projection or conjuring into the here say of an unknown future event or prophecy. Since your only point of power is in the present, worrying renders you useless because it perpetuates inaction. Since only action produces results, worrying produces inaction, which doesn't produce, create or change a thing.

This means two things. Worry can happen at any time, and even for something that may never happen, since it is always about an unknown future potential or possible outcome. Worry is the process of creating potential negative outcomes. Worry creates nothing, decides nothing, and accomplishes nothing. Worrying is crippling because it projects your mind into an imagined negative future where your imagination is allowed to run away from your reality. To eliminate worry, focus your attention on something in the present moment, something positive going on right now. When you focus on something positive, there is no room left in your mind for worry of any negativity.

Fear, unlike worry, is an event-triggered emotion, and this makes it even more crippling. Fear happens when you are faced with a set of circumstances in which you are both directly and currently involved. If you've ever attended one of my seminars, you have often heard me speak about being frozen in your tracks like a deer on a country road at night looking into your headlamps. Fear does not happen unless you are in the proximity of the circumstances you fear, and since you will always be confronted with something that creates a fear for you, confronting the fear head on is the only solution of dealing with the fear.

To succeed in reaching your dreams and goals in the shortest time, to overcome your business and personal setbacks, you must be willing to constantly and consistently confront the things you fear. By confronting what you fear, fear begins to lose its control over you.

The Perfect Formula for Failure

2011-07-21T13:08:00.004-04:00

It was hot. The summer heat was in full gear. While sitting at the lanai table, sipping a cold beer, the wife spoke to me. "Honey," she said, "I'm afraid we need to tighten our budget."

"Not again," I replied. "Yes" she said, "another one of our neighbors is in financial trouble."

"Who?" I asked. "The Logans, down the street," she said.

"Hmmm, how?" I asked. "They over spent, living outside their means, they're upside down in their mortgage, and now they've lost their jobs, and the bills are due." she said.

"What has that got to do with us?" I asked. "Well," she replied "The President and the board of the homeowner's association voted in an amendment that says that if any of the members of the association get in financial trouble, the rest of us will pay their bills."

"But didn't we help out the last time?" I asked. "Yes, but that was for the Jones and Legots, they both had financial trouble and still do. As a matter of fact, we have to come up with more money for them too," she replied. "Now, the Logan's are in financial trouble, and I hear the Boors are also." she said.

"That sounds unfair. We have bills to pay too." I said. "I know sweetheart," she said "But the homeowner's President says that since you are working, and they're not, it is only fair that you pay for them. He called it re-distribution, social justice, or something like that."

"Why can't they get some kind of a job?" I asked. "Because the jobs are paying too little," she said "And they claim it is beneath them to work for such little wages."

"Hmmm," I thought and then said. "Sweetheart, are the remainders of the families okay with this?" "Well," she said, "They're all in trouble too. In fact, the association is also going to ask us to help out them as well, you know, for the good of the neighborhood."

"Eghads," I said and groaned, "It isn't working. We'll end up with nothing trying to support those who don't want to go to work, or foolishly got themselves in financial trouble. The entire neighborhood will be draining our checkbook dry!!!"

The wife just shrugged.

"When do we elect a new President and Board?" I asked. "Not for two years," she replied.

"Sweetheart," I exclaimed, "This is the perfect formula for failure of everyone in the neighborhood! It is time to sell and move to another neighborhood where we can work and keep our earnings for our self."

Think about it.

An Industry in Flames!

2011-06-13T15:30:00.002-04:00

In the next 12 months, more contractors will go bust trying to wait out the economy, all while an inept President tells us he is creating jobs and that the economy is well on its way to recovery.

With an economy that is in shambles, with millions of homeowners stuck in homes worth less than they owe in their mortgages, with the value of the dollar plummeting, with trillions of dollars spent and wasted by an uncaring Democratic controlled Congress in cahoots with its socialist President, and an unemployment rate that is double what a lawless administration is telling us. Things are not good!

In no uncertain terms, we are in an Industry that is engulfed in flames.

Just in housing alone, total housing construction over the previous decade now barely exceeds the lowest level of any ten-year period in records dating back to 1974.

Americans who worked hard, did the right thing, have seen the value of their homes fall through the floor, and their equity lost.

Without the rapid deployment of the housing inventory, things will be dismal for years to come. Even with the all wonderful supposedly going to make things better 2010 home buyers tax credit, we are left with the stubborn stench of no work.

Public work and commercial work isn't any better.

Which brings us to jobs. You can't have a recovering economy when so many are without jobs. You need JOBS to turn-around this economy.

And, let's talk about the so-called millions of jobs this alleged administration says it created.

It's pretty pathetic when ONLY 83,000 new jobs are created and 50,000 of those jobs were created by McDonald's. What does that tell you?

The real unemployment rate is around 18 million. If you consider the owners of small businesses who are unable to take a paycheck, it could be 25 million. Which means that even common sense or the Occam Razor dictates that the alledged jobs the Administration claims it created are fake and phony. Even with 500,000 new jobs a month, it will take three to four years to get everyone back to work.

The so-called shovel ready construction jobs that the stimulus was supposed to create, ended up being non-shovel ready. Another bust for a President who hasn't a clue what makes the economy work. However, that hasn't stopped him from joking about it. Rather pathetic if you ask me. Millions of Americans out of work, finacially strapped, and struggling to get through their day, and he jokes about it.

Mr. President, you can't cut off the two legs of the economy at the knees, and expect things to go well. Unless, you don't want it to go well. Raises an interesting question, doesn't it?

Anyways, about the two legs of the economy.

Those two legs are the manufacturing industry and the construction industry. They are the Achille's Heels of the economy. They employ the majority of people. It’s the businesses that innovate and produce goods that consumers value that make America’s economic engine run. That means NO GOVERNMENT!

Never mind giving millions and billions of tax payer's money to companies that go broke or use it to create jobs in China.

Never mind "GREEN JOBS." Green jobs are a hoax. Green is too expensive and if no one has the money, they can't afford to go green. Green is dead on arrival. Just like the Chey Volt, it has its problems, one too many to be truthful. This clown just doesn't get it. People buy what people want, not what you want to force upon them!

Never mind pandering to the unions. I was a union contractor and I never found a union that GAVE a worker a job. Every week, it was I who signed their paychecks, took the risks and got the work. I've negotiated seven union contracts in my career, and all I ever heard from the Union side of the table was: "You've got to give us something to take back to our members, or I'll lose my next election." It's time to eliminate the unions, especially from the public sector. They want too much for too little, and they're destroying the free market with their demands, and lack of productivity.

Never mind blaming Bush. Mr. President, man-up, you own this mess, and you created it with your socialist policies, rules, and regulations.

Never mind black balling the banker's, they're only human. They didn't cause the housing bubble to bust. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd orchestrated that debacle.

Jimmy Carter started the fall with the Community Reinvestment Act, forcing banks to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, mostly in minority areas.

Instead "common sense," age-old standards of banking prudence got thrown out the window. In their place came harsh new regulations, requiring banks not only to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, but to do so based on race.

These well-intended rules were supercharged in the early 1990s by President Clinton. Despite warnings from GOP members of Congress in 1992, Clinton pushed extensive changes to the rules requiring lenders to make questionable loans. Thank you Bill Clinton.

Lenders who refused to would find themselves castigated publicly as racists. Federal bank regulators scrutinized financial firms' books to make sure they were in compliance.

It was economic cannibalism

By the name of diversity, banks began making huge numbers of loans that they previously would not have. They opened branches in poor areas to lift their CRA ratings.

Meanwhile, Congress gave Fannie and Freddie the go-ahead to finance it all by buying loans from banks, then repackaging and securitizing them for resale on the open market. Thank you Barney Frank.

That's how the downfall began.

With those changes, the sub prime market took off. From a mere $35 billion in loans in 1994, it soared to $1 trillion by 2008!

We have no one to blame but the liberals!

Once government institutes such economically destructive laws in perpetuity, the destructive snowballing begins. Big government, Keynesian economics, liberalism and socialism do not work. Never have and never will.

Ironically, it was President Bush in 2003 who tried desperately to stop Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from metastasizing into the problem they have since become. Today, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hold the taxpayers liable for over $20 Trillion in loans.

To make matters worse, it wasn't the Banking Industry that got hurt by all of this perverted regulation, they got a bailout, it was the Construction Industry ... you and me!

To turn this economy around, we the people need to take action!

We need to elect responsible people who are not afraid to make the tough decisions, willing to balance a budget, tackle entitlements and deal with the deficit. We do not have a revenue problem in this country. We have a government SPENDING problem!
We need to flush the liberal agenda down the toilet and get rid of it forever! That means not only in our political representatives but also in our school system.
We need term limits with a descriptive authoritive as to what they can and can't do. No more career politicians who vote themselves a big raise and huge entitlements. It's the people's money and we should decide, not them!
We need to eliminate the Seventeenth Amendment. State senators need to be determined by their state legislatures and the State should pay their wages and expenses. Why not? They represent the state's best interests.
We need to make English the ONLY official American language. Can't speak it? Learn it like our forefathers did. Otherwise, stop discriminating against us Americans, who speak other languages!
We need smaller government and less regulation. Give back the State's Rights.
We need to protect our borders and face the truth. Illegal means ILLEGAL!
We need a plan from a strong President, whom WILL turn this country around. No more talk, no more lies, no more false hope or changes, and no more rhetoric!
We need a plan to turn the housing market around. Sensible loan procedures, the fazing out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. No more bail outs for anyone. Run your banking business like a business or silently go out of business, just like we have to do!
We need to STOP pitting one American against another. Eliminate the Progressive Tax Rate and the IRS. A 65,000 page Tax Code? Give me a break. Institute a flat tax with no loopholes for personal or business. It is way past the time that big companies like GE start paying their fair share of taxes!!!
We need to re-think entitlements. Unfortunately, no one likes to talk about entitlements. Furthermore, unfortunately, they are taking this country down the tubes. I'm not saying eliminate them all, there are some needs that need to be addressed, but it should be done at the State level.
We need to eliminate ObamaCare. I don't know about you, but any program that has to have so many waivers, can't be good. Any program that "GUTS" Medicare by $500 Billion can't be worth the paper it is written on. Yet, they continue to lie telling us it's the other plan that will hurt Grandma. Honestly, for me, the Federal goverment should not be in the business of health, education, welfare, retirement, agriculture, housing, and food stamps. Did I miss anything?
We need a Congressional Rule that says if you can't write a pending bill on less than four pages, we don't need it. No more of we have to pass it to find out what's in it!
We need to stop pandering and throwing taxpayer's money to foreign countries that do not have our best interests at heart.
Eliminate the Fed and its printing policies. QE 2 went to prop up foreign banks!

