Building Successful Businesses: 7-Part Series with Paul Eldrenkamp

Bring a pencil and your toughest business problem to learn from Paul Eldrenkamp, an expert in the residential construction industry. Together with other small business folks, Paul will help facilitate peer-to-peer collaboration and conversation.

Paul Eldrenkamp has 45 years of experience in the residential construction industry. He owned and managed a design-build remodeling firm for 38 years before selling it to his employees in 2021; he has spent a total of 25 years participating in and facilitating peer-to-peer industry support groups such as Business Networks, Remodelers Advantage, and the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s Building Energy Bottom Lines; and he has spend the last six years as a business consultant with HELM Construction Solutions of Brattleboro, VT. Across these experiences, he has had a chance to observe and analyze the practices of countless small construction businesses and develop a clear idea of which business habits lead to success — and which lead to struggles.

Workshop Policies

Payment must be made at the time of registration through Eventbrite. If you are unable to attend and wish to cancel your registration, you may do so through Eventbrite, under the following conditions:

1. If at least one week (seven days) or more before the class, we will refund half the cost of the class.
2. All other cancellations are nonrefundable and nontransferable.

Only those who are registered will be able to attend the workshop (no unregistered companions). Contact us if you need reasonable accommodations.

Audio or video recording of workshops is not allowed. Please refrain from cell phone use during workshops.

Transportation and parking

Boston Building Resources is located a short walk away from the Roxbury Crossing station on the MBTA Orange Line.

We are close to the Southwest Corridor bicycle path.

If you are driving, there is free on-street parking on Terrace Street which has no time limit weekends and after 6:00 p.m.

Photo/Video Consent and General Release

By registering for this class, I hereby authorize Boston Building Resources to use pictures of me taken in a photograph, digital image, or video. I hereby release Boston Building Resources, its agents or employees, as well as any and all users and exhibitors of said pictures, from any and all claims, demands, accountings, and causes for which the aforesaid video, digital image, or photograph likeness may be used pursuant to this Consent and General Release. It is also my understanding that I will receive no compensation for my likeness or testimonial. If I opt out, I will inform staff at the registration desk before class stating that I do not want to be in photos.

Info: A successful building business starts with successful projects. Why do some projects seem to flow perfectly – easy relations with the client, efficient production, great work, and a nice profit at the end – while others feel like they start off in a 10’ deep hole and end up in a 30’ deep hole that you’re trying to get out of by digging faster?

Info: How often do you have a sales meeting with a prospective client, but then never get back to them? Or how often do you give a proposal to a client but you never hear back from them? An unresolved engagement with a prospective client is a “maybe”, and “maybes” are major clutter in our business lives.

Info: Projects go bad when someone gets caught by surprise – a budget surprise, a schedule surprise, a scope surprise, any surprise. How can you manage the planning and production process in a way that minimizes the chances of unpleasant surprise – and leaves the client pleasantly surprised?

Info: One of the hardest transitions for a construction company is that from talking about a project to actually building the project. How can we minimize the chances of mishandling that transition and losing a lot of hard-won trust?

Info: Very few contractors like estimating. It’s boring and risky. But it’s hard to be profitable unless you can do it well. Let’s figure out some ways to break it down into more manageable chunks and maybe even make it kind of fun.

Info: An operating budget does three big things for you: It gives you a chance to test your business model (including mark-up and pricing strategies) on paper before committing to it in real life; it tells you what your sales goals are for the year so you can avoid under- or over-commitment; and it gives you access to internal controls so you can quickly identify and plug any holes in your financial bucket.

Info: The labor shortage in construction may have as much to do with a lack of good employers as a lack of good employees. In this session we’ll review what we’ve learned in the first six sessions, and discuss how those good business practices support the most essential practice of them all – using our businesses to create rewarding and reliable careers for our employees.

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