Speaker 1 (00:00):
<Silence>
Speaker 2 (00:10): Here we go again General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Hey, welcome back to the K-Cup. I’m your host, Joe nor Tripp, and I am here with founder and CEO John Kelly. We got a great show for you this week. We’re gonna talk about what makes a great subcontractor. So every general contractor knows how important subcontractors are to the success of a project, and there’s a lot of layers to it, and many people may not realize just really what a involved and complicated relationship it is between the general contractor and all the subs on a project, because there are so many layers to it. So we’re gonna discuss those layers today, and hopefully, if you’re a subcontractor watching this, you can gain some insight into the point of view of a general contractor and, and how we see things. And and then even if you’re not a subcontractor, if you’re an architect or developer, investor, whatever, and you’re watching this, you’re gonna get some insight into the interplay between how subcontractors, you know, interplay or interact with the general contractor and a project.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And really how all those pieces really have to work together in what really is you know, kind of a intricate dance you might call it. So we know that, that it, I guess we gotta go all the way back to the beginning. This relationship really starts, you know, at the quoting stage, you know, when we’re requesting quotes for bids that we’re gonna submit to, to win projects. Yeah. So maybe you can start there. Tell us about what in your estimation makes a great con subcontractor when it comes to the, the bidding process. Listen up General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Okay. But before I do that, just to kind of reiterate the importance of, you know, the relationship between the general contractor and the subcontractor. Yeah. I mean, it’s been, you know, I’ve heard this since I’ve been in business, and it, it’s, people always say, you know, general contractor, they’re only as good as their worst subcontractor. Yeah. And, and I mean, that’s really true. I mean, you know, it only takes, you know, one group to really mess up a job or, or to delay a job or, or whatever it is. Yeah, that’s true. And, you know, here we’re, we’re always talking about our reputation and, you know, we wanna portray ourself in a very professional manner. Yeah. A very organized manner. So a subcontractor can really hurt that. They can, they can really, unfortunately, you know, we, we can tell, we can tell a client all these things about our company and then how great we’re <laugh> Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:35): Listen up General Contractors Baton Rouge this is important!
Connect with a subcontractor that don’t perform. Yeah. And all of a sudden we look like the company that was a failure. And obviously that’s not what we’re looking for, and that’s not what we’re, and that, I don’t think that’s anybody’s goal. So it’s important to have the, the right subs you know, that you’re working with to make sure the project’s a success. Absolutely. And, and like you said, today, we’ll talk about in our mind what makes a good subcontractor. Yeah. Not just good, but great. Great. Yes, yes. So, you know, to your point, the relationship starts in the bidding process or in the negotiating process for sure. And, and both of those scenarios are a little bit different. I mean, we’re talking about a, a bid job, we’re usually talking about a public bid job. It goes at a certain deadline, and, you know, you have multiple subcontractors, you know, bidding a scope of work that they’re sending over to you.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And to start off, you know, what would make or what we’re looking for and what we think, you know, is a great subcontractor, we’re we’re looking for somebody that’s gonna send us a proposal. Yeah. That’s very clear, you know? Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. It has the inclusion, the exclusions you know, there’s always gray areas in scope, so make sure that, you know, there’s clarity on, on what exactly that proposal is. Yeah. and you know, sometimes it’s as simple as saying, you know, they, they’re bidding according to plan and spec, and that’s fine. Yeah. and, and that, you know, we make the assumption at that point that they have everything in that cost code or whatever it is that they’re bidding mm-hmm <affirmative>. But, but the main, the important part of it is, is just make sure that it is clear. Make sure that that proposal is something that we can take and we can understand without a bunch of phone calls back to the subcontractor. Great advice for General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah. what exactly that entails. Yeah. You know, the other side of it is timeliness. Like, get us, get us a proposal in enough time that we can take it in, we can decipher it. Yeah. If, if we do have questions and need to ask a question, make sure that we have time to, to do that. Yes. but, but mainly just get us your quotes in a clear manner. Get ’em to us on time and make sure they’re accurate. Yeah. You know, the last thing that we wanna do is, is get a quote that we go secure a job with to come to, to find out that it’s, it’s not accurate, you know? Yeah. so I mean, I think that that’s the things that I would lean to, you know, in, in pointing towards, you know, a good subcontractor. Just, you know, make, if you’re doing all those things and you’re being diligent then you’re gonna, you’re gonna put a number to out there that’s solid.