The truth is this, the Democratic Congress and their President gave away $5 trillion in taxpayer's money that they wasted (actually gave it back to themselves through their political cronies) and added to our deficit, the greatest spending spree in the history of the country. Had they given it to each and every taxpayer instead, they would have enriched the economy by $450,000 per taxpayer. Now that would have stimulated the economy!

Meanwhile, what about you and your construction business?

The reality is that your business strategy must change, or you run the risk of going out of business. It really is that simple. Everything around you is changing, either you and your business change, or you will be left behind.

Things will not go back to the way they were four or five years ago. Things are still doing. Money is conversly being spent, there are even at the same time some customers, but not as many and a different customer than you had before. You can't wait for your phone to ring!

Doing nothing right now is the worst business strategy to adopt. Face it, the economy has changed—not for better but for the worse. There is no recovery, never has been, that is a lie. Things may even get worse. However, things can change. A recovery is in our future, maybe after the election, and things can change quickly. Never let your trust in the American spirit to bounce back leave you.

Meanwhile . . .

Don't sit back, don't wait for that next job to come to you, get out and find it for yourself. You can do it!

The lack of action by many in the contracting community ensures that a business death for those not adapting is a certainty. I don't want it to be you.

Things That Kept Me Awake At Night As a Contractor

2011-06-02T11:00:00.011-04:00

When I first started my construction business in the 70's, I was young and full of hopes and dreams. What worries could there possibly be?

In a short period of time, I learned that life has its complications. Around every corner is an unknown. In this short blog, I hope to help some of you to discover the steps that helped me improve my construction business.

Like many of you, I started my business with a little money and a pickup truck. As a matter of fact, I didn't even own any tools.

After completing my tour working in the Middle East, I came home sick with viral pneumonia, and a small amount of cash saved up. After three weeks in the hospital, I contacted my friend and had him incorporate my business. When that was done, I had my business cards printed, and I was now a contractor . . . so I thought.

Weeks without work, banks not excited about extending a line of credit for me, and surety companies telling me I was too young, left me without work, a slow drain on my cash, and dreams slowly being shattered.

That was the first thing that kept me up at night, worrying about not having work.

This brought me to lesson number one. Never wait for things to come to you, get up and get out and capture them for yourself. From that, I learned how to market my construction services. I also learned PR and used that very effectively to promote my business. Even in the most dismal of times, this two business metrics helped me to survive and thrive.

With work in the pipeline, I soon experience the next 'thing' that would keep me awake at night. MONEY!

You see. Your business survives on cash. Reality is, it is a cash eating machine, and if isn't controlled. It WILL eat you out of house and home.

That brought me to lesson number two. Understand your financial metrics.

My Dad was a successful contractor himself, and with a degree in Accounting, he taught a very valuable lesson. The real 'money' is made in the business end of the business, not in the contracting end.

What did he mean?

Simply put, you can make money in the contracting end, but if you do not understand and control the business end, the money will disappear through lack of control. You need to learn and control your financial metrics!

Once I mastered my financial metrics, I was making money, real money. My competitor's couldn't figure it out. I controlled my expenses, maximized my earnings and turn cash into assets. These assets became money-producing assets, not depreciating expenses. There is a difference. Shiny objects are depreciating objects, and it is in one's best interest to stay away from them. They will take you down!

Life was rolling along and I was being prepared for life lesson number three. There is only so much of me to go around.

Before I knew it, my time was being consumed from all sides and every angle that existed in my business. I was quick to realize that I didn't own a business, my business owned me!

The lesson I learned was "systematization."

This is probably the most misunderstood areas of a business. Very few contractors ever make a fortune owning their own construction business. Instead, they find themselves a slave to the business.

You can discover very easily if your business owns you by answering these simple questions:

Are you too involved in your business? Could you leave it for a few weeks and have your employees run it for you, getting sales, doing the work and making a profit without your assistance?

Could you let go of your "baby" without any fear or worry?

Do feel no one can do the "job" as well as you can?

Be honest and answer them for yourself. Understand that if you can't answer 'yes' this is not what owning a business is all about. Almost all contractors who own their own business work too hard for too little. Everything about their business is in their heads, and they believe they are the only people who can do it. A self-sabotaging misconception. In essence, they're trapped in their own business!

In this economy, you do not want to be trapped in your own functionless beliefs. You need to master your business metrics and properly apply them to your business. Times are difficult, and things are not going to be easy for some long time in the future. You need to take control of your business now, so you can survive and possibly thrive.

Knowledge is the key to success. What we do with knowledge determines the level of success we achieve.

Want to learn more? Check out this report and get it FREE by clicking on the report:

How to Spot a Contractor Without a Functioning Brain

2011-05-04T11:52:00.005-04:00

STOP ... Doing This!

The contractor was desperate and I could hear the fear in his voice. "I need work really bad," he said to me, "I can't pay my bills, how can I bid the jobs cheaper? I've got a guy, who will give me a job for 5% over costs. What shall I do?""

The truth is, he can't take this job or any other for that amount. After I looked at his financials, this contractor didn't even understand that he was bidding too cheap already and losing a ton of money.

You see. The numbers don't lie. If you do not have a clue or a handle on your numbers, you're a contractor without a functioning brain. To be truthful, you're a train wreck about to happen.

You make your money with your business skills, not your construction skills!

Let me show you what I mean.

The average contractor, doing about $700,000 a year, has an overhead expense of about 25%. Some are higher, and others are lower, but it is a good average.

This means his overhead or burden to support his field operations is costing him around $175,000. Not a lot of money, and it doesn't include any profit. In order to generate at least a 10% profit margin above and beyond his overhead costs, he would need to mark up his estimates by 1.35 or more.

In other words, a $10,000 estimated cost would have to be sold for $13,500, and enough sales, ($700,000 at that mark up of 1.35) to make what he wants.

His margin of error is his 10% profit or $70,000. One bad estimate, or Sales below the $700,000 mark, one price increase not properly covered, and costs start to devour the profit first.

For an example, let's say that he lands a $700,000 job for costs plus 5%. His total Sales would be $735,000. Costs would be $700,000, leaving the difference to cover his overhead and profit. What is the result?

A net loss of $210,000!

Let me show you. -

$175,000 overhead + $70,000 profit = $245,000 - $35,000 = -$210,000

There is no way that volume can make this up. Too many are selling jobs too cheap just to get the work, and that is a perfect recipe for financial failure.

As sung by Kenny Rogers in the song "The Gambler," "You've got to know when to hold, know when to fold them, and know when to walk away!" You'll lose less money by walking away.

If you would like to learn how I can help you get a handle on your business, check out and get my FREE Coaching Report by clicking on the report.

Why suffer the consequences of not having a handle on your business? It's costing you more than you think without it!

Stop Doing This or Go Broke!

2011-04-14T16:50:00.004-04:00

This is serious ...

As a friend, and hopefully your mentor, I hope you're not doing this.

I know times are hard, jobs are difficult to get and few and far in between.

But ...

Dropping your price to get the work, isn't worth it!

Let me explain.

I've been overwhelmed by contractors coming to me in desperate situations. What I'm seeing is desperation, pure and simple.

Understand this ...

Bad decisions will cost you money, cost you time and eat into your profits. In the worst case, one bad decision can totally kill off your business. That means, taking work for nothing is a losing proposition!

If you want to lose money, stay home and watch Opray, you'll lose less money!

Every single contractor who has come to me, when I look at their financial, has taken work below costs and ... volume doesn't make it up. It just makes it worse!

When you are in some kind of pain – physical or emotional or financial— any kind of discomfort – you tend to act on things you believe will alleviate that pain. And your belief that something will help grows stronger the longer the pain goes on. After a while, anything with a remote chance can look like a winner. Wishful thinking starts to seem quite grounded, and grasping at straws feels like anything but.

In other words, you make BAD decisions!

It’s to decide in favor of something we think will bring gains today or tomorrow than for a strategy which may take weeks, months, or longer, to materialize. This means a fortune-changing strategy, which will help us, can get sacrificed to something mediocre we think will help us with a short-term remedy.

So, why did they do it? Grasp for straws? Settle for failure?

Here is what I found.

• They didn't know their numbers.
• They didn't have a strategy.
• They didn't market.

They short-changed their chances for success, because they didn't know. In other words, they allowed themselves, through desperation, to become the victim.

Listen, the economy is tough, and it will be tough for a long time. As a matter of fact, it will never go back to the way it was. That is a thing of the past. You need to adapt.

How you can get started.

1. Take the time and calculate your markup. Even better, calculate three. A low one which I like to call my last chance or worst case. The one you think is right and an optimistic one. Then calculate the results of each one if they were used. Which result do you like? Run with that one. If someone wants you to do it for less, walk away.

2. Develop a strategy. You know times are tough, how will you compete? What will you do? Lay out a plan and work the plan.

3. Learn how to market your construction services. Get your business out in front of your prospective customers. Don't wait for them to come to you.

Every contractor whom I am working with who is doing the above with me is getting work and making money. It's not easy and there is not a ton of it out there, but they are getting their share. Taking work for nothing, leaving money on the table just to get a job with high hopes, is a poor strategy.

I hope this will help some of you to start making a better decision on getting your work at the right price.

A Contractor's Thought About the Future of Our Industry

2011-02-10T14:00:00.002-05:00

The results are in. Last week Washington announced that the unemployment rate dropped to 9% and that industry had created 36,000 new jobs. If you listened to the media, miracles have been spun and the future is bright and rosy, or is it?

