Researchers often argue that small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) should receive more attention from the research community given that they constitute the majority of the enterprises active in the building industry. The numbers of research studies which have significantly increased in recent years demonstrate that SMEs are different from large enterprises (LEs). Identifying these differences, SMEs’ problems, their disadvantages originating from smallness and possible solutions to these problem areas are among the common themes of previous studies. SMEs take advantage of ‘organizational smallness’ as they can easily adapt to flexible production systems, operate in niche markets, and they have less bureaucracy in daily operations. However, ‘smallness’ is also often associated with many problems such as lack of capital, lack of marketing skills, and difficulty of having access to new technologies. Building production industry is one of the most important industries for the national economy, one major reason being its intensive input-output relationship with other industries. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute around 70 per cent of the construction enterprises and dominate this industry. In addition to struggling with the problems associated with smallness, SMEs have to survive in a higly competitive market. Given that SMEs are important players of local and national economies and that they operate in a 'locomotive industry they apparently deserve more attention. This study aims to investigate the attitudes and behaviours of SMEs concerning their activities throughout the project process, which is known as the ‘project life cycle’. In this context, factors that motivate SME owner-managers to display common attitudes and behaviours throughout the project life cycle are analyzed and problems of SMEs are identified. A qualitative research strategy was chosen and content analysis was used to understand/analyze the attitudes and behaviours of companies. This study analyses the attitudes and behaviours of these actors at various phases of building production process from project procurement to project closure. Rather than focusing on all project activities, a special emphasis is put on the activities that are likely to decipher SMEs’ project-level relationships which are explained below. Pre-construction (project procurement) phase: • Information sores by means of which SMEs become aware of new projects • Project procurement methods • Factors that affect the job/project selection • Contractual relationships of SMEs with other actors. Construction phase: • SMEs’ criteria to choose project partners. • Reasons for conflicts with other partners. • Problems with governmental institutions. • Factors that affect project duration, project quality and project cost. • Project performance evaluation Post-construction (delivery and marketing) phase: • Project marketing methods • Methods to benefit from social networks • Target markets of SMEs. The findings of the study suggest that SMEs operating in the construction sector face some problems like bellow. • The major problem of SMEs at the job procurement phase is their limited access to information sources about new job opportunities. • SMEs have difficulties in tendering for large projects. The fact that SMEs operate in small and local markets is at the same time a major obstacle for them to widen their geographical span of operation. • Having weak financial power is an obstacle for SMEs to undertake different-scale projects. The fact that SMEs tend to do business with close-knit groups prevent these firms from widening their business networks. • SMEs encounter difficulties in controlling their project partners. Contractual arrangements represent a difficult and time-consuming phase for SMEs. • SMEs encounter difficulties in dealing with bureaucratic processes. The major problems of SMEs associated with project costs are prise inflation in construction materials SMEs are lack of marketing skills and they are in difficulty to market their products.