Message from the NZCB Board

Building industry run off its feet

In my 40 years of building, I’ve never been so busy, drained, and time-poor. Can you relate? The building industry has broken the record for the number of consents applied for in 12-months, beating the 1974 record of 40,025. With confidence still high and facing COVID-19, it hasn’t been the easiest environment to navigate.

Working on your business, you’re dealing with cashflow challenges, labour shortages, supply issues, getting plans drawn up, pricing from subbies, consenting, building inspections, sub-contractors, and struggling with a drop in site productivity. Then there’s working in the business; planning jobs, resourcing materials, working out site visits for building inspections and sub-contractors, pricing ahead, answering dozens of emails... the list goes on.

Make sure communication is on point

Communication is key to helping your business get through this busy time. Keep clients up to date with progress on their site. If you have supply issues, building inspection problems, or subcontractors running behind, explain the delay to your client. It’s a lot easier to have a conversation early than have them stew on the reason the project has slowed. Always follow up your conversation with an email.

If you’re feeling stressed out by everything that’s going on at the moment, you’ll probably find your client is just as overwhelmed, or more. I always put myself in their shoes because construction is second nature to us but it’s one of the most significant investments a homeowner will ever make. I always say to my clients; if you’ve got a question that feels silly, please ask it if it will stop you from worrying. Building a trusting relationship with a client will likely lead to prompt payments, future recommendations, clients siding with you instead of against you, and listening to your advice or suggestions. Keep in mind that the client is always right. Even if they’re wrong, you just need to find a different angle to appease them, so your relationship stays strong throughout the build. And remember – happy clients pay their bills.

We’re all in this together

Builders, sub-trades, and council employees are reaching their workload limit. Be mindful of keeping on track with your project management and letting suppliers and sub-trades know what’s coming. Tell clients and architects that pricing is taking longer than normal. We’re all human and putting on the pressure won’t help anybody. If you need advice, a new staff member, or if your normal supplier can’t deliver, network within your sector to see if anyone can help. We’re all in this together. Even just talking things over with someone who is facing similar issues can help resolve any concerns you have.

Building a trusting relationship with a client will likely lead to prompt payments, future recommendations, clients siding with you instead of against you, and listening to your advice or suggestions.

Let’s make a change

While it’s still a work in progress, there has been some interest from Construction Accord to engage with small to medium businesses, which we know look after more than 90% of construction work in New Zealand.

We all want to see changes take place with the Resource Management Act, inefficient regulations, lack of infrastructure, high cost of materials, and the problem of housing affordability. We don’t want big business getting first dibs on how they see the future of the building sector in New Zealand. SMEs need to engage with the government because it might pre-empt any major change that could affect SMEs the most.

The government needs a strong small business sector because it supplies most of the employment and tax take within New Zealand. With the right business set-up, SMEs could very easily solve the housing shortfall we are experiencing at the moment. New Zealand Certified Builders would be very keen to engage with the Government on this line of thinking.