Category Archives: Construction

Foresightedness is a pre-requisite in the construction business

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For any business to thrive, the managers of the business should possess the quality to foresee things. They should be in a position to anticipate what may happen next. An important decision taken by them can have certain ramifications. This should be construed well in advance by the people who are responsible for the growth of the company. Businesses that are volatile in nature are more prone to risks and if the business owner is not careful about his decisions, he may have to pay a heavy price for it. We normally take decisions taking into account in current situation. We do not know the future and therefore it is quite difficult to assume things in advance. We can however assume few things if not all. People who have been running the business for long, they kind of get a hang of different situations and are somehow in a position to predict things. It is perhaps they have witnessed similar things in the past.

The current situation may be a little different from what the person must have witnessed years ago but he can still assume the result and can plan his stuff accordingly. To run a construction business, one requires great deal of experience in hand and apart from that, the capability to foresee things. There is significant amount of volatility in this business. During turbulent times, small construction business owners do not have to face the music as much as the big companies have to. They really see a sharp decline in the graph of the company which is only because they were not able to foresee those turbulent time in advance. You get hints before a major catastrophe hits your business. You need to understand those hints and frame your strategy accordingly. Failing to act at the right time can even cost you your business.

Rise in the price of raw materials and fuel:-

Though both raw materials and fuel prices do not rise at the same time; however, if either of this happens and you have not stocked them, it can cost you heavily. Now, no one can assume when the price of either of them will increase. This is just not possible. However, one can predict the rise through means of what is happening in the market, keeping an update of the government policies and other factors. The crux here is how knowledgeable you are with the current affairs. If you possess sharp knowledge and the information that you get is correct, then your assumption can never go wrong. There may be a slight miscalculation where you have predicted an “X” amount of increase but it only rose to “Y” amount. That is understandable.

Prepare statistics to understand the position:-

You have plenty of softwares which you can use to prepare statistics based on the information that you get from your sources as well as from business magazines. These statistics will help you to come to a conclusion on where the construction sector is moving and will eventually lead you to foresee or predict a thing.

 

High attrition can have a larger impact on construction projects

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In a construction business, employees from different departments play a crucial role in the overall development of the project. You want the project to end on time; you need to ensure that you have you men/women by your side and if that is there you can end up completing it within the given deadline. However, if your men/women leave the company for any reason the prospect of the project ending on time gets jeopardized. This is why it is so important to ensure that the attrition rate of a construction business is low. You got to take good care of your employees and see that they do not leave the company for any silly reasons. Reasons can be tackled and settled by sitting together and having a discussion. This is precisely the task of the management would be. They need to talk to the lot who are disgruntled from some reason or the other and try to root out the issue from its core.

Skilled men/women get jobs easily:-

People who work as unskilled laborer may have a hard time getting another job if they ever want to leave their existing one but for the ones who are skilled it is never a problem for them. The construction workers who are skilled and experienced are required in good numbers by any construction company or contractors and therefore their exit from your company is in a way can be looked at some kind of loss to the company. It can have a larger impact on the company if you do not manage to get a replacement in time and getting a replacement is one big challenge. The focus should therefore be on retaining your folks. Try and understand the core issue why they want to quit. This will help you know if others also have similar issues and if they have then that can be rooted out right at the beginning.

Projects are delayed due to lack of manpower:-

Crunch in manpower can be a significant problem for any industry and when it is about construction it can have a devastating effect on the project. There are numerous projects that are halted due to lack of workers or just because they have no workers at all. This is certainly not a good picture to portray. It shows how ineffective the management is that they can’t hold back their workers who play such a crucial role in the company. This can also have an impact on getting future projects. This all works in a circle and hence you got to get your things right from the very moment you sense trouble.

Boost the morale of the workers by giving awards:-

Giving awards and rewards should be a regular affair in your company. The management should pick the worthy employees and give them some kind of gift cards or cash prize or incentives every quarter. Please note that you do not pick the same guy/gal every time. Try to pick talents from various departments and give them their prizes. You can even do this with the contract laborers. This will motivate the employees and will bring down the attrition.

