Construction Secrets

Join the Subcontractors Boardroom - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Need help with your contracts? - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in June 2023. We've done over 2,800 contract reviews. Here's what we've learned: 82% of what we ask to change gets agreed. Read that again. Most of the risky clauses subcontractors sign...

Join the Subcontractors Boardroom - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Need help with your contracts? - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in June 2023. Nobody wants to be the "difficult" subcontractor. So here's my challenge: think of the biggest player in your sector. Are they commercial and contractual? 100% they are....

Join the Subcontractors Boardroom - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Need help with your contracts? - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in June 2023. Picture this: you're stopped at a red light. Someone rear-ends you. They get out and say, "100% my fault, I'll pay for everything." Sounds like a win, right? You'...

Join the Subcontractors Boardroom - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Need help with your contracts? - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in June 2023. Good subbies go out of business every day. Not because they can't build. Because they didn't understand how much the contract mattered. They figure if they do great work, the c...

Join the Subcontractors Boardroom - ⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠ Need help with your contracts? - ⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠ This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in June 2023. If you've ever told yourself "I can't negotiate this contract, I just have to sign it," read this. That belief is the single most expensive thing in your business. The biggest subs in your t...

Join the Subcontractors Boardroom - ⁠⁠Here⁠⁠ Need help with your contracts? - ⁠⁠Here⁠⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠⁠Here⁠⁠ This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in June 2023. I'll be honest with you. Most of the subs we work with come to us already inside the vicious cycle. Margins getting thinner. Bidding harder. Hiring whoever they can get instead of who they wan...

Join the Subcontractors Boardroom - ⁠Here⁠ Need help with your contracts? - ⁠Here⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠Here⁠ This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in June 2023. Leading a team is more like training cats than dogs. Cian Brennan sits down with Matt Wilk from Builderpedia for a two-parter on leadership, project management, and the game of contracts most subcontrac...

Join the Subcontractors Boardroom - Here Need help with your contracts? - Here Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - Here This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023. A construction dispute is a race to see who loses the least amount of money... Even when you're 100% in the right.. That's the part most subs work out too late. Tune in to learn more about effective st...

Work With Me - ⁠ Click Here⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠Click Here⁠ (Book comes with the free audiobook and a full video masterclass) - 0:00 Why your construction profit margins are really this low - 1:05 Killer #1: The hole you start every job in - 2:06 Killer #2: The free loan you're handing your clients - 3:30 Killer #3: The work you keep doing for free - 4:32 Killer #4: The d...

Work With Me - ⁠ Click Here⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠Click Here⁠ (Book comes with the free audiobook and a full video masterclass) - 0:00 The biggest cost with no line item - 0:24 The patterns that quietly kill construction businesses - 1:05 Your number — and the six places it leaks from - 2:52 What you've already lost before lunch each day - 3:16 The system that stops the leak The mo...

Work With Me - ⁠Click Here⁠ Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - ⁠Click Here⁠ (Book comes with the free audiobook and a full video masterclass) This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023. What happens if your head contractor stops paying you next month? If you read your termination clause, the answer might be "nothing." They can terminate you for convenience. Yo...

Work With Me - Click Here Get The Subcontractor's Edge Book - Click Here (Book comes with the free audiobook and a full video masterclass) - 0:00 The lie killing your construction profit margin - 1:25 What every losing subcontractor project has in common - 2:44 What a mentor in Iraq taught me about real margin - 3:40 Two electrical subs, same $10M job, only one made money - 5:28 Margin isn&#39...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023. If you've ever held back on a notice or a variation because you didn't want to "rock the boat," read this. The subs who get taken advantage of are the quiet ones. The ones who absorb the hits, mitigate the delays, and never tell anyone. Lovely humans. Terrible business owners. You've got to tell everyone. Every delay. Every variati...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023. You can sit at the table having spent 500 grand. Or you can sit at the table having spent a tenner. Same argument. Very different leverage. That's the whole game when a variation isn't getting approved. Tune in! Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20 billion in cont...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023. The truck driver on the mining site who heard about self-driving trucks had two choices. Do nothing and get made redundant. Or learn the tech and end up running five trucks from a joystick. That's where construction is with AI right now. Hit the play button now. Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? Wit...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in May 2023. Three things the longest-lasting subs all do: They negotiate hard, every single time. They walk away from risky contracts, even good ones. They protect their margin like it's oxygen. That's it. That's the whole game. Listen up. Struggling with unfair contracts or slow payments in construction? With 6,000+ contracts reviewed and $20...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in April 2023. Most subs think the money is made on site. It's not. It's made in the terms. I've seen tier ones win projects at a loss because they know they can claw the margin back post-award through variations and EOTs. Meanwhile the subs underneath them are signing the worst version of the contract, because nobody told them there was a game...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in April 2023. Two electrical subs. Same project. Same scope. One made a killing. The other nearly went under. And here's the thing, right? The one that nearly collapsed actually did the better job on site. But their variations never got approved. Their EOTs weren't submitted properly. Their scope looked late on paper. And the head cont...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in April 2023. Most construction companies don’t go broke because they can’t build. They go broke because of the contracts they sign. Risk gets pushed down the chain, and the smaller the contractor, the harder the hit when things go wrong. Relationships and good work are no longer enough when the paperwork decides who gets paid and who absorbs...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in April 2023. Great builders still go broke when they ignore the contract. This episode explains how cash flow, risk, and payment terms decide whether you make profit or lose it, even when the work is done perfectly. It also covers why so many construction companies fail and how smarter contracts can change the outcome. If you want to protect...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in March 2023. Most projects don’t hurt you early. They hurt you at closeout. In this episode, find out what “squeaky bum time” is and why the final quarter is when notices, EOTs, and paperwork decide if you get paid or get cut back. Also, dive into how AI will shape construction and why the smartest companies make the complex simple. Click pla...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in March 2023. You are not just building the project, you are playing a contract game whether you realise it or not. In this episode, you'll learn why so many subcontractors get bullied contractually, lose money, and sometimes go out of business even when the work itself is solid. If you want to understand how the biggest players really think a...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in March 2023. You can deliver a flawless job and still lose money if you lose the contract game. In this episode, we unpack how the biggest construction companies actually think, and why they invest heavily in contracts teams before a single tool hits site. Because the truth is simple: the returns are in the terms, and once a dispute starts, i...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in March 2023. Most contractors don’t go broke from bad work, they go broke from the downside risk they never saw coming. In this episode, Cian sits down with Kieran Moran who breaks down how he started as a teenage laborer, learned the “33/33/33” rule, and watched good operators get wiped out by one nasty contract hit. He explains what actuall...

This episode is a re-run. It was originally published in Feb 2023. Tier 1s are playing the contracts game whether you join in or not. Part 2 with lawyer Michelle Cirson gets real about why subbies get gaslit for “being contractual,” then hammered at the end when the money gets tight. You’ll hear a smart notice trick to make claims feel procedural, not personal, plus why reading a contract is no di...