2020 was a difficult year for everyone, including the construction industry. Projects were stalled due to illness and lockdown, leaving many construction companies waiting on their next payday. You made it through, but now you’re trying to get back on track.
The good news is that the industry is mostly up and running again. You can get to work and make the money you need, but is it enough? If you need to increase your construction company’s profit in 2021, here’s how you can do it.
1. Rent, Don’t Buy
Buying equipment is costly in two ways. One, you spend a large amount upfront to purchase it. Two, you then have to store it when you’re not using it.
If you have equipment that isn’t used regularly, you can end up losing money on it. Instead of taking that risk, you can rent what you need when you need it. That way, when you’re done with it, it can be returned instead of taking up space in your shop.
Renting is a great idea for specialty tools and an even better idea for vehicles. Buying and maintaining work trucks takes thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on how many you need. That may sound like an exaggeration, but one full-size pickup costs $50,000 on average.
You need trucks, but you don’t need to buy them. You can rent pickup trucks instead and start saving money. If you want to know how much you can save, add up how much you were planning to spend on buying and maintaining trucks over the next few years.
You may be surprised to see just how much renting construction vehicles can save you.
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2. Improve Your Safety Standards
Accidents can be devastating and costly. Even if you’re lucky enough for no one to be injured, an accident can halt work for hours or days. Every hour that you have to wait to get started again represents money that could be going to you and your employees.
While accidents can’t be eliminated, they can be lessened. Have safety meetings and seminars with your employees often to go over the safety procedures. Address the common causes of accidents and what can be done to prevent them.
Provide monthly safety meetings, and even refresher courses with construction safety tips such as always checking your surroundings before climbing out of equipment, and inspecting stairs and ladders before climbing them. These things sound simple, but more often than not, accidents happen during everyday tasks that people have gotten comfortable with.
Taking the time to encourage safety now can prevent you from losing a lot of time and money later.
3. Set New Goals
If you aren’t seeing the profit you want, it might be time to set new goals. Goals help keep your team on track and on the same page. Types of goals you might set when you’re looking to increase your profit include productivity, efficiency, safety, and client satisfaction goals.
Set specific tasks you’d like your employees to meet to reach these goals, and explain why they’re important. Even if you don’t see financial results right away, improving how you do business won’t hurt you in the long run.
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4. Start Networking
If you want more money, you need more work. If you want more work, you need to know more people. That’s where networking comes in.
Networking in the construction industry is a big deal. Even though it’s a large industry, it’s small in the sense that a lot of people know each other. Making friends with one important person can lead to new opportunities you haven’t even considered.
The key to networking is to do it the right way. Networking events are a great resource for meeting people, but it shouldn’t be obvious that you’re there to chase leads. Be friendly, polite, and likable in conversations and only offer your business card as an afterthought at the end.
Trade shows and social media are also great places to meet other industry professionals. Strike up conversations, ask questions, offer help, just be a good person so that other people are encouraged to do the same. Soon, you’ll have dozens of new connections, which means dozens of growth opportunities.
Your construction company doesn’t have to struggle. You can increase your profits in 2021 by adopting these strategies today.