The truth is, the math doesn’t add up. If 36,000 new jobs had been created and 600,000 fewer people were off the unemployment line, what happened to the unmentioned 564,000 people? It appears that Washington and the media isn’t going to talk about them. I guess they’re invisible.

And this is only the beginning.

Look around you, things have changed and our world is different. The two biggest sectors of industry that employed people, Manufacturing and Construction have been silently shuttered. Over 43,000 manufacturing plants have been shut down since NAFTA took hold in 1994. That means jobs that we no longer have and jobs that have left this country.

The unemployment rate in the construction industry now exceeds 20%. Unfortunately, that number only counts that collecting unemployment. However, what about the self-employed contractors who can’t collect because they are ineligible, don’t have work or customers to support their basic needs and are slowly devouring their life’s savings?

When you look at it in this manner, you might be wondering, how worse can it get?

Here’s a thought or two to chew on.

Real estate is dead. Waiting for it to return would be like waiting for typewriters to replace the IPad. Furthermore, if it does, we could be looking at 20 to 30 years down the road. It also brings another burden to bear. So many people have their money tied up in real estate, they will be caught short and forced to live where they are and not move up like in the past.

That means repairs, remodeling and renovation will be more attractive than new construction.

Let me explain.

In case you hadn’t noticed costs are escalating. This is in part to the reckless spending in Washington, bailouts and stimulus and of course, quantitative easing. All this has contributed to the devaluing of our dollar, and that means rising costs (inflation). Higher construction costs make staying where you are and repairing, remodeling, renovating, or renting, more attractive.

To further add to this is rising fuel costs. People will be caught between an axe and a grindstone if they live too far from work. This will start a trend to live closer to work and a need to cut down on travel costs. Younger workers and families who can’t afford to buy will be renters. I believe we will see an up- trend in communities of homes and apartments built closer to work hubs.

The truth is things will not get better until Washington does some serious cutting and focuses on re-building our manufacturing base. Without manufacturing at reasonable and competitive wages without all the messy government regulations, our nation cannot start producing the products that made this country great to begin with.

Lets be realistic, this being a nation of consumers isn’t working.

Construction also is a big factor is solving the unemployment problem. Unfortunately, government is broke. Trillions have been foolishly spent on the shovel ready jobs that produced very little of anything. That means that a prime opportunity to jumpstart the economy with public works projects have passed, and we’re left paying the tab. What really amazes me is that no one is screaming and wanting to know where all that money went.

At the present pace that Washington is working on solving our financial mess, we could be looking at 50 years or more. However, we the people with our voting rights can change that quickly. Every American needs to take a hard look at their incumbent and not be afraid to vote them out for those who promise tough reforms on the tough issues. Never mind how much pork they brought home, the pig is dead because they’ve skinned it alive already.

Without the working middle class that pays taxes and buy products, and can’t do so if they do not have their jobs in manufacturing and construction, nothing changes.

The result?

We will have no choice but to live within our means. It is being forced upon us. The options you have today will be gone tomorrow. A lot more is going to change and you better be prepared to change with it, or it will feel like a steam roller running over you.

Now is the time to take a deep breath and realize what is happening around you. Change is upon you and if you ignore that change and fail to adapt yourself to it, you will get left behind. And yes, I am doing the same for myself that I am recommending right now to you.

The way I see construction changing is simple. People will still have to spend some money, and they will be selective. I can almost guarantee you that where they live and work will be a priority. That means repairing, remodeling, and renovating in both the residential and commercial sectors will produce a demand. That demand won’t be overwhelming, which means the smart and astute will get what work there is. They will have to market and control their costs. Waiting for your phone to start ringing off the hook with work means you’ll be waiting a long time. Working for nothing or too cheap, means you’ll be broke.

All of us have to pay our debts, live within our means and force our elected officials to do the right thing. Keynesian economics and its big government approach as the solution to our problem is the problem!

We are a great nation filled with great people who have brought huge leaps in progress to the world with our free thinking, products, innovations and ideas.

Some say that the whole idea of America being the leader of the world is over and that free enterprise is dead.

I say hogwash to that.

Our Founding Fathers knew they were embarking on a daring experiment. They laid the groundwork and gave us the map to follow. Somewhere, we’ve gotten off the path, and we need to get back on it.

What a novel idea they had, free men free to be innovative, creative and enterprising. To be whatever they wanted to be, to go as far as they wanted. No wonder it worked so well.

The truth is no other country has ever done a better job of reigning supreme over the world than America.

It is said that if a great nation doesn’t rule, then an un-great one will.

Some say it will be China. However, they can’t walk the talk. Think about it. Are they as innovative as us? Are they as technologically advanced as us? The answer is no. Their GDP is only one-third the size of ours. At their present pace of growth, it will take them 20 to 30 years to catch us.

Unfortunately though,

The problem is that our present government will do its best to screw things up, but we have no one to blame but ourselves. Americans have to be far more intelligent and less emotional when it comes to the voting booth. We need to get back to our roots, our constitution and the fundamentals that our Founding Fathers established for us to be the great nation of free men and woman whom they envisioned.

In the future we must be careful how we cast our vote. We must understand the issues that confront us, the problems that besiege us, and the actions that must be taken, no matter how difficult, in order to free us from them. We must elect those who will do our bidding and not use our vote for their own selfish means, self-centered goals and financial goals. It's time that they got paid what they are worth, and that means they are getting paid too much!

The greatest strength of our country is its people. We are innovative; free thinking, hard-working and industrious. Our most powerful asset is our ideas.

When you set ideas free, you set business free and everyone benefits. Government can’t do that. Reality is, we need government to get out of the way!

I believe that we can get back to doing that, set our ideas and innovation into motion and this is the key to latch onto: Ideas and innovation set free today will become the breakthroughs of tomorrow.

Right now the economy is a roller coaster ride, putting your stomach in the uncomfortable feeling of being stuck in your throat. It’s hard to think about anything, let alone getting ahead. Especially when you have so much pressure squeezing you from all sides, and you have no clue what tomorrow will bring you.

It’s almost a flight or fight decision.

It must be similar to what the cave man felt when a mastodon showed up at the cave door.

Like the cave man, it’s important to keep a clear head and not let your emotions take over. You need to examine the situation, plan, take action and keep a clear head. Because …

It’s not the size of the mastodon that is the problem …
It’s the size of the opening to the cave.

You see, there might not be such as big as a problem for you that you perceived at first. Instead of being reactive, maybe you just need to be “active” and build a smaller opening to your cave.

America’s future and your own, depends on what you do today. I can not emphasize this enough.

The time for panic is over; the need for despair behind us no matter what the future brings us. Now is the time to sharpen your business saw, clean your tools, mend your fences, learn how to market your construction services, and slash the fat out of your operating expenses.

The time to get started is now.

Our free ideas, free market, and free enterprise are still the best way to turn this country around and get it back on track. The sooner we start working on it and demanding our politicians work on doing the right things for us, the quicker we can get back to work.

Let’s put our house in order and notify our government to stop trying to transform our America into something that we neither want nor will not work.

We don’t care about the rest of the world; it is time for the rest of the world to lift itself up to our standards. You politicians have had your chance, now do it our way. We’re ready to get back to being number one again, and we know what works. Its American innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership and ideas, now step aside because we’ve got work to do.

The State of Our Industry

2011-01-24T13:56:00.015-05:00

Another year has passed us by, and we are no better off than we were one, two or three years ago. As a matter of fact, too many contractors find themselves a lot worse off and a future that is bleak, if not unpredictable.

To be honest because someone has to be, gone are the promised results from trillions in dollars and whatever else this Administration has promised.

Gone is the promise that if we "invest" unemployment would not reach 8% Instead, we have a wildly underestimated unemployment rate of 9.6% To be honest, and as I have said someone has to be. Unemployment is somewhere around 16% (M6 numbers) and if we take into account all the small business owners who are unable to earn enough and going without, it is encroaching 25%

Gone is the promise of "shovel ready jobs." Instead, hard-earned taxpayers dollars have been wasted on highway signs boasting of results never produced and their insidious lies to the American people, and other pork they shoved down our throats.

Gone is far more than I believe the average American realizes.

Had we a crystal ball, possibly we could have seen through the inability and the inexperience of this Administration to improve the American economy. Maybe, people would have seen the fallacy of Green and LEED. Let's be honest (since someone has to be), until costs come down, demand goes up and there is an incentive (taxes) Green, and LEED is D.O.A., or at best, hemorrhaging profusely.

Good News and Bad News

Unemployment will not be addressed until Americans feel confident that Washington has a plan to control spending, balance the budget, and reduce the deficit. Meanwhile, big business will continue to keep its operations employment lean and hoarde their earnings, and small business will pay the price for being small and being the target of progressive politics.

If anything, I hope that you understand that you cannot wait for the Big Government of Washington to solve your business problems. Instead, you need a plan of your own. Here is why.

Housing will remain in a flux for most home builders until the inventory is reduced, or they come up with a better mousetrap. That mousetrap will have to be small, affordable, efficient, convenient and close to the homeowners place of work. Okay homebuilders, I just gave you the formula for your success.

Remodeling, renovating, and repairs will lead many to sales providing . . . they market properly. People and business will stay put until they feel confident. They will remodel, renovate, or repair what they have. If you are already in this sector of the industry, low expenses and smart marketing will be the key to your success.

Commercial construction will be plagued by its inventory and this is a major concern. Delinquencies and the failure of our banks to lend will keep the return of this sector in a head hold for years to come. Again, look to remodel, renovate, and repair to commercial properties as your major source of income. Low expenses and targeted marketing will be your tools for success.

Many were pinning their hopes for survival on the Promised Land of Infrastructure. With a broke Federal government and many state government's teetering on the abyss of bankruptcy, forget it because it ain't gonna happen! I hate to say it, but the HUGE union pensions for government employees, and the COSTLY progressive entitlements will keep them in the red or until they can shake these gorillas off their backs through bankruptcy court.

Agriculture is doing well so expect to see capital investment made in this industry. I believe that there is great potential for manufacturing. I see a lot of us getting fed up with China and its inferior products, for example 'drywall.' If you're like me, I would rather spend a little more but get the great quality and reliability from a product that says: "MADE IN AMERICA." To hell with the Chinese and their crap.

