Author Archives: Kevin

Keep some money for contingency – Don’t spend lavishly on buying heavy equipment

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Doing a business, one has to play with infinite risks. Because in every risk there lies opportunities and one needs to see those opportunities before they see the risk. No wonder one should also analyze the risk involved but that does not mean that he should avert from taking risk and forego those chances. Averting risk will also lead to losing of those opportunities that comes by it. Therefore it is said that one who takes more risk has more chances to earn but he should be careful enough to understand his risk appetite and that if he could sustain after taking that risk.

As far as the construction business is concerned, one needs to take special care when it comes to gaining momentum. At times he will be flooded with work but he should be careful to choose them keeping into consideration his ability to complete them on time and also the kind of heavy equipment he has in hand. Construction business will give you enormous opportunities to make money but it does not take much time for the tide to change. You won’t be able to figure out when the industry takes the beating and you start losing work. Well, this is the time when you will need the money that you have earned during the years to sustain your company. You can’t rely on your investors as they will also face the brunt of the market and will be short of money.

It is therefore very crucial that you keep a contingency fund while you are doing well in your business. Always keep on adding some money towards the corpus and make it look like a healthy sum so that the time you need the money you should not find it short of your needs. Another very common mistake that many owners of construction companies make is that they go on a buying spree. They keep on buying heavy equipment without even thinking if they would need it for any of their existing projects. Well, they are not aware of the possible danger that they may encounter. Any dip in the construction market will have a direct impact on their business and they will find it hard to keep it floating. Then they will begin with various cost cutting measures which was probably not required had they managed a contingency corpus.

Buy heavy equipment only when you see a pretty strong reason to back it or else it will turn out to be futile to go for such investments. It makes no sense to buy machines now at a higher price and then proceed with distress selling. So when the pasture is green for you, save as much as you can for days that might not be a comfortable one for the construction industry and buy heavy equipment only when you see a strong need for it. Analyze the situation well before you take a call. Do not fall prey to fancy gadgets and machines as you may not even need them in the first place.

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Make your heavy equipment worth for resale

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Many believe that heavy equipment has a good resale value but it mainly depends upon how you have used your equipment over the years. Ideally, heavy equipment is a long lasting thing and it does not require care round the clock. On the contrary, if proper maintenance and servicing is done at regular intervals then it will certainly last for years without any problem to its owner. Nevertheless, knowing the nature of the machine, many owners tend to use it in extreme rough conditions without even bothering to service it. Now that takes the toll on the machine and from there it starts giving problems. The owner needs to understand that if he wants the equipment to work properly then he also needs to take some effort in getting it serviced on a regular basis.

It may be simple to get a resale value for the heavy equipment but it is also important to keep your machine worthy to get a good resale value. If you want to list your item for sale you have to describe it well in the advertisement and must mention if there are any defects or issues with the machine. You should not skip that part and move to the next. The prospects would like to know more about the item before they make the decision to buy it. In case, if your machine is not up to the mark then you may not write good about it and that will deter prospective buyers to move away to the next listing listed by another seller. Though you are getting the viewership, it is not ultimately helping you to close the sale and it is all happening because you have not taken good care of your machine.

Employ a qualified operator:-

It makes more sense to pay more and hire a qualified operator who has good amount of experience under his belt and who can understand the machine better than anyone else can. Hiring a newbie may not be very beneficial to you in the long run as they may learn to drive the equipment and get the work out of it but will not understand if there is anything wrong in the machine and will only report it to you when it completely gives up. Hiring a newbie may cost you less as compared to an experienced one but down the line you will get to know the difference. Therefore, it is better to be cautious and spend a bit more rather than being sorry.

Give it to a mechanic once in every 2 months:-

Your machine may not need any maintenance work every day or every month but you should make it a point that you get it checked by an expert mechanic at least once in every 2 months. That will only help in increasing the longevity of the machine and when you feel that you want to upgrade it by selling the old one, you can expect a good price for it.

