As they say in business, you have to go where the money is. And sometimes, the money isn’t plentiful close to where you live or work. In this case, you might consider taking on a few distance projects to make you more money. Here are a few ways you can evaluate distance projects for your contracting business.

Evaluate Your Travel Options
To start out, you should get a sense for where you are willing to travel. For example, you might decide that you are willing to drive up to 200 miles, but you don’t want to go any farther than that. Your options depend on your location and other factors related to travel. In order to know where you are likely to travel, it’s wise to do some research into parts of the state with the most development potential. It’s too easy to rule out big urban areas as being already developed, but they are also ripe candidates for urban renewal. Try to get a sense for what the next few years could look like. An area with lots of development on the horizon may pose more interesting opportunities than one that is just about to conclude.

Estimate Travel Costs
Traveling to find work may be a no-brainer if you’re not finding a lot of opportunities close to home. On the other hand, if you have plenty of options in your area, you should balance out the cost and complication of travel with the benefits you can get from completing those projects. Create a detailed estimate with cost ranges for travel, including:

• Gasoline
• Wear and maintenance on vehicles
• Equipment accessibility
• Accommodations and dining

Expenses depend on the region and the time of year. However, you should be able to come up with some general ideas of what you can expect to pay for a project that lasts one week or two weeks.

Consider Climate and Weather
As you are evaluating your options, it’s important to consider climate and weather. It’s not just a matter of determining whether or not you are willing to work in excessively cold or hot temperatures. The climate based on the time of year may affect travel as well as work. For example, if you expect to travel regularly for work, you may need to factor in things like wildfire season, and have plans to be able to get to the project on time despite delays. You also have to be ready to work in the region, even if it is 115 degrees or buried in snow. It’s worth doing research into safe practices for extreme temperatures before you make a choice.

Create a Travel Plan
Once you’ve decided which scenarios would make you willing to travel, you need to make a travel plan that works for you and your employees. After all, you’re not going to make a sudden commitment to work for a week hundreds of miles away. Devise a notification system that provides enough time to prepare for travel, without compromising your existing projects. You may need to tweak it over time, but you should have a rough plan in place before you accept the first distance project.

Avoid Cutting Corners
You wouldn’t cut corners on any of your projects, whether they were local or far away. You should also avoid cutting corners in your business travel. It’s tempting to go for the cheapest accommodations and try to live off snacks to save money. But in the long run, you’ll find that this approach can make you dread the idea of travel, and make it harder to do good work while you’re there. Be reasonable about your expectations, and set a good example for your employees. As a result, you’ll find the experience more rewarding and do a better job.

Building a successful contracting business involves evaluating all your options. Getting your contractor’s license is another important step. To discover the benefits of expert exam preparation, contact CSLS today!

While you’re on the job site, there will be times when you are working inside a building or a space that isn’t well-ventilated. Without the right equipment, you could be putting yourself or your employees at risk. Good ventilation is the best way to protect your health, especially when you’re working with chemicals. Here are a few things you should think about when planning ventilation for your construction projects.

Common Types of Ventilation

The type of ventilation that you need depends on your working environment. In many cases, a building may have certain types of ventilation systems already in existence. There are a few common types of ventilation that you should know about, including:

• Natural: Using windows and doors to provide fresh air
• Exhaust: Using a fan to draw air out of the building
• Balance ventilation: Provides a fresh supply of air at the same rate as exhaust

It’s worth keeping in mind that a structure that is enclosed but only partially finished may not have adequate ventilation. You should also know that natural ventilation is often insufficient, especially if you are working with anything that produces harmful exhaust.

VOCs and Chemicals
Although any business may have to deal with the side effects of VOCs and certain types of chemicals, construction makes both much more common. Building materials can off-gas VOCs like formaldehyde for years after construction is complete. However, they’re more likely to do so at the very beginning. As such, you should have a plan to air out rooms at various points in the construction process. This is also true for areas in which you will be using noxious chemicals. It may be necessary to use spot ventilation techniques and additional personal protective equipment to protect yourself and others working on the jobsite.

