ForConstructionPros.com

Weiss credits the employees first and foremost for his success. "We are able to succeed because of the people we hired," he says. "That's the most important aspect of this company. We just couldn't do what we do without the people we have."

But an emphasis on job costing and customer education helped. He says contractors who don't know their job costs hurt the industry as much as they hurt themselves. "Many contractors don't add travel time to their job pricing, and some don't add equipment replacement costs," he says. "The result is that some of those guys are working too cheap."

So beginning in 1999 he started tracking costs and crew productivity, eventually developing a productivity chart that is at the heart of Asphalt-Associates bidding and job costing today.

He and his estimators know how long each step in the paving or pavement maintenance process takes, and estimators use that information to bid more quickly and accurately.

"Job costing made us much more competitive, especially on the bigger jobs. As a result of that we're winning more bids, and we are more profitable on the jobs we're getting," Weiss says.