Dan Ford of Ford Custom Renovations: Removing himself from the field and scaling up
“If you think you’re there, then you need to check yourself because you’ll never be, there’s always new materials comin out, new ways of doing things, a new trick… always learning.”
For those of you that don’t know Dan Ford, Dan started as a one-man freelance carpenter band and now he’s got a design build firm.
I love that Dan describes being a GC as chaos! It’s familiar because I always say it’s “trying to control chaos”. There is no one I’ve had on that I feel more parallels the experience as a GC.
This is a tale of scaling up, building relationships and nurturing those relationships.
Self-observation and personal growth (check)
Learning trust and delegating (check)
Cooperation and respect for the knowledge of the staff
Diet, sleep, and stress
Checking ego at the door
And the last one rings true throughout this podcast episode. Dan knows he’s a work in progress and he’s humble when he shares his experience.
The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.
Host: Mike Knoche
Website: The Contracting Handbook
Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook
Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1
info@thecontractinghandbook.com
Guest: Dan Ford
Instagram: @ford.custom.renovation