How to Save Your Construction Business Time and Money

As we wind down to the end of the year, the construction sector in the UK is in a promising place, albeit with a couple of challenges. Following the Labour government’s pledges to build 1.5 million new houses, several new towns, and other new projects across healthcare, education, and clean energy, the industry is experiencing a boom in investment. Meanwhile, the lack of overseas workers, combined with an ageing workforce, has led to major skills shortages, with almost every firm struggling to find the staff they need for projects.

With these challenges in mind, combined with the high demand for work, business owners are under more pressure than ever before to find ways to optimise their businesses. Here are a few points that could help.

Have a Long-Term Strategy

Too many firms in the industry take each project one at a time, with a couple in the pipeline to give them some guarantee of income in the short to medium term. But these companies make themselves vulnerable to nasty surprises down the line, and often aren’t as well-positioned to capitalise on periods of greater success. If a construction business adopts a more strategic approach, it can set itself on a path that takes it from strength to strength.

Devise a long-term plan that encompasses your business’s goals, strengths, weaknesses, and projections, which are backed by data. At the same time, craft a strategy for business development and marketing to increase your firm’s visibility and improve its legitimacy in the eyes of decision-makers.

Safeguard your business’s finances by taking advantage of cash-flow projection systems to maintain a clear picture of your incomings and outgoings, and save up for an emergency fund that will hold enough money to keep the business running for 6 months. This will give you peace of mind, as you’ll be prepared for a worst-case scenario.

Evaluate your organisational structure and identify less efficient areas that require change – less productive teams will likely become apparent. Following that, you should restructure the teams and leverage your company’s strengths to support these developing teams, which will accelerate their development.

Optimise the Process

Analyse the construction process from start to finish of at least two projects and find ways to optimise the process that will result in better outcomes.

If you’ve had an expensive piece of machinery break and are dreading paying out at least £10,000 for a replacement, consider alternatives like plant hire, which should be much less detrimental to your cash flow. There are lots of equipment providers who specialise in these services, and can offer almost anything, like digger and dumper rental.

Identify innovative technologies, such as digital site management systems, that can give you a leg up on the competition by providing real-time updates and budgeting support throughout a project.

Once the project is done and dusted, log the data and use it as a benchmark test for jobs in the future, looping in team leads for feedback and constructive operational insights.

Conclusion

Nowadays, construction firms have countless major opportunities to grow within the sector. Most will turn a healthy profit and perform well, but there will be some that rise to become major players, taking full advantage of the work available, protecting themselves against sector-wide challenges, and safeguarding their future.