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It was one of those posts that I didn't expect too much of - but, boy, was I wrong! If you didn't know, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn - trying to post almost every weekday. So - on Friday - I decided to post something on the fun side. I chose one of those weird things that homebuilding nerds can debate until they're blue in the face. Here's essentially what I asked? What is the swing of this door? And how would you explain it to someone else? Comment Door swing - assuming the door is swinging...

Hey there! Did you know that the Customer is NOT ALWAYS right? It's true - and - I said it! Yet you might not quite believe it. So, consider this story - and - you might come to realize that this is true. How I Learned That The Customer Is Not Always Right I had already taken about 4-5 months of abuse from a customer - all in the name of "customer service." I should have known better upon my first pre-construction meeting with the husband-and-wife team to review their file and tie up loose...

Good Tuesday morning to you! This email will wrap up my series on the basics of homebuilding financial terms that you need to know. Stick around until the end - as I have some exciting (but, admittedly, scary) news to share! If you've just joined my newsletter (thank you very much), the past few weeks, I've reviewed: Assets Liabilities Owners' Equity Revenue All of these things are primary headers on your financial reports (the Balance Sheet and the Profit/Loss Statement). The final financial...

Happy Tuesday Reader! This email is a continuation of my series on understanding basic homebuilding finance terms and concepts. In the past three emails, I've covered the three parts of a Balance Sheet: Assets Liabilities Owners' Equity Now it's time to review the two primary classes of financial data on your Income Statement: Revenue Expenses I want to focus on Revenue this week, and I'll wrap this small financial series up next week with Expenses. For those of you who have joined this...

It's Tuesday morning - and what could be more fun than reading a little bit about homebuilding accounting!?! I know - right???? In the last two emails, I wrote about Assets (the "good" stuff you want more of) and Liabilities (the "stuff you owe to others"). And those two things are found in a Balance Sheet - one of the financial reports you should take some time to understand. But - there's one more major item on the Balance Sheet that you should know about: Owners' Equity. Owners' Equity...

Happy Tuesday to you Reader, As the subject line of this email implies, you have entered into an Agreement with me. I send you educational information about the homebuilding industry. As a result, you owe me your time to read it. In other words, you've agreed to a Liability on your part. You've agreed to give something in return for something else. Sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it?? (And I sure hope it doesn't scare you into hitting Unsubscribe - but - that's a risk I'm willing to take!) This...

In the first of my homebuilding accounting series (where I'm breaking down the 5 main accounting sections of your financial reports), I'm going to focus on Assets. Assets are anything that has value in your business. Primarily, it's anything that IS - or - COULD BE Cash if you needed it to be. Here are just a few things that could be Assets in your Homebuilding Company: Cash (kind of obvious, huh?) Positive Balances in your Checking Accounts Amounts Due TO You from others (also known as...

When I entered the homebuilding industry, I was fresh out of college - and - like many who have shiny new diplomas, I thought I knew it all. Then real-life hit and I found myself in a low-level homebuilding job where I realized how little I did know. I worked my way up to manage construction - which meant I had to know about job costs and managing profits on each individual house (and the money that came into the business for each of those jobs). There was no formal training. Just...

Good morning Reader, Let's say you've been reading my last few emails where I've been talking about the importance of putting together a consistent schedule template. And let's say you recognize that it is important to have a baseline to measure against. Let's even say you've locked your Superintendents in a room and created the baseline. Now you may be saying to yourself, "Now, what?!?" OR - truth be told - you might be saying, "Yeah. That's pie-in-the-sky thinking and there ain't no way my...