Minimizing the use of substances that affect people’s ability to operate construction equipment seems to make sense at the construction site. In reality, it’s a mess of conflicting guidelines. For example, at the federal level, marijuana is still illegal. At the state level, it may be approved for recreational use. This creates a situation that can be tricky to navigate. Zero tolerance used to seem like an easy practice to implement, but it’s not always legal to enforce. Here’s a few things you should consider when setting a policy concerning substance use in your contracting business.

Understand the Law
If you want to know the latest California laws concerning the growth, sale and use of cannabis, you’ve got to check back on a regular basis. The California state government has passed or refined legislation concerning what people are allowed to do with marijuana every year since 2015. At present, adults over age 21 are allowed to produce and consume cannabis products in the state. There are limitations on how, where and when they can do this.

Federal vs. State Regulations
Although many states have relaxed their laws related to the sale or consumption of cannabis, it’s still illegal at the federal level. This is more of an issue of enforcement, depending on who’s calling the shots. For example, the Obama administration directed federal agencies to ease up on enforcing federal drug policies in states that had legalized marijuana for medicinal or adult use. The Trump administration rescinded that in 2018. It remains to be seen how the federal government will take action concerning this conflict in laws.

Medicinal vs. Adult Use
The way you set substance use policies depends greatly on the reason employees might be using it. With recreational use, you’re not obligated to allow people to smoke or consume cannabis products while they’re on the clock. In that way, it’s similar to a policy you might set for alcohol consumption.

Medicinal use is a different matter entirely. Employers are bound by law not to discriminate against employees for health concerns or treatment for conditions. And considering that marijuana may be prescribed to treat conditions ranging from injury to chronic pain and cancer, you could encounter people with a legitimate prescription for medicinal marijuana at any time. This means that you might not legally be able to enforce a zero-tolerance drug policy, even if that seems the easiest path to take. If you’re not sure what to do, consulting a lawyer who specializes in human resources policies may be a worthwhile investment.

Make Safety Paramount
Instead of putting yourself at risk for discrimination, it may be a good time to rethink your substance use policy. In construction, marijuana use for any reason can be a serious risk to life and limb. The National Institute on Drug Abuse notes that workers who test positive for cannabis are more likely to be involved in accidents or receive injuries while on the job. As an employer, you may need to evaluate each situation on a case-by-case basis. It might not make sense to test people for cannabis that they may consume in their off-hours anymore. But you definitely need them sober and attentive while they’re operating heavy machinery or in a dangerous area of the jobsite, for their own safety and yours.

Consider Flexible Job Requirements
If you want to hire an employee who needs to use marijuana in a medicinal context, it may help to consider creating some flexibility in job requirements for all positions. People working in a small business tend to fill several roles at the same time anyway. You can reduce your risk of problems by acknowledging that people may have a legal reason for using cannabis, and helping them find a way to accommodate it. This way, you aren’t putting them, yourself or your projects at risk.

Creating substance use policies that work with the changing times is just one part of running a contracting business. Getting a solid grounding in the various aspects of your field is another. For more information about how our programs can help you get started, contact CSLS today!

You’d never leave the warehouse or jobsite without confirming that the door was locked and security activated. Are you as careful with your electronic devices? Scammers are getting better at finding the weaknesses in people’s workflow, and they may be coming for your contracting business. Officials say that businesses are often the biggest targets for cyberattacks, and that they can seem more real and innocent than you think. Here’s what to watch out for, and a few ways you can protect yourself.

Remember: It’s Easy to Get Scammed
Practically everyone has received an email from a prince offering millions of dollars to anyone willing to give sensitive bank account information. While most people know not to fall for something like this, most modern scams are much less obvious. Scammers look for weaknesses in the system and figure out the most effective ways to exploit them. They’ve spent years getting better at it. This means that when you get an email from a contractor you know asking for your routing number for a wire transfer, it might look entirely legit. As a general rule, you want to assume that many communications like this can be faulty.

