It’s no secret that you have to know your trade (or if you’re a general contractor, all of the trades) to be successful. No need to state the obvious or dwell on it.
But these days, there are essential ingredients for success in construction:
Communication
You have to communicate with:
- Your customers
- Your vendors
- Your employees
- Other contractors
If you’re not constantly communicating the right information to all of the above, your business will slow down when it needs to keep growing. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but if you choose the right time of day to call, e-mail, IM, etc., to the right person, the chances you will be successful at asking the right question or getting the right answer increase.
Obviously, other contractors and most of your vendors (including subcontractors) are available earlier in the day. Your employees are available at known times. And the customers can be called a little later unless you know otherwise.
It’s easy to overlook the necessary communication with your employees. But you can learn a lot about your customers and vendors from them if you ask.
Organization
Maybe the hardest thing for contractors to learn is good organization. It’s not necessary when you’re coming up as someone else’s employee. Make the time to get organized and stay organized. It will improve all parts of your business if you know where everything is and how to reach it. Appointments and finances are key to this area.
Consistency
One of the things you value most in an employee is consistency. And it works in every direction. Between you and your customers, between you and your vendors and between you and your employees. It may seem like a burden or a chore to “be predictable”, but the hidden rewards are there. When people know they can reasonably count on you to pick up the phone, answer an e-mail, show up on time to an appointment, be in the office for a period of time every weekday, they are more tuned in to your needs.
Documentation
Maybe it’s an unhappy part of modern business, but it’s a fact: if you don’t write something down in a known place, the fact that you didn’t will come back to haunt you. And if you have a signed contract, good contract documents and plans, RFIs, purchase orders, subcontracts, daily field reports, notes to the file about exceptions, all with someone’s name on them as the responsible party, disputes are much easier to resolve quickly. It doesn’t mean that you have to be the responsible party on each document, just that there has to be a responsible party.
Use Technology
Another fact of modern business is that using technology saves money. Because government agencies and insurance companies have doubled the amount of documentation required in the last 5-10 years, using computers is the only way to produce this documentation at a reasonable cost. You will have to increase the number of overhead employees as you grow, but any given employee can produce a lot more work if given the right tools and training. It’s not cheap, but it works.
Develop Systems
The more systematic approach you can take to your business, the more jobs you can attract and finish. It may be worth the cost to ask someone to help if it’s hard to do this on your own. Systems for estimating, sales, production, finance, documentation and reporting will pay for themselves many times over during a multi-year period. It’s not cost-effective to not grow. Small businesses that stay small can do well in good times, but it’s a lot harder in bad times to weather the storm.
But How Do You Do All Of This?
Set priorities and live them. How else are you going to have time to do everything, and still spend time on things which mean a lot other than work (like family)? Obviously, your customers and prospects are priority #1. After that, you have to ask yourself “what are my priorities”, write down the answers, and stick with them. Keep asking yourself: “is this a good use of my time? is it moving me closer to achieving my goals? am I doing what I should be doing?” Own your priorities. If you keep making exceptions and putting out fires, you will always be making exceptions and putting out fires.
Time Management
Please see my article: Time Management
At this point, your time is more valuable than money. Spend it wisely.
Please contact me if you would like to learn more about instituting a comprehensive training process.