Traditionally, employers have relied on giving employees raises to retain their staff and reward them for being hard-working and loyal. Raises can get expensive, and there is often an upper limit for what you can offer regarding increasing salaries and wages.

 

Keeping your employees happy makes business sense. You want to keep your good employees, and it costs money to find, hire and train new staff. Beyond that, satisfied employees who feel valued are more motivated and productive.

 

Here are some ways to keep your employees happy that don't rely on higher salaries.

 

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Topics: Give Your Customers And Clients What They Want, High Profit Repeat Construction Clients, Business Process Management For Contractors, Winning Teams

Construction business owners know that to find a loyal client base, they must stand out from their competitors. One of the best and easiest ways to do that is to have outstanding customer service. How you treat your customers reflects your entire business. People think positively about companies that treat their customers and clients well. 

 

Unfortunately, many small construction business owners focus much on their products and services, with customer service remaining an afterthought. 

 

Take time to learn more about your customers.

 

 

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Topics: Give Your Customers And Clients What They Want, High Profit Repeat Construction Clients, Business Process Management For Contractors, Winning Teams

When you're a construction business owner, your to-do list is often long and constantly growing longer. You need to do many things, and it can feel like they're all urgent. In such cases, it's easy to push essential tasks to the side and focus on less-vital activities, but that often means you miss deadlines, make mistakes or always feel as though you're trying to catch up.

 

Construction Companies have two basic leadership styles; wait until an urgent situation occurs and react like a firefighter or develop business processes that allow the company to respond calmly and natural resources and solutions to the issues like a traffic police officer on a sunny afternoon.

 

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Topics: Business Process Management For Contractors, Winning Teams, Construction Productivity, Contractor Guidance, contractor delegation

One of the biggest challenges construction company owners like you have with an in-house bookkeeper is training them to work for your best interest, not theirs, and deliver consistent results and the reports you can trust daily, year after year.

 

Having been involved with construction and construction accounting and bookkeeping for over thirty years, we have seen a consistent pattern repeated over and over that will turn ordinary, decent, pleasant bookkeepers into a disheveled, broken, mean, nasty, arrogant trolls, and that's a good day when the sun is shining, and the birds are singing!

 

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Topics: Business Process Management For Contractors, Winning Teams, Construction Productivity, Contractor Guidance, contractor delegation

Some construction business 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.

One thing to consider: Don't let construction workers think too much; they may injure themselves.

Apprentices and most Journeymen working on a construction job site are better off not thinking but simply following routines and patterns established by management based upon best practices. At first read, this sounds harsh, and yet it comes from our own experiences as a contractor operating multiple job sites with small crews on each from two to ten people; this one concept generated a lot of bottom-line profits and kept injuries very low.

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Topics: Business Process Management For Contractors, Winning Teams, Construction Productivity, Contractor Guidance, contractor delegation

Steady, reliable cash flow is crucial for the survival of your construction business – so taking steps to ensure your customers pay promptly is a key priority.

 

Debtor days refer to the length of time it takes clients, on average, to pay you for the work you've done. A higher number of debtor days means clients take longer to pay you. A lower number of debtor days means clients take less time to pay you, which means there's more cash available for your business to use. 

 

In the construction industry, debtor days can average as long as almost three months. Shortening that length can have a significant impact on your cash flow.

 

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Topics: Outsource, Do What You Do Best And Outsoure The Rest, Invoicing, Winning Teams, Clients, Contractor Guidance, contractor delegation

Most construction workers are good decent people who enjoy working with their hands making, building, repairing, remodeling, and fixing homes and commercial buildings.

 

Good construction workers will not tolerate chaos or unfair labor practices. They will try out many construction companies until they find a contractor with a system. Preferably with documented processes and procedures.

 

Desirable construction workers have these five traits in common:

• High Self Esteem
• Strong Work Ethic
• Always Learning
• Loyal To Family And Friends
• Law Abiding Citizen
  

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Topics: Hiring Employees, Outsource, Winning Teams, Contractor Guidance, contractor delegation

When you run your own business, it's tempting to take on every responsibility. There are many reasons for doing so: you want something done a specific way because you don't have the time to explain how to do it or because you're not sure someone else can handle the task. 

 

Delegating saves you valuable time and energy. Sharing duties with your team also fosters a sense of responsibility, engages them, and helps them develop their skills. 

 

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Topics: Outsource, Do What You Do Best And Outsoure The Rest, Winning Teams, Contractor Guidance, contractor delegation

As your construction business grows, it's essential to have trusted financial professionals managing your books and providing strategic financial advice. 

 

After all, the busier you get, the more complex financial management becomes - and the less time you'll have to maintain your books and try to make sense of all the data. 

 

However, many construction business owners are not sure of the differences between a construction bookkeeper, a construction accountant, a financial planner, and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - or whether hiring one or all of them makes the most sense.

 

Keep in mind that each branch of accounting serves a different function similar to how it works in construction. There are framers, rough carpenters, and finish carpenters, and all three work with lumber, yet in most cases, the skill sets to do everything are rarely found in the same person.

 

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Topics: QuickBooks Contractors Financial Reports, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Winning Teams, Contractor Guidance

Specialists Combine Synergy To Guide Construction Companies

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Topics: CPA, Bankers, Advisors, Winning Teams