This section contains excerpts from published articles written by Lorraine Hart. They are organized into the following general topics:
Planning & Organization Insights
The Elements of Success
To ensure success, planning is critical for all areas of the business In planning for the success of our business, or even our lives, we need to establish goals, plans to accomplish those goals, and also ways to measure our success or our progress toward reaching our...
A Fresh Start
Planning for continued success It’s all over the news – has been and continues to be – things are slowing down. So what does that mean? Does it mean that you will have no work? Or does it mean that you need to rekindle some of those old...
Your Future – Yours to Determine
Planning for success This seems to be the time of the year that many of us sit back and reflect on our lives, our businesses, and our future. Although planning for the future would be more effective as a regular occurrence, we will take...
A New Year – A New Start
Planning to achieve your goals We have all established goals, decided that we would venture forth on some new road to only later realize that we didn’t quite make it. So now that we clearly see that we didn’t achieve this new dream what do we do? The tendency is all...
Marketing Insights
Consistency in Marketing
Become known through consistent marketing and referrals Anyone who has ever advertised has most likely gotten the same message from their advertising rep. You need consistency, or you need to repeatedly advertise. Now before you stop reading, let me...
Should’ve Listened to You
Creating effective public relations and marketing plans This could be one of my most hated phrases. But unfortunately, I am hearing it much too often these days. So, what is this about and why am I hearing this phrase and what can we do about it now? Recently I...
Build an Effective Marketing Strategy
There are many ways to market yourself and your company. Just as I am not going to tell you to take out a bunch of ads, I am not going to tell you to stop advertising if advertising is working for you. However, I will agree with the advertising reps...
The Goldmine in Your Backyard
Marketing to and through you customers We are often so intent on finding new customers or clients that we forget to look at those we currently have or those who we have worked with in the past. Are you sitting on a goldmine? In recent years, contractors have been...
Management Insights
Wondering Where All the Time Went
Effective time management In this article we will be taking a different approach to time management. If you are like me, you don’t want to hear how much each wasted minute or hour is costing you. It’s bad enough that you don’t feel like you...
What You Don’t Do
The proper paperwork needed for running a successful business We often think that it’s those things that we do that can hurt us; but what about those things that we forget? We are all familiar with the saying “ignorance is no excuse for breaking the...
Taking Measure
Managing your winning team With the end of the football season behind us and the start of baseball just around the corner, I am reminded of some of the things these sports have in common with our businesses. For one, they are both games with the...
Keeping It Simple
A positive approach to problem solving and management to ensure success By focusing on the positive aspects of our businesses and all areas within our businesses, we can create an environment that fosters success and personal fulfillment. Although we recognize that...
Employee Insights
Sinking or Swimming
Employee training One of the most troublesome areas of many businesses is employees – finding them, hiring them, getting them to do what is needed and keeping them. In spite of this, one of the most neglected areas of employee relations is training. We recognize...
Employees: You can’t live with them – you can’t live without them
Finding and keeping good staff You can’t live with them – you can’t live without them. Although you may occasionally want to throw up your hands and fire everyone – or almost everyone – you suddenly realize that you really do need them. So maybe the...
Preparing For Staff
Preparation will lead to successful employees To make sure that a new employee actually becomes part of the solution instead of just adding to the existing problem, you’ve got to make sure that you are prepared for them when they show up for their first day on...
Be Prepared to Hire
Most of us have heard of disaster preparedness, for example getting your bag of items ready in case of emergency. When you are hiring new staff, you also need to prepare with a “toolkit” of sorts so that you are prepared to find, select, interview, and hire that...
Profitability Insights
Increased Profits through Subcontractors
Effective and efficient subcontractors will enable you to do more work and increase profits In recent surveys we keep hearing the same lament, “I can’t find qualified workers.” The other complaint I often hear is “it is so difficult to train my crew and then they...
Subcontractors – The Pros and Cons
Using subcontractors to increase profits In a recent article we examined the idea of increasing profits through subcontractors. In this article we will look at the pros and cons and some of the cautions of dealing with subcontractors. One of the obvious advantages...
Increasing Profits
Understanding your job costs, gross profit, and profit and loss statements You work so hard, you think you are doing everything right, and yet your profits just don’t seem to be where they should be. You have listened to others tell you that you are just too big, or...
Are Small Jobs Worth Your Time?
According to a recent report from NAHB, there has been an increase in smaller remodeling projects as well as in larger remodeling jobs over $25,000. It’s no surprise that many contractors prefer the larger jobs, but can your company benefit from the smaller ones too?...