Contractors Exist to Build Projects - The Business of Building

Contractors exist to build projects. Delivering projects to a customer is the foundation all contractors are built upon. The business of building is about continually delivering more projects that are progressively larger and more complex.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

 

Article Image

 

Contractors navigating the different stages of growth will progressively:

  1. Deliver more projects to delighted customers each year.
  2. Build larger and more complex projects each year. 
  3. Support the project teams with more robust supporting systems and functions each year.

With the right market strategies, people, and execution, this will also progressively deliver better returns at less risk for all aspects of the contractor scoreboard

This integrated approach to growth can easily produce returns that are 2-3X industry benchmarks while attracting and retaining talent even during the shortages across the industry.

This is The Business of Building.


 

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-EVALUATION

Some good questions to explore yourself and with your team.

  1. What do your trends for quantity of projects won and delivered look like over the last three years?
  2. What do the trends in your average project size look like over the last three years?
  3. Has your customer satisfaction gone up, gone down, or remained about the same? What is the rationale for your answer?
  4. How do your safety and financial outcomes at the company level compare to industry benchmarks over the last three years?
  5. Looking at your org chart through the project leadership level, how many people have been with you for less than five years? Selection of the right people and their retention is key to growth.
  6. Looking at your org chart through the project leadership level, how many people do you expect to retire in the next five years?
  7. Looking at a simplified contractor business model and adjusting the support functions based on your current stage of growth, which areas are you strongest and weakest? Identify your top three of each including your rationale for why.

 

All relationships begin with a simple conversation. Let's talk.

We would be happy to confidentially discuss your answers with you and will freely share anything we've learned to help you continue to build your business and career. 

 



Related Training

Unicorns and the Growing Contractor
If you are having consistent difficulty finding the right person for a role, you may be looking for a unicorn. Requiring unicorns to grow is a bad plan. If you do find a unicorn, just ask them where the pot of gold is and forget about construction!
Our Principles for Creating Value in Careers, Projects, and Contracting
“As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The person who grasps principles can successfully select their own methods. The person who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” - Harrington Emmerson
Correlation Between Culture, Safety, Profitability, and Growth
There is a high correlation between contractors that have consistently GREAT safety records and consistently GREAT profitability, growth, morale, and talent retention.