Smaller construction firms often chase a reputation for being easy to work with, but that invites people to exploit them. Build a reputation for professionalism and competence instead. Being known as awesome and knowledgeable gets you respect, not walked over.
Chapters
Here's the problem with reputation in the construction industry. So many companies are so focused on having a good reputation, and that is totally right. You really should focus on having a good reputation. But younger builders, smaller construction companies, want to have a reputation of being easy to deal with. And in my language, from the contracts world, that's actually easy to walk over. Okay, you don't have a good reputation, you have a reputation of being green, you don't really know what you're doing, we're going to take advantage of you. What you want to have a good reputation is a reputation for being professional. Those guys are awesome, but they know their shit. That's what you want to have a reputation for.