Episode 4: Alex Dunn Levelset
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Power To The Trades 4 Alex Dunn Levelset
On this week’s episode of the #PowerToTheTrades podcast, our host Rob McKinney speaks with Alex Dunn from Levelset.
This eSUB podcast fourth episode features Alex Dunn, who runs the content team at Levelset. He explains his position by saying “In essence, we exist to help contractors manage the stress and the complexity related to payments and eventually to help them get paid faster. Millions and millions of dollars every single day of liens are filed on construction projects, which says that people just don’t get paid. There’s a lot of confusion over the payment process and we just try to make it a lot simpler for people in a number of ways. We have tons of great content for people as resources as well as software to help out. We are always looking for new ways to help people and of course, get them paid faster.”
eSUB Podcast Fourth Episode Recap
Rob begins the conversation discussing payment in the construction industry. It is huge to get people the money that they are due and get it done faster. It is not uncommon to hear that there’s delayed payment and arguments over hours worked and such.
Alex discusses how there are many reasons why payment doesn’t happen, and a lot of times the issue is paperwork or lack of communication. “We are always trying to get to the bottom of that and help with the communication and collaboration process.”
8:20-8:40 Alex: “one thing is that we are really about the elements of collaboration and communication. How do you get people to communicate around what they’re doing? You know on the job site, you don’t have the painter come before the drywall is installed. There is a sequence of events and some collaboration involved so that it all can work together nicely. We see a much bigger gap in communication and collaboration in the back office of construction. We really try to help educate people on the various elements off the job, because it is a very complex way of payment.”
Rob poses the question, “What are some ways you think we can help empower our contractors better, in the upcoming year, 2021?”
9:05-9:17 “One thing people can do in 2021, is start sending project awareness letters or preliminary notices even when they aren’t required. When you send these, even if they aren’t required, it helps people understand that there will be an invoice from a specific person when the work will be completed, and when you are going to need to make that payment by.” -Dunn
Rob adds that he was taught in the field that if you didn’t document it, you didn’t do it. But Alex’s perspective is more to document well, and document often, and then share that documentation.
How can we improve the industry?
Lastly, Rob wants to know what Alex thinks about how we can help move the industry forward in the coming year to better our trade contractor partners.
There is always a lot of room for improvement. 2020 has been a doozy, to say the least. And we have seen a huge amount of bankruptcies and project fires around payment, and things not getting done, and delayed payments. We want to keep these things that are bad at bay, and you know in order to do that we need to cross the t’s and dot the I’s.
14:00-14:08 “It starts with learning and educating yourself on what tools you have available and seeking ways to communicate and collaborate on these projects.”-Dunn
Let’s continue to bring #PowerToTheTrades!
eSUB’s cloud-based project management solution was designed specifically for construction subcontractors, giving them a real-time view and account of their workers, enabling efficient work management within an easy-to-use platform.
If you would like to improve your management processes so you don’t experience construction labor shortages, schedule a demo to learn how eSUB can help.
