One-Day Business Workshop for Contractors

Where Does Profit Really Come From?
Spoiler alert: It's not where you think.

You can work hard and make a living, maybe even a very good living, without learning how a contracting business actually produces profit.

Without knowing how profit is actually produced, it is assured that you will work too hard for too little for too long. Real, life changing profit levels will not come from growing revenues only, not from doing more jobs and never from cutting costs. This powerful workshop for owners and senior managers of contracting companies is guaranteed to reshape your understanding and sharpen your focus about how to improve your profits right now!

What topics does the workshop cover?

  • Find out where your business model is off-target and how to correct it so profits flow more easily
  • We will bust two contractor myths that are causing stress while stealing your profits
  • Powerful techniques to differentiate your business from the competition
  • Learn how much impact your mix of job types has on your profitability
  • Learn how to stop competing on price
  • Discover how much bottom line cash is available now by taking 3 easy-to-implement small changes
  • Helpful tips for hiring skilled employees
  • Learn how to manage the boom and bust economic cycles
Find a workshop near you »

Where have all the employees gone? Will this workshop help?

Yes. We know there are times when it seems impossible to fill necessary positions with quality candidates—or any candidates at all. The Aspire Institute for Contractors is not a recruiting or employment agency but a business consultancy that has one purpose: to help contractors become more prosperous. We have helped thousands of small businesses like yours with all aspects of their business, with an unwavering focus on increasing real profits. In that process, we have helped many, many businesses find and secure the right people, even in very tough recruiting markets. Much of the hiring and team building challenge is linked to the overall health of your company. If your cash flow is tight and your profits are small, the job of attracting and maintaining a team is made far more difficult, if not impossible. So good hiring must start with a solid business footing—that is what we do at Aspire.

Want help with hiring now? Download the FREE Aspire Hiring Kit »

Find a workshop near you »

I’m too busy/not busy enough. Will this workshop help?

Been in the construction biz long? If yes, then you have survived both Boom and Bust times. Did you enjoy either? Certainly periods with an abundance of work are preferable to periods of work shortage. However, even the go-go times of a Boom period often exact a high price on the contractor’s quality of life with long hours, stress and chaos, with less banked results than the available potential gains. In this workshop, we won’t repeat recycled advice such as be sure to save money during the good times, but instead to dig down to a deeper, more granular level. We will explore how the cycles work so that contractors can chart a better course through them. You can minimize the negative impact of these cycles, maintaining a healthy balance in income and workload throughout each part of the Boom and Bust cycles. We can help.

You can beat the boom/bust cycle. Learn how in our FREE whitepaper »

Find a workshop near you »

What else will this workshop do for my business?

We guarantee this workshop will increase your annual bottom line by at least $30,000-$150,000 (depending on your business size). In addition the workshop includes a professional profit analysis of your business and a one-on-one visit with one of our coaches so we can help you go over what’s working, what’s not and what to do about it to earn what you deserve.

Find a workshop near you »

Where DOES profit really come from?

To find out, head over to our workshop calendar and sign up for the event nearest to you. We look forward to seeing you there!

Find a workshop near you »

Workshop Presenters

Ken Brookings

Ken Brookings

Aspire Founder and CEO

Ken is the son of a painting contractor. After nearly a decade of undergraduate and graduate level business education Ken became a Vice President with a Fortune 500 company before the age of thirty. After that company was acquired Ken founded and sold two other successful businesses before beginning his consulting career. Focusing on high level strategic and operational business consulting Ken worked with the senior management teams of clients including Apple Computer, Texas Instruments, Goodyear, British Petroleum, Firestone, SPX and other major corporations.

Ken then changed up everything, “The high-level corporate consulting business was interesting and financially rewarding but something important was missing. The work, no matter how important didn’t really change anybody’s life. It just didn’t seem to matter. My head and maybe my ego led me to this kind of glamorous work – but it was my heart that brought me back to the kind of work that matters.”

Ken repurposed the successful business that he had built to focus entirely on helping small businesses. According to Ken, “The heroes of the business world are the small business owners and managers. They do the real work and produce the most jobs in this country. Sadly, they seldom get the rewards that their honest work deserves. My focus became, and remains, to change that.”

Ken has been a featured speaker at countless industry events to tens of thousands of business owners. He has written for and been featured on the cover of trade publications and holds four industry related patents.

For over 20 years now Ken’s company, The Aspire Institute, has focused on the two business segments in which Ken grew up; the automotive service industry, and construction contractors. Thousands of business owners and their families are more prosperous today through Aspire’s work.

Fred Farris

Fred Farris

Senior Vice President

Fred grew up in the Automotive Service Business. He acquired a small, struggling service provider and promptly partnered with Aspire to help turn it around. Fred then turned this small struggling auto service business into one of the most successful businesses in the country in record time. He sold that business and joined Aspire as an instructor and eventually took the role of General Manager of Aspire’s automotive businesses. Fred has taught hundreds of auto service businesses on a one-to-one basis and have presented to thousands of shop owners in groups large and small all over the United States.

Fred’s passion is to see the lives of small business owners get easier and build real wealth.

Brent Baker

Brent Baker

Director of Coaching and Curriculum

After a great 40-year run as a premier builder of high-end custom homes, large-scale remodeler and commercial contractor, Brent sold Baker Construction to his long-time partner to become the head of The Aspire Institute’s coaching team. Brent has a real passion for helping other contractors find their dreams by reshaping their businesses.

After graduating with a degree in Psychology from Sonoma State University, Brent married his wife Laura and began his career as a woodworker. Eventually Brent and Laura were able to buy a ranch in Idaho where they raised their four children and today that ranch is alive with visits from their four grandchildren. They bought a home in the South of France where they spend a couple of months every year. Community service has been another passion for Brent. Just a fraction of Brent’s contribution to his community include; a gubernatorial appointment to a water quality board, founder of an Educational Research and Development Organization, Chairman of his county’s school district board of trustees and Commissioner of his local fire district. Brent also co-founded a high school residential carpentry program and designed and implemented an experimental youth job skills training program.

As a senior manager at Aspire, Brent designs educational programs as well as develops and manages a team of talented construction industry business coaches.

Reserve Your Seat

Sign up now for our one-day workshop
at a venue near you:

San Luis Obispo, CA Aug 8, 2017

Medford, OR Aug 15, 2017

Palm Springs, CA Aug 22, 2017

Portland, OR Sep 12, 2017

Spokane Valley, WA Sep 19, 2017

Kennewick, WA Sep 26, 2017

See our full workshop calendar
and locations »

My biggest interest in joining the Aspire program was to become more profitable. With the new tools, estimating concepts and new ways of thinking, we have become more profitable. We see that trend continuing as we implement even more! Plugging the profit leaks with the “Big 6” has helped my ...
Mark Magid of Below Magid Construction
The Business Mastery Program has helped me with a sense of having a shared burden with the strategic planning in my business. And the Strategic Plan prepared by my coaches is head and shoulders above what I was expecting. It offers a game plan for the future with ways for ...
Ben Gebhardt of Blue Sound Construction
These events have given me the tools, techniques, and structure I needed to accomplish the sales I wanted. They drastically outshine the competition. A class held by Ken and his team is the best single day you can spend on your business.
Lee Lizarraga
The best part about the program is the guidance and continual reassurance.
Jason Wood
Our initial cash lift was immediate, it was huge and honestly it brought us out of debt within a couple of months. I really have a lot of faith in these guys.
Steve Smith of DSS Custom Homes
prev next