Your Brand Matters Now More Than Ever
For the past several years, we’ve all heard “branding” touted for its value to a company’s bottom line. But all too often, the discussion of a company’s brand raises more questions than it answers. This makes it difficult for many companies—particularly in the “get-it-done-yesterday” building industry—to translate the concept of branding into […]
Green Building: Fad or Future?
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, buildings are the single largest contributor to global warming, accounting for almost half of total annual U.S. energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. When it comes to green building, it’s first and foremost about reducing both energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The What: […]
Welcome to My World, Part 1
It seems that for one reason or another—whether it be a positive or a negative one—there likely comes a time when a drywall contractor is compelled to hire an estimator, or at least add another one. I say that, and I am writing about it, because I am currently in the process of doing just […]
ASTM
After seven days on the road I realized it’s that time of the month again to pound out 800 words for Wachuwannano. My most recent travels took me to Denver, where ASTM Committee Week was held. It was good to see more contractors at the meeting and even more exciting was when I was updating […]
Construction Trends
Subcontractors Warn IRS That 3 Percent Withholding Could Add to Payment Problems In comments submitted April 28, 2008, the American Subcontractors Association Inc., Alexandria, Va., cautioned the Internal Revenue Service against exacerbating the slow and partial payment issues experienced on construction projects, and against creating “a major overhaul of the entire contracting, bidding and […]
Moving On
As I sat in front of a blank monitor screen thinking about what to say in this, my last message to you, I couldn’t help but reminisce over my last four years on AWCI’s Executive Committee. It seems like only yesterday that I was asked to sit on the board. After realizing it wasn’t a […]
AWCI’s Excellence in Construction Safety Award
Category: Fewer 100,000 Annual Man-Hours Winner: Ronsco, Inc., New York, New York Ronsco, Inc. believes a successful safety program is managed in a three-pronged approach. The first is that management must make a sincere and visible commitment to safety. Ronsco’s managers always wear their required personal protective equipment. They discipline employees […]
Construction Trends
Nation Now in Mild Recession, Says NAHB Chief Economist The deepening slump in the nation’s housing markets has seriously eroded consumer sentiment and pushed the economy into a mild recession, according to the chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, Washington, D.C. “The worse-than-anticipated housing downturn, combined with systematic weakening of […]
Sold! to the Man with the Defective Plan
If you’ve scanned this space more than once in the past 18 months, and you are not so blessed to count yourself among the construction elite (estimators), you’ve hopefully gotten an outsider’s sense of the depth of talent required by our profession. If you’re “in with the in-crowd,” you already know how many hats they […]