Growing a construction business should create more profit, freedom, and opportunity. But for many owners, growth produces the opposite result.
The company generates more revenue, but the owner works longer hours. More employees create more questions. Projects get started before the details are nailed down. Profit stays flat—or even declines—while stress follows the owner home.
In this episode of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast, Todd Dawalt explains why these issues are often not separate problems. They are symptoms of a construction business that has outgrown its original design.
You will learn why working harder, hiring another person, or adding new software may not solve the underlying problem—and what needs to change if you want a more profitable company that can run without depending on you for every decision.
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Who This Episode Is For
This episode is for construction business owners, custom home builders, remodelers, and general contractors who are trying to grow without creating more chaos.
It is especially relevant if you:
- Feel like you are working harder than ever but not seeing enough profit or freedom
- Are still too involved in every decision, approval, estimate, and client issue
- Want to delegate more but your team still depends on you for too much
- Know your business needs better job costing, financial clarity, and real-time data
- Are using or considering construction software like JobTread, Buildertrend, CoConstruct, or other project management platforms
- Are curious about AI but concerned about the risks of trusting it too much
- Want to build a stronger team culture and a more trustworthy customer experience
Problems This Episode Helps Solve
This episode helps answer questions such as:
- Why am I working more hours as my construction business grows?
- Why has increased revenue not produced more profit?
- Why does my team still depend on me for so many decisions?
- Why do details keep falling through the cracks?
- Why have new employees or software failed to reduce the chaos?
- How can I tell whether I am solving a real problem or only treating a symptom?
- What does it mean for a construction business to outgrow its design?
- How can I build a company that runs without everything going through me?
- Why is preconstruction so important for profitability and owner freedom?
Episode Summary
A construction business is a system, and every system produces results based on how it has been designed.
The problem is that most small and midsize construction companies do not have an intentional business design written down. The design still exists, but it developed informally as the company grew. It may depend on information stored in the owner’s head, decisions made through constant interruptions, and problems being solved through extra effort.
That approach may work at an earlier stage. However, a design that supported a $2 million company may not support a $5 million company. A business trying to reach $40 million cannot continue operating with the structure, roles, and processes of a much smaller organization.
When the business outgrows its design, the symptoms become difficult to ignore. The owner works nights and weekends. Emails and phone calls multiply. Cash flow becomes stressful. Handoffs break down. Jobs begin before the necessary information is ready. Employees wait for the owner to make decisions, and profit leaks through rework, giveaways, delays, and missed opportunities.
Todd explains that these symptoms are painful, but they are not necessarily the root problem. The root problem is often a company designed around the owner—and therefore unintentionally designed to struggle or fail without the owner’s constant involvement.
Solving that problem requires a shift in the owner’s role. Instead of being a cog inside the machine, the owner must become the person who designs and operates the machine. That means clarifying the company’s direction, building an organization that can function without the owner as its central nervous system, and strengthening areas such as delegation, accountability, handoffs, and preconstruction.
The episode also highlights preconstruction as the “secret profit phase.” A complete preconstruction process gives the team the information it needs before the project begins. This can reduce delays, rework, costly mistakes, confusion, and the need for the owner to rescue projects after they start.
The goal is not simply to become more productive while continuing to carry the entire business. The goal is to redesign the company so it can produce better results with less chaos and less dependence on the owner.
Key Takeaways With Timestamps
00:07 – Can you grow and still work a normal schedule?
Todd introduces the central question: Is it possible to grow a construction business, become more profitable, and still work a reasonable 40- to 50-hour week?
01:19 – The warning signs of an owner-dependent business
Long hours, hundreds of daily emails, constant firefighting, poor office-to-field handoffs, and jobs starting before details are finalized are signs that the current operating model is not working.
03:02 – Why working harder does not fix the underlying problem
Selling more, hiring more people, and sleeping less may temporarily increase output, but they do not repair a business that is already overloaded and poorly designed.
04:40 – The undersized HVAC system analogy
Todd compares an outgrown business design to an HVAC system that was never upgraded after a major addition. Small adjustments cannot compensate for a system that lacks the capacity to handle the current load.
06:03 – Your business produces what it was designed to produce
Every company has a design, even when it is not documented. That design may unintentionally create owner dependency, dropped details, profit bleeds, and recurring chaos.
