A $20 million project lands in your lap. You want the revenue. You want the backlog. You also know there are three or four red flags. Maybe it’s a client you don’t trust. Maybe it’s a type of work you’ve never made money on. Maybe it’s a location where you don’t know the subs or the inspectors. None of that matters once the number gets big enough. You start talking yourself into it.
In this solo episode, Eric Anderton lays out a three-part test for deciding which work to take, which people belong in which seats, and why almost every construction leader already knows the right answer and just won’t act on it.
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Why Skilled People Still Lose Jobs On Bad Projects
Eric opens with a friend who has spent 30 years in construction. A great project manager and a great estimator. During a booming economy, that friend got laid off. Not because he was bad at his job. His company got hammered financially on a project it shouldn’t have taken.
“You can be really good at construction and still get your butt kicked by the wrong job.”
That line sets up the whole episode. Skill doesn’t protect you from a bad decision about the work itself.
How To Know If You Have The Right Client
Eric breaks his niche analysis into three categories: right client, right project, right location. Each one has its own test.
A right client pays on time. You shouldn’t have to chase money 60 or 90 days after the work is done.
A right client also brings a strong design team and quality documents. Bad documents create RFIs, delays, rework, and arguments your team inherits.
And a right client is fair and ethical when something goes wrong. Eric’s advice for a new relationship: do a smaller job first. “Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is to date them before you marry them.” That smaller job tells you how they pay, how they handle change orders, and what they do when something breaks.
Right Project: Profit History Over Revenue
A right project is one you’ve built before, with a real profit history behind it, not just revenue you like to talk about. Eric is blunt here. “If you’ve done 10 of those jobs and lost money on eight, what makes you think that the next job of the same type is going to be different?”
A right project also needs staffing you actually have right now. Winning the job is the easy part. Somebody has to build it, and that means a PM and a superintendent with the experience to run it start to finish, not a plan to figure that out after you sign.
Right Location: Why Distance And Weather Cost You People
The third category is location. Do you understand the market, the permitting, the inspectors, and the competition? Do you have labor, subs, and suppliers you can depend on there? Can you actually support the job operationally?
Eric’s example is a superintendent driving hours each way to a job site. “That can cost you people, and when your competition comes along, they might just be able to swoop in and take away your best superintendent.” Weather counts too. A dirt-moving job in Sacramento in October is a different job than the same work in Seattle.
The Three-For-Three Test
Put the three categories together and you get what Eric calls the three-for-three test. Most of your work should hit right client, right project, and right location all at once. Two out of three is workable. One out of three should be rare, and if you take it, you’d better know exactly where the risk sits and price for it.
That decision belongs to a real go-no-go process with your key people in the room, not a gut call made alone. “There’s a huge difference between asking, can we get it, and asking, should we take it.”
Define The Seat Before You Evaluate The Person
The second half of the episode moves from projects to people. Eric’s example is the superintendent he’s planning to put on that $20 million job. Technically excellent. He can build the project. But his behavior has started working against the values Eric says are non-negotiable.
Eric’s fix is to stop evaluating the person first and define the seat instead. What outcomes does the position need to produce? Three to eight specific, observable results. For a foreman, that includes timely completion, quality control, safety management, and effective crew leadership.
Then define the behaviors, because that’s where your values actually live. “Your actual values are the behaviors that you tolerate.” Someone can hit every outcome and still be wrong for your company if the behavior doesn’t match. Technical skill doesn’t buy them a pass.
Train, Move, Or Fire
If you’ve got someone in the wrong seat, Eric gives you three real options. Train them, if the skills gap is fixable and the values fit is real. Move them, if they’re a good fit for the company but wrong for the specific seat. Fire them, if there’s no seat where they can succeed while living your values.
“Doing nothing is not an option.” Neither is hoping the next project fixes them.
The Real Problem Is Discipline, Not Knowledge
Eric’s closing point is the sharpest one in the episode. None of this is new information. You already know a bad client is a bad client. You already know a values violation is a values violation. The test isn’t the obviously terrible project or the obviously terrible employee. Those calls are easy.
The real test is the $20 million project you actually want, and the technically excellent superintendent whose behavior is already hurting your company. That’s where discipline shows up, or doesn’t. “Everyone is watching you. They’re watching which jobs you chase. They’re watching who you refuse to fire.”
Two Questions Before You Sign Anything
The two decisions in this episode aren’t separate. Eric describes exactly how they reinforce each other. “You begin to convince yourself you need him because of the project. Then you convince yourself you need the project because you’ve got him.” That’s how a company ends up doing work it shouldn’t be doing, with people who shouldn’t be doing it.
Eric’s answer for this specific case is no on both counts. Pass on the project because it doesn’t meet the right-work definition. Let the superintendent go because he’s had the coaching and the chances and the behavior still doesn’t match the values. Next time a big project lands in your lap, ask two questions instead of one. Should we take it. Do we have the right people to build it.
What To Do With This Episode
If you want the full niche analysis spreadsheet Eric uses with his coaching clients, email eric@constructiongenius.com with “Niche Analysis” in the subject line.
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Construction Genius is hosted by Eric Anderton.
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