In the petroleum industry drilling is as dead, just like Obama intended. Watch the natural gas industry because Pickens was right. At this present moment big petroleum is looking to buy out the ng producers. What do they know? Well, oil is getting expensive and we have plenty of natural gas and Americans won't like paying $7 or more per gallon for diesel or gasoline. If they bring it on-line they will have to spend billions redoing their infrastructure

The good news is that the country will not come to a screeching halt. Life will go on. The affluent are still spending and people are finding a way to address their needs. You will see sales but few of them. At least nothing like five years ago. Those that will survive and thrive will have to educate themselves on managing their business far more efficiently than they do today. They will have to produce lean production costs, controlling overhead costs and producing effective and targeted marketing.

In short order, if you do not have a plan and strategy coupled with an adapted business mindset and focused marketing to capture your fair share of the limited sales opportunities that will present themselves within your marketplace. You are screwed. We are in this for the long-haul.

If anything, I hope this insight will help many of you. Maybe even rattle of few cages, so to speak. The doom and gloom will be a reality for those who do nothing to improve their businesses. Success will come from adapting, improving, change and something called evolution-flexibility.

Will you evolve or become extinct?

If you would like to discover how to evolve and adapt, I will be addressing this at my yearly SUPER Business-Building Conference in Orlando this March 21, 22, 23, 2011. So, be careful; if you do nothing or decide to do something for yourself and your business, it will profoundly determine your future.

Two 'Things" You Need to Know About Your Customers

2011-01-14T13:00:00.005-05:00

"Henry, this has been my best year yet!" the conversation went, "as a matter of fact, I'm stepping up my marketing to make 2011 even better!"

Good news to hear from a contractor doing his work here in the Sarasota area, most certainly an area hard-hit by this down economy.

How is he doing it?

Simple, by focusing on what emotions and emotional drivers his prospective customer is using.

First, you must understand that everyone buys from emotion. Those emotions are want, need, desire and/or looking for a solution to their problem.

However, it is even more important to understand what is driving that emotion. There are two emotional drivers, necessity and narcissism.

Let me explain.

If a person's home burnt down, it would have to be re-built so they would have a place to live, that is a need and re-building it is a necessity. The emotions would be need and seeking a solution for their problem by the driver of neccessity, a place to live.

If a person was making more money and wanted to express their new found business success by owning a bigger, newer home so they could impress their family and colleagues with their new found success and status symbol, their emotions would be of want and desire driven by their narcissism.

As you can see, each is using an emotion but they are driven by a different driver, which brings a different perspective.

In order to execute a great marketing and selling program it is important not only what emotions the prospective customers are using to buy, but what driver is motivating that emotion.

I'll touch deeper into this in March at the SUPER Business-Building Conference for Contractors.

Meanwhile . . .

Good marketing!

2011 – The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly?

2011-01-07T12:02:00.003-05:00

Here we go again, another year, another dollar … maybe? Again, we find ourselves facing another year of “known’s” and “unknowns”. Unfortunately, the “knowns” are uninspiring, at best.

Where ever you turn. You read articles in the newspapers, or hear news clips from the radio, or watch the humdrum of TV news, either the economy is upbeat or down in the dumps. It seems that they can’t get the story straight. Then again, the media aren’t the media anymore.

The truth is, it is costing more to live, and it doesn’t look any better for the future. There is a drag on the economy, but it is making a slow rebound and there will be a great need for the services that our industry offers. However, emphasis is on the word "slow."

I do expect that government funded projects will stall dramatically due to deficit and debt that continue to grow at the state and Federal level. The crutch that has to be worn is that the Obama Administration really missed the ball with its stimulus debacle. Instead of throwing billions of our hard-earned tax dollars at silly partisan sinkholes, it should have plowed more money into the infrastructure and really kick-started the economy. After all Construction is the Achilles Heel of the economy.

If you remember, Vice-President Joe Biden broadcasted that as a result of the stimulus spending, it would be creating 500,000 jobs a month this year. Hmm? Still waiting!

Housing will be slow but the “Big Gorillas” of the new home industry, are buying tracks of land at discounted prices as they look to the possible future of building new homes. The truth is no one knows when that will be, so possibly they could have waited and bought it even cheaper. Time will tell the wisdom of this decision.

Interest rates will undoubtedly have to climb and wage earners have to be willing to spend, but with an unemployment rate that officially (that’s a laugh in itself) scratching at 10% (more like 18%) I doubt we’ll see many movements in that arena soon since so many are 'giving up' finding work rather than Amercians going back to work we can't believe the numbers.

Expect prices to rise dramatically as gas approaches $5 a gallon, which is on the near future horizon, but also understand why. As the Fed keeps printing money it devalues our dollar. Our dollar is the World Reserve Currency. Unlike other countries that have to buy US Dollars to purchase oil, we don’t so we’ve always had an advantage in the cost of oil being less for us. There is behind the scene meddling by a number of countries (China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India to name a few) to remove our dollar as the World Currency. If that succeeds, we could see $7.00 or more per gallon for the fuel that powers our economy. Watch this closely!

If interest rates creep up, I would expect a small flood of work to come on hand as owners attempt to take advantage of the last of the low interest rates. The only real problem is the banks. It appears that ‘holding’ money seems to be a better advantage for them until the Fed removes their “binky” and strips away the nipple that has been feeding them.

Therefore, I would expect service side of the industry to do well as owners want to keep existing properties up to date. Handyman services should also do well as homeowners look forward to repairing, as well as remodeling for those who want to update.

On the commercial side manufacturing and agricultural are showing signs of a strong comeback. Retail is at a crossroad. The holidays of 2010 showed many of them that they can make more money on-line than in the expensive upkeep of a box store. I would expect to see retail downsize it stores in lieu of the bigger profits that can be made on-line. Already, many big name brands are scouting this arena. Does that mean that shopping malls could be our next big ghost towns? Could be but only time will tell.

Hopefully, this year will be the last of the bottoms, and we truly start a climb out. I expect things to be slow, for some, they won’t even notice if a recovery is taking place. I don’t believe anyone can sit on the sidelines and wait. You must be proactive, get out and get your sniper scope clearly focused on what the prospective client is looking for and discover how you can get them to realize you’ve got it for them.

There will be sales out there, few but for those you have the ability to market your construction services will do much better than those who are sitting home waiting for the phone to ring.

Take heed in this advice, things are changing and you best change with them. If you are still stuck in the last century you will soon find yourself a dinosaur … extinct!

Marketing your construction services is the key to success in 2011 and beyond.

For those of you who serious about being successful in this economy and realize that change is necessary, you can spend three days with me in Orlando, Florida on March 21, 22 & 23, 2011. We’ll spend three days revamping your business plan and strategy so you can better position your business to getting more sales. This includes working on your marketing plan as well. Find out more at: http://www.contractorssuperconference.com/

6 Ways to Increase Your Self-Esteem, Boost Your Self-Confidence, and Motivate Your Creativity!

2010-11-30T14:39:00.004-05:00

Contractors are amazing people. We build something out of another person’s dreams, and we love doing it. We possess the skills to turn nothing into something.

However, what happens when things turn sour? When you have nothing to focus your creative energy upon? Do you find yourself lacking the self-esteem, self-confidence, or the motivation to get something going?

We measure the value of a person not by his or her falling down, but what they do with themselves when they pick themselves up. The true measure of you as a person is when you take responsibility and action for your better being.

Today the economy is hurting a lot of people. It is knocking them down. Will they get up and do something, or allow themselves to feel beaten?

Just this morning, I listened to a man, practically in tears because he had no work. He was losing his cable service, fearing his cell phone was next and was focusing all of his being on being knocked down. “What do I do?” He asked, “Who will help me?”

It happens to all of us at one time or another, but we need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and do something for ourselves. If someone wants to lend you a helping hand, say “Thank you” and as soon as you’re able, pay them back. If they won’t accept it, then donate your time to community service; find something you can do to help someone else in need.

Since we all will experience a moment of self-questioning, here are 6 steps you can follow to help you get through the down moments.

First, greet people; go out of your way to say “Hello!” Look them in the eye, ask them how they are and shake their hand. If you’re on the phone, answer it pleasantly with a happy tone to your voice. It will make all the difference in your own feelings, as well as those you are making contact with.

Secondly, tell the people you love that you love them! Give them a hug, don’t ignore them, speak with them, and ask them about themselves. We are social beings, and the most important people in our social network are the people we love. Never be afraid to show them how much you love them.

Thirdly, don’t be afraid to compliment others, and gracefully receive compliments from others.

Fourthly, be aware of negative thinking. Yes, you have a problem, recognize it and start developing a plan to correct it. Stay away from negative people; they are your positive energy sucking leeches. Get out and find positive thinking business owners, meet with them, share your ideas, listen to theirs and find a way that you could implement them into your plan. Network your community. Doing something is better than doing nothing!

Fifthly, develop a plan a day ahead to keep you productive for tomorrow. What are the best things that you could work on tomorrow that would help you get out of your present situation? List them, and do them! That fear in your stomach will either make you sick, or you can use it to make tomorrow a better day. Don’t allow yourself to fall victim to ‘paralysis by analysis.’

Sixth and last, learn from your problems so you never do them or get caught by them again. My dad always told me that everyone makes a mistake once in their life, but to make it again is just plain stupid! See your mistakes, problems, shortcomings as opportunities. Own up to your shortcomings, but do whatever you have to do to correct them. This economy is not the end of your career as a contractor, unless you allow it to be.

Even if you feel that everything in your life is going poorly, be aware that in the end, only you are ideally positioned to correct them. A failure is something you have done; it may very well be something you will do again on your journey of being a person --- but failure is not YOU!

Yesterday, I read an article on the new Chevrolet Volt. It goes for 40 miles on its batteries before its gasoline engine kicks in to re-charge the batteries. You see, unless it is parked in a garage near an electrical outlet, it will charge itself while it is in motion.

Why do I tell you this?

Taking action is creating motion. Bodies in motions produce energy of some kind. The only way you will ever get through your problems is by getting yourself in motion. Take positive action and DO NOT EXPECT anyone else to pick you up.

However, to prove my point.

