How to make 2022 your most successful year in business yet
You might be forgiven for feeling a little down in the dumps this January. Short days and cold, wet weather (not to mention Covid…) aren’t the best recipe for progress on building sites. But let’s look on the bright side. More days in the office (or at home!) can mean time to think about your business and how you’re going to move it forward in 2022.
Here are 5 steps to get you started:
1. Think about the direction of your building firm
Let’s start big picture. What types of work do you want to take on in the future? What’s your goal? Is it fewer, more profitable projects? Are you aiming to go after more sizeable projects? Larger extensions or even new builds? Write your aim at the top of a piece of paper. Then think about where you want to be in 6 months, 12 months, even 3 years. Chunk your big ideas into daily, weekly or monthly actionable targets.
2. Improve your bottom line
Doing more projects doesn’t necessarily mean more profit. There are a couple ways of improving your profits without taking on more work: increase your prices or make cost savings. Review last years’ outgoings and look for areas where you could shave off costs. If this isn’t possible (and it may not be), ensure you’re completely covering your overheads in each job. Of course, estimating software can help you do this. Now consider last year’s profit. Did you make as much as you expected? Are errors in your estimates or delays to projects costing you money? With estimating software, you can produce accurate estimates of the work and also make use of the automated build programme, material schedules and cost reports to keep your projects on track. Tightening up your estimating and project management can improve your profitability.
3. Say goodbye to busy-ness and hello to productivity
No doubt you’re working hard, long hours. But are you using your time productively or just fire-fighting? Make it your aim this year to swap busy-ness for productivity. Think about what’s working and what’s not. Where could you make time-savings? Which tasks could you outsource or delegate? What systems could you put in place to streamline the time-consuming parts of your business?
4. Embrace technology
OK, “going digital” might not be at the forefront of your mind. But it follows on from step 3. Consider how technology could save you time and simplify the challenging aspects of running a building firm - estimating, health & safety, building contracts and project management are tasks which can be made easier using software.
5. Make a commitment to change
There’s never a good time to overhaul the way you work. But if you want to achieve the business goals you set out in step 1, you need to commit to a new way of doing things. 2022 can be your most successful year in business yet.