The Builder’s Edge - Mastering the Business Side of Building

Your employees are wearing your reputation every time they pull up to a customer’s home. Before they explain their experience, show their craftsmanship, or even say hello, customers are already forming an opinion about your contracting business based on how your team looks.
In this episode of The Builder’s Edge, Deanna Lucas sits down with Jace Stevens, founder of Onward Customs, to break down how employee uniforms, custom apparel, contractor branding, brand identity, and visual consistency influence customer trust. If you own a construction company, home service business, or blue-collar company, you’ll discover why branding is much bigger than putting a logo on a shirt. Jace explains why clean, consistent employee apparel can make a smaller contractor look more established, why putting phone numbers and every service you offer on a shirt may actually weaken your brand, and how your uniforms should connect with your trucks, website, business cards, signs, social media, and customer experience. You’ll also hear how companies can provide professional branded apparel without constantly buying large bulk orders or wasting money on unused inventory.
If you want customers to see the quality of your company before your crew ever starts the job, this conversation is for you.


You’ll learn:
→ Why your employees become the face of your company faster than many business owners realize, and how their appearance influences the first impression customers form about your professionalism.
→ Why simple, consistent contractor uniforms can create stronger brand recognition than shirts overloaded with phone numbers, services, colors, and marketing information.
→ How a clear brand identity connects your employee apparel, truck wraps, website, signage, business cards, social media, and customer experience so everything tells the same story.
→ How employee apparel portals and clothing allowances can help growing contractors control uniform costs, reduce wasted inventory, give employees appropriate choices, and maintain consistent branding as the company grows.


Learn more about Deanna Lucas through the following links:
AI Visibility Scorecard
Builders Visibility Blueprint
DND Website
DND Youtube
Email Template for 5 Star Reviews
Facebook
Facebook Group
LinkedIn



Learn more about Deanna Lucas through the following links:
AI Visibility Scorecard
Builders Visibility Blueprint
DND Website
DND Youtube
Email Template for 5 Star Reviews
Facebook
Facebook Group
LinkedIn



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The bank said no to your business loan. Now what?

A business financing rejection doesn’t always mean your project is bad, your company is too risky, or your opportunity is over. Sometimes the problem is your equity, credit, collateral, experience, project timing, or use of funds. Other times, you may simply be talking to a lender whose lending model was never designed for your deal.

In this episode of The Builder’s Edge, Deanna Lucas talks with Jordan Blanchard, co-founder of Excalibur Rural Capital, about what business owners, contractors, developers, and entrepreneurs should do after being denied business financing. Jordan brings more than 40 years of banking and government lending experience and explains how lenders evaluate commercial loans, USDA OneRD loans, SBA financing, construction financing, equipment financing, and large business expansion projects.

You’ll hear what lenders actually want to see before approving a loan, why equity matters, what makes a project “shovel-ready,” how credit and collateral affect the decision, and why one lender can reject a project another lender is willing to finance.

If you’re trying to grow your business, purchase equipment, build a facility, expand locations, or finance a major project, this conversation can help you approach your next lender better prepared.

You’ll Learn:

→ How to tell whether a lender rejected your business because of a weakness in the deal or because the loan simply didn’t fit that lender’s programs, lending limits, policies, or risk tolerance.

→ Why equity, project readiness, industry experience, credit, collateral, and a clearly defined use of funds can dramatically affect a commercial lending decision.

→ How USDA OneRD loans, SBA loans, conventional business loans, construction financing, and other funding sources can fit very different types and sizes of projects.

→ What to do after multiple lenders say no, including asking for specific feedback, correcting weaknesses, preparing a concise two-to-four-page project summary, and finding a lender whose financing model fits the opportunity.

Learn more about Deanna Lucas through the following links:

AI Visibility Scorecard

Builders Visibility Blueprint

DND Website

DND Youtube

Email Template for 5 Star Reviews

Facebook

Facebook Group

LinkedIn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bank said no to your business loan. Now what?
A business financing rejection doesn’t always mean your project is bad, your company is too risky, or your opportunity is over. Sometimes the problem is your equity, credit, collateral, experience, project timing, or use of funds. Other times, you may simply be talking to a lender whose lending model was never designed for your deal.
In this episode of The Builder’s Edge, Deanna Lucas talks with Jordan Blanchard, co-founder of X-Caliber Capital, about what business owners, contractors, developers, and entrepreneurs should do after being denied business financing. Jordan brings more than 40 years of banking and government lending experience and explains how lenders evaluate commercial loans, USDA OneRD loans, SBA financing, construction financing, equipment financing, and large business expansion projects.
You’ll hear what lenders actually want to see before approving a loan, why equity matters, what makes a project “shovel-ready,” how credit and collateral affect the decision, and why one lender can reject a project another lender is willing to finance.
If you’re trying to grow your business, purchase equipment, build a facility, expand locations, or finance a major project, this conversation can help you approach your next lender better prepared.
You’ll Learn:
→ How to tell whether a lender rejected your business because of a weakness in the deal or because the loan simply didn’t fit that lender’s programs, lending limits, policies, or risk tolerance.
→ Why equity, project readiness, industry experience, credit, collateral, and a clearly defined use of funds can dramatically affect a commercial lending decision.
→ How USDA OneRD loans, SBA loans, conventional business loans, construction financing, and other funding sources can fit very different types and sizes of projects.
→ What to do after multiple lenders say no, including asking for specific feedback, correcting weaknesses, preparing a concise two-to-four-page project summary, and finding a lender whose financing model fits the opportunity.
Learn more about Deanna Lucas through the following links:
AI Visibility Scorecard
Builders Visibility Blueprint
DND Website
DND Youtube
Email Template for 5 Star Reviews
Facebook
Facebook Group
LinkedIn