Fuel-Burning Appliances and Tools
Fuel-burning appliances and tools are popular on the construction site. They offer a higher amount of power without the need to connect to an electrical system. You might use them to provide heat on cold days. The chief concern is that fuel-burning equipment produces exhaust, which can turn into carbon monoxide. Certain appliances and tools are rated for indoor use because they contain a sensor that will turn them off of the oxygen level gets too low. However, sensors can fail, and you should not assume that an enclosed space is safe for using this equipment. You should plan to use spot ventilation and PPE whenever you’re using anything that burns fuel without an exhaust venting directly outside.

Spot Ventilation Options
In most cases, you’re going to want to take advantage of spot ventilation. You’ve got a variety of possibilities, and you may need more than one:

• Built-in exhaust fans
• Portable fans
• Open windows and doors
• Air purifiers

Keep in mind that fans come with different levels of power, and the right one depends on the amount of circulation that you need. In some cases, a circulating fan that you might use at home would be helpful. In other cases, you’ll need a high-powered fan that can circulate hundreds of cubic feet within minutes.

Additional Personal Protective Equipment
Ventilation does a couple of things for the air quality of the job site. The first is ensuring that the workspace is generally free of harmful fumes. The second is protecting people who are in the workspace at the present moment. The efficacy of the second depends heavily on the type of ventilation, as well as what you’re doing. In many cases, it may make sense to use masks and ventilators with breathable filters during construction work. After all, ventilation can remove contaminants, but the system may not be able to neutralize the risk immediately. Your use of a mask or ventilator may prevent injury or long-term health concerns, in addition to any steps you take to increase ventilation.

Ventilating your workspace is one way that you can keep yourself and your employees safe. To learn more about how to run a contracting business, visit CSLS today!

Now that the vaccine for COVID-19 is widely available, a lot of Americans are looking to go back to some kind of normal. But even though all adults and many children can get a vaccine, not everyone wants to. There are a lot of reasons, and construction has the highest proportion of vaccine-hesitant workers. If you have a few on your construction team, here are a few ways you can help.

Ask for Input
In order to get a better understanding of the reasons that your employees don’t want to get the vaccine, you’ll need to talk to them first. There are a variety of possible explanations, including:

• Concern about efficacy
• Worries about side effects
• Inability to get an appointment
• Lack of paid time off

The answer that you receive will make it easier for you to address changes to your business to solve the problem. If you don’t receive much in the way of answers, you may need to back off and revisit the subject later.

Make Reasonable Accommodations
If you’ve looked at the news occasionally over the past few months, you know that there have been a handful of problems that people commonly face when figuring out how and where to get the COVID vaccine. Some people don’t know where the vaccine is available, or if they’ll have to pay for it. Others might worry about the time it takes, or what they will do if they have to schedule the appointment during normal business hours. You can do a lot to put your employees at ease by making reasonable accommodations for them to schedule and go to each appointment. For example, offering paid time off for the appointment helps employees because they don’t have to worry about losing money as a result.

Update Your Sick Leave Plan
There’s been a lot of conversation about the potential side effects of the COVID vaccine, and it’s worth adding accommodations for these, as well. It’s hard to predict how someone will react to the vaccine, although experts suggest that the highest likelihood of side effects will happen with the second shot. Some people feel slightly ill for a day or two, while others are knocked flat for several days. Some may have no side effects at all. This is a good time to evaluate your sick leave plan, and make sure that you can make room for people to recover. They’re better off staying home until they feel able to work the full day again.

Evaluate Incentives Carefully
It’s tempting to give incentives as a way to persuade your employees to take the plunge. In fact, several states have offered different types of perks for getting the vaccine, like participation in the lottery or even direct cash payments. If you’re thinking about employing these kinds of incentives for your employees, you should do so carefully. Not everyone has the ability to get the COVID vaccine, even if they wanted to. Some people have documented vaccine reactions, or have health concerns that make them unable to participate. You don’t want to leave them out by offering an incentive that they could never get.

