IN THE KNOW —
Make tech a powerful, everyday tool in your business Software for builders and tradies is called many things – job management apps, project management software, construction management tech and more. Improve your communication For many people, face-to-face meetings are impractical, for instance, if your client is not based in the same location as you. Having an online client and subcontractor portal, where you can share key info and updates, could be incredibly valuable. They can log-on to communicate with you, sign variations, review what’s happening and when, and more. This visibility is vital to building trust and having a transparent relationship with clients.
They all do the same thing – help you to run your business and your projects more efficiently and profitably. It’s easy to think that tech is used only for certain project tasks. But they offer so much more than that. You’ll quickly find that software will become your most powerful tool, giving you control at every stage of a project or job.
How can construction software help your business? Quote faster and more accurately Doing your calculations and take-offs from PDFs of the plans means you can save time by doing measurements more quickly. Your quotes and estimates can be more accurate because supplier price lists are stored in your job management system. Up to date pricing means no nasty surprises for you, or your client.
Plan ahead With the right software, creating your construction programme or booking jobs is simplified. Having a central project plan will make sure your team and subtrades are ready to go when you need them to be. Your subbies can also be automatically notified when they’re needed or when changes occur. Visibility of financials Delays can cause project budgets to haemorrhage and get out of control. By using software, you can easily make sure your job costs and customer invoicing is always up to date, so you can always stay on top of your financial position.
Five steps for choosing the RIGHT software for your business Step 1 – understand where you are now Start by listing your business problems. What are the key issues you’re struggling with at the moment and over the last few months?
Work smarter and faster Even little changes to the way you work can have a big impact on your workload. For instance: • Manage your team by planning your jobs over the next few days to a few months in advance • Cut down on the amount of admin paperwork you have to manage by using a timesheet app • Easily share info with your support team (such as your bookkeeper), who may not be on-site with you. Be better than the competition When the market starts to tighten as expected, you’ll need to outperform against your competitors. Technology can help you to do this by: • Providing fast, accurate and professional quotes and estimates to your potential customers • Give clients visibility of their job, which gives them confidence that your projects are well organised and that you’re professional • Helping your customers to manage their costs by tracking their project budget.
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Work through the challenges you are having in these areas in your business as a starting point. • Quoting takes too much time and you miss including items in your quotes, over and over again • You’re not capturing variations to jobs • You struggle to track costs on a job or know if you’ve been charged the correct amount by your supplier • Keeping the client updated is difficult and time consuming. Step 2 – what do you want to achieve? Next, you need to be clear about the goals you want to achieve. Start by listing the goals you want to achieve. Keep it realistic and focus on what you would like to achieve immediately and in the next year. For example, I want to: • Have my team enter their timesheets electronically • Spend more time growing the business, rather than being on the tools • Reduce the time I spent on admin and paperwork each week • Improve budget communication with clients • Capture variations to jobs more accurately.