07:46 – Growth can outpace the company’s operating design
A business may reach $5 million in revenue while still operating with the roles, processes, and decision structure that supported a $2 million company.
08:37 – Long hours and cash-flow stress are often symptoms
The visible problems are not always the root cause. They may be symptoms of a company that has outgrown its design and depends too heavily on the owner.
10:23 – Shift from being the machine to designing the machine
The owner’s role must change from performing or controlling every function to intentionally designing how the organization operates.
11:38 – Stop chasing symptoms
Time-management techniques, software, or one additional employee will not solve the problem if they are being added to an operating model that is already broken.
13:26 – The owner’s role needs to change first
A healthier design begins when the owner moves out of the middle of every workflow and into the “control booth” of the business.
14:02 – John Springstead’s shorter workweek
Todd shares how John reduced his schedule from approximately 60 hours to 34 hours while operating the same company with more revenue and more profit.
15:01 – Darren Yester’s shift to feeding the machine
Darren stopped trying to be every moving part in the company. He delegated operations and finance so he could focus on sales, estimating, and supporting the organization.
15:54 – Start with a strategic plan
Owners need to define what they want the business to look like, where it is going, and what kinds of projects, roles, and results they want over the next 12 to 24 months.
16:48 – Ask how the business can run without you
Instead of asking how to keep up with more work, owners should ask how to build a company that no longer requires them to remain at the center of every project and decision.
18:18 – What a business that runs without the owner feels like
Todd shares how Andy Culp took two weeks away, received only a few phone calls, and returned without facing an overwhelming backlog.
18:43 – Preconstruction is the secret profit phase
A strong preconstruction process reduces uncertainty before work begins and can improve profitability, scheduling, handoffs, and team performance.
20:24 – Better preconstruction changes project execution
John Springstead describes completing a major gut renovation and addition in eight months without delays because the information was prepared earlier and handed off clearly.
21:12 – The three major design shifts
The owner’s role must change, the company must be built to run without the owner, and preconstruction must become a disciplined profit phase instead of a chaos phase.
22:39 – Hidden profit inside weak processes
Todd describes a company where incomplete scopes, weak selections, rework, giveaways, and delays represented hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential hidden profit.
23:10 – What happens during a Business Evaluation Call
The evaluation examines the office-to-field handoff, potential hidden profit, owner dependency, and the operating system needed to help the company run more independently.
25:51 – Take a five-minute action step
Todd challenges listeners to take immediate action by downloading the strategic planning guide, scheduling time to complete it, or applying for a Business Evaluation Call.
Key Concepts From This Episode
Business Design
Business design is the combination of roles, responsibilities, workflows, decision rights, processes, and handoffs that determine how a company operates.
A company has a design even when it has never been documented. When that design develops informally around the owner, growth can create more dependency and confusion instead of more freedom.
Owner Dependency
Owner dependency exists when decisions, approvals, project information, client communication, and problem-solving continually flow through the business owner.
A highly owner-dependent company may appear successful from the outside, but it becomes difficult to scale, delegate, or operate when the owner is unavailable.
Symptoms vs. Root Causes
Long hours, overflowing inboxes, weak cash flow, mistakes, delays, and constant interruptions are visible problems. However, they may be symptoms of a deeper operating issue.
Treating symptoms can provide temporary relief. Sustainable improvement requires identifying and correcting the underlying design that repeatedly creates those symptoms.
The Owner as the Designer of the Machine
The owner’s job should evolve as the business grows. Instead of remaining inside every workflow, the owner must define how work should move through the company, who owns each result, and how decisions should be made.
This does not mean disengaging from the business. It means operating at the level where the owner can improve the system instead of repeatedly rescuing it.
Preconstruction Deficiency
A preconstruction deficiency occurs when a company begins projects without enough clarity around scope, selections, pricing, procurement, scheduling, responsibilities, or project information.
The resulting uncertainty often appears later as rework, delays, giveaways, emergency decisions, frustrated clients, and reduced profit.
The Secret Profit Phase
Preconstruction is the secret profit phase because many of the decisions that determine project profitability are made before fieldwork begins.
A disciplined preconstruction process can reduce risk, improve the office-to-field handoff, give the project team better information, and prevent expensive problems from reaching the jobsite.
