Core Values: Forgiving

Forgiving: It’s a top priority for our business and value system. 

“We own up to our mistakes and we learn from them. We forgive others for their mistakes and help them correct them.”

Forgiveness can be a difficult task not only for a company but for everyday life. Yet, our team decided it was important enough they drafted it into our core values several years ago. 

As humans, we like to hold grudges. We like to make people pay for things that negatively hurt us. Forgiveness takes communication and communication hard, especially proper communication. 

Can you think of a time where a business partner or client did wrong to you and what you immediately thought? Maybe even your significant other did wrong to you and you held it against them for years? 

This is why forgiveness is in our value system. In business, we make decisions and sometimes the decisions are not the right ones. It is important for us to own up to our mistakes and then forgive ourselves for them. We all make mistakes. We are human.

Without forgiveness individually, we cannot make progress. Without progress … you know the rest of that story. Forgiveness can be very difficult at times; however, by having the value of forgiveness in our value system, it gives us a sounding board when decisions get tough. 

A question for you: 

Do you have something or someone you need to forgive? 

Work on it today. Forgiveness will remove the negative weights you carry personally and professionally. It will allow you to make decisions quicker and at the very least, will give you an opportunity to be happy. 

 

Hiring the Right Construction Manager 

After 18 years of project management and more than 20 years of helping owners build their companies in the HOA industry, one revolving question continues to get asked. 

When is the right time to hire a construction manager? 

“I have read countless articles, spoken to hundreds of clients, and played a large part in thousands of projects where construction managers were hired to start projects,” said Keven Hempel, B. Taylor Painting Director of Client Relations. “I have played a large part in projects where there was no construction manager hired as well.” 

Here are three key reasons answering the question is difficult, Hempel said. 

  1. People
  2. Desires
  3. Needs 

We have found there are numerous reasons why hiring a construction manager is the wrong decision for some projects. On the flip side, there are contradicting reasons why hiring a construction manager is the right decision for your project. 

“My opinion is that every project when originally thought about should have some form of discussion on whether the project itself needs a construction manager,” Hempel said. 

Here are a few questions you can ask your clients when deciding whether or not a construction manager is needed: 

  • How large do you desire the project to be, regarding the financial side? 
  • How much time do you intend to invest in the project itself? 
  • Have you ever been involved in a project of this size? 
  • What is the potential of having a large amount of “unknowns” which can cause a scheduling nightmare and a financial increase to the project itself? 

These are just a short list of some of the questions you can be asked when deciding if your project needs a construction manager or not. Once these questions are answered and if there is an apparent need for a construction manager, then you decide what type is needed. 

“Professionally, I have worked with several different kinds and we should all be well aware there are different types of construction managers,” Hempel said. “Take the time to do the research and interview the construction managers before proceeding forward. This interview process will be a great benefit to the board and your clients. Pay attention to how they communicate. With all the information you can find online today you will have a good opportunity to find the right one if your project needs it.” 

As with any aspect of life, there are excellent construction managers and poor ones. However, we encourage you to take your time and do your research. The industry has changed over the years and time should be one of the most valuable resources in the world. 

Allow your research and conversations to find a construction manager and business partner whom you can trust, as integrity is worth its weight in gold. 

Hempel said, “Simply think of it this way. When you hire a construction manager or any other part of your project team you are hiring into a relationship. Just like our personal relationships, they can be a disaster if the professionals you are hiring are poor communicators and simply do not know what they are doing.” 

We encourage you to take your time with this process: do your research and make a timely decision. The longer you wait to start your project and choose your project team, the harder the decision becomes. 

If you would like to find out more about how to hire the right project team contact us here. 

 

Core Values: Forthright

“We are honest and never take advantage of a situation.” 

This was one of the most difficult values to add to our value system. It has the potential to be taken in many different ways. It may be, in fact, one of the most important values on this list. During the past couple of years, we have found endless amounts of opportunities to use forthright in our decision-making process. 

The following forthright-related questions have often been asked by our team: 

Is the submittal of this inspection report honest? 

Is our team member being forthright?

Is our leadership making decisions that are not just right for the bottom line of the company but right for its people?

There are numerous opportunities on a daily basis to get this value wrong. It is the reason why we also have forgiveness on our list. Forgiveness and forthright go hand-in-hand. Often we get stuck in trying to understand the real definition of forthright. In simple terms, it’s living by the Golden Rule: Do unto others as we want to be done to ourselves. 

The Golden Rule is not easy in business; however, we make every effort to never compromise our forthright. 

Questions for you: 

Is forthright important to you? 

Why is it important? How do you use forthright on a daily basis? 

What is the time that you wished your business partner or client used the forthright value system with you? 

 

Share your experiences with us here. 

 

Core Values: Friendly

“We keep a friendly atmosphere, we love what we do, and we want to show it on through!” 

Friendly is an attribute that can play its part in every moment of a day. From how you answer the phone, to how you react to a team member, to the email you send to a disgruntled homeowner. 

As a team, we emphasize friendly communication. Communicating our friendliness throughout the day can be difficult with a variety of different distractions. However, if you make it a point to stay curious and keep friendly at the forefront of your mind, relaying a friendly message is quite simple. 

