Jeff Wittenberg, Chief Leadership Officer with Kaye/Bassman International Corp. is our guest on this construction business podcast. Jeff discusses how businesses can avoid hiring the “least worst” candidate as well as resources to tap to find the next superstar hire.
Take a few minutes to check out this podcast ForConstructionPros.com Editor Sam Simon conducted with Buddy Rhodes of Buddy Rhodes Artisan Concrete. The two discuss emerging trends in decorative concrete for both residential and commercial applications.
Concrete has been instrumental in the building of many beautiful and architecturally progressive structures, such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. The construction world’s latest concrete masterpiece comes in the form of Chicago’s Trump Tower, the city’s second tallest skyscraper and North America’s tallest concrete-reinforced building. If you want to learn more about the construction of Trump Tower and read some interesting facts — such as how many cubic yards of concrete were used in building the behemoth – read this article about the completion of the building.
We’ve been sending out survey’s as of late to better gauge the issues that are most important to our audience and one response that keeps popping up is equipment utilization. Which makes sense. If you’re paying for a unit and its sitting around you’re losing money.
But does it have to be operated on a jobsite to make money? Have you thought about other ways that your underutilized construction equipment can make you money? How about charging $200 an hour to let “citizens” dig holes and “play” with life-size Tonka Trucks? Check out the video below as one man is trying to establish a business around this idea.
Les McKeown, CEO of Predictable Success, is the latest guest on the construction business podcast. Les examines a couple of points from his series “The Eight Most Common Mistakes Managers Make.” He also gives some insight on how to manage the daily overload of information and how to create a common understanding of business goals throughout the company.
For more information on “The Eight Most Common Mistakes Managers Make” or Les McKeown’s Predictable Success system, visit www.getpredictablesuccess.com
Contractors who install speed bumps and speed humps might have to take up pavement marking if they want to keep that part of their business. That’s because a new effort being tested in Philadelphia (after being tested semi-successfully in Phoenix two years ago) relies on pavement markings to slow drivers down.
The new markings are designed to look like 3-D pyramids sitting in the middle of the road. To approaching drivers the “pyramids” are perplexing and cause drivers to slow down — at least for a while. In addition to initial effectiveness, cities like the cost — reportedly $60-$80 for the markings vs. as much as $1500 per speed bump.
But maybe we should put the brakes on switching from speed bumps so quickly. The early research shows that while effective initially, the effect of the “pyramids” is short-lived. Drivers who take the road regularly revert to their former level of speed as soon as they realize the “pyramids” are just an optical illusion. Speed bumps, on the other hand, are effective as long as they’re there, and as much as many drivers don’t like driving over over them, they do their job.
I recently attended the Concrete Foundations Association (CFA) Summer Meeting in New Mexico. The theme of the meeting was “Surviving a Down Economy.” Many of the seminars and lunch table discussions focused on business strategies contractors are using to stay profitable despite the current new homes construction market. The strategy most people are finding success with is diversification, including the CFA’s Contractor of the Year, K-Wall Poured Walls out of Traverse City, Michigan.
K-Walls owner Rich Kubica said the residential market in his area is really struggling, but his company has stayed above water because of diversification. Several years ago the company branched out from traditional concrete work and added decorative concrete and epoxy floors. Other services include foundations, flatwork, pool construction, waterproofing, insulated walls and underlayments. The company also recently opened a branch in North Carolina, diversifying not only its services but its geographical market, too.
Diversification is a business model with which just about any company can find success. If your company has taken diversification to heart, post a comment to this blog and tell me about your success.
As the race for the Oval Office heats up so does the political marketing campaigns. It seems as though you can’t get through one commercial break of the Olympics without some sort of commercial ad against/for one of the candidates. I feel this is the worst ways to base a decision on who you are going to vote for as every bit of information thrown out in these 30-second spots holds about as much water as a sieve.
Personally, I want as unbiased information that lays out how the candidates are addressing issues and their voting records (actions speak louder than words) on issues that I care about. That is why the ARTBA Presidential Candidates on Transportation PDF is such a great collection of information to have. The association does not endorse a single candidate and compiles what they have said and how they have voted on transportation issues.
As infrastructure investment should be one of the top priorities of whoever will be the newly-elected President, this PDF is of great interest to me. I encourage those who are directly affected by this issue to look over the document and let help you form you decision on who you will be voting for in the upcoming election.
