Construction and projects management solutions (CPMS) Jaf Ents Project Integration Scope Management Time Management Cost

Management Procurement Management Resource Allocation Quality Management Risk Management Facility Management

Our competency lies in efficiency enhancement of your CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS by managing the constraint triads of: TIME: Project Programming & Scheduling, Focused Sector Coordination QUALITY: Scheduled Reporting & Meetings, Bills Verification, Optimum Resource Allocation COST: Innovative Capital Budgeting, Estimation Budget Bound, Best Vendors Choice

Core Competency
BluEnt Follows A Rational Unified Process In Meeting The Project Objectives For Achieving Planned Benefits.

BluEnt manages entire life cycle of Construction Projects, starting from Inception to Construction. We directly engineer cost into your projects through intense value engineering processes. Our long standing business ties with the market giants in building construction materials, helps us exploit higher margins on your construction materials. We collaborate with the best vendors and fetch you the best-value prices, which cannot be availed through other means.

Project Planning
Plan to succeed. With some thoughtful planning you can ensure your projects success before it begins. From establishing scope and viability, to budget, schedule and team requirements, to process implementation and ongoing evaluation, Spire can help tailor a plan for your specific project needs. This includes gauging risk and developing mitigation strategies that will help you save time and money. From concept to closeout, well help you develop a plan you can build on. Spires team of experts can assist you with the conceptual planning and development of your program management systems including financials, contracts and schedules. Spires conceptual planning and project development services include:

Construction Planning Services

Strategic Project Planning Feasibility Studies Project Due Diligence Front End Planning Strategic Asset Management Sustainability Consulting Project-Scope-Development

Whether you are an owner, program manager, contractor, architect or construction manager, Spires consultants are equipped to supplement your team's expertise and insight to ensure your project's success. Please contact us for additional information on our construction planning services or consultants.

At Last... A Management Consultant Dedicated to:

Improving Your Employee's Productivity And Your Company's PROFITABILITY Since 1994, Doug Phelps, President of Management Consultants for Contractors has developed and fine tuned a proven forward-thinking management system that has improved the profitability of construction companies. This step-by-step system combines some of the philosophies of open book management to empower your employees to drive the company towards higher profits. This management system, called The Just Rewards Plan, has helped clients reduce labor costs of 5%-10% in the very first year! Want to see what those cost savings would mean to your bottom line? Use our calculator! Originally designed as an incentive compensation plan, The Just Rewards Plan has

developed into a fundamental business practice. The Just Rewards Plan utilizes the full power of job cost containment, along with the forward-thinking processes of forecasting and budgeting. It is normally anchored by a win-win bonus plan for the company and its employees. The Just Rewards Plan just may be the best investment you can make to improve your bottom line!

ABOUT US OUR MISSION THE JUST REWARDS PLAN SERVICES NEWSLETTERS CLIENT COMMENTS DOUG PHELPS CONTACT US HOME Our Mission

Offices Locations in: Doylestown, Pennsylvania Greenville, South Carolina 215-230-4646

Management Consultants for Contractors continually provides innovative, practical, and topquality management consulting services that provide investment value to our clientssmall-tomedium-sized contractors. Our consulting services are predicated on improving the profitability and competitiveness of our clients by creating a teamwork environment in the company and training key personnel to become better business people and managers. We not only advise, but Management Consultants for Contractors also helps implement our recommendations through the dedicated teamwork of our consultants and our clients' employees.

JUST REWARDSTAKE AN ORGANIZED APPROACH TO MANAGING THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR COMPANY. The Just Rewards management systems method developed by Management Consultants for Contractors is a proven step-by-step process to improve the profits of your construction company. Why is it that many owners expect their job supervisors to have a plan and to plan ahead when running a project, yet many owners do not have a goal-oriented plan for their business? The Just Rewards method of managing your business will organize your business to put it on the path to improved profits, even in today's tough economic climate. In fact the Just Rewards method is more important today than ever! What is the Just Rewards organized method of managing? It is a step-by-step process of team goal setting and then constantly measuring the progress towards attaining those team goals. We have all seen those motivational posters with those catchy phrases. Some of the most popular revolve around teamworklike the one with the rowers in the boat with all the oars going in the

