Category Archives: Construction

Use social media as a tool to augment your heavy equipment business

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The construction and the heavy equipment industry are largely dependent upon new technology. The construction industry is always in the hunt of heavy equipment that can get the work done quickly and with utter precision. Now this is only possible if you upgrade your heavy equipment by adding new technology in it. This will bring in a new life to the machine and it will work with more vitality under tremendously rough situations. Now that was all about how technology can help get the work done at a faster pace. However, if we want to make use of technology to advertise our products and services so that it can reach to thousands of people at a given time, there is no better option than talking about your business in social networking websites. There you can reach to a large number of population without having to pay a penny for it.

There are many companies who are involved in the process of creating their business profiles in social networking websites like LinkedIn, Periscope, and Facebook etc. There find this to be an excellent tool to reach out to a sizable amount of people at one go. They have seen their business growing in this fashion and acquiring more clients from such networking websites.

There are few do’s and don’ts that one needs to follow while they set up their business profile in a social networking website.

Keep your personal and professional profiles separate:-

It is very crucial that you keep 2 accounts in one social networking website, one for your personal use and the other for your professional. If you are into selling of heavy equipment of all the brands, you can make use of your professional account to mention that there. Talk everything about your business in that account but pay special attention that you do not talk much about your business in your personal profile. If you share a couple of your business stories to any of your friend on the personal profile, it won’t be an issue but if you only keep on bragging about your success stories all the time on your personal account, your friends might get turned off by that. They definitely do not check your profile to know about the success in your life. They just simply want to know if things are ok with you.

Maintain strict professionalism on your business account:-

You should keep your business profile very professional. Social networking websites like LinkedIn are meant for professionals and businessmen who are looking to acquire clients and get businesses from them or to reach to the skilled masses and absorb them in their business. If you are an authorized dealer, you should be very stringent when it comes to professionalism.

Post a photo of your company:-

It makes ample of sense to post a picture of your company’s logo on your business profile. It help your prospective client to understand the kind of account you are holding and they will move into your business account to know more about your business and will not stray down to your personal account.

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Small construction companies should be cautious to make big investments

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The focus of business changes in every stage. While you are a small business, the focus point of the business is something else and while it begins to grow the focus changes again. In a nutshell you can’t have the same strategy throughout the lifetime of the business. You have to keep on changing your focus, goals and strategies with the development of the business and also keeping into consideration the circumstances your business is in. In business you are supposed to take challenges and risks and it pays you off in terms of profits but at what stage are you taking what amount of risk is crucial to understand. You just can’t take any amount of risk during the budding stage of your business. Risks should always be calculated and not taken with an unsound mind. It actually defines the future potential of your business. Taking uncalculated risk will often lead you to a situation where you will see no point of return and may have to probably shut your dream of having a business of your own for once and for all.

Construction business is one such business where taking a wrong call can have serious implications on the future growth of the business. There are many big companies who had to shut down their business for taking incorrect investment decisions which has obviously proved them to be costly. Small construction companies have to ultra-careful when they think of making any big investments in their business. They usually experience the problem of scarcity of finance and on top of that if they contemplate of making any big investments for which they will obviously have to look for borrowing money from banks, they got to be very sure of the outcome. This is where their calculation can’t go wrong because they have huge stakes involved here. Unable to repay the debts will definitely have a negative impact on the credit rating of the company which will result in not getting any further loans.

Big investments do not only get restricted to buying abundance of raw materials or heavy equipment. It means much more than that. It also means investing on workforce, setting up a new office and stuff. Being a small construction company, when you are hiring a lot of people and buying different kinds of heavy equipment, you got to doubly sure that the investments will pay you. The construction project for which you have been hiring so many men should not have any lien on it and certainly no litigation on the property. The bottom-line is you got to ensure that the piece of land on which the construction project will begin is absolutely problem free and once you are assured of that, making this big investment makes sense.

Small construction companies are more at risk because if they try to play solo, the big companies may create problems for them. It is a competitive world and no one wants to let the other grow easily.

