George Hedley answers questions about your struggling construction company.

George Hedley answers your toughest questions on construction company management.

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in our 2009 series, “Earn More, Work Less.”    Take Time to Plan Your Strategy Imagine yourself stranded on a tiny island trying to make a strategic decision about how to get off the island quickly and safely before you run out of food and die. Without any advice or ideas from other people, it would be very difficult to decide what to do next or the best way to get off the island. Now imagine an entrepreneur or business owner sitting in his/her office alone trying to make all the decisions about how to run his/her company. These scenarios are similar. Without input from others, making decisions based solely on what you know and your experiences are no...

Editor’s Note: This is the eighth in our 2009 series, “Earn More, Work Less.” To read the previous article, click here. I recently read a newspaper article that identified the challenges facing a construction company trying to do business in today’s economy. In California, total unemployment is predicted to reach 12 percent or more in 2010. Construction unemployment is almost double that sad statistic. But the monthly statistics that astounded me were construction permits issued in the state. Commercial construction permit dollar volume was down 66 percent, and residential permit dollar volume was down 75 percent since the peak years of 2005 through 2007. This past year, I have repeatedly heard similarly shocking sales figures from national companies that supply construction materials such as cement,...