Take rational decisions when it comes to budget of your construction company

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The success of every business is largely determined on the way you plan it out and also the manner you execute those plans. It is evident that the actual will never be at par with the estimate, which means that things will never go exactly the way you planned it will work. There will always be some sort of deviations from what you have estimated. The ground situation will differ from what you have contemplated; but the thing that is crucial is the difference between the estimated and the actual. If the difference is huge then it is a problem. This means that you do not have complete control on your work and there is a chance that it is going in a haywire direction. Pertaining to construction business, one can never afford to let his budget go haywire. It will cost him more than anything else. Also, the company needs to ensure that the completion of the project happens within due course of time because if it kind of lags then it will eventually cost to the company.

Plan by considering every possible situation:-

When you prepare a budget for a construction project, you should take into consideration every minute detail. Right from the operating cost to the miscellaneous everything should be accounted. If you foresee any increase in the price of raw materials that should also be included in your budget. Try to keep your budget on a higher end so that if price of any commodity shoots up in the mid of the project you should not get a shock of your life and should rather take the inflated price comfortably. Also consider the cost that the company will have to bear for any unknown reasons. For instance, during monsoon if it rains a lot leading to blocking the roads then you might not receive the materials in time which will delay the work. However, you still have to pay your employees for the day. There may be other such instances that may crop up which will be temporary in nature but can have quite an effect on your business. So it is advisable to account those situations in your budgetary.

Review the ground situation with the estimates:-

Once you have laid your plan, it is highly significant that you review the ground happenings with the estimates on a periodical basis. This will let you know if you are falling short or if things are in your control. Also, if you figure out any complication then that can be taken care right at the beginning. You should weed out any problem right at the beginning and not keep it for the last minute. This is possible only if you do a reality check periodically. While you are reviewing the plan with the actual, get involved the men who are in charge of different departments so that they all know the ground reality and can pass on the message of the meeting to the lower ranks.

Right strategy is what you need to grow your construction company

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Before you start your day, you need to plan it well so that you can execute them and make your day somewhat useful. In the same fashion, while you are in the mode of setting up your construction company, it is important that you plan your things well so that you can execute them without any hassles. Please remember construction sector is one such sector where you can’t accurately assume anything. Situations may change anytime and you got to be ready to accept them and deal with them as and when they come up. Therefore you should be ready to take up any challenges that come your way. This preparedness to deal with any situation is possible if you have proper strategy in place. There are few things that are very crucial when it comes to laying down of strategies.

Strategies are often made by consulting the heads of all the departments. You need to know the ground situation before you come up with any plan. It is not feasible for you to know everything about all the sections of the company and this is why you need the help of the department heads to give inputs. Now once you have the inputs, you can put up your plan in front of them and check what they feel about it. Never plan something without a proper discussion. There has to be few Yes’s and No’s while you are in for a discussion and all of you have to come to a common ground. Once everybody is on a common ground, you can take that plan for implementation.

It is to be noted that not all plans are meant to be implemented right away. Some also needs to be kept in the parking lot so that it can be implemented at the right juncture. At the same time, the plans that you have executed should not be permanent in nature. Though you should give some time for it to work or to give desired results but if you see that it is not working, move on to something next before it causes severe damage to the growth prospect of the company. This movement of strategy is also known as flexibility which is the next important criteria towards the growth of the company. You should know when to move to the next plan and also you should not have difficulty while you are in switching mode.

Many companies find it difficult to switch plans. For instance if the prices of oil have risen drastically or the prices or raw materials have fallen, you should be ready to revamp your plans and perhaps do it all over again. Not doing things at the right time can cause severe problems to the company or at times you will not be able to make the most while others are minting money. You should also have the right people to get the job done. People who takes up their job passionately are needed to make hay while the sun shines.

