Payroll taxes are one thing that you’ll need to pay as part of your contracting business. As of September 1st, the federal government gave businesses the option to decline withholding these taxes from employee paychecks, as long as they meet certain requirements. There are benefits to this program, but also possible drawbacks. Here’s what you need to know.

What Are Payroll Taxes?
Payroll taxes are a percentage of an employees’ wages that must be withheld. These taxes come on top of withholding for federal or state income taxes. The payroll tax, which runs 6.2% of most employees’ wages, helps to pay for programs like Social Security. Employers are required by law to withhold it from their employees’ wages. People who are self-employed must pay these taxes either as part of their quarterly estimated taxes, or at the end of the year.

What Is the Payroll Tax Deferral Program?
The payroll tax deferral program issued by President Trump’s executive order in August defers payment of these taxes from September 1 through December 31, 2020. The program functions entirely on a voluntary basis. This means that employers must opt in by holding off on withholding these taxes from employees’ paychecks. It’s worth noting that this program is unique from other payroll tax holidays that have been enacted in the past. Unlike those times, this program is a deferral. In other words, any employer that chooses to participate in this program will need to withhold more taxes from employees’ wages to make up for it by April 30, 2021.

How Can the Program Affect Businesses?
Since the execution of the payroll tax deferral program comes primarily through executive order, some businesses aren’t clear on how they should use it. Employers aren’t required to take advantage of the program, but they also aren’t required to get employees’ support in order to implement it. Many businesses have chosen to participate in the program, in the hopes of ensuring a slightly higher wage for employees during difficult times. Other businesses have decided that the complication of determining eligibility, which may fluctuate for employees with variable income, makes the program too difficult to be worthwhile.

How Can the Tax Deferral Affect Individuals?
For those who qualify for the payroll tax deferral, a 6% temporary increase in paychecks could be a significant benefit. The program is limited to individuals making less than $4,000 every two weeks. This covers the vast majority of workers across the country. Employees should consider how paying it back may affect their paychecks in the first part of 2021. The federal government has made businesses that opt into the program responsible for withholding the additional taxes to cover for the deferral. This may mean that they have to enact new policies for employees who quit, to ensure that those taxes are repaid.

Could the Tax Deferral Program Change?
Given that the program came about through executive order, it’s possible that there may be additional legislation to support it, extend it or make it a true tax holiday. People who don’t pay much attention to the changes in tax laws may not know how common it is for a policy to be extended or changed right before it expires. If the government chooses to, the tax deferral could become a holiday that doesn’t need to be paid back. However, employees should pay attention to the news, and be wary of assuming anything will happen until it’s written into the law.

Figuring out taxes is something that you’ll do as an individual and a business owner. With the latest information, you’ll make wiser choices. For expert exam preparation on your way to becoming a licensed contractor, contact CSLS today!

Have you ever met someone who knew exactly what they wanted to do in life from the time they were a small child? Some people are like that. They are practically born knowing where to go. For the rest of us, it’s important to find a good fit. But having a career is so much better when you know you can bring passion to your work. Here are five ways you can tell that your passion (and your future) lies in construction.

You Can’t Stop Building Things
Like kids who can’t stop playing with Legos, there are adults who absolutely love building things. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re constantly creating new structures, however. You’ll know that you’ve got the passion if you are constantly finding new ways to rethink your living or working spaces. For example, if you’re always working on a personal home improvement project or helping your friends with theirs, this is a good sign that you’ll enjoy doing it as a career.

You Love to See Physical Results of Your Work
Centuries ago, most of the work the people did had some kind of physical result. They might create, produce or grow something that others could use or consume. These days, much of what people do for a living isn’t tangible. And while many people believe that these are rewarding careers, it isn’t the best choice for everyone. There are still millions of people who love to work with their hands and see something grow or change before their eyes. Construction provides an immediate reward of progress that can give you a sense of satisfaction with your effort.

