To me, most service businesses–whether construction, real estate, legal, financial or other–are like buses traveling the road. If you do not like the bus you are on, just get off. There will be another bus to pick you up in a few minutes. We all think we’re better than the competition. That’s true for some, not …
Last week, our CFO Del Allen attended a presentation by Mr. Kevin Kliesen, the Business Economist at Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and the person to whom we can credit the quote used for this post’s title. As most of us know, the recovery is a slow one. There is flat income growth and cautious …
I attended a real estate conference earlier in the week where former Senator Bob Graham spoke. His address was around five key factors contributing to Florida’s growth over the last several decades. I thought they were interesting on a broader level and wanted to share them here. 5 Key Factors Contributing to Florida’s Growth The invention …
Mike Prior recently retired from a career managing a real estate portfolio which at times was in excess of $5 billion. He now works as a consultant, officing with us. It’s been great having this kind of experience under our roof. Mike has been a big help on our financial side and with our customers. This …
While our economy continues to move along, we are seeing pockets of great expansion. In other areas things are moving more slowly. In regards to the market cost, some of our customers have asked how we see things changing. I used to think that material prices were controlled mainly by supply and demand, but that …
You have heard it a million times: We never get a second chance to make a good first impression. While initial thoughts might take us toward in-person meetings, this adage is true even in written communication. Our word choices and how they string together into sentences, paragraphs and language as a whole have a lasting …
In business, most of the time it’s easier to say “yes.” We wish to serve, to solve problems and keep our customers happy. But “yes” isn’t always the right answer. The trail is pretty narrow, and saying “yes” can get you off the path just as quickly as saying “no.” Personally, I try to say …
A number of years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing an address by Charles Cawley. He started his business on a shoestring in an empty A&P food store. This startup would become MBNA Corporation, the largest independent credit card company in the world. As the story goes, one of his first orders of business was …
Over the years, we’ve built parking structures that employed different structural framing methods. The system chosen depended on a variety of factors including land/site constraints, design functionality and accessibility of local resources. Cost is a variable of all of the above. At times, the value of the land exceeds the price to add vertical to …
Good civil engineers are worth their weight in gold. I would suggest theirs is a discipline that, beyond all others, can make or break a project. I’ve seen civil cause the quickest spiral toward trouble or, most of the time, provide the most impact for success on a difficult site. To us, it’s important to …
In the 1960s, the amount of office space allocated to an individual was a direct indicator of your status at a company. Bigger was better, with CEOS working in sprawling square footage, and folks lower on the totem pole being relegated to large “bullpens.” Furniture maker Herman Miller made a dent in this philosophy when …
This week, we were finalizing a contract with a first-time customer when a breakout number of the total contract value changed by a relatively small amount. Our project manager felt the customer was under stress for other reasons. This difference troubled the customer, who asked our project manager if he could be trusted, point blank. It …