01Foundation and niche
Decide what company you are actually building.
Clarify the commercial work you will take, the work you will refuse, and the owner role required to grow a transferable company instead of a busier job.
You will work on
- Define a commercial niche and a written work-acceptance standard.
- Separate owner, estimator, and superintendent responsibilities.
- Identify the constraints that keep the company dependent on one person.
- Set a 12-month operating focus that supports later transfer, not just volume.
02Commercial sales
Win work without giving the job away.
Build a repeatable path to general contractors, facility managers, and industrial buyers — with proposals that protect scope, schedule, and margin.
You will work on
- Map a commercial pipeline that is not dependent on inbound luck.
- Run discovery that surfaces risk before a number goes out.
- Write proposals that hold inclusions, exclusions, and decision rights.
- Follow up and negotiate without racing to the lowest bid.
03Estimating and bidding
Price the job you will actually install.
Install a bidding discipline: production rates, risk, logistics, and change-order posture so commercial work does not quietly erase profit.
You will work on
- Build takeoffs from a consistent production-rate library.
- Price risk, access, moisture, and schedule compression explicitly.
- Use inclusions and exclusions as operating controls, not boilerplate.
- Review lost and won bids to correct the model, not just the story.
04Operations, crews, and job execution
Install the work the estimate assumed.
Stand up crew rhythm, quality control, and closeout so commercial jobs finish on the number — and the company is not held together by the owner’s phone.
You will work on
- Define mobilization, daily control, and punch-list standards.
- Set superintendent and lead-tech expectations that survive a busy week.
- Build a safety and quality culture that can be shown, not just claimed.
- Close jobs with documentation a GC, owner, or later buyer can trust.
05Scaling and systems
Add capacity without adding chaos.
Turn tribal knowledge into systems: hiring, job costing, cash timing, and operating cadence so growth does not outrun control.
You will work on
- Hire and onboard against a written crew and office standard.
- Install job-cost and weekly operating reviews the owner can delegate.
- See cash, backlog, and capacity before committing the next bid.
- Document the few processes that make the company less fragile.
06Preparing, negotiating, and selling
Make the company showable — then negotiate from facts.
Prepare books, systems, and narrative for a serious conversation. Learn how buyers inspect operators, how to sit in a negotiation, and what to refuse. No promised multiples. No guaranteed outcome.
You will work on
- Assemble a transfer package: numbers, systems, backlog, and risk.
- Understand what a buyer or partner will test in diligence.
- Practice negotiation posture without leaking unnecessary information.
- Decide whether to hold, recapitalize, or sell based on readiness — not hope.