Tab # 2 – Budget for work. Budget for each change order.
Tab No. 3: accounting of income and expenses. The revenue portion would include the contract offer price, money received as deposits or when project stages are completed, and money received for exchange orders.
Tab # 4 – Task List Summary.
Tab No. 5: Checklist and Summary of Task # 5 Process 1.
Tab No. 6 – Checklist and summary of the process of task n. 2.
etc. Website design By BotEap.comLast Tab – Client signature letter on completed work along with a standard client signed testimonial letter, listing the client’s name and contact information along with permission to use the testimonial in marketing and as a reference for prospects customers. You will transfer copies of each testimonial letter to a separate folder that you will take with you to each prospect. This portfolio of testimonials may be the only thing that separates you from your competition. You assure potential customers that you take customer satisfaction very seriously and that you can make a difference. Give prospects the opportunity to reach out to previous clients for referrals. It also shows the perspective that your company is highly organized and well managed. Lastly, have a before and after picture of each job in this folder. Website design By BotEap.comFourth most important factor: strong business partnerships Website design By BotEap.comA group of competent subcontractors who have many years of experience working together is crucial to the success of a job. Every job is a team effort and having a strong network of competent people / companies available for every job, and who understand your business processes, will make every job run much more efficiently. Efficiency and competence = benefit in each job. Website design By BotEap.comFifth most important factor: project bidding process Website design By BotEap.comYou can be the best-trained and best-managed construction company, with a pool of talented subcontractors, and still go out of business if you don’t have a robust bidding process for every job. You can lose your shirt if you upload a job. How did this happen? The most common cause of under-bidding is not doing your homework and relying on your gut or unverified estimates rather than a fail-safe process of checking and verifying each cost within each task. The devil in any construction job is in the details. The bidding process looks a lot like your business plan for each job. You must identify each task, each cost, and each cost must be double checked and verified before bidding for the job. Where many construction contractors go wrong is in estimating the cost of the tasks incorrectly. These incorrect estimates are caused by erroneous assumptions about the tasks and associated costs, which is the result of not accurately checking and then re-checking each task and each cost. It’s a painstaking process, but you need to get the offer right. Your assumptions about each task should be examined not once, but at least twice. You already know the rule: measure twice and cut once. This adage is particularly true in the bidding process. Website design By BotEap.comSixth most important factor: marketing Website design By BotEap.comEveryone in the construction business understands the importance of referrals. Most of your leads come from referrals. But references are not enough. What should be part of your marketing tool belt? Website design By BotEap.com1. You must have an active website that includes customer testimonials front and center.
2. You must join a network group.
3. You must join a civic organization.
4. You must provide valuable assistance to non-profit groups in the local community (one or two will suffice).
5. You must have a regular bidding process for non-referral jobs.
6. You must have a process for direct shipments every week.
7. Must have business cards, posters posted in the workplace.
8. It should be advertised in the yellow pages or local newspapers.
9. Client testimonial folder (mentioned above).
10. You should have brochures. Website design By BotEap.comSeventh most important factor: stay current with technology and replace old equipment / tools Website design By BotEap.comYou must update your equipment and tools to keep up with technological changes. This will not only improve the efficiency but also the quality of each job. You must also replace old equipment and tools to complete each job efficiently and on time. You’ll know when it’s time to buy new equipment and tools when old equipment and tools begin to break down at a rate that causes recurring delays. When equipment / tools break down, it can cause cost overruns and result in late completions. No matter how good the quality of your work is, missing completion dates damages your reputation. Website design By BotEap.comEighth most important factor: hire based on your weaknesses Website design By BotEap.comNo matter how experienced you are and how skilled you are, there are certain things that each of us does well and certain things that we do poorly. Most of the time, the things we do well are the things we enjoy and the things we do wrong are the things we hate doing. A trained business owner will hire people who have strengths in areas where the business owner has weaknesses. For example, one of my clients came close to bankruptcy because he didn’t like having to make calls to collect accounts receivable. My advice to him? Hire someone who is an expert in collections. He took my advice and eventually his collection expert became his partner. Your business is thriving now. Hire your weakness and watch your business grow. Website design By BotEap.comNinth most important factor: errors and failures in documents Website design By BotEap.comThis should be incorporated into your work process folder / task list. You must learn from your mistakes. Mistakes should not be considered anything more than a learned experience. Document those bad experiences and incorporate them into your work process and to-do list folder so you never repeat them. Website design By BotEap.comTenth most important factor: change orders Website design By BotEap.comMost contracts include language related to change orders. Change orders are caused by many factors, which is beyond the scope of this article, but let me be clear in saying that you have to pay for each change order as if it is costing the job. You then need to process the change order (list each task and assign an end date for each task) and attach a task checklist for each new task resulting from the change order. Lastly, you must make the customer understand and approve the change order or you will not charge your full price for the work. Unfortunately, many construction contractors do a poor job of addressing change orders. They are reluctant to highlight it with the client and overlook it in an effort to avoid confrontation. The reason? The reality of change orders is not addressed up front when bidding on the job. Customers only see the price you gave them and that is in the contract. You must address the reality of a change order that occurs early in the bidding process and before the contract is signed. If a client understands early on that change orders occur frequently and that a change order will increase the price of the job, they will be less shy about confronting the client when it occurs.