same direction. It looks great on the wall, but it diminishes just how difficult it is to get all those rowers synchronized to attain that elusive goal. Efficient and successful teamwork is the main objective of the Just Rewards management process. But the Just Rewards process doesn't stop with a pretty picture and catchy slogan, once implemented this organized management approach will IMPROVE the profitability of your company while rewarding both you and your employees. Benefits of the Just Rewards method of managing include the following: The method is driven by teamwork and team spirit No longer does the success of the company depend on the shoulders of a few, but of many. The sharing of the company's limited resources is encouraged The "blame game" turns into a "learning organization" Benchmarks from which to measure are defined: Benchmarks focus on what the employees most control or influence Controlling direct and indirect job costs becomes a focus Employees learn how their performance affects the company A goal-oriented environment is created It helps to motivate all of your employees by meeting the human needs for: Recognition Sense of Achievement Sense of Belonging Peer Acceptance Financial Security Profits are improved Better productivity = More competitive prices in the marketplace Components of this process include the following: Forecasting and budgeting Financial statements are formatted to reflect how the company is operating instead of just following GAAP Break-even analysis on a job by job basis Bidding strategies Backlogthe forgotten number Monthly updates for a rolling forecast Active Job Costing Tracking and projecting field manhours to BEAT the estimated time Monthly gross margin reviews by Project Managers Monthly Work-in-Process reports (percentage of completion)

Just Rewards Bonus Program Protects the company's profitability Team-based to reinforce team spirit and drive team productivity Driven by what most employees control or influencedirect and indirect job costs Recognizes both team effort and individual personal contributions Is supported by written documents By calling Doug Phelps, 215.230.4646 to help you implement the Just Rewards management system, you will gain valuable skills that will benefit you and your company forever. Recognize the difference between direct, indirect, and overhead expenses and structure your income statements accordingly. The forecast enables you calculate your break-even recovery rates for indirect and overhead expenses for each bid and for your company during the course of the year. Make your company more competitive by motivating your employees to add more value to your company. You will learn how to use the forecast for strategic planning and decision making. Gain confidence and increase your comfort level in delegating responsibilities to key players in your company. Reduce your personal stress by placing the success of the company on your team. Employee Relations Assessments If you are an owner or key manager, you are probably one of the last to know how your employees/coworkers feel about the company. It doesn't have to be that way. Have you ever wondered why your employees don't seem to be motivated or care about your company? The reasons why may surprise you. Consider conducting a confidential survey that evaluates the conditions that may be affecting the overall attitudes and motivation of your employees. Management Consultants for Contractors' employee relations assessments identify those issues that may be preventing your employees from being peak performers. Our reports also include any recommendations that may be needed to meet the motivational needs of your employees. Bonus Plans Management Consultants for Contractors has analyzed the many different types of bonus plans tried by contractors. While a few have been effective for a short time, many have failed to produce the types of results that upper management expected. While we have certainly seen many different plans, there are probably only three in common useprofit sharing, job-by-job plans, or discretionary bonus distributions. Profit sharing plans prove ineffective time and time again for many contractors. While a profit sharing plan is certainly a nice perk or employee benefit, it hasn't proved to be a performance driver. There are numerous reasons this is so. Among them is not sharing any financial

information until the end of the year. This delay prevents the employees from seeing what effect they have on the company's success. However, the major problem with profit sharing plans is lack of trust in the final numbers. There are too many things beyond the employees' control that affect the bottom line, such as the cost of office overhead. Most employees believe that upper management can and will manipulate the numbers to the owners' benefits. Job-by-job plans are usually based on sharing a job's excess profits. The problem with this type of plan is that the company distributes all the excess profits but has no choice but to absorb all the losses. This plan brings a definite risk that the company will be paying out bonuses on a job when, as a whole, it is losing money. Job-by-job plans also do not reinforce teamwork throughout the company. Discretionary distributions may make the owner feel good, because he knows that he is sharing excess profits with the employees. But the employees often don't fully understand how their own performance affects the amount of the bonus that they receive. Because the connection between performance and reward is not well defined, performance is not maximized. Management Consultants for Contractors custom designs each bonus plan based on the goals and objectives of the client Company. However, all the plans include the following criteria:

The client Company's operations must be profitable. The plan focuses on what that particular group of employees controls. Benchmarks are established against which performance is measured. Performance numbers are shared with all employees on a periodic basis. The plan drives field productivity to make the client Company more profitable and competitive. Back to Top

Organizational Reviews Do you have a functional or a non-functional organization? Non-functional management is built on the knowledge, abilities, and interests of one or a few individuals. Positions are molded to fit people, rather than training people to fill positions, and lines of authority tend to be governed by penalties. There will normally be a definite lack of consistency in management. The non-functional organization is run on personality. Those individuals with the strongest personalities are the ones who assume the most power, frequently resulting in conflicts. In a nonfunctional organization, there are not clear, written rules stating what authority the various functions have. In addition, it is rare for these people to be held accountable for their actions. Positional responsibilities will be fluid and tend to vary form time to time. In addition, there will often be shared or overlapping authority. It will be virtually impossible to exercise control through delegation and accountability. In fact, there is almost never any really effective

delegation of authority, responsibility, and accountability in non-functional companies. There is no control, and when there is no control, profitability suffers. The inconsistencies of a nonfunctional structure will normally cause a loss of morale and motivation, along with a decrease in productivity and profitability. Another characteristic of non-functional organizations is the lack of depth when it comes to staffing. There are usually no provisions made for the absence of key personnel. Vacations are difficult, at best. Temporary incapacity of a key individual is a disaster, in most cases. Retirement is impossible, or will cause major disruptions in the organization. There can be no succession planning, since all of the authorities, duties, and responsibilities are associated with the person, not the position. And any decline or withdrawal of ownership involvement can have serious consequences for the company's effectiveness and profitability. Functional management is the most effective form of organizationand therefore management-because it is designed around functions, rather than people. Individuals are tailored and trained to fit the position, instead of changing the nature of the position to fit the individual. Each function has its own responsibilities, separate and distinct from every other function. The functions never overlap and the scope never changes to fit an individual. Individuals are chosen to fill functions based on their ability, knowledge, training, and experience. Functional management builds team spirit because each function operates within its own limits and each must communicate, cooperate, and coordinate with all of the other functions. This is particularly important in a business where the owner(s) is trying to reduce the actual time he spends in day-to-day operations of the business. All of the functions, taken together, form the organizational team. Like any team, the organizational team is measured in terms of the quantity and quality of its teamwork. The teamwork will, in turn, affect the quality and quantity of each individual's personal performance. This concept of teamwork is critical to the idea of a functional organization, and is one of the major differences from a non-functional organization. In order for this new organization to operate effectively, everyone must be functioning within his or her areas of responsibility and all must be working towards the same goals. Individuals, at all levels, with the authority to make decisions will ensure that the total effort is efficient, effective, and profitable. In functional companies, authority can be delegated, along with accountability; however, ultimate responsibility can not be delegated. Each task is performed in its proper work area and is grouped with related tasks into jobs or positions. Related jobs and positions are grouped together into departments or sub-functions, which in turn are grouped together into major operating functions. Individuals are then selected to fill positions, at all levels, based upon their ability, knowledge, skills, and experience. Individuals are selected to fill function head and major sub-function head positions based upon their qualifications and their ability to coordinate the activities within their areas of operation.