Resources Mentioned
Construction Leading Edge Resources
People and Companies Mentioned
John Springstead
John Springstead Construction
Andy Kolp
Epic Building Company
Daaron Yester
DYC Framing, Inc.
Recommended Next Step
If your construction business has grown but your operating systems, roles, and handoffs have not grown with it, apply for a Business Evaluation Call.
The evaluation will help identify the gaps creating owner dependency, profit bleeds, weak handoffs, recurring chaos, and preventable project problems. You will also get greater clarity about the operating system your company needs to support its current size and future goals.
Client Success Stories
Want to see how other construction business owners are applying these ideas?
Watch client success stories from builders, remodelers, and general contractors who have worked with Construction Leading Edge to reduce chaos, improve their systems, and build companies that run with less owner dependency.
Related Episodes
Episode 423: Your Construction Business Is Doing Exactly What It’s Designed To Do
Todd Dawalt explains why construction businesses often repeat the same chaos, long hours, profit issues, and owner bottlenecks because the underlying business design is producing exactly what it was built to produce.
Episode 436: How John Springstead Doubled Revenue While Cutting His Work Hours
John Springstead shares how implementing pre-construction, nailing the handoff, clarifying roles, and letting his team own the work helped him reduce chaos, increase revenue, and cut his weekly work hours.
Episode 442: The Nail the Handoff Framework: 4 Crucial Handoffs to Increase Profit and Eliminate Chaos
Todd Dawalt explains how construction companies can reduce chaos, protect profit, and free owners from the day-to-day by focusing on four crucial project handoffs from sales through operations.
FAQ
Why does a construction business become more chaotic as it grows?
Growth increases the number of projects, decisions, employees, clients, and handoffs the company must manage. If the business continues using the same informal structure and owner-centered decision process, the workload can exceed the design’s capacity.
How can I tell whether my construction business is too dependent on me?
Common signs include employees waiting for your decisions, frequent interruptions, clients contacting you instead of the project team, difficulty taking a vacation, and projects slowing down when you are unavailable.
Will hiring another employee solve owner dependency?
Hiring can help, but adding a person to an unclear operating model may create more questions and management work. The company also needs clear roles, expected outcomes, decision authority, processes, and accountability.
Why does construction software sometimes fail to reduce chaos?
Software supports a process; it does not automatically create one. When roles, workflows, handoffs, and responsibilities remain unclear, a new platform may digitize the confusion instead of eliminating it.
What is the difference between a business problem and a symptom?
A symptom is a visible result such as long hours, cash-flow stress, delays, or constant emails. The underlying problem may be an outgrown business design, unclear ownership, weak preconstruction, or excessive dependence on the owner.
How does preconstruction improve profitability?
Preconstruction helps clarify scope, selections, costs, schedules, procurement needs, responsibilities, and project information before fieldwork begins. That preparation can reduce rework, delays, giveaways, missed details, and emergency decisions.
What is the first step toward building a construction business that runs without me?
Start by defining what you want the company to look like over the next 12 to 24 months. Then evaluate the roles, processes, handoffs, and decisions that currently depend on you and begin redesigning them intentionally.
Todd Dawalt
Founder of Construction Leading Edge and host of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast
Todd Dawalt is the founder of Construction Leading Edge and host of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast. Since 2014, Todd and the Construction Leading Edge team have helped construction business owners systematize their companies, reduce chaos, improve profitability, and build businesses that run with less owner dependency.
Full Transcript
Todd Dawalt (00:07.032)
Is it actually possible to grow your construction business, be more profitable, and still work a normal, sane 40 to 50 hour week? Or is that just a fantasy? If you own a construction business, if you’re a custom home builder, remodeler, general contractor, or trade business, and that question lives in your head. How do I grow the business? How do I pay myself real profit and get back to a normal 40 to 50 hour week? This episode is for you.
You are listening to the Construction Leading Edge podcast from constructionleadingedge.com, where it’s all about systematizing your construction business to maximize freedom, impact, and wealth. My name is Todd DeWalt, and my team and I have helped about 500 construction companies eliminate chaos, grow their profits, and grow their team by systematizing their business. And in this episode, you’re going to see why more effort will never give you.