Becoming employee centric construction company is difficult but achievable

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We all want to work with a company that not only provide us with good growth but also takes interest about the welfare of its employees. Companies that provides us with good perks and facilities are hard to get by but if we ever land up in such a company we may not want to leave it unless and until we have a very strong reason for it. Companies on the other hand are focused on earning profits. They are ready to provide their employees with basic benefits that they are supposed to as per the guidelines laid by the law of the land but there are absolutely not ready to take the extra step to look after the welfare of their employees. They understand that their relationship with their employees is quite professional and they should not add anything more to it. This is the story of almost every industry irrespective of which sector one belongs to.

If we talk about construction companies, it is harder to find an employee centric company, a company that takes initiatives keep into consideration the betterment of its employees. But the point remains is it really so difficult for a construction company to think for the betterment of its people, the same people who works all day in the scorching heat of the sun and does not complain when there is storm and heavy rainfall and tries to remain punctual even when there is snow on the roads.

These sorts of guys should be rewarded with bonuses and extra pay and this is absolutely not difficult to do. A little raise in their salary or a monthly incentive can bring a big smile on their faces. In addition to this, you can also provide them with free medical insurance. In this case, they do not have to pay the premium of the insurance and will be covered against all ailments (as per the policy of the insurance company). The insurance companies will be more than happy to offer discounts on the insurance premium if the insurance is taken in bulk. So in this way, you get your employees covered against ailments and also against any accidents that happen in and outside the jobsite. If they want to add their family members as part of the medical insurance they can do so by paying the premium from their pocket. What you can try to do for them is get the premiums discounted so that they pay an amount that suits their budget.

All these features can also act as a good retention policy as well. Your employees will not leave you just because they have found a company who is ready to pay them more than what you do. That company may not provide them with these additional features which will act as a binding force and will kind of compel them to not leave your company. You only end up paying a little extra but in return you can enjoy the loyalty of your trusted employees.

Take suggestions before starting a construction company

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Before you get into anything big that can either shape up your career or can ruin it, it is very important that you sit with someone who knows about the subject and take adequate suggestion from him. Do not do anything in haste and for something that is so crucial for your life and career you just can’t take any chance on it. You have to be more than 100% sure of what you are doing and why you are doing. As long as you do not have the answers for your questions it will not be wise enough to get into it. We all want to have a business of our own where we do not have to work on other’s instructions. A place where we can take our own decisions and will not worry about what the boss will say. But to start your entrepreneurial journey you must ensure that you know the first step that you should take.

People who start their construction business are also found to be working with some other construction company. They may not be able to give their 100% to their business but they ensure one thing and that is they will have a source of income even if the business does not work. Now there are few people who are smarter than others. What they do is they stick around with a construction company but work there for few hours in a day and the rest of the time they devote it to their business. People come out with real smart ideas but the fact is they also get some ideas from others. They take sound advices from their peers and accordingly apply their mind to come out with a great idea.

Construction sector is one such business where you will not be able to understand the entire business in one life. It is pretty complex. People who have spent their entire life in this business at times learn a thing or two and also encounter situations where they have to seek for advices. They do have a team of advisors who are experts in their respective fields and they help the owner of the business to come to a decision. So when you intend to get into something as complex as this it is inevitable to not look for advice from an expert.

If you are already working in a construction company and have great rapport with the guys who are older than you and also far experienced than you, it makes ample of sense to approach them with the idea of starting a construction company. They will be the right folks to advice you on it. Their advices will be quite in-depth and will hardly miss out on any crucial point. Right from heavy equipment to hiring competent construction laborers they may speak to you about everything under the sun. Most importantly you should ask them to advice you on how to tackle the various challenges that you may encounter. You will learn the rest with experience.

