Contractor Cuts Podcast (2026)

27/09/2026

There are months where you need the small job. The calendar has a gap, cash is tight, and the $1,500 bathroom paint job is what's in front of you.

Take it. But don't just say yes.

Because how you accept a job decides what you become to that client. Say "yeah, I'd love to do that" and you're now their guy for small stuff. Next time they need a room painted, they call you. Next time they need a $90,000 addition, they call someone who does additions.

Frame it instead:

"Listen, I'm a large general contractor. I usually do larger projects. But I want to show you what we can do for you. I'll take this project on if you promise to remember me when you need that kitchen done."

Nothing about that is dishonest. You're telling them exactly what you are and exactly why you're saying yes. And you've reframed a small job as a favour rather than your usual lane.

Now when the big one comes, they already know you do big ones. You told them.

Do you take the small jobs, or turn them down?

Full episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you get your podcasts.

25/09/2026

On a first call, scope is the number one thing you're after. Budget is number two — and budget is the one they won't give you.

"Well, just give me a number and I'll let you know."

Everybody's heard it. Asking again doesn't work, and pushing makes you sound like you're trying to price to their wallet instead of the job.

So chip at it sideways instead.

"I can build the scope you've described. But we've got different levels here. We could do custom cabinetry where the cabinets alone are 80 grand, or we could do off-the-shelf cabinets at 10. Where are you looking in terms of quality and level of finish?"

Then stop talking and listen to how they react.

If they say "oh, I love custom-built, my neighbor has this amazing kitchen" and don't flinch at eighty thousand dollars for cabinets — you know exactly what you're working with.

If they say "80 grand for cabinets? That's double my budget for the whole thing" — you also know exactly what you're working with. They're at forty.

Either way you got the answer without ever making them say a number out loud. And you did it while talking about their kitchen, not their finances.

How do you get a budget out of someone who won't give you one?

Full episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you get your podcasts.

22/09/2026

If you only change one thing about how you handle leads, make it speed.

Getting back to someone the same day, inside an hour, puts you in a completely different position than getting back to them in two or five days. And the reason isn't just that you beat the other bids in.

When somebody submits a form on your website, they are sitting at their computer right then, dreaming about their project. They've carved out time in their day to think about their renovation. That's the headspace they're in.

Call them inside that window and they'll give you the whole thing. The scope, the timeline, what they're hoping for, what's bothering them about the current space. They've got time and they want to talk about it.

Call two days later and you're interrupting whatever else is going on. You get the short version, less detail, less enthusiasm.

It's honestly worth paying someone just to respond to leads quickly if you've got volume coming in. That's how much difference it makes.

How fast do you typically get back to a new lead?

Full episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you get your podcasts.

20/09/2026

Here's a way to close a job that doesn't involve pressure, discounting, or calling to "check in."

Go through the estimate and find one line item where you can source a meaningful saving. A supplier promotion. A bulk order window. Timing on material you're buying anyway for another job. It doesn't have to be huge — it has to be real.

Then make the call: "Hey, I've got a good deal on the flooring you guys identified. I can save us $2,000 on that material. But I've got to put the order in to take advantage of it. Is this something you'd be willing to get going with?"

Look at what that does. You've given them $2,000 they didn't expect. You've shown you were working on their project when you weren't being paid to. And you've created urgency that's genuinely true — the deal does expire, the order does have to go in.

Most urgency in sales is invented and clients can feel it. This kind isn't, and that's the whole reason it works.

They wanted the work done anyway. You just gave them a reason to start now instead of in the spring.

What's your go-to when you're trying to get a specific job over the line?

Full episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you get your podcasts.

18/09/2026

Right now is when your winter gets decided, and most contractors are letting clients set the timeline.

A client says they want to start after the new year, so you tell them you'll circle back in November. Then November comes, they've cooled off, and your December and January have holes in them.

Here's how to get the signature now on a job that starts later.

Beat the frost. In most of the country, groundwork and footers get significantly more expensive once the ground freezes. That's not a sales line, it's physics. So the conversation becomes: "I know you want this deck. Let's sign now and get the footers in the ground in October. Then after Thanksgiving with the family, we start on the deck." You've moved the signature up months without moving their start date.

Expand pre-con on purpose. If it's a six-figure job and they want to start in January, sign in October and run a deliberate two-month pre-construction phase. Start the permitting process. Get selections picked. Build out Gantt charts. Talk to your crews. You've got downtime in the winter anyway — use it. Then when January hits, you're not starting to plan, you're starting to execute.

Both of these get you paid a pre-con deposit and lock the calendar spot, while the client gets a better-planned project. Nobody's being pushed.

What do you use to move a signature up?

Full episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you get your podcasts.

14/09/2026

Right now you might have twenty open estimates sitting out there. Realistically, that's five for this month, five for next, and so on — and if you only land two of them, your winter has a hole in it.

The number that actually fills a winter is closer to five, six, seven, eight. Which means September and October aren't months where you chase estimates when you get a spare minute. They're months where you schedule the chasing.

