Times were tough, so Remodeler John decided to lower prices below those of his competitors. He promoted a charge-out rate 20% below the industry average, explaining that his overheads were lower than those of larger companies.
The turning point came after advice from his mentor. "You're selling yourself short, John," said the mentor. "With your qualifications and experience, you should charge at least as much as other businesses – if not more. I understand your marketing strategy, but I don't think clients see it that way. They are more likely to interpret lower costs as lower value and quality. In your industry, confidence goes a long way, so you shouldn't be afraid of marketing yourself at a price that reflects your expertise and experience."
Then came the call from his accountant. "Aren't the sales figures great?" said John, getting his bit in first. "Yes," said the accountant, "impressive sales indeed. That's the good news. The bad news is that the business has actually lost money over the last quarter."
This was how John learned that trading for sales and trading for profit could be different. Chasing sales revenue is fine, provided your prices give you a sustainable profit. John hadn't checked his costs for some time, so the unwelcome news from the accountant came as a shock.
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Topics:
Growth Coach,
Bookkeeping For Remodel Contractors,
Remodel Contractor Coach,
Profit and Growth Strategies For Contractors,
High Profit Repeat Construction Clients,
Bookkeeping Services,
Pricing Jobs,
Trading for Profit,
Trading for Sales
Every day you make financial decisions about your company, which affect how successful and sustainable your construction business is. If you're responsible for the bookkeeping and all the paper management (bills, receipts, estimates, invoices), you could be making errors that affect your decisions. Because of an incorrect decimal place, you may think that you have more money in the bank than you do. Or you may not fully understand how a decision today affects your business tomorrow.
Keeping up with paperwork is a typical construction business time waster we noticed in more than thirty years in the industry. Doing your books often winds up costing you more money in the end, not to mention the time and energy that goes into a task you despise or, at the very least, don't fully understand.
This is one area that many construction company owners hate to be part of but still choose to take responsibility for.
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Topics:
Bookkeeping Services,
Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting,
Technology For Your Construction Company,
Construction Systems And Processes,
Contractor Guidance
There was a time when a contractor put a simple ad in the paper or a line listing in the Yellow Pages, and they would have more leads than they could handle. It was the only way to go, and the contractors who insist on that and "Word of Mouth" do not survive.
Could those contractors have avoided failure?
I believe they could have. This article explores the top reasons construction businesses fail and the three key questions that every contractor like you needs to ask to prevent failure. It would be best to answer these questions to provide a clear path to your continued and future growth and success.
Contractors who did not move from simple ads that had always worked, and evolved a Marketing Plan made the same mistake other failed companies and brands made. They were unable to Innovate, Reinvent, and Evolve by having a deep understanding of what business they were in, who and what they were competing with, and by challenging themselves to understand their actual expertise.
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Topics:
Builders Bookkeeping Services,
Accountant,
Bookkeeping Services,
Construction Accounting,
Contractor,
Contractor Tips,
Contractor Operating Tips
I will start by quoting a short sentence found in the all-time best-seller "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth" That is an acronym; take the first letter of each word and put it together to form a different word. "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.." there is more to that, and the point is that concept applies to accounting.
How many times have you hired someone with the expectation they knew how construction works, and then you found out they did not have a clue about it or your particular type of construction? It happens all the time, and the first thing that crosses your mind cannot be posted on this blog. We know how much you would like to take action and fix it immediately. But before you do all that, let's go back to understanding roles to know which one you need.
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Topics:
Builders Bookkeeping Services,
Accountant,
Bookkeeping Services,
Construction Accounting,
Contractor,
Contractor Tips,
Contractor Operating Tips
Contractors, by nature, are tenacious, resilient, and have a tremendous amount of "Grit And Determination To Succeed," which means they are not easily disturbed or prone to react hastily or rashly at the first sign of trouble. This is just one of the many qualities I sincerely admire about these remarkable men and women.
Like you, we have callouses on our hands, having owned and operated construction companies, and some of us have served an apprenticeship in one of the construction trades. In other words, when it comes to owning, managing, and making a substantial amount of money with construction and contractor service companies, we know what we are talking about.