As I sit here typing this blog, an electrical contractor just came to my front door and hung a door hanger. Its message was simple: “Need an Electrician?” Just so happens I have an outlet that is giving me a problem.

You see . . . positive action produces positive results!

Three Early Tell-Tale Signs that the Economy Could Change

2010-11-18T12:56:00.004-05:00

Fifth teen years ago I wrote an article titled: “The FIVE Early Warning Signals of a Downturn Economy.” It was a big hit and ran in numerous trade magazines. As each signal came true, the economy down turned and everyone quickly realized how valuable my article was to them.

As I look around me today, I am seeing slight signs that this economy will get better no matter what internal conflicts are upsetting it presently.

One of these signals that is a key driver has already proven its worth. Companies that have cut the fat from their operations and are working lean are surviving, and many are profitable. Many companies are flushed with cash, just waiting.

Hopefully soon which will boost our economy even further, we will see an emergence in re-establishing our manufacturing base.

In the last ten years, the effects of Free Trade that was spearheaded by the Clinton Administration, over 40,000 U.S. manufacturing plants closed as that important element of our economic engine went overseas to cheaper labor.

With the reality that cheaper products do not equate to the high standard of American made, I believe we will see an up-tick in those plants coming back home to roost. This will mean increase work as these plants are remodeled, refitted or re-built to accommodate their revival back here where they belong.

Another signal is on the political front. With the average American voting no to progressive, socialists and communist political tactics and leadership that has failed us miserably, we hopefully will see a positive change in our future. One thing is for sure, we have neutered any further destruction by a party that has been taken over by the extreme far left revolutionaries and placed its cronies in our White House and Congress. However, only time will dictate how this will turn out as we move forward to 2012.

Meanwhile, it is a positive sign that we might take back our country and get it on the right track to constitutional forum, free enterprise, and the common voice being heard. However, there is much more work we need to do, and it will take time and multiple elections to rid ourselves of this progressive cancer.

One area that the government could help boost and accelerate the economy is in our infrastructure. It is obvious that it needs it after years of neglect from politicians who bought their votes with entitlements. The lesson here is simple. If you want to help Americans to be the best they can be, give them a job, not handouts. A handout in the form of welfare puts them on the road to serfdom. A job completes their dignity as a man.

The third signal is the American consumer. Because of the down economy, many have been forced to cut their spending, reduce their debt and increase their savings. All of these things are good, especially if you understand the underlying consumer’s emotional drive.

Consumers consume. They may retreat, save, reduce their debt, but they must consume in order to be happy. I believe that we are reaching a tipping point in their emotional driver and going back to consuming is inevitable. It makes them feel good and justify their actions.

I do expect consumers to go back to buying. Every indicator points that they will be more informed and focused than before. Expect them to remodel or upgrade their home over buying a newer or bigger one.

The new home market will be focused on a scale of economy. It will be sometime before you see a reemergence in the vanity of the Jones’s. Expect the heart is in the home emotion to prevail.

Today, we are living in a chaotic transition period to a new age and a new economy. The pace of change has become so rapid that it will take a different type of firm to get its fair share of sales. To put it bluntly, we’ve experienced a major colon cleansing of those companies that will not adapt, and it still hasn’t finished.

This new environment will be driven by a consumer whose fickle preferences has quickly changed and adapted to its economic arena. For you the owner of a contracting company, this means you too must adapt quickly also. You must be focused, lean, opportunity-driven, customer-driven, and innovative and possess a sound knowledge base.

Business will be at the speed of light as rapid change will dictate the marketplace. Those on top of the wave will devour those who are too slow to change.

A key ingredient will be differentiation and the sowing of your marketing message must start now in order to reap a bountiful harvest later. The concept of being unique or different will be far more important than it was four years or even ten years ago. The key to successful marketing and competition will be differentiation.

The winners will be the owners of construction companies that notice this change and adjust the quickest. That means it will not be the big versus the small, it will be those who react quickly who will come out on top.

If you want to hire me to help you with a marketing message that will fit this new economy. Use this link

The Real Reasons We Succeed or Fail

2010-11-09T12:58:00.004-05:00

The other day I was talking with one of my business advising clients, and he asked me what the ONE THING was . . . the one thing that meant all the difference for me and my success as a contractor. That one thing that he needed to focus on in order to be successful in his own business.

A really tough question, but it did give me a ‘WTF moment.’

The real answer lies in the answer to the question, what makes that difference.

I would have to say for owners of construction businesses it is “opportunity cost.”

Wikipedia says that opportunity cost is “the cost related to the next-best choice available to someone who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices.”

I want you to stop and think about this for one moment. Life is all about the choices we make. If we make the right choices, we succeed, if we make the wrong choices, we suffer.

And cost is not just restricted to financial. It could be the cost of what is easy, desirable, painful, risky, pleasing to others, time and any other choice we could have available to us at the moment.

I like to call this “opportunity choice.”

For most, especially right now, capital is limited and it bears heavily on making the right choices to help themselves or their businesses.

That means picking the right choice is HUGELY important. Making the wrong choice can be painfully costly, but remember this.

What is even more costly is something called “decision split.”

Decision split can sink a great opportunity. You become frozen in your evaluation process. You let all the positive reasons go because you choose to follow the path of negative thought. One is always money. If you worry about spending the money to help yourself, you are actually accelerating your failure. You’ve failed to properly access the value of its relative worth to your success.

Never underestimate the value of improving your business situation.

That is why I said that the answer lies in the answer to your question, what makes the difference?

It’s like the contractor who told me he can’t afford marketing because he has no sales. Duh? See the decision split?

I’ve even had one tell me he couldn’t afford to come to the SUPER Business-Building Conference because he wasn’t making any money. Another Duh? moment.

What he was really saying is this. I’ll stay home and make no money, continue to lose it, rather than go to an event that will show me how to make money. See the decision split?

All the excuses like, this won’t work for me, I know what I’m doing, it costs too much, or the insidious – “My business is different” are self-inflicted wounds for failure.

You see, doing nothing doesn’t contribute to the success of your existing business situation. It’s actually a self-defeating decision or an action of self-sabotage.

You have to make a choice to create opportunities, not suppress them.

You also need to understand that . . .

Choices have a cost attached to them, one way or the other, and that is why I said in the beginning of this blog that the answer lies in the answer to the question. You have to make a choice, so make one that makes a difference.

Inaction, doing nothing or procrastinating is NOT the right choice. By doing nothing, you are compounding the cost, and it becomes far greater than you can even imagine in time, money and opportunity lost.

The real answer in making choices is evaluating the effect or opportunity created for you from the choice. This is often called “opportunity flow.”

See if I can explain it better with this scenario.

I’ve been working with a lot of contractors under my new Business Advisory Service. What I am seeing is profoundly rewarding for these individuals. By making a decision to get help, to open up to new ideas or methods, to increase their business skills, and to do something positive in their business, they have created opportunity flow. Deals are now coming to them.

This is what successful people understand. Once you make a choice that makes a positive difference on your situation, you create ‘opportunity flow’ and even more deals come knocking on your door. That is why doing nothing creates nothing for you; it is the universal law of action VS. inaction.

Opportunity flow is a GOOD thing. That’s how the rich get richer. That is the one of the reasons my construction business was successful. I was not afraid to invest my time and money into creating opportunity flow.

And the ultimate beauty of creating opportunity flow is that you can have so many opportunities coming at you, you can pick and choose which ones are the best for you.

What hurts most is “Mindset Cost.” By having the wrong mindset, believing in the wrong mindset, acting on the wrong mindset, usually costs the individual heavily. Decisiveness with a focused sense of what makes the difference is far more rewarding than indecision.

The most tragic pain one can suffer is that of life’s lost opportunities because they were too afraid to “put it out there.” Understand that moving ahead is always better than doing nothing. At least it doesn’t create a whole bunch of lost opportunities that are lost forever. Learn to do the things that matter for your success.

Because . . .

Having no opportunities for your business really sucks!

America Has Spoken; Now Let’s Get Back to Work!

2010-11-03T13:47:00.002-04:00

Over the last year, I have had the pleasure of speaking across this great country to thousands of contractors. No matter where I spoke, I couldn’t help but notice one thing was missing. That missing element was confidence. Confidence in their government and the direction the country was heading.

Certainly times have been tough. People have suffered; businesses and wealth have been lost. The election of 2008 spoke of Hope and Change. Americans were looking for positive hope and change. Instead, it got lies, deceit and corruptible government that wanted to go in a completely opposite direction than it portrayed during the election.

The lesson that I hope all Americans have heard is this. Even when a mistake is made, we have the power to correct it on one day and one day only, voting day. We need as a country to get more engaged in what is going on in Washington. This is our government, it does not belong to those who wish to take control over us or impose on us ideologically views that we see as un-American.

However, now, the real work is ahead of us. We must re-build, re-direct and correct the course of the country. We need to fix the problems by getting Americans back to work. It will not happen overnight, but it can happen over time. Slowly, and methodically, but in an American way.

We will never do that by over-spending, over-taxing, bloating an already inefficient government and by allowing that government to inflict its will into our lives and businesses.

The greatness of this country is in its people. Its people who pioneer, invent, build businesses and go to work every day to be a part of our society.

The people, who are responsible, build strong families, instill values and live the principles of those who founded this great country and most important of all, accept the responsibility for their actions. They are this country’s greatest national asset.

Our Founding Fathers gave us a great gift, a government by the people, for the people and of the people. We spoke loudly on that this November 2nd. We can’t rest now. This is a pivotal time, but only a turning point. The public mind is engaged, and the eyes of the people are on Washington to see if their government will listen to them once again. We must seize the moment, or the moment will be lost, and so might our country.

It is our job now to make certain that our leader’s in Washington listen and follow the basic conservative principles that made this great country. We as the people need to make sure that they hear our voices. It is our job to keep them on-track and on-course.

We also need to get Americans back to work. We need to revive the American entrepreneurial spirit. It is the enterprising person who sees a scrap heap of metal and envisions a beautiful building. It is the enterprising person who drives through the worn down part of town and sees the opportunity in it as a thriving development.

It is the American, not the government that sees all of this.

