Summary: Episode 156: Today on “The Building Code,” Zach and Charley are joined by Paul Atherton, a business coach at Breakthrough Academy a company that provides smart and innovative solutions for contractors. Paul focuses on helping business owners develop the skills, systems and community necessary to set their companies up for success. Tune in to the full episode to hear about the top five areas you should be focusing on for continued success in project management and business growth. Why would a contractor come to Breakthrough Academy? “Well, generally I think businesses fall into basically two main categories. There's category one, where there's low net profit and some chaos happening in the company. They come and they're like, ‘I have no idea how to get myself out of this. Can you guys show me?’ Or they think, ‘Wow, this is going to take me 10 years to figure this out myself. Can you guys show me how to get there quicker?’ So, we're really good at helping those people, but then there are also the businesses that are already pretty good. Like they have strong systems in place. They're making good money. They have strong networks, and strong visibility in the marketplace. We also work on helping those organizations really polish everything that they do in the core areas businesses need to be strong in order to see success.” What are some warning signs that would indicate that a business owner or company needs some additional coaching? “Well, the obvious ones are company owners working 12, 14 hours a day, and there's just a lot of chaos and a lot of fires that are coming up. And they're like, ‘My business is controlling me. I'm not controlling it.’ So, that's a warning sign. Another warning sign is, that they're just not making as much money as they thought. Their net profit will be anywhere from zero to 5%. Generally, we can do something quickly to help in those areas. For the businesses that are already doing pretty good, usually those people, they just want to learn, and it's quite easy to gap them to say, ‘Okay, well, you're good in lots of areas, but here's how we can get you better.’” LINKS AND MORE Related content: Check out the blog series recap of our roundtable discussion for even more insights on how to grow a construction business. Listen to the last episode of “The Building Code” (link episode 155) to hear about what it takes to start a career in the construction industry, some of the latest evolving design trends and how Buildertrend helps curate the design process for clients. Subscribe here, and never miss an episode. Got podcast topic suggestions? Reach out to us at podcast@buildertrend.com. The Better Way, a podcast by Buildertrend: Looking to improve how your team plans projects with the top residential construction management platform this year? Pick up Buildertrend project planning pro tips on the newest season of “The Better Way, a podcast by Buildertrend.” Subscribe and stream all five bingeable episodes on your favorite listening app now. Follow us on social: Instagram and Facebook: @Buildertrend Listen to “The Building Code” on YouTube! And be sure to head over to Facebook to join The Building Code Crew fan page for some fun discussions with fellow listeners.
