Have you considered what a difference estimating software could do for your business – not just time-wise but financially too? I’ll explain with a question. Did your final profit for 2019 reflect the amount you believe you deserved based on the quality of your work and service? No? You’re not alone. 51% of the 537…More Info
Do you wish you could charge more? Do you want more profitable types of jobs? Are you in a vicious cycle of quoting lower? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then take five minutes to read our free guide on how much you could charge, achieving an accurate quote, and what…More Info
Introduce Design and Build into your business and you can look forward to a new revenue stream and a new type of customer. And it’s easier to make happen than you think. The Design & Estimate Kit from HBXL Building Software is straightforward to master, and the reward for your design work is software that…More Info
We’ll cut the c**p! You’re busy. So we’ll get straight to the hard facts. HBXL software tools deliver what we promise: simple business management solutions for your building firm. Here’s the bottom line If you’re disappearing under quote requests, concerned about your health and safety obligations, fed up of chasing money and managing discrepancies –…More Info
It’s very easy to write January off when the weather lets you down, customers too - and the odd subbie. It’s dark, wet and there’s no money around… But all is not lost, far from it – the quieter period presents a great opportunity to review your business and decide how to take it forward. So we’ve listed here 10 goals to construction success in 2017 to set you on your way.
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Review your business direction - Starting with the biggie! What projects do you want and like to take on. Consider the 80/20 rule – could you concentrate on the 20 percent of the work that generates 80 percent of your revenue? And say no to the less profitable work? Do you want to diversify? What about Design & Build ? Walking is a good activity for clearing your mind and thinking afresh. Yes even builders can take an afternoon walk! Then break down your big ideas into daily, weekly or monthly actionable goals that you can measure. |
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Improve your bottom line - This usually involves 1) Raising your rates 2) Doing more work 3) Reducing your expenses. Look at the figures for last year and see how you could trim some overheads. Did your profit margins drop unnecessarily? Do you keep reducing your profit margin because of oversights? Find the leaks in your bucket. |
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Stop being busy and be more productive - Busy isn’t necessarily productive. ‘What’s the point of spending your days climbing a mountain, only to realise at the end of this new year, you’ve climbed the wrong one?’ (Quote courtesy of Robin Sharma, leadership expert). Do you enter the same data into multiple documents? Put systems in place that will streamline various processes. |
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Learn to delegate - Have a good long look at your role. Do you really have to do it all? Perhaps it’s time to stop being pulled in different directions and concentrate on the bigger issues. Make a list identifying the things that someone else could do. Estimating? Speaking to suppliers? Booking subbies? |
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Review your approach to health and safety - How confident are you that you have a handle on health and safety? Are your employees and the public properly protected? Do you know what the HSE expect from you – have you properly sussed out CDM 2015? How about putting some time in the diary to gen up on it, do an online health and safety course and get others onto it as well. |
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Review your customer service - Remember the customers pay the bills. If you want good reviews, if you want them to recommend you then make sure they stay happy. A single A4 sheet with your expectations of your employees and subbies will make sure everyone knows the policy. What about giving customers the opportunity to feedback at the end of a job – you could come up with a short questionnaire? At least make sure to ask them to give you a review. |
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Research cloud computing - If you’re not already using Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive or another cloud storage application, then consider the benefits they could bring you. Saving and accessing files such as estimates in the cloud are really easy, and using cloud over physical file storage can save money as well. And of course you can be anywhere and still access your files remotely. But possibly most important of all is backing up - a must if you don’t want to lose something important following a systems failure or malfunction. |
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Promote your business better - It needn’t be anything grand. What about updating your website (you have got one haven’t you?)? How out of date are the projects on there? What about a Facebook page? Perhaps it’s time for new livery for the vehicles, new polo shirts, some better signs? Sponsor a team or event. Whatever, put together a list, add some time frames and make them happen. And why not book in a bit of marketing training on this – some short courses are available to do from home or office. |
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Become a tiny little bit of a geek - You don’t have to know your Bytes from your RAM but technology really will help you work more effectively, which means faster computers and clever software. Make a point of keeping up with new and changing technology that would impact you directly. Don’t just think about power drills and the latest plasterboard. What IT could you invest in to make your business run more smoothly? |
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Commit to new learning - Your business has to stay safe and compliant. Put some remote online health and safety training on the calendar. And why not think about learning a new skill. Find out about software for designing your own extensions and loft conversions for instance. |
Want more advice on construction success?
We hope our 10 goals to construction success in 2017 proves helpful. If you would like any more advice on streamlining your processes, tightening up on admin and improving your profit margins, give one of the team here at HBXL a call on 0117 916 7898. Our suite of software is aimed exclusively at the builder and developer and was founded by a builder who knows only too well about the pressures of running a successful business. Have a great 2017!
Want to make a higher profit by managing your construction company better? Follow our tips to improve your building company by making your projects work for you. Bringing estimation software on board to help your building firm can provide more benefit than just faster and more accurate estimating. Read on to find out about one of the many hidden advantages of investing in estimating software.
Why estimating software?
It’s written all over our website. EstimatorXpress will save you time, money and effort producing estimates and can guarantee 100% accuracy. But, EstimatorXpress is way more than just an award winning estimation program as it provides trades, builders and developers with a range of reports and charts to help them manage their projects once the job has been won (and EstimatorXpress users win up to 230% more business!).
Hidden benefits of the best estimation software
Firstly, EstimatorXpress helps protect your profit through calculating likely wastage, inflation and wear and tear costs on your plant. It is often easy to forget to factor in the wear and tear of a shovel, wheelbarrow or perhaps the use of a tube of mastic lying in the van. All these items erode your profit if they aren’t accounted for properly, and EstimatorXpress calculates these for you automatically.
