Our winning strategy talks about Marketing as the foundation, Accounting as the center of your construction business, and Production where the rubber meets the road, or if you please, this is where all the planning and support structure pays off.
Some contractors and construction company owners believe in maximizing production by driving everyone from the laborers to the Project Managers to work harder, longer, faster, hustle and run. And if they are giving less than 110% to the company they are not doing enough. You may have different opinions on this but one thing I've learned from experience is that construction meeting process increases productivity.
Most meetings are designed to satisfy a legal requirement and end up being a boring waste of time for everyone and starts the day on a low tone.
For example if your construction meeting last thirty minutes, with six people being paid $25.00 per hour you just spent $106.92 {Fully burdened labor cost $35.64 x 6 people x 0.5 hours}
If Your Company Earns 10% Profit It Will Need $1,069.20 In Sales And Installation To Stay Even
We settled for a different approach. In all our construction companies we used a process to encourage innovation and Optimize Production at three specific times during the day: Morning, Noon, and Afternoon.
Morning Meeting - Provide light snacks, pastries, fruit, bottled water, juice, coffee and tea. Begin with the legal requirements and end with sheet of paper listing the goals for the day for EACH Person which the superintendent/foreman/lead person whatever title you use, keeps in their portfolio.
Lunch Meeting - Provide lunch for everyone and EACH Person gives a morning progress report and afternoon target which is updated on the sheet of paper, listing the goals for the day for EACH Person.
Afternoon Meeting - Work stops ten minutes before everyone is due to clock out and everyone gives an afternoon progress report and next day target which is updated on the sheet of paper, listing the goals for the day for EACH Person.
You should find production increasing steadily because everyone has a voice, Journeymen, Apprentices and Laborers which creates a positive atmosphere and as a bonus you should find substantial increases in innovation as an ongoing process without disrupting production.
Your construction workers may or may not have a hearty breakfast before coming to work depending on a variety of factors outside your control and maybe theirs for that matter.
Well-fed construction workers produce more work in less time, with fewer mistakes which saves you time and money on your labor, material, warranty work and other costs.
After a few hours of intense construction work they could be a bit dehydrated and having burned a number of calories they could be getting important messages from their stomachs regarding food. This usually results in them slowing down a little bit....costing your company some profit dollars. What Does Ten Minutes Waste Cost Your Construction Company?
Our Construction Worker Frank skipped breakfast before coming to work because he did not feel like cooking.
When Frank Is Hungry he produces less work, in more time with more mistakes which costs us time and money on our labor, material, warranty work and other costs.
After A Couple Hours of intense construction activity Frank was dehydrated a bit and having burned a number of calories he was getting some very important messages from his stomach regarding food which caused Frank to slow down a little bit....costing our company profit dollars.
Lunch Time and Frank didn't pack a lunch because he wanted to "work through lunch" and leave early. If you were able to watch Frank real close around 02:00 PM you will see the metabolism dance right out of his body and now he is uncomfortable and getting a bit edgy, grouchy and a little bit nasty.
02:00 PM Until Quitting Time Is when Frank messes something up, get careless, and in some cases suffers an injury which requires medical attention, ($$$, Labor and Industries investigation, $$$) or if you are lucky his afternoon production will be roughly 80% of his morning production.
15 Minutes Before Quitting Time Frank begins picking up his tools and putting everything away in preparation to leave the job site.
This Example Shows profits that could be slipping through your fingers and you didn't even know it.
"Profits Are Made In The Office, Not In The Field" - Randalism
(What you don't know can destroy profitability because it is hidden. If you don't know how to analyze your QuickBooks reports get someone that does, perhaps Fast Easy Accounting)
If you ever wonder how I discovered these ways to optimize profits in a construction company all I did was invest several decades learning, studying and analyzing the principles that all successful companies have in common.
About The Author:
Our Co-Founder Randal DeHart - Is a Certified PMP (Project Management Professional) with several years of construction project management experience. His expertise is construction accounting systems engineering and process development. His exhaustive study of several leading experts including the work of Dr. W. Edward Deming, Michael Gerber, Walter A. Shewhart, James Lewis and dozens of others was the foundation upon which our Construction Bookkeeping System is based and continues to evolve and improve. Check out our Contractor Success Map Podcast on iTunes.
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When You Become A Client - Then we can tap into our resources of knowledge and strategy banks. We use the reports hidden in your QuickBooks in order to diagnose and understand your construction business and develop plans and help you implement a path to success for you and you alone because every contractor has unique Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (S.W.O.T. Analysis) that when understood can lead to a Strategic Roadmap which cannot help but make a lot of money.
For Construction Company Owners who do not need the full power of a QuickBooks for contractors and want 24/7 online access we offer Xero Accounting Online, and we have a custom setup for construction companies. Click Here For More.
This Is One More Example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners all across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that, and a lot more valuable to people like you so stop missing out! Call Sharie 206-361-3950 or sharie.com and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.
Profitable Contractors and Construction Company owners have known about the value of outsourced bookkeeping services and contractor coaching services like ours for a long time, and now you know about it too!
Thank You For Reading This Far, And I Hope You Understand we really do care about you and all contractors regardless of whether or not you ever hire our services.
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