The normal 40 to 50 hour week that you want, how one invisible design flaw in your business could be quietly forcing you to work nights and weekends, no matter how hard you push. I’ll also show you how you could be wasting time trying to solve problems that aren’t really the problems. There’s something else. So here’s what I hear from guys that I talk to every week. I’m working 60 to 70 hours a week.
fifty to seventy five percent of the time is on low up rent activities, putting out fires, details are falling through the cracks. I receive one hundred emails a day, two hundred emails a day. I’m working until 9 30 PM I get up at four o’clock in the morning to get caught up. I stay up late at at night after the kids have gone to bed. Our handoff from the office to the field is a C or a D letter grade. We’re starting jobs before things are nailed down.
Todd Dawalt (02:14.006)
We’ve been saying one more big job will fix it for 20 years and it still hasn’t. Maybe you’re saying we just need to sell more, we just need to hire more people, and you’ve tried that, or you’ve tried software and it hasn’t helped. Maybe you’re saying things like this that I hear from a lot of people: cash flow is tight. I don’t sleep well. And I bring that stress home to the family. And if you’re like a lot of people, you say things like
If I go out of town, I have to go over every single job and make a list of priorities and a to-do list, and I have to be on the phone every day while I’m on vacation, and it sucks. So if any of that sounds familiar, you are not alone. And this episode is gonna help you. So you probably already know the ripple effects of these issues, right? You’re you’re doing
3 million a year, 5 million a year, maybe 7 to 10 million a year, and profits are flat. Maybe profits have gone down as you’ve increased top line. You feel like your best people never really step up. They don’t take ownership because the big decisions still land on your desk. These things still come back to you. Maybe you feel like your family gets the leftovers.
Because the business is always in crisis mode. And you don’t feel like it’s generating the freedom that you started being an entrepreneur to have. You don’t have the lifestyle that you’d like to have. Maybe you feel like you own a job instead of owning a business. And so far, your your solution, the thing you’ve tried, would be just work harder, sell more, hire, try to hire more people, sleep less. And the problem
with all of that is it’s sort of like it’s like you’re pushing the gas pedal to the floor on a truck that’s already redlining, right? You might move faster for a little bit, but you’re not fixing what’s actually broken. And maybe you’re concerned that you’re redlining and then something’s gonna break. Maybe with your health, with your family, maybe with your team, and you wonder, maybe you know it’s just not sustainable. So think about this. Imagine this situation.
Todd Dawalt (04:40.482)
Imagine you’re traveling to Florida and you’re spending some time with some friends down there who own a house and they say, Hey, you’re in construction. You’re not maybe you’re not an HVAC guy, but you’re you work in construction, right? I want you to come over and take a look at my house because my my HVAC system isn’t working right. And you go over to their house and you find out, well, this house was originally built 20 years ago. It had a
three ton HVAC system. And then they told you that they put this big 2,000 square foot addition, like a whole second floor on top of their house, but they didn’t upgrade their HVAC system. And your buddy’s telling you about man, rooms, the upstairs is really hot. It’s really humid. My wife’s frustrated. Then they tell he tells you about the things he tried to do to fix it. Wow, you know, I I put an extra thermostat upstairs. I looked at
The insulation to make sure it was right. We did blower door tests. We caulked every joint we could possibly find. You would probably say, man, none of that stuff is is really gonna help you because that system, that three ton system is producing exactly what it’s designed to produce. It’s producing three tons of cooling. It’s just not designed to handle the additional load you’ve put on it, right?
And it’s very likely that if your business has grown and you’re dealing with some of the things we’ve talked about that I’ve mentioned so far, it’s very likely your business is the same way. Let me explain. Your business is a system, and that system is producing exactly what it’s designed to produce. Your business is producing the exact results that it is designed to produce. Okay. Every business has a design.
It could be on paper. Most small construction businesses that are one to twenty million dollars or under twenty million dollars in revenue, most of these designs are invisible. They don’t exist. Well, they don’t exist on paper, but the design exists. It may be invisible, but it’s there. And that business is producing exactly the results that it is designed to produce.
