Welcome to Construction Confidant! If you’re reading this, odds are you have some affiliation with the construction industry in the Pacific Northwest, or you know me personally and decided to stop by to check it out, either way, thank you! I’m glad you’re here and hope you’ll find the content in this post and future posts to be interesting and entertaining.
This blog is dedicated to helping individuals and companies in the construction industry improve their performance, achieve their goals, and enjoy the fruits of their success. Whether you’re just starting out in the industry in an entry-level role, mid-career and wondering how to “move up”, or perhaps contemplating starting your own firm, my goal is to help you achieve your goals. I’ll be drawing on my decades of experience in construction to share stories, anecdotes, and lessons learned in hopes that you can benefit from my experiences. And as I’m reminded often, much of what I’ve learned is the result of mistakes I’ve made and I’ll be happy to share some of those failures as well as successes so you can learn less painfully!
And, since there’s more to a full life than just work, I’ll also be posting on other, varied topics of interest because, well, I think that’s what you’re supposed to do on your blog. If you know me, you know that I’ve got a lot of “extracurricular” interests, many of which actually relate to our industry. Examples would include:
- Snow skiing – combined with your colleagues, a large bus, and adult beverages, this is one of my favorites…
- Golf – similar to skiing, minus the bus
- Boating – colleagues, beverages, and “Safety Meetings” on the water instead of land, definitely a favorite….
- Guitar – actually, this doesn’t relate to work at all but its fun and will make for some good stories
- Barbeque/smoking meats – colleagues, smokers, bbq competitions – very construction-oriented
- Motorcycling – still trying to figure out how to work this into an industry activity….
- Travel – incorporates most of the above and is necessary for a visually appealing site…
Anyway, I’ll keep it tilted towards work, with weekly posts focused on the construction industry and tips to help you learn and grow. I’ll throw the extracurricular stuff in as time allows.
The Origins…
The idea for this blog has been bouncing around in my head for some time, but only recently did I realize the approach I wanted to take. As a partner in a successful commercial construction company, I’m often evaluating individuals and firms (typically subcontractors) we might select for a particular project. A lot of the time I find myself thinking “this company could do so much more if they just ____________”. I began making notes about how I would fill in that blank to improve profitability and growth if were I in that organization. I began my career as a subcontractor pursuing work with general contractors; now that I’m on the gc side of things, I have a unique perspective on what we value from subcontractors and I’ll share that with you.
As I started compiling thoughts for the blog, I began to think about all the connections I’ve made in the construction industry in my region (Seattle area) over the past three decades. A significant part of the enjoyment I get from construction are the relationships I’ve established with people in all facets of the business. The opportunity to write in a forum where I can share my thoughts with those people, and hopefully receive feedback from them, is appealing. I hope some of my colleagues will find their way to this blog to share their insights and wisdom.
Lastly, I realized I want to share the experiences I’ve had through my career in hopes of helping or inspiring others in our industry. As a parent of two teenagers who don’t appear to be heading for a career in construction, I’d like to pass on the lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur, business owner, subcontractor, general contractor, developer, salesperson and more. And those lessons were learned just as much out of failures as successes; there are some good stories to tell about what NOT to do in order to succeed!
A Little History…
I started my first construction company (an elevator company) at the age of 26 with two partners. Over the next 6 years we grew to become the premier independent company in our region, at which point we started getting offers to buy our company. After considerable discussion & debate, we accepted one of those offers from a division of a Fortune 500 company and sold our company. While it was a great feeling at the time, in hindsight I wish we had kept the company and found a way to grow even more. We merged with the larger company and each of us was basically back to square one; being an employee again.
Running that company with my two partners was a daily challenge I thoroughly enjoyed. We learned as we went, both about growing in our particular industry, but also about running a business, which was something we had no experience doing. Each of us had unique and complimentary skills that allowed us to form a whole greater than the parts. If we made a mistake, we didn’t dwell on it, but kept pushing forward toward securing larger and more profitable work. We established systems & processes based on our experience at our previous company, and ramped up quickly. And we often worked 12-18 hour days, in the field (building) during the day and in the office in the evenings. It was a blast.
Prior to starting this business, I worked for the company I signed on with straight out of college, a privately owned, national elevator company based in the Midwest. My degree in college was business, with a focus on marketing. My knowledge of anything construction related was zero; when I signed up to interview with this “elevator” company, I thought they were referring to the grain elevators I was familiar with, having grown up in a small farm town. When I found out elevators meant “vertical transportation”, I was confused – it never occurred to me someone/some company would actually “sell” elevators….. how little did I know!
Over the last 20+ years in the construction industry, I can’t count the number of times I’ve silently thanked the company that hired me and the approach they took to training their new hires. The other 11 new employee hires had degrees in subjects ranging from liberal arts to engineering. In hindsight, I realized the company wanted people who could analyze and think creatively, communicate effectively both in writing and in person, and who could learn effectively. They would teach us the specifics of the industry.
During the 5 month training period at their headquarters, our group learned the basics of construction; how to read plans and specifications, what the terminology meant, how to review contracts and what terms to look for, what shop drawings are and why they’re necessary, how to estimate and prepare bids and proposals, how to manage the projects we sold, and more. We got to fly in the company’s private jets to large projects on which they were working and/or bidding so we could experience those situations in a real setting. It was a fantastic experience and one I’m still thankful for all these years later. Perhaps in future posts I’ll share some of the more specific entertaining aspects of hanging with that group of trainees for those few months; it was “formative” in more ways than one.
In the intervening years since selling my first company and now, I developed property, started a residential construction company, experienced the pain of the great recession, moved into the commercial construction industry in a variety of roles, and ultimately am back in an ownership position of a general construction firm. I’ve had to draw on the positive experiences of my formative years described above, but also learned more about what success really takes in the years since 2009. I hope to share many of these experiences as a way to demonstrate that of all the positive traits one can have in life, persistence is perhaps the most valuable.
What’s Coming Up…
This blog is also an outlet that allows me to write something more than just marketing or project-related information. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and see this as an opportunity to combine it with my desire to share what I’ve learned over the past two decades with those who are in, or are thinking about entering, the construction industry.
My goal is to enlighten and educate people on how to achieve success in construction. While the context is construction-oriented, the content will apply to anybody involved in the AEC (Architecture/Engineering/Contracting) industry, not just contractors or subcontractors. Some of the topics I will be writing about in future posts are as follows:
- How to get started in construction – it doesn’t always or necessarily require a college degree
- Success as a subcontractor – how to improve your business, increase your revenue and become the “go to” company in your field
- Starting your own construction firm – steps to take when you don’t know where to start
- Commercial construction vs. Residential – business decisions vs. emotions in motion
- Successful bidding strategies for subcontractors – don’t leave money on the table
- The Construction Lifestyle, based on my real life experiences as a subcontractor, general contractor, entrepreneur, developer, parent, motorcycle enthusiast, guitar player, skier, and at home chef.
If you’ve made it this far, I thank you sincerely for taking the time, and hope you’ll sign up to my emailing list to be notified of future blog posts. I hope also to hear from you with observations, comments, or experiences you’ve had and how they impacted your growth or success in construction. The best experiences are shared!
Scott Lindley