Category Archives: ups and downs

The ups and downs of the construction industry

If you are in some form of business you will always come across suggestions from veterans of the industry that you should save more during the ups and be conservative during the downs. It simply implies that when you are having a good time in your business you should try to preserve capital for the bad times and this rule is applicable for all the industry and every kind of business. This makes more sense in a volatile sector like construction. In the construction industry, you can’t ever guess when the downtime will begin.

As long as you have projects in hand and you are getting paid for it, it is all good for you but when things turn ugly, it does a huge impact on the overall industry and particularly to businesses. At times the industry as a whole is at its peak but due to some unforeseen situations, you do not get paid for your work. Now you can come across this situation no matter how well the industry is performing. It is absolutely not relevant to the performance of the industry. This can turn into a crunch situation where you need money desperately to carry out business activities on a different location.

Preserve capital by not overspending:-

We in our daily lives tend to spend to stuffs that we do not need much. In other words, we can still carry ourselves quite elegantly without the presence of a particular commodity. But since we have enough money to buy the stuff, we go for it. Something similar to this also happens in the construction business. If we have made good profits from the last few projects, we start to contemplate to expand our business for which we think of buying heavy equipment, hire more labor, increase the marketing team etc. This in turn will increase the operating cost exponentially which in no way is healthy for a growing business. On the other hand, one must try to preserve the capital that he has earned and invest it when he feels necessary. You can buy your business related products when you have enough need for it or else it will be just waste of money.

Take calculative risk:-

Business is all about taking risk at the right juncture. Industry experts say that the more risk you take the more is the chances for you to get better returns. Well, it should be put in this way. The more calculated risk you take, the better is the chance to earn good returns. Just because we all want to earn money in no time, does not mean that we should begin taking risk without giving a second thought to it. This can lead us to a bigger mess and is certainly not advisable. Before you take a big leap, understand what you are doing and what could be the repercussions. Understand both the pros and cons of your decision and please before you act and not after your act. It makes no sense to cry over spilled milk.