Author Archives: Kevin

7 Simple Tips for Young people starting a career in Construction

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When one thinks about beginning a career in the construction sector, he needs to be pretty sure what he is getting into because though this industry rewards people who work hard to achieve success, it also punishes those who are not able to perform. So one has to be sure which side he wants to be in. There is no rule book that one can follow to make a career in the construction business; it is just that they need to be patient enough and follow what is right and ethical. They won’t be able to taste success in a year’s time. They got to work hard and if they feel that things are not working right for them, then they need to work harder. Follow the right path, devote yourself completely and you will see things working out for you.

Give a thought before you finally pull the trigger:-

You should not want to make a career in the construction domain just because you see your friend’s dad making huge sum out there or you see one of your relatives doing good in his business. That should be a motivating factor for you as they all must have worked extremely hard to get to the place where they are now but that does not mean that you should do exactly what they did. You can get success in anything that you do provided you give your 100% to your work. So before you decide about walking in this industry, think if you really want to stay here for your entire life or else you will end up wasting couple of years of your life into this.

Know more about heavy equipment:-

Knowing about heavy equipment is very important if you want to be in this business. You should know which machine is used for what purpose and accordingly you can take decisions on procuring heavy equipment.

Check your finances before you go for any procurements:-

Starting a business in construction sector is no child’s play and it requires huge amount of investments. You therefore need to check your finances before you go ahead with any procurements of construction machines. You also need to keep into deliberation the operating and non-operating expenses that may incur while you are active in your business.

Hiring competent operators is the key:-

Ensure that you hire competent operators who are experienced in working with different kinds of heavy equipment. They are the ones who also know what needs to be done to keep the heavy equipment healthy.

Try to generate contacts by picking up small projects;-

Since you are new to this business, it is pretty evident that you will not be able to bag big projects as the giver won’t have the confidence in you. Simultaneously, it will not be feasible for you to handle big projects if you do not have any experience in handling any projects. It will be complete chaos. Therefore, pick up small works and try to complete them on time. This will help you to gain experience and simultaneously you will also develop contacts.

Be honest and ethical to your work:-

Honesty and ethics are very important in a business where you are dealing with your client’s trust. Be honest with your work and maintain ethics while conducting our business.

Engage with your employees:-

Always maintain a good rapport with your employees as they are the ones who will work hard with you to give a good shape to your business.

 

 

Become heavy equipment technician and earn a rewarding career

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If we look into the spectrum of the construction industry or the heavy equipment sector, we can see immense opportunities for people who can get into it during their early life. They will benefit the most as they will get a lot of time to learn things and understand the zone that they want to marvel. It is true that the heavy equipment domain is quite big and complex and it is simply not possible for anybody to learn everything and therefore what can be done is simply know what you are interested in doing and work on that all your life. This will make you the expert in that domain and will also help you to earn a rewarding career. Simultaneously there are been a never ending demand for professionals who have their expertise in the field of heavy equipment and who are far better technicians.

We will be talking in length about how becoming a technician can earn you a rewarding career and make you the man that you have always wished to become.

Construction companies are on look of good technicians:-

Every construction company wants their machines to work at all times. They however do not spend much time on maintaining it but certainly expects a lot from it. As a result of this, there are high chances of them breaking down. Now if a machine breaks down, it directly impacts the work in that department and also to a certain extent the monetary part of the project. No work for a day can make a huge impact on the finances of a company who are handling big operations. This has resulted too many companies hiring heavy equipment technicians whose basic job will be to keep the equipment maintained and ensure that they all are in working condition all throughout the year. In case, if they see any problem pertaining to the machine, report it to the next guy up in hierarchy and get it resolved.

Knowing the importance of these technicians, the construction companies are always in hunt of good experienced men who can really make a huge difference as far as getting the issue resolved. They are indeed ready to pay them a fat package for their services. Unfortunately, they severely experience a shortfall of such men which has invariable increased their demand.

