ForConstructionPros.com

Just about every contractor has benefitted from a "right time, right place" experience at one time or another: Your direct mail piece hits the same day a prospect you've been pursuing needs a pothole repaired. Or your cold call gets through to the client who that morning was considering sealcoating his parking lot. The result is that contact is made, you get the job, and hopefully a long-term customer.

Magazines rarely have those types of experiences as the immediacy of the contact is, by nature of the medium, delayed. But the rise of the Internet and publications' drive to establish valuable, reader-friendly websites has brought an immediacy to our business. The establishment of our new website (www.forconstructionpros.com) last month seemed to occur at just the right time where we could make an impact and provide some assistance to Pavement readers.

Www.forconstructionpros.com went active Sept. 1, just three days after the devastating Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf States on August 29. Almost as soon as we were up and running we realized we could serve as a clearinghouse, providing a connection for contractors in the affected states. So we did. For free. And more than 100 contractors and companies have taken advantage of the opportunity to list either their needs, their skills, or the services they can provide to firms working to rebuild or repair parking lots, pavements, buildings and any other structure damaged in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas.

The timing was perfect for us to be able to provide a connection. Hopefully it was right for the contractors and readers who put their business on our free listing, and hopefully the timing will be right for those communities needing rebuilding assistance. So if you are a contractor providing services to the affected regions and you need some additional manpower or special skills, visit the site and post your needs. If you are a contractor and you are able to relocate, even temporarily to these regions to work, post your skills on the site. And the sooner you can help, the better. Remember, timing is everything.