The construction industry is dynamic and challenging, and a business's success or failure can hinge on various factors. As we approach the end of another year, it's essential to take a step back and assess your company's successes and challenges.
Contracting is notorious for its complexities and ever-changing landscape. It is crucial to evaluate what worked well, what didn't, and what lessons we can carry into the following year. These are my key takeaways from phone chats and emails with our clients, industry friends, and followers. Use this as a template - remove, add, and reflect on this list to hold yourself accountable for what you can improve.
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Topics:
Construction Strategy,
Systems And Processes,
BPM,
Business Plans,
Processes,
Construction Systems And Processes,
Construction Business Review
A new contractor meets an experienced customer, and money changes hands and not the way you expect it.
Typically, this is what happens when you first get started: You bid on a project, and you are the low bidder. You are given the client's standard contract, which contains the client's favorite set of commercial terms and conditions, to sign as a condition of getting the project. You close and sign the contract because you don't want to ask for changes in the terms or consult your construction attorney. You put the signed contract in your bottom desk drawer and pray hard nothing will happen during the project that will cause you ever to have to reread the contract.
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Topics:
Construction Bookkeeping,
Processes,
Contractor Challenges,
Contractor,
contractor bookeeping services,
Contractor Tips
Owning a construction business means you understand that bookkeeping is just one of those mundane, nasty, dirty, aggravating, grubby little chores you get stuck with along with its rotten scoundrel cousin the Monthly/Quarterly Tax Reports.
If you have employees - look out! On top of everything else you have payroll to process, in some cases, you may decide to provide cash advances to your employees to keep them focused on the job and not on personal issues, and finally there are all the Payroll Taxes you need to keep track of and file the reports for on a regular basis.
Smart Contractors know their time is more valuable spent meeting prospective clients, putting together bids, managing job sites, and a whole lot of other things other than bookkeeping. So they find someone else to do it.
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Topics:
Construction Bookkeeping,
Processes,
Contractor Challenges,
Contractor,
contractor bookeeping services,
Contractor Tips
Owners of small construction companies like you are the men and women who keep everything moving in the right direction. When the economy changes, you quickly adapt because you are a survivor, not a large giant behemoth dinosaur unable to respond promptly and dies in its tracks.
Most articles about Job Costing are for large contractors with dozens of employees, doing millions of dollars in sales every year. This article is not about them; it is about you!
Job Costing links the money you spent on a job against the money you received to do a particular job.
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Topics:
Construction Bookkeeping,
Processes,
Contractor Challenges,
Contractor,
contractor bookeeping services,
Contractor Tips
Cost is what you see; the profit potential is what you don't see. High-profit construction company owner's focus on both and understand that "It Takes Money To Make Money."
Strategy comes from the office. Fieldwork is vital - labor, material, and subcontractors get things built, maintained, and repaired; however, efficient operations and fast workers who give 110% cannot overcome lousy strategy. Office and field are separate but equal. Each skill-set requires different working styles and different cultures. It is your profession as the business owner to help everyone come together and understand each other's job and how it fits in the grand scheme of things.
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Topics:
Processes,
Contractor Challenges,
Contractor,
Contractor Tips
Ever Wonder Why Some Competitors Seem To Have More Cash Flow And Profit Than You?
You may not like what I have to say; just know I am sharing what works, not what should work. From our own experiences owning and operating construction companies and from working with other contractors for well over thirty years one of the simplest ways to acquire wealth and riches in construction is to start with these four principles.
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Topics:
Earn Enormous Profits,
Systems,
Processes
