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Contracts come in many shapes and formats, but there are a few essentials you should consider including. These can go a long way to stopping a problem before it starts and preventing a small problem from becoming a big nightmare.
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After a year in business, Rob Adler, a licensed architect, wanted more control over his designs. He opened a new construction company and subbed out work. He worked so often with one particular firm, Socha Builders, that the two owners decided to merge.
If you had a dollar for every hour you have spent preparing bids over the years, would you be a millionaire yet? Well, maybe not a millionaire. But, if you consider the opportunity cost for the hours that bid preparation takes away from other more profitable activities, cranking out numbers in the...
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Mark Richardson of Case Design/Remodeling says Case has, over a 30-year period, evolved a process for charging for design — preliminary design, for which the client is charged .5% to 2%; detailed planning, which is 6% to 8%; and construction. But Case didn't start out that way.
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Sun Light & Power Company in Berkeley had a provision in its contract that ownership of materials didn't transfer to the homeowners until they paid for it. This helped the company preserve its right to repossession if equipment wasn't paid for.
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We collect approximately 4% of the project budget as a pre-paid deposit on construction to cover us during project development. It is not refundable. This is collected when clients sign a one-page preconstruction project planning document. If they continue with us through project development and...
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There was a time when change orders represented a large part of a company's profit on a project. This was particularly prevalent in commercial construction, where every proposal was bid by at least four companies. Most lowered their markups to win the bid, counting on change orders to make up the...
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Sound business practices and solid customer relations are key to keeping yourself out of court while still collecting every dime that's owed to you. So, too, is choosing your clients carefully, so that you're working for people who aren't looking to pull one over on you.
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The first line of defense in limiting liability for product defects, says construction attorney Quenda Behler Story, should be in the contract. For starters, the contract should limit implied warranties to installation only.
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When Jim Sasko (Big50 2002) of Teakwood Builders returned to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., from a business/pleasure trip to Mexico, he learned a client, a health practitioner, had been charged with double billing patients.