You Love Active Work
One of the things that industrialization created for society was the ability to produce more while working less. Instead of having one person produce all components of a product, they are more likely to be in charge of one aspect of it. As a result, in the 21st Century, most people do not work on their feet. This is certainly true for people who have found long-term careers. And while many people find this approach very accessible, there are others who need more activity during the workday. If you find long hours spent outside to be the best way to earn a living, you’re ideally suited to a career in construction.

You’re Always Ready to Learn Something New
While construction is an extremely old profession, this doesn’t mean that it never changes. There are always new technologies and building practices to learn. The people who are better set for a career in construction are the ones who are willing to adapt over time. The last several years have brought significant changes in the construction workflow. As such, some tasks are easier to do and provide a better long-term result. But in order to develop skills in those innovations, you have to have some courage and a love of learning. Always wanting to find out what’s next on the horizon will serve you well in this industry.

You Take Pride in Building on Ancient Tradition
A mix of old and new practices is what makes up the construction industry. You might build something in a way that people have been doing it for 500 years or more. In fact, there’s a whole niche of the construction industry in period construction and renovation. If the process is solid, there may be no reason to change it. But at the same time, there are new developments that can make things better, stronger or more likely to last. Your interest in honoring the past while you create structures for the modern world are signs that you will enjoy this career now, and in the future.

Working in construction might be a job, but it could also be a passion. To find out how you can take advantage of your interest in construction to build a great career, contact CSLS today!

When you’re getting ready to take the contractor licensing exam, you’ve got a few ways to prepare. Of course, you can study from home. But having someone with the experience to help guide you through what to expect and fill out your knowledge can save you a lot of hassle and stress. This is what exam preparation schools do. With these tips, you’ll know how to choose the best one.

Comprehensive Learning Options
Not everyone learns in exactly the same way. Some people benefit from in-person instruction, while others prefer to study on their own. When you are looking for schools that will help you prepare for the contractor licensing exam, you want as many options as possible. A good system will give you several choices, such as:

• Live instruction
• Online courses
• Self-paced programs
• Additional practice

This way, if you’re not sure which learning environment is best for you, you can try out a little of each and decide.

Convenient Locations
If you’re going to take advantage of in-person instruction or classrooms where you can practice some of your skills, there needs to be a location convenient to you. For example, CSLS maintains more than two dozen locations across the state of California. This makes it easy for anyone who wants that experience to find a location in their area and receive it.

Construction Focus
There are hundreds of schools that specialize in exam preparation. This does not mean that they will be able to give you adequate preparation for the contractor licensing exam. Many national companies try to do too much, by offering exam preparation for testing in a wide variety of different industries. But this may mean that they cannot specialize in construction as an industry, and specifically the rules concerning becoming a licensed contractor in the state of California. Finding a school that focuses on construction, and what you can expect when you build a career in the state, will give you a better preparation for your career in the years to come.

High Passing Rates
Going to school for exam preparation is a great tool to make sure that you understand all of the concepts covered, as well as what to expect from the exam itself. One of the best ways that a school can show you their success rate is through a higher rate of students passing the exam. While you look for this data, keep in mind that the number of times it takes a person to pass an exam matters. Schools with a higher rate of students who pass the contractor licensing exam on the first try may be a better investment in the long run.

Guarantees
If an exam prep school is confident that their preparation classes will help you to pass the exam within the first couple of tries, they may offer a guarantee to that effect. Guarantees indicate that if you follow their guidelines and do not receive the desired result, you may be able to get at least a portion of your investment back. This is an opportunity to read the fine print, because guarantees don’t usually come without requirements. Check to see how many opportunities the school gives you to attempt the exam before you request a refund. Confirm that the requirements for the guarantee are clearly outlined and easy to understand.

The right exam school will make you feel much more prepared to take the licensing exam. To find out more about what CSLS can do for you, visit us today!

