The Contractor Operating System Step 3 (Part 2): Increasing Product Quality Through Subcontractor Onboarding & Management

In the second episode of Step 3 in The Contractor Operating System, we break down how product quality starts long before the final walkthrough.

It begins with the people delivering the work.

This episode dives into:

• How to build a subcontractor “bullpen” before you’re desperate
• Running structured onboarding meetings 
• Using skills assessments to vet crews properly
• Setting jobsite expectations with pre-con checklists and end-of-day procedures
• Managing a crew’s first job with tight standards and fast accountability

If you want consistent product quality, stronger margins, and fewer callbacks, it starts with building better systems around your subcontractors.

Struggling to grow your contracting business? The Foundations Program is designed to help contractors break free from the chaos and build a business that runs smoothly. You’ll get a customized training program, 1-on-1 coaching, and access to a full paperwork database—including contracts and the Client Engagement Agreement. Join the Foundations Program today! 🚀

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of growing a successful contracting company.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Welcome to Contractor Cuts. My name is Clark Turner. And I'm James McConnell. Thanks for joining us again this week. So today we are covering product quality, uh, which is one of the processes that we have in our operating system. Our operating system is a seven-step, step-by-step operating system of what you need to be doing. So step one is vision and structure. Step two is job roles. We've covered those in past podcasts. Step three is the largest of all of our steps, which is our process uh documentation, our core processes that we're documenting. Um we've broken up into two different categories. Um, and the first category is what we're covering over the past few weeks as well as now. Um I thought of a great tagline.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

What is it? Product quality. It's not just an outcome, it's a process.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

It's good.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

TM.

The Grocery Store Metaphor For Quality

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Uh so in this section, uh in core process documentation, we have the 10-step process, we have calendar management, which we did a deep dive on. Uh, and then now we're going to product quality. So, what does that mean? Product quality. We coach on there are two products that you are selling. You are selling the end result that the that the homeowner that your client walks away with, as well as the secondary product, which is the client's experience of receiving the first product, right? So it's not just, hey, they got a good kitchen. Why are they complaining? Because the second product that you failed at providing them didn't go well. And so they are upset or didn't enjoy the experience and will obviously never use you again or suggest you to the neighbors. So we are covering the on product quality. Uh, we're gonna break this into two different podcasts. Today's podcast is about crews, crew, vendor, onboarding, management, development, the product of delivering whatever we're delivering to them, whether it's a ground up commercial construction or a new HVAC system, anywhere in between what product we're delivering and how we do it matters. And how do we make sure that that product is a high quality product? I always use the grocery store metaphor uh when it comes to product because it's it's a really good example of, you know, I'm owning a grocery store and the products that we're selling are milk, eggs, and bread, right? And so that's what I'm putting on my shelf. And so people are coming to my grocery store to buy the Mayfield milk, which is the product I'm selling. Well, there's 78 other grocery stores in a five-mile radius that they can go to that have Mayfield milk. So why are they choosing our grocery store? And that's that secondary product. The experience of receiving it, the cleanliness, the lights are on, everyone's super friendly. Um, they have we have a full wet well-rounded um uh amount of products that they're looking for. Um, the milk is always cold and always delivered right and not expired.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Um Publix, well, I take olive in there, my daughter. They always there's cookies. Yes. And I go right up to the cookie, we get a cookie, and I get five minutes of time where I can go get the stuff I need before she wants to walk.

Why Subs Beat In‑House For Most Shops

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yes, we we live in the Southeast, and Publix is probably the nicer of them. There's a Whole Foods, which is a little probably a little once up above Publix. Uh, and then you've got some other ones like a Win Dixie, uh Piggly Wiggly, that are the same products, but people don't choose them. People are gonna pay a little more to go to Publix than they would. Is Win Dixie still? I think so. Wow. Uh, anyways, the that sort of setup, the metaphor of a grocery store is the there's two parts of the product that we're working with. And so when today we're talking about the milk and the eggs and the bread. I I am not, and and where general contractors start is that they are creating the milk. They have a farm and they milk cows and they go around selling milk door to door. And so all I can do is sell whatever milk I have. What I'm trying to grow you into as a general contractor, which is I've got a grocery store, I buy milk from the milk supplier, I buy bread from the bread company, I buy eggs from the farm that sells me eggs, and I'm creating all the products, putting them on my shelf, and helping people come get them. And so, how we receive that product, how we make sure that the farm looks good and is uh meeting top quality when how they're treating their animals, and that the milk is processed and pasteurized properly, and that their trucks that deliver the milk to my store are cooled. And when they get to the store, how does how do we un unpull them off the truck and put them into our um warehouse? And how does our our stock boy come and put it on the shelf? And every step of getting that product ready for someone to buy has to be organized and planned out. If I don't have a plan, an an expectation and a bar set of I need my milk delivered at 33 degrees or whatever, I don't I don't I'm out of my wheelhouse on this. But uh if you don't know about milk temp? I don't know milk temp quality levels that are expected right now. But that that being said, like we have to have a process on how that happens so then I can train someone to go and make sure that all of these processes are being followed. And that's how we duplicate ourselves and grow into a company. As a one-man show, I'm doing all of it. I'm stocking, I'm calling the farm, I'm stocking the shelves, I'm turning on the lights, I'm painting the walls when they need repainted, I'm opening the doors, I'm checking people, I'm doing all of the jobs in my own personal grocery store. But we have to create these job roles, the stock boy job role that I'm doing, but I'm creating how he does it so that I can train someone. That's the documented process of that. So that's that being said, today we're talking about how do we make sure that milk shows up good, healthy, clean, on our shelves, good order. And milky. And milky, super milky. Uh, so that is our crew and vendor onboarding management and development. Next week, we're gonna be talking about job site setup, calibration walks, uh, job site management, more of the experience for the client of our actual job sites. Uh, and again, that's the second product um that we're selling. Now, we've already started that product from the desk estimate, the side estimate, the intake, all we've already kind of written the first chapter of their experience and kind of try to set the bar high. And so, what we double down on in our processes is now that we've got those 10 steps, the beginning of the 10 step with that, how do we ensure that the job sites run well? And so we're gonna dive into that next week uh on the podcast. So, today, crew onboarding. Um, one thing that we always want to start on, and we push very hard on doing 1099 subcontractor labor. Uh, we've got a ton of different podcasts on this, and we've had a ton of different um arguments and pushback and conversations about in-house versus sub. Um, and so to define what we're talking about today, we try to push subcontractors and we treat them like in-house guys, but they are their own companies. They get paid by the job, they get paid for the quality and speed that they do it. Um, and we try to help them grow into their own company. And we try to, if they are a really good, well-rounded business, then they are providing my company a really good product. So we go and help the farm make better milk. And if we can do that, they're like, hey, I want you to be who I sell all my milk to because you guys, we're we're on the same team, right? And so we want to start out like there's not, there's I'm not against in-house labor. I think from 90% of companies, um, it's not the smartest way to run. It is inefficient, it costs you a lot more money, and the processes are a lot more difficult. You need a lot more manpower and brain power wrapped around managing those people because the the carrot changes. The reason they're showing up changes from as a sub, I know my expectation, I know what I have to do, I know exactly what I need to need to get done from this work order, I know the time frame, I know the money. Go, I'm gonna let me execute. As an in-house, it's all right, it's 458, I'm ready to be done. Just we got 30 minutes left. Can you knock now? Uh I'll be back tomorrow at 8:30. Right. And so it's a different mindset, it's a different person. And honestly, we treat our subs better than we treat in-house. So I've had both. We've had our in-house guys. It's it with subs, I can build them into their own companies. I can make them better businesses. Um, and by doing that, they are they are growing as a partner with me on our job sites. We break our job sites down into two job roles. One is my job as a project manager. I'm doing the estimates, the uh front end, the money collection, the material management and selections. I'm doing pulling the permits. Now I need you to show up, execute the labor. During that, I'm gonna do the front end walk, I'm gonna do my calibration walk, I'm gonna do uh inspections, I'm making sure that everything's running smoothly. I'm lining up guys behind you and after you. I'm then doing collections, I'm then making sure you get paid. I'm doing all of that side is my job. I'm managing the client. I'm managing the client. You, I'm paying you as my partner, as my subcontractor, to just show up and do the labor. And so we'll talk about this in a second, but we show up and shine. That's what I always say. I've always said it. That's a James.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I just need you to show up and shine, okay? Show up and shine, baby.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

