Most contractors hate change – enough to do a lot of things before they even try one change! The amazing thing is that business is changing every day. It is possible to see a business environment do a complete change in a very short time. One of the changes that has been occurring since the early 1990’s has been the evolution of TPA’s (Third Party Administrators) with USAA approaching Paul Davis to do work for their policyholders when they experienced a loss within the USAA System. Their efforts grew into what they called PRISM into what you know now as Crawford Connection. As more and more programs evolved, other entities began to start their own programs. They have grown and now represent a large part of the losses being handled by TPA’s in place of the insurance companies handling the losses with their own employees. The programs are aggressively seeking out more and more work from insurance companies.
Generally speaking, a general contractor handles all jobs that need to be handled for clients that need work done. In a lot of areas, the four major subcontractors (electrical, HVAC, plumbing, roofing), have their own construction requirements for their specific disciplines. As a result, rather than the general contractor getting licensed to do the work, they hire the subs to do the work. When a general contractor subs out that part of the job, he needs to supervise the job and ensure that the flow of the job goes correctly, efficiently and effectively. When the job is done, the general contractor then warranty’s the work and repairs anything that was done for a certain period of time. For this effort and responsibility, the general contractor is paid a 10% overhead and a 10% profit.