Lock Down Your Passwords
If you’re not changing your passwords regularly, or if you’re using the defaults on the devices you buy, you’re putting yourself at risk. You hear about hackers using conventional passwords on smart home technology to break through a home’s security. This is just as easy to do for your security cameras on the jobsite. Good passwords should be:

• long, at least eight and preferably 12 characters
• a combination of numbers, letters and symbols
• different between accounts
• difficult for anyone to guess

Strong passwords are hard to remember. If you’re constantly forgetting them, or choosing easy ones so you don’t, it’s time to get a password manager.

Never Share Confidential Information Over Phone or Email
People expect scams to look over-the-top fake because they assume scammers are sending it to hundreds of thousands of people. At the business level, identity thieves only need to get one hit to get a huge payout. This encourages them to make it as personal and realistic as possible, knowing that you’ll be more likely to take the bait if there’s a real person on the other end. Just like you wouldn’t believe someone making a prank phone call, you should treat all unexpected communications with suspicion. That texter can’t fix your student loans, your bank would never email you to ask for your password, and the IRS doesn’t make phone calls.

Use Multiple Means of Verification
Phishing scams, where the person uses some correct information about you to try to get more, are so slick these days you might not even see it. Sure, you might think that you should log into your business bank account to make sure the email is correct, but how do you get there? Clicking on the link in the email is how they get you. Instead, find the contact information for the institution through their regular website or from an official communication like a bank statement. As an added layer of protection, use a different device to verify it. If your phone or computer is already compromised, using the same machine might still put you at risk.

Watch What You Download
When a random website asks you to download something, you may already know not to do so. What happens if you get an email from someone on your team asking you to review documents in a ZIP file? This is where being a little more suspicious comes in handy. Scammers hide ransomware and malware in certain types of files that seem reasonable and related to your business. If you download them, they’ll often create hours or days of trouble for you. When you’re not expecting the files, don’t click on them. And if you are, install anti-virus software to help identify problems.

Keeping your business secure is getting harder and harder, especially in the construction field. By taking this advice, you can protect your information and your money. To discover the benefits of a career in construction, visit CSLS today!

When you first start your contracting business, you might be going it alone. Yet, it’s often impossible for people to do all the work to keep a business running on their own. You’ll need a team, and sometimes it’s hard to decide which jobs can be filled by you and which ones require support. Here’s the basic components of the team you’ll want to have for your contracting business.

Marketing and Sales
To a certain extent, it’s true that you can build a business based on word of mouth. In other words, pick up a few happy clients and they’ll let other people know to hire you for their own projects. However, construction can be a competitive industry, with lots of small businesses you’ve got to compete with to get a client’s contract. This is where brand management comes in. Knowing how to find your target demographic and the best ways to secure their business takes experience that you might not have. A sales and marketing manager can handle leads, but also advertise your services in the right places.

Cash Flow Management
Every business needs a person who can collect payments, handle the bills and maintain the budgets. When you first start your business, this person will often be you. However, in order to make that work, you’ve got to be reasonably good with numbers. This is an administrative task that will bring your business crashing to a halt if you forget to take care of it, though. If you’re too busy completing projects to make this a priority, you’ll need an administrative support person to keep track of the general cash flow of the business.

Accounting and Payroll
Although handling the finances for the business seems like it could easily be done by one person, this usually isn’t true. There’s a reason many businesses outsource their tax accounting and payroll work to a service or accountant. If you get it wrong, you may be held legally liable for mistakes. There are lots of rules you have to follow to pay your employees and take care of your taxes each year, and they can be tricky to understand or remember. Paying a service to handle it for you ensures that everyone gets paid on time, including you and the IRS.

Skilled Workers
Contracting businesses that serve homeowners for relatively minor tasks may be able to get by with just one person doing the work. However, it’s worth considering a second person, if you have enough work available and you can pay them reliably. When all the work depends on you, you’re on the hook to get the job done around the clock and in any kind of condition. Failure to meet the terms of the project can make it harder for you to secure clients in the future. Adding a skilled worker who can duplicate most of the work you do can improve your efficiency and provide a cushion for when you need to focus on administrative tasks.

