SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Fifteen business owners, presidents, operations managers, and key employees spent four days at the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors-National Association (PHCC) Educational Foundation's latest offering of its Strategic Management Workshop, a training program sponsored by American Standard and Trane. The session, held in Scottsdale, Ariz., demonstrated to attendees how smart management and close attention to company financials can save their businesses significant amounts of money while best serving the needs of their employees, vendors, and customers.

A session early in the program taught attendees how to analyze their financial statements using the same ratios that banks and bonding companies use to check the fiscal health of contracting companies. Two class attendees in the process of buying into contracting businesses were able to use these formulas to analyze their purchases, giving them crucial information on the quality of the companies they are buying and identifying issues that they will need to work on. All the attendees learned how to compare their company's data against what are considered "ideal" industry numbers.

"Financials are the gauges and indicators on the dashboard of a contractor's company," said Tim Gallagher of American Standard. "We are thrilled to be supporting a class that is showing business owners just how important the numbers are to running a successful company."