Speaker 3 (05:12): Let’s dig a little deeper General Contractors Baton Rouge.
And, and that’s what we need as a general contractor. We, we need to have a number that we have confidence in. Yeah. And then we also need to have it in a timely and, and clear manner so that we can get it plugged into our estimate and, and get our bid turned in on time. Yeah. So I think that that’s the major thing you know, in the beginning process. Yeah. And, and if there are questions, you know, make sure that that’s, make sure as a subcontractor you’re asking those questions, not on bid day. Let’s, let’s ask ’em in the, you know, typically on a bid process, there’s a window there that, that you can, you know, you have to ask those questions, make sure you’ve done your time and looked at the plans. Yeah. Have those questions prepared and asked, submit, submit your RFIs so you can get ’em answered. Yeah. You know, prior to bid date. Yeah. Because the chances are, if you pick this thing up at bid day and you’re asking us a bunch of questions, we we’re not gonna have the clear answer that we really need. No. And at that point, we’re not gonna be able to go into this project with confidence. That’s right. You know, so just be prepared on bid day, get, get everything to us on time and in a clear manner, think that automatically starts to put you in a category that’s, that’s good.
Speaker 2 (06:17): DOn’t check out yet General Contractors Baton Rouge, we have a few more great points to consider.
Yeah. For sure. Or great
Speaker 3 (06:18):
As you say. Great.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah. So all right. So let’s say that, you know, bid day came and went. We won the bid, we’ve been awarded the job. So now we go into this next phase of this relationship with, with subcontractors, we’re, this is the point where we’re going to, you know issue buyouts or contracts, we’re going to request submittals. The submittals may include shop drawings and then there’s schedules to consider. So with all these different things they’re happening now each of those, you know, the buyout, contract submittals, and, you know, communicating about schedules and things like that, what makes a great subcontractor in your mind when it comes to this next step in this relationship? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So, you know, my mind was continuing to roll as you was asking that question, <laugh>, so I wanna jump back to the, to the first question just for a second. Sure. Yeah. You know, we talked about bidding and negotiating Yeah. You know, in the negotiating phase and, and what that would look like. A lot of times an owner comes to us
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah. More like private size. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
They wanna do a shop or whatever mm-hmm <affirmative>. You know, and we start to build budget and we start to talk about the project. Yeah. You know, a subcontractor that in our mind starts to be great, is somebody that’s willing to come in, help us with this project, give us some time in the beginning. Yeah. Everybody’s
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Themselves available,
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Essentially. Everybody’s working for free, like to try to get this job. Sure. But it’s, it’s, it’s about it’s about us trying to build a relationship with that owner and the sub confirming our relationship by, you know, showing up and, and yeah. Putting forth a little effort in the beginning to try to help secure this project
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Shores up our position.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah. So, yeah. You know, another good sign in kind of the negotiating phase is somebody that’s willing to come in, give us a little time. Yeah. Give us some feedback, and, you know, even some budgetary numbers on a project mm-hmm <affirmative>. You know, at no cost. Yeah. In the hopes of getting a job. Yeah. And now typically what that looks like, I mean, is once, you know, we’re not asking anybody to continue to do a bunch of free work, and we’re not, no, we’re not asking, you know, we’re not telling you you’re good or bad based on how much free work you give us. Because typically in that scenario, once it turns to a job, I mean, we, we can look at some pre-construction costs and different stuff that, you know, we make them want owner aware of. Yeah. But just willing to, you know, to put forth some effort in a job that’s not a job yet. Yeah. and, and, and try to help secure it, you know, that really lends itself to somebody that wants to be a team player and Yeah. And looks to be a good, you know, good subcontractor.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Definitely makes you stand out. Yeah. In our mind, and I’m sure in any general contractor’s mind, that would be a huge plus, right. For sub to do that.