Subcontractors
Although subcontractors aren’t technically a part of your business, many of the projects you do wouldn’t succeed without them. You’ll hire subcontractors to do the jobs that require skills you don’t have, or to fill roles that you cannot do simultaneously. There are rules for the way the state allows you to classify contractors compared to employees, so you want to make sure you’re doing it correctly. A reliable subcontractor who does good work is worth their weight in gold. They make it easy to take on more-complicated projects, without you having to provide regular work for them.

Being an independent contractor feels like a business of one, but it often takes a team to make it a success. Understanding the different roles your business needs will help you build a fulfilling career. To get started, visit CSLS today!

There are dozens of construction industry trade conferences across the country each year. If you want to know the latest trends and insight into the newest best practices, you might want to attend one on occasion. Travel for work isn’t cheap when you run your own business, so you want to choose wisely and come prepared. Here’s what to expect from a conference, and how you can get the most out of it.

Research the Best Options
With many construction-related conferences each year, you should be able to find one that works well with your timing and goals. Fortunately, many of them are held in California or in nearby cities like Las Vegas. The right one for you depends on your field, your interests and your funds for travel. Keep in mind that the best choice may not be located within easy driving distance. Several conferences aim to provide a variety of choices to suit almost any construction professional. There are also specialties targeting attendees who work in areas like modular construction or concrete.

Find Out Who’s Presenting
Some conferences mostly feature an exhibit floor that you can browse at your convenience, but many also offer presentations, demonstrations or classes. Since conferences often have limited opportunities to talk to people presenting, do a little homework in advance. Find out which of the major industry influencers will be there. If you can, research what they have been working on and get ideas for questions you’d like to ask in a question and answer session. Bring these notes to the conference. This will help you retain more information from the sessions.

Be Flexible About Scheduling
Depending on the conference, you may have a lot of flexibility in the sessions that you attend. There’s little point in occupying space in a presentation that doesn’t fit your field or give you new information, even if the company presenting is important or well-known. It’s important to get a vibe for conference etiquette, so that you’re not disrupting others. Just keep in mind it’s not uncommon to slip out at the beginning of a speech when you realize it’s not for you. If you’re not sure, it’s best to sit or stand near the back so you can make a discreet exit when necessary.

Save Time for Browsing Exhibits
In this industry, there’s a lot of innovation with new tools and approaches you can try. The exhibit floor is going to be the place to go when you want to take a crack at something you’ve never tried. Conferences, like World of Concrete in Las Vegas, may have as many as 1,500 exhibitors. Depending on the schedule, you might only have a few hours between sessions each day. Make sure to dedicate extra time to browse, and get a list of vendors in advance. That way, you’ll know which ones you definitely want to see first.

Prepare to Network
Whether you’re headed to a conference near you or one that requires a plane flight, networking is still an important idea. Networking is how you build relationships with other construction industry professionals that will help you keep your business going. Don’t skip the social lunches or coffee breaks, especially if they mean you get an opportunity to talk to other people who live in your area. Track down presenters on the exhibit floor and make sure they get your business card. This may be your best chance to get your name out there, find subcontractors and learn more about the latest news in the industry.

Once you get your contractor license, you need to keep building knowledge and connections. Passing the exam is one of the first steps. To establish a construction career that can thrive for decades, visit CSLS today!

It’s so hard to do the right thing when you’re surrounded by people who don’t. You go to the effort of studying and taking the time to get your license so you can operate honorably. Then you see unlicensed contractors driving through neighborhoods and business districts, offering services to people who might be your customers. California does allow unlicensed contractors to do certain types of projects, but there are strict limitations. Here’s a few tips to make sure that you’re not losing work to people who shouldn’t be taking those projects in the first place.

