So, some of you, approximately 150 or so, have done some work on SIC codes with the You Tube videos in the last blog. And approximately the same number have opened the master SIC/NAICS tables.
Now think about this – the You Tubes teach you how to find & use the numbers in the tables. Those tables are nearly impossible to get in the format provided in the blog. The industry does what is needed to suppress our ability to find them in internet searches. For some of the trades the words on the SIC table are in your constitution. It is also how jurisdiction is developed and disputed. All your contractors know about this because it is used for insurance and for banks – how risk is accessed, plus much more.
Then WHY haven’t market development reps in the trades been taught these? As we said, Reference USA and its sister company Info Group have extensive training guides.
Even if you just use Value on Display and top-down how do you know the market and especially the players lining up – mostly non-union in the near future. For those locals recruiting contractors from within then doing your market research helps you to target where those contractors can be most effective.
http://resource.referenceusa.com/training-guides/
Spend 5 hours on these and I’ll bet you get the vast info that is available for a good price.
And, for the record, Labor Rising gains nothing from any vendor we talk about, in any form – never have! Entities we recommend are always a consensus of what those who we’ve trained use.
Of course, there are some “know it all types” who say the market reps don’t need this level/type of information, or that the internationals provide good info. Really? Ask anyone who says that to give you specific times and dates of companies they organized. Because we at Labor Rising would say, “The system currently used by the trades to raise market share, in its entirety, sucks!” And the NET losing numbers of the trades have supported that statement for the last 30 years plus!
Here is a link to an old Excel spreadsheet used for our discussion today. These data bases and Excel spreadsheets are far more comprehensive today. However, we will only be able to scratch the surface here on what an organizer/MR can use these for. Call it Compression Zone(s) 101 research! You’ll come to understand what a Compression Zone is after you understand how to do market research.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmKOi71GyLcg13f5oGgTvbQT2Zvq?e=tGtYJe It is a Cement Masons market for our example. It is from 2014 – but will do for example purposes. Click cancel on window to get Excel table if window appears.
Understand that the research on the Excel spreadsheet reflects the areas requested by the organizer/MR. So, you will not see out of town contractors. To the extent we know them; both non-union and union, you’ll learn to add them and or expand the search parameters. That and the use of junior credit reports to zero in on all players in a market.
When you have command of what are basic and highly trainable skills of using your trades codes, then and only then, can you formulate and develop a comprehensive strategy to win.
200 to approximately 400 hours for a local/DC – and some serious research/training stands between you and a map of the market! This is the beginning of building the 1,000-piece puzzle. Sorting pieces and putting in the border. Moving info on the spreadsheet into specific categories which we discuss soon.
BTW – these Excels are drawn from multiple sources of info including business filings, government, taxes, courts and far more — database groups compete on quality of info not always on price.
- Of primary importance, the info is on an Excel spreadsheet. In our experience, most current organizers/MRs can’t use this format to do the needed work. So back to school, folks, or you’re going nowhere! Internationals could teach this, but they don’t. They could teach online for easy and cost-effective access, but they won’t. This is a powerful tool for organizers/MRs, as they could have real and factual info to then have a true discussion on why we do specific actions with the players in the construction world! But they can’t have that when the Internationals have done deals outside of the R&F’s view! Internationals are imposing deals on Western/Eastern Canada and throughout the U.S. IMPOSING! Structured market facts mean nothing to them!
This database is totally searchable, transferable, downloadable, shareable, mobile and so much more! Just the terms above, once you have competence with them, would create functioning structure. This is a big deal. Most organizers/MRs to this day use a yellow legal pad and/or BS proprietary internal system that was obsolete the day it was rolled out compared to the customizing abilities of Excel. So, huge bucks have been allocated to develop propriety garbage that is completely subjective and wastes time with meaningless data entry.
- Date of records – not on this training model. It will be in the first column of current spreadsheets. You will see dates are in current times on any searches you run.
- Name of contractors, which is a huge wealth of info in this column (as in almost all columns). Multiple listed names of contractors are not an error. When you do your homework, you will see all/some facets of families of companies. So, maintenance, service, fabrication, installation, etc. In columns R&S are sales volume for location and company total. Small companies are in revenue buckets, depending on markets for ease of data formation. So, look at Line 35 – $157,000 with 1 – 4 employees. You’ll see most/all companies in this lower revenue range with 1 – 4 employees typically in a revenue bucket. As companies get bigger actual dollars are listed. Revenue columns can help in so many ways, space does not permit anything close to a full discussion. When revenue doesn’t match with other sources – red flag. In upcoming blogs Labor Rising will show you how to get specific info to resolve any reg flags! Was it a joint venture or under a different name, etc.? You are building the puzzle – so when you put your strategy together, you’ll know what you are doing. All the BS stops once an organizer/MR knows how to use these features in Excel. Areas that have blank cells on the Excel, are red flags – maybe little or maybe big red flags. Incomplete info that doesn’t reconcile with sources are left blank.