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah. But, so to get back to your question, you know, starts in the bid phase and now we’re moving to, you know, the production side. Yeah. And, you know, once, once you get under contract with a subcontractor, there’s, there’s lots of things that, that kick into gear. You know, we need submittals, we need your, you know, projected schedule. We need your schedule of values we need your submittals. There’s a bunch of things that that contract puts in the gear. Yeah. And it’s important to get those things rolling immediately. You know, in my mind, even if you’re a subcontractor that’s not gonna be on this project mm-hmm <affirmative>. For three or four months Yeah. Like, let’s get these initial tasks taken care of. Yes. You know, submittals are huge. They’re submittals are something that can delay a job very quickly. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. We see it time and time again.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yes. So, and, and they’re not, they’re not simple to put together. They’re, there’s some, obviously some work for the subcontractor, their supplier, their vendor Yeah. To get these things pieced together. Little bit of legwork. Yeah. You get, you get ’em to us, and then we have to review ’em. We have to sign off on ’em, send ’em to the architect for their review, and, and then maybe an engineer if that’s required. Yeah. So as you can see, it’s, it’s quite a bid amount of time it takes to get these things turned around. For sure. On a long lead item or something like that, you would need to have this turned around plenty in advance, so really fast. Yeah. To me, a good sub jumps right. On this kind of stuff and gets it taken care of regardless of, of kind of where you fall out in the project.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah. Like, let’s, let’s get it taken care of. Let’s get everything ordered. Yeah. Let’s get it all coming. So just timeliness, like stay on top of it, make it happen quick schedule, values. I mean, we need subcontractor schedule values to build our schedule values and Yeah. We can’t submit any kind of pay apps or anything like that until we have it. So keep that kind of thing in mind. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. Like, we need this information as fast as we can get it. Mm-Hmm. Because the first day we’re signing a contract, we’re trying to submit a pay application for mobilization for, you know, any, any other thing that our subs may need in advance or Yeah. Whatever. So like, let this stuff be a priority. Don’t let it kind of slip through the cracks and don’t, you know, don’t celebrate the win, but don’t start thinking about the project till a month down the road, you know? Yeah. let’s, let’s get all these items taken care of and, and get ’em knocked out so that once the time comes, we’re we’re sitting on go. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Exactly. Get the paperwork behind you so you can roll. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
And again, we’re probably talking about this in every phase, but communication’s huge. Like, once that contract is under, you know, once you’re under contract, like, let’s communicate with the pm let’s tell ’em what the expectation is, you know? Yeah. Look, we can have you submittals in this amount of days we’ll have you schedule a schedule of values in this many days. Yeah. Just be clear on, on whatever their process is. Yeah. We’re not asking them to change the process or anything like that. Let us know what the process is so that we know we have an expectation. Yeah. A lot of,
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And you know, I’m sorry, go
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Ahead. I, I mean, I know a lot of times when we do, when we do submittals mm-hmm. Like, we’ll, we’ll give an expectation, you know, we, we want this back in 14 days, or we want this back in seven days. Yeah. and all of those items schedule a value schedule, we typically do that. But if you can’t meet the timeline, or if that’s not your process, just communicate to us exactly what it is. Yeah. And more than likely, as long as it’s not affecting, you know, the length of the project or anything like that, we’re gonna work together. We wanna be a team. That’s our whole goal. We talk about that continuously on our podcast. Yeah. And, and that’s something we we’re very team oriented here and outside of that. Yeah. So, so to me, that’s what makes a really good subcontractor in that phase. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I think one of the biggest challenges to, to project management is building a schedule. And a lot goes into it. You, you burn a lot of brain cells. I mean, you know what your overall number of days are for the project, but you have to make all the pieces fit inside of there. And that’s not always easy. I mean, you really have to know, understand the project. Yeah. Infinitely, like, you have to kind of, as I know when I was building schedules, I had to, I had to build the project in my mind Right. To figure out how those were all gonna fall into place. And so when a subcontractor has information about, well, I’m not gonna have that gear for, you know, six weeks or whatever, and you don’t communicate that, yeah. It really makes crafting a schedule difficult. But if you just communicate that, then the pm the the first schedule is always a rough draft. Yeah. This is what we’d like to see happen, but you send that out and at that point, as a subcontractor, check the schedule out. Yeah. Let us know, is this realistic? Does this look like this would work for you? Right. And if not, why? And then what would work for you?