Construction Fails: How General Contractors Fail

In this blog, we’re going to tell you exactly how you can take your family business or your new business and be a part of the large percentage of construction companies that go out of business—if that’s your goal. If you truly want to declare bankruptcy and rid yourself of other debts while having an excuse to be a victim for life, feeding your ego along the way, then this is the blog for you.

Let’s get right into it. You’ve started a family business, and it takes a lot to do it right. But who wants to follow successful people like Paul Akers and do things the right way? Not you, right? Instead, let’s just declare bankruptcy, blame everyone else, and live in a helpless state that makes you feel important. Helplessness, after all, can sometimes be an empowering state for our significance. So, if you want to tank your construction company, I’ve got a surefire method for you. Here are seven steps to failure:

1. Do Not Keep Recruiting and Hiring

If you’re a general contractor, don’t bother with recruiting and hiring. What you want is to take on so much work that you become incompetent. Stop answering clients’ emails and requests, and just blame it on being busy. Who actually wants to talk to clients? Not you. Spread yourself thin and ensure your key people are ineffective, so when clients call, they already know you’re too busy to deliver quality work.

2. Do Not Have a Training Program

Having a training program would require you to care about your employees, and we can’t have that. Instead, hire mediocre people from the industry, maintain low standards, and then complain about being too busy to do a good job. It’s a perfect way to keep your company in a constant state of mediocrity.

3. Do Not Use Lean Systems

Avoid using lean systems like tact, Last Planner, or Scrum. Who wants to finish jobs on time and make money? Not you. Blame everything on your schedule or your team, and when it all falls apart, blame the system. Going out of business is not a big deal, right?

4. Do Not Care About People

Caring about people means you would have to put in extra effort to communicate with clients and employees. Stay in your comfort zone where it’s easier to blame others for your problems. Keep your business in the old ways where you’re in control, and dismiss concepts like inclusivity, productivity, and employee satisfaction. Why bother with all that?

5. Use Classical Management Techniques

Never leave your office and visit the field where real problems occur. If you stay locked in a room with your leadership team, you can make decisions without actually solving anything. Pretend you’re lean by reading a book about leadership, but never actually implement anything you’ve learned.

6. Do Not Use Business Systems

Forget about business systems like EOS or the teachings of Jim Collins or Patrick Lencioni. Just wing it. If you’re lucky, your bonding company, insurers, and the bank will lose track of where you are, and they might keep loaning you money. Structure and systems take too much effort to learn anyway.

7. Do Not Hold People Accountable

Reward your most troublesome employees and let them bring the entire organization down. If anyone suggests improvements, shut them down immediately. Let the troublemakers run rampant while you enjoy the destruction of your company from a safe distance.

How to Tank Your Construction Business

Ultimately, if your goal is to fail, just avoid education. Who needs to know about cash flow, insurance, risk management, or lean practices? Instead, play games on your phone or relax on your back porch. Worst case scenario? Declare bankruptcy and let your self-importance thrive by playing the victim.

Now, if this sounds like the kind of construction company you want to run, you’re on the right path. But if you actually want to succeed, there’s another way. At Elevate Construction, we specialize in business and operations consulting. We can help you make money, take care of your people, and build a beautiful business and life.