Todd Dawalt (07:02.1)
So it’s very likely that your business, if you’re dealing with these things we’ve talked about, working too many hours, profits are going down, you’re stressed, you don’t know what to do. It’s very likely that your business is designed to depend on you for every decision. Your business is very likely designed to allow details to fall through the cracks. Your business is designed to bleed profit. And unfortunately, it’s designed
In many cases, a lot of the businesses I talk to, they are designed to produce chaos. And they have all of these gray areas where chaos breeds and lives. So your business is producing exactly what it’s designed to produce. And many people that I talk to
Almost all of the people I talk to have outgrown their current design. Okay. And that’s the problem. Their real problem is that their business has outgrown their current design. They were at 2 million in revenue, now they’re at five, and they’re trying to do five million dollars of revenue with a two million dollar design. Or they’re at they’re they’re trying to get to $40 million a year and they’re still operating, they want to be a $40 million a year.
luxury custom home builder, but they’re operating with the design of an eight to ten million dollar a year spec home builder. Doesn’t work. So let’s talk about some of the problems that people share. Maybe the problems you’re dealing with. Your those profit bleeds, your 60 hour weeks, the 200 emails a day, the cash flow issues, the chaos, those are not problems.
All right, you may be saying the hell they’re not. They they are problems, they’re really painful. Well, they they could be painful, but they are symptoms. They are not the problems. The 60-hour work weeks, the chaos, the profit bleeds, the cash flow issues, the the redlining, the stress, those are all symptoms of a business design that has been outgrown. They are symptoms.
Todd Dawalt (09:21.068)
And the real constraint, the root cause issue is the invisible design that you’ve been running on for years. You have outgrown it. And those are symptoms that your business has outgrown your design. Another way to say it is these symptoms, these are symptoms that your business is overly dependent on you. If you’re working that many hours.
Getting that many emails, getting pulled into that many conversations, spending that much of your time on firefighting. Those are all, those are not the problems. Those are symptoms of the real problem, which is your business is overly dependent on you. Another way to say it is that your business is designed to fail without you. So many people I talk to, from my perspective, after I’ve sp I’ve evaluated.
800 to a thousand construction businesses over the past 10 years. And from my perspective, a lot of businesses are designed to fail without the owner. They are designed around the owner, therefore, they are designed to fail unintentionally without the owner. And more effort will not fix that. Software will not fix that. More people will not fix that. In fact, many of these things will make those things worse.
So here’s the shift that I want you to make. All right. This is this is the shift you have to make. Our clients that we work with who are successful, that I’ll talk about a few of which in a few minutes. This is the shift they make. They go, they shift from my job is to be a cog in the machine, from that, to your job is to design the machine and operate the machine. Okay. You have to shift from.
Your job is to be in the machine or to be the machine, you have to shift from that to your job is to design the machine. All right. Once again, your business is a system. It’s producing exactly what it’s designed to produce. And if you don’t like those results, you need to change the design. So one more thing. If you think if you think your real problem is a lack of time.
Todd Dawalt (11:38.964)
Or the number of emails you get, or the number of phone calls you get, or cash flow issues, you’ll spend your time chasing your tail trying to address symptoms. Okay? And it’s not going to help. I see this a lot. People think, well, I I need better time management, or I just need I need software, or I just need one person. I need to hire one person. And that’s like plugging a module of something into.
an outgrown design. It’s like going back to that HVAC system, it’s like saying, well if I just put a a dehumidifier on my HVAC system, or if I just
Put different filters on my HVAC system, it’s not gonna work. You’re just wasting your time. So it’s sort of like if you were having a heart attack and your left arm was aching, if you took some Tylenol, took a nap, and took put an ice pack on your shoulder, you’re probably gonna die from a heart attack because you’re just treating the symptoms. The underlying problem is you’re having a heart attack. So you have to understand what the difference between symptoms and
And the root cause is and you better s spend your time focusing on the actual root cause.
So it’s very likely you’re not solving the real underlying root cause of your problems, which is a business design that is outgrown. If that’s their problem, if that is your number one constraint, that’s what you need to put your energy into solving and push everything else off to the side. So if you’re wondering, what does it look like when you make that shift? That sounds great. Is it possible? What does it look like? Maybe you’re like, I want to make the shift from
Todd Dawalt (13:26.87)
Your job is to be the machine, to your job is to design the machine. So here’s a few things you need to do. This is what it looks like. Number one, in a healthy design, in a proper design of a business, your role changes first. You start to think like an owner, you start to think like the designer of the machine, designing how the business is going to run. You extract yourself from the machine.