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah. That’s what I was gonna say. Like we call it our preliminary schedule. We, we build it on our own based on experience and based on the other jobs that we’ve done. Yeah. We send that out to our subs and to your point, like really review it, like give us some real world feedback Yeah. And let us know that, hey, this window’s not gonna happen. Yeah. Like, we can’t do it that fast, or, or if it’s too much time, let us know, because schedule’s critical. Sure. So if we, if we get you that preliminary schedule, like give us some real feedback, like read it, check it out, let us know. Yeah. And that’s, that’s, that’s another good sign. Like we’re, you know, if we get some real feedback in the beginning we’re, we’re all of a sudden way more confident and, and, you know, the sub and the project actually happened, like it’s supposed to happen. Yeah. so all that goes a long way. And, and again, it, it kinda gets back to communication, but that’s just an example of somewhere that clear communication is going to go a long way. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Something to think about as subcontractors, if you’re watching this and you are subcontractors that we know that your segment of the project, you, you might be able to shift that, you know, left or right in any place inside of the, the overall envelope of the time for the project, you know, but we have to be completed by that end date. Yeah. Otherwise we’re penalized. So you sliding it down the line just because you’re not being, you know, I guess responsive. Yeah. With, with all the different things that we need from you submittals and shop drawings, things like that, then it can, it can push our end date. And it, that does a couple things to us. If, well, first of all, the, our estimate is, is based on that timeline. Right. So our profitability is based on that number of days. Right. If we go past that, even if there’s no penalty necessarily other than days are extended, we still are losing money. Right. Technically. That’s right. So, so you can do us a solid by <laugh> making sure that, you know, you can one, like you said, give us feedback on the schedule, and then two, make sure that your stuff is submitted in a timely manner so that our schedule’s not getting pushed. Yeah. It may not affect your schedule, really, but it’s sure gonna affect ours. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And too, even for like, you know, just subs that aren’t critical path, I mean Yeah. You know, it’s easy. Seems like it’s a little easier for those guys to kind of let some stuff sit and delay or whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Put it on the back burner.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
That, that needs to be a priority too, because once we’re finished with the job, we don’t wanna be coming back for signage or Yeah. You know, maybe some bathroom accessories or something that all
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Those little
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Loose ends they can operate without. And it end up slipping through the crack because Yeah. You know, it just, you know, you can finish the job basically without it. Yeah. Like, just get those items done on time and, and get ’em all submitted and let’s, let’s get ’em, let’s get ’em here on time so we can get this project finished and Yeah. Get it done on time. Right.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
All right. Great. So we’ve, you know, we’ve talked about getting quotes. What makes a great subcontractor when it comes to the quoting process and the bidding process. We’ve talked about, you know, now we’ve awarded a contract and, you know, we we’re getting submittals and shop drawings and, and schedules set. And you’ve, you know, gave us some insight into what really makes it work for us mm-hmm <affirmative>. As a general contractor, what makes our life easier? So now we’re on the job, let’s say we’re on the job now we got a whole nother layer of issues that Right. Come up. You’ve got, you know, the issue of, of manpower onsite supervision you know, materials being correct and, and confirmed and, and all those different things. So tell us about, in your mind as a general contractor, what makes you smile when it comes to a subcontractor? The, you know, as far as how they conduct themselves on the job and take care of business. What, what makes them seem great to you when it comes to all these things?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Well, one, one thing that comes to mind is, you know, by the time you get to the job and you have a crew, you’ve, you’ve worked with multiple different people at this point. You’ve worked with an estimator, you’ve worked with a project manager or whoever. Yeah. And now you’re working with a site supervisor and their team. Yeah. So the first thing that’s really nice is when you get a crew there that knows what’s going on. Yeah. Like they’ve communicated all the way down the line at their company. Yes. And, and you have, you have somebody that understands the project, they know what the expectation is, they’re not there the first day trying to figure everything out. Exactly. That’s a huge win for our superintendents. Very