We need to think “Made in America” once again. We need to see the best in ourselves. We need to find a way to bring our lost jobs back to America where they belong.

We need to eliminate that which prohibits our ability to be the best at what we are. We must see the future in our present. We must find ways to take advantage of the situation, to blaze the trail to success. We shouldn’t wait for opportunities to come to us. Instead, we must stay on course to reaching them. It is our creativity that will fuel our successes.

However, we must not only be creative, but we must also be courageous.

We must have the courage to stand tall, or to stand alone, we must have the courage to speak out and to be different, and courage to be the best. We must have the courage to see things differently, to go against the grain, and the courage to choose being active over inactive.

It all starts with us. It starts with our confidence level. If we have the confidence, we can muster the creativity and courage to act.

It starts with those of us who are skilled enough, brave enough, confident enough and disciplined enough to recognize the change and seize the opportunity to creating the jobs.

For you the business owner now is the time to learn, sharpen and master those skills. Now, more than ever, you will need them as we venture forward into the future.

Obama Screws Us Again!

2010-08-03T11:56:00.003-04:00

An obscure provision in the new health bill forces small businesses to deal a greater amount of time filling out tax forms. Which brings to question- what has this got to do with health?

If times aren't tough enough with a dying economy, no jobs for Americans, the threat of our country being over run by illegal aliens, increase taxes looming over the horizon and an inexperience socialist running the country into the ground, now Obama is shoving a paperwork nightmare down our throats starting in 2012!

Hidden in the obscene health-care law is a staggering new requirement: the 1099k. This little devil will require all small businesses to start reporting their purchases from other businesses on purchases totaling $600 or greater.

What does that mean?

If you stay at a hotel and spend more than $600 in a year at that chain, you have to file a 1099k.

If you buy gasoline from Mobil and spend more than $600 in a year, you have to file a 1099k.

Buy office supplies from Staples? More than $600 in a year, file a 1099k.

Buy materials from Home Depot? File a 1099k.

And don't forget to collect each company's taxpayer ID number while you're at it. You'll need it for all the additional paperwork you'll be doing.

Bottom-line?

It's the prehancer to revenue enhancing. The government wants to tax us more so they can spend more. And . . . they used it to tilt the true cost of the health care bill by plumping the revenue side and offsetting its real HUGE cost.

Obama calls it redistribution of wealth. He means taking your money for his socialist programs.

When we take a real look at what is driving this country in the ditch, you can't help but to realize that all the social legislation that is drowning this country has come from the Democrats, who have controlled the Congress for the greater majority of time in the last 100 years.

You can see a draft of the new 1099k at: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-dft/f1099k--dft.pdf

Construction, the Achilles Heel of Economic Recovery

2010-07-20T14:42:00.002-04:00

With home construction plunging three months in a row, driving it to the lowest levels since October 2009 this economy is faltering on complete failure with a non-existent recovery plan.

The truth is, what we have is an incompetent, inexperienced ideologically socialist President who appears to be more hell-bent on destroying the economy rather than fixing it.

Driving the June decline was a more than 20% drop in condominium and apartment construction which makes up a small but volatile portion of the housing industry.

It is evident that April, May and June are the leading months for construction permits and with three months of steady declines, this construction season is all but shot to hell for contractors for the remainder of this year and into 2011.

And don’t try to tell me that the good news is that construction permits rose 2.1% from a month earlier. In an industry that has been as hard hit as the home building industry that is a pathetic increase and no where what is needed to get Americans back to work.

What is ironic is a President, who has been boasting of creating millions of new jobs and proclaiming this the summer of recovery, standing in front of his glassy-eyed Obama news media talking about how three individuals can’t find work and how we need to extend unemployment benefits to 2 and ½ years.

Why didn’t the Mesiah struck Obama news media ask the tough questions like? "Urr, Mr. President, if your economy is on a mend, and you’ve created the millions of jobs you said you did, why do we need to extend unemployment benefits?”

And even a better question would be. "Excuse me Mr. President, when does 2-1/2 years of unemployment benefits turn into permanent welfare benefits?"

In a typical economic recovery, the construction sector provides much of the fuel to recovery. With builder’s sentiment sinking to a low of 14, the lowest since March 2009, and the May new home sales drop of 33%, the lowest in 47 years, we are being forced to look to the spring of 2011 for any hopes our lives will even begin to look like they are getting back on the road to recovery.

What we really have is a community organizer who is in over his head and just doesn’t get it; Mr. President, we need jobs not hand-outs. It's the economy stupid!

Oh, while you're at it, stop feeding us your steady stream of false hopes and socialist covered lies.

The Clock is Ticking

2010-07-16T13:14:00.005-04:00

They've stop the leak in the Gulf and that is good news for the day. However, what about the big picture?

The United States spends $1 Billion every single day on imported oil. Everything around us in one manner or another is touched by petroleum or its by-products. We can't escape our immediate dependence on oil and we can not escape the fact that alternative energy is not forthcoming in any immediate manner, nor is it as cost effective as oil.

To be realistic, we can not just cut ourselves off from oil exploration, nor can we allow our country to become solely dependent on foreign oil which could potentially allow power-grabbing rogue nations to jeopardize our energy security and national security.

Unfortunately, Obama doesn’t get it either or he is just ignoring his pledge to uphold the security of this great nation. Stopping oil exploration just doesn’t make sense, it is a far more intelligent approach to learn from the mistakes made on this mishap rather than shut the entire region down hurting so many in so many ways.

Another issue is Obama’s 2 Billion “preliminary commitment” to Petrobras deep water exploration (3 times deeper than the Gulf well) just days after his biggest financial supporter George Soros strengthened his $900 Million investment in Brazil’s Petrobras. Could there possibly be a conflict of interest here?

Why would any American President send taxpayers money to a foreign country for their deep water exploration while shutting down our own domestic efforts?

Shutting down American drilling, slamming the economy while it is heading toward the cliff just doesn’t make sense either, unless you’re out to destroy the American economy.

Yes, we have an energy problem, we do need to find cheaper, better, easier to find energy. However, in the meantime we need to utilize our own energy sources including oil. We need to cut our dependence on foreign oil and the only way we can make that happen is to open up our domestic opportunities, not shut them down.

If we can’t provide enough oil and gas to power our economic and military machinery, America’s leading global role could become dangerously compromised. And that is unacceptable.

As our Founding Fathers intended, America must remain the world’s most powerful, free and independent nation. We are the last bastion of hope and freedom and to keep that beacon glowing, we need to ensure our energy independence for the generations that follow us.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

My FIVE Nerve Racking Predictions for 2010!

2010-01-18T15:25:00.000-05:00

We are at the beginning of a new decade and a new year, what will it bring?

I wish I could tell you with complete certainty but unfortunately, no one person has the correct answer. However, I can give you my nerve racking predictions as to what I believe will happen, and with my nearly perfect record of being correct, so far, I hope I’m wrong.

1. Interest rates will go up; oil will pass $100 per barrel driving gasoline and diesel beyond $4.50 a gallon, the cost of building materials will skyrocket smashing the profits of unsuspecting contractors who will get caught in the change.
2. The Democrats will pass their costly Health Care Reform bill; contractors with payrolls of $250,000 or five or more employees, will get saddled with a $750 fine per employee for not providing their employees with health insurance. Either the fines for not providing or the cost of providing Health Insurance will raise havoc with their bottom-line.
3. Over 50% of contractors, who have survived the economic downfall so far, will go belly-up within the next 12 to 18 months because of their lack of sound business knowledge. Not understanding their numbers and their failure to market will leave them out in the cold for the sales they need to survive.
4. Taxes will go up more than the average person expects since the government has a 3 to 4 Trillion unfunded liability due for its rampant spending spree of 2009. This will force taxes to increase and/or the printing of more funny money, which will drive inflation through the roof.
5. The banking industry will fall flat once again and come begging for additional handouts as the ARM’s come due this coming year and into 2011. With Fannie Mae draining the reserves to the tune of 745 Billion, the Federal Reserve Rescue of 6.4 trillion and the 700 Billion TARP, this government has pushed our republic to the brink of destruction.

Hopefully, through sensible reasoning, the American people will say “Enough!” and take their government back and put a stop with this senseless spending. Otherwise, I pray these bold predictions never come true.

Why Aren't People Buying?

2009-10-02T11:34:00.003-04:00

We are in a depression, probably one that will out-rival the last one of 1929. Unemployment is at its highest, some say around 50% when you count the people no longer on unemployment, small business owners not making enough to pay themselves a paycheck . . . let alone their bills, and recently graduated students who can't get a job!

People are overcome by fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of what is happening around them. Fear of past sins.

Some take relief in pointing the fingers at big business, the banks and anyone else but themselves. The truth is, in a way, we are all to blame. The real blame might just be greed.

We are at an important junction of our economy. If we are not at the bottom, we must be pretty damn close because a lot of us can feel our butts scraping it. The real problem is how long will we hang here? Will recovery come this fall or will it come later? No one knows, we can just speculate and that speculation is also contributing to our fears.

I do know this. As bad as this economy is, some people are still spending. Not as many as we would like, but I suspect it will be sometime before we ever see those days again.

With that thought in mind, each and everyone of us should take a step back and examine what they are doing, and what they should be doing in regard to their businesses and lives. Change is here and change is inevitable.

The world and our economy doesn't have the time and money for those who will do nothing to position themselves properly. In order to survive and thrive, we need to re-examine our business models. If it is broken it needs to be fixed. If it is working can it be tuned to work even better? A company's long-term survive and thrive mode will be the result of the customer's it attracts to do business with it and your marketing will play a major role in producing your customers.

Why? Because no one can expect an overabundance of customers anymore. The majority of people aren't spending.

So choose your next step wisely in this new economy. Your newly attracted customers will talk about you. They will do the selling for you. If you neglect them or the right approach that will produce them for you, you could end up in a host of trouble.

5 Ways to Make the Hard Decisions a Little Easier

2009-08-05T11:05:00.002-04:00

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision."

- Peter Drucker

5 Ways to Make the Hard Decisions a Little Easier

How often have you tossed and turned with an important decision but failed to act because you felt like your feet were locked in cement, at night it feels as though your backbone is chewing on your stomach, you don't decide, you worry, you delay important decision making even though this one failure to decide will adversely your life and business?

