Week 19: An open letter to my construction crews

Onwards and Upwards

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This edition has the following sections:

Adding Value: An open letter to my construction crews

Interesting things: Tweets

Enjoy!

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Adding Value: An open letter to my construction crews

As I analyze our business and seek to make changes, I cannot help but think about the most crucial piece within our operation: the construction crews. Sure, we can sell and market like crazy, but what good is it if our product is subpar? 80% of business comes from 20% of clients. To succeed, we must make 20% of our customers repeat their business. We need these customers to consider us their first choice for real estate development. As I sit in my office and ponder about the hundreds of jobs we've done, good, bad, pretty, and ugly, it's crazy to think about how far we've come from flipping homes to doing hundreds of construction projects a year. Still, the tides are changing in our industry, and we must prepare for the storm that is to come. Interest rates are high, demand is low, and we have to pivot as a firm to stay alive during these times. This pivot is not about our business strategy but about enforcing systems and "tightening up" our operations. We still have a good product and the ability to do what most can't: identifying land and churning out real estate at scale and with great flexibility. To continue to do this at a high level, I want to state what we need to do as a team to become the fastest, most efficient development firm that creates the most beautiful, practical spaces in Florida. 

We must take pride in our work.

We must hold the quality of our homes to a high standard, which starts with holding ourselves to a high standard. If the house is shitty, it means you as a person are shitty. We don't want shitty people on our team. 

We need tests at critical points.

We must ensure that we have inspections in critical parts of the construction process where we will inspect that item and check it off our list in a verifiable manner. We can't rely on contractors' words; we have to verify the quality of the jobs ourselves. This ensures we don't have to correct that item further down the construction process. As we continue to spot new tests that must be done (which will happen). We have to add it to our inspection protocol. These should be in a neat checklist-style list in our software, and each item should be checked off with picture and date verification. 

We need to be at the sites on time. Start early, leave early.

Construction is not a 9-5 job; You and I know this. Subcontractors are at the job sites early, sometimes before the sun rises. We must be available when they're present to communicate with them, supervise their work, make decisions on the spot, and move forward with jobs. Gone are the days we show up at the job site after 9am.  We will aim to be there around 6-7am. The critical point is being available while people are at the site. Once they're gone, we miss that opportunity. 

We must document everything well.

We will follow our documentation systems to a tee. Pictures, dates, and reports at the job site will be accurate. We will clarify and verify with our team members, responding to their requests and updating them on progress. Schedules will be up to date, material deliveries will be reported, and receipts will be documented. Anyone in the organization should be able to access each project's file and know exactly what is happening with the project. 

We must use technology to help us.

We have already implemented various systems to help us document job progress. We must continue to embrace those. Also, we must start using all our resources to make our jobs easier. Tools such as ChatGPT or our own custom software to schedule jobs can make our daily lives much easier and faster. Take the time to learn these systems thoroughly so they can help us. 

Each crew will have a dedicated project manager.

We will place managers within each construction crew to oversee everyone's work. Their job won't be to put out fires and go to each job site like in the past. We will implement a system so that they can measure your work, ensure jobs are moving forward, and report to the executive team should anything not be up to par. They will be in charge of getting the most out of your work, and we will get the most out of theirs.

You will be measured. 

We will implement clearly defined KPIs that can be mathematically measured, such as the duration for each activity, idle job times, inspection passing rates, and sites visited daily, to ensure that we are moving the jobs forward. Managers will perform quarterly evaluations. Those who don't produce will be out.

Groups will meet daily to perform checks.

You will meet with your corresponding project manager each day. They will ensure everyone is at the site in uniform and inform you of the day's objectives. We want clear communication within the crews. 

We have to be aggressive with our scheduling. Don't wait until next week.

This mostly goes out to the project managers. We can't be content with just scheduling a job. Each day costs money. The faster we can move up jobs, the more money and time we save, allowing us to hit our time and budget targets. It's essential to maintain quality, but when a sub tells you they can't go until next week and the job can be completed tomorrow, we must get them to do the jobs tomorrow, or we should find another sub. 

We are not smart enough to remember everything.

This is why we have put systems in place to document everything, from to-dos to work orders, in our internal software. We must utilize these and leverage them so we get everything. We will schedule set times during each day to check on these and ensure we're not missing or forgetting anything.

There is mobility upwards.

Those who produce and add value can be sure they will be noticed and promoted. We have a clear path