by David Arch, Gulfstream Insurance Group What are you really purchasing when you buy an insurance policy or a surety bond? Can you see it?  Touch it?  Hold it in your hand?  Sure, you can pull your policy off the shelf or out of your files, but that’s just a stack of papers.  What you
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In these tough economic times, we see construction companies surviving and growing and those failing or just fading away. Interestingly enough, the Bible reveals some time-tested principles that we should all heed and apply in our daily lives. As a consultant to the industry, I have observed one interesting phenomenon regarding companies that fail.  Events
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By Rich Shavell, CPA, CVA, CCIFP It’s true – that schedule serves as your credibility with your surety underwriter, bonding agent, and banker. Each want to understand where you stand on your jobs. By reviewing your Work-in-Process (“WIP”) schedule they can learn a lot of things about you and how you run your business. Percentage-of
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By John Barbar Listening is an important skill in communicating…possibly the hardest to learn. One area we tend to overlook is listening to our numbers. You might be thinking, “has John lost his mind?” Numbers can’t talk!  They absolutely can, not audibly of course, but they do tell what you need to hear; whether you
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As a business owner you have an ethical responsibility to plan and manage the resources you touch each day in conducting business. That responsibility is knows as Stewardship. Rick Shavell, CPA did a great job in explaining the importance of the Work-in-Progress Schedule and how it affects your financial creditability in his article. I would
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Cash is a critical asset in any business and needs to be monitored and controlled. Here are five ways: Separation of duties – it is important to separate key duties within the cash receipts and payments cycles.  This protects both the company and the individuals.  Smaller companies may find this challenging since they have fewer
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by David Arch, Gulfstream Insurance Group Contractors who have the ability to obtain surety bonds for their work can gain substantial benefits.  They have the opportunity to bid for and win public contracts.  In addition, in some private bid situations the ability to provide a “letter of bondability” or a “good guy letter,” even though
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by John Barbar “Cash is the life blood of any business”; and “Cash is King!” are two well known statements for business owners stressing the importance of cash. If cash is essential to all business, why do companies (or families for that matter) struggle with cash flow? Simply stated: They spend more than they earn.
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by Orlando Mulero Executive Plumbing, LLC in Boise, ID privately owned and operated contracting firm, and has provided Boise residents and business owners with excellent plumbing services for over seven years. Paul Lawson, the owner of Executive Plumbing like many small business owners in the construction industry is always looking for ways to make his
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by John Barbar “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”  Jim Rohn Vince Lombardi and John Wooden, two of the greatest coaches of all time, stressed the importance of fundamentals. Coach Lombardi took a mediocre team, the Green Bay Packers, and turned it into a
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