As a general rule, you’d like to get back to your clients when they have questions. This is particularly important at the early stages, when they aren’t yet your clients. The thing is that communication is highly specialized, with preferences that tend to run along generational lines. If you talk to a baby boomer like a Zoomer, there’s going to be a lot lost in translation. But the same is true for the other way around. Here are a few observed communication preferences that your contracting business can use to get your message across.

Generation Z
At the oldest, members of generation Z are in their early 20s. They have never known a time when internet was not freely accessible, and only the oldest of them can easily remember a world without smartphones. People in this generation are extremely adept at using technology and will often expect businesses to be able to respond in kind. This doesn’t mean that they prefer not to have face-to-face contact where appropriate, however. Rather, they prefer a fluid set of options that they can indicate based on the type of communication. For example, they’re very familiar with email but would probably prefer a text message for timely communications.

Millennials
Millennials, currently in their 20s and 30s, may have different communication preferences based on where they sit in that range. Given that the median age for a construction worker is late 30s or early 40s, you may fit in this category yourself. Research indicates that Millennials prefer to avoid phone conversations where possible. Many people in this generation say that they don’t answer calls unless they know the person who is calling. While this doesn’t apply to everybody necessarily, it does mean that you’re more likely to reach people in this generation by text or email.

Generation X
Generation X comprises people who are in their 40s up to their mid to late 50s. Given the rise of digital technology in the 1990s, you may notice an abrupt shift in preferences between younger generation X and older generation X. For example, people in their 40s may be equally adept at using text messages and email. They’re probably also happy to accept phone calls, but somewhat less likely than their older cohorts. By comparison, older members of generation X may be more comfortable with emails than text messages. As they head toward retirement, they may be unfamiliar with other types of communication or collaboration software.

Baby Boomers
Baby boomers are more likely to have the most traditional communication preferences of any age group you’re likely to encounter. This group ranges from their late 50s to their mid-70s. They grew up in a time when television was relatively new technology, to say nothing of computers and smartphones. They may own a smartphone, but they are much less likely to use it for functions beyond making phone calls and taking pictures. They would often prefer to receive a phone call than an email, although they can usually manage either. They may be able to send and receive text messages, but it would be wise to ask first.

Tips for Good Communication
Ultimately, the best businesses will ask clients about their communication preferences and then stick with it throughout the transaction. No one in any generation likes to be classified based on the highlights of their age group, especially when it’s used to mock them. You’ll find teenagers who love to make and receive phone calls, and baby boomers who love all the latest technology. Your best bet is to offer a variety of options, and make sure that you can operate within that framework.

Communication is one of the best soft skills you can develop for your business. If you find that you’re struggling to communicate with your clients, try a new method and you’ll usually notice an improvement. For more information about running a successful contracting business, contact CSLS today!

You’ve spent years learning skills and weeks or months practicing the details. Now, it’s time to practice for the exam. The best way to ensure that you know what to expect from the contractor licensing exam is to take practice tests. This may seem like an unnecessary extra step, but it’s actually one of the most useful tools you can use. Here are five reasons you can benefit from it.

Find Out What to Expect from the Real Exam
One of the biggest reasons that people struggle with taking exams is that they don’t know what to expect. No matter how much you can practice skills, hit the books and re-read your notes, there’s no replacement for knowing just what the exam is going to be like. This is even more important for people who haven’t taken multiple choice tests in a long time, as well as people who struggled with them when they were in high school or college. Having the opportunity to test it out in a stress-free format can make it easier for you to pay attention to what you see and to how the test goes.

Fill in Information Gaps
For a lot of people, taking a practice test is a way to find out what they don’t know as well as what they do. You may be an expert in certain parts of your field. But if the test doesn’t focus as much on those, you may have parts where you struggle to know what the best answer should be. While practice exams aren’t going to be exactly the same questions, they often cover the same subjects. Once you’ve taken one, you’ll have a concrete list of items that you need to study.

