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Are You Setting Up Systems Yet? You Better!

construction website design darren slaughterI’ve been doing a lot of consulting this year…a lot more than usual, and one of the biggest takeaways I can tell you that you need to get together in order to have a successful construction company is processes and standardization.

Accounting
Marketing
Ordering
Payroll
Inventory Management
Hiring
Firing
Job Site Safety

Everything needs a process…that way, you can go from job site to job site to job site and know shit is getting done.

Without it, I’ve seen clients spend thousands on leads, only to lose them, not follow up with them, not bid them properly. I’ve seen projects suffer from defects because the subs screwed up or the contractor let the homeowner order the materials…then they got the wrong materials and they tried to make it work anyway.

Everything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong!

Do the things you need to do to make sure your project goes off without a hitch. Or plan for the hitches.

There are too many things that, if left to chance, will go wrong within your business. Get the help you need from the experts in your group. If you don’t know any experts or have a group, get out and start going to local Meetups or reach out to your local SCORE chapter.

Once you have systems and processes in place, you can then run multiple projects with multiple teams and feel safe in knowing you have a plan.

When it comes to hiring, how are you onboarding, training and keeping good help? If you are like most construction companies, you are struggling with this part of your business. There are ways to improve your hiring process, you just need a hiring plan.

If you want the best, you have to offer the best.

Many construction companies offer medical, dental, 401K’s, paid vacation. How does your benefits package compare? You can’t hire and retain top talent with a shitty employment plan.

How’s your marketing plan? Do you have one? What have you done to improve your marketing strategies to bring in new business? How well are you managing leads you’ve already gotten?

It is time to stop throwing darts at a board, look around you and see what is working for other companies, then copy the hell out of it. I mean it, there are no more original ideas when it comes to trying to get the Jones’ to pick up the phone and hire you.

In the famous words of Picasso, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” If it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for us!

Carry inventory? Pick up a whole bunch of product because the manufacturer offers a great deal? How long is it going to take you to move it? What were the terms? If you got stuck, it wasn’t such a great deal now, was it?

My point is planning is the key. Go look at the biggest construction companies in your market doing what you do, they have a plan for everything. And a plan for that plan.

If your planning and process development isn’t up to snuff, we can work on that together while creating and overall marketing plan that makes the most sense for your business, just know that those who succeed, plan. So let’s do it!

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