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Veteran salesman should be supportive to the newbie

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No wonder doing a sales job is one of the most difficult jobs one can do and it becomes harder when you do not get much support from the people who have been doing this job for years. It is pretty obvious that the young guns will definitely look for some sort of support from the older guys and this will what help them to climb up the ladder in life. Selling heavy equipment is considered to be a tough man’s job and not everybody can take the agony of persuading clients to purchase a thousand dollar stuff which the sales guy himself does not know much about.

The new ones will certainly not have much idea with what they dealing with but the tenured guys know how to crack the deal and which machine is used for what purpose. They kind of try to know the requirement of their client and then pitch their product. But the newbie will not be able to do that effectively. He may possibly speak everything about the heavy equipment that he has learnt from various sources but when it comes to comparing it with the client’s requirements, there are high chances that he might get completely bowled.

Give veterans a team to mentor:-

Every newcomer to any business needs a mentor to guide them. Here the veterans can play the role of a mentor and guide the new sales guys to glory. There are lots of tricks to a successful sale that a veteran sales person learns during his years of selling heavy equipment. He can share a bit of them and check how the guys are incorporating those tricks in their sales activity. Right from cold calling to fixing an appointment to making a successful sale, he needs to check that the guys are doing well in their job. In case, if someone is having a hard time and is dealing with some issue, he can jump in there and try to fix the problem. If required he can accompany the person for few appointments with different contractors or construction companies and show him the right way to sell heavy equipment.

Talk one to one with the new guy:-

Talking one to one with the new guys is a crucial point that the veteran should take into consideration. Not all are brilliant salesperson and some needs that extra nurture to develop into an excellent sales guy. More to this, not everybody understands heavy equipment the way it is and therefore there is a need of someone who can explain them about machines in simple terms. There will be no better person than a veteran who can help the young guns with their problems. Not everybody will speak up in front of everyone and they might feel more confident to speak on a one to one basis.

The beginners are full of energy and they can find ways to deal with things but what they need the most is some support from the experienced lots and once they get that, they can very well take care of their profession.

Do not stop learning when you see yourself in profits

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In the beginning people are quite enthusiastic in learning new tricks of business. The motive behind them learning new techniques is that they can make money in less time with probably putting minimum efforts. However, once they see their company making enough profits, they somehow lose their interest to learn more about the business and keep doing what they have already learned. Well, in this way they are really harming their prospect of making big in the industry because not everybody stops learning when they make good money. They keep the learning process on till they grow old and want to hand over the business to the next eligible person.

As no industry gives you the leverage of stop learning and still continues to be in profits, the construction industry can go a step further and can punish you severely. There have been numerous such instances where construction companies got shut as they felt that they have learned everything and do not need any further lesson from this industry. They somehow forgot how dynamic this industry is and in order to survive here, one needs to be always on his toes. They can’t ever skip learning and if they do so they should be ready to see the downturn.

Learning anything in the construction domain can be fun if you are curious about it. Though it is known for its complex nature yet things can become simple if you show some level of interest to study the subject.

Learn while you work:-

In other words, experience teaches you many things while you stay connected to this profession. Day in and day out, you will come across many things that you will find new and you would be learning how to do things. These lessons are very important ones as they will help you to become a good employee and if you want to start your construction company, your experience in this sector will definitely take you to great heights.

So pay attention in everything that you do or you notice. If your colleague has come across something that you couldn’t figure out, take help of your seniors or your supervisors and check what they do to sort it out. Make note of the solution and you can try that later in your own way. You need not copy exactly what you senior did but can apply your thoughts and work things out.

Take charge of the administrative work:-

The administrative work in a construction company is immense. If the company is handling big projects, it also means that they have a lot of administrative work to take care of. Try to sneak your way into that field as you will get a lot to know how a construction company actually works off-field. There you will understand how the employees are paid and how much they are paid; how the company decides to procure heavy equipments and what mechanism they use to pay.

