Contractors have a 4% survival rate

In 2011, the U.S. Residential Construction and Remodeling business was a $253 Billion industry. The industry is now trending to hit $1 Trillion by 2025.

But according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, building contractors in the U.S. have a 96% failure rate. Higher than any other U.S. business tracked by the agency.

Are You the Pirate or the Entrepreneur?

We all know the construction pirate.

He jumped into the contracting business when he was between jobs, and managed to steal some work from legitimate contractors.

The construction pirate could be one of your best employees who jumped ship after watching you win a few contracts thinking the money and the business was easy.

But eventually, the construction pirates are killed off by their own greed and lack of experience.

They run out of cash, can’t pay their bills, and skip town with customer deposits on unfinished work.

If this is you, STOP READING.

Go back to drinking your beer and watching NASCAR.

What I'm going to describe is not for you.

The construction entrepreneur is a different type of contractor.

The construction entrepreneur understands he is a business owner first and a contractor second. He knows his business requires a lot of work to make a living, support his family, and make a consistent year-on-year profit.

He knows the persistent struggle to find a balance between labor, sales, cash, and profit.

Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs never find that balance.

And the lack of balance results in health issues, and stress levels that are off the charts.

There's financial problems, debt, and using money from a new project to cover the costs from your last job.

They're a stranger to their kids and family... 

...and their spouse or girlfriend has been giving them the “look”.

You know... the “look” that doesn't lead to anything good.

But the construction entrepreneur keeps fighting the good fight in hopes that someday everything will finally get into balance.

But even fighting the good fight, only a small percentage of contractors stay in business.

This situation reminds me of an old saying... "If you keep doin' what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got."

The SECRET the 4% won't share with you gives them a powerful competitive advantage

If I gave you my Home Depot credit card and told you to build me a house…

…what’s the first thing you’d need before you could start running up charges on my card and stocking the job?

I would hope your answer is a set of blueprints, signed and stamped by a civil engineer, and ready to pull permits.

It makes sense, right?

So let me ask you a simple question...

If you wouldn’t build a house without a set of blueprints…

…why should building your business be any different?

The secret that the 4% of contractors know...

...the ones who not only survive, but thrive in this industry is the value of having a business blueprint.

A set of plans that answer the questions...

Wait! Who are you?

By 2002, my construction business pivoted to offering maintenance and residential construction services to the general public. Within a few years, it had grown to 4 offices, serving 5 Southern California counties and on its way to becoming a national franchise.

On the path to franchising, I became an expert in analyzing regional markets for the SMB home improvement sector. Add that to my years as a financial analyst, Chief Financial Officer, and business owner, economic validation studies were a natural fit. I founded Dream Sherpa Labs, LLC, as a business development advisory for ecommerce firms, and now focuses on SMB home improvement contractors in the U.S.

Dream Sherpa Labs provides finance, call center, sales training, marketing, human resources, manpower recruiting, safety programs, and advisory services for the home improvement general contractor.

The Contractor’s Blueprint:

Business intelligence to help you join the 4% Club

You've probably heard the saying...

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

But in reality, all business ventures have some degree of planning. Otherwise the business would never have started.

The real question you should ask is... 

"Have I done enough of the RIGHT planning to succeed?"

It's not doing enough of the right planning that causes a company to drift along until one day they run out of money, can't cover payroll, and go out of business.

As a contractor, you're trying to find the proper stress-free balance between acquiring steady sales, skilled manpower, and consistent profit?

But how do you achieve this elusive state of balance?

It starts by knowing the right questions to ask.

And if you don't know the right questions to ask, you find someone with the knowledge and experience who does...

...and then using those answers to create a "blueprint", that matches your service offering to your ideal customer, for the lowest possible cost at the highest possible profit margin.

Our Contractor’s Blueprint is a personalized, one-of-a-kind, in-depth analysis, and unique business intelligence report specific to your business.

It answers these important questions:

• What are your competitors doing to win profitable customers?
• If I'm your ideal customer, why should I do business with you instead of your competitors?
• What are your customers thinking, saying, and really want?, and 
• What adjustments are needed in your business to become a profitable market leader?
  

Mini-Case Study

At the bottom of every page of our Contractor’s Blueprint includes this statement:

Our client's trust us with information that we hold sacred. For this reason, we’re prevented from revealing the identity of our clients. But we can share one of our client’s story.

Jim's Story...

Jim is a home improvement general contractor in the Midwest. He started his company in 2016, and running a small crew of highly skilled tradesmen, quickly built his annual revenue to $750K

By the beginning of 2019, the stress of the business was taking its toll. His business was 3 weeks into the slow season and he was concerned about having enough work to keep his crew busy. The slowdown also made him realize he had been trading dollars with customers, not realizing he wasn’t making the profit margins he needed to survive. His available cash was running low.

Jim was referred to Dream Sherpa Labs by a friend, and he signed up for our Contractor’s Blueprint about a week later. We immediately went to work analyzing his regional market, top 30 competitors, the types of projects and customers he had been targeting, and financial analysis to understand his profitability and cash position.

Armed with a new understanding of his construction business, we assisted him with making strategic changes to every aspect of his business model. Today, his company has a consistent flow of marketing qualified leads, a 90-day backlog of contracts, a stable workforce with a consistent, recruiting effort, a healthy profit margin, and sufficient cash on hand. He has not only increased his revenue past the $1 million mark, he has tripled his profit margins. He still has the occasional stressful day but nothing like before. He’s now building a sustainable business with predictable income. He even gets to spend time with his wife and kids.

Here's what Jim wrote about his experience with Dream Sherpa Labs...

"Lee and the Dream Sherpa Labs team have taken a personal, hands-on interest in my success.

Lee is tireless in his pursuit of detail, and wants to use every piece of data to better understand and optimize my business. I often find Lee awake and online in the early morning hours working through one of my business problems that surfaced the day before.

He challenges me, and constantly takes me out of my comfort zone. Because of his decades of business experience, he’s honest, direct, and to the point. When it comes to critical decisions, he doesn’t hold back and tells me the consequences of making the wrong decision. Sometimes his advice is hard to hear, but ultimately he leaves the final decision to me. But when I follow his process and coaching, the results have always been positive.

I've come to trust and have complete confidence in Lee and his team. Today he is a key and essential part of my company, intimately involved with every aspect of my business. Put Lee on it and know that it is not only done, but done really well – better than you could ever do it yourself, or think it could be done.

His fee is always reasonable, and I’ve learned that whenever I receive his monthly bill, the value I receive is significantly greater. I can confidently say that every team member in my business is deriving high value from Dream Sherpa Labs contribution."