Speaker 1 (00:00): The show of all shows General Contractors Baton Rouge! Lol.
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Speaker 2 (00:08):
All right. Hey, welcome back to the K-Cup episode seven. I’m glad to be here. I’m here with CEO and founder John Kelly. John Kelly. Welcome back. We’ve made it to episode seven.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Awesome. Awesome. Let’s go,
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Let’s go. So here’s what’s brewing at the K-Cup this week. We’re discussing why you need a general contractor. We’re gonna talk about three areas of the commercial construction industry, where we know that we bring value, and why we feel you would benefit by having a general contractor on your team. So, let’s talk about how, you know, general contractors are more than just builders. You know, a lot of people think of a contractor as, as the construction guy, but we do so much more than that. As general contractors, we really make people’s visions and dreams a reality. In addition to that, a general contractor, once they sign a contract, they enter into a really weighty fiduciary responsibility. And anybody in the industry knows, you know, how weighty that responsibility really is. And they not only have to be, you know, skilled at building, but they have to be very skilled on the administrative side. Basically, they’re managing this big project that has tentacles like an octopus. You know, there’s a lot of different tentacles out there that have to be managed and, and you know, supervise. And that’s what a general contractor has to do. So it’s a, it’s a big role, wouldn’t you say?
Speaker 3 (01:41): This is proof positive as to why they need is General contractors Baton Rouge.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, look, there’s tons of different general contractors you have, are structured in a lot of different ways. But, you know, we know largely here in the commercial sector and, you know, the companies that we kind of compete with or work around most, most of these companies are largely you know, management companies. Yeah. We, we bring in subcontractors to do the work. A lot of times we procure material. We may bring in, you know, specific labor guys to do certain things, but largely you know, we’re here to manage a project and, and to make sure it’s a, a, a success. Yeah. so to your point, it is, it is a big responsibility. You know, and there’s a lot that goes into that. I know here in a minute we’ll talk about a few of those aspects, but Yeah. But yeah, it’s a lot more to meet ci eye. It’s, it is a responsibility that we take serious.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah. Some of the core responsibilities, you kind of touched on it, you know, you have to manage schedules, you manage the hiring and supervision of all the subcontractors. You’re producing, you know, weekly progress reports. I mean, there’s a lot that goes into, there’s a lot more core responsibilities than that, but those are just a few of the things that are, you know, are very nuanced. There’s a lot of different facets to each of those core responsibilities. Can you add to those?
Speaker 3 (02:59): Let’s drill in here a little deeper General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Yeah, no, I think that it would be really cool to do a show on a, on a bunch of those, because I think that we could probably break down five or six, seven aspects and Yeah, really really shed some light for, you know, maybe a, a young contractor trying to get into the business or something like that, but Sure. But yeah, there’s a lot that goes into it. I mean, just hiring subcontractors, you know, managing their insurance, making sure they’re capable of doing the project, making sure they’re properly licensed. You know, you talked about scheduling, you know, building the construction schedule that actually works, that meets an end user’s you know, timeframe. Yeah. that meets their budget, you know, making sure that the project stays on budget. And, and then just making sure that, you know, everybody’s following the rules, everything’s being installed according to code and to, to how it’s permitted. Yeah. So lots of lots of things that we do in that realm. And again, I think we’ll do a show on that at some point, because I think that we can really add some good value in those line items. But yeah, I know that’s, that’s not what the show’s about today, but yeah. But yeah, definitely definitely a lot more, you know, that meets the eye.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, for sure. Okay, so let’s get into that first aspect. We, you know, we, we said we were gonna talk about three aspects where we feel that we bring value to the commercial construction you know, industry. The first one being with architects, we know that, you know, architects, design firms, generally speaking, focus on design. And but the general contractor is, is the one that’s gonna make that design, gonna bring that to reality. So whatever they put on paper or, you know, in a CAD file, we’re gonna make that happen. We’re gonna make it become a, a physical reality. And along with that, there’s some other ways that we can benefit an architect through our collaboration and and why we bring value and, and why we feel that it would be smart to have a GC on your team at, you know, on some level, for example addressing the constructability of a project.
