Act I
Build the operating company
Most owners want to jump straight to investing while sales, fulfillment, and risk are still broken. The order matters. Build is Act I because a company that cannot produce consistent work and profit cannot protect or transfer anything.
Marketing
A written offer and a system you can explain
- Define what you do, who it's for, and why someone should pay premium
- Choose lead sources you can measure: referrals, Google Business Profile, content, or paid ads
- Build a repeatable rhythm instead of starting from scratch every slow month
- Read your numbers so you know which channel actually pays
Networking
Relationships that send work and intros
- Map the CPAs, bankers, sureties, GCs, and peers who can send you opportunity
- Create a simple stay-in-touch rhythm: coffee, lunch, check-ins, industry events
- Turn one-off introductions into a system instead of hoping for luck
- Track who sent what and reciprocate before you need a favor
Sales
One process, clear pricing, and the guts to walk away
- Use the same discovery and proposal steps on every job
- Price with confidence instead of racing to the lowest bid
- Document scope, assumptions, and exclusions before work starts
- Know the warning signs of a bad customer or a bad job — and say no
Fulfillment
Kickoff, production, QA, and collections without you
- Handoff from sold job to production with a written kickoff
- Build SOPs for scheduling, QA, change orders, and closeout
- Create a scoreboard the team reads without you rewriting it daily
- Finish jobs on time, collect on time, and ask for the review or referral
Exercises and templates
The work you actually do
Build isn't a lecture. Each of the four areas has one exercise and one template you fill in with your own numbers and names. These are the same worksheets used in Week 1 of the Intensive cohort.
Marketing
Write your offer in one page
Template: Offer One-Pager + Lead Source Tally
- Who is the customer, what problem do you solve, and why should they pay premium?
- List every lead source from the last 12 months and the jobs each produced
- Pick the two sources you will run on purpose for the next quarter
- Name the number you will check on a fixed cadence to know whether it worked
Networking
Map the 12 relationships that move work
Template: Referral Map + Quarterly Touch Plan
- List CPAs, bankers, sureties, GCs, suppliers, and peers by name
- Mark who has actually sent you work or an intro in the last year
- Choose 12 names and set a touch rhythm you can keep
- Write what you can send them before you ask for anything
Sales
Standardize discovery and proposal
Template: Discovery Checklist + Walk-Away Rules
- Write the 10 questions you ask on every walkthrough
- Define what a proposal always includes: scope, assumptions, exclusions
- Write your pricing floor and how you defend it out loud
- List the customer and job red flags that mean you decline
Fulfillment
Hand a job off without you in the room
Template: Job Kickoff Sheet + Weekly Scoreboard
- Write the kickoff handoff from sold job to production
- Name the QA checkpoints and who signs off on each
- Build a one-page weekly scoreboard the team updates, not you
- Set the closeout rhythm: final walk, invoice, collect, review or referral ask
What Build is and isn't
Build is education for the owner who still signs contracts, still walks jobs, and still carries the whole thing personally. It is a curriculum of concepts, questions, and checklists — not a done-for-you service.
- We do not run your ads, manage your SEO, or write your contracts
- We do not replace your attorney, CPA, insurance broker, or financial professional
- We teach principles and owner checklists; execution is yours
See where your Build stage is exposed
The free Scorecard scores Marketing, Networking, Sales, and Fulfillment alongside Protect, Invest, and Legacy. It takes about eight minutes.
Education only. Contractor Wealth is an education company. Everything here is general educational information only — not legal, tax, insurance, or investment advice. Contractor Wealth is not a law firm, does not practice law, does not draft or review documents, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Work with your own licensed attorney, CPA, insurance broker, or financial professional before acting on anything you learn here.