BLOG | ShawnVanDyke.com

Construction Consultant | Business Coach | Mentor

MOMENTUM

Strategies. Systems. Results.

The Momentum blog is an industry resource to get your construction business moving in the right direction. This is where Shawn shares his knowledge, experience, and practical advice to help you grow a profitable and sustainable construction business. Sign up to receive a FREE copy of The Paperwork Punch List and you will get updates from the Momentum blog delivered to your inbox. This is where you will learn about the strategies and systems you can implement to get the results you need for your construction business.

How to Price a Construction Project

Learning how to accurately price a construction project involves more than just calculating the costs of the labor, material, subcontractors, and equipment, and applying a markup to those costs. Pricing a construction project also includes developing a repeatable and...

Solving Your Own Skills Gap

I spoke at PCBC in San Francisco and discussed how to overcome the skills gap in the construction industry. You can watch the entire presentation below: After the seminar, I sat down with Justin and Brian at the Fine Homebuilding booth and discussed in further detail...

HOW TO HIRE A CONSTRUCTION CPA

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. Finding the right certified public accountant (CPA) for your construction business can be an intimidating task. Hiring a CPA can be confusing because you might not be sure what you should expect from a CPA and...

SUMMER READING LIST

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. I love books. I have found that reading (or listening to) books has been the best investment I have made in the past few years. The ROI from books is enormous. Check out my book lists here. Now that the summer is...

COST-PLUS CONTRACTS

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. In theory, cost-plus contracts (also known as Time and Materials contracts) are a win-win for the contractor and the owner. The contractor’s risk is lowered because the price the owner pays is the cost the contractor...

CONSTRUCTION SALES TECHNIQUES

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. Customers say they want the lowest price, but what they really want is the best value. Construction businesses that compete on price are racing to the bottom. HOW TO INCREASE CONSTRUCTION SALES Construction...

PRICING CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. As I have written before (Fast, Accurate Estimates), there’s only one way to be successful in pricing construction projects — know your numbers. PRICING STRATEGIES FOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS Construction is a...

EXTERIOR ESTIMATES MADE SIMPLE WITH THE GO FIGURE APP

Taking measurements and creating estimates for your customers is a faster, easier and more efficient process with Go Figure and Spike. With the Go Figure app for iPad, you can generate accurate stock lists, estimates and invoices all while on site with your customer....

USING THE CLOUD TO MANAGE YOUR CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. Web-based construction project management software gives you the ability to manage the your work no matter where you are. Whether you are in the office or in the field, Web-based (a.k.a. “cloud-based”) services and...

Right To Left Thinking with Todd Dawalt

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. Below is a transcript of an interview I had with Todd Dawalt, host of The Construction Leading Edge podcast and owner of ConstructionLeadingEdge.com. Todd and I discuss a simple yet profound planning strategy he...

How NOT to Price Your Work

WATCH THE SHAKER TABLE PRICING VIDEO BELOW I don't always get things right. In fact, I mess up all the time. Here's an example of where I got something wrong, but I hope you can learn from my mistake. HOW NOT TO PRICE A SET OF SHAKER TABLES I am not a custom...

DISCIPLINES TO GROW A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS – PART FOUR

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. This is the final article in this series on how to grow your construction business. In my previous articles for Fine Homebuilding.com, I discussed how to grow your construction business in sustainable and profitable...

DISCIPLINES TO GROW A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS – PART THREE

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. In my previous two articles, I discussed how to grow a construction business by (PART 1) using the margin required for your business to determine your markup and (PART 2) tracking your labor costs using billing...

DISCIPLINES TO GROW A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS – PART TWO

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. In my previous article, I discussed how to grow a construction business by using the margin required for your business to determine your markup. In part 2 of this series, I am going to show you a simple method to...

DISCIPLINES TO GROW A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS – PART ONE

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS POST. Learning how to grow a construction business profitably and in a sustainable manner requires more than selling more work. In fact, doing more work could be limiting the growth of your construction business. The goal...

SOLVING THE SKILLS GAP

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE BLOGCAST OF THIS KEYNOTE. The Skills Gap - the lack of available skilled labor - is a real problem for every construction business in the United States. There simply aren’t enough people pursuing a career in the trades and obtaining the...

HOW TO ESTIMATE A CONSTRUCTION PROJECT – SPREADSHEET FUNCTIONS

CLICK BELOW TO WATCH A VIDEO TUTORIAL OF THIS POST. Learning how to estimate a residential construction project takes years of experience both in the field and in the office. (See this post on Fast, Accurate Estimates.) For the construction business owner gaining the...

BOOK LIST OF 2017

Consuming books has become a passion of mine. I started developing a passion for books in 2016. (See this post for My Book List of 2016.) In that post I set a goal of consuming 52 books in 2017. I failed. I only consumed 36 books in 2017, well short of my goal. But I...