Know the Rules for the Project
The rules for projects that may or may not need a licensed contractor depend on the state. In the state of California, anyone who wants to do a project that costs $500 or more for labor and materials needs a contractor’s license. This limits the legal work that unlicensed contractors can do, since $500 for the full project doesn’t go very far. Keep in mind that state licensing requirements don’t usually transfer unless the state has a reciprocity agreement. This means that someone who has an active license in Nevada may be able to do work in California, but someone licensed in Illinois might not.

Understand the Risks of Unlicensed Contract Work
If you ever felt inclined to ignore this problem in your area, you should know there’s several reasons to pay attention. It’s not just that unlicensed contractors might be taking your clients with promises of lower costs or quicker turnarounds. They often do work of lower quality, especially if they don’t have the same amount of experience that a licensed contractor does. They’re less likely to follow building conventions, like obtaining the right permits for the job. They may even scam property owners with fake offers of work for an advance payment. This can turn into an expensive headache for you, when property owners call you in to fix a mess.

Gather Information About Unlicensed Contractors
Doing work as an unlicensed contractor outside the legal limits is a criminal act punishable by fines and/or prison time. As with any other criminal case, the state needs evidence to prosecute and hope to get a conviction. Most unlicensed contractors know this, so they’ll try to avoid putting too much in writing. Your job is to gather everything that they leave behind, like estimates, receipts for payment, or advertising materials falsely claiming that they have a license.

Report Violations
Once you have some information on unlicensed contractors in your area, you need to report them. Doing this consistently may not feel like a triumph, but you should keep in mind that you’re saving a lot of people trouble by doing it. The Contractors State Licensing Board (CSLB) has two ways you can report violations. You can fill out a form to file a complaint that someone is advertising illegally. You can also submit a lead referral to the Statewide Investigative Fraud Team (SWIFT). The more information you can provide, the better the state organizations can follow up on the report.

Make Showing Your License a Part of the Process
It’s unfortunate but true that most property owners learn about this the hard way. Too many people say that they didn’t think to ask for or verify a license because they assumed the contractor had it covered. You can do your part to cut down on the problem by making it a point to show your license in every consultation with a prospective client. When they see you take this step, they’ll come to expect it from everyone they consult. This erodes the market for unlicensed contractors, making it a less-profitable way to earn a living.

Unlicensed contract work is a serious problem in California, and the state needs licensed contractors to help root it out. To discover more benefits of earning your contractor’s license, contact CSLS today!

If you’re accustomed to working in the private sector, you may think that businesses get to set the wages they pay their employees, with few limitations. For the public sector and a wide variety of public works projects, prevailing wage laws are the order of the day. This regulation dictates how much you have to pay your employees in order to secure a public works project. Here are the basics of prevailing wage laws, and how they may relate to your contracting business.

What Are Prevailing Wage Laws?
A prevailing wage is a set hourly wage dependent on the area, including benefits and overtime. About 100 years ago, the wages that contractors and subcontractors might be paid for public works projects depended heavily on the state. Although this is still true to some degree, federal legislation establishes specific controls. The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 ruled that on these types of projects over a certain amount of money, contractors had to be paid a specific wage that was considered average for the area. Many states like California have added their own laws to this federal legislation, providing clarification as they saw fit. These are considered prevailing wage laws.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Prevailing Wage Laws?
If you think about the Great Depression and the lack of worker protections that people were facing in the 1920s, it may not be difficult to think about what people hoped to achieve with prevailing wage laws. Someone who has hired people who are willing to work for far less money may be able to underbid other companies for the same job. This can lead to a race to the bottom as every business tries to survive on less.

On the other hand, many experts argue that setting wages for projects like this can hinder innovation and development. They claim that if someone is willing to work for a certain wage, they should be allowed to use that secure contracts. Higher wages set by the state can increase costs to the point that a business struggles to survive. Even the early proponents of the policies argued that oversight was difficult to guarantee, and that the laws may not provide enough of a penalty to discourage businesses from violating the rules.

