MENU Blog Building Control Solutions > Blog February 21, 2017 By admin Government 0 Comments BCS’s participation in KCMO Home Repair & Improvement Initiative The City of Kansas City, MO continues to make home repair and improvements a priority for residents. For the past six years, BCS has been helping residents with furnace repairs and replacements (sometimes including ductwork) through various City of Kansas City, MO programs such as the Targeted Minor Home Repair Program. The Targeted Minor Home Repair, Special Northeast and Marlborough Targeted Programs assist homeowners who live in targeted areas within neighborhood strategy areas identified in the 2012-2016 Consolidated Housing and Community Development Plan. Program Supervisor Roger Stewart talked about what the program has to offer KCMO residents: “Home improvements, both big and small, can be expensive for homeowners. Kansas City is offering resources to home owners in need to make improvements to their properties, which in turn improves neighborhoods and communities.” Residents who need home improvements can learn more and submit applications between May 1st through September 30, 2016. February 20, 2017 By admin Employees • Social Activities Employees • holidays • Social 0 Comments BCS Holiday Outing In December 2016, the BCS team celebrated the holidays at Il Lazzarone Pizza, an Authentic Neapolitan Pizzeria located in the Kansas City River Market. The team enjoyed good food and talked about their hopes for 2017. Cheryl Morton, Andrea Knutter, Greg Salmon, Dan Driver, and Glen Anderson were all part of the holiday outing. June 20, 2016 By admin Uncategorized 0 Comments How Building Control Solutions has maintained exceptionally low on-the job injury rates Building Control Solutions (BCS) has been able to maintain low on-the job injury rates through standardized training, established best practices, employee buy-in and an oversight and accountability system. The Safety Compliance Problem Face it; getting employees to wear safety head and eyewear and comply with a range of other safety measures can be challenging. New employees accustomed to lax safety regulations and enforcement can be particularly reluctant to comply with safety measures. However, non-compliance can result in serious injuries or death and huge financial consequences for employers. Falls, slips, and trips coupled with contact with objects and equipment are leading risk factors for the HVAC industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a staggering 611 work-related injury deaths within the construction trade in 2014. BCS is aware of the safety risks inherent in the industry and has made safety a priority since opening its doors in 2001. Since its inception, BCS has had consistent low on-the job injury rates, averaging less than one per year, and has had no fatalities. We’ve worked hard to create an environment that minimizes the risks for injuries and we’d like to share how we’ve done it. Preventative Safety Solutions Part of our recipe for success includes standardized screening, training and established best practices. Since individuals are at an increased risk for injury when they show up to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol, BCS requires a drug test for all potential hires. We also check the references of all potential hires. In addition to screening for substances that could increase safety risks, BCS provides written safety materials, personal protective equipment, and a safety orientation for new hires. Following training, new employees must review and sign BCS safety guidelines and agree to periodic drug screenings. Our goal is not only to prevent injuries but also to encourage employees to report any injuries. Safety posters around the office remind employees to report any injuries. As part of our ongoing safety training program, we utilize Federated Insurance’s 7-minute safety presentations and handouts. We verify learning is taking place by administering safety quizzes following the presentations. Through Federated’s mobile application, we’re able to provide employee training on more than 350 topics. Some of the topics we’ve covered include: Safe vehicle operation Back injury prevention Eye safety Hazard communications Slip and fall prevention There are some sacrifices we’re willing to make to create a safe working environment and we ask our employees to make some sacrifices too. During training, we admit to our employees that some safety regulations will make their jobs less comfortable and will make them less productive. By admitting these things, our employees feel more confident in putting safety first and less pressure to sacrifice safety for productivity. In addition to BCS-led safety training, we cover the cost for all field employees to complete OSHA training. All BCS field employees have their OSHA 10-Hour Construction Safety Certificate and many have completed OSHA training beyond our 10-hour minimum. Employee Buy-in Employer-led safety training and materials are useful but to truly create a safe working environment, you need employee buy-in and ownership. During safety trainings, we ask employees for their ideas and recommendations and follow through with many of them. We know that employees have preferences when it comes to eyewear, headgear, etc. Asking for input gives employees a sense of control and makes them feel that they are making a difference in their lives and the lives of their coworkers. Another way we encourage employee