You're star. So, all that being said, uh, and I run through that quickly because I've said it seven times on the podcast, but for new listeners, it it we push subcontractors so hard because it makes it easy, it makes it measurable, and we know when before we swing the first hammer, our exact profitability that we should be hitting on the job. It's not a I hope I budget enough time, oh I didn't. There's a lot of reasons that we push subcontractors, and that's what we're talking about today, onboarding those subs. Um secondly, going into that, when we onboard those subs, and what that's what we're gonna walk through today, uh, we're gonna talk about how to onboard them, how to manage launching into their first job, and really how do we maintain those relationships. Like I said a second ago, if my it's a partnership. And so when I am framing any conversation with the sub, it's not I am the master and you are my slave. It's not I am in charge and you just work for me and you do what I say. The way we frame it, because it's true, is we're partners in this. I do my my part of the job and you do your part. And so part of part being partner.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Partner.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

It's the derivation.

Finding And Vetting New Crews

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Amazing. So that being said, I want to have this onboarding meeting with every single vendor in person, like it's a business meeting. I'm not sending them some paperwork to sign and send them a work order and have them show up on the first job. I am doing it in person. I'm not trying to get signatures, I'm trying to make it a partnership meeting and all paperwork I'm gonna have signed and uploaded in my software. And in and we're gonna talk through what you should be doing in this meeting. But again, part of them being a sub is that they're gonna work for less than they could if they they could charge if they were working for the homeowner. And so I need to help them understand how my pricing works, how that works. And I lay out, like I said, and we'll talk about this in a second. Um, we lay all of this out to them and make sure that it works for them. I've had crews that come into this meeting that are they love talking, they love selling, they love having that conversation with the homeowner, they love just being the man on the job site. And I we've left those meetings saying, Hey, I feel like we're not the best fit for each other. Like, you should go like do the whole thing. You don't need my help, and I don't really need someone to manage my clients like that. Um, I you know what we're looking for is someone who wants to show up, execute, and get to the next job and and collect cash. Uh, and so finding the right crew sometimes means not hiring certain guys.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Yeah, the the the partnership should allow both of you to make more money than you would be able to make otherwise.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

That's right. And a lot of times, you know, it's where are our skills and where where are your skills, right? And so we we try and lay that out and say, listen, I know you would show up and charge five grand for this. We are charging five grand for this. And so you need to pay me to do all the management that you don't have to do. So, yes, you would charge five grand for this job, you're gonna pay me$1,500 and you're gonna take$3,500 because you don't have to do all of this front-end work, all the back end work, all the management work. I need you to see what part of our partnership you're getting paid for and what I'm getting paid for. And I want you to view it as my sub is you're hiring me to do all this stuff for you. We had one sub that was my very first sub. I always talk about him, but um, he got to a point where he was just dumping clients to us because he didn't want to deal with them. And so he was like, Oh, partnership here, you take you take these clients. People were calling him from his truck, he had his number on the side of his van, and then he'd just pass them to us and saying, Hey, if let me run it, you guys handle that the bids and let's do it. So it was it was a two-way partnership where we were bringing value to him by having all the systems and processes for intake, estimating, uh, client engagement agreement, all that stuff we would do with them. He'd show up, execute the work, get paid. And he, I remember one year when I was running things, he uh he made like$250,000 that year as our as a sub for us. And that was after what he paid to the guys that helped him. But he knew our processes and he knew how to make money. My goal was to make him as much money as possible. Um, and if I could do that, he was here forever. Right. We're not trying to screw our subs. We're not trying to get one over on them. We want them to make as much money as they can because then they're here forever and they're building our product uh and and really helping us grow as we help them grow. All right. So let's walk through that first meeting, the first onboarding meeting. And and let's let's actually back up a little bit before that. James, when I am looking to find new crews, uh let's talk about kind of the times to find them and how you do it, right? Like I think a lot of a lot of crew um outside of starting the company, I think a lot of crew acquisition happens on specific jobs when I'm light on that trade, right? Kind of how do you identify that in chicken or egg? Like how do you get ahead of that and how do you plant the seed? How do you have that conversation versus hey, I got a job for you, let's go.

