Even if you know exactly how to run your construction company, unexpected obstacles, like a slump in the industry, may prevent you from expanding as planned. Even if the building industry has recovered from its Great Recession low point, the economy as a whole has altered significantly, leading to:
- wider scope of bids.
- Costs are kept to a minimum.
- Reduced earnings margins.
- Companies with no local presence that are branching out into new areas.
If you’re dealing with any of these issues, it may be difficult to get new contracts, finish projects on time, or even receive performance and bid bonds. Your business must be adaptable enough to quickly respond to these changing trends. Think about these three helpful suggestions for handling money problems:
1. Create more in-depth legal agreements
Your company is likely like many others in the construction industry in that it uses standard contracts produced by the American Institute of Architects or a comparable group. However, these standard contracts don’t often cover the complete spectrum of work needed for a particular endeavour, resulting to a large number of riders, addendums, and revisions. If the scope of a job is not clearly defined in the contract, your company may end up undertaking more work than was expected of it. Scope creep is a major reason why some businesses lose money on a project while others simply break even.
2. Make use of available financing alternatives for machinery
Leasing machinery instead of purchasing it is a simple strategy to reduce operating expenses. Equipment financing alternatives provide for greater financial flexibility and the reallocation of resources to where they are most needed, as opposed to forking over the whole upfront cost of the machinery required for daily operations. You can use the money for anything from paying employees to investing in a marketing campaign or simply paying your suppliers on time.
You can get the funding you need to weather any financial storms and keep developing your construction business by working with a captive finance company like Cat Financial.
3. Use an ERP system
You should think about introducing an enterprise resource plnning system. Your construction company undoubtedly has multiple jobs going on at once, all located at different sites, sometimes hundreds of miles apart from one another. Further, all of the critical monetary data relating to these initiatives is locked away in separate databases, internal computers, or even paper files. Project managers and site foremen lack the capacity to make educated judgments on the job without access to all of this information in real time. Overspending, missed deadlines, and unexpected changes in requirements are all possible outcomes.
With the help of a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, your company’s financial data may be stored in a central location and accessed from any internet-enabled device, anywhere in the world. Your construction company can save time and money by using an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to track costs, monitor timelines, and define project deliverables. Although there is an up-front cost associated with this kind of technology, it can help your business save money and resources in the long term.
If you aren’t quite ready to spend the money on an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, you can start by deploying a fleet management solution to track your equipment uptime, fuel consumption, geographic location, and operational patterns.
4. Obtain aftermarket replacement Cat components
Each type of truck, be it a light pickup, a medium-duty truck, or a heavy-duty truck, has its own specific parts that must be purchased separately. It is conventional wisdom to buy parts from an aftermarket parts manufacturer when doing routine maintenance or repairs. You probably don’t want to spend days and nights searching for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) part for your truck just so you can get back on the road. What matters most for price is when the part needs to arrive at its destination, how much it weighs, and how much you have to pay for shipping.
Aftermarket Cat parts components often function identically to their OEM counterparts. Finding a reliable, long-standing aftermarket service provider is essential if you want your truck to last as long as possible. Using these high-quality, cost-effective components, your vehicle will last longer. There has been a rise in the number of businesses offering aftermarket replacement components, and these businesses are increasingly widespread. It has already been shown that these companies often improve upon the original design, resulting in a product of superior quality.
In the automotive industry, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will produce a single item for a single model. It’s possible to find variants of the component made by different companies. In order to discover the aftermarket component that best suits your demands, you’ll have access to a large variety of manufacturers’ products.
There is a wide selection of aftermarket components available for your car. Products vary in their advantages and disadvantages, but there is no shortage of options. Due to a lack of suppliers, many products can be found for significantly less than OEM prices. These products are of the highest quality, so you shouldn’t have any reservations about buying them.
The internet isn’t the only place where things take place. You can find the information you need quickly and easily by using bulletin boards as a marketing strategy. You can post your ad on a bulletin board and then have people see it at truck stops, grocery stores, shopping malls, community centres, and even the lunchroom at your place of employment. Also, while you’re out shopping for food, pick up a copy of a free newsletter (like the green sheet) that features advertisements from local businesses. Many businesses may post their cards on community bulletin boards. Pick up a business card from a company that sells replacement components and give them a call. If you don’t call and ask, you won’t know for sure if this is the right spot.
The automotive business produces a plethora of publications, from periodicals focused on consumer vehicles to those dedicated to everything from restoration to racing. There is likely a publication out there that can fill you in on aftermarket component manufacturers. Try to track down the author of any in-depth pieces you find on the topic of automobile restoration.