How about that long-term employee whose performance has headed south, but you procrastinated out of loyalty. But you know you have to do something about this problem, but your procrastination wins out and your agony continues.

How about getting the help you need to get your business on track? You fret over the costs yet you know you will easily earn it back in no time with the right resource and guidance?

This is about those "tough" decisions" - the kind we all struggle with.

It seems to be easier to keep putting them off... but that just prolongs the discomfort.

Whenever I've had a decision weighing on my mind, it's kept nagging at me. But when I finally made the hard call, it was never as bad as I had worked it up to be. In fact, I've found that the longer you chew on it, the worse it gets.

Thinking back, there are two vivid examples that spring to mind...

Breaking Away From My Business...

One of the biggest decisions I ever had to make was whether or not to sell my contracting business. It had been my life-long dream to own a successful contracting business, to make lots of money and then be able to walk away.

However, when the first opportunity presented itself, I clearly stonewalled the decision until the interested parties gave up and walked away. But then, I remember my attorney telling me something that stuck clearly in my mind.

"Construction businesses are generally worthless and they end up in the same place. The contractors have to work until they die and are buried, or they leave the business to their kids and they drive them into the ground, either way, the business ends up in the ground! You have something of value and taking advantage of the opportunity you now have is the right thing to do."

That's when I started experimenting with what I am doing today.

Looking back, it was by far the best decision I ever made for my future.

Uncovering the Proven Business Model...

To get my speaking and coaching business off the ground, I started learning a lot about the speaking business. And then I decided to get down to business and make it work, no more dabbling. I boldly called a speaker who I had heard speak and had read his books. His name was Paul Karasik. I asked him if I could follow him around the country and help him at my own expense just so I could learn the in's and out's of the business. I wanted him to be my mentor. He agreed and I started my journey on becoming a first-class speaker and sought after business coach to contractors.

I also attended many seminars of other speakers, buying their books and tapes. I can remember my ex-wife commenting that I was foolishly throwing money away but I wasn't, I was absorbing the inside information to be successful at what I wanted to do.

I didn't procrastinate, I persisted. I bit the bullet and went. Another tough - but a smart - decision.

Frankly, if I had listened to my ex-wife, I know I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am today. I can directly trace the moment when everything "clicked" for me and I "got it" from all that hard up-front work. That's when I discovered the power of doing it correctly and not wasting my time trying to make something that couldn't work, work.

I've found that people regret things they don't do much more than things they do. That's not how I want to live my life - brooding over "shouldas" "couldas" or "wouldas."

In fact, I believe that most of our "tough" decisions aren't really so tough. But the longer it takes for us to get off the fence and take action, the more we magnify them in our own heads.

With that in mind, here are five simple things to try when you are having trouble making a decision:

Decision-Making Method #1: Think about the worst-case scenario.

What is the worst possible thing that can happen if you make the wrong decision? It almost certainly won't happen - but even if it does, you can probably live with it.

Decision-Making Method #2: Listen to your gut.

This is huge! Don't try to rationalize your way out of making the decision. You've got good instincts. Take advantage of them. Make YOUR OWN DECISION! Listen but do not allow others to persuade you otherwise. They are not living your life, you are.

Decision-Making Method #3: Give yourself a deadline.

If you give yourself an indefinite amount of time to decide on a course of action, you'll never do it. Not to mention, you'll drive yourself crazy! Think of yourself as the high-powered CEO of your own life - an executive who MUST make decisions quickly. Actions love success and never forget that!

Decision-Making Method #4: Visualize your ideal outcome.

This is an exercise I learned from John Harricharan. He calls it the "Power Pause." It takes three minutes - one minute to think about what you want to happen... one minute to think about how good you'll feel when it does happen... and one minute to calm yourself down by thinking about what you are already grateful for in your life.

Decision-Making Method #5: The Band-Aid solution.

You know how painful it can be to pull off a bandage (especially for those of us who are kind of hairy)? Well, the secret is to pull it off quickly. Nothing is worse than paralysis by analysis. You'll never have all the information you need to make the perfect decision. Do the best you can with what you've got. Then move on.

And here's a bonus tip: When all else fails, flip a coin. That's how I've decided many a decision!

There you go - all that angst and gut-wrenching turmoil can be avoided simply by making the decision.

May the decision-making force be with you!

The Ultimate Betrayal

2009-07-07T16:12:00.007-04:00

The liberal and progressive parasites are quietly destroying your American dream.

Beware! Life here in America as you know it, is in imminent danger!

Do you value the American way of life? If you do, you need to realize that slowly and methodically the rights and freedoms that made this country great are being taken away from you.

If you feel that you have certain God-given rights, given to you by our Founding Fathers over two centuries ago, understand that right now, in Washington, a powerful faction of self-centered politicians is undermining, in no uncertain terms, your rights, freedoms and pursuits of happiness.

The shackles and chains that are being forced upon us will stifle our dreams and aspirations and will be passed down to our children, grand-children and most likely, our great-grandchildren to burden them as well. They will never get to know or enjoy the real America as we have experienced in our lifetimes.

"Taxation without Representation," "A government for the people, by the people," and "Give me Liberty or give me death," were battle-cries from our Founder's past. They stood up, shoulder-to-shoulder to rid themselves of their present day tyranny that attempted to burden them with a monarchy that neither cared nor witnessed them as equals and most certainly, not as free men to choose their own destiny. Their blood was shed in the fields and the streets, for they valued their rights and freedoms for themselves, their children and children's children above all personal aspirations.

Today, we find the same underlying evil force masked not under the facade of a monarchy but that of liberal or progressivism, slowly and manipulatively believing that they are smarter than the people, above the people and better situated to decide what is best for us the people.

They strive to entangle us in a bigger government, to remove our alienable rights with debt, laws and restrictions. They cater to those that contribute nothing or even worse, create their own problems through greed and stupidity and do so under the pretense that they are needy. Such actions do nothing except remove the last straw of decency from a person.

You cannot reshape or redefine America. Its greatness was cast by our Founding Fathers with words that have served us well for over two centuries in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. It is not America that needs changing, it is not the Republic that needs changing nor is it our citizenship. It is the run-a-way government and it inept politicians that are concocting a witches' brew of change that will destroy our fundamental foundation as a democracy.

We the people want back our Republic, a Republic that was originally designed for the good of all men, not a select few. We want the political corruption, partisanship, lies, and favoritism to stop. We want the entitlements, handouts, and 'special' interest groups ended and we want our country put back on the right track to prosperity.

We want the laws and rules to apply to all citizens, regardless of political affiliation or standing. This Republic was founded as a government by, of, and for the people. It was not founded to serve the best interests of those who feed out of our trough of tax dollars, stuffing their own pockets with our hard-earned money, nor for those in Washington who fail to obey our tax laws, yet get nothing more than a slap on the wrist for doing so because their political party controls the rule of law. Nor was it established to bail out the interests of big corporations who are victims of their own greed and stupidity, while ignoring the needs of mainstream America.

We want fiscal responsibility, a balance-budget and the complete removal of the waste and want spending that presently exists from those in Washington. If we as the citizens of this great nation have to live within our means, so should our country and its leaders.

We do not want a "second Bill of Rights." We want our present day government and courts to adhere to the existing Bill of Rights, and we want the far-fetch, loose interpretations and meddling with our existing Bill of Rights to stop right now.

We want a fair tax code, not one that consists of loop-holes and misinformation, one so complicated even the agency responsible of administering it cannot properly define its purpose. We want a simple, flat-tax that allows all people and businesses of all categories and size to pay their tax according to their spending habits without the fear or burden of reprisal.

We want the political pitting of one group of Americans against another to stop. This serves only the wants of those who are trying to destroy our great nation.

We do not want socialism or tyranny. We want this Republic to properly herald its stature as the rightful leader and superpower of democracy, freedom and fairness in the world. We do not want to be brought down to the basement level of global citizenship with countries who violate their citizens of basic human rights, who cannot feed their poor because of their political turmoil and who demonstrate their hatred for a free democracy by denying their own people such freedoms.

We want this great Republic to serve as the beacon of truth to the world's nations, providing the bright shining light so that they can navigate towards it, bringing themselves up to the level of freedom and democracy that we have enjoyed for over 200 years.

To do this, we need a President, who respects our rights, freedoms and existing form of democracy, a President and Congress that adheres to the Founding Father's proclamation to "to provide for the common defence," not a leadership that willingly gives to those who wish to undermine our democracy.

I say to all Americans, you must see we have a problem and be willing to stand for what is right. Our democracy is in imminent danger!

It is time for us the people to take back our government.

We must stand shoulder to shoulder, rally peacefully in the streets but we must make our voices heard. Let those who are undermining our democracy see our numbers and fear our reprisal. Let their ears ring constantly with our opposition to their attempts to destroy that which we value above all else.

Our change back to the great Republic will not come from those already in office but from those we will replace them with come the next elections. Do not vote for those you are familiar with but with those who preach the changes we need to re-build this country back to where it was.

Shake loose from the hypocrisy of partisan politics and cast your vote for change in the right direction. Denounce socialism, tyranny and this present governing without representation. Shout from the roof tops with your loudest voice, "No more of the insiders' Washington, no more lies, no more deceit, we want our government back!"

Be firm and united. Do not wait for change, institute it. Stand tall and firm in the greatness of our Founding Fathers' who mutually pledge to each other, as we must do to ourselves, our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor to uphold our rights and liberties that belong only to us.

Never forget, it is we the people who must put an end to this betrayal of our trust, this insanity, this corrupt abuse of our government, and it is we the people who must regain back our rights and freedom of a government by, of, and for the people.

God bless America!

Hoping is not an option

2009-06-12T14:16:00.005-04:00

The Ultimate Realty:
"Hoping for the best"
Is Not An Option!
8 Steps to Creating Success In Your Business

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

So, right now you are probably getting hit real badly in this economy, right?

It's real and lot's of folks made really stupid decisions (like spending 3X what they make) and are now paying for those decisions - but contrary to the popular belief, the end of the world is not here.

Not even close!

