Contractor David Gerstel took his first independent project 20 years ago, and unlike 95% of those who do the same each year, the company he created has managed to survive. But it was never easy, and Gerstel has written The Builder's Guide to Running a Successful Construction Company so that others, as he puts it, "will not have to cobble together a management program from disparate sources in reaction to their own blunders." Books on the craft of building abound, but nothing I have seen addresses the management issues facing small-volume builders better than this book. Gerstel interviewed over 100 builders in the four years he spent writing it, and the text is sprinkled with anecdotal accounts of their varied experiences. But it's also a very
