4 Marketing Myths Your Firm Needs to Face

The field of marketing has the perceived image of being fun. People tend to think of viral YouTube videos and Super Bowl ads. But when business executives get into the weeds of marketing, they quickly discover it’s not as fun or easy as it might seem. When efforts are guided by misconceptions about marketing, the result is often disappearing dollars with little to show for it. If you suspect you are harboring some misguided notions about marketing, take comfort in the fact that you’re in good company.

12 Questions for Better Business

As a CEO, president or business owner, your business day goes by rather quickly, doesn’t it? You start your day early in the morning, sometimes before dawn. You hardly have time to think about what is for lunch. The next time you look up, it’s near dusk and time for you to call it a day. You bring work home to review before going to sleep.

Your Ticket to More Free Time

Many business owners tell me their businesses don’t deliver the results they want and have taken control of their lives. They work too many hours, don’t make enough money and never have enough time to spend with family and friends. They have become trapped in their web of overcommitment. When this happens, stressed, unfulfilled business owners reach a point where they finally realize their priorities have to change.

When to Sleep On It.

 When I am faced with a problem to solve and there is not a clear path at the time, it has been my experience that consciously filing it in my mind for further processing is the best temporary solution. It is amazing the way this works. Over the next few days, it will surface from time to time, and generally the right course of action becomes clear a little while later.

From what I have read on the subject, our subconscious mind continues to work on a problem after we have moved on to another thought. And a “gut feeling” really does mean something.

So when do we trust our instincts and when do we listen to logic? Gut vs. Head.

My gut tends to lead me to the right decision when there is a large amount of information to consider and making the decision feels overwhelming. I then try to step away, take a walk and get a good night’s sleep.

I’m not sure about you, but the right choice for that time often comes to me when I’m not actively thinking about the problem, and when I am least expecting.

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37th IRMI CRC Champions Safety Efforts

For 37 years, the International Risk Management Institute Inc. (IRMI) has hosted its national Construction Risk Conference (CRC), which brings project owners, general contractors, subcontractors, developers, insurers and insurance agents and brokers together to explore breakthrough strategies and techniques for improving insurance coverages, controlling costs and fine-tuning risk-management programs. This year, the annual CRC was held at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, Indiana, November 6-8, and hosted nearly 1,800 attendees.

Winter Grading

A couple of weeks ago, I was on one of our projects in Tennessee which, fortunately for us, is a rock job. As luck would have it for us as well, the cut material is below optimum moisture content. We have the best of both worlds for a winter grading project. This, combined with our grading contractor hitting it hard in the recent good weather, translates to success.

Beginning this time of year, the construction process is at the mercy of weather. Winter grading, for example, is more time consuming and labor intensive. Moisture is the enemy, and there are fewer hours of daylight–thus less drying time–with soils above optimum, not to mention the increase in rain and/or snow. A few things we do:

Phase the grading. Grade with a crown 2 feet higher than the proposed subgrade to protect the site from construction equipment, which will have more impact when the soil moisture is higher. At slab construction time, you can trim the damaged layer back, landing at the proper height and avoiding undercutting. This is generally referred to as “safe-ing up the site.”

Direct Traffic. Establishing construction roads can restrict traffic from weaker areas of the site and protect compacted soils.

Fight the Weather. You can place soil over a large area and seal it with a drum roller to protect the base layer from moisture, or use lightweight placement and compaction equipment to “work the soil.”

Cheat, if you have to. Chemical stabilization be used to weatherproof soils.

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How to Hire a Winning Workforce

Recruiting top talent can be difficult in any competitive industry. Just as job seekers compete to stand out to recruiters and potential employers, firms also need to make an impression on qualified candidates to avoid losing them to competitors. Acquiring talent that has the credentials and experience, as well as the desire to stay with a company long-term, is fundamental in successfully reaching and expanding your business goals, but doing so is often much easier said than done.