How are your sites running at the moment? Are they smooth, on time and on budget? Or do your sites feel more like chaos? Maybe they are over-ordering materials, are not as profitable, a bit messy, you are not happy with the quality of work or maybe your clients are just not satisfied. Hopefully, this is not the case for you, but unfortunately this is often the reality when it comes to running a construction site.
How our sites run, especially on longer projects, is often a direct relation to how much effort has gone into setting up before starting a project. A lack of planning on the front end can lead to a world of pain for weeks or potentially months. So how much effort do you put into setting up your sites? And more importantly what things should you be focusing on before starting?
I have been in the construction industry for over 20 years and understand the struggles, but over the years I have learnt that there are 4 main things that should be focused on to make sure your project runs smoothly. Here are the 4 things you should be focusing on to set up your project and site:
- Break down costs
The first mistake many business owners make is not tracking the costs and their budget throughout, because they don’t have a clear breakdown of costs. So step one, break your costs down even if you have already won the project.
If you can try to break it down per trade. For example, imagine that you won a project for a £100,000 conservatory, think about each trade individually. So how much is the brickwork going to be? What about the carpentry package? The plastering? Or an electrician?
If you are not comfortable doing this yourself there is a wide range of tools available.
Use QS, or an estimating software online, that will break it down into phases for you. This will make it easy to see where you are maybe overpricing, getting a bigger profit, or underpricing and what needs adjustment.
- Track your costs
Step 2 is to then track your costs. There is no point breaking down all of the numbers if you then don’t track it. This may be something you can delegate to a staff member who deals with admin, and you want to make sure that everything ordered is allocated a reference number, then this needs to be put into an app or spreadsheet to track. This can save you a lot of time when you are analysing your data and helps you to see where you can optimise your pricing.
- Plan your timeline
Step 3 is to plan how long your project should take. This is an absolutely crucial, but often missed step as many go headfirst into a project and do not plan how long it’s going to take. This is dangerous because if projects go over time by just 10% it can be hugely expensive over the course of the year. Let’s say that you have forecast that you will do a million pounds worth of work this year, if you have 10% slippage you will only do £900,000. That’s £100,000 you are missing out on, and these seemingly small percentages can cost you a lot of money.
So make sure you plan the timeline of the project, and be strict on reviewing the timeline regularly. Make it a habit to check each week. Tools like Instagant and other apps can do this quickly and easily, so don’t put it off but make it part of your routine every week.
- Prepare Health and Safety documentation
Step 4 is to get health and safety sorted before the work gets going. As company directors, there is a heavy fine or even imprisonment if something goes wrong and the worst happens because of health and safety negligence. It is better to be safe than sorry so before starting, get the health and safety documents done and filed away. Use them throughout the project, as it gives you real peace of mind as the project develops.
Ultimately the aim is to give you as a business owner more time, more money and more freedom. Part of that is planning sites to run as smoothly as possible before even stepping onto your project to start the work. I have found these four steps absolutely crucial to having a project that runs on time and gives you and your client the best results possible. Getting them all in place will help you to run your sites smoothly, leaving you feeling less stressed and with more time to work on and win other projects.
If you would like to work with me to get the right systems in place for your business click here to book a chat and see how I can help you grow and scale a successful construction business.
