Owning and operating a residential contracting business presents unique challenges for contractors servicing the homeowner market. These challenges are unique because the industry has very little structured business training for residential contractors who provide services to a savvy, demanding and educated consumer. Contractors with formal business education or experience from the commercial construction industry tend to do better with today's homeowner consumer if they use and apply, industry best practices and systems.

If you are a residential contractor, who learned from the school of hard knocks, you are discovering that practices and methods that worked a few years ago don't work as well or at all, with today's new consumer. If you are formally educated on how to run a business, are your practices and methods aligned to work with today's new consumer?

As you finalize your business plan for 2009, ask yourself the following question and please share your insights with the readers by responding to this blog post.

What do you think are the top 5 challenges facing your residential contracting business?

P.S. Next post, 11 challenges for today's residential contractor.