MarkWester has launched Rising Trade Partners, a year-long mentoring program for small and emerging trade contractors. Each participating firm is paired with MarkWester estimators, project managers and safety leaders who work with its owners on the parts of the business that are hardest to learn on the job.
Why we started it
Good trade contractors are the backbone of every project we build. Many of the best young firms we meet are run by skilled craftspeople who know their work cold but have had little chance to learn how a large general contractor buys, schedules and manages a job. They lose bids they could win and take on work that strains their cash flow. Some never bid our work at all because the process looks closed.
We would rather open it up. A deeper bench of capable, well-run trade partners means more competitive bids for our clients, more local hiring on our projects and stronger firms in the communities where we build.
What the program covers
The curriculum follows the life of a project, from the bid to the final payment. Sessions are led by the MarkWester people who do that work every day.
- Estimating and bidding. Reading bid documents, building a takeoff, writing clear qualifications and pricing risk without leaving money on the table.
- Safety programs. Writing a site-specific safety plan, running pre-task planning and toolbox talks, and building a safety culture that holds up on a large site.
- Project controls. Schedules of values, pay applications, change order pricing and the documentation that gets a firm paid on time.
- Scheduling and coordination. How a three-week lookahead works, how to read a coordinated model and how to protect your crew's productivity on a busy job.
- Business fundamentals. Cash flow, bonding readiness, insurance and the steps to qualify as a subcontractor on larger work.
Each firm also gets a dedicated mentor from our operations team for one-on-one sessions through the year. Where it fits, participants are invited to walk active MarkWester sites and sit in on preconstruction and coordination meetings to see the process from the inside.
We are not teaching anyone their trade. We are sharing the paperwork, the planning and the habits that let a good crew grow into a good company.
Director of trade partner development, MarkWester
How to get involved
Rising Trade Partners is open to small, emerging and disadvantaged business enterprises in the trades we buy most often, including concrete, steel, MEP, finishes and sitework. Completing the program does not guarantee work, but graduates come out ready to prequalify and bid MarkWester projects on equal footing. Firms interested in a future cohort can reach our trade partner team through the contact page.
