

So we already dealt with one of the biggest pitfalls new contractors face, which is consistently bidding out jobs. You Actually Lose Money When You’re on Your Own
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But the point remains, in order to consistently bid jobs and go after more business, the quickest way to free up your schedule is to delegate your estimating and bidding.

On the flip side, you may not get as much personal assistance as you would with an employee dedicated to just your company.Īt the end of the day, you just have to choose what works best for your own company. Plus, you don’t have to worry about hiring, training, or managing an employee. Outsourcing estimating services on a per-project basis ends up being cheaper than hiring in-house estimator. The best solution to this is to either hire an in-house estimator or to outsource your estimating.īoth have their pros and cons, having someone in-house gives you someone who will know your company personally and know all your pricing, but they can end up being much more expensive than an estimating company. Unfortunately, the reality is many contractors get bogged down with work on the job site, overseeing workers, and other tasks so that they don’t have the time to bid out jobs and focus on their sales/marketing. If the average contract value in construction is around $200k, and you win about 10% of your jobs, that means if you’re bidding 20, you should have 2 projects under your belt every single month.

And that number is higher if you’re a bigger, more established company. The average one-person contractor should be bidding no less than 20 jobs per month. In fact, most contractors overlook this crucial aspect of their business simply because they have their schedules full. Contractors Are Losing an Average of $400k per Month in Sales by…īidding jobs can be very time-consuming, very fast.

But keep the above theme in your head as you read, because they’re all geared to put you on the path practically every successful businessperson is on. This list details 5 brutal mistakes we see contractors making every day that’s actually doing them more harm than good. If you look into the top entrepreneurs in the world, they all have surprisingly similar philosophies create systems for everything, delegate people to manage/work on those systems, and focus on sales.Īnd if it’s working for every single successful entrepreneur, why wouldn’t you follow suit with your construction business? Understanding building codes, construction techniques, bid submission, subcontractor selection, and other important components involved in putting up an edifice is one thing, but to operate a company is something else entirely. Most general contractors are experts of the operations of their business, most aren’t experts in the other aspects of business, such as marketing, sales, finance, business development, etc., which are just as important. That’s why I outlined the 5 biggest mistakes I see so many GCs making every day.įirst off… You Don’t Have to Know Everything Trying to figure out everything on your own can be a MISSION. “I don’t have any time to estimate new projects”.I do consulting for hundreds of contractors every year and I always hear the same things: Or you work for a company and you want to help grow. Which means most people make the same mistakes.ĭo you own a construction business? Maybe you want to start one.
