Recently quite a few contractors are asking us for help in generating work so I reached into our archives of best practices and put together a collection construction marketing strategies we used to get one of our construction companies profitable from the beginning.
We allocated one used work van and a few tools with a market value of $2,500 and set aside $500 in working capital to launch this particular construction company. In less than one hundred days it was generating over $20,000 a month and from the beginning we focused on acquiring new and repeat clients by giving them what they wanted and it contined to grow and prosper.
Nothing has changed in the past hundred years when it comes to getting customers and clients. You have to get the word out which means marketing, selling and promoting yourself and your construction services. Let's be clear I don't mean do it now, I mean do it right now!
Generally speaking most of the highly successful contractors we have met and worked with have been involved in network marketing, owning or managing a restaurant or all three. For some reason it seems to have helped some of them grow a layer of Deflect-To-Matic Skin and expand their comfort zone which in turn raised their Paradigm.
So if you have done any direct sales, door-to-do, multilevel marketing, network marketing regardless of whether you made any money at it or not the value of that experience has exposed to the one method that works every time, it is not easy, but it works!
Take some business cards or flyers or whatever marketing material you have and go visit a minimum of twenty live people a day, face-to-face. Go to realtor offices, property management firms, apartment complex managers, and whoever else you can think of and then take your main material supply salesperson to lunch and let them know you need some leads.
Is it fun? NO! Have I done it? YES! Having been a "Heel and Toe Man" for a very long time. Does it generate cash money? YES! Have I advised a bunch of contractors to do it when they needed immediate cash? YES! How many did it? You can guess... The ones that did it and stuck with it for at least sixty days generated enough cash money to at least get far enough out of debt to begin thinking straight and putting a long term strategic plan together.
One of the most common phrases we hear from our construction clients are "I can do the work if I could just get the calls!" Does that sound familiar?
A lot of contractors operate their business backwards using what I call P.A.M. or Production - Accounting - Marketing no or low profit method.
P = Production. "Hey someone called and wants me to repair / replace something on their home or commercial property!"
A = Accounting. "I put that off until taxes are due or some other external factor creates enough pain inside me to do it or hire someone!" Do you need help with contractors bookkeeping services? Click here for the solution.
M = Marketing. "Most of my work comes from word of mouth and referrals”. That's excellent when it works or it is only one of your marketing pillars. Read an informative article on this subject: Contractor Leads.
When you are not busy working in your business that is the time to work on your business!
Use M.A.P. or Marketing – Accounting – Production the high profit method.
M = Marketing. Identify your target market and make a plan to go after it like an unstoppable force of nature! I have written extensively on this subject. See Marketing Your Construction Company
A = Accounting. Use QuickBooks desktop version and either do it right or hire a professional like us and we will put QuickBooks desktop version on our cloud server and you can see it anywhere in the world. Cloud Based Contractors Bookkeeping Services. Get QuickBooks setup right and keep it maintained so you will have the management reports to show you where your best clients are and how to find more of them. Understand and use The 80/20 Rule For Contractors.
P = Production. Develop your construction company’s management system to be unique for your company. There are no one size fits templates or franchises because every contractor's company has a unique collection of labor, materials, equipment, sub-contractors and a number of other variables that create billions of permutations. Click on the button below to read an in depth article on permutations and discover how it can apply to your construction company.
By the way math is really a lot of fun once you get into it and discover it is actually a hidden language for discovering ways to make a lot of money in your construction company. Take a quick peek at this article on Decision Theory.
There is a lot of information here and if I didn’t believe in you I would not have spent the time to write it, which means I believe in you and every other contractor because construction is not just a career, it is a calling.
Everything began with The Builder, He had a Son who was among other things a carpenter which means everyone who is called to serve in the construction industry is a "Maker" and a member of the greatest industry on earth.
Each of us involved in the construction industry have been given a responsibility to do our best and the gifts to complete our assigned tasks all while holding ourselves and each other to a very high standard.
Part of my assigned task is to do everything possible to support contractors anyway possible as long as possible.
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