Can open a workshop of your own:-

Heavy equipment technicians who are pretty knowledgeable to this profession and have worked with almost every kind of machine do not wish to work with any construction companies. On the other hand, they find it better to open their own workshop and run their business from there. In this way, they become their own boss and do not have to share the income with anybody apart from his employees. So the plan is pretty simple. You become a technician, work for some company and gain experience and then if you feel like doing a freelancer job, you are free to do so.

Modern heavy equipment are the need of the hour in the construction business

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The construction business has always been a competitive zone and it has been observed that more and more people are getting into this industry making the competition all the more difficult. With new competitors in the market who are ready to take bigger risk, the one with more experience are having a tough time dealing with the fact that there is an urgent requirement of sophisticated heavy equipment to sustain in the competitive environment. There is only thing that can keep you above from the rest and that is technologically advanced machines. Your machines should be capable of doing work that others take days to complete and if you possess such machines then you have more chances of getting big projects that has huge profit margins. At the end of the day, it is all about the quality of work that you give to your clients that will decide the existence of your company.

Follow the best brands in the market:-

Technologically advanced machines are manufactured by many heavy equipment companies. However, the difference lies in the quality of those machines. Not every machine manufactured by different set of companies will deliver in the same manner. Some will last long enduring the same wear and tear and others will give away sooner. So you have to decide which one will be yours. Often the heavy equipment manufactured by the top brands lasts longer than their counterparts and therefore that should be your first choice. You can then do your own research and nail the one that suits your requirements. However, it is critical that you go for the top brands and not with companies that does not have significant name in the heavy equipment industry. Other than that, you can expect decent resale money if you sell machine of branded companies but can’t expect the same from a non-branded one.

Though expensive but worth the price:-

The technologically advanced machines are quite expensive given the ease and comfort it provides to the user. It is agreed that such machines are not affordable to everyone but at the same time also not beyond the reach of people who seriously want to upgrade their arsenal. The user will undoubtedly find it to be expensive but at the same time they will also feel that it is absolutely worth the price. If it is an absolutely out of budget case, one can opt for the smaller version of such machines. They will not cost much and also will be within the reach of many. It can act as a substitute for the larger version.

Real comfort for the operators:-

It is the operators who go through the pain of operating the machine. They have to take immense care when they are working with equipment that is not much advanced. Any mistake from their end can result in a big casualty. They will always appreciate if they are given machines that are simple to operate and does not need too much of their attention. They call them intelligent machines and they need such machines for work.

Volvo Articulated Trucks

Trucks have always been considered as one of the most integral component in the heavy equipment segment. The importance of trucks is required every time and everywhere no matter what the circumstances are. Be it a rough weather or a smooth one, trucks are always expected to haul materials from one place to another. Most of the time, It is needed to haul heavy equipment as they can’t be driven from one state to another. They need to be carried upon a truck to be transported. However, the trucks that are meant to carry heavy equipment and the one that carries debris are not one and the same. There are varieties of trucks that are available in the market and each of them is designed for a specific purpose. So you can’t just buy a truck and use it for all your work. It just does not function that way.

Heavy equipment manufacturing companies are also into production of trucks but the company that is renowned in producing articulated trucks is Volvo. It is tough to beat the market leaders and in order to put your product in front of the audience you need to bring something exceptional. This is how you can beat the rest who have capitalized the heavy equipment industry for years. Volvo has proven its metal well as far as articulated trucks are concerned and is producing some of the finest trucks that are being used by numerous construction and mining companies all over the world.

Volvo is considered to be the King of Productivity when it comes to producing trucks. They have recently come up with A40G FS articulated truck which has succeeded to become the eye candy of major companies. It is basically a dump truck that is used to dump materials in the dump-yard. However, it is installed with complete hydraulic front and rear suspension. This actually allows the trucks to move at a high speed and still be in control both when it is loaded as well as unloaded. The new suspension system that Volvo has come up with provides enhanced productivity and also ensures that there it offers maximum comfort to the driver even in rough terrain.

Another intrinsic feature of Volvo articulated truck is the spacious cab that it offers to the driver with superb visibility. The inside of the cab is well built and importance has been given to ensure that the driver is able to drive the truck with maximum ease and it does not become an arduous affair for him. All around visibility is something quite imperative for a driver when the weather or the terrain is not such a convenient one. Also it minimizes the risk of an accident since the driver is able to make out things that may close too close to the truck.