The Job Descriptions for each functional or sub-functional position will list all of the authorities, responsibilities, and duties for each position. Therefore, both the Functional Organizational Chart and the Job Descriptions are used to hold the positions, and the individuals who fill those positions, accountable for the operations of that function. Management Consultants for Contractors has helped restructure several companies around their functional needs and can objectively help your company. Back to Top

Forecasts & Budgets An annual sales and income forecast supported by operating budgets is one of the first steps towards creating the benchmarks used to measure team and individual performances. The following may best explain the primary reasons for developing an annual plan:

The components of the forecast are new orders, sales, direct cost of sales, indirect cost of sales, gross margin (gross profit) contribution, overhead expenses, and net profits before taxes. Knowing these components enables management to calculate the true cost of doing business. The break-even point for each estimate is easily calculated. Once you know your costs and estimate jobs based on direct and indirect costs, you'll be in a better position to negotiate the final price and will know when the desired price is too low. With an annual forecast in place, you can perform several "what if" scenarios and see what the impact is on your bottom line. You can actually forecast your net profits at the end of the year at any point during the fiscal year. You don't have to wait until year-end. An annual forecast establishes goals for the company. Management becomes more goaloriented. An effective annual forecast is more than an annual sales target. That annual target is broken down by quarters and then by months based on the seasonality of your business to create a pathway to reaching that annual goal. An annual plan supported by a sales forecast and operating budgets to arrive at an anticipated net profit figure is a process that creates a proactive decision making environment. Management is more likely to direct and control the business instead of just letting it happen. This proactive environment helps minimize the impact of factors over which you thought you had no control in the past.

Proactive is a term heard frequently today and is often misunderstood. The very nature of the term suggests that you have to be able to anticipate what is going to or what should happen next. It is not possible to be truly proactive without having defined a goal or end result. We all know the negative cost impact to a construction project that is not properly planned. Can your company realize its true potential without a plan? Most all of Management Consultants for Contractors' consulting engagements involve the development of an annual plan if the client does not already have one in place. Back to Top

Break-Even Analysis When you are negotiating a bid, do you really know what your break-even point is? Do you know for sure when the price is too low? Do you know how to adjust your mark-ups when you are bidding a job that has a higher percentage of labor or materials or equipment than your normal project? Management Consultants for Contractors can teach you how to calculate your break-even point for all types of projects. The first step is to identify your true costs through the forecasting and budgeting process. Back to Top Sales Compensation Plans If you are looking for an incentive program to reward top sales performers and/or to provide additional motivation to others, consider one of Management Consultants for Contractors' compensation plans. This may be particularly necessary if you are currently paying your salespeople on pure sales volume without consideration to the project's gross profit. Each of our compensation plans is custom designed to meet the objectives defined by the particular client. Back to Top Skill-Based Wage Classification Plans Have you heard your employees complain about the rate you pay a new employee who has better skills than they do? Do you find that some of your field employees have lost the connection between their skills and the value of those skills as it relates to how much they are paid? Is the pay scale a constant complaint from your employees? Management Consultants for Contractors can help you install a defined skill-based wage classification that places the burden of acquiring the skills and the pace at which they are learned on the employee. These types of defined plans help remove any perceived inequities in your compensation system and place the burden of how much each one earns on the employees' shoulders. Back to Top Peak Performance Systems Are your employees' performance expectations clear and measurable? One of Management Consultants for Contractors philosophies is based on the following: "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured, reported, and shared, the rate of improvement accelerates."

Does management provide enough information to the employees so that they can measure their performance or the collective performance of the company? Do your field employees know what is expected of them other than to "do your best"? Do your Superintendents/Foremen know how much time or money was estimated to perform each phase of the project?

Is the performance measured or tracked throughout the project against the estimated time? Do your field employees know at the end of the day whether they performed at an acceptable level as compared to the estimated productivity level? Are your Project Superintendents involved in forecasting the costs to complete the job on a monthly basis? Do you know how the company is performing, based on timely financial and operating reports that are meaningful? Do you measure the financial performance or your company against an annual plan?

