Cutting costs can be a quick and easy way to improve the profitability of your construction business. Introducing cost-control measures can bring immediate savings and ensure you remain profitable in the long term.

But cost-control measures must be carefully managed. Eliminating errant expenses is beneficial, but indiscriminate cost-cutting could lead to a drop in quality or poor morale if staff fear being made redundant or are not given the tools they need to do their job efficiently.

This risk is heavily reduced by identifying where you can safely trim costs, setting clear cost-reduction targets, and researching any cost-saving initiatives before making changes to your contracting business.

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Topics: Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Contractor Tips, Cost-Reduction For Construction Companies, Reducing costs

Depending on the nature of your construction business, you may have workers who are employees or contractors, or you may have both. Each has its merits, but it's important to review which are to meet your tax obligations.

With so much discussion about employees, payroll, and payroll taxes, you may feel like missing out by not hiring many employees. The reality is that as a small business owner, you do not have to hire employees.

To hire or not to hire employees is one of the few optional things where the business owner can choose, change their mind, and change direction as needed.

When you have an employee, you must withhold income tax and report on additional benefits. Contractors generally look after their tax obligations.

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Topics: Hiring Employees, 1099 Employee, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Contractor Tips, Payroll For Construction Contractors

Is it time for your construction business to invest in some new equipment? And if so, is it a more brilliant business decision and cost-effective to rent or buy?

Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday, is coming. The real question is what equipment is on your business shopping list. It is all a question of your budget, income, cash flow, profit & loss, and taxes.

Why you might need new equipment:

• The right equipment can enhance your processes, productivity, innovation capacity, and bottom line, but should you buy now or wait till a later date?
• A few reasons you might need to purchase new equipment now are because:
  - You have some big contracts coming up and need to increase production.
  - Your construction business is expanding at a fast rate.
  - You need to replace some aging equipment to maintain your business’s high standards and keep up with the competition.
  
  

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Topics: Construction Company

Long-standing customers form the backbone of a robust and well-established business. Make it your mission to ensure that most of your current customers stay with your company for many years.

Understanding the High-Profit Client

Most of them have personality traits commonly known as drivers. Folks accustomed to getting things done quickly and efficiently do not mind paying professionals for servicing, repairing, remodeling, or building new construction projects related to their houses and commercial buildings.

Why it's vital to keep existing customers

Your current customers already have personal experiences dealing with your business and using its services. You won't need to spend much time, money, and energy convincing them to continue hiring you.

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Topics: Payroll Loan, Payroll Processing, Payroll Tax, Payroll Options, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Contractor Tips, Payroll For Construction Contractors

Getting paid correctly and on time by customers can be a constant frustration for business owners. Communicating your terms is the best way to ensure you aren't out of pocket – or are left chasing debtors.

Investors, developers, and shrewd business people designed the most popular method - those who understand the concept of divide and conquer - it is when contractors get little or no down payment for a construction project, do all the work, including change orders, and then try to collect their money.

What often happens is that contractors hate paperwork preferring to keep everything in their heads. Then when it comes time to collect their money, they have to re-sell the job and talk their customer into parting with their money.

 

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Topics: Construction Company, Payment Collect, Payment Applications, Contractor, payment issues, Payment Terms

Small business owners spend an average of eight hours monthly performing payroll functions. That's 12 business days a year that could be spent generating sales, prospecting new business opportunities, improving products or services, or servicing customers.

Upgrading or changing your payroll system comes with a ton of attractive benefits. Saving time and money, making everyone's account more manageable, and better integration are all excellent reasons to consider a change.

But if the switch is mishandled, the results can be catastrophic and lead to long-lasting problems. Read on for tips on avoiding a disastrous payroll system migration.

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Topics: QuickBooks For Contractors, Construction Bookkeeping, Business Process Management For Contractors, Construction Project Managers, Construction Project Managment, Project Management, Project Management For Construction

When you start a small business, it's usually only you behind the whole operation. You wear many hats, from CEO to clean-up crew. As you pour your heart and soul into your business and it begins to grow, the amount of work involved grows.

Because a small business focuses on survival, you pay much attention to the bottom line. This makes much sense, but it also leads to being seriously overworked.

These days, contractors are under increased pressure to cut their prices to get enough work. And that means they need to reduce costs. New technologies and approaches in cloud computing for construction accounting give forward-thinking contractors a fantastic ability to get more for less -but in most cases, contractors' heads are still stuck in 1990, thinking they have to do everything themselves.

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Topics: Strategic Outsourced Bookkeeping Services, Construction Company, Outsourced labor, outsource bookkeeping, Outsourced bookkeeping, outsourced construction accounting and bookkeeping, Do What You Do Best And Outsource The Rest

In the past, Construction Project Managers were laborers or served an apprenticeship in one of the skilled construction trades and were promoted to foreman. This meant many people were more comfortable in manual labor without management skills. And when "things" were put in charge of "people," the results were not usually favorable.

Because of this, many construction companies failed and went out of business due to the Cost of Chaos in their businesses. And it is still happening today.

In the late 20th century, construction and construction management were separated into individual disciplines, each with its methodologies, terms, and definitions.

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Topics: QuickBooks For Contractors, Construction Bookkeeping, Business Process Management For Contractors, Construction Project Managers, Construction Project Managment, Project Management, Project Management For Construction

Construction contractors like you are primarily in the "Hurry Up" and "Wait" zone.

• • Hurry up and answer the call from the customer. 
  • Wait to make the appointment. 
  • Hurry up and get to the job. 
  • Wait for the customer to come home to be available. 
  • Hurry up and create the proposal. 
  • Wait for a decision. 
  • When the client says "Yes," it is - wait for the Job Deposit.
  • Wait to Start The Job

This Hurry Up and Wait for activity makes it hard for the contractor to schedule other jobs. Many contractors only hold a place open for the client once a job deposit has been received. 

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Topics: Construction Company, Marketing Ideas For Contractors That Work, Marketing Tracking, Construction Marketing, Contractors Emergency Marketing Plan

Let me start by saying it's good if you have competition. Indeed, competition pushes you to be innovative. It also means there's an established community for your services. If no one else is offering the service, there's a chance there's no market for it.

 

But, have you always wondered how a small construction company like yours could stand out from the crowd and its competitors? Awareness of what others in your industry have developed and provided leads to a newfound motivation and belief in making an impactful difference, whether within your company or your community.  

 

The key to benefitting from the competition is knowing how to take on competitors. You measure your share in the particular segment you operate in and obsess about your immediate competition, just as contractors who did not market effectively did years ago.

 

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Topics: Construction Company, Contractor, Construction Competition, Construction Competitors