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Refreshing. Yeah. <laugh>
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And, and our PMs. Yeah. So that’s the first thing to see that you guys have been organized enough to pass this thing down from the bidding process to the, you know, infield production process Yes. And have communicated all this information mm-hmm <affirmative>. And have a crew that’s there ready to work. Yeah. That’s a big win. Huge shining, pretty bright. That’s
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
<Laugh>. The, the other part is, you know, we’ve alluded to schedule and how we build schedules and how we get the feedback is be at the job on time. If, if we have a date that you’re supposed to be there, that be there. Yeah. I mean, we’ve spent time in our office, you’ve spent time in your office confirming that the date’s good. Confirming that the timeframe’s good. Yeah. Make sure you hit your date, make sure you’re there on time, because that’s our expectation. It’s a commitment. And we’ve, we, we, we talk about communication mm-hmm <affirmative>. So there’s a high chance we’ve communicated to the owner or the client that a, b, C plumbing or CDEF mechanical Yeah. Is on site this day. Yeah. So when That’s right. When you’re not there, all of a sudden it don’t look like maybe we don’t have control of the project or Yeah. Whatever it is, we look like the bad guy,
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Not a good look.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
So make sure that you’re there on time. Make sure that you’re, you’re going to be on that date that you know you’re on the schedule for. That’s huge. And if you’re not, let’s go back to communication. Let’s clearly communicate plenty in advance. Yeah. That you’re not gonna be there. Don’t know that you’re not gonna be there and don’t tell us to that day. Yeah. Like, we understand that stuff happens, we understand that other jobs run a little long or whatever mm-hmm <affirmative>. But like, get that communicated to us so that we can communicate that to our owner. That’s right. Because we, we have people in our office. That’s what they’re doing. They’re telling the owner every week what the plan is and what’s gonna happen next week. Yeah. So when it don’t go as executed, then all of a sudden we’re, we’re not the bright shining star that we want to be.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
That’s right.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
To the owner. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We’re gonna submit that weekly progress report and we want it to show progress <laugh>.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Right. Exactly. And then, you know, once you do have your team there, make sure you have enough men. One. Yeah. I mean, don’t send two men for a six man job and, and act like it’s gonna make schedule. ’cause It’s probably not. Yeah. and, and make sure that the crew that you send are capable of doing the work. Make sure that you, you know, you have some skilled guys there. Yeah. You know, one thing that happens occasionally or from time to time is a subcontractor struggling to make it to the job and to struggling to hit our schedule. So they just send a couple warm bodies over there that essentially not a, they’re not really prepared to do the job. Yeah. But they can send ’em there and have a little crew there that’s not costing a bunch of money because maybe they’re helpers or whatever. Yeah. But they’re not, they don’t know what they’re doing.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
They’re not skilled craftsmen there to
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Execute. And, and then on top of that, I can’t tell you how many times we’ve gotten a crew over there that really don’t have a supervisor. Yes. You know, there, there’s nobody, there’s not a leader to turn to. So Yeah. Our superintendent ends up running a crew which takes away from all the responsibilities that we’re expecting to do on our side.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah. He has responsibilities there for us.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And, and then that’s, that’s just not a good look. So mm-hmm <affirmative>. I mean, in my mind, you know, once you hit the job site, if, if you want to be in our mind a great subcontractor Yeah. Then you have to know the scope. Your team has to know what they’re there to do. They have to be prepared to do the job Right. Without figuring it out for two or three days. Yeah. You know, you have to have a supervisor that, that can, your team can answer to that can clearly keep ’em in order Yes. Have enough manpower and, and have competent manpower. Yeah. I think all those things are huge and, and our mind are gonna go a long way and, and, and us, in our mind grading how good or bad, you know, these subcontractors are.