Friendly has to be at the core of your being. Often it is something we have to work on. Yet, just like every value in our value system, we have to constantly work toward it and never think we are “finished”. We fully understand there is not every moment in the day that we show friendliness; however, because it is part of our value it is something we can base our day on. 

Questions for you: 

Do you relate to this value? 

Have you caught one of our employees being friendly? 

What does friendly look like in your place of business? 

Would you like to find out ways to build your business and your client list using a friendly moment?

 

Why Choose B. Taylor Painting

Here are a few reasons to book your next project with B. Taylor Painting:

  • We keep data points on how much paint is being installed and used on the walls of a building and how much labor is being used so we can accurately understand cost which allows us to understand our price point.
  • We hold communication at a high level of importance for us and our clients.
  • We have a workforce that has been with us for more than 20 years. We believe it says a lot about our ability to retain employees, which brings VALUE to our project management. 

Give us a call when you or your client is considering a new paint project and want to work with a team highly capable of completing an on-time and beautiful project! 

 

Business is not Seasonal

The holidays! Personally, I have never been a fan of The Holidays. Life is always busy enough and then society has created this pressure on us to have formal gatherings, decorate your house, special dinners and of course, buy everyone you know the perfect gift. It just becomes so much that it loses its joy for me. No – I am not a Scrooge (although, I don’t like birthdays either), it’s just the pressure that I feel.

 

I do enjoy the time of reflection as we flip the script on another rotation around the sun. Where have we improved? Whose life have you positively impacted this year? Did you get enough volunteer hours in? Is society any better or worse because of the intentional effort you put in this year? Most of all, I look back and ask myself, where did I waiver? This is a question of integrity for me. Did I ever sacrifice doing the right thing for temporary gain?

 

My Mom sent me this article last year and I really think it hits home for me. We are a baseball family, so it is suitable that we use a baseball analogy. Please take a moment and read this article. Most importantly, hold yourself accountable this next year to improving not only you but those around you.

 

Thank you, for a record-breaking year of hard work … but the work has just begun …

 

-Brian Taylor, President

Working with Our Team

Our team is hiring! We are looking for someone with basic contruction or paint production knowledge. The right candidate will have an eagerness to learn, critical thinking skills, math skills, and most importantly, people skills.

If you want to join a fast growing, dynamic team that desires to stay as a leader in the industry, call us today!

 

Lasting Industry Relationships

Known, understood, believed in, pursued … we all want these feelings in relationships, platonic or not. Our construction industry is no different.

We currently operate in a fast-paced, dollar-driven world. Subcontractors are afraid to work with us because they have been burned by other General Contractors who have fallen to the bottom line: price on a proposal. Subcontractors have lost faith and integrity in the service industry. This is why we are different. As a General Contractor, it is our goal to make our clients feel understood and valued.
To accomplish this goal and create relationships to stand the test of time, we view each client as a new relationship, not the next piece to our portfolio. We aim to build trust and understanding as a solid foundation through our integrity.  Our clients are now friends and family to the Freestone Team. We want to know them, their background, family, and THEN their business. Understanding how a person operates, their personal goals and visions for their life and business, help us know how to approach each conversation and assist them in the future.
Food for thought …
What do you do to build lasting relationships and show the integrity of your company to clients?
Do you take the client out to eat or drop by and visit during the off-season?
What shows your investment into each client?
Do you have a marketing and advertising strategy you spend a significant budget on for clients who won’t stay long?
Our integrity is not based on the price of a proposal. We have found our investment in clients through our communication and leadership style pays off over time.  At B. Taylor and Freestone Reconstruction, we have a low marketing and advertising budget for our clients and prospective clients. Our client base is built from reputation, core values, and integrity.
Simply put, we help people who need a great service.

Paint or construction, how do you pick the right contractor in the Multi-Family industry?

Affordable Housing

When it comes to choosing the right contractor for the Multi-Family housing and property industry, our team recommends you look for a few specific things. These include experience, understanding, and reliability.

What is their track record for projects they have completed? The best way to learn how to do something is to do it, however making sure a contractor has done similar work is essential and has the experience needed to meet all expectations successfully. The last thing you want is for an inexperienced contractor to take on more than they can handle, as nobody wins in that situation.

We believe it is critical for any contractor to demonstrate a clear understanding of the client’s needs and expectations. We try to accomplish this by “walking” the client through the project on a step-by-step basis, and in doing so, we can educate them on what is going to happen, and more importantly the “why” behind it.

Reliability and trust are characteristics that get us through most of our contracts with our largest clients. We try to be as reliable as we can at all times. Pedro, one of our team members, said, “I’m there for them as a tool; they can count on me to know my trade and if something goes wrong during production, they know I will take care of it. If something happens after we finish, they know they can call me, and I’ll take care of whatever it is without any hesitation.” Reliability goes past getting things done, starts before, during and post-production on projects. A reliable contractor builds trust over the years and has brought many clients back to our team for continued business in the Multi-Family industry.

Our team would be thrilled to discuss your needs and goals if you are in the Bay Area or Southern California. Contact us today at either www.btaylorpainting.com for a paint contractor or www.freestone-reconstruction.com for a construction contractor. You may also give us a call at (888) 634-6474.