Profitable Contracting

Have high overhead costs, underbidding, and low productivity eaten up what remains of your modest profit margins? In this course, instructor Wayne Newell draws upon 35 years of financial and construction-contracting experience to help you recognize problem projects, identify unwanted expenses, increase productivity, manage overhead expenses, and address labour shortages.

Learn how to increase cash flow and improve profits! This course will teach you how to control and reduce expenses and covers contracting essentials from operations and labour productivity to finances. You’ll learn how to rid yourself of labour productivity concerns, high overhead costs, below-budget profits, and cash flow headaches.

Labour and technology are key factors affecting contractors in today’s marketplace and you’ll cover both in this course. A major issue facing contractors’ productivity today is the forecasted labour shortage by 2030. This course identifies 8 of the major causes and offers methods to resolve them with a focus on attracting young people to your company. Additionally, technology is pointing the way in improving productivity, eliminating inefficiencies, attracting younger workers, and making job sites safer. This course identifies some of the recent advances that benefit contractors including cloud computing, collaborative software, BIM, drones, wearables and offsite and prefab construction.

This course includes real-world examples and insights drawing from Wayne’s 35-year career. Many of these will apply to your company: profit essentials, estimating, project management, labour productivity, people skills, materials and tools management, change orders, job costing, overhead controls, cash flow, AR collections, risk management, asset controls and a host of others.

Plus, you will walk away with a comprehensive course manual filled with methods and strategies you need for your business and will be a future reference guide.

Attendance is encouraged for those who influence profits: owners, department and division managers, project managers and coordinators, field supervisors, administrators, and estimators. Since its introduction in 2003 over 1,200 construction professionals have benefited from this course.

Learning outcomes:

• Key strategies to improve profits, reduce/control costs and increase cash flow
• Understanding the elements of profit-making
• Managing labour productivity
• Understanding the causes and solutions of the skilled trades shortage
• Effective human resource policies and procedures
• Identifying new technology to improve productivity
• Understanding the risks and potential errors in estimating
• Controlling and/or reducing overhead costs
• Ensuring that billings and change orders are controlled
• Improving AR collections

There are no prerequistes to this course.

This session would be ideal for: 

• Project managers
• Coordinators
• Estimators
• Department heads
• Field superintendents
• Gold Seal candidates
• Senior managers
• Owners and
• Anyone who can influence project and company profits

1. Computer or laptop

• • This course will involve on-screen interaction with your instructor and classmates, reading/viewing on-screen content (slides or videos), and interacting via typing with questions or responses. For this reason, cellphones may not be adequate. 

  • Windows 10 or Mac iOS. 

2. Webcam (Mandatory)– in order to engage and collaborate, participants will be expected to have their webcams on for the duration of the class

3. Microphone (Mandatory)

4. Internet connection- For best results, you will want to ensure you have an internet connection with an upload/download speed of 3-5 Mbps. You can test your internet speed here. The minimum recommended speed is 1.5 Mbps, but anything below 3 Mbps may result in loss of quality or buffering. Ideally hardwired connection versus wireless for stability - connect your computer directly to your router using an ethernet cable, rather than using your home wi-fi.

5. A quiet space with minimal distractions –The microphone will be engaged for interactive sessions. Please plan to be fully engaged in the class and clear your work schedule just as you would for the in-class program.

6. Comfortable chair