- We get hard addresses not PO Boxes. Addresses, names, phone numbers and more can be cross researched. You will find union companies with overlapping info with non-union companies and far more. Can’t hide on an Excel! So, again all info like phone numbers, owners’ names, addresses, etc. – can be searched on Excel for any cells that have similar info in seconds.
- Employee numbers in Columns P&Q must be reconciled against what is seen in the field and on credit reports – real credit reports, not the reams of mostly worthless paper we get from our Internationals. So, for example, we see in reports that a company has 15 employees. However, in the field and discussion with workers we know they have approximately 26. How would you the reader account for the differences? Temp workers, 1099s, labor broker, illegal, cash and others. This plays into a fuller discussion of strategy of how to win with this company or send them packing. Also, for trades with licenses, expect to see names of union members with correct license numbers being used by the non-union for jobs. It is done all the time. Question – if a non-union job used fraudulent license numbers: what can an organizer/market rep do? This example market from 2014 does not have the menu items of license numbers. When you do your homework with these databases, you’ll freak out at how much and tailored the info you want is available. What other menu items are missing on this example compared to what is available? For example: what would the menu item of how many computer terminals a company has indicate to you?
- SIC code a company runs under is in Column T. Primary NAICS code is in Column Y. We can also check secondary codes – it is hard for companies/contractors to hide here. Banks, comp carriers, insurance and other companies do not like it when a company/contractor tries to manipulate these codes. You become the cop on the beat and the non/anti-union will know in short order you are. They are like bedrock by and large to them. We in the trades waste our time with government, with abuses of comp and misclassifications. Training from Labor Rising is effective in by-passing the BS and going right to the money and decision makers! Once we do effective and verifiable homework – things change. For example: Almost none of the locals we trained have ever done EXIT INTERVIEWS of stripped/recruited ex-non-union workers. My God, this is unbelievable! Structured EXIT interviews get needed and germane info on the company the non-union worked for. So, for example if they perhaps saw time sheets that listed workers as helpers who were in fact full-time workers on the job – big deal here. It is also firsthand direct testimony for misclassification & prevailing wage. There are so many items to learn in an exit interview on company and operations and relationships – AND WE DON’T DO THEM!?!
- Credit rating. Just a little thing – NOT! There are several types of hard-hitting credit reports. Internationals use the D&B report, which is good for risk formation – but they are hard to read without training (which the Internationals don’t provide) and many numbers don’t jive with real and full credit reports. Columns AA & AB provide real Experian credit reports as of date of records. This is 2 hours of instruction by itself and that’s just Credit 101: how to get; how to use; how to lay over other germane info. Just on this Excel – you the reader can get a glimpse of who a player is, and which companies are noise, based on their credit score. “NOISE” are contractors/companies that can’t stand on their own. It is the majority of those we try to organize – which is a big reason we fail. NOTE: a credit score of “B” IS NOT GOOD! A score of “U” – the trades win. Our guys and gals don’t know a given company and maybe even an entire market is vulnerable, and the company slides by. Most of our organizers/DCs have never run or seen genuine credit reports. So how the frick are you going to understand strengths/weaknesses? Pecking order. Creditors, payments, loans, bankruptcies and so much more! We in the trades are so underprepared to take on market development. We at Labor Rising know it is by the INTERNATIONALS’ design. They can teach this uniformly across their trade. But, THEY DON’T! Our guys/gals are not the problem, how are they expected to win? Show a written developed plan, not a GD BS mission statement. Our troops are not taught to do this across true market development.
- Many other aspects of the Excel spreadsheet we haven’t even touched on – germane to market development/organizing.
For example, on the Excel you see hundreds of small contractors. So, look thru the 326 lines on the example. Noise to the greater market. Phones are usually cells on the Excel, and most are working numbers. Organizers who come thru the program place an introductory call and then stay linked with a mass texting program. In some of these workers’ outreach/organizing campaigns, an organizer can talk to scores to hundreds on a Go 2 Meeting or Join Me video phone conference. Send along a link and small training video and many non-union workers throughout a region/state can be connected. When questions are asked, downloads with relevant responses and important info can be sent to them and all participants. Average organizer/MR cannot do this because of a lack of training, lack of info and lack of will in many cases.
So, in today’s blog a very small overview of some of the research needed to get to the next phase, which is BUILDING a SPECIFIC AND PRECISE COMPRESSION ZONE(s)! We will present that in our next blog.
A Compression Zone(s) is a hard target with actual contractors’ names to work on. It is researching that group’s relationships and establishing an order of targeted market development that has an excellent chance of winning. It takes non-union contractors and puts them in a situation to sign a CBA, regardless if they want to or not. It also identifies hard core anti-union contractors and their relationships to either limit or collapse their business model, and by extension, their work.
“if you see a good fight – get in it”
Danny L Caliendo
Organizer
Labor Rising/Labor Combat
