Planning for financial success with Linda Sterrett

Recently, the Briq team was lucky enough to sit down with Linda Sterrett, Controller at Elder Construction. We talked with her about:

• The importance of innovation
• Planning for financial success
• Succession planning
• Preparing your team for the future
• And more!
  

Let’s dig in.

Please give us a bit of background on yourself, your history in construction, and where you are now with Elder.

“Right now I'm the controller at Elder Construction. We're a medium to small general contractor. I started out in construction, doing payables for a builder who did luxury townhomes and condos on golf courses in the Chicagoland area. It gave me the bug for construction. I loved seeing things go up and obviously, I am not the person to put them up. Our field staff has determined that yes, I can come visit the site, but I'm not allowed to do anything.

This is my way of contributing to building things. It's fun to drive past somewhere and say, ‘Oh, we built that.’ We're very much a team here. So, that's my part: running numbers.  I landed at Elder eight years ago when the only accounting person was me. And now I have a couple of people working with me, helping me out, and we’re just chugging away at it.” -LS

We know you to be a very tech-forward leader. Why do you think it's important for contractors to be innovative when it comes to new tech?

“I think we learned a lot when everybody went remote. We had put our field guys in a pretty good position. Every field person has a company phone. Every superintendent has an iPad. Some of them have iPads and laptops. Our lead carpenters are going more and more to tech.

The communication between the field and the office is so important. It's so important that we get real-time information into the office because we can't really help them as an office if we don't know what they're dealing with out in the field. That was a big step for us, but now more and more with the BIM in the VDC, it's huge for our customers to be able to actually see what we're talking about. Eliminating the clashes between the MEP guys is very important... 

Technology has saved our clients a lot of money. It's saved us a lot of headaches. One of the things that Elder has always believed is we're not building them a building. A lot of our clients are doctors, vets, medical clinics, tenant improvements for new stores — we're building these people's dreams. We're not just building them a building.” -LS

How can you help plan for the future financial success of your company, beyond your career? 

“My goal is to take my department and make it as efficient as it can be so that we can be creative in finding solutions for our people. How can we make their life easier? How can we make the integration between the office, the ops, and the accounting? How can we make that as seamless and smooth as possible so that it relieves some of the pressure and gives them an opportunity to use their brains for something other than ‘What is the process, and why is it so clunky, and why are my numbers not coming through fast enough?’ That's kind of where I am with the technology is, how can I find the right technology that will match what we need? I mean, there's all sorts of great technology out there, but if it's not going to work smoothly, how do we make it? How do we smooth it out? How do we make it a little more friendly to use?” -LS

What kind of people/candidates do you look for in construction and in finance when looking for a replacement or someone to ‘take over’?

“I'm going to be looking for somebody who's flexible, who's very forward-thinking. Just because it's working really smoothly now doesn't mean it's the most effective way down the road. I'm also looking for somebody who's passionate about being on a team, understanding that it's not just you. It's not just your department that has to work, but you have to work with everybody else. Accounting affects everybody directly. I mean between payroll, and timecards, and field reports, and all of that, we touch everyone directly. It's important for our company that you understand that. 

You have to be able to work as a team. You have to be flexible. You have to always be asking that ‘what-if’ question of how can we make it better? Just 1% better. It doesn't take a lot. We have to be thinking that way all the time though. If we can build it better, how do we build it better? How do we make the customer experience better?” -LS

And lastly, could you offer some words of wisdom on handing over the financial keys to a company?

It's going to be weird because like I said, I designed this department. It is my baby. I think the biggest key is going to be preparing the team, making sure that they know our plan. We've got to get it all in order and then just find the right person. Finding the person that can understand what we're doing, understand why we do what we do, why we always ask the ‘what if’ questions? And then when I come back to visit, just have it be so much better than I left it. I want to find the right person that can take and build on what I've done.” -LS 

Thank you!

The Briq Team would like to thank Linda Sterrett for joining us and Elder Construction for their partnership!

Briq is a platform built to optimize how construction businesses are run Briq unifies your financial workflows, making them more efficient, accurate, and timely. Automating workflows, consolidating financial data, and enabling real-time reporting lets construction business owners make efficient and effective financial decisions. Set up a demo to learn more.