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

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

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

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

Online reviews are an essential marketing tool for many small businesses, especially for service-based businesses like yours. They give potential customers and clients a chance to see how effective your goods or services are, how responsive you are to your clients, and what other people's experiences of your business have been. As a result, the vast majority of people check online reviews before making a purchasing decision.

 

When reviews are great, that's a fantastic thing. But, unfortunately, it's when you get negative reviews that you have to adjust. You can't please all customers all the time.

 

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Topics: Construction Company, Contractor Tips, How To Handle Negative Reviews

We are all currently experiencing and adapting to present pandemic times. We've probably adjusted our business model to cater to our clients, new and existing. Construction business change is almost always a good thing, but often poor management means that the workforce becomes disengaged and the change process painful. In the worst cases, this results in irreparable damage being done.

It doesn't need to be this way. Follow these steps and empower yourself to lead your contractors through significant organizational change successfully.

1. Understand the change

Make sure you understand precisely what is changing and how it affects your people. Speak to whomever you need to ascertain this properly. You need to know what the impact is on your people and the jobs they do. 

Educating yourself will mean you're better equipped to communicate with your staff. It will give them confidence that you are the right person to lead them into the unknown. It will also relieve their anxieties, as they will trust you to keep them informed and look after their individual and collective interests.

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Topics: Construction Company, Systems And Processes, Contractor Tips, Construction Organizational Change

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Many business consultants contact us after they start working with Handymen, Contractors and Construction Company because they are frustrated with contractors who are having trouble earning a profit. Perhaps this article will shed some light that will help consultants and contractors understand each other and offer some tips that will benefit everyone.

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Topics: Construction Company, Construction Psychology, Business Consultants, Contractors, construction company strategy