The end of a recession is the perfect time for contractors to rebuild their organizations using new and sustainable models because growth as a business model doesn't work in a cyclical market. The successful contractor of the future will be organized to go up and down in annual sales to cope with market conditions and avoid chasing inappropriate work just to maintain volume for its own sake. The secret to this strategy is a concept that I call flexible overhead.
Since World War II, there have been more growth years than declines, and many contractors have adopted growth as a business model. With the paradigm of growth came the need to increase overhead to cope with the ever-increasing workload.