· ai
How I run a building company with a team of AI bots (and how to set up yours)
How Davies Construction runs an org chart of AI bots in Grok Bot, the rules that keep a person in charge, and how a builder can set it up this week.
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All writing→25 posts filed under this topic.
· construction
Fixed Price vs Cost-Plus: Which Contract Is Right for Your Build?
Fixed price or cost-plus shapes your risk, your cash flow and your client relationship. A builder's honest guide to picking the right one for each job.
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The AI Setups Builders Actually Ask Me For
I run AI calls and 1-on-1s with builders every week. The same five setups come up again and again. Here are the ones that genuinely move the needle.
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The Weekly Relationship Check-In
Inside our Inner Circle, builders work on their marriages with the same structure they bring to their jobs. The weekly check-in, and why it matters.
Read→· principles
Adapt or Get Left Behind
Principle eight: adapt and evolve. The industry doesn't owe your business model a living. I've reinvented mine more than once, and it's still here.
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I Built a Full Business Case in an Afternoon with AI
A mate asked me to sanity-check buying a bigger farm. In an afternoon, just talking, AI produced a lender-ready business case. What that means for you.
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Get Clear, Then Decide
Principle ten: clarity plus decision is the bridge from knowing to doing. The two questions I ask every stuck builder, and the picture that moves them.
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Give More Than You Take
Principle nine: contribution isn't the reward for success, it's the cause of it. Everything I've given away freely has come back bigger. Every single time.
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If You're Not Growing, You're Dying
Principle four: continuous growth. A business is an organism, growing or dying, never parked. Why I'm still the student in every room and so should you.
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Master Your State, Master Your Business
Principle five: your body, focus and self-talk decide the quality of every call you make. I used to manage mine with drinks under the desk. What changed.
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Move Before You're Ready
Principle two: massive action. Thirteen years ago I was broke in New Zealand with a young family, and I bought a franchise for one reason. Not the brand.
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No One Is Coming to Save You
Principle one: victimhood is a trap and ownership is freedom. I started a building business in the GFC. Nobody was coming. That turned out to be the gift.
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Proximity Is Power
Principle seven: you become the rooms you sit in. Why I've paid to be the dumbest bloke in the room for twenty years, and why builders don't build alone.
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See Your Business as It Really Is
Principle three: embrace reality, then change it. Most builders run on hope and gut feel. The numbers don't care about feelings, and that's their gift.
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The 10 Principles I'd Build Any Business On
Twenty years of seminars, books, coaches and expensive mistakes, boiled down to ten principles that hold up in any business. The list I run mine on.
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You Don't Lack Time. You Lack Focus.
Principle six: every business has one constraint, not ten. The message I take on every stage: find your weakest link and put everything on it.
Read→· ai
Don't Confuse Fun with Progress on AI
An honest one: I lose hours in AI that move nothing. The test that separates AI work from AI play, and why builders can't afford to sit this race out.
Read→· construction
I Grew to 20 People, Then Went Back to 6
I make as much money with 6 on site as I did with 20-plus, with a fraction of the stress. On growth, the right size for a building company, and enough.
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The One-Page Dashboard I Run My Companies On
You cannot run a business off a gut feeling and a full inbox. Here is the one-page CEO dashboard and weekly rhythm I use to run my companies.
Read→· construction
Talk Through Your Reasoning Out Loud
The cheapest training program in building: say your reasoning out loud every time you make a decision, until your team makes your decisions without you.
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Two Pipelines: Leads In, People In
Builders run a leads pipeline and forget the other one: people. Why you should recruit and win work in parallel, and how to build a hiring pipeline.
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One Job, One Owner: Structuring Project Management as You Grow
As a building company grows, everything funnels through the owner and stalls. The project management structure I coach builders through to break that.
Read→· construction
Know Your Numbers: How to Actually Price a Building Job
Most builders are great on the tools and shaky on the numbers. How to work out your true cost of an hour, recover overheads, and stop leaving money behind.
Read→· ai
Claude for Builders: Max vs Team, and When to Make the Jump
A plain-English, GST-included breakdown for small builders weighing a personal Max plan against a Team account on Claude, and when to make the jump.
Read→· business
The Real Reason Business Owners Should Take Holidays (and Why We Took Builders to Dubai & Munich)
Taking builders on a Future Builder Experience to Dubai and Munich — why intentional time away from your business is a strategic move, not a luxury.
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