Tag: subcontractors

Mastermind Monday: Stop Not Getting Paid in Construction

Posted on by Eric Coffie

Not getting paid in construction? Learn how to secure your rights with Ariela Wagner!

BACKGROUND

Ariela C. Wagner is the President of SunRay Construction Solutions, a documents service company helping suppliers and subcontractors throughout the United States to secure lien rights. 

“It’s okay to make mistakes and to fall down, but it’s not okay to not get back up.”

NOTICE TO OWNER, LIEN, AND BOND CLAIM REFRESHER

Before everything else, sending these notices is really important because this is a way to protect yourself into getting paid. 

Aside from that, it’s a professional thing to do because it lets your customer know that you are serious about getting paid on your terms and not their terms. 

However, consider that the period of time before the deadline of these notices and the names might be different depending on your state or locality, so, check those first. 

Notice to Owner

A notice to owner (NTO) secures your lien and or bond claim rights and must be sent within a specified period of time.

For instance, if you are providing furnishing services in the state of Florida, you only have 40 days to send your NTO.

The best business practice that you should do is to send your NTO as soon as possible. 

Claim of Lien

Claim of lien is a legal claim that you can do on private property. 

In the state of Florida, if you are not paid, you have 90 days to lien a private project that needs to record one.

Also, as long as you have sent your required preliminary notices,  then you can record your lien.

With this in mind, you cannot lien any public projects in the country due to what’s the government called sovereign immunity which means they’re immune to civil suits and you can’t take away their property. 

Consider that in order for you to secure your lien rights, you must send the NTO, as soon as you start the project; then, the claim of lien 90 days from the last day of your project. 

Claim on Bonds

Claims on Bonds, or what Tennessee called a notice of non-payment, is a claim that you can use to get paid by the prime when working with public projects.

This is just a reverse one for the lien which is for the equity interest in the property you’re foreclosing.

What’s a good example for this is working in a VA hospital. You only have 90 days, in the state of Florida, to send this claim from the last day you’re on the project.

If you do not have a direct contract with the general contractor, you should be sending NTO or notice to contractor on public projects.

Consider that in order for you to have bond claim rights, you must send this NTO as soon as you start the project. Then, the claim on bond is 90 days from the last day of your project. 

ADVICE FROM ARIELA WAGNER

1. You can’t ever take back your actions.

The biggest mistake you will never be able to take back  is your negative words and actions to a loved one when you’re stressed. 

You really want to be very cautious when you’re stressed out. Put yourself in a room, if you have to shut the door.

You just need to calm down because it’s just in a millisecond. Don’t be in a rush to say something or make a decision because a mistake can happen in millisecond, and you don’t want that to happen. 

“I can tell you that you’re going to make mistakes, but like I said in the very beginning, ‘You fall seven times, you get up eight.’ But you can’t take back with your loved ones, with your employees, with people who you’ve never met before. You can never take back your words or your actions.”

2. Ask others’ opinions.

You’re going to make mistakes in business, but certainly put together an intelligent plan. 

If you don’t know what you’re doing and you don’t know the answers to something, don’t make the decision on your own. Ask intelligent people to help you. 

“If you ask an idiot their opinion, you’re gonna get an idiot’s response. If you ask an intelligent person their opinion, you’re going to get an intelligent response.”

RESOURCES

If you want to learn more about getting paid in construction by securing your rights, then check our full video with Ariela Wagner.

You can also visit the GovCon Giant website or the new GovCon Edu where you learn everything about government contracting!

Stop Not getting paid in construction??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyLSw92tWZg&t=4345s

Let’s Talk About Subcontracting

Posted on by Eric Coffie

There are a handful of ways to get into the federal marketplace and one of these is being a subcontractor so let’s talk about subcontracting in this article.

BENEFITS OF BEING A SUBCONTRACTOR

Subcontracting is probably one of the strongest ways to learn the industry and how to navigate your business in the marketplace.

This experience provides contractors a critical viewpoint on how to handle certain contracts because when you are a subcontractor, you get to experience the necessary tasks to complete the assignments in the contracts.

These include understanding how to present the necessary specifications and how to submit these as well as building relationships with other contractors and decision-makers.

“So, you’re being paid to learn and then you’re gonna be accumulating a wealth of documentation. You’re gonna be making relationships with people who can eventually be partners.”

However, the benefit of being a subcontractor will only be fully achieved if you’re out there on the job. These can’t be retained by just getting certifications and sitting behind a computer. You have to go out there in the field, do the work, and be willing to learn and get a grasp of things.

“All this is going to be great for your arsenal of tools and your toolbox so that when you’re ready to step out and become a prime, you already have all the documentation. You know all of the ins and outs.”

WHERE TO LOOK FOR PRIME CONTRACTORS? 

There are a handful of sites that you can look for prime contractors and these include FPDS and USA Spending. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, you will surely find prime contractors buying the services that you offer if you go into these websites.

The GSA also has a free tool which is the public category management dashboard that helps your search for prime contractors. In using this tool, you can easily look up the companies that have GSA schedules and pull out their information and reports depending on your criteria.

“Let’s take advantage of some of the tools that are already out here… That’s why we talk about subcontracting where all you have to do is find out who’s winning the contracts and reach out to them to become a vendor.”

ADVICE FOR SUBCONTRACTORS

If you are new in the marketplace, one way to increase your understanding of the federal arena is to find other contractors as well. It is key for each small business contractor to find each other and build a connection that might lead to various projects and more opportunities.

Then, when you are given a project, even as a subcontractor or for other smaller projects, you must always deliver your tasks the way you are told to do so. Consider that by doing your task accordingly, you and the prime contractor together with the government agency are benefiting from each other. Other than that, this will also help you increase the length of your contract or be given more contract opportunities.

“When people get a hold of someone like that, they don’t let them go. There’s been numerous cases where with my podcast guests we talked about them winning their first contract that was supposed to be six months that turned into 10 years.”

Also, you must view the problems in your business as a learning experience. When you are starting in your business, you are growing and because of this, you will also experience a lot of ups and downs.

With this in mind, one of the major problems of new businesses is having a fund but this is not a hindrance for you to stop your business. Consider that as a new contractor, you are a huge risk to the bank. So, you need to pull yourself together and search for other ways to fund your business so that you can start working with the government.

“A lot of people out here are tippy-toeing inside of contracting, right? They want to tippy toe in business like, ‘I’m gonna put my foot in and see.’ You can’t do that. It’s really hard to be successful by tippy-toeing.”

RESOURCES

If you want to watch the full video where we talk about subcontracting and other content related to it, then be sure to click the links below:

Let’s talk about Subcontracting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbM0c5Olqr0

Explaining the rules for subcontracting small business contracts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajwQiCAS1No

Contact center SaviLinx experiences rapid growth in federal market as a subcontractor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaPoWjfmykA

028: Angela Terry – Small Business Administration Subcontracting Program Manager | Eric Coffie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8MvSXYv6yY

Similarly Situated Entity helps Limitations on SUBCONTRACTING for small firms – Eric Coffie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-4Lml2bZj4