Construction

The thing about construction companies in distress is that everyone sees the fire.

The subcontractors see it. The general contractor sees it. The bonding company definitely sees it. Even the project managers on-site know something's burning.

But no one calls it what it is until it's too late.

You know the pattern. Projects that were supposed to close out six months ago are still bleeding cash. The CFO is juggling payments like a street performer. Your best estimator just left for a competitor. The bonding company is making noises about capacity.

This isn't about poor planning. It's about momentum working against you.

Construction is unforgiving. When a healthcare company stumbles, they have time to adjust. When an oil and gas operator hits trouble, there's usually a commodity cycle to blame. But in construction, the clock never stops. Every day a project sits incomplete is another day of overhead eating you alive. Every delayed payment cascades through your entire operation.

We see it across the spectrum. Commercial contractors who took on too much work during the boom and can't scale back fast enough. Residential builders who understood wood framing but not capital structure. Electrical contractors crushed by change orders they'll never collect. Metal roofing manufacturers with eight CEOs in ten years because no one could fix what was fundamentally broken.

The fire metaphor isn't decoration. It's what actually happens.

Here's what we've learned after thirty years of putting these fires out: fixing the financials never fixed a construction company. You can restructure debt all day long. But if your estimators are still bidding jobs the same way, if your project managers still can't communicate with the front office, if your shop floor doesn't trust anyone in a tie, you've just bought yourself another six months of the same problems.

Construction companies fail from the inside. Dysfunctional management. Poorly organized systems. Sales and operations working against each other instead of together. Accounting that can't tell you where you really stand until it's too late to matter.

The rescue looks different here. We put an interim CEO in the chair who's actually run jobs. We reorganize from shop floor to front office because that's the only direction that works. We implement construction-specific software that wasn't designed by people who've never been on a jobsite. We resolve the contractor and customer issues that everyone's been avoiding.

Most importantly, we do it fast.

Because in construction, every second counts. You've heard that before. But have you noticed how few firms actually operate that way? How many restructuring advisors want to study the problem for three months before making a decision? How many consultants show up with frameworks designed for manufacturing companies?

We're different. Our professionals come from the business world, not the consulting world. They've held the chair. They've made payroll when the bank account said they shouldn't. They've had the conversation with the bonding company. They understand that theory is useless when you've got a crew waiting for direction.

The construction industry has its own language, its own rhythm, its own pressure points. Curtain wall installation isn't like pipeline construction. Public projects don't move like private ones. Industrial contractors face different demons than residential builders.

But the pattern underneath is always the same. The fire starts small. Everyone ignores it. It grows. Someone finally calls for help. By then, you need someone who can work in the flames.

That's what we do. Assessment, restoration, and reignition. We stabilize the blaze. We figure out why it started. We rebuild so it doesn't happen again.

Not every construction company makes it. Some fires burn too hot for too long. But the ones that survive don't do it by accident. They do it because someone showed up who understood the business, moved with speed, and wasn't afraid of the heat.

New markets opened. Operations improved. Organizations stabilized.

That's the result we're after.

Because construction doesn't wait. And neither do we.

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