Construction workers should know their worth

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To know what we are really worth as far as our profession is concerned is a matter of pure confusion. Why it is confusing is because we actually do not know what the worth of your services is and this is why without knowing much about our worth we get ready to offer our services for a lesser price. This should really not happen because at the end of the day after having worked in a company for a couple of years when you actually know your price and also the fact that you are getting paid much lesser than what you should have been it causes great deal of frustration within yourself. Some even start to get the feeling of being cheated and then they start looking for some other organization again without knowing their current worth. It is therefore crucial to know how much you should be paid for your services keeping into consideration the talent and skill you possess and the amount of experience you have under your belt.

When we talk about the construction sector the most neglected genre of workers in terms of being the right amount of salary are the construction laborers. A construction laborer at the start of his career is paid quite low. That should be alright with them as they are gaining some experience and learning new things but as they grow a bit older in the company their package is not increased in the appropriate scale which leaves them with a poor pay package. Now as a result of this many construction laborers quit their job in the middle of a project and join some other contractor who pays them more than what they were getting. It often leaves the former company in a pickle and their project comes to a standstill.

Construction companies have taken this seriously and are now paying the laborers at par to the industry standards. The worrying part is not all construction companies are following the same route. There are still few small time companies who are exploiting the workers right left and center and the workers who do not know much about the worth of their services stay in the same company. Well the laborers should know about their rights and also what they should be paid. There is a standard rate across the industry and the companies are expected to pay their employees on those standards. The workers on the other hand should also check government websites that speaks in volumes about the rate per hour that should be paid to the laborers. Projects are completed on time because the workers work hard to get it done on time and if they are paid less then they have all the liberty to leave the company any moment.

They will also get work easily as they need not be highly qualified. All that is required from them is the knowledge to construct a building and if they possess that knowledge any construction company is ready to take them by paying them the standard rate.

Negligence of any form can turn out to be fatal in the construction business

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Right from our childhood we have the tendency to neglect things and feel that we can do it later. We just skip things for now and believe that someone else will do it for us or we will get it done some time later. We grow with the same tendency and then it starts getting costly to us. We can’t have the same approach that we had during our childhood days in our professional lives. It can have a nasty impact on our businesses and can hamper it big time. We need to take special care of things that are pending for a while and need to know the reasons why they are not done yet. Negligence of any form is fatal for any industry but when it comes to construction industry; it can become more damaging than ever. Here if you neglect important things there is every chance that it will back fire you and you end up paying a heavy price for it.

Negligence towards heavy equipment:-

Negligence of work can be of many forms. One can even be negligent towards heavy equipment. For instance, every machine do give some sort of signals become breaking down completely. Now, it is not a rocket science to comprehend those signals. One can easily understand those signals and work accordingly to fix the stuff. But if you are negligent towards fixing the machine and feel that you will do it later then there will come a time when you will not be able to get that thing to work. That will be followed by calling up a mechanic who might diagnose problems that can be fixed only if you change certain vital parts of the machine. In other words, it means that you now need to be ready to shell good sum of money on something that could have been managed effectively at the very moment you realized something wrong with it.

Negligence on part of stock keepers:-

Stock keepers are the ones who keep a stock of raw materials and whenever they feel that they may go short of materials they give an order to the suppliers who in turn transport the stuff to them. Negligence has been found by stock keepers who for some reason fail to provide orders of raw materials in time which leads to no work for a day or two. One needs to understand that the suppliers may also run out of stock and this is why it is important that you order the stuff in advance so that the suppliers have ample time to send it to you. In case of any eventuality, you do not run out of stock and the work continues. One can’t ever afford to be negligent during monsoon and winters as during these two seasons we experience numerous issues related to road blocks and accidents which can delay the delivery of raw materials. Keeping these things into consideration one must pro-actively order materials in advance and don’t fall into unnecessary chaos.

Sub-letting the construction project can degrade the quality of work

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We live in the era of outsourcing where every possible business is outsourced in some way or the other. Some businesses are outsourced to foreign countries and some remain inside but are outsourced to parties that are known to do that kind of work. This is also known as sub-letting projects. What typically happens here is the person who is responsible to complete the project hands over the work to a third party who in turn further hands it over to the part who will indeed complete the work.