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Expanding construction business by ignoring your finances should be avoided

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After you have started your business, the next thing that runs in your mind is how you can expand it and what are the things needed to expand your business. However, with every expansion of business there also comes certain amount of risk that one needs to consider before they go ahead with their plans. It has been witnessed that people who are too quick in expanding their business are also prone to fall sooner. The reasons could be many but one very basic reason is that they skip the most important aspect and that is their financial stability.

Switching the focus to the construction domain, this industry is all the more volatile and it keeps on fluctuating once or twice every year. In this situation, it is very tough to foresee things and estimate anything accurately. People may tend to may numerous mistakes if they take the chance of estimating the market position and may fall flat on their faces. Moving steady may be the key but something that is more important is to know the reserves you have and if it is sufficient for the expansion plans that you have planned.

Expanding the construction business implies that you have to shell out good sum of money to acquire heavy equipment which is perhaps the most expensive item in your list. Other will be paying salary to the additional employees that you have to hire and taking care of all the other operating and non-operating expenses that usually happen in a business of this kind. So before you give a go to your plans, it is quite imperative to sit down and share a thought with your peers letting them know about your plans and chances that you have to take in order to materialize your plans.

Having a word with others on this subject will be very beneficial for you as you will come across many thoughts and ideas that did not strike your mind while you had to go through the thinking process. You can also get some real valuable advices from them that may change your plan a bit for good. Nevertheless, you will understand few intricacies that you probably missed and will work things out in your favor.

Discussing about the company’s finances with the financial department will also be beneficial for you as they will be in a better position to advice you on the current financial position of the company and if the company is ready to take any such risk which if does not work can prove to be quite drastic. You can ask them to prepare a report of the financial standing of the company and that will help you to have a bird’s view on where your company is standing.

It is only after you have gone through all these rigorous deliberations and consultations from the employees of various departments that you should take the final decision of investing in more money in your business or should wait for some more time.

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How to protect your heavy equipment against theft

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A construction business gives a lot of importance to its heavy equipment as they understand how crucial it is for the smooth running of the business and which is why they take every care to ensure that it works fine all the time. They take necessary steps to keep the equipment well maintained, service it at regular intervals and if they see a need to replace any of the faulty part with a new one, they do it immediately. But there is one particular thing which not all big construction businesses give due importance to and it is protecting their heavy equipment against theft.

There have been a lot of instances of theft in many parts of US and the number is simply rising. The cops are also having a hard time to get hold of the gang who is into this. So it becomes the responsibility of the owners to take utmost precaution of their equipment when it comes to theft. Please do not consider it to be a trivial matter. There is a parallel industry operating who are into selling stolen machines at a considerably cheaper rate. The modus operandi is fairly simple. They first lay their eyes on machines that are not sufficiently guarded. Once they have identified such equipment, they do a thorough study of the zone and chalk out a plan to get it out safely from the zone without letting anybody get a sniff of it.

Let us now talk about the solution. First and foremost once you buy heavy equipment, ensure that it is registered with National Equipment Register. They are the organization that preserves the databases of heavy equipment. So in case if your machine gets stolen, you can raise an alarm and let the cops know about it. The cops will then get the relevant information from the National Equipment Register’s office and will find it helpful to track down your machine.

It is also crucial to do a background verification of all your employees. It is not that your employees will steal the machine but they can turn out to be an accomplice. The gang ideally will first send one of its members to your company and will get employed as a laborer. But his main intention is to know how well you guard your equipment and will try to draw loopholes. Taking benefits of those loopholes they will hatch a plan and execute it before you even get to know anything about it. Therefore, doing stringent background verification is way too important.

You got to keep the jobsite well-lit at all times. Thieves can make good use of darkness and can steal away any heavy item. They are smart and therefore you got to be smarter. If possible, install heavy duty cams all around the jobsite whose visuals shall be monitored inside the security cabin so that they get to know who is doing what with the machine. Following these basic steps can help you in a big way to keep your heavy equipment safe.