How Can Prevailing Wage Laws Affect Your Contracting Business?
If you want to bid on a public works project in the state of California, you must show that you pay a specific per diem set by the state. This also applies to certain types of residential construction, if the funds to build are paid partially out of public funds. State officials use the most common wage that workers in a particular trade or classification are paid in the area. The state sets these numbers twice a year, on February 22 and August 22. These numbers may be set by the county or for a larger area. You can always pay your workers more for the work than the prevailing wage, but you may not pay less.

What Can Business Owners Do to Ensure Compliance?
If you’re interested in these types of projects, you need to be ready to prove you are compliant with prevailing wage laws. This is particularly important for businesses that have contracts in multiple states, which all have their own forms and specific criteria companies have to follow. If you’re trying to cut costs and do it the old-fashioned way, make sure you’ve got the right numbers for the area and the time of year. These rates expire every six months. For simplicity, you might try using software that will specifically handle prevailing wage paperwork. This can make it easier to ensure that you are up-to-date on the rules and less likely to have a bid rejected because you used obsolete wage rates.

Payroll is one of the biggest parts of your business overhead, and prevailing wage laws can make it more complicated. By understanding what they are and how to ensure your business meets the requirements, you can better ensure a successful bid on public works projects. To discover other benefits of starting your own business as a licensed contractor, contact CSLS today!

These days, independent contractors are a popular hiring approach for all kinds of businesses. Companies like Uber rely largely on staff with no benefits and little rights within the company. With the recent passage of California’s AB 5 law, the way an independent contractor works in the state is about to change. Here’s what you can expect from the new law, and a few ways it might affect your contracting business.

What Is the Difference Between an Employee and an Independent Contractor?
Independent contractors have been a prominent feature of the construction industry for decades, so it may be difficult for people in the industry to understand why California passed this new law. After all, an independent contractor has a lot of flexibility that a regular employee of a business does not. If you want to set your own hours and select the projects you think will be the best fit for you, being independent helps you achieve that. It’s why a lot of people start a contracting business in the first place. However, being your own boss also means that you lose a lot of the protections that state and federal laws guarantee employees. These include:

• minimum wages
• tax withholding
• access to health insurance
• retirement planning

When you’re not someone’s employee, it’s on you to provide these things for yourself. You may even pay higher taxes as a result.

What Triggered AB 5’s Passage?
Nationwide, companies have been switching from a workforce primarily made of employees to one mostly made up of contractors. For people who want the benefits of running their own businesses and working for a variety of clients or organizations, this can be a benefit. However, a number of businesses have recently been called out for abusing this system as a way to pay lower wages while still confining their workers to employee-like conditions. Businesses that rely on a large workforce to provide remote services, like Uber, are the primary targets of this new legislation.

What Is the AB 5 Law?
The AB 5 law was passed in September 2019 and will take effect in California January 1st, 2020. Although the law only carries weight in the state of California, it may affect companies located in other places that hire contractors based in California. Basically, the law requires that businesses that use independent contractors be able to prove that the people they hire in this capacity function as independent contractors. In order to classify as an independent contractor, people must:

• be able to select their own work and generally control how it is done
• perform work other than that which the business generally does
• have an independent line of work or their own business

This means that someone who runs a business as an independent contractor wouldn’t be classified as an employee under this law. However, someone who works under the dictates of the business owner and performs tasks related to the core of the business may be ruled an employee under AB 5.

What Does AB 5 Mean for Construction Businesses?
When you first start out as an independent contractor, it makes sense to establish yourself as a separate business. This will provide an easy form of proof against any claims when you work as a subcontractor under someone else. Once you get to the point of hiring employees, make sure that anyone you bring on as an independent contractor can meet these requirements. Companies that treat regular workers as contractors when they really should be employees can get hit with a higher tax liability and penalties.

Being an independent contractor is part of what many people love about the construction industry. You get to control your own destiny. Just make sure that you know what the local laws are, so you can do it right. To get started on the path to building your future, visit CSLS today!