Avoid Ultimatums
Requiring the vaccine for employees may not be the best practice. Some industries, like healthcare, can require it because employees who are unvaccinated represent a serious health risk to the public. Otherwise, such ultimatums are more likely to increase mistrust and stress among employees, rather than promoting compliance. In some cases, it could be illegal to set such obligations for employees. Instead of forcing your employees to prove their compliance or show reasons that they have not, it’s better to make it as simple as possible for them to get it and encourage them to do so.

Having a vaccinated population is one way that the construction industry can get back to a new normal. To learn more about building your own contracting business, contact CSLS today!

In your personal life, you’ve probably learned how to spot a few scams. It helps you avoid financial loss and major embarrassment. But you should also know that there are people who will target businesses with scams, too. Here are a few red flags you should watch for, as well as a few ways you can protect yourself.

Asking for Personal Information
Like many personal finance scams, business scams often operate around getting access to your sensitive data. For example, a scammer might send you an email or a text message pretending to be from your bank or other trusted institution. They make a claim about something related to your account, and offer a link for you to provide your login credentials. If you fall for it, they may gain access to your account information. To avoid this problem, don’t click on links provided in emails. If you’re not sure whether or not the communication is real, log into the account the way you normally would.

Using Abnormal Forms of Communication
Financial institutions usually have preferred methods for communication, and they will often make these clear on their website. Scammers might take advantage of an unusual type of communication as a way to catch you off-guard and make it easier to bypass your natural defenses. For example, you might not think anything of a spam email or letter that comes to your business mailbox. But what about a text or a phone call? The IRS is famous for repeating that it never requests sensitive information over the phone. They do this because so many scammers use that method to get people’s information. In short, if it’s not the normal way that your financial institution would contact you, you should not consider it a safe method.

Refusing to Put Details in Writing
Although many of the most common scams come in the form of phishing, there are other types that you should be aware of as well. As a business, you may interact with lots of other businesses that provide products and services. Some of them may be legit, while others might not. One way that you can tell that someone is not dealing with you on the level is a lack of written evidence of any negotiation. Someone who is planning to take your money and run, or provide you a shoddy service for the money, wants as little of a paper trail as possible. If they ask you to take their word for it or promise to give written records after the fact, it’s wise to refuse agreement.

Pitching Fake Services
As a small business owner, you may be meeting a lot of responsibilities for your company and therefore don’t have a lot of time to research. Sometimes, someone running a scam will offer to perform a service that they convince you is necessary. It might include placement in a directory or participation in some kind of awards program. And after you have made a deposit or another form of payment, you discover that the thing you’ve signed up for doesn’t actually exist. These scams can be pretty common, so you’ll want to watch out for them. Every time you get an offer for a service like this, do some research into it and see if it actually benefits your business.

Making Unrealistic or Illegal Offers
As a general rule, if an offer seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Some scammers will offer to handle certain aspects of your brand management, by eliminating negative feedback or providing positive reviews for your business. Even under the best intentions, services like this can be sketchy. In certain instances, they are also illegal. Just keep in mind that nothing in business is truly free and services that promise you the world are unlikely to be able to deliver it. Always ask for references and follow up on offers before you make any commitments.

Running a successful contracting business includes being able to spot the most common scams targeting businesses. For more information about getting ready to become a licensed contractor, visit CSLS today!

Concrete is a big part of construction. The problem is that it’s not the best for the environment. Of course, that also means that sustainable building experts are always looking for alternatives that perform much like concrete without all the complications it presents. Here are a few options you can consider for your contracting business.

Green Concrete
Although no concrete is going to be truly sustainable, there are ways to decrease its carbon footprint. One of the major problems about concrete is that it is heavy and strong but does not necessarily last. That means concrete ends up in a landfill several years after its original application, in a lot of cases. Green concrete seeks to reclaim certain aspects of the manufacturing process. For example, green concrete manufacturers might use recycled materials in the production of new concrete. Sometimes, they can even use old concrete to create new concrete. This decreases the amount of raw materials needed for production and minimizes waste in the landfill.

