You’ve finally made it.
Your construction company is booming, and you’re ready to expand. But as excited as you are about growing your business, you can’t rush into scaling without a plan. If you’re unprepared or scale too fast, your business will suffer.
In this article, we’ll cover the five essential steps to successfully scale your construction company. Let’s get started!
How to Grow Your Construction Business
Perfect Your Products & Services
Some companies want to grow so much that they decide to scale first and fix product problems later. But that doesn’t work. The greater the demand, the harder it is to meet while changing the product because you’ll be doubling your workload.
As you dive into expanding your business, look at what could slow or stop your growth. Take some time to identify roadblocks. If you find any product or service roadblocks, figure out how you want to approach them. For example,
If you’ve noticed your team struggling with framing lately, offer a short training session.
If customers complain about the way their ductwork is installed, you might find another installation method.
Pinpointing these areas for improvement helps you address issues earlier, so expansion goes more smoothly.
Even if you believe your products and services are as good as they can be, there’s always something you can improve. To see where to improve, try reading reviews, collecting customer feedback from a survey, or testing your product.
Inspecting your products and services will help you give your customers the highest quality possible. And when customers notice your craftsmanship, you’ll create a loyal customer base that leads to more jobs and referrals.
Polish Your Processes
What are business processes? They include how you manage your projects from start to finish, and they will make or break your company. If you don’t have a process, it is nearly impossible for your businesses to grow efficiently.
Take a moment to examine how your construction business operates, from sales to appointment follow-ups. Tracking your processes might seem like a waste of time, but it can save you from major problems down the road. Write your processes down, so everyone can reference them.
This should also be where you check how closely your construction business follows those processes. No matter how great your processes are, they can’t do much good if no one uses them.
One of the best ways to improve your processes is to use a construction software like JobNimbus. A construction software system structures your processes, so your team follows the same steps for every project. Construction software also makes a world of difference with integrations and automations.
Integrate Systems
Many construction companies use several different platforms to run their business. All those apps, platforms, and open tabs get harder to manage when you grow your company. Save time by simplifying all your systems into one platform.
A software like JobNimbus integrates with a variety of construction industry tools, so you have everything you need in one place. For example, you might use QuickBooks to keep track of all your accounting information. JobNimbus has a two-way sync with QuickBooks, so any information you input will be up to date on the desktop or online versions of QuickBooks. You can easily find accurate accounting data without ever having to leave JobNimbus.
Create Automations
What is time-consuming now will only get worse as your business grows, and repetitive tasks are the worst offenders of all. But automations take care of those tasks to give you back more time. Automations are part of the software that can cause something to happen at set times or in specific circumstances.
Make custom automations do what your business needs most. Set up your automations to do something when something else takes place (like send an email after a customer signs your estimate) or do something at a certain time (like remind a customer about their construction appointment the day before the job). Implementing automations helps speed up your operations, keeps processes uniform, and lets you focus on what matters most.
Check out the seven most popular automations you can use on JobNimbus to make construction work easier.
Figure out Funding
It’s an unfortunate fact that business expansion requires more funds. You might want to upgrade your equipment, get new technology, or move into another office. No matter your plans, you need to find a way to get the capital you need.
One option is to use your personal funds and bootstrap your construction business. But personally funding your company isn’t for everyone. Construction business owners can also look into grants, business credit cards, and loans. Check out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s helpful guide about common business funding options for more ideas. Regardless of your chosen funding path, be sure to map it out so you know how to move forward.
Grow Your Team
Whether growing the size of your business or starting a secondary location, you’ll need more team members.
If you’re opening another location, take a look at how many people it takes to operate your current location. That number gives you a rough estimate of how many employees you’ll need. Keep in mind, though, that you can start with fewer employees and add more once you get off the ground.
If you’re building your current team, ask yourself where you need more staff the most. Do you have enough construction contractors to quickly get work done? Do you have enough sales representatives to help all your customers? Will you hire contractors or turn to subcontractors?
Now is the time to find the best people for your team. Don’t forget to fill new management positions to oversee your growing staff.
Spread the Word about Your Business
Marketing can naturally bring new customers to your business. If your current marketing strategy is working, amp it up. If it isn’t working (or you don’t have a marketing plan), try different marketing methods to find the most effective one for your construction company.
Consider marketing strategies like billboard advertising, emailing, referral programs, and search engine optimization to get your business in front of more eyes. When you’re spreading awareness of your construction business, stay focused on the results. You should see new customers coming in because of your efforts—if you aren’t, it’s time to create a new strategy.
Learn the best tips for construction marketing
Successfully Scale Your Construction Business
Growing your construction business might seem daunting, but taking the right steps puts you on the path to success. With a bit of planning, foresight, and introspection, you’ll see more customers and more income.
How do you plan to make your construction business grow? Let us know in the comments below.
One Response
You made a good point about the importance of inspecting the services of your company to improve their quality as much as possible. I think that a good way to ensure high-quality services is to work with high-quality materials. I’d recommend looking for a materials supplier that has a good reputation among its past clients.