or contractor seeking to move up and out on your own, first attach

yourself to a veteran. The factors in cost estimation and project

scheduling are too numerous to memorize. They form a process that

must be intuited. It is lore that only the experienced can pass on.

"Frequently,"

says Seigel, "they can be off by up to 30 percent "Architects

are hired to envision practical endings, not to foresee problems.

When that $70 a yard concrete can not be pumped up, as planned, but

must be carried up by men and mixed on site, costs change. Like the

square-foot estimate, the architect’s estimate is a useful tool, but

the owner should not bet down to his last dollar on it.

Unions bury a banquet of costs beyond the standard higher labor price.

Seigel’s 280-person crew building the Staten Island Stadium is union,

entailing both a teamster and a maintenance foreman whose sole job

is to guard union rules. They are salaried, he says, but totally

unproductive.

Add in the additional lawyer fees, grievance costs, and paperwork

time that come with union labor, Seigel says, and then balance the

quality of worker.

the greatest forgotten factor in cost estimating and scheduling is

private versus governmental projects. "This especially hurts the

little guy," says Seigel. "He’s got a pickup truck full of

tools and his wife keeping the books in the basement. He latches onto

a municipal bid because he can count on getting paid definitely, if

not promptly. But oh, what he doesn’t realize is that in New York,

we frequently ran 35 percent over private costs."

First, the government invariably over designs. That safety factor

of 1.7 built into a private office structure, rises to 3 or even 6

for a public monument intended for a century of high traffic use.

Complying with laws also ups the cost of government projects. Every

aspect must be doubly inspected and the inspector’s reaction time

is invariably slower than promised. You also may have to consider

the cost of the inspector’s vehicle, his phone, fax and radio costs,

even his equipped on-site trailer. But the real sinker, Seigel says,

is the paperwork. All the government forms can inundate a large

contractor

and just bankrupt a small one. Here again is where experience will

help make an realistic bid.

alone," says Seigel. "Managing and estimating requires a team

attitude. It cannot be `my side versus the other side.’ It takes a

great deal of diplomacy." Then, he adds, with a laugh, "of

course if that doesn’t work, it always helps to have a strong right

hook."

— Bart Jackson

Top Of Page
Minority Chamber: Reaching Out

John Harmon, businessman and president of the

Metropolitan Trenton African American Chamber of Commerce, started

his career as the first African American management trainee at the

Bowery Savings Bank in Manhattan. "I was up against 150

candidates,"

he recalls. "Coming from Trenton, it was somewhat

intimidating."

Piloting MTAACC, an organization that was founded in 1997 and shot

up from 25 members to 90 last year, Harmon draws upon his own

experience.

"Minority businesses need to get out of their comfort zones,"

he says. Mainstream businesses in Central Jersey are receptive to

their minority counterparts, he finds, but it sometimes takes gentle

encouragement from MTAACC to jog minority business owners to get out

and reach for the opportunities.

On Wednesday, February 28, at 6 p.m. MTAACC is honoring prominent

minority leaders at the Princeton Hyatt. The keynote speech,

"Achieving

Success Together," is by Charlie Allen, chairman of the

American Automobile Association. Cost: $75. Call 609-393-5933. The

honorees are Reverend Dr. DeForest B. Soaries Jr., secretary

of state; James B. Golden Jr., director of the Trenton Police

Department; Larry Sheffield, Universal Consulting Group; Jerri

L. Morrison, Young Scholars Institute; and Rocky Peterson,

an attorney with Hill Wallack.

Top Of Page
For Coaches, Results Count

Coaching differs from consulting in that the business

coach sticks around, working with clients until they reach their

goals.

Helene Mazur, business coach and owner of Princeton Performance

Dynamics, says coaching is a lot like strategic planning. "We

don’t come in and tell you what to do," Mazur says. "We ask

a lot of questions so that you can crystallize your goals."

Typically working on goal setting, attitude, skills development,

coaches

remain with clients as they test their new resolve in the real world.

Also different from training, where lessons are learned, and then

"the phone rings four times and you’re back where you

started,"

coaching sets up accountability standards, Mazur says. Clients not

only set goals, but work with their coaches to measure progress toward

reaching them.

Mazur worked in corporate America for financial services companies,

including Merrill Lynch, Bankers Trust, and Dean Witter Reynolds,

for 22 years before starting her business last year. Her

responsibilities

included training, sales and marketing, and running large

administrative

groups. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the State

University of New York at Albany (Class of 1979) and an MBA in finance

from New York University. A Princeton resident, and the mother of

seven-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter, Mazur is married

to a project manager for Delsys Pharmaceutical.

On Wednesday, February 28, at 7:45 a.m. Mazur speaks to the Princeton

YMCA Business/Professional Women at the Nassau Club on "What

Business

Coaching Can Do for You." Cost: $22.50. Call 609-497-2100.

While Mazur specializes in business coaching, Susan Levinson,

founder of Results Life Coaching in Metuchen, tackles every aspect

of clients’ lives, including relationships, career goals, volunteer

objectives, and the accomplishment of creative work. Levinson does

personal coaching and trains and certifies coaches.

The next training course begins on Monday, March 19, for those who

want to be trained through teleconferences and on March 20 for those

who prefer in-person training. The fee is $2,500 for the three-month,

part-time course. There is also a requirement that students be

coached,

before or during the course, at a cost that ranges from $900 to

$1,500.

Call 732-494-4494 or find information at www.resultslifecoaching.com

Levinson, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brandeis and

a master’s degree in computer science from Stevens Institute, has

worked for a number of telecommunications companies, including AT&T,

Bellcore and, most recently, Bridgewater-based DSET. She was in

Australia

working on a telecom project in 1998 when she met David and Lisa Rock,

the couple who founded Results Life Coaching. "I was making a

lot of money, but I wasn’t satisfied," Levinson says. Having

coached

as a volunteer, she was intrigued by the idea of making a living as

a coach.

Two years ago Levinson opened the first American franchise of Results

Life Coaching. Many of the coaches Levinson has trained come from

Information Technology backgrounds. "Maybe after a while, they’re

not satisfied with the work," she says. Others taking the course

include the national marketing manager for a fragrance company, a

pharmaceutical sales rep, a retired human resources professional,

a massage therapist, an accountant, and two nurses. Some graduates

coach full time and some part time. Levinson says a coach with 12

clients could gross $6,000 a month working approximately 18 hours

a week.

Coaches pay Results Life Coaching a license fee for which they receive

marketing assistance, an Internet presence, and instruction materials.

Coaching students are taught listening skills and the art of asking

good questions, Levinson says. They use this training to help clients

clarify their goals and break them down into manageable pieces. Each

client is asked to state three goals in his first session.

A stock broker Levinson recently worked with wanted to add 33 new

clients, write a non-discrimination plan for a non-profit where he

volunteered, and repair his relationship with his wife and children.

At the beginning of the coaching sessions, the business goal was the

most important to him, Levinson said. But as time went on, he focused

more on his family. When his coaching session ended, the stock broker

had finished writing up his non-discrimination plan, decided to revamp

his business, and reported a vastly improved family situation.

Coaching works, Levinson says, because it holds clients accountable.

"We don’t let them talk themselves out of their goals," she

says.

Corrections or additions?

— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.