Fiber Cement
Fiber cement is becoming a popular building material for its durability and low maintenance needs. Fiber cement uses a combination of natural fibers, minerals, water and heat to create a surface that is less likely to break down over time. The manufacturing process creates fewer carbon emissions, making it a more attractive option for siding and more. Due to its construction, it is less likely to crack or wear out. As such, it can remain on the building for a longer period of time without replacement or extensive repairs.

Steel
Steel is a strong, durable building material that can be a way to minimize use of concrete in construction. You probably already use steel, but you may not necessarily know all of its benefits. Steel is less likely to corrode or break down over time, which gives it a longer possible lifespan. It is less prone to fluctuations in the pricing market compared to lumber, so it’s easier to estimate how much you can expect to pay for it from one year to the next. It is also one of the most recyclable building materials. That means you can use steel that has been mostly recycled, and expect that when the building is no longer needed, that steel can be recycled once again.

Wood
Wood is an age-old building material, because it is widely available almost anywhere. The chief benefit of wood, in comparison to concrete, is that it is a renewable building material. If trees are planted at a reasonable rate to replace the ones that are harvested for building, there will always be enough wood. In addition, treated wood is often durable enough for use in multiple projects. There is a healthy market for reclaimed wood from old buildings that have been demolished. The trick for construction businesses is to ensure that the wood you buy for your projects is sustainable.

Bamboo
Bamboo is emerging as an effective alternative for both concrete and wood. The problem with concrete is that it generates significant carbon emissions in manufacture, transport and disposal. The problem with wood is that it can take years or even decades to replace the species commonly used in building. By comparison, bamboo only takes 3 to 5 years to regenerate. Companies are still coming up with the best ways to use bamboo. However, the latest innovations are increasing its strength and durability, making it an effective building material at least for small structures.

Figuring out how to use less concrete is a sustainable act for your contracting business. To find out more about what you’ll need to run a successful contracting business, contact CSLS today!

Every career change starts with a lot of thinking on your part. It’s exciting and full of questions and dreams about future opportunities. While your friends and family members might be as eager as you are, there are some who could need some persuading. After all, changes can be unexpected. Here are a few ways you can show your loved ones all the reasons to look forward to your construction career.

Talk About the Labor Shortage
For decades, the discussion about careers has centered around one specific point: Can you get a job doing the work you’re working toward? Long ago, your career was often set for you by your parents. These days, pursuing a particular career only works if you have a decent chance to get the job you’re looking for. The good news is that construction has virtually boundless opportunities at the moment. If you’re dedicated and willing to work for it, you’ll find careers with great pay and wonderful job security until you’re ready to retire. So many other industries can’t even hint at that kind of potential anymore. Now your loved ones need to hear it.

Show Your Enthusiasm
When you’re listening to someone who is really excited about something, that kind of energy is contagious. It’s easy to feel optimistic about career options when you feel good about them. So take a moment and think about all the things you’re looking forward to:

• Do you love seeing a project through to its conclusion?
• Do you enjoy building things from the ground up?
• Have you always wanted to start your own business or be able to set your own terms for your work?

These are all benefits that you can get from a construction career.

Describe Construction’s Future
Construction is both one of the oldest professions and one of the most modern. Everyone needs a place to live, work, shop, relax, etc. And since buildings don’t last forever, there’s a regular cycle of renovation and new construction needed. With advancements in the industry, you can find plenty of ways to do what construction does best while learning and using the latest technology. To put it plainly, construction is a lot cooler than it used to be. And it will continue to get better over time.

Explain Your Career Options
As with any career change, it’s good to show that you have options for growth and upward mobility. Take a moment to share the types of jobs you’re looking to have, not just once you’re done with training but 10 or 20 years in the future. Within any field, there may be lots of ways that you can perform the same type of job. For example, some contractors prefer to start their own businesses. Others want to work with a larger firm that offers a variety of services.

