Author Archive for Adrian Merry

IT and the Exit Strategy

You’ve no doubt heard many pitches proclaiming how information technology can help you run your business. But can IT help you when you’re getting ready to retire or seek a new opportunity?  

As it turns out, information technology helps the specialty contractor sell his or her operation and realize a higher price. The biggest monthly expenses contractors see are for … Read more

Cloud Computing with Google

Are you wondering what the whole cloud this is about and trying to figure out how it can help your specialty contracting operation? Chances are you’re already in the cloud. There is a spectrum of definitions for the cloud but I prefer the broadest: When your data is stored or processed at a big data center instead of on your … Read more

Mining Old Jobs for New Leads

The best place to look for new leads is often among existing customers. We periodically review our Job Management System (JMS) to help our estimators prioritize what relationships are worth rekindling. Storing job  data in a JMS also helps us preserve our customer relationships when estimators move on to other employment.

We completed such a JMS review earlier this month. … Read more

About this Blog

How better to get an edge in an old-economy business than with new-economy tools. Rainier Asphalt & Concrete was founded by my brother Tom in 2000. It has steadily grown to generate more than $4 million in annual revenues and withstood the furor of the Great Recession. Tom invited me to manage finance and IT in 2007.  We’ve experimented with … Read more