How to buy second hand heavy equipment

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There have been often instances where you get a lot of construction projects but you are unsure if you can take them all. The issue is with the limited resources that you have at your disposal. You may not have sufficient manpower or heavy equipment to start working on the new project. Hiring additional manpower is no big deal as you can hire people in a matter of days but the real challenge will be with procuring heavy equipment. Construction companies always run tight on budget and when all of a sudden they get some new projects that they were not expecting can really leave them thinking if they should indeed agree to take them. Taking new projects means spending funds on buying heavy machineries and then to sit tight for months till you get any payments from the project givers. This actually makes your position vulnerable and can also give you thoughts to deny accepting the work.

Well, this entire situation may definitely sound to be quite challenging but there is a solution to it and that is to buy second hand heavy equipment. It is also amply simple to buy used machines at much lesser price than the market price for the new ones. First thing first, you can get in touch with the authorized dealer in your area and check if he has any used machine with him or if he knows anybody who is willing to sell second hand equipment. These guys often have information and they can pass it on to you. The transaction may happen by keeping him in the loop which means that he will take a cut out of the deal. However, you can be assured that you will get the best deal.

The next option is to check with guys in your circle if they know anybody selling used machines. If you need more than one machine, it is better that you stick to the dealer but if you are looking for just one machine, you can talk it out to guys in your circle and you may get some lead.

The third option is probably the best that one can avail. You can search for second hand heavy equipment on the internet and it will throw number of options to you. You do not have to compromise on anything out there since you have plenty of options and you can take your time to select the best deal. Just go through the description as you will get to know a lot about the heavy equipment through its description. You can then establish contact with the seller and close the deal if you like the stuff.

There is one more option which some people prefer to take. They get in touch with the guys who pick up old machines, refurbishes it by installing new parts that makes the machine run smoothly and can give a good fight to the new ones. They sell such heavy equipment at an unbelievably low price and therefore it does make some sense to buy machines from them. However, it is not much recommended one.

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Jobsite safety for cell phone usage

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Cell phones have now become an integral part of your lives and there is probably not a single day when you do not make use of your cell phones. Right from staying connected to finding ways on google, it is being used for every small purpose that we can think of. You can get the latest updates of your favorite sport or know about anything going on any part of the world all that is available on your cell phone. Life has become so comfortable with the utility of cell phones but there also lies a danger attached to it. There have been a numbers of accidents and deaths reported of people who were using cell phones and could not detect a possible threat coming towards them. They were so engrossed on their cell phones that they did not realize the threat approaching them and met with an accident that resulted to serious injuries and also caused death to many.

When accidents can become so rampant while you are on the road then imagine how manifolds the danger might increase when the same activity is performed on a construction jobsite. A construction jobsite is a place where accidents happen even when people are aware of their surroundings. Even after keeping their eyes and ears widely open, accidents still occur. Most of the accidents are avoidable and there are very few which are not. Now the main reasons why large number of accidents take place in a jobsite is people not aware of their surroundings and are deeply focused on something that they should not be. The most common is using cell phones.

It has been witnessed that people especially on the construction jobsites uses their cell phones during working hours. Now, some have to use it to communicate with people linked with the job. It may be perhaps part of his job but definitely not at the cost of risking his life. People tend to get lost while talking and are so occupied in the conversation that they forget about what is happening around them and if they are at all standing in front of or beside any substance that can turn into a potential risk to them.

Texting is another dangerous thing that people do on the jobsite. While you are texting something, your entire attention is on the cell phone and you tend to get completely disconnected with the outside world. You try to send some important message but you forget something that is more important than the message and it is your life. While you are talking you someone over the phone you still can see things around and in case if something approaches you, you can swiftly move away but while texting, you have no idea what is going on around you. You can just hear things but can’t see anything other than the stuff you are writing.

The best way out is to create a safe zone for people where they can enter and call people up. Make it a mandate that they can’t use their cell phones anywhere other than those zones. In this way, they can do safe texting.