buy-in is by how we handle complaints about workplace safety or health hazards. We listen without judgment and never retaliate. Sure, sometimes employee complains or recommendations mean we may have to sacrifice some productivity or spend money on personal protective equipment in order to implement additional security measures. However, we keep safety as the priority and know that safe employees on the job are far more productive than injured employees who can’t work. Oversight and Accountability System While employee buy-in to company safety policies is the most important predictor of a safe working environment, oversight and accountability are required to ensure consistent safety compliance. Our project foremen and project manager work together to evaluate on site safety procedures and they provide feedback to employees to ensure compliance. Future Plans To build on our safety success, BCS plans to give opportunities to foremen to lead safety training. In addition, we are strengthening efforts to ensure all subs conform to BCS safety guidelines. January 27, 2016 By admin Construction • Government Government Contracts • PTAC • SAM • SBA 0 Comments Understanding the Government Marketplace In this blog post, we share our experience of figuring out the world of government contracting. We hope our experiences, lessons learned and resources shared will help other small businesses secure government contracts. We also wouldn’t mind catching the attention of General Contractors who are looking for subcontractors for government projects! Up until this year, we primarily did work on new commercial construction jobs, DDC Controls work, residential service work, and weatherization jobs with the City of Kansas City. With more staff in 2015, we set out to tap into the potentially more lucrative world of government contracting and put our DBE and MBE statuses to use. We’ve always known were a lot of government contracting opportunities at the local, state and federal level. Learning a new bidding system, taking on extra paperwork and adhering to more regulations just never sounded attractive enough to actively pursue it. Also, we weren’t sure where to start. We routinely received phone calls and emails from companies offering to help us to secure “millions of dollars” in government contracts. The problem is, they charge a fortune and the projects are usually located outside the Kansas City Metro area. We wanted to find a local organization that we could trust and could help us break into this market. Luckily, early on in the process we found Jim Feikert, Subcenter Director of Kansas Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) – www.kansasptac.org. Based out of Johnson County Community College, Jim works with businesses to explore and understand the government marketplace. The best part? There is little to no cost for PTAC services! Once we signed up for PTAC services online, we met with Jim in person. He provided us with plenty of useful information and better yet, he emailed us afterwards with a personalized step-by-step checklist. He also started inviting us to PTAC training events and seminars and has been quick to answer any of our questions along the way. We attended his monthly class at JCCC – Competing for Government Contracts: Basic Training, as well as these other PTAC sponsored events: Federal Government Contracts: Commercial Acquisitions vs. Negotiated Procurements; and the PTAC/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Government Contracting Informational Meeting. Based on everything we learned, here’s a list of the steps we’ve taken so far to qualify for and obtain government contracts: Identified our NAICS Codes: 811412, 238220, 238210, & 811310 Created an account on the System for Award Management (SAM), an e-procurement system. Updated our contact info on the business database Dun & Bradstreet (D&B). D&B provides every business with a unique nine-digit identification (D-U-N-S) number. Registered our company as a vendor on various city, state and county websites, a prerequisite to submit a bid on many notices. Completed our annual DBE and MBE renewal certification paperwork through the City of Kansas City, MO. Signed up for PTAC’s Bid Match (Jim set this up & has adjusted the filters based on our requests). It pulls in solicitation and bid notices from over 2200 websites on a daily basis including FedBizOpps, other federal web sites, and state and local government web sites. Identified 96 cities, universities, counties, and school districts in Kansas and Missouri for which we want to receive bid notices. We were able find an online registrations for bid notifications for about half of the entities. (Interestingly, they utilize the services of Public Purchase or CivicPlus). For the rest, we called them up and inquired about their method of distributing bid notices (Their website, newspaper, Demand Star, etc.) Created a Capability Statement to showcase our company as a capable business to government agencies and to use it to pitch our company to other contractors for teaming or subcontracting. Applied for Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) designation. Applied for city, state and federal jobs! While we’ve worked through many items on the checklist, here’s what we’re working on: Applying for DBE and MBE certifications through the State of Kansas. Seeking mentors. We’re currently seeking a large contractor to serve as our mentor in the SBA’s Universal Mentor-Protégé