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah. Do you, do you have any challenges with communication on the site that you’ve had to deal with that you, you wanna talk about?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, I mean, it’s nice. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s obviously in today’s climate or whatever you wanna call it you know, we do have a lot of, of guys that don’t speak English on the job sites. And I mean, I think that that’s widely accepted now and that’s fine. And, you know, there’s a lot of very very skilled guys that don’t speak English and, and can get out there and get the job done mm-hmm <affirmative>. But you gotta make sure we can communicate with ’em. You gotta make sure that, you know, you can understand what’s being said, understand direction given. Yeah. so yeah, just make sure that, make sure that you, you know, you have a way of communicating with a superintendent who may not be bilingual or may not, you know, speak other languages. That’s right. Yeah. So, I mean, I think that’s important too. And that goes back to, you know, having that good supervisor there that you keep everything lined up. Exactly. In my mind, if, if, you know, if you have a crew that don’t necessarily speak English, then you know, you should, you have a supervisor who can communicate in both languages or whatever, you know?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah. That, that would be a requirement for sure. If you want to be a great subcontractor. Yeah. <Laugh>. All right. So
Speaker 3 (24:27):
You might be trying to get us kicked off YouTube with that
Speaker 2 (24:29):
<Laugh>.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Just kidding. Just kidding.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
I doubt it. So, all right. So we’re going through these layers. We’re working through there, and we’re, we’re on the, on the job now. So inevitably, no matter how great the subcontractor is and when, how great the project is, problems arise, there’s always these gray areas that show up in the scope that they kind of, you know, they’re like a splinter. They don’t really show up till they fester a little bit. <Laugh>, you know, it takes a minute. And then, and then there’s some other areas, you know, kind of along with the gray area thing where, you know, there’s issues with materials being sourced, you know, long lead items could be huge quantities of certain materials, you know, that have to be purchased ahead of time, well far before any time, you know, someone can submit a pay app to get paid for ’em, things like that. Maybe you could talk about some of these, you know, probably what become some of the more serious challenges to, to getting the project completed and, and what your expectation is with these things.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Yeah. I mean, you know, one thing I think about in those situations specifically, like the gray areas in my mind, what makes a good subcontractor, I just wanna find somebody that’s gonna work, you know, in fairness with, with, with just fairness like front of mind. Yeah. because in a lot of these situations, you know, the general contractor and the sub are, are likely gonna have some kind of undue expense. And it’s always nice, specifically if it’s a gray area that leans towards a certain cost code or whatever, it’s always nice for our sub to kind of step up and say, you know what, you know, maybe we miss that. Or Yeah. And that’s not something that we typically do. Yeah. But we can see how you guys assume that we would. Yeah. maybe we come together and if it’s a six or $7,000 item, maybe, you know, we just kind of split it down the middle.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah. you know, in my mind, when they’re working in fairness like that, that that really nobody wants to take a loss on a project. We don’t wanna take a loss. They don’t wanna take a loss. We’re not asking anybody to take a loss. But when you can see the big picture and you can just say, you know what, we feel like this is what’s fair. Yeah. I feel like we’re very good at doing that. Yes. And you know, if a subcontractor can do that, then we feel we really, we really get kind of a warm fuzzy feeling about that particular subcontractor. Yeah. And so I would just say, you know, working in fairness in those, in those areas that are gray goes a long way. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we’ve had the scenario where the subcontractor just absolutely wouldn’t take any responsibility for it.