Selling heavy equipment is driven by passion

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In order to do any kind of work, it has to be driven by passion. If there is no passion in a work, the end result will not be a fabulous one. You will not put that effort in your work if you do not have the passion for it and therefore you should do things that interests you and not out of coercion. Working as a salesman requires a lot of that component in you. If you do not have passion to sell things, you will perhaps have to find something else that suits you and when you are selling heavy equipment you need to be more passionate towards the stuff you are doing. You can achieve good results only if you like the job. For many the subject of heavy equipment does not comes with any interest. They find this topic to be very boring and when you start talking about earth moving machines, there is a tendency that it may drive away the interest of people. Such men are just not suitable for selling heavy equipment even if they can sell anything in this planet.

As a matter of fact, the subject of heavy equipment is indeed a boring one but guys who find it to be interesting, they can see their place in selling heavy equipment. Though it offers good money to the salesmen who are able to crack the deal, but this does not mean that the guy who feels bored by hearing about earth moving machines can find his place there. He can’t be a part of this profession just because it offers good money on a successful deal. He simply will not be able to survive in it for long. He will face a lot of hardships down his way which will make him realize that this industry is just not for him. However, for people who love to talk about heavy equipment and have the urge to learn more about it, they can see themselves as a part of this industry.

Selling heavy equipment requires lot of passion to do this work. Guys who love machines often experience tough time to sell machines. They feel that this is just not their cup of tea. However, there are also examples of people who have excelled like anything. They feel that they can’t do anything better than selling heavy equipment. Now this is the passion that is required to sell machines.

Selling is often considered as an art but it is believed that people who have mastered this art have at times found hard to sell machines. Selling cars is certainly different from selling heavy equipment as there may be more takers for cars but it will be only some industry specific guys who want to deal with heavy equipment. You can’t sell machines to anybody but to only those who need it and it is perhaps the passion that you have for this profession that will lead you to those kinds of men.

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What should I know when hiring someone to do grading work

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Unlike demolition work, grading is considered to be a work of an expertise. It is called the work of an expertise only because if it is not done accurately then the entire work goes for a toss and therefore it is quite important that you hire people who know what they are doing and also have good deal of experience in this form of a job. Experienced graders are hard to get as they are always engaged with some or the other contractors or construction companies. You will never find them out of work.

Also, there are many types of graders. Not everybody does all types of grading work. There are specialized men who do different kinds of grading. So let’s say that if you want to grade your lawn or for that matter a landscape then you need graders who specializes in landscape work but if you are looking for leveling roads and needs graders to cut the uneven land, then you perhaps have to check out some other grader who does that type of work.

Things that you should know when you hire someone for grading work are as follows.

How long he/she is in this business:-

Experience of a person doing a particular kind of job matters a lot. So when you got to do some grading work, you hire guys who have been in this business for years. Not just any guy from the construction background can work for you. You need expert men for this job and therefore hiring people who have loads of experience doing the same kind of job matters a lot. Just by the look of the piece of land, they will be able to estimate the cost attached to it and what heavy equipment they will require to do the job. Getting the same work done from a beginner will lead to some complications and there is a high possibility that you may not like his work once it is done. Similarly, he/she may not understand your requirements and will end it up in a complete mess.

Do not just rely on one vendor:-

There are many contractors who do grading work and they all have different price quotations. You got to select the best one out of them. This does not mean that the one who charges you less gets qualified to do the work. Some contractors may quote very less price but the quality of work will be too shoddy and you may end up regretting your decision to hire him. Therefore, price should not be the only parameter to qualify a person. Check their reviews if they have a website. People must have left their feedback there. You can go as per their review score and take a call. Alternatively, you may also consult someone from your family or friends who must have done a similar job and if they can advise you on this. The bottom line is you hire someone whom you believe can complete the work without letting you to complain on their work.

