You may be getting your construction projects done with sheer willpower, but the lack of processes, business plans, and strategy will eventually wear you down. You can either keep on "Powering Through"- spend your life endlessly chasing details, missing appointments, suffer untold losses in cash flow and profits, or you can start developing a plan and work on your business.

 

Successful contractors improve processes all year long. Your construction company can benefit from an excellent system that other successful contractors are using now, which means there is no need to "Reinvent The Wheel." As your construction company grows and evolves, your processes can support the controlled and planned expansion.

 

Along with trying to keep on top of your construction business, the unfortunate reality is that most business owners don't take proper holidays. Usually, this is because their business relies on them, and they don't have the support to keep the business running without them.

 

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Systems And Processes, Business Planning For contractors, Contractor Tips, finance

Balancing customer experience and setting client expectations against your time and budget is a difficult task. It would be best if you had excellent planning, efficient project managing, and perhaps the right amount of staff working to keep customers happy, but not so many people that workers are standing around looking for things to do. 

 

If your customers have long wait times, that's good news for you initially—it means your business is popular. The bad news is that homeowners won't wait around forever for you to fix your time management issues. If they like your services, they'll be a bit forgiving, but too many long waits will send them to your competition.

 

For instance, when a homeowner decides to remodel their living space, they dream about how it will look and feel when it is done, but they have no idea what an emotional roller coaster is in store. 

 

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Systems And Processes, Business Planning For contractors, Contractor Tips, finance

If you're looking to grow your construction business, you might consider expanding your service offerings. Adding additional services is an excellent way to increase your profitability, diversify your income and expand your market. But there are essential things to consider before adding to your income streams.

 

First things first - find the money. If you don't have savings earmarked to fund your ideas, you'll want to make sure your "scaling my construction business" plan includes adequate financial planning. Applying to a lender for a business loan is one option. In this case, you'll want to include up-to-date cash flow reports, income statements, budgets, and projections in your plan for a potential lender.

 

If your construction business doesn't have a credit history, you may need to look at other options for financing your plans. Using a business credit card regularly and paying off the balance can help you build a good credit rating, which will help you prepare to apply for a loan down the road.

 

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Systems And Processes, Business Planning For contractors, Contractor Tips, finance

Starting a construction business means you'll compete with other companies that already exist. It's a good thing if you have a competition to go up against. Competition pushes you to be innovative. It also means there's an established community for your services.

 

What about if you're considered a veteran at this stage? Understand that you cannot outwork your competition forever because you will grow old and tired in time, and there will always be someone else who is newer, younger, and works cheaper than you can.

 

Being aware and mindful 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.

 

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Systems And Processes, Business Planning For contractors, Contractor Tips, finance

Every business needs a financial plan. Your financial plan gives you a way to monitor and review your cash flow, make adjustments to your spending, and anticipate any upcoming economic issues. It can also make you more prepared to request funding or find investors so you can bring more money into your construction business.

 

Although many business owners are aware that financial planning is essential, it is often overlooked. Without a financial plan, however, you could find your business doesn't make the money you expected it to—or you could wind up with unanticipated expenses and no way of paying for them.

 

If you are a contractor, you are most likely a "doer," someone who gets things done, not now but right now! When you see anyone not swinging a hammer, drilling holes, pouring concrete, laying carpet, putting paint on the walls, or a thousand other construction tasks, the first thing you think is they are wasting time and money, and you want no part of that nonsense!

 

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Systems And Processes, Business Planning For contractors, Contractor Tips, finance

Owning a construction company and being an employee requires different mindsets and attitudes or paradigms. Both positions are natural enemies and generate tension, leading to various diseases; mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual.

 

Construction workers live in the real world, where everything can be seen, heard, felt, tasted, and sometimes smelled. They can look around and see evidence of their activities. Their long-term time horizon in years past was two weeks, which is why most payrolls are paid every two weeks. With various check cashing and payday loan outlets, their long-term time horizon has been replaced with now and right now!

 

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Contractors Bookkeeping Paperwork, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Systems And Processes, Contractor Tips

Randalism: A Partnership is the only ship designed to sink.

However, we understand your preference, so I would like to talk about it in this blog post.

Joint ventures are a bit like change orders. They can be an incredible opportunity to make or lose much money very quickly. Almost as quick as betting money on a roulette wheel in a casino.

Joint Ventures have their own accounting rules. The devil is in the details. How costs and profits are shared among the participants depends on how the joint venture is structured and the terms of the agreement.

Contractors with annual sales of less than $10,000,000 often get together to work on a specific project. They find a friendly competitor to supply labor and equipment for a percentage of the job, hourly fee, or a flat number. This could technically be a "Joint Venture"; however, the time and scope are generally short and sweet. For example, a concrete contractor may have a large project requiring more finishers than on staff.

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Topics: Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Contractor Tips, construction business partnership, business partnership

Every business experiences slow periods when the market for their goods or services lessens and sales drop. Construction business owners like you might be tempted to view downtimes as unproductive or wasted, but there are ways you can make the most of your business during these seasons.

Here are five ways to ensure this time isn't wasted:

1. Take a good look at your business

When things are busy, it gets easy to fall into a habit of taking care of day-to-day tasks and forgetting your overall business picture. However, slower times are an excellent opportunity to step back from the daily grind and ask yourself if your business is still moving towards its goals, what opportunities or challenges are on the horizon, and whether it's time to try something new.

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Topics: Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Construction Company Cash Flow, Contractor Tips

Emergencies can happen in the blink of an eye. Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, and social media are all in the cloud. When disaster strikes, flood, fire, theft, earthquake, or a lousy bookkeeper deliberately destroying business records or computer crash, you are protected against data loss by these online programs. Buy another computer, set it up, and you are back in business.

 

What about your bookkeeping records? Your customer list? Who owes you money? Who you owe money to? Payroll? Employee advances and loans?

 

Job deposits, sales tax reports due, the list goes on. You never realize how much you depend on your Construction Accounting System until it is gone forever!

 

What about your contracts, bids, other hard copies of documents you use to operate and grow your construction company?

 

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Topics: Cloud Based Bookkeeping Services, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Systems And Processes, QuickBooks Desktop Cloud, QuickBooks For Contractors Cloud, Contractor Tips

You started your contracting company to have fun, be your own boss and do the work you love. Now you are overwhelmed with paperwork, and the fun is gone!

 

One of the biggest struggles construction business owners deal with is the overwhelming amount of paper they have to organize as part of their everyday tasks. Invoices, receipts, bills, contracts, client records, pay applications, insurances, licenses - are just among the few in the seem to be never-ending "etc."

 

Keeping essential documents is necessary. Most contractors go from one extreme to the other. One extreme is saving everything for decades, and the other is tossing everything out.

 

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Contractors Bookkeeping Paperwork, Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting, Systems And Processes, Contractor Tips