Three Types Of Subs And Vendors

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Um ideally, and this is this is hard because there's always a million things to do in a day. But on any on any estimate, I want to have a list of I want to be farming names and numbers and organizing those into trades and making phone calls and connecting with people because when I have a job that I want to get bids on, I might already have a crew that I know I'm gonna use. And that's that's fine. That's like my that's my game plan number one. But when I'm getting estimates together, I want people that I can send a bid packet to, you know, pictures of what we're doing, an explanation, and just email it to them and be able to say, Hey, can you give me a rough number on this? Some people are not gonna get back with you and that tells you something, that's great. Some people are gonna send you back something, it's astronomical, and you might want to talk with them a little bit because they got back to you quick and they had like a more professional kind of vibe, and maybe they're the guy you're talking about earlier, like we're not gonna work together. They're more of a G C. They're more of a G C. And but maybe not. Maybe they're just really professional. They're like a young up-and-coming dude that wants to grow his company, but he's like, I'm on every job site, I run this, I have my guys that come with me. I'm gonna pop out, you know, probably once, you know, at lunch to go look at this other job that I'm running, but I'll be back here because uh I run kind of smaller jobs, but I'm trying to get into bigger stuff. Yep. Good. That's a great setup. I'm gonna try to get numbers from people. I wanna have like if I'm being honest, I would like to have like two or three bids on everything that I'm trying to do so that number one, I can start making sure that the pricing that I have built into my software is compensate with what the what is what are guys getting paid right now? Yeah. What is the market value of this of this uh of this task? Yeah. So it gives me information, and it even if I'm not gonna use those guys, it's really good information to have, keeping my crews honest. Yeah. But also I might find that diamond in the rough. I'm gonna I'm gonna keep reaching out and keep putting nets in the water, lines in the water, building relationships so that I can bring new people in when it's necessary.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Fill in the bullpen so in the seventh inning you can call in the right guy. He's sitting there ready.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

It's not going to work well when you uh you're like, I don't have anybody to do this, or this guy's too busy. I need to go find out. Yeah. Because you were in a pinch, you had to make a call, and oftentimes that call bites you.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yes. Uh I I think one thing to define at this point of the conversation, too, is there's really three different types of subcontracting crews. Uh I've got my general labor. That's my jack of all trade. You know, it's it's Steve and his cousin and his uncle that all kind of work together and they can do a little bit of everything. They're really good at framing, and Steve's crew is good at tile, but you know, Juan's crew is not good at tile, but they can paint and cheatrock like the best of them. And so we kind of have our general crews that are jack of all trades, um, that can handle the majority of the the kind of quantity of work that needs to get done on most jobs. Um, that's the general crews. Then we have our specialty crews, HVSC, electrical, plumber, concrete, cleaners, stuff that's like I'm sending them just this, and that's who I'm gonna use. I care about the quality of my concrete. And those are more the general crews are more giving me bids, like you're talking about. The the general crews, I'm trying to understand their numbers and I'm creating the dollars to send to them. Uh, and then the third set are like vendors, right? Like cabinetry or um uh granite. Yeah, so something that uh the vendors are totally different because they oftentimes have it their own processes, uh, and so I am trying to help understand their processes and merge it with our processes and make sure that it's the same that that we can work. So that might be we don't give 50% up front to my general crew. I will not do that period ever. You get paid weekly for the work you completed that week, right? For the for our cabinet company, well, they need a 50% deposit before they start cutting up the wood that we're ordering for the cabinets, right? And so there's different rules for each of those three categories.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Some of it is like who's the bigger fish? And this is like this is just reality. This isn't necessarily how how it should be, but who's the bigger fish in the room? If I'm doing two million a year and my glass company or my cabinet company is doing 10 million, 15 million a year, guess who's not going to buck on their systems? Yep. So you gotta, if you need that work, you're gonna have to work within their systems. If a guy is on his own and he's doing 250,000 a year, he's gonna have to fall in line with my systems.

The In‑Person Onboarding Meeting

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Yeah, yeah. And so it's those those are kind of the three categories. And I think kind of focusing on the first two today on how to onboard your general crews or your specialty crews is where we're gonna where we're gonna hang out. Um, that being said, I I think James is 100% right. We you have to be casting a net constantly. You can't wait till you need them because then it's too late. Then you're in desperation mode, and I'm gonna take a risk with this guy, and all of a sudden I'm out 15 grand because I've got to cover the hardwoods that weren't acclimated properly and put in the house before. There's stuff like I really need to do my due diligence and talk to them. And I always say, like, the finding crews can be boiled down to two things. It's there's an art to it, and it's a grind. You gotta know that it's a grind, and you're just you gotta talk to 10 different crews to find four that you want to sit down and and go through paperwork and to maybe hire one to two of those guys.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

And you know what's not always on the table, but something that I always ask for is is there a job that I could come by? Take a look at not just pictures, because pictures can lie. Yeah, but is there a job that I could swing by? Like, are you doing anything in the Georgetown area, Leander? Can I can I swing by a project and just see what your level of of finish is and also kind of how you keep a job site? Like I'd be interested to just see kind of how you work, see if it works for me. Yeah, and um and sorry, the longer the the more uh proactive you are about uh reaching out to crews, the more opportunity you're gonna have to actually spend time doing that. Yep. And the relationships like, hey man, you called me last week about work. I actually have a job in Georgetown that we're finishing up. Do you want to come see it? Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Yeah. Well, and I've got a handful of guys that I coach that are introverts. And it's like, how do I find the right crews? Yeah, you gotta go to the bar and date girl, like talk to every girl at the bar. Like it's just I'm talking to everyone. And if they're like, wait, what? No, I don't want to. Great. I don't like no problem, right? And so it's not difficult. If you're at Home Depot or Lowe's, if someone's got a dirty shirt on or a van outside, I'm talking to them. And I'd say, Hey, I'm I'm a contractor, um, looking for additional crews. Are you interested in having a conversation? What do you do? Yeah, actually, I do sheetrock and I'm really good at tile and I do this. I kind of work for my buddy. Hey, Steve, come on. Like, and so there's the if they're interested, cool, let's have. I'm not gonna talk anyone into working for me.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

The dating example is great because you're not gonna you're not gonna jump into that first conversation and be like, yeah, I'm looking to settle down. I want four kids. I uh I kind of expect you to cook mostly because that's not my strength. Like that first conversation would be like Yeah, I gotta tell them. What about your hobbies? I gotta go to the bathroom. And then they disappear. You can't overwhelm them in the jump, but it's starting that relationship, setting up a time to have more of those define the relationship conversations. It might not all be able to happen on that first connection. So that's why it's important to keep keep it going.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