Incompetent bookkeepers can destroy your construction company and your finances. Unfortunately, until a contractor has gotten to know us, they tend to think of us as just another contractor's bookkeeping service. This means some contractors think we are crazy to suggest that any trusted employee, especially an in-house bookkeeper, would steal money from their company, so they ignore us until it is too late.
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Topics:
Builders Bookkeeping Services,
Accountant,
Bookkeeping Services,
Construction Accounting,
Contractor,
Contractor Tips,
Contractor Operating Tips
Have you been in business as a construction contractor or specialty contractor for a while, and now you are wondering what your construction company is worth?
Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it appears. If you are like most contractors, you learned a trade, skill, or craft, and after a while, you decided to go into business for yourself and make "The Big Bucks," which was one of the happiest days of your life. I've heard It said that boat owners experience two of the happiest days in their lives; the day they bought their boat and the day they sold it.
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Topics:
Builders Bookkeeping Services,
Accountant,
Bookkeeping Services,
Construction Accounting,
Contractor,
Contractor Tips,
Contractor Operating Tips
If you ask 100 business owners what they like least about running a business, the chances are good that bookkeeping will rank high on the list. It's an annoying and frustrating chore that takes up much time and is easy to put off until tomorrow.
Moreover, Construction Companies have unique bookkeeping needs. Some bookkeepers and bookkeeping systems may cost you more than they are worth in salary, fees, and loss profits because you cannot get QuickBooks reports and financial reports when you need them. Chances are, you are suffering from bookkeeping pain, and your bookkeeper or accountant is overwhelmed trying to figure out how to do construction accounting.
Good bookkeeping leads to informed decisions. Avoiding your bookkeeping is dangerous, however. For example, not knowing your construction company's financial situation can result in a series of missteps that could ultimately cost you your business.
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Topics:
Builders Bookkeeping Services,
Accountant,
Bookkeeping Services,
Construction Accounting,
Contractor,
Contractor Tips,
Contractor Operating Tips
Keeping track of sales, earnings, expenses, and purchases are fundamental to your construction business's overall health and sustainability. Effective bookkeeping produces the data you need to evaluate your current practices, anticipate challenges, and set attainable future goals. But despite their proven importance, many business owners dread and avoid accounting tasks.
Smart Contractors know their time is more valuable spent meeting prospective clients, putting together bids, managing job sites, and many other things other than bookkeeping. So they find someone else to do it.
Any bookkeeping and accounting firm that does not know how to calculate complex algorithms that take into account fluctuations in the workload and generate a monthly fee that is fair to you and them they need to go back to school and take those courses on Decision Modeling, Statistical Analysis, and Business Process Management.
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Topics:
The Contractors Account,
Bookkeeping Services,
Construction Accounting,
contractors bookkeeping and accounting,
outsourced construction accounting and bookkeeping,
Accounting Software for Contractors,
Contractor
If you are a contractor, you know what to look for when you need to hire skilled construction workers. The longer you have been in construction, the more experience you have including a sixth sense about who is likely to be a good fit for your construction company team and who is not.
You can spot wanna-bees, clowns, and firebrands in an instant, and you know that if you are thinking about firing someone; you are already fifteen minutes too late!
99.99% of Construction is "Tangible" which means you can judge it using your five senses. You can See, Hear, Touch, Smell and Taste it and you know when it is good or bad.
99.99% of construction accounting is "Intangible" including financing, taxes, payroll processing, payment applications, financial statements, cash management which means you may have to rely on your gut-feeling to know when someone perhaps is not a good fit.
I have a deep background both in construction, having owned and operated successful construction companies and construction accounting.
Just so we are clear, if you suspect I want the opportunity to work with you, you are 100% right! But, I know what you need is proof that I know what I am doing so let me condense several decades of experience into these twelve warning signs you hired the wrong contractor bookkeeping service.
Here are these twelve Signs You Hired The Right Contractor Bookkeeping Service
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Topics:
Contractor Bookkeeping Services,
Bookkeeping Services,
Bookkeeping Services Compared
"The great obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge."
- Daniel J. Boorstin
Over The Past Few Decades We Have Heard And Read Some Really Good
Construction Bookkeeping Myths And Legends And Here Are A Few
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Topics:
Contractor Bookkeeping Services,
Bookkeeping Services,
Emergency Accounting
