MC's 10 Cardinal Rules
For Construction Companies

1.	Thou shalt return all phone calls the same day.
	This means that you must return all phone calls the same day 
	or by 9:00 AM the next morning at the latest. You return the 
	call regardless of who it is from, and you don't make assumptions 
	about what the call may be about. Most importantly, you don't make 
	excuses about how busy you are. You return ALL phone calls.

2.	Thou shalt keep ALL appointments, and on time.
	This means that you must keep all appointments, and keep them 
	on time. You plan your day and leave early enough for the 
	appointment to be sure that you arrive on time. An appointment 
	means you made a promise to another person that you would be there 
	on time. Research has shown that "contractors" are late 
	or don't bother to show up at all for 30% to 40% of all appointments. 
	Those that are considered to be professional in our business, keep 
	their promises. You don't make excuses about how busy you are or what 
	happened . . . . you get to the appointment on time. If there is a 
	problem, you call on your mobile phone and let your customer know. 
	That is the way the pros conduct business.

3. 	Thou shalt present thyself to thy customers and the public in a 
	professional manner at all times.
    	This means you are professionally dressed including a coat and tie, 
    	shoes shined, your haircut on a regular basis and clean shaven. 
    	You keep your appointments and on time, you always have fresh, clean 
    	business cards available to hand out, you are articulate in your 
    	speech and you conduct yourself in a professional manner with an air 
    	of success. Ladies should follow suit.

4. 	Thou shalt keep thy ego in thy pocket.
    	This means that you recognize that customers do not care how much 
    	you know until they know how much to care. You keep your ego and your
    	opinions in your pocket, find out what the customer wants, and help 
    	them to get it.

5. 	Thou shalt interview the customer to see if they qualify to buy from
	thee,not if thee qualifies to sell to them.
   	Your approach to sales in construction should always be to find out 
   	what the customer wants to do, when they want to do it, who will 
   	make the buying decision and what they want to invest in that 
   	service. That will qualify the customer, eliminate your waisting 
   	time and working for nothing and vastly reduce your sales to leads 
   	ratio.

6. 	Thou shalt get written quotes on all items that exceed $300.00 on thy
        estimate.
	This means that any item on your estimate sheet that exceeds $300.00
	will be backed up by a firm written price quotation from either a sub
	or a specialty contractor. If you are computing labor or other costs 
	in house, you will have that number checked by at least one other 
	person before the quote to the customer. This proceedure will almost 
	guarantee you a profit on each job, assuming that you get it built on 
	schedule.

7. 	Thou shalt determine thy correct markup and use it without fail.
	The pros in our business know exactly what their correct markup is 
	and they use it on each job that they offer a quotation on, and 
	without fail. They never cut their markup on any job regardless 
	the reason.

8. 	Thou shalt honor thy overhead budget at all times, and spend not
        otherwise.
	Between November 15 and December 31 you establish your budget for the 
	following year and then you stick to it like glue. No new toys, no 
	buying of anything unless it is in your budget or you have made the 
	necessary adjustments to your sales projections to cover that expense.

 9. 	Thou shalt continue thy education on a daily basis.
	The one and only common thread amongst all successful contractors is 
	education. You must commit to continuing and ongoing education on a 
	daily basis if you wish to move from the ranks of those that work 
	with their hands to those that make money in this business. Read at 
	least one half hour each day, attend a class or seminar at least once
	a quarter and become and remain a student of the business.

10. 	Thou shalt take a fixed salary from thy business each month.
	This means that you assign yourself (and your spouse if they work 
	in your business) a salary each month and make sure that you take it. 
	You can't run a construction business of any kind if you can't pay 
	your own bills.