Episodes

In this episode, I cover why I think its important to get control of diet, stress, and sleep as it relates to your personal performance and the success of your business. In a busy career like contracting, it's easy to ignore these three basic factors, however, you are good at planning projects, so why not your health.

Bryan Kaplan is all about improving your business efficiency and understanding your financials. He and Mike discuss the "planning fallacy", picking up on "breadcrumbs" (the little things) left by your clients, using the cloud to your advantage, and repetition. If you are struggling to get organized or want a fresh perspective, there is enough information here to help your change your ways in a short period.

Face it, you don't have a plan for organizing your thoughts, details, receipts, plans, or anything. In this episode, Mike walks you through some basic organizing that, though its only a few minutes to listen to, will take a good amount of time to implement. Once you do start to take action, you'll notice that you are missing fewer details and able to spend more time focusing on the big picture!

In the second half of the interview, Mike and Aron talk about the importance of relationships with trade partners, trusting your gut with clients, quality vs. number of employees, the cost of labor and warranties when things go sideways, and a lot more. This episode gets a bit more personal and less like an interview. These guys are going to be fast friends!

Aron talks about the development of Big Dog Construction. Aron, a self described teacher (checkout his instagram page @bigdogconstruction.gm), describes the various ways he has run construction companies from 16 employees to his current three. He and Mike agree, it took a lot of doing it wrong to get it right. There is so much to listen to here!

In this episode, Mike discusses the four human time wasters in order of worst and most pernicious to just plain innocent. Listen to Mike explain ways to identify and mitigate for human time wasters and why you should never work for beer!

Tim Waring, director of Arden Vale Homes, an award winning design-build firm, comprehends the variables of the design build process and has a structured approach. After describing their company history and structure, he lays down Arden Vale's succinct and distinct criteria for vetting clients and working with clients under contract. Tim stresses the importance of excellent relations with trade partners, honoring warranty, and creating a story about your company so the client can know you before they contact you. Listen describes how their design-build firm has created an indelible legacy in Toowoomba, Queensland. Finally, he gives his advice for anyone wanting to start there own design-build firm. No matter where you are in your construction business, listen and learn!

The title says it all. Mike takes a good look at the builders he worked for, works around and himself in this new episode. Listen in to hear about his experience and what you could learn from this industry veteran.

Andrew starts off explaining the structure of Masters Roofing and how they came to be. In 13 short years they have done 9000 roofs with annual sales in the 8-9M range. Mike and Andrew talk about customer care, warranty of work, what it takes to have an edge on your competition, and the current economy. Trying to make sense of the current economy draws question marks for all of us. Listen as two industry veterans give their take on it and listen to Andrews advice for the next generation of roofers!

Today Mike discusses your company credibility. What do you do to gain credibility for your company? How do you maintain it? From media presence, to awards, certifications, and being genuine- check out this veteran builders take on earning public trust.

In this episode, Mike talks about the pitfalls of wearing too many hats when you're trying to run your small business. The consequences for your overall health and state of mind are substantial. Listen in while Mike talks about his experience so you can avoid what happened to him.

Award winning interior designer, Carmen Hansberry, ranks among the top 3 interior designers in Perth, listen to her story and find out why. She's awesome! Mike and Carmen discuss assessing clients for readiness and address the eternal struggle of getting clients to choose finishes. They talk about the designer-contractor relationship and the benefits for the client. Then they talk about the personal nature of designing, second guessing design ideas, and finding inspiration. It's another candid conversation between two veteran building professionals.

Mike talks about the key "must do" components when you go to visit with your clients for the first time. This episode is the logical next step in the progression from the previous two episodes of what to do and what not to do during client cold calls. Mike gives you what he sees as the best way to make a good impression on clients, get good information that can be turned into thorough proposals, ask good questions and weed out tire kickers. It's all the things he learned by doing it wrong!

This episode is a candid conversation between a general contractor with a crew (Mike Knoche) and a foreman that runs a crew (Marcus Nagtegaal) but we have never met before recording. We talk about the contractor-foreman relationship, the pitfalls of ego in managing employees, the importance of recognizing employees individual skills and letting go of the reins because is just more productive. We also delve into social media and how it's brought he building community together. A must listen for anyone with a foreman that manages a crew, foreman, middle management in any industry, and anyone who wants to hear how we interact behind the scenes in a small construction company.

Today I talk about five things you should never do when you are talking to a client for the first time (or ever for that matter). Tune in to hear what I have learned and implemented after 16 years of talking to new potential clients on the phone. I'm sharing this information so you don't have to experience the painful lessons I did as I developed my small contracting company!

Mike lists and discusses what he knows to be six essential takeaways when your first phone call with a client. This is the result of 16 years of taking calls from clients. Tell us what you think or what you do differently in comments or reviews.

Mike asks Steven to discuss the expansion of his business in number of employees and having operations both in Aukland, on the North Island, as well as Nelson, on the South island. Steven shares his insight and very personal experience the stress associated with company growth and how he overcame the obstacles. A brief and insightful look into the Nice Painting Company!

Listen as Mike talks about whether to expand company size for growth or stay small and elite. This episode sets the stage for Thursdays interview episode.

Today, Mike talks about your company definition again. This time about how you personalize your company, that everyone is not your client, and how it relates to company/personal goals. The second installment of a three part series.

Mike asks questions, Randy answers questions. Randy and Mike talk about the importance of client and employee relationships, what they've found to be effective, and how to strike a WORK-LIFE balance. Randy shares his advice for his younger contractor self and asks our next guest, "do your employees work for you or do you work for your employees?"

Mike waxes philosophical about defining your company through directing your efforts to get work you want to be doing, public perception, and business basics like your company name. It's the first in a three part series.

In this first show, Mike will tell you all about his idea and where he plans to take the program. He talks about the schedule and who his first guests will be.

In this episode Mike talks about why you need to do your homework when you take on work that you are unfamiliar with, why not knowing everything can be a strength, why it should never be an excuse, and that you should take on challenging projects!

Mike asks Sean questions, Sean answers questions. It's a fun conversation about how Sean has achieved a stellar reputation for Apex Home Design. Find out the secrets to Sean's success here! Sean asks our next guest, "how do you find balance between being on all the time and actually having downtime". The eternal question for small business owners because we all know that at times, you don't own your business, it owns you. Note: the zoom call was a little iffy for the first couple minutes but we rolled with it and it clears up.