It is also installed with a fire suppression system that gets automatically activated the moment it detects fire inside the engine bay. This system can be triggered both inside and outside the cabin and ensures that the truck does not incur lot of damage.

Do not spend all your reserves for buying heavy equipment – Take a loan instead

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When you are in the construction business, it is very important to keep your reserves intact and not spend the entire sum buying heavy equipment. The money that you make from your business helps you to run the business and also allows you to buy some machines that are much needed. However, it is also important to understand that these construction equipment are too expensive and one should not utilize all the reserves in buying machines. They should rather look out for options that can be adopted instead of clearing the reserve amount from your account.

If the need of the heavy equipment is too urgent then you should probably look for taking a machine on rent. You will a lot of people willing to rent their machine. Here you do not have to shell all that you have in your reserves to get the stuff. You can pay the rental amount to the giver on each and every month till the contract expires. The rental amount must be agreed upon by both the parties and if you see a chance to negotiate the amount, do not hesitate to do so.

However, if you feel that you may need the machine for your future projects as well and you consider it to be an integral part of your project then you can opt to buy it. Here you have 2 options, either you can buy a used one or you can go for a brand new machine. The used machine will definitely cost you less than a brand new one and hence if you feel that you want to content yourself by buying an used equipment then you got to start looking for sellers who want to sell their machines. Once you ready for the purchase, the next crucial thing that you should do is always pay a small portion of money from your reserves as down payment. The rest of the money should be borrowed from some organized financial institution.

Though you have to pay some interest on the amount you have borrowed but that will not lead to the complete depletion of your financial resources. You will still have money to run the company which is the most needed aspect when you have a construction business at hand. You always got to ensure that you have parked sufficient money for the smooth functioning of the company. Your employees should get their salaries on time and you should carry on with the same goodwill that you have earned over the years.

Before you go for the loan, do some research on the banks that offer business loans and at what rate of interest are they offering the money. They may have some other terms and conditions that one needs to know before they end up taking a loan from them. There may be certain hidden costs which they will come up once you have taken the loan. So try and read the reviews of their existing customers. If they are happy and content with the services of the bank and if they recommend others to go with it, you can take their advices seriously.

Construction industry is rewarding – Don’t let other to eat away your business

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We all want to make good money and want to make it real quickly. This is probably the reason why we choose industries that are more rewarding than others and stick to it so that we can grow our business like anything. However, in the entire process we should not forget the fact that in order to set up a business, it takes hard work, determination and a good strategy to ensure that you keep away your competitors from taking away any pie of your business.

It is pretty obvious that the industry that pays us dearly is not restricted to few businessman and others would also want to join in. So you never know from which way you will find a competitor coming up and latch on to your clients thus affecting your business. Thus it is important that while you are running your business successfully, you also keep an eye on the activities of your competitors and check if there is any new one getting in or any existing getting out of the industry.

One of the industries that have given huge profits to its owners is the construction industry and many people want to give it a shot in this sector. Though it is no child’s play to start a construction business and require huge investments, people still flock in to try their luck and it has been often seen that they hook on with this sector for few years, take up some projects and if things click for them they continue with it or just exit when they feel they can’t move any further. So if you have a set business and you see any newbie flocking in your territory, you got to ensure that he does not eat a big piece of your cake or else you will be left starving.

You can’t really do away with competition as it is a part and parcel of any industry but what you can do at the most is keep a check on your competitors by ensuring that they do not overtake your business and you can do that only by having a clear goal of providing top notch quality work at an affordable price to your clients. No clients would like to go to a new guy as long as they find you doing a great job. They would rather like to stick with you since they know your style of working and have a good rapport with you.

Setting up a good relationship with your client also works in times when you have too much of competition. Your clients will not give work to anybody else if you have an extremely wonderful relationship with them. Nobody like to experiment things when it comes to their business and hence they will want to continue with you provided you being good with them.

Experience matters a lot in this industry. Clients usually prefer to give projects to people who are experienced in the construction domain rather than trying the newbie. Therefore your experience will always come handy when you are experiencing extreme competition and will still find yourself in the position of bagging more projects.