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah. That’s rough. And just stuck us with it. Yeah. And, you know, we might have felt just as strongly that they should have done it, but it’s, it’s not worth a big dispute. Yeah. so, you know, we probably in that most cases would just take our lick and, and keep moving. Yeah. but it’s always nice to have a subcontractor that, you know what, own up if they did make a mistake. Yeah. and, and we’ve had that to where, you know, the sub said, you know what, it was our job and we totally missed it. Yeah. Like, we’re gonna take it. Yeah. And we appreciate that and we, you know, I can assure you we’re working with them again. Yeah. You know what I mean? So just working fairness in gray areas and, and that really, that’s gonna go a long way.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. You know, there’s a bunch of other things that come to mind. You know, the long lead items and stuff. Yeah. e even the, you know, money challenges. I mean, we understand you know, we understand the business that we’re in and we understand that there from time to time, there, there are challenges with, with money, you know you know, specifically there’s items sometimes that need to be on a job site that may have to be paid in advance. Yeah. you know, and as a subcontractor, it may be in place that you don’t have an account with or whatever the case, you may need a large sum of money up front to help get some material secure so they can get to the job site. Yeah. Like communicate that with us. Like Exactly. Don’t, don’t keep trying to figure out a way to pull together the funds or whatever it takes to, to get that material on a job site.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You know, don’t do that two weeks until you need it and the project’s six weeks out. Exactly. Well, I, you know, I know recently we actually had that on a job to where we end up just saying, tell the subcontractor look like, just let us know. We actually just went and bought the material, had it sent to the job site, and, and the project was delayed a week or two. And, and it didn’t have to be like, with a little bit of communication. Yeah. You know, we were able, we would’ve been able to get that material on the job site on time. Yeah. And, and we don’t necessarily have a bad feeling about that contractor. We understand that. Yeah. You know, I think in this case, the material, they didn’t have an account there. It was a new new supplier. Yeah. New vendor. Yeah. And and, and we were able to help get it ironed out, but like, let us know that kind of stuff in advance. Yeah. And, and we gonna help when we can and, and figure out a path forward, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
And subcontractors need to understand that we’re, we’re a management company as a general contractor, and we’re here to manage situations like that. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, let us manage it,
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Communicate it. Yeah. And, and the other thing, you know, in regards to money too, is like, we’ve had this, you know, at some point too is, is where we have a vendor calling us that, you know, one of our subcontractors owes some money and they’re not gonna send a job, they’re not gonna send material to the job site or whatever. Yeah. And like, just don’t let us find that out from a supplier or vendor. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
That’s a bad
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Look. Like, give us plenty of notification that hey, you know, whatever it is. I mean, we, money gets tight here. We understand that there’s times where money’s tight. I mean, that’s
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Why they call it working capital. ’cause It’s a thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
It might have been, you know, they might be getting slow paid on two or three other jobs. That’s right. So
Speaker 2 (30:33):
We’d be out of their control. In our
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Mind, we’re not thinking that, hey, these guys are a bad subcontractor because, you know, they have a bill that’s owed,
Speaker 2 (30:41):
But we know the industry. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Just let us know that that’s the case so that when we do get the call Yeah. We’re not blindsided. Exactly. ’cause Guess what, when we’re blindsided, now we are worried and now we are concerned. Yes. You know, if, if a subcontractor calls and says, man, look, I’m trying to get my brick on the job, however, the last two jobs I’m on are slow, really slow paying. Yeah. I need to catch ’em up. Yeah. Now all of a sudden, if that guy calls us, we already aware and we’re not really concerned. This guy’s been very open with us and told us what the scenario is. Yeah. But if that vendor calls us now, we’re, I’m not gonna say panicked, but we’re probably panicked <laugh>, <laugh>, like, what’s going on? Like, why, you
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Know? Yeah. Yeah. Why am I just hearing about this? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
