The Estimating Game Within the Game
The Challenge
I cannot tell you how many times I have been brought in to help a contractor get a handle on their estimating process, only to find the same thing happening over and over again.
Unit prices get thrown into a spreadsheet, and then crews get magically backed into just to make the number look right. The estimator does not fully understand the crews. Leadership does not either. But the number gets submitted anyway because that is just how it has always been done. It is the game inside the game, and everybody in this industry has played it at some point without even realizing what they were doing.
The Impact
Fast forward to the project and you are already underwater before you even mobilize a single truck. I have watched this pattern destroy profit on jobs that should have been serious money makers for the company. And here is the part that surprises people every single time. This is about wrong hires, lack of experience, lack of training the achieve the experience required, and lack of ambition to take a step back and figure it all. ALL easier to fix then you think.
The Shift
Here is what I have learned after 24 years in this industry and after working with dozens of contractors to rebuild their estimating systems from the ground up. Estimating was never about forcing the math to work until it looks acceptable on paper. It is about truly understanding what it actually takes to build the job, and then using that real world knowledge to drive the price with confidence.
If you have been following me long enough, you have probably heard me tell this story before, but it is worth telling again because it captures everything I am talking about. Early in my career, one of my bosses told me something I have never forgotten. He said any fool can make a $10 MM job into a $10.1 MM dollar project. That part is easy. What makes estimating exceptionally difficult is being able to bid that same project at $9.9 MM AND being able to justify every single cut you made to get there. And then, after all those cuts, that project still makes money. That right there is what separates a good estimator from a great one. It takes real experience. It takes a completely different way of thinking. It takes the ability to see the job in your head before a single shovel hits the ground.
That means knowing your production rates cold. That means knowing your crews inside and out. And it means having the confidence to stand behind your numbers, not because they happen to look right, but because they actually are right down to the last detail.
Good estimators are hard to find these days, everybody in this industry knows that. But even the unseasoned ones can be coached into becoming dangerous in the best possible way. It just takes one decision to get there. The decision to stop running the same play that keeps burning your company year after year. The decision to fix the process once and for all instead of patching it every single time it breaks.
The Closing
That one decision changes everything for a contractor willing to make it. This industry is insanely competitive, and it's getting harder to get work for many. The time and money you spend in estimating BETTER count! I have helped contractors make that exact decision, and I have personally watched it turn their entire business around in ways they never expected.
Gerard Aliberti
Pro-Accel,
Owner
EXCITING NEWS
Patrick Shurney and I are thinking about building a Builder-to-CEO Peer Group to help self-perform, labor-intensive construction business owners transition from the builder-to-CEO mindset and with financial and operational matters. If you’re interested, please join the interest list by clicking here https://waitlist-builder-to-ceo-peer-group.scoreapp.com/
ALSO, check out the new updated website at www.pro-accel.com. We updated the training page, pricing, speaking, and more.
Ways We Can Work Together
Role-Specific Training Bootcamps — Pro-Accel offers role-specific training workshops for Estimators, PMs, Superintendents, and Field Engineers focused on accountability, decision-making, and ownership. Reply if you want to talk about your team.
Bid Handoff Accelerator Process — A structured handoff system that closes the gap between estimating and field execution, dramatically improving project success.
Consulting & Strategic Advisory — From organizational assessments to strategic planning and leadership development, we dig into how your business actually operates, identify where the breakdowns are happening, and build the systems and structure that drive real growth.