Address Issues with Testing
Everyone has quirks about the way that they take tests. If you don’t know what they are, they’re more likely to come up at the worst possible moment. For example, if you tend to gloss over the questions and just look at the answers, you’re more likely to choose the wrong one. It may be something as simple as getting tired halfway through the exam. Practicing with exams of the same length and for the same duration of time can make it easier to spot what’s likely to go wrong. If you can take it in a setting with similar seating and lighting, you’ll get even more information.

Learn to Pace Your Timing
Having a few hours to take an exam may make it seem like you don’t need to pace yourself. In fact, learning how to use your time wisely is an important benefit of practice exams. If you think you have all the time in the world, you might be tempted to get lost thinking about all the different aspects of the harder ones. But by the end, you could find yourself rushing to finish the last ones. By practicing with the same time limits, you get a sense for how long you need to devote to each question, and how much time you have to do it. This makes it easier to keep a steady pace that can avoid building tension over time.

Overcome Test Anxiety
Test anxiety tends to involve a variety of possible problems. For example, if you are unsure of what the test will be like, you may be worried that you haven’t studied enough or that you don’t know the right subjects. Having an opportunity to practice helps you to fill that in and know what you’re likely to see. You may also be anxious about taking a test because you need to perform on the fly. Being able to think quickly and come up with an answer is an important part of running a contracting business. The good news is that practice can make the unexpected into a common task that doesn’t bother you as much. You might have been afraid of driving at first, too. But after a while, it’s just something that you do.

Passing the test is one of the final steps you need to get your contractor license. To learn how CSLS can help you prepare, contact us today!

Part of running a contracting business involves making sure that you and your employees can be safe on the job. This requires a number of safety measures. While most of them depend on the field and the specific task at hand, others apply to almost everyone. Here are five safety measures you can expect to see in most construction jobs.

Operate Equipment Only While Alert
You probably already know that you shouldn’t be operating construction equipment while you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This is true for many other types of heavy equipment operation, like driving. But more specifically, you should ensure that you can use equipment while you remain alert. This may mean taking care to schedule tasks when you have the most focus and energy. That way, you can save low-risk jobs for the end of the day or while you’re waiting for your coffee to kick in.

Handle Dangerous Substances with Care
Construction involves interaction with a variety of substances that could possibly be dangerous. Some of them are naturally occurring, like radon. Others, like lead pipes or asbestos, may be present on the jobsite and require special handling to mitigate or remove. You may also have to work with solvents or treatments that can be hazardous if you touch or aspirate them. Even common substances like paint can be a problem. Knowing what you can do with them and how to dispose of them helps you avoid injuring yourself or others.

Wear Personal Protective Equipment
OSHA keeps a list of the most common construction safety violations for each quarter of every year. One of the most common causes of accidents or injuries is a failure to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE that you may frequently use in construction work includes:

• Hard hats
• Protective eyewear
• Gloves
• Heavy clothing
• Masks and other forms of respiratory protection

Making sure that you know what to wear based on the task can protect you from immediate and long-term injuries.

Pay Attention to Your Surroundings
Another common source of injuries, according to OSHA, are falls or accidents that happened because you or someone else on the jobsite weren’t paying attention to the surroundings. At all times while you are working, you should be paying attention to where you are walking, where other people are positioned and how your tasks and their work affect each other. In many cases, there are risks happening behind you that you don’t realize because you can’t see them immediately. Using a system of notification or alert can help you and other workers avoid hurting each other by accident.

Report Unsafe Working Conditions
On almost any job site, accidents could happen. And when this occurs, people often ask themselves after the fact if there were some things they could have done to prevent it. This requires you to periodically evaluate your working environment and determine if there are ways to make it safer. Preventing injury or illness on the jobsite obligates you and everyone else to make a note of unsafe working conditions. Sometimes, employees are afraid to call attention to it out of fear that they may get in trouble. However, this can lead to a higher risk situation. Cultivating an environment in which people feel safe reporting issues to management leads to improved safety measures.

Learning how to stay safe while you do your job is part of running a successful contracting business. For more information, visit CSLS today!