Here's the system: two hours a week, split into Tuesday and Friday. One hour each. Get a whiteboard out and put every open estimate on it, ranked from the ones you have to land down to the ones where it'd be nice but you're not spending your day on it.

Then for that hour, stop being a contractor. You're a salesman working your list. That's the whole shift.

It sounds small. But the difference between a contractor who does this and one who doesn't shows up in February, not in October.

Do you have time blocked for sales, or does it happen whenever it happens?

Full episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you get your podcasts.

10/09/2026

Tile is one trade where getting it wrong costs you a lot money — and it's one most contractors don't vet carefully.

You don't hire a tile installer the way you hire a handyman. The stakes aren't the same and neither is the conversation.

Here's the whole vetting process, and it's one question: "Take me through how you do a shower pan. Give me your process."

Then listen. Someone who knows the work will just start talking — first I do this, usually I like to use Red Guard, then I do that. Someone who doesn't will get vague fast.

And here's the part contractors talk themselves out of: you don't have to be the most proficient tile installer in the room to run this test. You just have to know what to listen for and what's missing. That's the jack-of-all-trades side of this job. You can hear when someone's BS-ing you.

What's your one question when you're vetting a new sub?

Full episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you get your podcasts.

07/09/2026

There's no better way to lose a sub than not telling him what you need until the day before.

The tricky part is that a lot of subs are fine working that way — right up until they aren't. You call Wednesday morning and get, "Sorry buddy, I'm already booked this week." Oh crap. Okay, well, when can you get out there? And now your whole schedule is sliding.

Here's the fix. Instead of letting them know day by day where you're going to put them, give them two to three weeks of visibility. I'm meeting every Monday and saying, "Let's look at the next two weeks of your jobs."

Look at everything that does for you.

They stop hunting for more work, because they know they've got work with you. That alone changes the relationship.

They stay loyal. They feel comfortable being here, because they know exactly what they're starting next.

They've got way more sense of urgency to get this week's work done — because if they don't, they're going to lose that next job.

Want to dive deeper? Check out the latest episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you listen to podcasts!

03/09/2026

A busy contractor sells everything in front of them. A booked contractor ranks their opportunities and paces them out.

That's the whole difference.

Because if you're busy, you don't have three hours a day to just sit and go through and write a bunch of estimates. So the question becomes — how do we weigh these opportunities? How do we rank who we're going after, and where do we want to spend more of our time?

Here's a real example. Say a $2 million new construction lead comes in. Sounds exciting. But I've never done new construction — I do a ton of additions. So I'm going to go after that $200,000 addition a lot harder than the $2 million new build, because I'm probably not going to compete with the guys they're already bidding against. That's not being unambitious. That's knowing your wheelhouse.

And this is part of our desk estimate process and our intake process. At each phase, I'm looking for reasons to disqualify myself from the running.

Client's got a $5,000 budget for a $20,000 job? I know that from the intake call. I'm stepping out of this one. I'm not going to waste my time writing it up. And I'm going to let them know honestly: "Hey, I would love to take your job on, but I'm absolutely busy right now, and I don't think I've got the capacity to treat my current clients well and say yes to your project. So it's probably not the right fit."

That's not turning down money. That's protecting the clients you already have — and your own calendar.

Want to dive deeper? Check out the latest episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you listen to podcasts!

31/08/2026

If you want to actually see your business coming, start with an Excel spreadsheet. This is day one work with every coaching client we take on.

In the rows, put every job — the potential estimates that are out there, the jobs you're currently running, everything you think you can land. In the columns, go month by month: this month, and then every month out for the next 12.

Then start plotting it out. "This job's $80,000. I should do $20K next month, $30K the following month." It does not need to be perfect and it does not need to be specific. Round numbers are completely fine. You're going to adjust it and massage it as the months go on.

But here's the part that actually changes your business. Capture your projection on day one. Then on day 31, look at where you actually ended up — and study the gap.

Because if you thought you were doing $300,000 and you did $200,000, that means there's $100,000 worth of work your clients thought they were getting and didn't get. We told them this is what we're doing. We set that expectation according to our projections. And then we didn't do it.

So what's causing that gap? That's where the real conversation starts. Do we need to get things done quicker? Do we need to change how we're writing our Gantt charts? Are we consistently overestimating what a month can hold?

For us, any job we think has a 50/50 chance of landing or better goes on the projections worksheet. From there we manage the probability — this one's 80%, this one's 90%, and once it's approved, it moves over into the approved work column.

Having your projections of what can be and what will be side by side is one of the most clarifying things you can do for your business.

Want to dive deeper? Check out the latest episode of Contractor Cuts wherever you listen to podcasts!

Contractor Cuts Podcast

27/09/2026

25/09/2026

22/09/2026

20/09/2026

18/09/2026

14/09/2026

10/09/2026

07/09/2026

03/09/2026

31/08/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Listing takedown request