Speaker 2 (05:04): And this, General Contractors Baton Rouge.
We know that, you know, talking about constructability, we’re, we’re looking at you know, possibly analyzing or doing a feasibility consult with an architect on a project, and looking at different aspects of that project and giving, you know, our advice on the constructability of it. In other words, let’s give an example. Like say we get a design from an architect and set of plans, and on the elevations we see a, a cladding system that right away we see, well, there’s a problem because we know that that cladding system is no longer either manufactured or it’s become very cost prohibitive. You know, it’s hard to get ahold of or whatever supply chain issues. So we have to bring, you know, we would bring that to the architect’s attention, and then they could adjust their design. And, and to do that on the front end, to be able to find stuff like that out ahead of time before the, the project goes out into bid or, you know is, you know, begins, you know, with you know, the, the construction process that’s the time for them to be able to find stuff like that out on the budget side of that.
Speaker 2 (06:16): General Contractors Baton Rouge, let’s roll!
Obviously finding out that kind of feedback would affect the budget, and they’d have to go back to the drawing board, at least on that scope, and, you know, adjust everything accordingly, including the budget. So, so that’s, that’s one big area. And then it, to expand a little bit on how we can you know, assist a, an architect during the design phase, particularly with budgeting a job, is that if, if a GC is brought into the, you know, the fold early on in the design phase, we can actually budget a project as it’s being designed through each of the scopes, and we can give our feedback. And what happens by you know, that process taking place is that the, the design that you end up with at the end of that kind of you know, design where you’re being, it’s being informed through a general contractor’s ability to budget the project, is that you’re gonna end up with a design that’s actually buildable.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
In other words, you’re not gonna over design something. You know, we’ve talked about this before, where like when the competitive bid market set of plans goes out to, you know, maybe 20 contractors, that set of plans has to have every screw. And now, and, you know, strip of wood or whatever, it has to have everything there because it’s, it’s being estimated by, you know, all these different entities. So it has to be a really detailed set of plans. Consequently, a lot of times what happens is when we get those bids back on bid day, they’re all way over the budget that, you know, the project owner and the architect were hoping for. So by informing that design with budget information as it’s, it’s happening at the end of the day when the design is complete, it’s inside of that, that umbrella of the budget that the owner wanted to work with. So the owner’s gonna actually get the project that they designed from the beginning because it’s been budgeted as it went. So to me, that’s just a, a superior way. And, you know, general contractors are an asset that can be used by architects for that purpose. So how do you feel about, you know, that, that portion of it, you
Speaker 3 (08:27): General Contractors Baton Rouge, this too!
Know, I think that’s the biggest way that we can, or one of the biggest ways that we can support an architect is, is the budgeting phase. And you know, a lot of times, I know it’s common for us to get us ahead of plans very early on to help an architect determine the budget. Yeah. And, and the reason for that is because they want a good budget. Yeah. or even to help you know, a client with a budget to make sure that you know what they’re, you start off with a very basic design and we kind of put forth, you know, some information that, you know, we may have done on another project or whatever to, to make sure that there is a real accurate budget. And, and I think that that’s the biggest area that we really can’t support architects. Yeah. we’ve done it, you know, numerous times, many, many times. And then just to bring the project through and, and to, to bring it through in a, you know, high quality. Yeah. but definitely a couple areas that we can bring value. Obviously there’s a few more, but definitely just that budgeting phase is somewhere that we really, it’s really key for us, and it, and it, it bridges the gap between, you know, the architect and the end user, or the architect and the client, whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah. Didn’t you mention earlier we were talking and you had, you had mentioned that recently you had had got a set of plans, you know, delivered and, and you were, you know, breaking ’em open and getting into ’em, and right away, you, you kind of found a situation like I had mentioned at the outset of this Yes. This little part about something that just wasn’t gonna work, and you were able to, you know, help the architect figure that out.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah. So early on, on a project, not, not that long ago, we actually were doing this exercise where, you know, the architects brought us some plans, we’re working on a budget, and during that time, we were able to realize that the exterior system they were using on this building actually is no longer in production. Hmm. So it was really helpful to find that information out way early on. Yeah. Rather than have this, you know, set of plans completely finished and Yeah. Maybe out to bid to, you know, a few other companies or something to figure out that this system don’t exist. Yeah. so yeah, that architect was, you know, was thankful that we were able to help point that out. Yeah. And and, and it worked out well for the project. So Yeah, definitely an example of something that you, you’d kind alluded to in the beginning there.