Although it may feel awful to hear things about you or your business that you don’t like, it’s very important for your long-term success. There will be points in time when clients or other contractors give you constructive feedback that is designed to help you in the future. Whether you can turn it into an improvement is up to you. Here are five things you can do.

1. Listen Closely
   A lot of people participate in a conversation mostly for the things they have to say, not for the things they have to hear. If a client or a fellow contractor wants to give you some timely criticism, you should listen to all of it. It’s hard to sit quietly and not interrupt someone who is telling you something that you didn’t do particularly well. But if you can get through this part, you’re more likely to have a positive result. If nothing, it lets you receive the information without the burden of feeling like you need to craft a response off-the-cuff.

2. Avoid Arguing
   Nobody is excited to learn what they may have done wrong on a project. But as tempting as it might be to correct what you see as someone’s misinterpretation of your work or processes, it’s better if you keep it to yourself. It is entirely possible that someone is criticizing you for something that is a matter of opinion or even inaccurate. But by arguing with them, all you do is make it into a bigger issue. In most cases, what people are looking for when they give you feedback is validation that you have heard it. Arguing with them about the validity of their claims does not meet that condition.

3. Get Clarification
   Once you have allowed someone to finish what they have to say, you may realize that their feedback is unclear. Sometimes, people are so worried about causing a conflict that they may give criticism that is so vague that you can’t actually do anything with it. If you have the opportunity and you feel like you can do it without arguing with them, ask for clarification on one or two specific points. Ask questions like:

• Did you notice this problem frequently or on occasion?
• Can you relate this to a specific instance?
• Could you tell me more about what you mean?

It’s crucial not to use these questions to lead the person into changing their claims. Your goal here should only be to round out your understanding of the way that they see the problem.

4. Ask for Input
   When you take constructive criticism, it is important to keep in mind that there are usually multiple right ways of doing something. This means that a client or colleague might perceive that you have done something wrong, when you simply have done it differently than they prefer. However, you should also remember that this does not make them wrong, either. Ask them for input on a different approach that would have avoided the issue in the first place. This gives you a number of options that you can choose to employ when you encounter a similar situation next time.

5. Evaluate Changes After the Conversation
   Once you have finished the conversation, it’s useful to give yourself a little time to relax over it before you evaluate any big changes you may want to make. In some cases, a mistake was so obvious that you already know exactly what you should do differently. In other cases, where there are multiple right answers, you may need to do some digging. This is a good opportunity two invest some time researching and consulting with people in your field. You may hear similar stories with good solutions, or come away with better insight into improvements you can make.

Running your own business involves learning from your mistakes, sometimes in a very direct way. By opening your mind to the benefits of constructive criticism, you can improve your contracting business and make the next project work better. For more information about starting a career as a licensed contractor, contact CSLS today!

Once you have a thriving contracting business, you’ll probably have a set of equipment that you use all the time, with other pieces that you don’t need quite as much. Since your financial success depends on you being able to maximize efficiency, you want to minimize downtime for all your equipment. Consider adding these practices to make sure you’re getting the most output from your assets.

Plan Out Equipment Use
If you don’t have a lot of equipment, you might wonder why you even need to plan it out. You have a job, you use the equipment, and then you put it back. However, failing to plan out when you need to use multiple pieces of equipment can make it harder to ensure that every tool is available when you need it. Additionally, creating a plan helps you to establish how much you are using the equipment, as well as how often. This will make it easier to determine the level of maintenance and repair that you may need to perform on each piece.

Cycle Through Multiples
If you have more than one of the same kind of tool, you may notice that you use one of them much more often. While this can be an indicator that one of them works better than the other, it may also be a simple factor of habit. The tool that’s easiest to reach is probably the one you’ll use the most. In this case, it makes sense to plan to cycle through your use of multiple pieces of the same equipment. This ensures an even wear pattern, so that one is less likely to break or wear out while the other one sits virtually untouched.

