Today we’d like to introduce you to Katy Abraham. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Katy Abraham, owner of Construction Cost Management, Inc.
We provide Cost Estimates to Architectural and Engineering Firms pursuing Federal projects
Government agencies rely on the services of professional estimators to deliver accurate and cost-effective results, capable of keeping an intricate range of activities on target to meet their objectives.
In 2019 we celebrated our 40th anniversary!
1) When asked as a child what I wanted to do I always said, “Own my own business”, I was never able to fully articulate what exactly that was going to look like, but I always knew I wanted to be the boss. That – and a dancer!
2) I’ve always wanted to …. I do everything I want to do! I love to travel and be adventurous.
3) Significant barrier to female leadership: lack of self-confidence and fear. I can’t speak to a specific person or instance but the thought “you can’t do this” creeps in. Fear of failure
Lots of times I have to think – “ow would a man handle this”
4) Best decision I ever made: Purchasing this company and listening to and taking my dad’s advice
Worst decision I ever made: I’ve made some pretty bad HR decisions that have made my life hard
5) My mom inspires me: She ran the International Division of Radio Shack International for many many years. She was especially successful in South America and the Middle East. She showed me that woman work hard and don’t give up.
6) Biggest Challenge for women coming up: Competition – there is more and more of it every day. Schools are harder to get into, internships are harder to be accepted into. That and social media sometimes gives girls a false sense of reality, it’s really hard to” have it all” and I think that can instill a feeling of failure if you don’t “have it all”
7) Advice to young women: be your best hard-working self. Don’t pretend you’re something you’re not – it will only make you miserable.
8) I struggle with the stress to “do it all over again – but better” – How do I one up myself? How can I make my employees more successful?
9) I feel intimidated in business EVErYDAY
10) When I first came on full-time at my company work-life balance was nonexistent. I gained 15 lbs., and I felt like my staff wouldn’t respect me if I wasn’t the first in and last out. But now they know that my health and personal time is very important to me, as is theirs to me. We lead by example by being very flexible with our employee’s time
11) Sometimes, I’m not sure how I ended up here! I owe so much to my father who leads me every day. My mother who showed me what a Bosslady looks like, my husband who supports me with advice – MANY times I think “how would Joe handle this”. Goldman Sachs and the connections and support I received through that program have proven to be invaluable.
12) Leadership – I’m an influencer, I’ve always been a leader. I can lead you and you won’t even know it. But I’ve learned that it comes with a lot of responsibility. I want to lead my team to huge successes. Entrepreneurship – I’ve learned that it’s not as glamorous as I thought it was going to be! Mentoring – lately I’ve been learning the value of mentoring and what a difference it can make. I haven’t had an opportunity to mentor – maybe one day
13) Luck: I feel lucky that my father wanted to sell me his business – but he wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t the right fit. I feel lucky to have so many supportive people in my life that truly wish me success – but I support them too. I feel LUCKY – but I know that things don’t just happen – I work hard for this success. When you leave things up to luck – good or bad – you take your responsibility out of the equation. I like to be in control!
14) It’s something I notice EVErYDAY. I have a lot of experience from my time in Oil Field Sales, but it’s still intimidating. I feel like I have to be louder, firmer, and shake hands harder than anyone else in the room.
15) I don’t run into any women who do what I do, but I am so grateful to be surrounded by women who sincerely want me to succeed. I didn’t always feel like that. In my retail days, I worked at a company that had a corporate culture of cut-throat women. Odd bc we had a women CEO. But that’s how she made it… I learned a lot from that!
Construction Cost Management Inc (CCM) is an industry leader in providing cost engineering services for city, state, and federal design and engineering projects for the past 35 years. We have provided these services on thousands of projects, ranging from small civil works task orders to large MILCON projects with $50K-$450M CCLs. We maintain a strong reputation for accuracy and comprehensive submittals.
CCM was established in 1979 by Keith Kothmann under the name of Construction Cost Management Co. In 2012 Katy Kothmann Abraham purchased 90% on the company and incorporated in the state of Texas under the name Construction Cost Management Inc. or CCM with Katy Abraham serving as President and Secretary and Keith Kothmann serving as VP and Treasurer. We are located at our only office at 2413 N Main St., Fort Worth Texas 76164 where all cost estimating services are performed. We are structured to efficiently and effectively assemble the best team to respond to all task assignments, regardless of size, location, or complexity.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Super-fast growth resulting in poor HR decisions. I think I spoke about it on the previous page
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS Construction Cost Management Inc (CCM) is an industry leader in providing cost engineering services for city, state, and federal design and engineering projects for the past 35 years. We have provided these services on thousands of projects, ranging from small civil works task orders to large MILCON projects with $50K-$450M CCLs. We maintain a strong reputation for accuracy and comprehensive submittals.
CCM was established in 1979 by Keith Kothmann under the name of Construction Cost Management Co. In 2012 Katy Kothmann Abraham purchased 90% on the company and incorporated in the state of Texas under the name Construction Cost Management Inc. or CCM with Katy Abraham serving as President and Secretary and Keith Kothmann serving as VP and Treasurer. We are located at our only office at 2413 N Main St., Fort Worth Texas 76164 where all cost estimating services are performed. We are structured to efficiently and effectively assemble the best team to respond to all task assignments, regardless of size, location, or complexity.
CCM has eight cost estimators on staff, all of which have the required professional registrations and certifications. All CCM estimators belong to the American Society of Professional Estimators and are certified to their existing level.
Keith Kothmann, CPE, CCC, CCI, Chief Estimator will lead the team as Senior Estimator and will serve as the Quality Assurance Officer. He has been an industry leader and pioneer in construction cost estimating for over 40 years. Keith has provided cost estimates for some of the world’s most iconic projects.
Nishant More, VMA, AEP, CMIT, LEED GA will provide the team with estimating services. Nishant is also a certified VMA in value engineering and has been providing value engineering cost estimates.
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE AND TECHNICAL COMPETENCE
Our team’s knowledge of cost engineering services is extensive, and our execution strategy is a proven process that has been successfully implemented all over the world. The CCM team brings demonstratable experience in all aspects of cost engineering.
CAPACITY TO ACCOMPLISH THE WORK
As a WOSB, HUBZone small business specialty firm, CCM shines in balancing workload and resource availability. We have a solid understanding of our entire team’s workload and their need for resources, and we do not foresee any concerns with resource capability. Our staff is comprised of highly qualified estimators, and we have low turnover. In order to reduce the risk of conflict of interest, CCM takes necessary precautions to first identify and mediate any conflicts of interest. We educate our staff, operate under NDAs, and keep client information strictly confidential to reduce any risk of conflict of interest.
The changes necessitated by COVID-19 in communicating and conveying information with our clients has been challenging. Fortunately, CCM had already transitioned a significant amount of our production ability into highly secure cloud-based systems. This capability combined with remote workstations for staff means that we have been able to maintain and continue to improve on project schedules since the beginning of the pandemic.
Communicating with our clients in a virtual collaborative setting has also never been more effective. Our capabilities to share and document information both visually and digitally through a variety of electronic platforms can save time and money and provides for improved collaboration.
CCM is prepared to respond to requests within 5-7 days. On current contracts, we quickly respond to client requests. We are a small business which allows us to be flexible and nimble – we can react quickly to our client’s needs. CCM is able to respond quickly to multiple projects for multiple clients and still provide the very best product available.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Managing people will be the hardest part of your business. No one cares about your baby like you do, and sometimes that is a hard pill to swallow.
Contact Info:
- Email: katy@constructioncostmanagement.com
- Website: https://constructioncostmanagement.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constructioncostmanagement/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buildcostcontrol
