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The Construction Estimating Process
Estimating is part of the big three critical activities of all contractors. Be they large, small, from the north, the south, left coast or right, construction contractors have to do these three functions as well or better than average to stay in business. To receive a failing grade in any of the three is certain to spell doom for a construction firm.
The three functions that a contractor must perform well are:
1) Acquire Work
2) Construction Work
3) Track That Work
The secret is to perform each of these faster than your competition. If you do, you have the edge.
Estimating is a large part of acquiring work. Also, a contractor must use bid strategy and selling skills if he or she will consistently acquire profitable work. We define Estimating in the follow way:
"Determining the accurate cost of proposed work through reviewing, analyzing construction documents, economic conditions, the physical location of the work and the parties involved"
For the rest of this chapter, buy my book, Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day (McGraw Hill, 2007, 406 pages). It is available at all major bookstores including ours.
It includes 170 best Practices Used in Construction Contracting with over 100 illustrations and examples. We include a CD of 60 Excel Templates when you buy a book bundle from our website. We also include our library of forms and 5 online courses.
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Matt Stevens is a management advisor who works only with construction contractors. He has performed training and business consultation for the contracting community since 1994. Matt can be reached at mstevens@stevensci.com.">mstevens@stevensci.com.
Posted by Matt Stevens at April 16, 2006 11:08 PM
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Comments
i want to master estimating
Posted by: Albert Kwesi Koomson at November 16, 2006 11:08 AM
PLEASE SEND INFO
Posted by: VIRK at March 8, 2007 4:56 PM