Business pointers for construction companies

Marketing 

• Do you know who your most profitable clients are? 

• Do you know if they are going to remain a profitable workstream? 

• Do you know how to actively find new clients? 

• Are you confused by what digital marketeers have told you? 

Tendering 

• Do you have a bid-no-bid policy? 

• Are you sure you are covering your overheads sufficiently? 

• Is your mark-up calculated correctly? 

• Do you need help with bid writing? 

• Do you understand the contracts you are signing up to? 

• Are you getting feed-back on your tenders? 

• If there is no feedback, are you using the lost tender information to win the next one with the highest price possible? 

Commercial 

• Are the contracts you are signing up to appropriate? 

• Are the contract risks being managed? 

• Are you risk assessing your clients for payments? 

• Do you have systems for capturing records of work done? 

• Do you have processes for capturing changes to the scope of works? 

• Are you able to check profitability of projects as they progress? 

• Are you aware of how you would deal with an issue via the contract? 

• Are there planned v actual progress reports? 

• Is there a quality management system in place for managing quality? 

Accounts 

• Does your accountant explain your accounts to you? 

• Do you have separate management accounts? 

• Is your pay allocated to specific activities? 

• Do you do cost verses income comparisons for projects? 

• Do you know if the work in progress is correct? 

• Are your overheads going up or not? 

• Do you know how much you can afford to invest in new resources? 

• Do you have a forecast? 

• Do you have a system for chasing payments? 

 Staff 

• Do you all the staff have a job description? 

• Are their roles and responsibilities? 

• Is their performance discussed with them? 

• Are their capabilities addressed? 

• Is time management an issue? 

• Are duties delegated efficiently? 

• Is recruitment an issue? 

If you answered yes to all these questions, your business should be flying. If not, then you now have a starting place to get working on. 

If you need help structuring your processes to optimise winning the most profitable contracts and executing them efficiently, then please contact me Peter.Searle@ba4cs.co.uk