Would You Build A Project This Way?
 Turn Your Business From Daily Fire Drill Into A Planned Build

For a lot of small contractors, year end is a blur of job wraps, customer calls, and “let’s talk after the holidays.” The work gets done, the trucks keep rolling, and the bank account more or less works out.

What usually does not happen is a deliberate pause to ask: Is this an actual business plan, or are we just getting by?

You already have a very specific planning process for every project you build. You know what the finished job should look like, how long it will take, what it will cost, and when materials and subs need to show up. The biggest project you are working on is your business. Do you know what it looks like when you are “done”? Do you know how long it will take, what it will cost, and when you need to invest in people, equipment, and systems? Or are you just winging it, putting out fires and hoping it all works out?

A simple year-end review can move you from “hope it works out again next year” to running the company on purpose. That review does not need to be complicated, but it does need to be intentional. This is exactly the kind of conversation where a business-minded attorney can sit next to you and help translate what the numbers and patterns mean for contracts, risk, and structure, not just taxes.

Next, look at your people and policies. You already know about the federal FMLA and your own PTO practices. On top of that, Minnesota’s new paid family and medical leave program goes live January 1, 2026. That change will sit alongside everything you already do with vacation, sick time, and short-term disability. Year end is the time to decide how you want all of those parts to work together and how you will explain it to your team. Your attorney can help you line up handbooks, offer letters, and leave policies so you do not have one story in writing and another story in practice.

Retirement and benefits deserve the same kind of attention. Minnesota’s Secure Choice Retirement Program, also starting in 2026, will require most employers with five or more employees to either enroll in the state program or file an exemption because they already offer a qualifying plan. That is not just a compliance box; it is a strategic choice. Do you want the state default, or do you want a plan that better fits how you hire, retain, and reward people? Your attorney can coordinate with your CPA, benefits provider, and payroll company so the decision you make actually gets implemented correctly and documented cleanly.

Subcontractors are another quiet pressure point. Many owners have a mix of long-time subs, newer crews, and a file system that lives partly in a metal cabinet and partly in someone’s email. Year end is the perfect time to bring order to that chaos. That means current agreements that match how you really work today, updated insurance certificates, verified licenses and entity registrations, and a clear sense of who is actually in good standing. A good construction or business attorney can help you tune your subcontractor agreement, set minimum requirements, and build a simple process so your team is not guessing on risk job by job.

Finally, pull all of this together into a short, practical plan for next year. Choose a few priorities: better cash flow, fewer problem jobs, stronger bench of employees and subs, cleaner compliance calendar. Then schedule when each piece gets attention instead of waiting for the next crisis to force it onto your desk. This is where using your attorney as part of your management team pays off. The right advisor is not there only when something breaks; they help you decide what to fix before it does.

To make this easier, we have pulled the core action items into a one-page checklist you can print and work through with your leadership team.

If you want help working through that checklist, use it as an agenda for a year-end strategy meeting with your attorney. Treat that meeting the way you treat planning a major project: invest the time up front so the build goes smoother, the surprises are smaller, and the end result actually looks like the picture in your head.

Download Year-End Business Checklist