As a small business owner in the construction industry, you likely operate within a limited budget. You do not have much time or money available at your disposal, which means every step of the construction process is critical. As you are well aware, mistakes could prove to be detrimental to a project. You’ll have to waste valuable resources going back to correct the error.
If you’re a small business owner looking to grow your construction company, one of the things you may want to focus on is planning. As one famous quote says, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Below, you’ll find a brief breakdown of how planning could prevent mistakes.
Pre-construction Process
One of the most significant mistakes construction managers make is underestimating the amount of resources it will take to complete a project. Customers hate receiving invoices for project materials and labor because you did not bid the project accurately. The closer your estimate is to the final budget – in both deadlines and money spent – the better off you’ll be.
Fortunately, implementing a construction time card app could go a long way toward providing you with this information. Construction time card apps provide managers with a tremendous amount of data. They can accurately determine how long it takes team members to complete a specific task. Managers can then use this information to submit accurate bids for projects, ensuring they are completed on time.
Scheduling
As a small business owner, you may need to redirect employees from one job site to another to help get it back on track. Unfortunately, when doing so, you run the risk of employees getting lost along the way. Fortunately, a construction time card app could allow you to communicate these details with your team.
Construction time card apps allow you to send clear directions to your team members, such as the job site they’re working the next day and what time you expect them to be on site. Taking advantage of this technology not only streamlines things for you, but it also makes things significantly easier for the employee as well. It also provides you with the opportunity to hold employees accountable.
Know How To Handle Change
In the construction industry, it’s no secret that your project likely won’t go according to plan. No matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to plan for everything that’s going to occur during the process. However, what you can do is plan for ways to handle change. Set clear expectations with your team managers about how they’ll handle change.
Will you move employees from one job site to another? Will you ask employees to work overtime? How will you settle labor or contract disputes with vendors? If you have systems in place to address these issues when they arise, you’ll cut down on the severity of the mistakes. Failure to account for these problems could set your project back considerably. Make sure you have a plan in place to resolve changes immediately.