And and some guys are like, well, I need to get a job so I can have something to show them and get going. You don't. You need to put them in your Rolodex. So it's a hey, I'm I'm building my cruise right now. I got a bunch of jobs coming up, whether you do or not. I got a bunch of jobs coming up, and I need some additional guys uh and I'm in I'm looking for to add on to my cruise. You know, are you interested? Do you got capacity? Like, tell me about your like what you guys do in your calendar. Yeah, cool. Let's get some coffee. You got time like anytime next week to sit down. I'd love to kind of show you our processes and show you our work orders and how we work and see if we'd be a good fit together. Yeah. And if they're like, I don't know, man, cool, great. I had one of the 10 conversations. I gotta have nine more, and I'm gonna find four to talk to. Right. And so it's a numbers game that you're playing, but it's it's the art of the like dating. It's like, I'm not gonna walk up to someone in home deep and like, hey, I've got a job for uh for tomorrow that needs uh 80 boards of sheetrock. Are you interested? Yeah, and I hope this works, right? And and so it's it's I've gotta be building that roster. Let's get married. Yes. I've got to be building the roster on it uh and having that conversation. Uh, we're gonna talk about how to onboard them during the first job once you find them. So that's kind of hunting them down, finding them. We're asking everybody, we're asking cross-trades. Electricians know a lot of plumbers, and uh HVAC guys know electricians, and if you can be asking cross-trade, it's not competition, right? Electrician's probably not gonna give you another electrician's phone number. If he does, it means he doesn't want to work for you, right? But uh trying to get any sort of introduction, right? How am I gonna find uh, you know, tr churches have a lot of job boards, call local churches, right? Who do you have working here? Um, or do you have anyone that does handyman work and I'm looking for this? Uh, there's a lot of different spots to go hunt, gas stations, uh, Home Depots, all of those places. You just gotta be Yeah, quick trip racetrack at 6 30.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

You you just breeding ground.

unknown 25:34

Yeah.

The 20‑Point Skills Assessment

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Get up early and go sit at racetrack and stay there for an hour, and you will find a three or three crews that come through there. Hot dog for breakfast, huh? What uh what you up to? I see you got a Sherwin Williams shirt on, you painter. Um so that's that's number one. Uh going through finding them and and getting them. Now that we've got three or four guys that want to have a conversation that are interested, um, the next thing I'm doing is I'm scheduling a meeting. Ideally in my office. If I can't do it there, I'm doing it at Starbucks. If I can't do it there, I might do it at one of my job sites, but not the one that they're starting. But it might be on the back of my truck, and I want to walk them through what one of my job sites look like. I do not meet a crew and do paperwork on the first job they're starting ever, ever. It's not, hey, they're starting next Tuesday. Let's pull that paperwork together and meet them out there, let's get there an hour early and kind of talk through the sub-agreement. That's too late. You're you can't have a conversation about, you know, that a conversation where I have to have them start today, but I also, if the conversation doesn't go well, I can't, I can't say yes to them. Right. I'm I'm really painting myself in a corner by doing it that way. So I need to have these conversations ahead of time, start building my Rolodex. Once I have a job for them, I'm gonna call them back and we're gonna we're gonna do what we're about to talk about and walk through the project with them after we've done an onboarding. But the onboarding conversation needs to be way in advance of needing them, at least a week of needing them on the on that potential job, ideally a month, uh, right? We already have these onboarded, so then we can go and call them. Hey, why don't we try uh why don't we try Greg? He seemed really good. We talked like last month. Let's give let me give him a call, let's see what his availability is. All right, so this onboarding meeting that we're talking about, this is the paperwork that we have. Now, if you are not in Prostruct as a coaching client and any of our foundations level, all the way up to our actual one-on-one coaching, which is our growth and our executive, if you're in that, you get all of this paperwork. So I'm not gonna show it on the screen or I'm just gonna explain what it is. If you're not in coaching, create some of this stuff. Hit me up, I'll throw you some bones if there's something that you really need. But this paperwork is what part of the package that we give you when you come into ProStreck coaching. Um, and so this is the paperwork that we need for onboarding. We need to do it the same way every time. Also, you're not cut you're not carbon copying copying what we do. We take our paperwork, customize it to the way you do things, customize it to your company, customize it to how you want it. We give it all an editable document so you can create your own paperwork based around what we know what works. All right, so the first thing we do is our skills assessment. It's a 20, 20-point skills assessment spreadsheet that we use. And now, again, the three different sets of crews, general labor is who I'm using this for. I don't need a skills assessment on an electrician because a skills assessment has 20 different things framing, sheet rack, tile, uh, trim, like everything that you could do. And I'm gonna talk them through that skills assessment. And this is the first 30 minutes of this meeting with these subs of this is where I'm getting to know them. This is where I'm understanding their knowledge level, right? So if I'm sitting here and and let's role play, James. Love it. You be a crew interviewing, okay, and we're gonna go through like a skills assessment.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

So think come with your character. All right, got him. Um think of what he can do and can't do. All right. Okay. So we're sitting down talking, I pull out my skills assessment, and I say, listen, I'm gonna talk through, I've got 20 different things.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Do you want me to be do you want me to be a good good crew or uh a concerning crew?

SPEAKER_01 29:15

In the middle. Surprise me. Okay. A little bit of both. All right. Good at some, bad at uh bad at some. All right, so the subcontractor skills uh assessment. I've got 10 core construction skills and I got 10 specialty skills. I'm gonna ask you about these. These are help helping me understand what you can do. Um, and so I'm gonna lay these out. Um, and I I show the guy the paper and I say, let's pretend I've got a work order for every single one of these trades on 20 different jobs. All right. The first one on here is framing. That's the first one. The second one is drywall installation. Let's say between those two work orders, walk me through which of these work 20 work orders that you would start with and which one of them um would you probably be your 20s? Like go one, then two, then three. Now it's not what you're best at, it's what you can do quickly and make the most money at that you're gonna pick up that work order first. So, James, tell me a little bit about that. Like, where would you start on these 20 things? Do you have it in front of you? I do.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

I I'm gonna be completely honest with you. What you're asking of me is not uh clear to me yet.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Just just uh which one of these things would you let's say I mean be lead me.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

We're in we're I'm you're interviewing me. Yes. So lead me.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Go. All right, so framing, drywall, demo, trim, doors. Which if if you can pick up a work order that's one of these 20 items on here, what would be the very first thing that you would pick up and say, Clark, I I want that job?

