Some of a successful contractor's best tools have no handles, triggers, electrical cords, or batteries. In fact, these business "tools" are the ones you should grab first, long before work begins on site. The set of business tools I use most have to do with project management. I call them "job controls," and I put them to use the moment our company begins negotiating with a prospective client. Once we start using the job controls, we never stop — not even after a project is completed — because they create a management history that becomes the basis to estimate and manage future projects. All of our successful job controls have passed the KISS test: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Those