Construction business is all about accepting new challenges

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You be in any form of business, you will always be exposed to new challenges; at times from inside your company and most of the time from outside. It is very important that you know how to tackle those challenges and come out with flying colors. Every challenge brings 2 things along with it. One is an opportunity to do something really outstanding and the other is a calamity that has the ability to end your business forever. It is up to you how you take it up and work things to turn the challenge in your favor and turn it into an opportunity.

Construction industry is one of the many industries that have lot of thrills in it. It may give shivers to you but if you stand firm during the crisis, it will also reward you. Many people have taken their business from rags to riches and there are few who have stumbled badly and have fallen flat on their faces. People who were able to make it were go-getter and were not afraid of taking calculated risks. In other words, they took challenges as opportunities and made sure that they overcome all difficulties and shine like a star.

Few crucial things that one must keep in mind which will be helpful to accept challenges in the construction business.

Have a concrete strategy in place:-

In order to accept challenges, one must be ready for them in the first place. Laying down concrete strategy and working on them can help you in many ways to face any challenge in your business. You should be ready with a “Plan B”. Problems will come without giving a knock at your door but you will be able to surpass them only if you can foresee them and lay an appropriate plan to counter them. While you put up a strategy, take into consideration the minutest of things. You never know the stuff you leave turns out to be the most crucial part of your plan and things may go for a complete toss.

Try to have good rapport with your competitors:-

A wise man keeps his friends close but he keeps his enemies closer. Well, your competitors are not your enemies but you still got to maintain a good rapport with all of them. Not all competitors are bad and they understand that in order to survive in this business, they should remain united rather than tumbling by becoming an encumbrance for each other.

Try to maintain a strong financial standing:-

Challenges bring along a lot of pressure with it and no pressure is bigger than the thought of not able to face the challenge due to scarcity of finances. That will pinch you all throughout your life. Always ensure that your finances are in place and you have enough reserves to take care of any contingency. Be it buying some additional heavy equipment or deploying more workers for a new site, your financial requirements should be met at all times.

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Heavy equipment listed on Craigslist

With the introduction of internet, businesses have taken a new shape and most of the things are now happening on the net. You need to contact somebody or write a letter that needs to reach him immediately internet is the answer for that. Whatever information you are seeking, you can get it all on the net. It provides you with a wonderful virtual world that helps you to get anything under the sun. This has also helped the heavy equipment industry big time. People who are in the business of buying and selling heavy equipment can all come under one roof and accomplish their wants. It has given a wonderful platform to both the buyer and the seller.

There are number of websites that deal with buying and selling of heavy equipment but the one the ace the list is Craigslist. This website particularly deals with heavy equipment and if you are unable to find a machine is any website, you can expect to find it here. They are in this business for the last many years and are only getting stronger with every passing day. Many people have made millions with the help of this site. Though there are also some instances of fraud that took place under the name of Craigslist but it seems that the concerned authorities have taken this seriously and have streamlined the process of buying and selling.

Become a member of Craigslist:-

In order to list item on Craigslist, you got to become a member of this website. The registration is for free. However, if you list machines on the website, you got to pay an amount to the website and for every sale you got to pay some extra fees to them. Apart from that, it offers you the service of highlighting your listing so that it catches the attention of the viewers. You got to pay a very nominal price to avail this service. It seems that people who have availed this feature are more successful in selling their heavy equipment as compared to the ones who have not taken this up.

Protects the interest of both buyer and seller:-

Craigslist believes in protecting the interest of both the buyer as well as the seller. Sellers can’t get away easily by selling a faulty machine on this website. One complaint can ruin the prospect of the seller to list any more items on the website. This is the reason why sellers ideally stick to what they have described on the listing. They do not dare to sell faulty machines on this website or else they will not only lose the money but will also lose their reputation. On the other hand, buyers also can’t get away without paying for the machine. They have to pay the money first and then the seller ships the machine. The shipping cost and other miscellaneous expenses are worked out amicably between the buyer and the seller.

Overall, Craigslist has made a good reputation in the online business platform.

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