And imagine imagine your business is a machine and you’re a a cog in that machine or part of that machine, and when you try to get out of it, things just grind to a halt. They don’t work. If that’s the case, your business is designed to fail without you. So you have to extract yourself from the machine and get into the control booth of that machine. Get into the control booth of your business. Here’s what that looks like. John Springstead
is one of our CEO Alliance members. And he talked about going through this process when I interviewed him in episode four thirty six. Here’s what he said. Now I come into the office at eight o’clock in the morning. I leave every day at four. Wednesdays I work half a day. So I have a 34 hour work week, where three years ago I probably had a sixty hour work week. Same company, same market, actually more revenue, more profit, different role.
fewer hours. Darren Yester was on the podcast recently. He went through our systematize your construction business program and he’s now in the CEO Alliance. And once he put the right people in place, some things started to happen. He said this I feel like my business is a locomotive and I’m the guy in the back shoveling the coal in. The engine’s running good, but it didn’t have anybody shoveling the the coal in because I was trying to do everything.
Now he says his job is to feed the machine. He focuses on sales and estimating, not to be every moving part in the business. He has delegated certain parts, delegated operations and delegated finance to capable people that he has on his team. So maybe you’re thinking, yeah, I need to start operating like the designer. If that’s the case, and you’re but you’re not sure where to start, the first step is to create a strategic plan for your business.
Todd Dawalt (15:54.648)
You need to answer questions like, where do you want to be in two years? What do you want your business to look like? What sort of projects do you want to be doing? You would probably never start a family vacation without having a destination in mind, right? Then why would you work every day in your business without knowing where you’re going with your business? So if that’s you, you need to go download our free strategic planning guide. Hundreds of people have used it. It’s going to help you clarify your strategy.
And your goals for the next 12 to 24 months. There’s a link in the show notes to download your free copy of the strategic planning guide, or you can go to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash planning. If you haven’t done this, or you haven’t done it in a long time, this is the best use of about 90 minutes of your time. So go get that strategic planning guide. The second shift you need to make is the way you look at your business.
The way you look at your business needs to change. You stop asking questions like, How do I keep up? How do I get better at time management? How do I type faster so I can handle even more emails every day? How can I get more done? And you start asking questions like, How do we get this thing to run without me? How do we get this machine to run without me? I recently interviewed Andy Culp, who is
A CEO Alliance member who’s we’ve been working with for several years. And here’s what Andy said in episode four forty. Now I go to the projects two, three, four times maybe total at the most, because they’re managed well and the systems that we have in place are working and the clients don’t call me. He’s even told me about some projects that he didn’t interact with the client at all until it was over, until the project was done. Wouldn’t that be nice?
To have projects that run smoothly and the clients don’t call you. Andy’s not less committed. He’s just not the hub anymore. He’s extracted himself out of the machine. He also talked about how he took two weeks off to do two things to attend one of our events and then hike part of the Appalachian Trail with a buddy of his from the CEO Alliance. Here’s what he said.
Todd Dawalt (18:18.518)
I came back after two weeks and I didn’t have to worry about catching up. I probably took four to five phone calls in two weeks. That’s what a business that runs without you looks like. That’s what it feels like.
The third shift, and this is a big one, is pre-construction looks different. All right. So for so many companies that I talk to, ranging from small one million dollar a year remodeling companies up to come I’ve worked with companies doing forty million dollars a year plus with very large teams.
And for most of them, there is a pre-construction deficiency. Sort of like scurvy is a vitamin C deficiency. It has terrible, painful, sometimes deadly symptoms. A pre construction deficiency has a lot of symptoms. So you need to start thinking about pre-construction.
If you want your business to run more profitably, with fewer hours, more less chaos and less dependent on you, focus your effort on pre-construction. The pre-construction phase is the secret profit phase. It is the secret to designing a business that generates more profit and fewer hours. This is a key part of a well-designed construction business. The big companies, I’ve worked with companies.
Doing hundreds of millions of dollars a year and they obsess over pre-construction. That’s where it’s at. Back to John Springstead. Here’s what he said when he ran a real pre-con process on a one of the larger gut and addition projects he did. He said it was a complete gut of a house with an addition. We started it and we were complete in eight months to the day. We were never delayed.
Todd Dawalt (20:24.578)
We had the information so much earlier, we were able to put a nice book together for our lead guy on the job. And it having a good pre-construction process completely transformed the way we do work from that time forward. Same crews, bigger projects, same owner, better clients. The difference was pre-construction and what we call nailing the handoff. So when you redesign the machine.