Sure, some people haven't got any money. Some people are losing their jobs. Some businesses are hurting.

But not everyone!

You see . . . If you focus on "no money! no money! no money!!!", guess what you get?

You get no money!!!

You need to focus your energy and resources on what you want, not what you fear.

If you want success, you need to sharpen your skills and focus on making success happen.

So, with that thought in mind.

Turn off the T.V. and for heaven's sake quit reading the newspaper! It's all pumped-up negative B.S. anyway.

There is money everywhere. Do not believe the broke people who try to tell you otherwise.

Money doesn't go away, money doesn't disappear. It simply changes hands and multiplies.

The problem with most contractors is that they are looking for work with those who are broke, their old customer type. Why? Because that is what they know.

They are also listening so much to the negative crap that they are starting to believe it themselves. They are so use to the 'good ole days' when work fell into their lap, that they still think that is how you manage your business.

Things have changed, the 'good ole days' are gone and if you want a business that will survive and thrive you need to sharpen your business skills or the bottom-feeders will chew you up and spit you put.

Let me share with you what I mean, . . .

If you keep doing what you've been doing all along and it is no longer working, what do you suppose is likely to happen?

Repeating the successes of the past, preserving tradition, doing things as they are "supposed" to be done, will- at best - produce results like those you had before. Except that in this new future - our present - those results can't possibly be as good, as productive, or as powerful as they once were. And probably not as much fun, either.

Unreasonable success requires unreasonable approaches to the future. Especially in this future that is coming at us full speed. It requires a "change" in the way you are accustom to doing things, such as, conducting business.

Waiting for breakthroughs is not an option. You need to adapt, you need to create. You can create them at will. It is called "taking positive action."

Breakthroughs are great leaps forward, and while they can happen by accident, they can also happen by design.

Here are principles of "Taking Positive Action!"

1. Invest in expanding your business-building skill sets

You need a new set of skill sets in order to successfully circumnavigate your way in this changing economy. The past is gone and only the future lies ahead. It will NEVER be like it was 3 or 4 years ago. It will be more difficult, requiring a better business-building tool set of skills than you've ever had to have before. Start gathering the knowledge and building your tool chest of business-building skills, it is an investment in the success of your future
strong

2. Expect the best

Make a commitment to yourself to be the best you can be. Then, do the same with those around you, expect the best from them also. Expect them to be successful. Count on it. Plan for it. Budget for it. Expecting the best gives you the highest likelihood of getting whatever IT is. Start with the best case scenario and figure out how insure it. By the way, expecting the worst has a similar, but opposite, effect.

3. Be Positive! Don't think, "Can I accomplish it?" Think, "How can I get
this done?"

If it is worth doing, and you have strong reasons for doing it, you'll find a way. Stop worrying if it is possible. Trust me, it is. Focus your deepest mind on how to make it happen. Remember, the best answer to "How...?" is "Yes."

4. Back yourself into a corner, so the only place you can go is forward.

Warrior-sage Sun Tzu wrote that nothing is as dangerous as an enemy backed into a corner. They will fight to the death for the have nowhere else to run. Don't think about "enemies," declare war on yourself.

5. Don't be afraid to ask people for a lot. They just may give you what you need.

Not asking accomplishes nothing, and asking for what you want will often get it for you. People like to serve. People like to accomplish. People like to win against great odds. Why not ask them for everything.

6. Avoid the "Dream Slayers" and "Negative Addicts" around you.

When people say, "You can't" tell them you can! Can't is the road to mediocrity. "I can", is the first step towards majesty.

7. If you're not scared, you're not doing anything worthy.

All great ventures things in life contain elements of profound risk, and the promise of failure as well as success. Courage isn't acting without fear, it is being afraid, and acting anyway. If you are not at least a little afraid, you are probably not doing anything worthy of the name great. Unreasonable people are often afraid. So what, just be sure you are afraid of the right thing.

8. Don't worry about getting it just right.

Perfection prevents progress. New ideas must be tested against human beings. If you wait until you get it perfect, it may be too late. It may be never. Think functionality and workability. Experiment in the chaos of the real world, and fix the problems that arise later.

I hope these 8 points will help you.

Is Commercial Construction Signalling 7 Lean Years?

2008-01-31T09:05:00.000-05:00

Losses May Be Shared Across the Industry Like the Flu Bug!

A very valuable friend who is a contractor and banker once commented to me that if a developer or builder can borrow the money, they will build the project regardless of the market conditions.

I think he was correct because we are seeing the effects of a lot of that from the last few years.

I have also heard from a lot of contractors who are spread from around the country tell me that their business has slowed or stalled in the last few months

The problem is this.

Right now we have a bad business outlook. Housing sales are losing ground, inventory is at an all time 4.7 year high and too many contractors think this will turn around in a year or so. Some have even used their line of credit or personal funds to try and keep themselves afloat, hoping things will turn around soon.

With just the inventory figure alone and the rising foreclosure rate, anyone thinking that this market will get better in less than 4 years is in for a financial shock.

Grant you, some are doing well in some parts of the country but the national average is not so good. And, the backlog of work may be drying up and no one is paying attention to the facts.

But then again, what about the commercial arena?

The commercial market is always the Johnny-come-lately. Developers build on the anticipation of the need. What we are seeing rolling out the door are projects that were in-the-works. Money has been secured or those with the deep pockets anticipating a rushing need for the completed work.

In a short time, we may see more “For Lease or Rent” signs on commercial properties then there are leasers, renters or buyers, if we are not already seeing that in some parts of the country.

The small hinge that swings this big door is credit. And credit is in a major incubation stage of an influenza epidemic.

Banks have already stated that they expect the big foreclosure rate to hit sometime next year. The sub-primes have already fallen and don’t expect too much for from Uncle Sam bailing the mortgage people out without you footing the bill (the question is … can you afford it?).

Actually, the prudent thing for the lawmakers would have been not to allow the lenders to offer such dangerous loan vehicles to so many who couldn’t afford it to begin with. Again, why do we elect these politicians to office?

Anyways …

Even if Uncle Sam does try to help by reducing the prime (to what, I have no clue?) I doubt it will make a big difference. The dollar just isn’t worth the paper it is printed on. Maybe it is time to go back to silver and gold currency with hopes the Feds will leave money alone.

Anyways rate cuts are temporary help, long-term I doubt it. The problem is bigger than that.

Right now we are in a major colon cleansing of the weak from the strong. I think conservative forward-thinking, tightening the old money belt and the mastering of better business skills is the most prudent course of action for any business owner to take. This is exactly what makes the difference in the existing survival situation we have now. Knowledge is power, ego isn’t.

Otherwise … maybe seven lean years await us.

Success Loves Action

2008-01-21T12:44:00.000-05:00

I've written a lot about the importance of acting sooner rather than later, without waiting to figure out everything in advance. Nothing says this more succinctly than this aphorism: Money loves action.

When I mentioned this in a recent seminar, one of the attendees asked if I could be more specific. He wanted to know why money loves action. First off, let me say that this is not just true about money. Success - in all areas of life - loves action.

If you want to buy tickets from a scalper for a big game that's sold out, get there first. Tickets love action.
If you want a job that you just found out about, get there first. Jobs love action.
If you want to get the guy or gal who has your heart pounding, get there first. Romance loves action.
If you want to get the investment property that just came on the market, get there first. Investment properties love action.
If you want to turn your business around, get help and get started. Success loves action.

And so on. I don't recall ever succeeding at something because I got there last.

So, why does success love action? The answer is to be found in the dictionary. Action is defined as "the causation of change." Whatever result you want, it's a change from what you now have. By definition, then, a change has to take place for you to get from your present status to that result.

Following are some of the more important reasons why I believe action begets results.

1. When you do too much planning, there's a tendency to think of one reason after another why what you're contemplating won't work.

Many of the reasons you come up with may be correct. But the important thing is that it doesn't matter. Why? Because, as you move forward, circumstances continually change - and those changes often render irrelevant many of the concerns you may have before taking action. As I often tell my members, forward action … doing something is far better than doing nothing.

In other words, don't try to figure out steps two, three, and four before taking step one. The legendary Joe Sugarman that me that he ran his first ad before he even began to understand what copywriting was all about! In fact, he told me that the ad he wrote didn’t perform well but he learned from it and went on to become a multi-millionaire. Talk about going against conventional wisdom...

2. When you procrastinate, you tend to lose your enthusiasm.

That, in turn, causes homeostasis to set in. Homeostasis is the tendency to live with existing conditions and avoid change. You get comfortable with the way things are and allow your great idea to fade into the comfort zone of oblivion.

But when you take action, your creative "juices" flow faster, your resourcefulness kicks into high gear, and the things, people, and circumstances you need to accomplish your objectives are drawn to you almost like magic. This is not hocus-pocus. I've done it enough times to be able to assure you that it really works.

3. Even though changing circumstances often negate many initial concerns you may have had, they can also place new obstacles in your path.

As a result, if you wait too long before taking action, the opportunity may become less and less appealing as those obstacles start to make their appearance.

I sincerely feel this coincides with the auspices of the Fiddle Theory, which states: "The longer you fiddle around with a deal, the greater the odds that it will never close."

Time is your ally when you take action. But time is a two-sided coin. If you hesitate or procrastinate, time becomes your worst enemy. As a general rule, I assume that if I take action, perceived problems will tend to disappear - and that the more I hesitate, the more time I give new obstacles to come on the scene.

4. Perhaps the most important reason of all for taking action now is that time is finite.

No matter how proficient you are, you can only accomplish so much in a lifetime. Every second that's wasted reduces the totality of what you can accomplish by one second.

Some people maintain that a constant feeling of urgency to accomplish more is stressful, but I find the opposite to be true. I feel more stress when I procrastinate - when I'm not doing what I know I should be doing. There's not a worse feeling in the world than to be conscious of the fact that your finite supply of time is ticking away while you're straightening your desk drawer.

Of course, nothing in life is perfect. There will be times when moving too fast can end up hurting you. Based on my own experience, what I gain from moving fast far outweighs any losses that result from too little planning.

That being the case, when you fall - and you will fall - simply pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and take more action. Success could care less about mistakes. Success loves action. Think seriously about making this your mantra for 2008. �