So, you know, that’s the kind of stuff in, in the gray areas and, and that’s really not a gray area, but it can be gray if we don’t know anything about it. <Laugh> Yeah. Is, is just work out a fairness. And then in those material and, and cash flow situations, just communicate again, we’re back to communication. Yeah. But just communicate that stuff, be upfront about it. Don’t let us be surprised by any of that kind of stuff. Yeah. And all that just builds confidence in our relationship and it builds confidence for us in that subcontractor Yeah. When they’re keeping us in the know and keeping us in the loop on, on what’s going on, you know? Yeah. So I, I think that that’s how I would kind of sum that up. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
It reminds me of that saying that frustration begins where knowledge ends. So if you don’t know Right. You know, because you’re not being communicated with, then you can become very frustrated when you’re finding out last minute that there’s this problem, right. That we could have resolved a week ago or two weeks ago Yeah. Had we just known. Right. So be a team player and and communicate. That’s probably the most valuable thing you can do. Right.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We could have just said that instead of doing this whole show
Speaker 2 (32:36):
<Laugh>. Probably. So that’s a wrap <laugh>.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
All right. So I, I think, I think you’ve given us a lot of great insight into what, you know, what the expectations are for subcontractor to be looked at as a great subcontractor. Sounds like one of the primary things is just being great communicator and having integrity. Right.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
You know, I mean, you gotta be able to perform, but, but the reality is most people can perform, you know, specifically they’re not overloaded and they’re not stretched out. Yeah. But what really, what really kind of
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Differentiator. Yeah. It
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Is just, I say that right? Yeah. You said it right. <Laugh> it didn’t roll off top word. Your tongue perfect. But yes, you said it right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
The difference maker <laugh>
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Is really, is really that, that communication and that organization and that just really having everything in the palm of your hand and controlling it, you know, so Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Being engaged. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Cool. So does that wrap it up?
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Yeah, I think so. You know, hopefully hopefully we gave some good information. Just like most of the stuff we talk about. I think if we could probably really dive into a lot more details, but I think we gave a very good overview of, of I guess what our expectation is. Yeah. Expect, so hopefully some good information can be used.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Sure. Absolutely. Well, hey, we appreciate you joining us again this week. Hope you enjoyed it. We certainly did. We like these opportunities to get together and talk about the industry that we’re passionate about. This is how we all feed our families and, and you know finance our lives, I guess. So it’s something that, you know, we want to enjoy doing. And part of that is getting to talk to y’all and hopefully build this online community. And we want this to be serve as a feedback loop. You know, if you’re watching this on YouTube, there is a comments feature, <laugh> <laugh>. Feel free to to shoot us a comment. If you, if you’ve got a thought about the subject that we talked about and you listen to it, don’t be shy. Jump on the comments and, and give us a comment.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
We’d love to get some feedback from y’all and we appreciate you watching. Please subscribe. It makes a huge difference. As the subscriber percentage goes up, it’s not the count necessarily, but the percentage of people watching if those people are actually subscribed, it tells YouTube that people are caring about the content and they’ll push it out to more people. And and we want to get the, you know, the, the information out there to as many people as possible. ’cause Like I said, we want to build this online community around commercial construction here in the greater Baton Rouge area. And I think it’s something that’s really, I mean, it’s pivotal, pivotal to life. You know, everything has to be built <laugh>, right? And so it is just, it’s just one of those industries that touches a lot of different other businesses and industries and, and touches everybody’s life. So we all live in a built environment, you know, if you get right down to it and work in a built environment. So you know, that’s why we’re passionate about it. I think. So anyways, come back, see us next week. I’ve rambled on enough and I think this guy has too For sure. <Laugh> <laugh>. So I was just about to tell ’em you gave ’em all that for free. Yeah, that was all free of Charge <laugh>.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
And you know what it’s worth when it’s free <laugh>. So anyways, have a great rest of your week. Thanks for tuning in. Adios. That is.