Now the people involved in the middle does nothing significant other than enjoy the profits that will reap out of the work. This is the modus-operandi that many in today’s business follow. The first party may or may not be aware that the project has changed many hands and therefore are only interested with the quality of work. They know just one thing and that is they want the finished stuff in good shape. Anything less than what they have expected can lead to non-payment and other legal hassles.

In the construction sector, the scope of sub-letting the work is immense; which is why you will find many small and mid-sized construction companies ready to tie up with a mighty enterprise and get involved in the construction of a huge project.

However, the thing that is of great concern is the quality of work may not be at par excellence and this can be a worrying factor for the construction company that has bagged the project. The company that lets the work to other small companies needs to ensure that the quality of work is not compromised by any way and for this purpose it should take corrective measures every time it finds things not in place.

Review the progress of work at regular intervals:-

One of the most important things that is required to be done is to review the progress of work at regular intervals. Once you let-out the project to other companies, your responsibility doubles. You of course let out the project due to lack of infrastructure on your part and by letting it out to other companies you stand the chance to earn more profits. But that does not allow you to have a freehand on the quality of work. You have to make sure that you take some time out and review the work in ground. Visit the site at least once in a month and check the progress report. Try to evaluate the actual with the estimates and see if the work will be completed within the stipulated timeframe.

Do not shy to fire a contractor from their shoddy work:-

When you let out a work to a third party and you find out that the party is not good at it or is not taking your work seriously, you should be ready to take a tough call. Remember, it is your baby and if someone is not taking good care of it, you have every right to kick him out. Start with warnings and if you do not see any improvement then it would be the time to take the call.

How does Auction Companies work for heavy equipment? What do they charge?

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When you do not need the services of your heavy equipment, you got to get rid of them. There is no point in keeping the machines with you and see them getting rusted during different seasons. Now there is a smarter way to get rid of heavy equipment and that is by selling them in auction. So while you put them up for auction, you generally give them the minimum price to start and it takes up from there. People will place their bids on the item and the guy with the highest bid will eventually become the new owner of the machine. It is no big deal to locate a company that is into selling heavy equipment through auction. In fact, you will come across many companies that see this business with huge potential and with larger margins for profit. So finding a company who can help you to do away with your old heavy equipment is no problem.

Get all machines at one place:-

Auction of heavy equipment is more like an exhibition. It is not just your machines that will be slated to get auctioned on a particular day but heavy equipment belonging to many other people will be put on sale on that day. So these companies if they are selling it offline then they advertise about the mega event where they rent a huge place to put up your construction equipment and invite people who belongs from the construction or mining industry. The invitation happens through ways of advertisement, cold calls and online registration. So once people gather at the venue, the auction begins and they bring each equipment at a time. The possibility of a construction equipment not getting sold exists but the larger possibility is that it may get sold off quickly out there than any other forum.

Online auction companies:-

There is also good number of auction companies who deals exclusively on the internet. They make members by asking them to register on their site and then use the site for buying and selling heavy equipment. So a person who is a buyer can also become a seller using the same User ID. He need not change any of his details to sell anything especially when his prior transactions were restricted to only purchases.

Different auction company charges differently:-

The seller has to pay good chunk of money to the auction company to sell his machines. Firstly, some auction companies charge money for registration. It may vary from few hundreds to thousands of dollars. It also covers the listing cost. For offline auction, they do charge for using their services to auction the machine. The amount may be minimal for putting the machine on auction but if it sells of, they may charge from 2% to 10% of the sales price. Sellers take advantage of both the platforms to sell their heavy equipment. Online auction companies charge not only for listing the item but also for enhancements like making the description part look more attractive or to just put a star on the listing which makes it a bit catchy. Any additional feature will cost the seller more and therefore one needs to first understand the costing before going for it.