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Building a firm foundation for contractors

Contractors’ course offers training in business

The state housing industry is at a peak. In addition, the state’s two major cities are experience building booms. Phoenix is in the middle of about $2.5 billion in key infrastructure expansions that include a light rail system and new civic plaza.

Tucson is undergoing extensive road construction and is in the planning stages of the $124 million Rio Nuevo development project. Rio Nuevo is a revitalization program for downtown Tucson that will include new attractions, shopping, restaurants, office space, and housing.

Ricardo Carlo, executive director of the Associated Minority Contractors of America Phoenix, notes more entrepreneurs are forming contracting businesses in order to get in on the booming construction market in Arizona.

“Someone with construction experience starts a company, but they also need to know about estimating costs, bidding, and bonding,” says Ricardo Carlo, AMCA’S executive director. “We don’t want contractors to fold. We want to give them the tools to succeed,” he adds.

That’s why AMCA and its partners are offering a nine-week course called The Business of Construction on Oct. 4 that will help contractors run their businesses better.

The focus of the course is to provide mid level managers, small, and start-up companies the administrative tools necessary to be successful and survive in the very competitive contracting industry, Carlos says.The Associated Minority Contractors Of America (AMCA), is a non-profit minority business trade association, established to address the needs of minority contractors statewide and regionally.

EARNING LEARNING

MCA’s members include general contractors, subcontractors, engineering consultants, construction managers, manufacturers, suppliers, local minority and women-owned contractors and sub-contractors, state and local government agencies, attorneys, and accountants. Past seminars for small business contractors have focused on how to become certified as a minority or woman-owned small business and how certification could lead to landing contracts. However, that wasn’t enough, Carlo says. The current AMCA classes provide a curriculum and lectures on legal issues, finances (bidding jobs, estimating and billing), insurance and bonding, marketing, and strategies such as partnering with other contractors to win contracts.

Carlos says that large construction companies are searching for small, minority owned contactors to allow them to reach diversity goals imbedded into some major construction jobs by municipalities and the state and federal government.

The class is offered in conjunction with the Arizona Minority Business Development Center and the Arizona Builders Alliance. Students who have completed the course will be recognized with a certificate.

The instruction also includes the efforts of the Arizona Department of Transportation. All the organizations involved developed the course and coordinated with professionals in the state to facilitate each module.

For more information, contact the Associated Minority Contractors of America Phoenix at (602) 495-0026, or visit www.amcaaz.com.

In addition, the Arizona Registrar of Contractors also offers a class to help contractor start-ups and existing contractors get licensed. These classes are free and are held on Thursdays on Phoenix. For more information call the AROC office at (602) 542-1525, ext. 7655, or visit www.azroc.gov.