5 Strategies to expand your construction company
Expanding your construction company can be tough, and there are several strategies that you should take into consideration to achieve your goal. The Construction Products Association (CPA) forecasts that output in the industry will grow by a robust 4.3% in 2022. Demonstrating yet again the resilience of the construction sector, after everything it faced since 2020.
And there’s plenty of opportunity for your construction firm to grow. Knowing how to expand your construction company is key, so we share 5 top strategies to action today.
How to expand your construction company
1. Review your workforce – skills, diversity and women in construction
With the expected output in construction to grow at an average rate of 4.4% across 2021-2025, this means construction companies will need to recruit an extra 217,000 workers, or over 43,000 per year.
The fastest growth will be in infrastructure and home building, with a growing contribution from repairs, maintenance and improvement, as retrofit to existing buildings becomes more important.
These targets present significant challenges for the industry. In part, this is about plugging current skills gaps, such as bricklayers and dry liners, but we must also invest in leadership and management.
As leaders, we must think outside the box when it comes to recruiting. Digital, project and change management, finance, HR and design roles can be filled from outside the sector – try tech companies, manufacturing, telecoms, software industries.
According to CIOB, women make up around 14% of construction industry professionals, while less than 6% of workers are BAME. Hiring a diverse workforce can bring a wealth of knowledge, new ideas and different points of view to challenge - and grow your company in ways you’ve not considered. It will present a huge opportunity for construction to modernise, attract a more diverse talent pool and upskill its existing workforce.
You could also consider introducing flexible working to your team to attract new entrants and retaining existing employees.
Read more: Can the construction industry introduce flexible working on construction sites?
2. Improve your data and analysis – get a single source of truth
Data can improve the decision-making process of projects and allow you to make the right decisions in the minimum amount of time.
At the same time, it can protect you from long and very costly disputes. Data can function as the objective source of truth which can solve almost every type of project dispute.
Having all your stored in one platform can give you improved visibility across multiple projects, teams and locations. Its vital to help you reduce errors, improve communication, increase productivity on site and mitigate risks.
For all these reasons, investing into a construction management software solution can be your biggest ally in the effort to expand your construction company.
Read further on this topic: The Importance of End-to-End Visibility on a Construction Site
3. Win more construction tenders
To improve your bid-winning performance in construction tendering, you’ve got to take a look at your internal processes and procedures.
Do you find you and your team are duplicating work and time-wasting on admin tasks over and over again? Are you finding inaccuracies and errors in your work, losing you time and money?
While you’re getting bogged down in paperwork and processes, you could be missing out on a lot of new construction projects.
Using a centralised system – like an all in one tendering and construction estimating software - that can automate administration tasks and huge chunks of data, it will save you hundreds of hours a year, meaning you’ll be able to tender for more construction projects with that recouped time.
Good estimating software will give you control over estimating costs, provides accuracy in your construction tenders and reduces duplication of work saving you time and money.
Now is really a good time to audit your construction tendering processes and procedures. T
Read more: Challenges in the Construction Tendering Process and How To Fix Them
4. Consider cloud-based construction software
What’s the cost to your business if your data is breached? Cyber-attacks are more common than you think and as you expand your construction company you want to ensure all your business data (financial and personal) is secure, and scalable as your grow.
Cloud-based construction software, give you access to your business-critical applications at any time from any location. Trust the software to help you manage the day-to-day running of a business and knowing you have a secure dedicated platform for hosting your ERP construction software.
Read more: How cloud-based ERP technology is changing the construction industry
5. Invest in construction management software
It’s not if but when.
All of the above recommendations, you may have notice, have one thing in common – using a digital software platform to streamline you processes will enable you to expand your construction business with ease. And there’s really no avoiding it, whatever industry you work in.
Getting the right software to help your construction management is crucial when planning to expand your construction company.
Our construction management software solutions cover everything from estimating software and job costing, to accounting software, HR and plant and asset management. We have mobile apps that captured data in real-time, and dashboards that analysis and report back to your business in one place.
Get in touch with our expert construction team to find out more about our solutions.
