Melva first provides some insights into why marketing efforts often fail and much of it has to do with a lack of planning, and then testing and tracking the plan. Later she explains how keeping in touch with past clients is a very over looked area for finding new opportunities. She also offers some tips on differentiating your business:

• Can you and your team immediately rattle off three things that sets you apart from your competition?
• Have you tested your marketing efforts?
• Do you communicate regularly with your customers?

There is much more.

WPL Publishing Co. is hosting a webinar February 10, 2010 starting at 1 p.m. on construction contracts and highlighting the 10 most important terms. There will also be a question and answer period after the presentation. Those interested can find out more right here.

The manufacturers of construction equipment are expecting only a modest rebound from the double digit declines in sales during 2009. U.S. manufacturer sales when reported are expected to be down by 40 percent while Canada and the other sectors worldwide could post a 30 percent decline. The industry anticipates a five percent gain this year. For all the figures you can read the press release here.

Pella Windows and Doors has announced an innovative new method for installing its replacement windows and doors. The company claims this will cut installation time by up to 50 percent and will reduce many of the headaches associated with repairing and replacing siding during a window or door upgrade. You can read more in this press release.

Listen in for more detail to the Podcast above.

• Lennox Industries (Booth C3130), a leading provider of customized home heating, cooling and indoor air quality systems will unveil a new, revolutionary heating and cooling system powered by renewable energy. The state-of-the-art system, which will hit the market this summer, will help homeowners significantly reduce their energy consumption.
• U.S. Timberworks (Booth N1276) releases its new product line of timber-frame architectural components, including decorative brackets, corbels, gable trusses and hearth mantles. These offerings will make it easy and affordable to add the timeless beauty of timber framing and increase perceived value of your next project in today’s competitive and demanding marketplace.
• Tiger Claw Inc. (Booth N3103) will debut the Tiger Claw Semi-Automatic Hidden Deck Fastener Installation Gun for Trex. It will also showcase the new Tiger Jaw tool designed to eliminate the need for a sledge hammer and muscle power when installing hidden deck fasteners and surface boards.
• Salient Software Inc. (Booth C949) offers builder intelligence software that comprises state-of-the-art dashboards and scorecards built with IBM Cognos software specifically for home builders for faster, informed, coordinated decisions. This web-based software lets the decision makers receive instant up-to-the-minute information anywhere, anytime in areas like sales, field operations, finance and purchasing.

John Kirchner, public relations manager for Marvin Windows and Doors spoke with me on the phone from the show floor and confirmed that even though economic times are still challenging there is a lot of positive energy around homebuilding and the products being shown. He also mentioned his picks for a couple of the coolest products he’s seen, and then told me about one huge sliding glass door that Marvin is exhibiting on the floor. Listen in to the podcast above.

According to at least one source retainage is a percentage of a bid that is held as a good faith deposit to help insure completion of the contract work within the contract specifications. I have been on more than one job where retainage was leveled by the owner and then have witnessed it passed on to everybody else in the chain by the GC so that all shared in the event. After all, the GC’s performance is directly linked to the performances of subs and others, so why not? I have heard there are GCs who do this on their own even though the owner does not require it.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) had as one of its legislative agendas last year to eliminate retainage rules for architects and engineers on federal government contracts. It appears this issue is currently in play, so that isn’t resolved yet. This was however only in relation to architectural and engineering retainage.

If the federal government can’t enter into quality contracts then retainage is the least of its problems. That’s really what this comes down to…picking and entering into quality contracts. In most cases quality contacts are ones where every participant stands to benefit, instead of every participant trying to best the other.

There is one old 2000 poll that shows owners and contractors in favor of retainage and subcontractors not in favor. I only mention it not because I view it as relevant but just to illustrate the kinds of “so-called” statistics that are bantered around in writings about this.

One argument you hear is that retainage helps to ensure the people you are depending upon to do the work actually complete the work and that they meet a barrage of other requirements like carrying the necessary insurance and so forth. So why are we doing business with people we don’t trust? Wouldn’t it be better to develop business relationships based upon mutual trust and then treat each other that way?

Arguments against retainage say owners and GCs simply use it most of the time to extort money from the subs, or each other, and use the money to play the money markets. Then there are those who advocate paying interest on retainage. Once again, where is the trust? It seems construction has a big issue with trust.

Here’s a novel idea. How about work-in-place paid for when it is completed according to contract specifications? Some would argue that given construction’s working environment you can’t do that, but I would suggest that if owners and GCs dedicate the necessary manpower, deliver contract documents that are accurate and build-able, and expect to pay for value rather than getting something on the cheap, then it shouldn’t be a problem to inspect the work as completed and pay forthwith.

There is too much usury already in the world to allow things like retainage to exist. Better business models can only exist when they are constructed on trust and each party does due-diligence to ensure they are dealing with trustworthy partners. Everything else is risk, and you use insurance to cover that eventuality.

The NCHC and others show health care costs accounting for 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and one-fourth of the federal budget. Based on a few recent (2009) sources this actually has come to pass with the health costs of the U.S. hitting about 17 percent in 2008. Just to put that into perspective Switzerland, Germany, Canada and France all have health care spending between 9.5% and 11% GDP and those countries insure everyone (these numbers updated for 2009 show them pretty much the same as when this post first appeared). US health care spending is expected to reach 20% of the GDP by 2015.

Here is a recent link that gets more in detail.

This part is, of course, even more true today: Small businesses, the employers of the lion’s share of employees in the U.S., are struggling to keep costs affordable but are losing ground. So more and more of them are turning to Wellness Programs to help out. These programs focus on educating your workforce about healthy lifestyles and then offering opportunities for them to practice healthier lifestyles. There are companies you can hire that will do an assessment of your company and put together and even administer a program. But with some thorough planning you can implement your own.

A case study of one of the early adopters of a wellness program shows the company was able to keep health insurance cost growth to a very low level, drastically reduce employee turnover and send their worker’s compensation costs into a nose dive.

The Canadians have quite a bit of experience with this and at their Centre for Occupational Health and Safety they have a page with steps to developing a wellness program. Here is a Wellness-Program project template (MPP) that I created using some of their information and adding some of my own to that. This will get you started at making your own program. You will need to assign resources and work with the hours. I set it up to be a project that was worked once a week on Wednesday so if you change those parameters to what will work for your organization then you can compress or expand the project accordingly.

Here’s a new resource also with case studies to help you see the benefits and learn more about how to set up a wellness program in your construction business.

For those of you who don’t have MS Project here is the same project template as above in MS Excel.