September 2014: Full Contact Project Management

Your Business Can’t Look Like Training Camp

By "Coach" Gary Micheloni

Professional sports and professional masonry have much in common. Let’s look at pro football, for example. The coaches are always on the lookout for good, new talent, and try to add some to their teams each year. But every pro team begins each new season in something of disarray. The coaches do some soul-searching, wondering whether they can possibly put together some kind of a team that has a chance of winning most of their games the coming season.

I thought about this last week while watching the opening pre-season game between the Chargers and the Cowboys, and also seeing a bit of play from the other teams. When you watch the first game, knowing that the good players will only be out there for a quarter, if at all, it makes you wonder if these guys could actually beat a good college team!

There definitely is a reason for training camps and pre-season games. Basically, it’s to see if your team can get its act together any better than the others can. Things do eventually come together, you get through that last pre-season game, the star players magically learn to play nicely with others, and the team seems headed toward the games that really count.

On your first day of camp, you’d better hit the ground running, because the livelihood of your business and the welfare of your family are at stake. Even so, there are times when you try out new players, run some new plays, and see what works this year that maybe was too difficult last year. Maybe you just didn’t have the right players; couldn’t get the right materials; or the inspector wasn’t buying your version of “or equal’” when it came to substituting materials.

But this year, you may want to add a few new pages to your playbook. Run some of those options you’ve seen other contractors run in different markets. For instance, if you are doing public works projects, then maybe it’s time to implement a change order policy that works to protect your company from “scope creep.” Stop doing bona fide “extra work” for free, and adopt a change order system that works to your advantage.

And, to make that happen, I’m offering you an e-book PDF version of my book, “Get Paid for a Change!” I’ve sold this before for as much as $39.95, so you’ll want to snap this up.

Here’s the catch: This offer expires after Sept. 30, 2014, and you have to “pay” for this by completing the sentence, “What I really like about Masonry Magazine is?Ķ” Just a sentence or two can be emailed to me at FullContactTeam@gmail.com, with “Coach Gary Book” in the subject line. I’ll send it right out.

Just as the guys in training camp are trying to impress the coaches with their hustle and make the team, this is your chance to impress Coach Gary with your hustle. Let’s start planning for more success this year. What kind of game will you be playing once your team breaks training camp? I’m rooting for you.

Gary Micheloni is a construction company marketer, working project manager, speaker, author, consultant and coach.