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Man, we we do I mean, we do everything, man. We're so we're we're really good, we're really responsive, and you know, we're just we're grinders, man. We'd we kind of do it all. I mean, we frame uh anything and everything. I mean, we just did a big project back down in uh back down just south. And uh drywall got a killer drywall guy. I love painting, uh, really good at painting. We can knock it out real fast.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Real fast. Out of you, you you mentioned framing, drywall, and painting. Out of those three, what's your number one? If you can do only one of those things on my job, which one is? Man, I really want to do all three. I and you probably can. We'll we'll do work orders where we group all this stuff together, but if you had to pick one, sure, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Uh I'd say probably framing. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Framing is number one, drywall two, paint three, or would you say paint over drywall?

SPEAKER_00 31:37

That's a toughie. That's a toughie. You really got me on the hot seat. This is tough. Um I'd probably say drywall next.

Defining Roles And Job Flow

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Framing then drywall. So I'll put a one by framing, I'll put a two by drywall. Can I be honest with you? Yes. We're bad at painting. Okay. I lied earlier. That's great. That's fine. That's perfect. That's really good to know because we've got a ton of work and I've got painters that can that can handle it. So, next, out of those out of this list, what would be your number four? So you've picked up the framing one, you've picked up the drywall one. We're gonna set aside the painting one. What would be your number three? All right, so cut. Uh I don't want to leave. So that is how we go through these 21st. I'm trying to understand your level of expertise in each of these. Then, and I I usually give them the paper for that and they grade one through 20 on it. And sometimes it goes like James just did, where it's like they're kind of they don't want to commit to one thing because they want to say yes to everything. And that's great because at the beginning, if he just walked in here, he says he's great at painting. And by the end of this, I realize, oh, this dude ain't a painter. Yeah, I'm not gonna give him paint uh on his work order, right? And so understanding and finding that stuff. Next, the second thing we do on the same assessment is a second column, which is I'm gonna grade one through ten on all of these. So, framing, you're a 10, James, it seems like drywall, you're a 10. Something about demo, uh, one to 10 on demo and doing cleaning. Is that something that you like? And so I grade one to 10 on all of these. And I say, listen, before we start, if you give yourself a 10 on painting and I walk into your house and your painting looks terrible, I'm gonna expect 10, it means terrible for you, and I'm not gonna hire you for anything that's a 10. So I need you to give me a 10 out of stuff that you're good at. And if you're a six at painting, that's fine. I can I've got plenty of investment properties. I got a section eight uh apartment we're flipping right now that I can use a uh level eight painter on that doesn't need to be a 10. So help me understand. And so we walk through these. And so when James says, I'm a I'm a 10 at tile, I say, Great. I'm a 10 at tile. There you go. I say perfect. So tell me, walk me through your process of doing like a shower pan and like tiling a bathroom. Kind of walk me through how you set up the job and and how you do it.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Yeah, we put up uh Hardy, we put up that cement board, uh-huh, and then we do, you know, we make sure that it looks right, and then we got the tile. We can do every type of tile. Uh ceramic tile. Tell tell me about the shower tile. Like your shower pan.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

How how do you do that? Yeah, we get the pan uh and we put it in. Have you done a lot of shower pans? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Basically, all I do is is is tile showers.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

I mean, that should if they can't explain to me how a shower pan goes in, I'm not gonna give them shower uh tile work, right? And same with sheetrock. Like, tell me about sheet rec. What how do you do it? And I'm like, what level are you? Oh, 10 out of 10. Well, well, there's five levels of sheet recently. Let's talk about oh so if they don't know some of the stuff that they should know for doing that well, I'm not gonna hire them for that.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Here's the here's a good one. Yeah we do we're really good at sheetrock, but I don't have a level five guy. I don't have a level five guy. I've just never had luck with level five. We can do pretty good sheet rock, but I I'm not gonna get you a level five finish, super smooth, super consistent.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

But what a great answer. Yes. They know level five, they know their limitations. I'm gonna hire that guy. Right. And so this the skills assessment is kind of the uh the stand-in for making sure I cover my bases in that initial conversation and get to know them. And if I can get them talking about job sites, about each of these things, what they like, what they don't like, I have a really clear picture as to what jobs and what work orders they're gonna do. So that's part one of this interview is the skills assessment, understanding every sort of pro and con of hiring this person and what it's gonna be like and their knowledge level of each of these things. Number two, after we talk through that, uh, I pull out my job timeline. Uh, my timeline of job flow is what it's titled. But it's what I talked about at the beginning of this podcast. I say, listen, there are two roles on this job. I do the advertising, finding clients, on-site estimates, revisions, picking out finish. Uh, I go through the whole list that I talked about earlier and say, you do the labor. And so when you walk into a house and say, I would charge$5,000 for this, I say, yes, that's what we are charging because we're dividing up the work. But instead of you taking half the week to do the work I'm doing and the second half of the week to actually do the labor and charge five grand, instead, you're gonna do labor in the first half of the week on another job site and make through 3,500 and then come to this job for the second half of the week and make 3,500. So I like the cut of your jib. That's$7,000 in my pocket. Exactly. Partnering with us, you'll make more money. It's just per job you're gonna make less because you you're doing less work on each job site, but I I I'm doing the other work that's setting you up to execute.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Sounds like you're taking all the things that really frustrate me. I'm not set up like that yet. I'd like to get there. It sounds like you might be able to help me get there. That's great. That's perfect. Maybe some of what you're doing in the processes that you have might rub off on me and my crew.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

This is perfect.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

My future's looking so bright.