Few shifts need to happen. Your role changes. The business needs to be designed to run without you. And pre construction becomes the secret profit phase instead of the chaos phase.
So, if you’re a custom home builder, a remodeler, or a commercial general contractor, even a specialty trade contractor, and your business basically revolves around you. If you’re saying, Yeah, my business has outgrown its design, or you’re saying, the design of my business is my central nervous system. It is my brain. Everything lives in me. If you would say,
Yeah, my business has outgrown its design. If you realize if you took a good hard look in the mirror and you said, you know what, my business is designed to fail without me, then this is for you. All right. I was on a business evaluation call recently with a client who was doing multi million dollar custom homes, big renovations. From the outside, seemed like things were going pretty well. In reality, when we really pulled back the covers, he was working sixty to seventy hours a week.
And he was spending 50 to 75% of his time reacting and putting out fires. The handoff wasn’t great. He realized he had a pre-construction deficiency. They were starting jobs before scopes were nailed down. Selections were half-baked, and there was a lot of, hey, we’ll figure that out as we go. Classic, just enough to start trap. And as a result, it was leading to costly mistakes and delays. And when we went through the
Todd Dawalt (22:39.48)
The profit bleed analysis, part of the evaluation, we found hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in hidden profit, just by eliminating rework, eliminating giveaways, eliminating schedule delays, and and eliminating the opportunity cost. And the common thread went back to the things we’re talking about here: a business design that was outgrown, and specifically a pre-construction deficiency. So this is what I want to invite.
You to do it’s a free 45-minute business evaluation call with my team. We’ll walk through a simple diagnostic to grade your handoff from the office to the field. We’ll look at how much hidden profit there could be in your business. Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to grow? If you didn’t have to take on more sales or take on more people to be more profitable. And then we’ll map out what a real operating system looks like for your business.
So it can run without everything going through you. Maybe you want to just get down to 40 hours a week. Maybe you want to get to 20 hours a week, whatever your goals might be. If it looks like we can help, then we’ll schedule a second call to go through the implementation program that fits your specific situation. If not, you’ll still walk away with clarity and we’ll leave you better than we found you. But we only have we only have capacity to handle, we we only work with a handful of
Construction business owners each month. So if you want your business to look very different 12 months from now, if you want to grow the business, make more profit, if you want to have a normal 40 to 50 hour work week, maybe a 20 to 30 hour work week, you need to take action. It’s not gonna change on its own. And the first step, if you’d like our help, would be to book a business evaluation call. Look.
If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’ve listened for a a few weeks, a few months, maybe a few years, and you’re thinking, Yeah, you know, I maybe I should do that. Maybe I should schedule a call with Todd. And then you just get on to the next thing, and then the next podcast comes out, and you say, Yeah, I should probably do this. Well, this is me telling you, if you’ve been telling yourself, I should probably do that, now’s the time. Hit pause, go to the show notes.
Todd Dawalt (25:00.386)
Or if you’re watching this on YouTube, look in the description. There’s a link. Click the link. Answer a couple of questions. Book a time on my calendar. And let’s get a business evaluation call scheduled. So click the link in the show notes or go to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash apply A-P-P-L-Y. Book that business evaluation call. There are some conditions. You have to be a business owner. You need to be doing $1 million in revenue or more.
And you need to have been in business for two years. If that’s not you yet, it’s probably too soon. So I hope you got some value out of this podcast. Most importantly, I hope you take some action. So I would challenge you with a five-minute action item. There’s something that you can do in five minutes or less to get started moving in the right direction. Maybe it’s to download the strategic planning guide.
You can go to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash planning or click the show notes, download that, block some time on your calendar to fill it out. Maybe it’s start thinking about what you want your business to look like. Maybe it’s to book that business evaluation call, but take action. Otherwise, the last 20 or 25 minutes have been maybe interesting, but not all that useful. So take action. And hey, if you get some value.
out of this podcast, do me a favor, if you could leave a rating and a review, maybe drop a comment if that’s a possibility where you’re at. That would mean a lot to me and it helps to spread the word out there on the interwebs and help more people. So I’m Todd from constructionleadinged.com. Thanks for listening or watching, and I’ll see you next time.
