Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-08-09
SUCCESS POINTERS FOR
COMPETING CONTRACTOR
Must First Build a Reputation
for Himself, Says Writer
in Trade Paper.

Contracting is something more than
building for profit. It has to do with
other things than merely buying ma
terial and labor. selling them to the
owner and pocketing the cash, says
Charles q. White, jr., in Building
Progress. At the same time the con-
tractor is building for his customer he is
building for himself. He is erecting the
ramparts of his own reputation-those
bulwarks which protect and conserve
his business career If he builds well, but
crumble to dust when he builds weakly.
Every job the contractor undertakes
is cry for or against his business.
Every sweep of the trowel, every tap of
the hammer brings about results, good
or bad for the contractor. 1t. makes
no difference whether the work is done
by the builder himself or his employees,
he Is the one who must stand for it; en-
plOyes are considered as agents of the
contractor. He must stand or fall by
the character of their work. Then it be-
hoOves the contractor to watch his work,
not only that it may be done at least
expense. but that it shall stand as
monument to his skll-a mark of the
efficiency of his force.
Ways and means for expanding a con-
tracing business are unlimited. Given a
town of moderate size, where work Is
reasonably plentiful, who gets the Jobs?
In Il live town there is always about SO
much to do every year; SO many build
ings, such a number of houses, and the
contractor who gets the lions share is
he who. standing firmly upon past repu-
tation, shows his fitness to do the work;
his skill is well known, his price is right
because of the efficiency of his organiza-
ton.
Low prices do not necessarily mean
poor work. and the contractor who
thinks his competitor who underbid him
is a cheap skate may be away off in
his estimate OF his character. The differ
ence between the high bid and the low
bid is often merely the difference in
efficiency or organization. The low man
may be a live wire; his excellent credit
may enable him to buy materials at
lower cost-his handling of his men and
reputation for fairness toward them may
secure increased efficiency from his
working force All these points are
translated into dollars and cents in his
bid for they make it possible for the
efficient builder to pare down expense
to point below his less skillful COM
petitor.
The building equipment of many
builders is practically nothing. Some
knowledge of building obtained during
their journeymen days and the ability
to get a job or two to start with add
all that thousands of builders have at
first in the way of business assets. But
once started, their equipment grows.
The men with brains, those who are en-
ergetic, wise. patient. skillful and provi-
dent unconsciously add to their equip
ment every day. They add business
sagacity, business stability and increas-
ed reputation, and no factors in the
contracting game are greater than these. |
Your other contractor-he who is i'm |
provident unskillful. dilatory, needless
and slack-is adding to his equipment
also, but the goods are of the wrong |
kind-heavy to carry and. once assumed, |
very difficult to get rid Of |