How Contractors Can Eliminate Chaos and Boost Clarity

One client doing $42 million a year, he notes, was spending around $22,000 annually just on the hard costs of writing checks. “And that doesn’t even include the risk of paper check fraud,” Beebe adds. 

For contractors strapped for time, he suggests a simple first step: print out profit and loss statements from the past three years. Spread them on the table and compare categories like cost of goods sold. “If you have big fluctuations, you have to naturally ask why,” he says. That exercise alone can reveal leaks and spark better financial discipline. 

THE ADDICTION TO CHAOS 

Beebe has worked with enough contractors to notice a pattern. He says that many are quietly addicted to chaos. Some even confess they wouldn’t know what to do without it. “That’s a scary place to be,” he says. 

The first step, as with any addiction, is recognizing it. To break free, Beebe encourages owners to start with a sheet of paper. Write down everything you do in four categories: marketing, sales, operations and administration. From there, clarity begins to build. 

“Michael Gerber said, ‘If you don’t write it down, you don’t own it’. We go one step further: if you don’t write it down, it doesn’t exist,” he explains. 

That simple act of documenting processes lightens the mental load. Instead of tasks bouncing around in your head on a Saturday night, you know they’re written down, ready to be reviewed. It also creates a foundation for training employees consistently, something Beebe says contractors often skip.  

PEOPLE AND CULTURE: PLANTING THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS

Culture isn’t just a buzzword, Beebe argues, it’s biology. Like whiskey, what you taste at the end is determined by what ingredients went into the barrel at the beginning. “If you want to know what was in the mash bill of that whiskey, just taste the whiskey,” he said. “Culture is the same way,” he says. 

Good culture doesn’t come from beanbag chairs or ping pong tables. It comes from intentional practices repeated over time. Beebe calls them the “RPMs of leadership: repetition, predictability and meaning.” Weekly agenda-driven meetings, ongoing training on documented processes and proactive check-ins all reinforce the culture contractors want to build.

And leadership requires ownership. “It may not be your fault, but it is your responsibility,” Beebe emphasizes. That mindset shift helps contractors move from frustration to action, creating workplaces where employees feel valued and connected. 

LEADERSHIP, DELEGATION, AND THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Delegation is one of the hardest skills for contractors, especially those who built their companies with their own hands. Beebe often sees leaders resist writing out their roles, thinking it’s beneath them. But without clarity, delegation never happens. “If you’re not willing to do the child’s work, you will continue to act like a child,” he says bluntly.

Weekly meetings help enforce accountability. The most important question? “Did you do it?” If the answer is yes, move forward. If the answer is no, explore why the task lost its importance. That rhythm creates urgency and keeps chaos from creeping back in.

“Healthy leadership is when you ask the right question at the right time,” Beebe says.  

Clarity isn’t just good for the owner, it’s what employees crave. “We’ve had people leave high-paying jobs to take a lower salary because they wanted more clarity,” he shares.

As contractors prepare for the next season of growth, Beebe’s advice is to slow down long enough to write things down, meet regularly and plant the right ingredients. Do that, and you may find yourself with a better culture, a stronger business and a clearer path forward.