Knowing where you can make changes to cut costs for your construction business can truly be transformative, especially when preparing for a recession. Some of these things take very little effort and can make a huge difference to how much you can save over the course of a project or a year as a business. We’re here with some inspiration to help you save with revenue boosting solutions, whether you’re a small construction business or a much bigger one. Sit back, relax and get ready to learn how to cut costs starting now!
Use Price Comparison Websites
Our first piece of advice is to make use of price comparison websites for your materials. Just like you can compare the price of things like insurance for your home, car and travel, or mobile phone contracts, you can easily compare the price of materials. There are comparison websites where you can either input a specific product and brand (e.g. Grant Quick Recovery Single Coil Cylinder) if you know exactly what you want/need, or you can input something more vague (e.g. Single Coil Cylinder) if you’re happy to look at different products from different brands.
From plumbing supplies right through to lighting, decorating, tiling and everything in between, you can literally find anything you may need on these comparison websites. As well as helping you to find the cheapest product, it then also tells you the cheapest current supplier of that product. Whilst this tip may require a bit of shopping around, it can make a huge difference to how much money you spend. Even if you think you’re currently getting the best deal, we’d definitely recommend that you have a look, as things change all the time and you might be surprised at what you find.
Use Budgeting Software
Next up, it’s so important that you’re using budgeting software to manage your projects. It’s a vital part of any project and without it, you’ll be spending significantly more than you need to. Rather than trying to manage a few different spreadsheets where things don’t get filled in properly, take the time and effort to choose one budgeting software that’s used across your organisation. This may take some time to implement, but it could transform your business. Platforms like Archdesk are great, not only helping you to budget but also pull together reports easily when you need them. There are plenty of other options out there as well and plenty of guides online to help you tailor the platforms to what you need as a business. If there’s one tip you take from all of this, it should be to use budgeting software, as it will set you up for success in plenty more decisions you make after that once you know exactly how much you’re spending.
Reduce Excessive Waste
Something else you can do to cut costs for your construction business quite significantly is to reduce excessive waste. You’re literally throwing away money when materials get wasted, and whilst it’s unavoidable to some extent, paying closer attention to what’s going to waste and what you can do about it can really help. Planning ahead is a key part of this, looking at how you can revise designs to reduce excess, as well as reusing materials where you can and measuring materials exactly rather than going by your eye. These are all small changes that can make a big difference to the expenses of your construction business.
Opt For Hire
Our next tip is to look at your options for plant hire rather than purchasing machinery. If you’re not using a piece of machinery for every project you’re working on, then it can cost a lot of money in maintenance and storage for something that isn’t always used. Plus, often when you’re buying your machinery, sometimes you need to compromise on the quality if you’re not a very large business in order to fit it into your budget.
With plant hire, the process is so simple, you can enquire and a hire plan will be created, the machinery will be delivered to your site in most cases, then you keep it until you’re finished and give them a call to collect it. As well as saving on storage and maintenance costs which are all dealt with for you, you have the obvious advantage of not having to buy machinery whenever you need it. Also, you’ll be able to access much better quality equipment than if you were to buy new every time, improving the quality and efficiency of your work, therefore helping you to increase the likelihood of repeat work in the future. Overall, plant hire is one of the best options to help you cut costs and improve the quality of your work.
Reduce Overtime With Good Scheduling
Lastly, you should try to reduce your overtime costs with good scheduling. If you start your construction projects without a proper schedule, then it’s so easy to need to pay people overtime that could have been avoided. Time is money, and you can significantly cut down on lag time. It’s really important that you create an outline of all project activities, then break down each of those activities with how long it will take, how many people you will need for that activity, exactly the materials and equipment you will need.
For larger projects, you may also assign people as managers for that specific project to make sure it gets done on time. You want to give your team the room to do jobs properly of course, but you also need to make sure that people are working to schedule. Proper project monitoring is also important, to identify and resolve any roadblocks and make planned shifts based on supply chain delays or weather conditions that may impact progress. Daily logs are also a good way to stay up to date with everything and also have a point of reference to come back to if anyone has any questions. This should be a formal process rather than just jotting down notes so that it can easily be accessed by anyone who needs it.
Clear channels of communication throughout the project is also really important, for both small and large projects. For smaller projects, communicating clearly with the homeowner is key, or keeping key stakeholders in the loop throughout is so important. Whatever the size of your project, pre-planning communication will help you to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