Walk Through Your Career Plan
With any career worth pursuing, you might have to spend a few years investing your time into practicing your trade. If you were going to college to get a degree, you’d have to put in a similar amount of time, or even more. Your friends and family members want to know that you have a career plan in mind, not simply a job that you can have for a time. Show them what you plan to do for the next five or 10 years, like getting your contractor’s license or starting your own business. They’ll appreciate the investment you have already put in and will be able to see that you have a good plan in place.

When you’re excited about your career in construction, your family and friends will be happy to see you so committed to your future. To get started, visit CSLS today!

The main point of starting your own business is to finance your life while doing good work and being your own boss. Of course, you may have to wait until the money starts rolling in on a consistent basis. In fact, it may be a few years before you can predict how much money you will earn in any given month. Although this is common for any small business, it does make it harder to know how to pay your bills. Here are a few tips.

Figure Out Expenses
When you work for yourself, you have to figure out what to pay yourself. In essence, you have to build your salary from the ground up. One of the easiest ways to do that is to figure out your expenses. Make a list of all your personal expenses for:

• Housing
• Food
• Utilities and other services
• Transportation
• Insurance
• Healthcare
• Incidentals, like clothing or home maintenance

This should give you a fairly good idea of what you need to be earning on a monthly basis. It may be less or much higher than what you think you can pay yourself. But at least it gives you some specific numbers to work with.

Set Minimum Income Limits
With a list of your expenses, you can start to build what you think your income could look like. In most households in California, people need at least two incomes. After all, we’re not known for having inexpensive housing or a short commute. So there’s a high degree of probability that your expenses may exceed your income, especially at first. But like many other independent workers and sole proprietors, you need to set minimums for your income. If your income is extremely variable, to a level of thousands of dollars’ difference from one month to the next, you may want to set a minimum and a target income based on the interval in which you want to get paid.

Create A Regular Payment Schedule
Once you have a sense of how much you think you can reasonably pay yourself, you should aim to set a regular payment schedule. Choose an interval that works best for your expenses. Many people choose to pay themselves once or twice a month, but you may prefer to do it weekly as well. If you are outsourcing payroll services or using ACH for direct deposit, you’ll need to make sure to start the payment process early enough. Whatever you do, make sure that you are still taking care of the non-payroll expenses for the business, so you can keep it running.

Set Aside Excess for Slow Periods
Many people who have run businesses before will tell you that until you get established, you’ll encounter periods of feast and famine. What this means is that you will have months or even a year where you have more work than you can handle. But if you don’t take care in your decisions with the money, you’ll find yourself stuck when work becomes slow. It’s a tricky balance. You have to pay yourself or you won’t be able to keep the business running. But if you take out too much when times are high, you won’t have enough to keep going when times are low. When you first have excess funds, work on building a cushion to get you through the next light month.

Forecast Changes Over Time
As you get established, you’ll notice that your income needs and expectations will change over time. For example, if you decide to offer a greater variety of services to build a more reliable clientele, you may end up with a higher income. Although you should focus on preserving cash flow and making sure you have some savings to protect you, this doesn’t mean that you have to work at the same income for the whole of your career. Examine your business spending and your income every few months or twice a year. If you feel comfortable, you may be able to adjust your payments upward.

Building a business means getting used to unpredictable income streams, especially at first. These tips make it easier. To find out more benefits of running your own contracting business, contact CSLS today!

Decades ago, being unhappy with your workplace was simply part of the experience. These days, experts know that the way you approach mental health for yourself and your employees can be the key to long-term business success. Here are a few factors you should consider, as a way to promote a healthy work environment that is as positive as it is productive.

Reasonable Workload
Construction is not typically known for being an industry with a reasonable workload. People tend to work long hours, especially at times of the year when business is high. Although this may seem like a dream for productivity, it can trigger problems over time. People who aren’t dealing with mental health struggles can still experience burnout. And the worse it gets, the more likely it is that people will rely on unhealthy coping mechanisms. An excessive or unpredictable workload might also trigger mental illness that is poorly managed or sitting just beneath the surface. Controlling the workload to a reasonable level, and giving people the comfort of a schedule they can expect, can make them feel more stable at a tough time.

