My Biggest Mistake As A Building Contractor
Everyone makes mistakes, but in the construction business
you're required to pay for them. I'm not talking about paying with
Monopoly money, I'm talking about mistakes that cost you a lot of money.
I would like to share this story with you about the biggest mistake I
ever made as a building contractor.
The pen truly is mightier than the sword and I learned this with one
signature. I signed a contract to build a two-story room addition and it
cost me a fortune. I needed the work and we were deeply in the middle of
a recession. I couldn't find a job anywhere and I needed to support my
family.
A friend of mine gave me the phone number to one of his friends and told
me that they were thinking about putting a room addition on their home.
I contacted them as soon as possible and the homeowner told me that if I
couldn't do the job for a specific amount of money, it wouldn't be worth
it.
I went home and spent a couple of days figuring the job out and creating
a proposal that would be beneficial to both of us. The only part that I
didn't know at the time was that he was going to be the only person that
this specific contract was going to benefit.
The mistake I made was telling the homeowner that I would make any
changes without any additional fees. If you're going to ask me about the
lesson here, it's obvious. Don't ever sign a written contract, without
having everything in it.