 

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Low oil prices affecting heavy equipment industry

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Oil prices have a huge impact on the construction industry as well as on the heavy equipment industry. In the last few years, we have seen the oil price were at its peak and were expecting it to come down. Not only the big industrialists but also the common man was getting badly bruised by the increase in the oil price. But how far the reductions in the oil price will help the heavy equipment companies has become the topic of concern. To put it in other words, does the reduction in oil price really make the business profitable for the heavy equipment industry or is it otherwise. Well, it can have a 2 way effect on the heavy equipment manufacturing companies.

Since for the last many years, oil prices were not ready to come down, which is why heavy equipment manufacturing companies were unanimously were of the opinion to manufacture equipment that will consume less fuel and will be high on productivity. This means that the machines which consume more fuel will slowly and steadily go extinct. Simultaneously, the new technology machine will also cost more to the buyers. This has put the heavy equipment manufacturing companies in a win-win situation as they can make good profits by selling low fuel consumption machines to big construction houses and can make good money out of it. Their plan was solid and also seemed to be fool proof as no one had anticipated that the oil prices can also take a dip in the near future.

Now when the price has come down, the construction houses are not showing much interest in buying machines that consumes less fuel. They are of the belief that since the oil prices are down, it is profitable to buy machines that eats more fuel as they will not cost them a fortune, use it for some years and then if there is an increase in the oil price which they expect would be in a gradual way, they will start looking for buyers. Small time contractors or small construction companies will not mind in buying those used machines at a lower rate. Therefore, the big companies will get their work done and when they see the oil prices are rising, they will get rid of those machines and then probably buy the ones that consumes less fuel.

If things go according to the construction companies wishes, they will be the one who will make the most out of it. However, things may not be as merrier as there is a possibility that the heavy equipment companies may stop manufacturing equipment that consumes more fuel which means the construction companies may have no option other than to buy those expensive machines. In other words, fall in oil prices will not have any positive impact in their company’s balance sheet. It is pretty obvious that the heavy equipment industry will not take a financial hit to please the construction companies and therefore will stick to producing machines with low fuel consumption.

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How to protect heavy equipment during winter

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Heavy equipment has to go through a lot of hardships and unlike humans it does not complain. Well, it does break down when it is unable to take any further but it has a very high level of endurance which makes it the most important component of the construction industry. However, it also becomes futile in front of extreme weather and rough terrain. Be it the hot summer or the wet monsoon or the harsh winter, it is expected to perform throughout the year but there is always a chance of it breaking down if the weather becomes extreme. More so in the winter, when the weather outside is frozen and the inside of the machine needs to be hot. Most of the times, it cranks up and does not start. It is therefore that the heavy equipment owners have to take extra care when it comes to their heavy equipment operating in chilled winter season.

Check if the engine is well lubricated:-

Most of the parts of the machine need to be well lubricated in order to function without any hick-ups. Hence, the operator needs to keep a very close watch and check time to time if the machine is well lubricated and special care needs to be taken with the engine of the machine. The engine oil should be changed on a regular basis and especially during winters, it should be changed once in a month. Due to the frozen climate outside, the oil becomes thick and it does not act as a good lubricator then. This may also affect the health of other parts of the machine which will eventually lead to complete replacement of that part. It absolutely makes no sense to invest money on buying new parts when you can easily change the engine oil at regular intervals.

Clean the fuel tank:-

Cleaning the fuel tank may sound to be trivial but is very crucial when it comes to the overall health of the heavy equipment. You need to clean the fuel tank cap and ensure that the cap is doing well. The fuel should be clean and should not contain any sediment or water. The presence of these components can become a big problem pertaining to fuel injection system failures.

Ensure that the batteries are in good health:-

It is perhaps the batteries that are the affected the most with the beginning of the winter. In order to ensure that the batteries are doing well, the operator should check the battery electrolyte and make sure that it is up to the full indicator and also above the plates. Another trivial but important part is to clean the top of the battery. There happens to be a lot of dirt on the top of the stuff and that can result in energy drain. You can make use of baking soda and terminal bush to clean any corrosion that exists around the posts. If you see that the heavy equipment will not be used during the winters and will be needed some other time, you can just remove the batteries and keep them in a storeroom so that it avoids any direct contact with the outside freezing weather.