Learn more about Deanna Lucas through the following links:
AI Visibility Scorecard
Builders Visibility Blueprint
DND Website
DND Youtube
Email Template for 5 Star Reviews
Facebook
Facebook Group
LinkedIn



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What would happen to your business if you disappeared for four weeks? Would your employees know what to do, would customers still be taken care of, and would projects keep moving, or would every decision, question, and problem come straight back to you?

In this episode of The Builder's Edge, Deanna Lucas talks with Dr. Sabrina Starling, business psychologist, founder of Tap the Potential, international bestselling author, and creator of The 4 Week Vacation. Sabrina explains how contractors, builders, and small business owners can build a profitable business that runs without the owner being involved in every decision.

You'll learn why chasing revenue can actually make your contracting business more complicated and less profitable, how identifying your best 20% of clients can simplify operations, why hiring A-players based on core values matters, and how systems help you delegate without losing quality. Sabrina also explains the power of $10,000-an-hour activities, the strategic work only the business owner can do, and why moving out of day-to-day firefighting is essential for sustainable business growth.

If you're overwhelmed by employees, customer issues, jobsite problems, constant phone calls, or a business that cannot function without you, this conversation will show you a different way to build.

Highlights:

→ Discover why complexity is the enemy of profit and how narrowing your services and focusing on your most profitable customers can make your construction business easier to manage.

→ Learn how the 80/20 principle can help contractors identify their best clients, reduce difficult projects, improve profitability, and create repeatable systems their team can actually follow.

→ Understand Sabrina's $10,000-an-hour concept and why your highest-value work may not be answering emails, visiting jobsites, or solving employee problems, but thinking strategically about where the business should go next.

→ Learn how to hire A-players, delegate around clearly defined results, use accountability and metrics, and manage outcomes instead of micromanaging employees so your team can perform without constantly depending on you.

Learn more about Deanna Lucas through the following links:

AI Visibility Scorecard

Builders Visibility Blueprint

DND Website

DND Youtube

Email Template for 5 Star Reviews

Facebook

Facebook Group

LinkedIn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would happen to your business if you disappeared for four weeks? Would your employees know what to do, would customers still be taken care of, and would projects keep moving, or would every decision, question, and problem come straight back to you?

In this episode of The Builder's Edge, Deanna Lucas talks with Dr. Sabrina Starling, business psychologist, founder of Tap the Potential, international bestselling author, and creator of The 4 Week Vacation. Sabrina explains how contractors, builders, and small business owners can build a profitable business that runs without the owner being involved in every decision.

You'll learn why chasing revenue can actually make your contracting business more complicated and less profitable, how identifying your best 20% of clients can simplify operations, why hiring A-players based on core values matters, and how systems help you delegate without losing quality. Sabrina also explains the power of $10,000-an-hour activities, the strategic work only the business owner can do, and why moving out of day-to-day firefighting is essential for sustainable business growth.

If you're overwhelmed by employees, customer issues, jobsite problems, constant phone calls, or a business that cannot function without you, this conversation will show you a different way to build.

Highlights:

→ Discover why complexity is the enemy of profit and how narrowing your services and focusing on your most profitable customers can make your construction business easier to manage.

→ Learn how the 80/20 principle can help contractors identify their best clients, reduce difficult projects, improve profitability, and create repeatable systems their team can actually follow.

→ Understand Sabrina's $10,000-an-hour concept and why your highest-value work may not be answering emails, visiting jobsites, or solving employee problems, but thinking strategically about where the business should go next.

→ Learn how to hire A-players, delegate around clearly defined results, use accountability and metrics, and manage outcomes instead of micromanaging employees so your team can perform without constantly depending on you.

Learn more about Deanna Lucas through the following links:

AI Visibility Scorecard

Builders Visibility Blueprint

DND Website

DND Youtube

Email Template for 5 Star Reviews

Facebook

Facebook Group

LinkedIn

Learn more about Deanna Lucas through the following links:
AI Visibility Scorecard
Builders Visibility Blueprint
DND Website
DND Youtube
Email Template for 5 Star Reviews
Facebook
Facebook Group
LinkedIn



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.