The Subcontractor Agreement Essentials

SPEAKER_01 36:59

You've got the job. All right. So, next, after I talk about the job, job flow and and making sure, and again, that conversation is making sure that he's not charging me top dollar, helping him understand when we're negotiating prices, you can't charge me top dollar because you're not doing 100% of the job. And I want I want that clear distinction. And I also like to point out that they're making over twice as much as I'm making on that job. It's five grand. You're making 35. I'm making 15. You're making over double what I'm making on this job. But that's because I'm gonna go out and get other jobs started for you, and we're gonna we're gonna do a hike volume with you. So after we talk through that, um, and honestly, both of those are times that I've eliminated crews, the skills assessment as well as that. When I'm talking about that, like honestly, I love talking with the homeowner. And my best, you know, my best asset is that I'm really good at the creative dreaming of what it should look like. Yeah. Great, good to meet you. We'll see you later, right? Like, I don't need a creative dreamer as my crew. I need an execution. I'm gonna get up there, I'm gonna do it. I wanna, I wanna show up, do my labor, go home, get paid, make as much money, grind, you know, that that sort of mentality. Um, and again, one of my like why Hispanic crews are are great is because they you know, if they don't speak English really well, they lose some of the front end. So they're hiring me to be the mouthpiece for them. They're hiring me to help, and so that's why you know a lot of Hispanic crews work really well as a sub because I'm bringing an asset to the table that some do, like if me, if I was hiring you as a sub, you you've sold before. You know how to do sales, you know how to do like and you are first language English. So it's I'm bringing less value to you if you like to do that stuff, right? I'm looking for a crew that wants to show up and make money. So that's that's the first two I'm eliminating guys off the bat, and we're we're ending at that spot. Like yeah, maybe this isn't for us. Like, that's cool. I'd rather know it's not a partnership than try to go into this and let it fail.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

And sometimes you can find a project manager this way. People don't always necessarily want to stay doing what they're doing the whole time, but they also don't want to build their own structure. But but you really were impressed with somebody, and you're like, this guy's really got something good going. And then you're like, we're hiring. I'm gonna call that dude back up. Hey man, have you have you ever considered what if you what if I hired you as a project manager? Would you be interested?

SPEAKER_01 39:19

I love the way you run your jobs job sites. I feel like you could really, really do well with us, right? And we've hired multiple project managers from crew lead, so that's that's a great note. All right, so after that, we go into the subcontractor agreement. I pull out my subagreement. I'm not gonna walk through it today on here, but it is a defined agreement of how to operate the job site. It walks through everything in it from warranty to change orders to payment terms, the relationship scope, communication with our client and client interactions, what they're not allowed to have, what they should do if the client tries to engage with them, uh, standards and conduct. There's everything on here that we cover over the, I guess, four pages that it is. Um, uh, scheduling, delays, perform everything that that is an issue we cover on here, the insurance that they need. During this, we have a couple different um spots where we talk about two pieces of paper, uh, one being the pre-construction job site setup, as well as our end-of-day procedures. Uh, I also print out a work order. So I have my work orders to show them. This is what they look like, this is the time, this is where it starts and finishes on the dates. This is the scope, this is where the dollars are, this is where you find your lockbox code. This I show them the work order so they can see exactly what it's gonna look like and what my expectations are of them. I then pull out during the subagreement, it talks about on site what we expect out of our job sites. And so I've got a pre-construction job site setup. It's a 50-point checklist that you can do on every single job. It's two pages. And the 50 points are stuff like where's our cut station? Where do we wash brushes out? Where do we put the materials? Are we storing it in the garage, in the basement, in the driveway, in the living room? If it's in the garage, how are we getting there? Can we walk? Are there any hallways or rooms that were off limits that we shouldn't walk down? How if you know, is there a dog? Is there like there's so many things on this checklist? I tell you know, our guys, I don't want them to use this checklist to show to the customer necessarily. We're not going to go through it with them, but I need to gather this information from my customer's brain. As soon as I use it and the client sees this, they think this is the expectation. And once one dude walks down the wrong hallway accidentally, well, you guys promise that no one would walk down that hallway, right? And so they use it and weaponize it against us. But what I need is I I try to fill this in, ask the questions where are we parking? How are we doing this? Where is the material management? What's the expectations? You know, one of my favorite ones on here that I I got stung on so many times running jobs is hey, are we gonna be walking through grass anywhere? And if so, what's the result gonna be? And so I can talk to the client and say, hey, we're working in your basement. The guys are gonna be cutting through the grass right here. So there's gonna be like a path in three months from now from the street to your basement right here. Uh, do we need to put anything on the on the estimate for any sort of landscaping that we want to do after the s the renovation's? Well, if you guys tear up the yard, I would expect you to fix it. That's what that's what I'm saying. Is it okay if we walk through the house then? Or do you want to plan to do something? Because that's part of the renovation, is that the yard is going to get damaged.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Well, if you guys break it, you'll fix it.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Correct. And I'm letting you know that it's gonna get broken, so it needs to be planned for.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

I appreciate that. I appreciate your candor. Yeah, let's put a little bit of landscaping on there.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Yeah. And so instead of at the end of the job, they're pissed off at us, and now we're coming out of pocket to fix it, and they didn't enjoy the experience because their yard looks like crap, even though we seated and soddered it or whatever. Like all of these things eliminate the 50 phone calls from your crews, the 50 complaints from your client. All of that stuff is on here. So I use this on every single job before we get started, and I show this to the crew and I'm setting the bar for our expectations. They're like, oh, you've planned out uh what rooms are off limits? Where are there any child children or pet restrictions? Or where's you know, one of the things, electrical panel access. Where's the electrical panel? We need to find that before we start so the crew knows if something happens, where's the panel?

SPEAKER_00 43:16

The electrical panel is in my daughter's bedroom, but you can't go in there.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