Speaker 2 (10:45): General Contractors Baton Rouge this is great stuff right?
Yeah. And that, that just kind of brought back to my mind, you know, a situation that can happen, like we talked about, if a situation or a, a project rather is, you know, completely designed and then sent out, forbid what happens, another thing that can happen is that the design is, you know, it, it comes back and it, it has to be chopped up because it’s just way over budget. So you end up in this redesign loop where you lose time, you lose precious time, and ultimately design is gonna be done. That’s not ever gonna be used. So obviously there’s savings that could happen there for the project owner. Of course, the architect doesn’t want to charge for a bunch of design, they’re not gonna use either. Ideally, they would, they would want to, you know, have information like what you were able to offer to this architect before, you know, that was completed on, you know, for that design you know, about something that wasn’t gonna work and they were able to change it Yeah. Prior to, to going to construction documents.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Well, the other thing that does is, you know, and the way this brings value to an architect, it, it allows that project project to go into production on time. Yeah. So, you know, there’s no delays by, you know, getting to the end of this process and having to redesign it. Yes. And now a project that, you know, maybe architect thought was gonna happen in 23 is gonna be pushed to 24 just because of the redesign. And, you know, we were able to, you know, see that problem early, fix it, and now during this first bid phase, this project gonna happen on time like it was originally thought. Yeah. And that’s huge. And so that’s another area that we could bring some value, you know, is, is help, you know, by pointing out these things early, keeping our project on schedule from just a design standpoint.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah. That’s awesome. And that’s, that’s really big. I mean, time is money ultimately for everybody involved, so that, that’s a huge way. All right. So let’s talk about our, our commercial real estate friends, our CRE professionals. That’s another area where, you know, we really feel like you need a general contractor, and here’s why. I mean, we know that commercial, you know, real estate pros are, you know, they’re the tip of the spear when it comes to dealing with, you know, commercial real estate developers slash investors. And they’re gonna be the first ones that get to interact with that potential client. It starts them down that, you know, that journey to, you know, whatever their project is that they have in mind, whether it’s a white box build out or developing a piece of commercial land. And as a general contractor, there’s ways that we can help that CRE prof, you know, take, help them take the next, you know, their client to the next step and, and possibly, you know, sign another deal instead of letting that lead go by the wayside.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah. One of those ways is that, you know, we can, we can provide early on, you know, before we would like provide a budget, we could, you know, just simply have a, a consult, you know, a consultation. Like imagine if, if, you know, you were a, a client, you’re working with a, you know, a commercial agent, and you find a space that you really like, and and they say, you know what, I, I, I’ve got a contractor that I work with all the time, and let me give him a call and see if he can’t meet with you and answer any questions you have about the space and tell ’em what your, you know, your concept is, and just kind of get a idea of if, if it’s really feasible. Yeah. Imagine being able to do that, how it kind of, you know, levels up your game as a, as a CRE professional kind of shows you a, at kind of next level professional level that you have this arrow in your quiver that you can just, you know bring to bear in short order. And if take that to the next level is, is that we can actually provide budgets, and we have many times Yeah. For commercial agents, you know, so that they can give their clients a, a rough budget so that they could be informed enough to be able to know if they can take the next step and move on a property or not. So those are ways that we, we can really bring value to the commercial real estate profession and why we think you need a general contractor.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah. It’s always nice to be able to get you know, good, accurate information and, you know, from, you know, that commercial realtor bringing in us as general con, general contractor, we just were able to give that client or that end user, you know, more information. Yes. and obviously that’s gonna go a long way because they wanna see, they wanna get as much as they can get to understand if this is really a possibility.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:30): Almost home, General Contractors Baton Rouge.
