EXECUTIVE CONSTRUCTION JOBS
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Construction Business Coach |
Employer:
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Chicago Urban League |
| Job Location: |
Chicago ,
IL |
| Cash Compensation: |
Open |
| Job Description: |
The Entrepreneurship Center Business Coach/Construction Officer of the Chicago Urban League is a full time position. The position reports directly to the Chicago Urban League Entrepreneurship Center Director.
This position will be stationed at the League headquarters in Chicago, but may also require a light amount of travel within the United States.
The Entrepreneurship Center Business Coach/Construction Officer holds overall responsibility for providing strategic business consulting services to entrepreneurs within the construction industry, designing and administering contractor training curriculum to start-ups and expansion stage business owners, and/or management. The Entrepreneurship Center Business Coach/Construction Officer is responsible for ensuring fulfillment of all construction cohort specific performance goals and grant requirements on an annual basis. The Entrepreneurship Center's projectNEXT Entrepreneurship Center presents an amazing opportunity to help scale and develop the capacity of emerging African American owned businesses within the retail, professional services, and construction industry, which will ultimately transform not only Chicago's African American community, but also the entire Chicago business landscape.
In particular, the Entrepreneurship Center Business Coach/Construction Officer will:
�Research & Innovation: Stay current and knowledgeable about all relevant local and national construction and real estate trends/issues, financing/bonding tools/strategies, technology and operating best practices as well as technical assistance models. Attend conferences, workshops/trainings and meet regularly with funders, lenders, trade association/union leaders, private sector leaders, other Urban League affiliates, community leaders, elected officials and bureaucrats at the Ward, City, County, and State levels, and other relevant industry participants.
�Contractor Training/Information Sessions: Design and facilitate the Entrepreneurship Center�s contractor training program, which includes identifying and securing partnerships with contractor friendly lenders/bonding institutions, working with experienced general contractors, City Colleges, and lenders to design a contractor curriculum, which includes a mix of group trainings and one on one coaching sessions with existing and start-up contractors in the following areas: business planning, entity formation/licensing, insurance, bonding, financing, business development and project bidding for public, non-profit, and private sector projects, joint ventures/partnerships, estimating, scheduling, project management, accounting, document management, and financial management. The Business Coach/Construction Officer will be required to recruit facilitators, guest speakers/lecturers, setup and manage the trainings, track participant performance, and update funders on progress/accomplishments.
�Strategic Business Consulting: Provide strategic business consulting to all contractor business clients and nextONE Program participants in the construction industry. Work with these clients to develop strategic work plans that highlight a specific milestone they are looking to achieve with their business and outline specific action steps they will take in order to reach this milestone. Also, provide the strategic business consulting services to entrepreneurs in need of business planning, business development and strategy, and capacity building support and assistance.
�Construction Business Development: Conduct outreach to all Alderman, City, County, and State officials to discuss current, proposed and/or pipeline projects in the community and to identify potential construction needs. Host pre-bid conferences with a prescreened list of contractors/potential bidders. Identify potential joint venture opportunities for potential bidders and facilitate partnership/JV discussions between groups of potential bidders. Meet with potential bidders one on one to review and offer feedback on their bids prior to submission. Track construction project activity in South and West Side Chicago Communities. Assess and identify opportunities to increase minority participation in these neighborhood projects and present this information to the project principals and the appropriate authorities. Build relationships with Chicago area developers and City planners. Work with financial institutions to design special financing products to support minority contractors.
MAJOR OBJECTIVES
During the first twelve months, the Business Coach/Construction Officer will be expected to meet the following objectives:
Recruit, survey, and assess a pool of potential and existing general contractors and subcontractors
Design a contractor training program that is structured to pre-qualify contractors to bid on public sector projects
Provide strategic business consulting services to a pool of existing contractors to help them obtain financing/bonding, grow their staff, and build their capacity
Meet with all South and West side Alderman and City, County, and State planners to develop an inventory of current, proposed, and pipeline construction project opportunities
Monitor and track the sales growth and job creation/retention metrics achieved by contractor clients as a result of the Chicago Urban League's support and services
Work with the nextONE contractor clients to implement their 6-month strategic work plans
PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENTS
- College degree in engineering, architecture, urban planning, business, finance, or related field
- Individual with an architecture or construction trades licensing is preferred
- 5+ years of professional experience related to construction management, project management, operations management
- Complete English language fluency required
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Extremely organized, high energy, affable, creative, self-starting person, able to work both independently and with a large and changing team of university faculty, practitioners, and entrepreneurs
-Flexible, adaptable and comfortable with uncertainty and operating in an entrepreneurial environment
-Ability to work under pressure of time, multiple simultaneous demands, and ability to interact effectively with a range of constituents, including entrepreneurs, university faculty, executives, business leaders, nonprofit executives, corporate leaders, and staff at all levels
-Self-starter willing to take initiative, seek guidance when needed, and see projects through to completion
-Project management skills. Ability to set priorities, organize and manage multiple planning tasks
-May work nights and a few weekends
-Good judgment, tact and discretion in dealing with sensitive and confidential material
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| Company Description: |
Established in 1916 by an interracial group of community leaders, the Chicago Urban League (www.TheChicagoUrbanLeague.com) began as a resettlement organization assisting African-American migrants arriving in Chicago from the rural South. Today the civil rights organization empowers African-Americans by providing a unique and broad range of powerful resources and tools focused on economic development. The Chicago Urban League is led by and draws expertise from a Board of Directors comprised of Chicago's more prominent corporate executives and leading entrepreneurs with strong industry and functional expertise.
Leveraging strong and growing relationships with the business community and government, the League develops programs and partnerships and does advocacy to address the need for employment, entrepreneurship, affordable commercial real estate and quality education. The Chicago Urban League is an affiliate of the National Urban League (www.nul.org), the nation's oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African-Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream.
The Chicago Urban League recently launched project NEXT, three new economic development programs, which will help build shared and sustainable wealth within Chicago's African American community:
1. Employment Diversity Program - focuses on recruiting and placing skilled, temporarily displaced workers as well as coaching, training, and developing entry, mid-, and senior level African-American managers.
2. Entrepreneurship Center - provides new business acquisition and capacity building services as well as financing to small businesses that generate revenues between $100,000 and $1 million, specifically professional service, construction, and retail businesses.
3. Commercial Real Estate Development Initiative - supports commercial real estate developers and connects them with retail/office/industrial real estate development opportunities in Chicago's African-American communities.
In addition, the League recently forged a partnership with Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu), which is one of the country's most prominent training and research institutions for entrepreneurs, managers, and corporate executives. As the academic partner for the Entrepreneurship Center, Kellogg will help staff the Center with graduate students and faculty. Specifically, they will design the training and coaching models to counsel minority-owned businesses in marketing their products and services, in securing contracts with private sector companies and governmental agencies and in financing their businesses.
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