Henry Goudreau is a seasoned contractor with years of experience. He is the founder of HG Associates as well as Contractor Coaching, where he introduced his ‘Golden Hard Hat’ Mentoring Program to help contractors and construction professionals eventually scale their respective businesses to over $1 million in revenue, while lightening the load for them, both professionally and personally.
“My ‘Golden Hard Hat’ mentoring program is for anyone who may feel trapped or crippled in the construction business,” said Goudreau. “My mentoring program helps business owners who may feel overwhelmed by putting in endless hours, those who feel like their businesses could be performing better and, obviously, those who want to see their revenue skyrocket.”
In addition to his mentoring program, he has written numerous books, including a free ebook titled, The Street Smart Contractor. In it, he guides contractors on how to escape the long hours and garner more financial freedom.
Hailed as America’s top business building resource, coach and mentor by Commercial Magazine, Goudreau has guided his contractors to a combined net worth of over $10 million. He seeks out clients who are ready to ‘roll up their sleeves’, work on their businesses and find the courage necessary to navigate the ups and downs of the business and eventually reap the rewards.
“Contractors don’t fail for a lack of great construction skills, they fail because they tend to lack great business skills,” said Goudreau.
10 Habits That Define a Successful Contractor
In Goudreau’s extensive experience, he has seen contractors fail at the business side of things due to numerous self-limiting and self-sabotaging beliefs and actions. Among them, working too many hours, living paycheck-to-paycheck, working for slim profit margins, taking too many risks, living draw-to-draw in the construction industry, and allowing one’s ego to halt them.
Goudreau has employed 10 key habits that all contractors must possess in order to find success.
First, contractors must set goals. These are necessary as most will ‘run around in circles’ if there is no clear path of action. Goals allow one to focus on what they want to achieve. Goal achievers are usually analyzing the mission, monitoring it and keeping it at the forefront of their minds.
“One of the first things I have my boot camp attendees do is come to terms with their goals and write them out,” Goudreau said. “It is amazing to see how much better focused they become once they’ve completed this exercise. It helps them remove obstacles from their lives.”
The second habit is to develop a vision. The difference between a goal and a vision is that the latter is how you want people to perceive a goal when you’ve achieved it. “That is what people buy into,” Goudreau stated.
Next is to develop a strategic plan, which takes everything into consideration, from inception to completion. It highlights the who, what, when and how strategies will be implemented.
“My clients in the Golden Hard Hat Mentorship Program utilize strategic thinking to thrive for higher profit margins, but understand the process and trust it to reach their goals,” he said. “Strategic thinking coupled with the implementation of a plan leads to exceptional success.”
Developing a system to make the business work is the fourth habit, which prompts contractors to essentially stop chasing their tails and utilize the necessary hours in a day to make it all click.
The fifth habit encourages contractors to develop training programs for employees. Untrained employees can bring a business owner to their knees, resulting in low profit margins or, in some unfortunate and extreme cases, bankruptcy. Getting everyone on the same page is key.
Additionally, contractors are encouraged to build only targeted marketing plans. Goudreau believes that ‘Institutional Marketing’, which he encourages his clients to steer clear from, promotes a lack of focus because it is more directed at larger scale groups than prospects.
“The old saying goes, ‘Marketing pays.’, and that is true in most cases. It pays the printer, copywriter, graphics designer and down the list,” he stated. “I can’t believe how many contractors throw money down the drain because of unfocused marketing.”
The seventh habit, according to Goudreau, is more of a moniker in that successful contractors don’t give up, followed by the eighth and ninth habits, respectively, successful contractors don’t blame fate for their failures and successful contractors believe in the path they have chosen.
The final habit, successful contractors are always sharpening their saw, is both true technically and metaphorically. Sharpening one’s business is a necessary procedure. Staying on top of the tasks at hand and living by the previous nine habits keep contractors ‘razor sharp’.
“If a carpenter never sharpened their saw it would become dull and, as a result, would take more time to get the job done,” he said. “To be more effective and efficient in business, one must sharpen their saw on occasion, as would a master carpenter.”
About Henry Goudreau
Henry Goudreau is the Founder of HG Associates and Golden Hard Hat Mentoring Program. Goudreau has mentored over 100 clients to 10x their businesses. To find out more about his weekly mentoring calls, please visit https://contractorcoaching.com