As the editor-in-chief of Fine Homebuilding, I’d like to tell you about something exciting we’re up to here at The Taunton Press and to ask for your help. We’ve decided to launch a monthly newsletter for residential contractors that focuses on the business of building (estimating, accounting, taxes, insurance, employment practices, marketing, etc.).
Our hope is to help new business owners make the transition from tool belt to office and to help established companies improve their business. As with Fine Homebuilding, the key will be to create a forum where the country’s best builders can share what they’ve learned. If you’ve ever seen Environmental Building News or Energy Design Update, you know the format we have in mind: 16 pages, two color and a lot of useful information. The newsletter will be available through the mail and online. It will accept no advertising.
I can’t give you all the details because we’re still finalizing our plans, but I do have two questions. First, how do you like the idea–any thoughts, suggestions, etc.? And second, is there anyone you know, or know of, who you think would make a great editor for the newsletter? We want to make sure the newsletter is of real value to readers, and that means hiring the absolute best person for the job. It’ll largely be a one-person operation, so I need a former builder and business person who is passionate about the business of building, and I need a veteran journalist who can crank out 16pp. of solid, engaging writing every month. It’s a tall order, which is why I’m asking for your help. Feel free to post your thoughts here or to e-mail me directly. Thanks.
Replies
YA gotta be kidding....SONNY LYKOS of course if that old coot is still in existance!
Be well
Namaste'
Andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Here here........Sonny's da man for the job.There are fast carpenters who care..... there are slow carpenters who care more.....there are half fast carpenters who could care less......
I would be very intersted in this newsletter, but the same person's view every month? I have a great deal of respect, and have learned a lot from Sonny through this site, but I'd also be up for other points of view, actually, I feel they're necessary. If Sonny was contributing his own, and editing other folkses takes, put me in the yea brother column...although he did get me fired...
Thanks, fellas, but I'm neither a builder nor a journalist. Only built 7 houses in my time, 4 Lindal Cedar houses and three ranch houses, of which two for my own.
Yea but Sonny when It comes to business brother your the bomb Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
Sonny,
Anybody who can build a Lindal can build anything........I've built them also. Never forget the first one showing up in back of two semi's ........the whole damned thing. Then trying to figure how to secure the interior stuff for the hundred years it would take to frame it. They are pretty though when finished........ but I can design and build a cedar home for at least 15-25% less after cutting out all the middle men...and have.
You got my vote cause of your interest/knowledge on the business end. Hell, most of us are builders around here, but not too many business savvy types (me included) I've always taken the (just do it) trail. Fun......but scary some times.
An editor may have a column, but mainly oversees the paper. Right? I write an article on how you can save money building cedar homes without going with Lindal and you decide whether you will get sued for printing it.
Come on Sonny, do it. You can build a Lindal, you can do anything. There are fast carpenters who care..... there are slow carpenters who care more.....there are half fast carpenters who could care less......
Fun to build weren’t they, J.J.? The first time I saw the plans of the foundation system with piers every 54” on center both ways, I thought “Holy Christ!”.
Our first one was large. I forgot the style, but it was to be built on a large lake and to be built over a crawl space. The semis came on a blizzard - about 10 degrees below 0 - with the wind coming at us from the lake. We had to cover the diesel truck lift we rented and put a salamander under it to get it warm enough to start. Everything in the semis was frozen. We dressed & looked like Eskimos and were working our rear ends off trying to off load everything as fast as possible while the Lindal rep keep saying “”What a minute. I haven’t checked that off yet.” That was on a Saturday just before Xmas, and we started on it the following Monday. We poured the footings and set up the piers a few weeks earlier in November when it was still well in the 40s (luckily).
The owners were very wealthy and easy to work with, and the worse part of the whole project was during the finish work, when they decided to have us drop the floor behind the wet bar 12" (2 steps) , an area about 6’ x 12’. When I told them we would have to rework the structure underneath, move HVAC ducts, electrical and plumbing; they just said “So?”. T & M Change Order # whatever, followed by a “Groan” by us. We started with a fixed price, but after the first month agreed to trash it and continue on on a T & M basis because of the Change Orders that kept coming as a steady stream. I Invoiced them every two weeks and within a week I got a check. It was also my first exposure to wood shakes, which we installed. We only subbed out the elec, plumb and HVAC. Now that I’m talking about it, I miss those days, the camaraderie with the guys, and especially working with a great group of staff as a team as we worked together attacking one challenge after another.
That's the draw back of working alone. Missing out of the satisfaction of working as a team with terrific people as we cried and yuppied with failures and successes, and shared our accomplishments and credits. Our industry lends itself to that purposeful part of our lives - for those who realize it's value. I've always felt that other than our families, the relationships we develop over the years, and their results, is where life exhibits it's true purpose. It's true. Man cannot exist alone. That's why when I meet peers from here at one of our trade shows, I'm engulfed in pride to be able to meet them face to face, other brother warriors battling the business environment we share.
OK, so I’m a romanticist. But also an idea man, yet a realist. I thank you for your confidence in me feeling I’d be competent to run the newsletter, but alas, the realities of life say “No.” Two strokes, two heart attacks & still lighting up the Marlboros (who said I 'wasn't' a moron), trying to reduce my hours to 3 days a week, trying to get a new business launched, and the decision to go ahead and allocate time each week to write a book about our industry, tells me there is no time, or energy, left. Besides, if I drop dead next month, I want the minimum number of people to be inconvenienced. Son Tom and Pete can finish up my jobs contracted for and take over the new business.
Yet again, I thank you for your confidence.
Besides, if I drop dead next month, I want the minimum number of people to be inconvenienced.
Me too. No enemies or anyone who can say I ripped him off.
Well, I'll retract my motion then, cause dealing with the Taunton dudes might just do you in. Good luck with your heart Sonny......got a feeling you gave a lot of it away already,....... that will get you an entrance bonus when you knock on the gates of heaven..if there is one:-)There are fast carpenters who care..... there are slow carpenters who care more.....there are half fast carpenters who could care less......
Thanks, JJ. Somehow I believe that eventually I'll be seeing most of you guys there, bags, wheel barrows and all, and having a second wind, still ready to build castles in the sky. That's what we do best regardless of where we are.
"Who's in charge and where do you want me to start?"
Who's in charge
You are.......
where do you want me to start?"
Follow your bliss.......(your heart)There are fast carpenters who care..... there are slow carpenters who care more.....there are half fast carpenters who could care less......
Kevin:
Thank you this is a wonderful idea. Whom ever you choose I'm sure will do a great job. All of us have spent years honing our craft and minutes learing how to run a business. Again thank you.
Charlie
PS
Please deal with customer relationships.Thats the contractors killer.
I am a small GC Co. One employee. Desire to grow. Any info to help make decisions is welcomed. Would probably subscribe for 6 mos to a year to see if it has any value to me. If it has the same generally good quality of FHB then it can only help those of us trying to truss up our business skills to go along with our building skills.
I think Mike Smith might be right for that job. He's been through the wars and tried several different configurations in his business. He's open minded and not confrontational.
I second that!
Another vote for Smith, or Mad Dog Matson, or the both of them together preferably.cabinetmaker/college instructor. Cape Breton, N.S