Flexibility
Employers need to offer consistency to their employees, but also flexibility when it is needed. Research indicates that when employees feel like they have the power to control the conditions of their workday, they tend to be happier and even work harder. Sometimes, this means allowing someone to take a couple of days off when they are dealing with a complicated family issue. At other times, it means tailoring an employee schedule to fit their natural preferences. If you think about it, it’s easy to understand. Most night owls don’t enjoy getting up for work at 5 a.m. And someone who gets up at 5 a.m. probably doesn’t want to still be working at 9 p.m.

Positive Feedback
Mental illness isn’t necessarily created by a person’s environment. However, the way that you create an environment for your employees can certainly affect how they manage their mental health. Positive feedback can make a big difference, but this depends on your management style. Some business owners like to minimize the amount of time they’re telling their employees what to do. But sometimes, that means you’re not telling someone anything unless you have a complaint. In other cases, bosses spend a lot of time giving feedback to employees, but they don’t pay attention to how much of it is positive. Making sure that you give good feedback and keep criticism constructive can make it easier for workers not to get stuck on it.

Building Support Systems
Helping yourself and your employees means that you need to build a support system that people feel comfortable using. Mental illness still carries a hefty stigma, even if many mental health advocates have been trying to minimize it. People often assume that they cannot get help for even common mental health concerns like anxiety or depression.

In construction, it’s important to understand how big of an issue it can be. Experts estimate that as many as one in five construction workers struggles with mental illness. In fact, construction workers are much more likely to die by suicide than they are from a fall, which is the most common source of physical injury in the industry. Experts suggest reaching out to employees on a regular basis, and considering programs like employee assistance. Larger firms are starting to offer these benefits as a way to attract and retain long-term employees.

Employee-Focused Improvements
Ultimately, it’s not enough to make changes based on what you think your employees need. You must consult them to get their input. This is tricky because sometimes people have suggestions that aren’t realistic to carry out. Think about how you would handle a problem that you want to solve personally. You take your own perspective into consideration and make a choice that is best for the company. Now, apply that to any employees who might have input to share. Get their opinions and then see what you can put into action.

Caring for your mental health and that of your employees is a great way to ensure your contracting business survives. To find out more, visit CSLS today!

Sometimes, in-person communication can seem like the most difficult form. This is because you have to know what to say on the fly, and you can’t delete it and say it a different way. The good news is that you can learn how to manage difficult conversations for your contracting business. Here’s what you need to do.

Write Simple Scripts
When you want to learn the best ways to deal with conflict in a conversation, you may want to start by thinking of people who have to deal with conflict all day long. For example, imagine the last time you had a conflict with someone who works at the DMV or the company that provides your Internet access. In most cases, these employees have simple scripts that they have been taught to follow. These scripts help them to avoid saying more than they should, or offering more compromises than they can. Although you don’t want a general conversation to sound completely scripted, you can come up with a few sentences that help you to clarify your meaning and avoid causing further conflict.

Practice Dealing With Conflicts
If you don’t feel like you have a lot of experience dealing with conflict in a conversation, you may want to practice with a friend or relative. Make sure that the person you’re practicing with knows you well enough to avoid turning it into a personal disagreement, but can also help you stick to the exercise. Try it out with a few different people, since you’ll have clients with different communication styles that you may have to deal with. Make notes about what works and what doesn’t, and keep practicing until negotiating with someone feels more natural.

Record Your Voice
Have you ever had a moment where someone told you to speak louder or talk more softly when you thought that you were maintaining a reasonable volume? It’s a matter of perception. Sometimes it’s difficult for you to tell how you come off to others. While recording devices may not capture tone and volume perfectly, they can give you an indication of your tone and volume in relation to someone else’s. Position your phone or another recording device at a central place in the room. Record your conversation, perhaps a test conversation that you’re having with a friend. Afterward, listen to it and see if you can identify changes in tone or mood based on what you hear. You may be able to spot a few problems that you can fix this way.