Perfect. Well, we'll what should we do in case of emergency? You're the contractor. We'll let the house burn. Is that cool? Sign here. Approval to burn house down. So we we pull out that during it. The second piece of paper that we pull out is our end-of-day procedures. And there's three things listed on it, as well as half the page. I don't know if you can see this on YouTube. Half the page has a uh before and after photo. The three things are I need you to secure the home, I need you to check utilities, and I need you to communicate daily with me. Those are the three things that happen at the end of every day. And then I have a job site expectations, cleanliness, trash, tools, broom swept. And I tell I tell them in this meeting, I say, James, the contractor, there are two things that every single one of my work orders include that you're getting paid for in those dollars. So make sure that you can do everything on the work order, as well as you're picking up any daily materials. I'm gonna do a front-end order on all our materials and get the big stuff there. I'm gonna handle the selections. But if you need an extra tube of caulk, you're picking it up on the way to the job site. So part of your work order is to pick up daily materials to do a phone sale with me, or you can buy it and I will reimburse you. That's fine too. The second thing I'm paying you for is to spend 10 minutes at the end of the day to clean my job site. I want it broomswept, I want it neat, I don't want McDonald's wrapper sitting on the countertop. I don't want you to use my countertops cut stations. I need you right, and so I walk through all of that and I say, those are the two things that's part of your work order that you're gonna be held accountable for. And in our in our uh sub agreement, it says in black and white if this isn't upheld, if your end of the day proceeded. Procedures aren't done, we are allowed to send a cleaner over there and chart back charge you for the for doing that work. You will come out of your work order if you're not doing your job. And I'm gonna send someone over there, which is a lot more expensive than you spending 10 minutes making sure that your your job site's clean, right? So that setting this bar, showing them the before and after pictures of what we expect versus how a lot of crews leave it, laying all the stuff out is is gold. I mean, using this paperwork is saving you dollars, headache, time, uh, your reputation's being salvaged, all of that stuff in that paperwork. All right, so that is our our setup of paperwork. Skills assessment, timeline job flow, sample work order, pre-construction job site setup, end-of-day procedures, all within the subcontractor agreement that we're talking through. I've walked you through that. If you are getting kind of faded during this meeting, and all I'm talking, you're just kind of fading away and not really paying attention. It's a crew that doesn't want to be held accountable. And I'm not gonna use these guys. If they're excited about this, if they see my checklist, like, oh, this is awesome, this is great, they will be a great crew for you because they really appreciate the structure. Yeah, and in our systems and how we run things, my crew will be a better company and make more money because of our structure. And that's the that's the goal that we're trying to set up here with them. All right. Next phase of this is now that we've gone through that, we've found a crew, we've interviewed three of them, we've gone through this with three of them. I've got a job coming up. I'm gonna try the one that I like the most on this job. How are you running your job sites? Uh I'm not gonna get in the weeds. We covered this a lot on the retreat and kind of got in the weeds there. Um, but what we want to do is A, I want to walk that job site before day one with that crew. I want to get out there a day, two days, five days, a week ahead of time and say, hey, let's walk this job site with your work order. I want to make sure that we're on the same page and this is good to go. Um, because it's the first time I'm showing them my numbers on it. Uh, and so we're gonna go out to the job site, I'm gonna walk and just tell my the homeowner, hey, we're we're ready to go. I'm doing a prep walk with my crew to make sure that we got everything lined up. Homeowners love that.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Yeah. Um This is also a great spot that where if you approach everything with humility, you get some really good nuggets of information that you can beef up your line items. Like they might say something like you haven't thought of. Like let's just say you're not thinking about access to where they're going and you're planning on using 12-foot sheets of sheetrock, and they're like on the fourth floor of an apartment. How are we going to get this sheetrock in here? Can we use eight-foot boards? Yeah, we could use eight-foot boards, couldn't we? Like, there's always little things that people are really uh cued in on because of the experiences that they've had, the times that they've skinned their knees, that we can learn from those things and kind of include that without having to experience the follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

I mean, that a great example is like concrete. When you know we've walked a job site with the concrete company doing a driveway, and they're like, you know, there's roots right here. Look at this tree right there. We're gonna have to do X, Y, and Z. It's gonna cost more. Cool. Let me go back. I I didn't realize that. That's not on this work order. Let me go back to the client and have that conversation with them and and let them know about what we're doing. And and I I'll you think 500 extra bucks for that? Yeah, great. And I go back and can do a change order before we start and say, hey, listen, I walk with my with my concrete guy. I didn't even think about this. This is why I pay him the big bucks. He was talking about this tree. And uh, and so then I can take that information and go back and say, so it's gonna need a little bit extra, or you're probably gonna have cracked concrete in the next five years. Right. And so we can start saving our reputation in dollars by them helping us during this pre-walk. Um, so we're doing the pre-walk with them, making sure our numbers align, making sure they get what we're doing. Uh, and then we're gonna start the job, let's say, Monday. On Monday, I'm showing up five minutes early, or I'm sorry, 15 minutes early. I'm making sure the first job that they do is juicy because I want, you know, subs are gonna win some and lose some with us. I want them to win way more than they lose. And I'm gonna make sure this first job, they're winning. There's no chance they're gonna lose on this first one. So I'm not running a tight job on this one where it's like I'm trying to squeeze everything out of this one because it's a small project. I'm also ideal first job is an investor project, exterior work, my own personal house. Uh, one of the one of the things I always did if I did renovations on my own house, it was with new crews. I would not use my old crews outside of maybe tile. Uh, but I would try and find new crews for my personal house to test them out where I can be there daily and then I can fire them off. And the only person who's pissed about losing that week is my wife. Yeah. And and that it's not she's not writing me a one-star review on Google.

Pre‑Walks, First Job Strategy, And Oversight

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Or like a repeat client that you got a good relationship with that they have a large scope, but there's a half bathroom in there that you're like, would you be okay if I tried so if it doesn't work out, I can I'll have my my other guy come in and completely redo it. Yeah. Of twenty square feet of tile, a cabinet, uh a vanity cabinet, some handyman plumbing, handyman lighting. It's not going to be expensive for you, but you could you could really see a good uh smattering of their abilities in a small space like that. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

Um we're treating this first job too like it's the first the first month of school for a teacher. It is we're being being very strict. I'm not letting anything slide. I'm calling everything out. Uh if they show up four minutes late, day one. James, I'm I'm concerned on job number one, you're late. Well, I mean, it's four minutes. I got call I understand that, but if you're showing up to job number one late knowing that I'm gonna meet you out here, I'm concerned about a month from now. Like, brother, we need to make sure that that like this is tight. Like when I tell my clients that we're gonna be somewhere, I need you there 10 minutes early because you're making me look bad. If you can't make it, let me know the night before. If you're stuck in traffic, if you get a flat tire, I need a text and a phone call to make sure that I know. So 20 minutes before you're late, I can call my client, say, hey, heads up, James is late. We cool, we good with that, right? So I'm not being a jerk about it, but I'm trying to let him know I'm not letting that slide and that's not okay. Here's the bar. Um, now month three, the crew's four minutes late. Hey man, come on, we're good. Right. And so it's it's the first week of school teacher, not get letting them get away with anything. I'm calling everything out. Uh my job site's gonna be immaculate on that one because I'm holding a high bar so they know what's expected. Because it is almost impossible to unwind that wheel. Um once they're late and it's cool and the job site's messy. Come on, guys, it needs to be cleaner. All right, right. Once that happens, it only goes downhill from there. It's never gonna be setting a higher bar. So we got to set a bar on this first job, like I said, make it juicy, make it well paid, and set a high bar on it. Um, I'm not gonna go into the details of what else outside of being there early, walking the job site again with the pre pre-construction job site checklist. I'm gonna check in uh on the first job at lunch. At the end of the day, I'm gonna swing by and not let them know, but pop in at 4 30. Day two, I'm gonna show up. I we've got written out kind of if it's not going well, this is how we exit quickly. Um, I'm not getting to day three unimpressed. Day three, they're gone. I'm gonna show up day one, walk it. Hey, got some concerns. I'm pulling them aside, and no one's gonna get surprised. I'm gonna pull them aside and say, James, this is you, you and your guys have been around for a day, and we're like maybe an hour into this project. What's going on time-wise? Well, we did this and this happened. I had to do this. I promise you, Clark, tomorrow it's gonna be, you know, we'll get on top and say, okay, so by the end of the day tomorrow, let's set some short-term goals. End of the day tomorrow, will demo be done? Yes, we'll be 100% with demo by the end of the day tomorrow. All right, cool. Perfect. We'll see you in the morning, right? And so I'm I'm giving them one day's worth of rope, not two weeks' worth of rope. And I'm gonna show up tomorrow at about four o'clock. And if it's not done, I'm saying, James, bro, you said it was gonna be done. Uh I don't think you're a liar. I think you don't know how to estimate work. Um, like what's going on? What's happening? Help me understand this. It's it's the confuse, not conflict, right? It's the ah, you said this. Help me understand what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