That is perhaps an ocean of learning and you will cherish if you enjoy learning new thin

Go to esteemed institutions to hire operators

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A construction company spends good amount of money for buying heavy equipments and then needs to spend a lot to simply keep the equipments well maintained. Servicing and maintenance of heavy equipments is a necessity that one can just not ignore and if they got to spend some dollars to keep the stuffs in order, it is perfectly a fair deal. In order to lengthen the life of the machines, the owner should also hire able and competent operators who possess in depth knowledge about them and work without causing any unwanted damage to the machine. Experienced and highly skilled operators are rare to find. You will just not find them idle and are usually hired by construction houses at a price which most of the small construction companies will find difficult to pay. Just in case if you get to find someone of this stature looking for a change of company, you got to be sure that you can shell that amount of money to hire him.

Simultaneously, if you have such kind of experienced operators in your company, ensure that you keep them happy and well paid because if they are unhappy about their package there are many other companies ready to pick them up. Quitting of experienced operators is always a threat and you should be ready to counter such threats if you want to stick to the industry. Well, there is one smart move that you can take to minimize this threat if not eliminate it completely. You can hire young operators who may not have much work experience and are ready to work for you at a lower price. In this way, you are not exploiting their talent and can also mitigate the threat of experienced operators moving to some other company.

Hire people from esteemed institutions:-

You need to first make a list of institutions and their rankings. Once you know the names of some good institutions, reach them out to hire operators. You can arrange a campus interviews and hire guys with good scores in their academics, people with real good knowledge of this domain and guys who are looking to make this profession as their career. Out of the many that you will hire, you will definitely get few who will stay long with the company and in this process can eventually prove to be a valuable asset to the company.

Knowledge on machines is vast:-

Going to esteemed institutions gives you the benefit of hiring guys who have good knowledge about the latest breed of machines. Young kids and ideally smarter than their earlier generation. It is just that they are not experienced in dealing with things and once they get some hands-on knowledge, they can really excel in their domain. These kids may need some guidance and will be able to pick things up very quickly.

Once you get them trained in the right fashion, things will start moving smoothly for you and you will diminish the threat of the old chaps leaving the company as you have the newer guys to take care of their businesses.

A brief discussion on the construction cones – know its usage and types

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Constructions are very common in the present era, where new constructions are taking place everywhere. Be it a building, a road or even other huge constructions, there is one thing that needs to be taken care of and that is safety. Construction sites are always associated with possible dangers, hazards and accidents. Though the construction site workers know the areas in a site that are more danger prone and accident prone, the passers-by, the travellers in the road might unknowingly enter this zone.

Hence, it is a must that safety measures are properly taken to ensure that the passers-by, the travellers and the cars driving on the roads are made aware of the possible danger. This is what the construction cones can help the workers with.

What are the construction cones?

Amongst the many safety measure tools that are used in a construction site, the cones are the most important ones. As the name suggests, these are made up of a conical shape. Usually, the colour is a bright orange; however, at times the colour of these construction site safety cones can even be made up of a fluorescent green colour. These cones mark the possibility of hazard within a certain zone and by placing the cones, the danger area is marked.

These cones are usually made up of high quality PVC plastic. The better is the quality of the plastic; the better will be its performance and longevity. In most cases, the cones are heavy at the bottom, so that they do not get twisted or turned over easily by wind.

Variety of construction cones:

  • Non-reflective cones:

 

These types of construction cones come in a plain base colour like orange or fluorescent green or rarely some other colours. They do not have any reflective bands used on them. Hence, in case there is no light in the area, where these cones will be used, they might not be very suitable to notify the possibility of danger or hazard in the area.

  • Reflective cones:

 

These cones have reflective collars, so that in dark atmospheres, when light reflects on these cones, they hazardous zone can easily be identified. This way, the passers-by and also the cars on the roads can understand and identify the area that is to be avoided.

Areas of usage of these construction cones:

Visibility is the purpose of using these construction cones. These can be used in all the areas, where caution needs to be taken in order to avoid accidents. The most widely used areas are –

  • At building constructions
  • Near road constructions
  • To conduct traffic control.

