UDA Technologies Blog

John Wooden is a legend. During his 12 year tenure as the head coach of UCLA’s men’s basketball team, he won 10 national titles, including a record seven in a row. To put this in perspective, no other team has ever won more than two titles in a row – including national powerhouses like Duke, UNC, and Kentucky. Wooden’s success on the court will long remain the gold standard in the basketball community, but outside the sports world, his legacy is the incredible leadership that he displayed and passed along to others.

A favorite adage of mine is “you can’t improve what you don’t measure.” But you have to know what you want to determine before you can know what needs to be measured. In construction, the industry with the lowest start-up survival rate nationwide*, what most business owners need to know is as simple as this – are we going to make it?

Time is money! Continuing out Profit Series webinars, Senior Product Specialist Ian Schaefer and Sales Specialist Jordan Davis show you how you can plan for profits by utilizing features in ConstructionSuite's OnPlan Scheduling. If you missed our live session, you can find the recording here as well as questions asked in the webinar by some of ConstructionSuite's 500,000 users.

Your company may have started small, with little to no infrastructure to support the successful scale of your business. However, as you begin to experience periods of rapid growth, you will encounter challenges impairing the profitability, visibility, and quality of your company's jobs. Software plays a major role in helping you navigate these tricky times.

Depending on who you talk to, the term “Change Order” can solicit a broad range of reactions. The most common reactions might include heavy sighs, eye rolls, or pursed lips, while some uncommon ones could have you ducking for cover as every object within reach comes flying at your head. For many, Change Orders have done more than enough damage to a bottom line to warrant the type of disgust merely whispering the word can invoke. For others, however, Change Orders are the golden goose; these select few have mastered the art of the Change Order, and these are the ones you should be paying attention to. Here are three things to keep in mind to turn your Change Order game around:

Webster’s Dictionary says that success is “a favorable or desired outcome.” This means that to develop your definition of success, you will need to first identify the measurable outcomes you are hoping to achieve with your endeavor – allowing you to recognize the milestones of your success as they are reached.

Contractors around the globe have been vocal about the consistent and detrimental labor shortages affecting the construction industry today. At home and abroad, we've seen a decline in the availability of skilled labor, creating additional challenges and pressures in an already high-stakes industry. Some have tried to turn the tide with short-term resolutions like increased pay or added incentives, while others have put off retirement, invested in construction education, or taken on apprenticeships to hopefully address the longer term effects of this alarming decline in key trademembers.

Known mainly for his military and political achievements, President Dwight D. Eisenhower found success following a principle he shared often, “[w]hat is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” In construction project management, the important/urgent principle suggests that project managers should ensure they are prioritizing the important tasks that might not have immediate deadlines. Here are three tasks that we think are highly important for construction projects that may not set off any of your urgent alarms.

Around thirty percent of family-owned businesses are viable into the second generation, and only thirty-six percent of construction firms make it past their fifth year of business. For a family-owned construction company, the numbers are against you from the beginning. Successfully integrating the second generation of the family into the business is critical for its health, but it can be tricky. Read on to learn how to include the next generation with ease:

It's well known that construction companies have one of the highest rates of failure when compared to other new small business ventures. According to Small Business Trends, an award-winning online magazine for small business owners and entrepreneurs, only 36.4% of new construction companies remain open at the 5 year mark.