Smart Business for Contractors: A Guide to Money and the Law, Revised and Updated

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Smart Business for Contractors: A Guide to Money and the Law, Revised and Updated

Smart Business for Contractors: A Guide to Money and the Law, Revised and Updated will help you with the unique financial and legal concerns of running your construction business.

List Price $19.95
Website Price $17.95

Author: James M Kramon
Format: Softcover
Copyright: 2007
Pages: 236

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Description

Table of Contents

You are a contractor. You know your trade, and you're good at it. But what about the unique financial and legal concerns of running a construction business? Do you have the right tools for dealing with money and the law? Attorney Jim Kramon provides all the information you need to turn your hard work into greater financial security.

Smart Business for Contractors: A Guide to Money and the Law, Revised and Updated, will help you:

Price your work and keep track of expenses.
Resolve contract disputes.
Get all the tax benefits you're entitled to.
Work effectively with an accountant or a lawyer.
Plan for retirement.

From the Introduction
Ever since I was a child, I have admired the work of contractors. In the small apartment building where I grew up, I would follow the building's superintendent - a combination plumber, electrician, carpenter, and everything else - whenever he came to fix whatever was broken or, for a few dollars from my mother, add a shelf or install a new appliance. When he would leave, I would use household utensils, brooms, and mops to imitate his tools so that I could pretend to be doing what he did. Sometimes on weekends, my mother would take me to a nearby lumberyard where the workmen gave me leftover scraps of 2x4s and plywood, which I would take home to make into crude toys and furniture.

In later years, I worked for builders while in school and got a closer look at their lifestyles. From scattered conversations throughout the day, I came to realize the hardship and precariousness of the lives of most contractors. The very same man whose tilework or woodwork or roofing or flooring was so carefully and seamlessly completed was often unable to pay his mortgage, get proper medical care for his family, or make reasonable plans to retire someday.

Since then, I have practiced law for over 30 years and represented quite a few contractors. I have also had many opportunities to deal with homeowners, architects, engineers, and others involved in projects ranging from the smallest to the largest. What struck me is the contrast that often exists between the skill and integrity of a contractor's work and the frequently haphazard manner in which his business and financial affairs are organized.

I know contractors who don't have liability or medical insurance. I know contractors who have no plan whatsoever for retirement or disability. Very few of the contractors I know get all of the tax benefits available to them. It is an unusual contractor who is aware of his choices about retirement plans. Contractors are not alone in these shortcomings, but it is disturbing to see people with highly developed building skills who lack the business skills that deeply affect their lifestyles. In these activities, I have found that my sympathies lie with the men and women who perform the actual work, the contractors themselves, which is the primary motivation for this book.

What is a minor glitch for some is a showstopper for a contractor. A broken truck for a contractor doesn't simply mean finding an alternative way to work. It can mean that he can't earn a living. A pricing mistake for a dentist means at worst a short-term loss on one small part of his business. For a contractor, however, a faulty takeoff from plans for a job that will last six or eight weeks may mean bankruptcy. Similarly, bad knees for a contractor who does flooring or carpet installation or neck pain for one who does ceilings or overhead lighting means eventual disability.

In the year or so before I wrote this book, I asked contractors about their business and about what they would want to see in the book. I learned what they generally know and don't know and, most important, what they would like to know.

This book is my best effort to include in one manageable volume everything the typical contractor needs to know about business matters. I have tried to provide specific and useful information wherever possible; when that is not possible, I have directed you to the best and most convenient sources of information. I have outlined each business topic with simple, easy-to-follow, and time-saving steps. I am well aware that the finished product of learning and following good business practices is not like the finished jobs most contractors try to do. If you learn the information that is in this book and follow the recommended steps, your reward will not be a beautifully pointed-up brick wall or perfectly fitted custom cabinets. But it will be more money and more financial security for you and your family as a result of the hard work you are doing.

Anyone who tries to provide useful information to a particular group of people finds that he can improve upon his efforts. I received many gratifying responses and suggestions from contractors and others in various construction trades. Hopefully, I built on those suggestions and improved upon the original book. Some of these improvements are very small changes that make important points clearer. I've also added new material on minimizing expenses while maximizing tax deductions, managing flex spending plans, and optimizing your home office and its technology. You'll also find a completely new chapter detailing what a contractor can expect in his first year of business, which should allow somebody beginning in a trade to plan more effectively and work more efficiently.

Since I wrote the first edition of this book, I've maintained relationships with a number of contractors, who, thankfully, have continued to provide their thoughtful feedback. My objective continues to be this: to provide as much useful and profitable information to contractors as possible. And, if this second edition received the same response as the first edition, I'll be very grateful.

About the Author
Jim Kramon is a founder of Kramon & Graham, a 30-person law firm in Baltimore, Maryland. Jim and his firm have represented small contractors and tradespeople for over 30 years.

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