And the, the, the cool part is, you know, we’ve seen this time and time again where we’ve came, you know, we’ve given a good budget. We’ve actually converted the client, the, the commercial real estate agent was able to convert a client. Yeah. And, and then it turned to repetitive work. I mean, yeah. We’ve done this with multiple clients so that we know, we know it works and we know that it’s a real thing. Yes. so we just need, you know, some other commercial realtors and those type of people to believe in it. Yeah. And and I think that we can really, we can really grow, grow that aspect.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah. Did y’all catch that? We really believe this is a, a largely untapped you know, market or, or opportunity for both of us, for y’all and for us. We’ve done it when it, when it falls into place, it’s so nice. It’s just very rewarding when you make that effort to collaborate. And it actually works for both parties, for the, you know, the, the realtor and for us in, in turns into opportunities for both of us. You know, if you can you know, expand your gross revenue by 1%, you close one more deal or two more deals a year than you would’ve closed by collaborating. To me that sounds kind of like a no brainer. Like that would be something I would definitely wanna take advantage of. So, just so y’all know, we are here, we’re ready to collaborate with our commercial real estate professionals and, and you do see us in the community, in the greater Baton Rouge area, reaching out to y’all. And you know, so take advantage of that opportunity and utilize the asset. ’cause We’re definitely here and we’re ready to work with you to help close some deals. So,
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Anything to add on? Yes, how about General Contractors Baton Rouge!
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That? No, I, I think that, I think that there’s, like I say, I think there’s definitely room for that and I think we can be a, we can bring a big value there for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Cool. All right. So let’s move on to our third area, and that is commercial lenders. We feel like commercial lenders really need a general contractor in their in their corner or on their team. And we know we’ve had personal experience you know, we reach out again to commercial lenders in the community because we know that there’s opportunity there. We feel kind of like the commercial real estate profession that there’s a lot of untapped potential there. So we reach out and we, we try to keep the lines of communication open, letting them know that we have a pulse, we’re here ready to help out. And as a result of that, we’ve had some opportunities that turned out to be great jobs situations where for whatever reason, the, the project wasn’t getting completed, they needed another contractor to come in and get the job done.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And because of us making ourselves known and available, that took place. So that’s, that’s one way in which we can help commercial lenders, is to get projects completed that for some reason installed out. Another thing that we know is going on with, with lending, particularly in the commercial area, that, you know who they’re gonna lend money to you know, lenders are gonna give their money to the, the scrutiny level is, is definitely increased from what it used to be, and understandably so. And, you know, and, and the current economy, you know, when you lend money, you wanna make sure there’s gonna be an ROI, you wanna make sure that the project that gets started is gonna be completed. So that’s another way that a general contractor, just having that rapport and that relationship with can be a benefit to y’all because you know, we can again, provide a feasibility assessment of a project. We can let you know if, you know, this project looks like it can, yes, it can be completed for this budget that is being proposed. It, you know, when or how long it would take to complete that project. So we can give you a timeline estimates, we can give you budgetary estimates and basically shore up your, you know, your understanding of, of how feasible it is to loan on that project. So that’s another way that you know, we could be a big asset to commercial lenders. Anything to add to that?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah. I know we just recently and I say just recently in the last year or two, we, we’ve completed our project with a, with a, a lender to where the, the project was in kind of jeopardy a little bit, I guess. And we were able to come in and, you know, not take advantage of anybody at a fair rate Yeah. Help get the project back on board and up and running and, you know, completed so that it could go on about its use. Yeah. and you know, I think that that blender, you know, obviously gained some confidence in us mm-hmm <affirmative>. And you know, where we were bringing value is he knows that he can come to us again as a responsible GC and Yes. You know, we can take the money that he’s lending for this project and, and utilize it the correct way.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yes. and, you know, I think the other, the other side of it is much like, you know, architects we’re able to take that bank’s end user and provide them a solid budget on a project, and that gives the, you know, the lender confidence to lend against that knowing that this is what it’s gonna cost and that, you know, we’re going to oversee this thing Yeah. Through construction. Yeah. so we, we, I think the one area, or the area that we do or give confidence is, is we mainly just give confidence to that, to that banker. Yeah. That’s the value that we bring. Yeah. and I think that’s huge, though. I don’t, I don’t it think that that’s I don’t think that that’s said lightly, you know?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
