Into the Unknown

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Well I finally bit the bullet and decided to go solo. I have always relished the idea of working for myself and now I am on my own away from the corporate comfort blanket and all the other nonsense that entails.

Setting up your own business is very straightforward and I have one simple goal, that is to enjoy what I do day to day. It is not about making enormous amounts of money, it is about being happy.

To date I have not canvassed anyone, cold called companies or called upon colleagues and friends in the construction sector. Simply because I have been too busy dealing with clients who have sought me out. There are a lot of distressed projects and many builders and subcontractors who simply need some assistance.

In Australian capital cities there has been a boom in high rise apartment developments. With any boom there are casualties. Developers unable to make final payments to builders because apartment sales contracts have fallen through, subcontractors being strung out by builders, everyone blaming each other for their losses on projects. When you roll your sleeves up and get into the nitty gritty of the problems it usual is caused by companies taking work on without understanding risk and then they employ staff who do not know how to manage risk.

So I get approached to “fix” a project and very quickly identify it is not the project but the way the company is organised to handle projects in the first place.  The project may never achieve its tender margin but sometimes the damage can be reduced. Fixing the business is the key and usually it all relates to the contract that was signed and the way the procurement is managed.

I was hoping to get away from the sixty hour working week in the corporate world but the potential workload may keep me even busier – if I am not careful!

Premdale Consulting 2017

Google+ hip, hype or banned by Luddites

Google+

Yes I have been one of the chosen few to be given an invite to try out Google+ or Google Plus. Please note you it is still in trial stages so you may not be able to it yet, but you can take the tour.

I won’t bore you with techno babble, the future of Facebook, the demise of Twitter or any other such nerdy nonsense.

But what I did find is an application that is ideal for those of us in construction.

Two of the core areas of Google plus are “circles” and “hangout”. Yes I know they sound very hipster and twee but what they allow you to do is to have a circle of colleagues, site managers, subcontractors, consultants, the PCG, which you determine and set up. Also, you can have up to 11 people on video link at the same time, high quality and completely free. The software determines who is talking and the main view then goes to that person.

Frame-breakers, or Luddites, smashing a loom. ...

The really interesting question will be for the Luddites who manage head offices and are scared the cadets maybe spending too much time twittering etc. You know the type of people who will waste their own time checking up on people who get paid less than a quarter of the manager’s pay.

Google+ will in time,  be on everyone’s desktop and the social network and business network will become seamless. Just as our mobiles and emails keep coming outside office hours, weekends and holidays, the working day is not stretched it is all-consuming.

I bet most architects and designers will be up and running Google+ by the end of this month, but some builders might get their by 2020.