Set Maintenance Schedules Wisely
All pieces of equipment will need maintenance on some schedule. Some, especially those that sustain a lot of wear or are older, will need maintenance more frequently. The last thing that you want is to take on a project with a tight turnaround only to realize that you’ll have to delay maintenance in order to make it work. This puts added stress on the equipment and increases the likelihood of downtime. Instead, pay attention to the condition of your equipment. If it needs maintenance, plan out the most convenient time to get it done.

Don’t Skimp on Upkeep
It’s tempting to think that the best way to minimize downtime on equipment is to use it constantly. But keep in mind that the more pressure you put on a tool without tending to it, the more likely it is to break down. Instead, aim for maintenance to be a short break between long periods of productive use.

This is true for equipment that you use every day as well as equipment that you only use on occasion. Tools and vehicles can sustain a failure if they aren’t used often enough. In some cases, they break down because you didn’t see a repair need before setting it aside for several weeks. Even if it appeared to be in great condition the last time you used it, you still need to inspect it periodically and perform upkeep as needed.

Evaluate Use Data
Once you have a reasonable schedule to increase use time and minimize downtime, you’ll want to build points into the schedule to evaluate your use. Your project needs may vary depending on the week or month, but they may also change as your business becomes more established. Taking time to look at how you use equipment compared to how you used it in the past will help you determine if you need to change your maintenance schedules, or even consider a different management process for your equipment.

Equipment efficiency lies in how you use it, as well as how you manage it. Understanding how to do both helps you keep your contracting business in great condition. To begin, visit CSLS today!

If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve spent years thinking about what it would be like to be your own boss. While it isn’t all sunshine and roses, there are certain advantages to running your own contracting business. By keeping these benefits in mind, you’ll realize that there are a lot of incentives along with the extra responsibility.

Set Your Own Schedule
When you work for somebody else, you have to conform to a set schedule that may not be of your own devising. And while you can’t decide to work whenever in construction, it’s true that you have a lot more flexibility when you are the one in charge. This means that you have more opportunities to select a time that works best with traffic or the type of job you’re going to be doing. That way, you can minimize the time you spend dealing with drive time or weather, and more time getting work done or enjoying your free time.

Make Your Own Business Decisions
If you are really ambitious, it can be difficult to go along with somebody else’s business decisions. There may be instances where your boss has plans that you don’t think will pan out very well. There might be times where you’re told to do something that either isn’t practical or may end up costing the business a lot of money. When you get to make these choices, you get the full benefit of your decision-making power. You do have a lot more responsibility and accountability for those choices, but you get to reap all of the rewards as well.

Choose Who to Work With
Difficult clients. Coworkers who have nothing in common with you and can be hard to work with. If you don’t own your own business, the likelihood that you will have to navigate these situations is pretty high. In fact, stress in the workplace is just as likely to be caused by the people you work with as it is with the type of work you’re doing. If you own your own business, you get to dictate:

• Which clients you take
• The subcontractors you’d prefer to work with
• Employees who meet your individual standards

You’re not obligated to continue a working relationship past the end of the project, if it’s not working out.

Create Investment Value
In many ways, starting a business is like buying a piece of property. You may have to put in much more work than you would if you didn’t own it, but you get the benefit of the value in your investment. When you work for someone else, you are increasing their profits. And even if you get a stake in the company, how much you get and when you get it is still another person’s choice. If you make the right decisions with your business, you may end up with an entity that has value you can bank on. That might become very handy when it comes time to retire.

Achieve Long-Term Goals
If you’re like most people, you have a list of things that you would like to get done during the rest of your life. Many people wish that they could start a business for all of the reasons listed above. If you’re one of them and you’ve been spending the last couple of decades wondering how to make the decision, this could be an excellent time to finally check that box. There are a lot of advantages to be gained in achieving your goals, no matter what they are. Knowing that you are about to get something that you have wanted for a long time can often make it even better than you expect.

When you are in business for yourself, you can expect to invest a lot more time and effort than you might if you just had a regular job. But this is where you get all the benefits of your hard work. To learn more about starting your own contracting business, contact CSLS today!