Construction Company owners like you have probably experienced life-changing events in the past few years, as many of our clients did. Are you struggling to keep your construction business afloat? Do you find yourself facing the same issues over and over again? It's common for construction businesses to meet various challenges, but if you're not addressing them properly, they can quickly become pitfalls. 

 

1. Poor Cash Flow Management 

 

One of the biggest challenges for construction businesses is managing cash flow. You need cash to buy materials, pay workers, and keep your business running. However, you may be in a cash crunch if you don't correctly deal with your cash flow. To avoid this, you should create a cash flow forecast and regularly update it. This will help you anticipate cash flow issues and take steps to address them before they become a problem. 

 

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Topics: Profit and Growth Strategies For Contractors, Leadership Styles, Project Management, Construction Productivity

As a construction business owner, improving productivity is essential to your company's success. But you may often find yourself pulled in different directions by competing responsibilities. At some point, we all experience that.

 

Classifying tasks and tackling the most time-consuming ones can feel daunting. But why is it so hard for us to start – or even finish – seemingly insignificant tasks? Why do these tiny tasks become the bane of our existence, tempting us into procrastination limbo? 

 

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Topics: Profit and Growth Strategies For Contractors, Leadership Styles, Project Management, Construction Productivity

In the construction industry, communication takes many forms, including written reports, drawings, emails, and face-to-face meetings. Each form of communication has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. For example, written reports and illustrations provide a permanent record of information, but they may not be as effective in conveying complex ideas as face-to-face interactions. 

 

Understanding how construction business owners and project managers, like you, if you do both (a one-person company), adapt to their environment, and facilitate procedures could make your company run smoother because there is no money in workplace chaos.

 

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Topics: Leadership Styles, Construction Project Managers, Contractor Leads, Contractor Tips, Project Management, Project Management For Construction

If you have been lucky enough to encounter generous people, you understand they have a unique gift for garnering the respect and admiration of individuals around them. When you are a leader, having a positive relationship with the people who follow you is a huge asset you cannot put a price on. 

 

In the construction business, generosity and helpfulness are two fundamental traits that can make a business successful. When contractors are willing to share their knowledge and expertise with others, it creates a sense of community and fosters growth and success for everyone involved. Additionally, when contractors are generous with their time, resources, and even their finances, it can significantly impact the success of other businesses and individuals. 

 

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Topics: Leadership Styles, Construction Project Managers, Contractor Tips, Project Management, Project Management For Construction

If you feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of technological gadgets, never mind apps and other digital "solutions,"; you're not alone. Technology sprawl and the rabbit hole of more and more information available all the time makes productivity—and healthy downtime—a real challenge for many of us.

Although we may be quicker at completing redundant tasks, more time is wasted managing all our different apps and technologies—and more of us live in a near-constant state of distraction.

An epidemic of distracted workers

Maintaining focus on the job is increasingly difficult in the era of social media, chat apps, games, and the ability to search for anything at any time—whether related to the task at hand or not.

 

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Topics: Project Management, Construction Productivity, Construction Systems And Processes, Boost Construction Profitability

Small business owners spend an average of eight hours monthly performing payroll functions. That's 12 business days a year that could be spent generating sales, prospecting new business opportunities, improving products or services, or servicing customers.

Upgrading or changing your payroll system comes with a ton of attractive benefits. Saving time and money, making everyone's account more manageable, and better integration are all excellent reasons to consider a change.

But if the switch is mishandled, the results can be catastrophic and lead to long-lasting problems. Read on for tips on avoiding a disastrous payroll system migration.

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Topics: QuickBooks For Contractors, Construction Bookkeeping, Business Process Management For Contractors, Construction Project Managers, Construction Project Managment, Project Management, Project Management For Construction

In the past, Construction Project Managers were laborers or served an apprenticeship in one of the skilled construction trades and were promoted to foreman. This meant many people were more comfortable in manual labor without management skills. And when "things" were put in charge of "people," the results were not usually favorable.

Because of this, many construction companies failed and went out of business due to the Cost of Chaos in their businesses. And it is still happening today.

In the late 20th century, construction and construction management were separated into individual disciplines, each with its methodologies, terms, and definitions.

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Topics: QuickBooks For Contractors, Construction Bookkeeping, Business Process Management For Contractors, Construction Project Managers, Construction Project Managment, Project Management, Project Management For Construction

Construction business owners already have a time-consuming and challenging job running their business. If their business is open five days a week, they usually need the weekend to catch up on paperwork, pay bills and manage any tasks they didn't get to during the week. 

 

For those with a seven-day-a-week business, there's even less time off. They often feel the need to be onsite whenever the company is open to deal with unanticipated issues, help the staff out, and ensure all tasks are completed. 

 

Being onsite seven days a week isn't healthy or productive, however. It can cause burnout and result in errors being made. It affects the construction owner's personal life and quality of life, not to mention their overall well-being. 

 

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Topics: Systems And Processes, Construction Project Managment, Project Management, Contractor Operating Tips, accountability, Construction Accountability

You’ve probably heard the maxim that it’s better to work smarter than harder. Working smarter means allocating your time, energy, and money so vital tasks get done more efficiently, freeing up your time.

 

Too many construction business owners think they must keep working harder—taking on more responsibilities and working longer hours to succeed. It makes sense because you’re responsible for your business, but that route leads to work overload and burnout. Ultimately, your business will be unsustainable if you keep pushing yourself to work harder.

 

It doesn't matter how many times you are knocked down; it only matters that you learn your lessons, get up, and go again. Some lessons we already took note of years ago, having owned and operated our construction company. By building a system and gaining insight from us, you can pick up from our mistakes which you don't have to go through and can start avoiding before it comes crashing down. 

 

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Topics: Systems And Processes, Construction Project Managment, Project Management, Contractor Operating Tips, accountability, Construction Accountability

As much as we plan, it would be best if you were flexible, adaptable, and reliant. Things happen that are beyond your immediate control. Those of you who want a predictable environment are employees working for a large employer where schedules are fixed and doing the same things every day.   

 

It was a different mindset when you became a Construction Business owner. You wanted to be independent, and part of being independent is that there is no one telling you what to do or when to do it. Your suppliers and government agencies direct you and impose fines and penalties when you get off track.

 

Proactive versus reactive are the two methods of getting something done. I find everyone works in a combination of both, I included. Proactive is scheduling and doing everything ahead of time. Nothing is ever waiting until the last minute. Reactive is more emergency-driven and are things that need to be done now.

 

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Topics: Systems And Processes, Construction Project Managment, Project Management, Contractor Operating Tips, accountability, Construction Accountability