Don's Tech Rescue

If I dropped everything and decided I was going to start an electrical company, these are what I’d want to have on day 1.

• Public business number that routes to a phone system to direct callers based on reason.
• Id hire knowledgeable staff that can qualify leads. If your strapped on funding an AI receptionist works too, make sure it integrates with the CRM.
• a Customer Relationship Management software that can organize my entire lead-to-invoice pipeline. Preferably one that integrates or has job management built in. Worth noting a field service platform (ServiceTitan, FieldEdge type) bundles CRM, dispatch, and scheduling into one spine, so I’d pick one platform instead of running a separate CRM and separate dispatch software.
• Website designed to funnel leads to the CRM.
• Google Business Profile, Local Services Ads, and a review engine. Statewide volume comes from here, not just the website.
• Estimating and takeoff software. Electrical lives or dies on accurate bids.
• Job costing tied to real labor and materials, not just QuickBooks alone.
• Certified payroll and prevailing wage handling. Going statewide means public jobs, and that’s a hard requirement.
• Customer financing at the table (Wisetack, GreenSky type), plus card-on-file and ACH.
• Inventory and supply house integration. Truck stock and material ordering tied to jobs.
• M365 or Google Gsuite for scalable communication and data security.
• Work vehicles with GPS tracking. If business is booming I’d have cellular or starlink connectivity built into the trucks as well.
• dispatch software to keep the crew informed on their jobs and help communicate status.
• managed rugged work phone with the required apps preinstalled. All managed by Microsoft Intune.
• HQ would have Ubiquiti networking with internet failover so dispatch and phones don’t die with the ISP, spot.AI for cameras and Kisi door access.
• I’d have the work computers managed by Microsoft Entra and Intune, all computers backed up with Onedrive, and my M365 environment backed up to an additional cloud backup solution.
• EDR on every endpoint, email security to stop BEC and wire fraud, MFA and conditional access enforced, and security awareness training for the crew.

Each one of these things serves a very important purpose to protecting and positioning my electrical company to scale. Im not here to play games, I’m here to build a business that thrives.

Did I miss anything? What would you add to this list? What kind of tools do you have for your company?

You started your construction business because you wanted to build something on your own terms. Run jobs the right way. Be the boss.

And you did it. First one up, last one to bed. Chasing leads from the truck, answering the GC at 9 PM, writing invoices Sunday morning, tracking material costs on a clipboard that rides shotgun.

That grit is what got you here. But right now, it’s also what’s keeping you here.

The same hands that built the business are now the ceiling on it. Every missed lead, late invoice, or blind spot on a job site isn't a lack of effort. It's just the cost of you being the only system the business has.

You can't scale a clipboard, and you can't clone yourself.

You don't need to work harder. You just need your technology to actually do its job so you can do yours.

When you're ready to take the ceiling off your business, let's talk.

💻 Book a free Tech Assessment:
👉 donstechrescue.com

We'll look at your setup, find the bottlenecks, and build a system that runs even when you're not looking at it.

Rise and shine everyone! It’s Friday, which means wrapping up projects and enjoying a few hours with the family this weekend. This is a long post, but I promise it’s worth it! If not, I’ll personally deliver you an Orams Donut just to pay you for your time. (Limited to western PA, gas is too expensive) 😅

So, I had a great opportunity to attend a CFMA conference yesterday centered on construction financing and business operations. There were a few things that really stuck with me, and were mentioned by many of the industry experts that took the time to present.

- The construction industry is in desperate demand for workers. There’s currently an estimated deficit of 454,000 workers that need to be filled as early as last year. To make matters more real, the veterans are retiring, so the industry is losing talent faster than we can create it.

-the culture is shifting from brute grunt work where 6 day, 12-15 hour shifts and no benefits were the norm, to people wishing to have a balance and more ability to live outside of work. Fathers want to make it to their son’s baseball game. Mothers want to see their kids to school before work. Husbands and wives want to be able to be a spouse outside of work, instead of allowing work to consume them physically and emotionally.

- The industry hasn’t seen any notable level of productivity growth compared to other industries in the economy. Construction has a 14.2% GDP yet about 30-40billion dollars is lost in the industry due to inefficiency and manual processes.

- clients and customers demands and expectations continue to rise. AI data centers, new complexes, housing, aging infrastructure, the demand is there, but the industry stays horizontal.

There are a few ways companies in the industry are fighting to overcome these challenges.

- companies are designing prefab and modular manufacturing for things such as plumbing and electrical to increase efficiency and material demand.

-  apprenticeship programs are reducing the time it takes to become a journeyman. Some slashing 2-3 years just to get talent out the door.

- programs such as NAWIC are working to provide better culture to the industry and drive interest and talent of women into the industry, proving construction isn’t and shouldn’t only be for men. There is talent in everyone and the industry desperately needs it.

- the industry is driving awareness in K-12 of the skilled trade industry with CTE programs to build exposure early. Many kids don’t know construction is even an option, let alone how to apply and join the industry.

- many companies are looking toward technology, specifically in automation of processes such as billing, supply chain,CRM profile building and AI analytics to empower smarter project management and increase efficiency. Many companies have systems in place already, they’re now leveraging what they already have to work smarter.

The l conference gave me a lot to think about, with the biggest one being: How can I help empower companies to get back some of the 30-40 billion lost every year, and help them navigate the changes that are happening in the nation for the better? Thats why Dons Tech Rescue exists. I can help bring efficiency where you otherwise brute forced everything by giving you the technology and systems to make it happen. Even a small change can make a huge difference, and I want to help make it happen.

Happy Mothers Day!

This is a Windows Security PSA:

Saving passwords on browsers has always been a gamble of convenience over security. But security experts just sent out a warning on just how exposed your credentials are. It was discovered by a Security expert in Norway that Microsoft Edge loads all saved passwords into memory at startup. This falls under its vulnerability category: CWE-316, “Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in Memory.”

Even though security experts urged Microsoft to rectify this significant security flaw, the response from Microsoft was that it was stating that it was a conscious design decision and intentional.

If you use Microsoft Edge and value your credential security, I urge my followers and all who see to find another browser. If you like Edge, then at least use a password manager.

Consider sharing to inform others.

https://youtu.be/eMxR5cVEUjU?si=QyalJm7aiEVXLOf0

Don's Tech Rescue 1 like. "Job Management Software for Contractors: What to Use and What Comes Next"