Secondly all the reports and charts EstimatorXpress produces directly (and instantly!) from your estimate are enough reason alone to invest in the software. It automatically produces over 80 plus helpful management reports automatically from your estimate data (no typing required!). These include detailed cost breakdowns so you can see where your money is going exactly, cutting lists, material schedules (Bill of quantities) and labour schedules and tonne more – check them out here. Not to mention profit forecasts, stage payment profiles and cashflow to keep you in the black on your jobs.
Thirdly a really important toolset for business-savvy builders is “My Projects”. ‘My Projects’ is a module found in EstimatorXpress Total Toolkit versions and above that can multiply the benefits of the reports outlined above by allowing trades, builders and developers to manage all their jobs with ease. By linking individual jobs together as a Workload Project you can see total cost reports, complete schedules of materials, build programmes, order schedules, cashflow and profit for your entire company’s workload as a whole. Plus you can see exactly how much money the company is proposed to make over the next X months. This can help you make informed business decisions about expansion, taking on staff, or purchasing new equipment such as a van. Watch the video to see My Projects in action.
What is ‘My Projects’?
As we mentioned above, My Projects allows you to take a combined view of all your projects together in order to enhance the overall management of workload, cashflow, materials, labour and more. Looking at all your work together, whether simultaneous jobs or back-to-back, allows for further time, effort and cost cutting advantages.
Tips to improve your building company
Tip 1)
Use the detailed cost reports of your combined workload together with cashflow reports (instantly produced off the back of your estimates) to show the outflow of money from your business, which highlights when you’ll need to see stage payments from clients or finance/bank lending coming in.
Tip 2)
If you’re looking for development finance the cost and cashflow reports in My Projects will help secure you finance. The software allows you to instantly produce a multi-unit/site cashflow combined with total detailed costs for the bank or lender showing exactly where the money is going.
Tip 3)
Every building firm will find the Gantt chart of all the projects you have underway and forecast useful. See exactly where your jobs or projects are, how they overlap or gaps you have in workload. Plan your projects to perfection!
Tip 4)
Use the labour schedules and Gantt chart together to know what labour you need and when. Avoid over-stretching your company and schedule your preferred subcontractors in advance.
Tip 5)
Improve your bargaining power with builders merchants by supplying them with a more complete, forward view of your material requirements. That way you can increase discounts and avoid endless (expensive!) trips to the merchants. One trip to agree a good deal on the entire job with delivery to suit your build program.
Tip 6)
What about a profit forecast based on all your projects? See how much money you’re making and from which projects – and do more of those!
There are over 80 reports in My Projects to help your business. The above is a shortlist of just 6. The potential money and time saving benefits of properly managing and analysing the way you work is what separates a good building firm from a great building firm.
Combine EstimatorXpress with ProjectXpert and you’ve got super-powers…
How My Projects can help Trades, Builders and Developers
Trades who have many small projects on can benefit by being able to see their continuous workflow.
Small-scale builders can use My Projects to move seamlessly from one project to the next. This avoids costly gaps in workload.
Large-scale builders can use My Projects to manage multiple, simultaneous projects. This prevents companies over extending themselves financially or in terms of labour.
Developers can use My Projects to keep an eye on all work for an entire site or even multiple sites, being able to order materials in bulk, shift labour around for optimal efficiency and stay on top of cash flow.
Didn’t realise EstimatorXpress did all that? Want to know what else it can do?
All that is just one of the many hidden benefits of choosing EstimatorXpress as your estimating software. If you want to know any more about the My Projects module or anything else that EstimatorXpress can do, give us a call on 0117 9167898. We’d love to chat.
Do you ever feel like you’re wasting time? Even if you’re meeting your targets, do you wonder whether there is a better way? Thousands of building firms have found a way to spend less time estimating, win more work, stick to deadlines and budget and all with considerably less effort. How? By embracing a software solution. Read on to discover how HBXL’s Productivity Bundle could help your building firm improve construction productivity and return a higher profit.
Building software to manage every stage of your project efficiently
All HBXL products are integrated for a complete end-to-end experience and designed with ease of use in mind. Start with plans and share the information across the range to produce everything you need to run a project from start to finish effectively. Let us take you through the steps.
One, draft an architect quality building plan effortlessly in PlansXpress using simple drag and drop tools. No CAD knowledge needed! (Or if you have been given plans from your client, simply scan and trace them to make alterations and capture essential construction information such as dimensions and specification).
Two, using these details imported directly into EstimatorXpress, the software does an almost instant take-off of the plan, producing a 100% accurate estimate of your build costs as well as many handy documents to help you run your project more efficiently and impress your customer. Including Gantt chart, schedules of works (JIT labour, plant and materials), cashflow forecasts, stage payments and a customer quote – all produced automatically off the back of your estimate. Just print!
Three, import your estimate into Health & Safety Xpert and it will use your job specifications to automatically generate all the required health and safety documents you need including Risk Assessments, Construction Phase Plans, site checklists and audits to ensure that you meet required HSE compliance including CDM 2015 and CHAS.
Four, import your estimate into ContractsXpert and it will use your estimate details to directly prepare a watertight customer building contract and ensure you meet Doorstep Selling regulations, as well as properly contracting with your subcontractors.
Five, use ProjectXpert to ensure you run the most productive construction project possible. Plus, manage multiple, simultaneous jobs and keep track of how your whole year is panning out at any point, not just at the end! If you’re thinking you don’t normally have more than one job at once, then you really need to try the software. You don’t know what you’re missing out on!
Too much to talk about!
The Productivity Bundle has so many features that will help you run a more effective, efficient and ultimately profitable business that there is no way we could fit it all in this short article so give us a call on 0117 9167898 to see what it can do for your business.