Conclusion:

Now that you have understood about the importance of these cones at the construction sites, it is a must that you buy the good quality ones with proper weight and height. This way, the cones will be visible from a distance and will also withstand strong winds. The colour, height and weight must be considered during your purchase of these cones. Buying the reflective ones is a must, when they ate being used on the roads.

Renting a wheel loader

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When we talk about construction business, we need to give priority to every kind of earth moving equipment. Each machine is designed and built for a specific purpose and therefore as long as you do not have that set of heavy equipment with you, there are high chances that you may not get the desired results or the results that you have achieved is not to the point and may not be satisfactory to the client. So for instance, you are the contractor and you are assigned some task for which you do not have the right heavy equipment. You may end up doing a shabby piece of work which is most likely will not be appreciated by your client. Getting any more business from the same client can’t be expected and your bad reputation will follow you everywhere you go. So it makes more sense to use the heavy equipment that will give you the best result.

All sounds to be good when we talk about procuring the right set of machines but the real challenge is to buy one. It may turn out to be a very expensive affair to purchase an earth moving machine which is why many people just give up their dreams of establishing their construction company. Well, when you have alternatives in hand why not use them as well.

We are focusing on the topic of how convenient it will be for a contractor or for that matter any small construction company to rent a wheel loader if buying one is proving to be an expensive affair. A wheel loader is very useful heavy equipment and can be seen in almost every big construction site. It has the capability to pull huge pile of dirt and dump it in the dumpsite. In a construction site, you will come across debris that needs to be taken care of and you will not find any other heavy equipment apart from a wheel loader that has the potential to do the work in a better way. So for contractors who work in a phased manner, renting a wheel loader is perhaps the most suitable option.

Renting heavy equipment is never a problem. All they need to do is find the right machine and their work is done. However following the right channels are important. So once you have identified a wheel loader you need to test its capability and its strength. Checking if the machine is in good stage is important or else you will pick up something that has become a pain for the operator. So when you go to meet the owner to test the machine, make sure that you take along the operator with you so that he can test it and only if he gives his nod that you should proceed with the transaction.

Check if the owner is ready for negotiation with the rental amount. In case, you find it apt with the current market price and you feel it irrelevant to negotiate you may simply take the loader or else must try to bring the price down.

How Heavy Equipment Rental companies stay strong

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For a company to grow and stay strong, it has to lay down several strategies and also has to work on them so that they are all executed firmly and the company gets the results of the hard work put by the employees. But is it just the strategies that play the most significant role in making a strong company. Well, there is more than one factor that comes into play to make a strong company. One needs to first understand the economics of the business. He need not be an economics graduate to understand this but need to have the basic understanding of demand and supply and if his company will be able to meet the demand in the market.

In the construction world, the heavy equipment rental companies play an instrumental role and therefore the one who is running one such business has great opportunities to take his company to greater heights. The construction industry has more newbie than the ones who are in this business for the last 20-50 years. Not just the construction companies but also individuals need heavy equipment. However, their want is quite limited and is restricted to a particular period of time. They may not need the machine for months. Therefore, it becomes appropriate for them to go for machines on rent. This suggests that there is a wider market for heavy equipment rental companies and they can use this as an opportunity to grow and stay strong.

Come up with innovative marketing plans:-

Heavy equipment rental companies should time and again come up with innovative marketing plans so that people are drawn towards them. For instance, they can chart plans like giving accessories free along with the heavy equipment till the contract is over. By not charging anything for the accessory will draw more people which eventually mean more business for the company. They can also keep offers like giving rentals at a lower price for a limited period. Construction companies are always in need of machines and if they get an offer where they have to pay less rent for using the machine, they will not want to miss it.

Provide machines that go as per the business requirements:-

In order to stay strong in the heavy equipment rental business, the company should also have a basic understanding of the construction industry and what kind of project needs what machines. So what you can do is try and fill up a form where the taker will mention in brief about his project and the machine he wants. You can then do fair deal of study on the subject and see if you can come up with any better suggestion. If you feel that the person should go for some other machine, put it forth to him. He will appreciate your help in this matter and will refer you to more people. This is what many heavy equipment rental companies are being doing to stay strong in this competitive market.