Yeah. And day one, when I'm not impressed, I am making another call to my fixer and saying, Hey, heads up, I need you to be on deck. What's your week look like?

SPEAKER_01 53:21

Juan, can you get your crew running Wednesday and come help me if I need it? Yeah. Um at that point, uh day two, I then call Juan and say, Hey, I'm gonna need you tomorrow, most likely. Uh, clear your schedule. I got you, bro. Just come help me. I got three days left to work on this, whatever it is. Uh day three, if that happens, I'm showing up. Day three, I I have a clear scope of what day three should look like.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

I'm showing up with Juan, and we're going to have a fight, a battle to the death. The winner. Uh the winner gets the work.

SPEAKER_01 53:51

Arm wrestle. Now do it. Um I'm show uh day three. What I have done is I bring the checkbook or I print out a check of what I know that that's been completed, and I'm showing up there with that in my back pocket so we can sign a release form, a lean release form, give him a check and shake his hand. Now, if by the end of day three, he's turned a corner and is killing it. I'm not pulling that stuff out. I'm leaving in my pocket. But I'm showing up there ready to fire him halfway through day three, ready to get, you know, if he showed up day three at 5 a.m. to catch up and make up for the last two days and now he's back on schedule. Heck yeah. He had a he had a bad start, a guy quit on him, or whatever it is, that's fine. That's good. But by day three is gonna be when we fire him. Uh, we're not giving them the rest of the two weeks, we're not giving them till the end of the week. We're going to act quickly. And you don't, you know, we're scared to bring information to our clients. But if you walk to your client and say, hey, I got some good news and bad news. Bad news is I got uh we're gonna have to pause on the project till Monday. Um the good news is I'm gonna eat it and I'm gonna pay the crew, even though I got to pay someone else to get over here. I wasn't happy with what they were doing. And if this was my house, I won't let them continue working, so I'm not gonna let them work on your house. That's building trust, not picking it.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

I like the cut of your jib.

Firing Fast, Coaching Well, And Next Week

SPEAKER_01 55:11

Thank you, Clark. I've had two jib cuts today that you've enjoyed. Uh the clients, it's counterintuitive. Like, you don't want to say that to a client, but if you do, like they there's nothing to be scared of. They appreciate that. And then by, uh, we're losing some days. Yeah, I'm what I'm gonna do is double up some guys next week or do X and Y and Z. It might just cause us a couple days of loss, but I'd rather do that than give you a subpar product. And clients, I don't, I've never had a client be like, no, get those guys back out of here. Have them keep going. Right? Like it's like, cool, thank you. Thank you for for the honesty on it. So we're getting rid of them quickly. If it goes well, we kind of follow the same processes. I'm checking in daily by the end of the week. I might slow down to every other day by the second week. I'm giving them a little bit more rope each time that they build the trust with me. I'm not going in expecting them to uh fail, but I'm uh inspecting what I expect. I'm looking at every single thing. Um I'm kind of a mini superintendent on that job where I'm what's going on here? What are you guys doing next? What's happening with that? When's painting start? When's like I need to know their brain and their process and let them understand how important their role is and getting done on time with high quality. Uh, this is where we either double down, get them some more work, we coach them up. We're a partner here. So we're coaching, we're helping. Hey, I thought we were gonna do this. Why isn't this? Guys, you can't leave your saws out on the countertops, right? And so we're having that conversation. And if it if it wasn't 100% perfect by the end, after that job, I'm doing a post-mortem. Hey, what happened there? What's going on? I feel like you were really good at this. The quality of the kitchen looks wonderful that you that you did. I really didn't like the way you left your job sites. Can we clean that up? Right. And so I'm it's a it's a partnership conversation that I'm trying to coach them up on on how I want the quality of what they're delivering to look like. And if they aren't the guy, then that's okay. Hey, let's go. We'll see that thanks so much. You know, let's exit out of this job. Let's, you know, I hope you find more work. I'll let you know if anything else from you. But we're we're not going to say yes to crews just because we need them. We're gonna say yes to crews because they have the outstanding quality that we want to provide our clients. Woo. Um, that is about it. We've got a bunch of other stuff about maintaining and developing the crews, but I'm gonna skip that. That's um, we covered some of that on the retreat as well. Um, but we we really want to kind of double down next time, next week on the podcast. We're gonna be talking about job site maintenance management. Um, we're gonna talk about what how how to do the calibration walks and how to make sure that we're setting um the the pri the combination of the client's experience and what the product we're delivering and how that actually works on the ground level. So definitely tune in next week to that one. If you have any questions, if you want our paperwork, give me a call. Set up a free 30-minute meeting with me. I'd love to have a conversation with you. Go to contractorcuts.com. You can schedule a 30-minute meeting with me. Um, and if you want to come into coaching, um, depending on what level you're at, you can be with James or myself. Um, we've we've got a lot of uh guys coming in right now. Uh, and it's it's a really good time to get going at the beginning of the year, make sure all of this is in place before summer hits um to where you don't have time to work on processes uh when you're slammed. And so now is the time to get them set up. You're only getting busier from here. So let us get in there, help you out, whether it's on our foundations, growth, or executive levels of coaching. We love to give you this paperwork and and uh kind of get a second set of eyes on your company and and and some guidance on it. Thanks so much, and we'll talk to you guys next week. Bye.