THE BLACK CONTRACTOR'S GUIDE: A BLUEPRINT TO SUCCESS
The complete blueprint for Black and minority contractors ready to stop working the job and start owning the business.
THE BLACK CONTRACTOR'S GUIDE: A BLUEPRINT TO SUCCESS
About The Book
This is not the kind of book that assumes everything is fine and just needs a little fine-tuning. It starts where most Black and minority contractors actually start dealing with a system that wasn't built for them, trying to figure out how to get licensed, how to bid a job properly, how to protect themselves legally, and how to grow a business without someone who's done it before showing them the ropes. The Black Contractor's Guide covers all of it. Licensing and legal setup. Writing a business plan. Estimating and bidding. Financial management. Insurance and risk. Building and managing a crew. Marketing your services. Navigating contracts. And the technologies reshaping the industry right now include green building and solar energy, as well as drones, modular construction, and AutoCAD. But it goes deeper than business strategy. The book opens with the history that textbooks skipped, Horace King, the enslaved man who became one of the most respected bridge engineers of the 19th century. The Black soldiers of the 95th Engineer Battalion, who built the Alaska Highway in eight months under segregated conditions, came home to barely a mention. Booker T. Washington, who built an entire university from nothing, with his own hands and his students'. Frederick Massiah, who broke into engineering and contracting when the door wasn't supposed to open for men who looked like him. That history isn't just background. It's fuel. And this book is built on it.
THE BLACK CONTRACTOR'S GUIDE
A BLUEPRINT TO SUCCESS
Reviews
“The Black Contractor’s Guide would be perfect for required reading in high schools, especially in communities where students of color are searching for direction and opportunity. It brings to life the history of our role in construction and shows how this industry can open doors to meaningful careers and financial independence. This book is a powerful reminder that construction is not just about building structures, it is about building futures.”
– Steph Ruff-Bryant, President, Ready Electric
“This book sheds light on the real challenges Black contractors face and how to navigate them. It’s honest, practical, and written by someone who has actually been in the trenches, not someone observing from the outside. Every contractor who looks like us should have a copy.”
– Torrion Dedmon, Owner & President, All for One Construction
“The Black Contractor’s Guide is not a run-of-the-mill business book. It’s a personal history, a cultural reckoning, and a working guide all in one. Desmond Collins has written something that is both deeply specific and entirely universal, a book about what it means to build, in every sense of the word.”
– Editors’ Review, Express Book Publishing
WHY DESMOND WRITES
Desmond Collins writes because the book he needed didn’t exist, and he refused to let that stay true for everyone who came after him.
He grew up in East San Diego, in a neighborhood where opportunities were scarce, and role models were hard to find. His mother, Mary Collins, raised him with fierce discipline and a strong work ethic, paper routes before sunrise, beds made to military standards, and chores done right before you left the house. But even with that foundation, the streets found him. He joined a gang, struggled with addiction, and eventually ended up in prison. He came out at 27 with nothing in his hands and everything still ahead of him.
What changed the direction of his life was construction. A job fair conversation led to a carpentry apprenticeship at Soltek Pacific, working on the Ruben H. Fleet Space Theater expansion in Balboa Park. He showed up every day. He worked long hours and attended trade school at night, even while his wife was pregnant with their first son, Marcus. He completed a rigorous four-year training program through the Associated General Contractors of America, earned his journeyman carpenter certification, and became a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local #547.
From there, the career grew. Foreman. Lead carpenter. High-profile projects across Southern California with some of the industry’s most respected contractors. In 2014, he founded Collins Builders and Construction. In 2016, he wrote The Black Carpenter’s Guide, a book that was warmly received and widely shared, especially among people who had never seen themselves reflected in construction industry writing.
The Black Contractor’s Guide is the follow-up he spent nine years preparing to write. Desmond didn’t touch it until he had earned his general contractor’s license and personally walked through the process he was describing. That’s the standard he holds himself to write what you’ve lived, not what you’ve heard.
He writes for the carpenter who wants to go independent. For the young man just out of the system. For the woman of color trying to get a foothold in a trade that keeps its doors narrower than they should be. For anyone who has the skill, the drive, and the work ethic, and just needs someone to show them the map.