program. Reaching out to and contacting other Prime contractors with contracts greater than $700,000 through the SBA’s website. (FAR 19.702 – The prime contractor subcontracting plan floor was raised from $650,000 to $700,000, and the construction threshold of $1,500,000 stays the same. Now that we’re receiving RFP notices, we’re preparing more bids than ever before. Hopefully, we’ll soon have a follow up blog post highlighting our next experiences implementing city, state, and federal contract jobs. We hope you find this blog post useful in your efforts to obtain government contracts. If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to email us at info@bcs-kc.com. January 3, 2016 By admin Construction • Employees DBE • EDWOSB • MBE 0 Comments Q&A with Cheryl Morton We hope you enjoy this Q & A with Cheryl Morton, President and Owner of Building Control Solutions. Q: Can you share the origin story of Building Control Solutions? A: Like any businesses, Building Control Solutions started as an idea. When I began researching the market, I discovered that not only was there room for another HVAC company in the Kansas City market, there were a lot of job opportunities for mechanical companies specializing in DDC controls with a female owner. I was raising a family at the time I was considering starting the company and the flexibility and earning potential inherent in owning your own business was attractive to me. So I made a calculated risk and opened Building Control Solutions in July 2001. Q: What have you done along the way to ensure your business acumen skills are sharp? A: While I had experience in various business environments prior to opening Building Control Solutions, I didn’t have a formal degree or industry-specific knowledge so I’ve pursued all sorts of education opportunities. In 2002, I participated in an entrepreneurship training program though the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In 2009-2010, I completed industry-specific training in heating, air conditioning, ventilation and refrigeration maintenance at Johnson County College. In 2011, I earned an Associate of Applied Science in Business and Management from Metropolitan Community College. Currently, I’m on track to earn a B.A. in economics from UMKC in 2016. Q: What are some of your hardest-earned lessons? A: While the market has been generous to my company, finding the right partners and employees was a challenge at first. These past few years I’ve been investing more time in the company and applying what I’ve learned and we’ve been attracting talent and growing steadily. Today, I’m convinced we have some of the best talent in KC on the operations side and in the field. Once we hire a great employee, we make a point to invest in them and support them so they will stay. Q: What are some of the ways you have advanced the presence of Building Control Solutions in the Kansas City Community? A: I’ve come to understand the importance of connecting with key players and especially other women leaders in the industry. I’ve been particularly impressed by events hosted by the Builders’ Association and the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Kansas City. One such event was the NAWIC Dinner at KC Sporting Park in April 2015. I invited two other women from my company to join me and found it to be a fantastic networking opportunity and a lot of fun. I also make a point to show support and loyalty to our most valuable customers. For instance, I always make a point to purchase seats for Avila’s Steer Dinner and Auction. Connecting with customers over a great meal for a good cause? Count me in. Q: Building Control Solutions is designated as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise because you are a majority owner. Can you share how Building Control Solutions received this designation? A: Absolutely. I’m a proud member of the Cherokee Nation. I could stop there, but there’s more to my family story. My ancestors survived the Trail of Tears and in Oklahoma, my Great Grandfather Redbird Smith made quite an impact. Redbird Smith was a traditionalist and political activist. He founded the Nighthawk Keetowah Society and served as its chief until his death. My Great Grandfather was a vocal opponent of the Dawes Allotment Act. When it passed anyways, it ended our communal holding of property. The resulting loss of community, culture, and economic leverage has had ripple effects on subsequent generations. I’m thankful for the DBE status and opportunities it has given me, a reality very different from the struggles of my parents and grandparents. Tag Cloud DBE EDWOSB Employees Government Contracts holidays MBE PTAC SAM SBA Social Most Recent Posts BCS’s participation in KCMO Home Repair & Improvement Initiative BCS Holiday Outing How Building Control Solutions has maintained exceptionally low on-the job injury rates Understanding the Government Marketplace Q&A with Cheryl Morton Categories Construction Employees Government Social Activities Uncategorized Social Find us on Facebook! ABOUT US Building Control Solutions helps local businesses and government entities find energy efficient and cost effective solutions for their heating and cooling needs. We install and service weatherization and commercial energy management systems and specialize in energy conservation and management. CONTACT US Building Control Solutions 1420 NW Vivion Rd Ste 103 Kansas City, MO 64118 816-439-6046 © 2015 Building Control Solutions. All rights reserved.