Ask for Feedback
One of the hardest parts of handling conflict with people is to ask for feedback. While you may not want to ask a disgruntled client for feedback about a conversation, you can certainly do this with friends and relatives. If you’re worried that you will take criticism personally, ask them to start by identifying things that they think you do well. That will make it easier to digest anything they have to say that identifies things you may need to change. It’s a smart idea to get lots of practice giving and receiving feedback. You’ll have a lot of opportunities to do this during the running of your business, so you might as well get used to it.

Lead With Compassion
Ultimately, the way that you see the conflict or problem is going to shape the way you carry out a difficult conversation. For example, if you perceive that the client or employee that you have to talk to is intentionally making things harder for you, you may have less patience or willingness to work with them. On the other hand, if you think about where they are coming from and why they may have the views they have, you may be in a better position to come up with a compromise that will work for both of you.

Having a difficult conversation lead to a successful conclusion is an important skill to learn as a contracting business owner. For more information about running your own contracting business, contact CSLS today!

When you first start talking about opening a contracting business, you’re going to get lots of advice. Some of it might be very useful, coming from people with decades of experience in the industry. On the other hand, you might get tips from people who wouldn’t know success if it ran over them. Here are five tips you can use to help you accept advice and determine if it will work for you.

Take It In
The first thing that you want to do when you get some business advice is to make it relatively easy to accept. It’s tempting to reassure people that you have all the experience you need and that their advice is unwarranted. But sometimes, you turn out to be wrong. In order to decide which advice is useful and which parts don’t apply to you, you need to listen to it and take a few mental notes. This doesn’t mean that you need to pay attention with a rapt expression to anyone who feels like you’ve got it all wrong and they need to set you straight. But if you can allow the information to sink in, you’ll have a higher chance of being able to use the relevant bits.

Consider the Source
Of course, not everyone has good business advice to share. And that does not necessarily stop them from trying to share with you. This is why you should consider the source along with their advice. Someone who has started five businesses and had all of them fail within a year may be a great source of learning what went wrong. They might not be the best person to tell you what to do to succeed, however. Sometimes, people who don’t have the facts can share something that would be practical for you to apply to your business. It’s relatively unlikely, so you can take this advice with a grain of salt.

Question Your Gut
There is a lot out there in self-help circles that tells you to trust your gut. The problem is that when you’re debating whether or not to follow your gut instincts, you still need to consider the source. If your gut instinct comes from 5-10 years of experience in this field, you might be on the right track. On the other hand, if your gut instinct is based on what you found by searching Google for five minutes, your conclusions might be suspicious. It’s important not to disregard your own opinions. You should just make sure to scrutinize them as much as you would anyone else’s.

Evaluate Information
Once you get some advice, you have some work to do. In some cases, people make claims that are so unlikely or outdated that you can handily dismiss them as irrelevant. What worked for someone’s retail business might not apply to yours. In other cases, you need to determine how right they are. This calls for research. It’s tempting to trust the advice of someone who’s been working in your industry for decades, especially if they’ve acted as a mentor to you. It’s still good to follow up on their claims, so that you understand it better than you did.

Decide After Consideration
When it comes to big decisions about your business or the best way to run it, you need to make decisions after consideration. It is so easy to jump the gun when someone with business experience tells you to absolutely do one thing or completely avoid another thing. Unfortunately, taking this kind of a hard line position eliminates your flexibility, which you may need most in the early years of your business. With every piece of advice you get, take the time to consider it and determine whether or not you want to follow it. Keep in mind that most people advise you because they want to help. But if it doesn’t help, then it’s probably not worth following.

When you first start your contracting business, you’re going to get a lot of advice. Learning how to interpret it is part of surviving. To learn more about building a successful contracting business, visit CSLS today!