If you answered "No" to any of the above, then you are not reaping the financial rewards of a measurement managed company! Peak performance requires methods to measure performance and provide feedback on that performance. Back to Top Job Descriptions It is difficult to hold employees accountable for their performance if their areas of responsibility are blurred. Many companies' job descriptions are no more than duty/task lists. Management Consultants for Contractors' job descriptions are functional in nature and broader in scope than any duty/task list. Each job description is integrated with superior/subordinate positions and includes specific measures of performance for the critical aspects of that position. Back to Top Performance Reviews A primary complaint of employees is that reviews are either not held at all or are not held on time. Most employees tend to perform to the level of known expectation. They want feedback from their managers regarding their performance. Performance review forms should be integrated with each position's job description. Generic forms are difficult to complete. If a form is difficult to complete, it will most likely lie on the manager's desk and the review will be conducted late. Management Consultants for Contractors designs all review forms around the responsibilities of a particular position. Review forms are integrated with our job descriptions. This increases accountability and furnishes a better tool for managers when they are providing formal feedback to an employee. Guidelines are also furnished on how to conduct an effective review. More in-depth training is also available through Management Training Institute on how to conduct an effective employee review. Back to Top Executive Coaching

Do you often feel alone? Wish you could bounce a tough decision off a mentor or someone who could give you an objective view not clouded by your emotions? Have you had a recent setback that shook your confidence? Or, do you need someone to challenge you to reach for even higher goals? You might benefit from having a personal coach. Call Management Consultants for Contractors. Back to Top Your resume only addresses your qualifications, and even these a resume tends to address only in a generic way. You should customize your resume every time you use it to emphasize the qualifications that are most relevant to the person you are trying to persuade. For example, are you a network technician, an administrator, an engineer, or a project manager? Many networking consultants could play all of these roles. But which is more important to this project and this client -- your education, your experience, you certifications, or your capabilities? You should customize your resume to make the relevance clear, to prove that you have the qualifications required to do what you propose, and to support you rationale for why the client should accept your recommendations. In addition to your resume, you have some explaining to do:

What will you accomplish for the client? How long will it take? What resources will be required? How will they benefit from the project? How much will it cost? Who are you to be making these recommendations? Why do they need you? Why should they have confidence in your ability to do the work correctly? Why should they accept your recommendations?

Here are some additional topics for more complex proposals:

Staffing Management and Oversight Allocation of effort Orientation and Phase-In Deliverables Metrics, measurements, and performance standards Quality assurance Communications

In order to answer these questions, your proposal should start with an introduction to what you plan to accomplish and how they will benefit (start by explaining what's in it for them). Then provide your work plan, including methodologies, resources, and schedule. You might also provide your resume to support your ability to deliver as promised. Once you've laid this foundation, provide your pricing and rationale, emphasizing the return on investment and value.

Depending on the complexity of your work plan, this can usually be accomplished in a couple of pages. You can use any format that will fulfill the client's expectations. Your proposal could be in the form of a letter, memo, report, document, email, or contract. When to require a contract is a matter of personal and legal judgment. When you do, I recommend that you include it as an attachment to your proposal. Contracts tend to be perceived skeptically, so you want the message delivered by the proposal, with your goal being to persuade them to sign the contract. Whether your goal is the signing of a contract or something else, and whether your proposal is delivered in the form of a one page memo or a three-inch binder, the entire proposal should revolve around persuading them to take the action you desire. You must be clear about your goal and turn that into a clear call to action in writing. Because you will probably be producing your own proposal, you should make sure that you design the layout of the document around your own capabilities to produce it. In other words, don't get too fancy. Go for simple elegance instead of complicated sophistication. Just make sure that it fulfills the reader's expectations. This is harder to do when you don't have a written RFP. If you don't know their expectations, make an effort to discuss their expectations and issues such as:

Do they want something formal or informal? Does it have to meet the requirements of the purchasing department? Do they need a strong financial justification? Have they already decided and just need something to facilitate completing the paper work? Are there any forms that must be included or formats to follow? Will they follow a formal evaluation process?

Remember, your proposal is only a part of how you achieve your goal. If you are a consultant, remember that what they are buying is you not the proposal. You will need to practice your salesmanship. This is especially true if there is no formal evaluation process. There is a school of thought that says that you shouldn't submit the proposal until you know what the decision will be. If you can't achieve this, then make sure that you have a personal follow-up plan for after the proposal is submitted. The follow-up can be crucial for supplying additional information and validating what you put on paper. You don't have to be pushy to follow-up, just be helpful, and remind them that you can be even more helpful if they accept the proposal.