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Make use of Social Networking websites to grow your heavy equipment business

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Any form of business is directly connected with technology and successful business entrepreneurs make full use of the latest technology to grow their business. They find it to be one of the simplest and quickest ways to reach millions in just seconds which is not possible through any other mode. Running a successful business is an art and not everyone can master that art. The person need to be foresighted and should understand the importance of technology and how it can impact its business. One form of technology that is making rounds these days is social networking. These days everyone has an account in some or the other social networking website and through that they try to stay in touch with their friends and loved ones. However, this mode is also been acknowledged as one of the crucial method of spreading the news of your business. In order for people to know the kind of work you are into, you can make use of a social networking website that is popularly used by many and can create your business profile out there.

It has proven to be a great stuff for beginners who are not a known figure in their line of business. It is difficult to win the trust of your clients when you are new to a business. They have doubts like if you can complete the work in the given time frame, if you have the required resources to get the job done and many such questions that a newbie finds it hard to deal with. People who are from the construction industry or the ones who deals with selling of heavy equipment find social networking websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Snapchat etc. as a wonderful tool to connect with people; many known and some unknown.

Once you are registered member of any social networking website you talk about your business to your friends and people whom you know. You keep posting articles about your work or your achievements which is read by people who can be your friends or your friend’s friend. The sole purpose is to reach to as many people as you can by posting a single post. If you are selling heavy equipment you can talk about your website in your profile and also put the picture of your company’s logo as the profile picture. You can make use of Snapchat to send pictures or videos to all your friends or to people specific.

Having a website of your company is good but social networking sites make it easy for you to connect to people who are not known to you and who do not know anything about you. They may see your company’s logo for the first time on some of your friend’s profile who must have liked your profile picture or any video posted by you. This is how they get to know about you and may go to your website to know more about you. This will eventually help you to develop your business in the long run.

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Small dirt moving equipment

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Being into the construction industry, it is very important that you have a mixture of small, medium and large heavy equipment. You never know when you need to enter a zone that for some reason does not give access to large or medium sized machines and therefore you need the smaller one to do the job for you. Being small does not imply that they are any less efficient as far as the productivity of the machine is concerned. It is just that they can more efficiently do the work in the area where large machines just can’t enter. You can find a smaller version in every type of heavy equipment making things far more comfortable for the guy who has taken up the work.

Excavators can be one of the most efficient dirt moving heavy equipment and almost all the construction equipment manufacturing companies produce small sized excavators. They prove to be really helpful in places that have narrow entry point and you need to send the machine through the small passage and get the dirt out. Prices of such excavators depend upon the name of the brands and he features available in the machine. However, they are pretty within the reach of any small construction company and just in case if they too find it a little expensive then always have the option to rent it from its owner. Unlike other heavy equipment, excavators have tracks and do not work on tires.

Backhoe loaders are another sect of machines that fall in the bracket of dirt moving equipment and the smaller version of such machines can really do wonders in a construction site. Small backhoe loaders are also used by companies that can’t afford to buy the bigger version. They can easily do their work without having to spend a fortune on buying expensive machines. Unlike excavators, backhoe loaders are mounted on tires and not on tracks. They have the capability to work both with the shovel and the bucket at the same time. The shovel is attached to the front of the machine and the bucket is at the rear. Many construction companies find backhoe loaders as more compatible machines for jobs that have small space to operate.

Bulldozers can also be a good option when it comes to small dirt moving equipment. They are not only used to flatten the roads but are also used to pick huge piles of dirt and port it from one place to another. They are quite heavy machines and are considered to be the best machine for this job. They have those blades attached in the front using which they dig the mud and pull the dirt out. The blades are usually controlled with the help of hydraulic pistons.

These are probably few dirt moving equipment that are used extensively in construction sites and are also high in demand. One can buy them directly from the company or can even contact the dealer. Do check if you can get any discount before you go for the purchase.

 

 

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