No. Yeah. I think confidence is huge. They’re definitely looking for that, that reassurance that what’s being proposed is doable. And I, you know, I’ve, I’ve found I’ve had some great conversations with some commercial lenders through, you know, our sales efforts and stuff, and, and kind of found that a a lot of the parameters that they use is similar to other aspects of like, commercial realtors, architects and stuff. Sometimes their, their, you know, proposed budgets or assumed budgets don’t quite match what the real world construction budget is. And that’s where, you know, I think we bring so much value is that, you know, we see it all the time. And it’s not saying that anyone’s not doing their job well, they have their own parameters that they use to estimate these things. It’s just that we know, ’cause we’re, you know, on the ground, boots on the ground in the trenches, we know exactly what something’s gonna cost.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And we know how volatile labor materials, all those different things are. I mean, they adjust, they used to adjust by 30 days or quarters, and sometimes now it’s literally weekly that some of these things you know, go up and down Yeah. In, in cost. So that’s another area where I think that just, you know, having that conversation, letting us give them a real worldview, you know, put the glasses on that’s gonna give them the lens of what’s something’s actually gonna cost can really help them make the decision or know they’re making a good decision. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
And they go forward. I, I think the other thing it does too. It, it starts a relationship and Yeah. You know, some of the lenders that we’ve talked about, we had a relat relationship prior to, you know, stepping in and doing some work with ’em, but then the other lenders that we’ve stepped in and helped you know, we’ve, we’ve been able to build that relationship. Yeah. And, and again, it’s a relationship that works, you know, it works both ways. It’s fruitful for both parties. Absolutely. so that’s, that’s the other, you know, cool thing and, and the value that we bring once, once we are able to step in and, and work with a lender.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah. So anyways, hope y’all have enjoyed this and seeing how you know, general contractors bring value to the commercial construction industry and in ways that maybe you never thought about give you a really you know, simple visual. I like visuals, I’m a visual learner, but, you know, imagine you got three little islands that are clustered together. You got this island’s commercial real estate. This one’s commercial lending, this one’s architects and design general contractors are really the bridge bridges that connect those islands. And you know, general contractors are gonna, you know initiate the lion’s share of all communication that takes place when a project begins. By nature, we’re problem solvers. You know, it’s just what we do. We solve problems all the time. And, and trust me it doesn’t matter how well a commercial construction project is planned or executed, problems will arise. So it’s really not, if there are problems, it’s how quickly and efficiently a general contractor can solve a problem and regain momentum and keep a project moving forward. And so there’s just a, a, a number of ways that we can bring great value. And of course save time and time is money and opportunities, money. So hope you enjoyed this. Anything you wanna add, John?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Just, just thinking about your your illustration here. My visual
Speaker 3 (24:38):
<Laugh>. I mean, I think, you know, the bridge to each of those, to me, the, the word I would describe that bridge is like confidence. You know, I think we give the architect confidence that his design can be built within a certain budget. Yeah. I think we give confidence to the end user that, hey, these guys have looked at it, our budget’s solid. It can be built with no real surprises. Yeah. And then the, you know, the banker knows that we can lend this, this amount of money for this project it’s been looked at by a professional who understand what it costs. Yes. And it gives them the comfort level and the confidence to lend on that particular project.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
So that’s, that’s kind of the way I see the bridge scenario that you you were pointing out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good, that’s a good analogy. I mean, we’ll call that the confidence bridge <laugh>. Yeah. I gotta cross that down
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Bridge. I don’t that bad
Speaker 2 (25:25):
<Laugh>. Anyways good feedback. Good, good insight, John. Appreciate that. Thanks y’all for being here again for episode seven. We’re excited. Episode eight will be coming soon. And we hope to see y’all again here on the K-Cup. Come on back.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Eddie Oats
Speaker 1 (25:46):
<Laugh>.