Placing a lien on the property is one of the best ways to claim your dues

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There may have been few instances where you are not paid for the work done on a project. You have been given some or the other reasons by the construction company that you found to be absolutely vague and got the hint that you will not be paid for your work. Situations like these are nothing but a nightmare for small contractors. Firstly, the small contractors do not have sufficient money to pay the workers and if at all they manage to secure the money from any of their sources, they experience a hard time to meet the other operational expenses of their business. On top of that if they see the construction company to be defaulting on them, they can’t imagine anything worse than that. In such a situation, the only thing that they can do is place a lien on the property that will disallow the company to get any loans or any sort of finance on the property.

You can’t place a lien on any property just because you want to. For that, you have to approach the court and put forth your matter to them. Take help of a competent attorney who will guide you with the legal proceedings and also will fight the case for you. Once the court acknowledges and sees that you owe money on the property that will allow you to place a lien on the place. Now once you get the lien, you also get the legal right to sell the property and claim the due amount.

Now the kind of evidences that you can submit to the court is the invoices of the materials that were bought for the construction of the building in the property. Additionally, you can also show the bills that were incurred for the wages you paid to the workers. These evidences will certainly make your case strong and you can hope that the court will rule in your favor. However, there is a timeframe for placing liens. You need to place the lien within a stipulated period of time or else the court will not entertain your plea.

Once you get the ruling in your favor, you have to inform your debtors about it and send a copy of the notice to them. This will give a strong message to your debtors that you are just not letting them go and placing a lien can bring trouble to them. They might then intend to pay you in full and once you are paid in full, you should drop the lien by informing the court that you have received the money in full.

Though placing a lien can work as a tool in recovering your dues, this should not be misused by you in any manner. In case, you approach to the court stating that you have not received the money whereas you have been already paid, it can backfire hard on you. The court may direct the authorities to put you behind the bars. Hence any such intention should be strictly avoided.

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Heavy equipment companies want able engineers

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It is simple to get employees who are ready to do their bit for the company but it is very difficult to get someone who is ready to put that extra initiative and stand separate from the rest of the crowd. This is why a lot of heavy equipment companies are willing to pay good package to people who want to join them to make a difference. They are always in search of men who can evolve themselves into able technicians, engineers or workmen. The irony is that many men lack the quality to dream big and are therefore reluctant to put that extra effort that will make them competent in the field they are in. Heavy equipment companies are most of the times in dire need to hire experienced engineers but out of a lot of many they are only able to find few. Rest of the guys hold an engineering certificate but does not hold much expertise along with it.

This also draws the fact that there is a huge requirement of engineers who want to learn about machines and give this industry a new shape. So if you fall in the zone where you want to make it big and you love experimenting on machines then this is probably the industry. However, there are few things that you need to do before you make your way in one of the heavy equipment manufacturing companies.

Joining a good institution is the key:-

A good institution can help you shape your career by imparting in-depth knowledge about heavy equipment and will try to get the best out from you. You may find many institutions in your city but choosing the right one is important. Joining a facility for the sake of it will not be fruitful to you. Therefore, do some research before you end up joining an institution? Check the reviews that others have for that place. You may find it to be very helpful in deciding if that is the place for you or you should be looking for something else.

Try to become the best:-

When you a part of one of the best institution, you should also try to become one of the best in that facility. This does not imply that you should join the rat race but it simply derives that you should upgrade your knowledge by asking numerous questions and doing all possible research. Check some training videos online as it will help you to have a better understanding about the subject you are learning. If you manage to stand away from the rest of the population, you will find it a bit simple to make your way in a heavy equipment company.

Should not be afraid to fail:-

Being an engineer, you should not be afraid of experimenting with things though you need to know the circumstance and act accordingly. However, make it a point that you keep coming up with something innovative as that is exactly what a company expects from an engineer. If you possess this quality of coming out with innovative ideas and bringing it live, you can see yourself growing in the organization.