Building A Construction Company That Lasts: How To Lay Your Foundation
When you’re building a structure, you start with a strong foundation. It supports the entire weight of what sits on top of it. If it’s weak, then the building may crumble.
Every business also needs a solid foundation to build on top of. If it’s rushed, weak, or flawed, the business may fail. This can be prevented by putting strong cornerstones in place.
The cornerstones of your business’s foundation are a product or service, a demographic that needs the service, a unique purpose, and a plan you can build from.
When you bring those four elements together, your construction company will begin to take shape. So, in the interest of ensuring that your construction company is built to last, let’s talk a little bit more about each cornerstone.
Selling Your Service: Bulldoze The Competition
The first cornerstone is the services you’ll be offering. Realistically, there are only so many areas of construction. A competitor is bound to be offering the same services as you, so you have to find creative ways to make yours stand out.
One way to do this is to appeal to smaller markets. Let’s say that none of the other companies in town offer the option to use recycled materials in a build. You can corner the eco-market by being the first one to add that feature to your services list.
By targeting an audience that was previously ignored, you automatically gain a certain amount of name recognition. That recognition turns into more sales as people recommend you to others with their priorities.
Another way to make yourself stand out is to have staff with more skills and qualifications than the competition. That applies to your employees and you.
As the leader of the team, you represent the whole business. It’s up to you to lead by example and embody the professionalism you want from your company. One way to do that in construction is to get your contractor’s license.
A contractor’s license gives you official proof that you know your business. That makes it easier for you to close deals and shut down your competitors. Plus, having a license is a good move from a legal standpoint, as you can be heavily fined in some states, like Tennessee, for contracting without a license.
If you want to gain legitimacy and bulldoze your competition, you can take a course that offers industry-leading exam prep to help you pass your test the first time.
Finding Your Demo: Cherry-Pick Your Customers
The second cornerstone is your customers. Without them, there’s no business. So how do you cherry-pick the customers that need your services?
To find your demographic, you need to analyze who’s interacting with your business. Start looking for common denominators among the people who land on your website or social media or who give you a call.
Do they all need the same kind of work? Is the work they’re looking for commercial or residential? When you begin to answer these questions, a pattern will form.
The easiest way to move forward is to target the people who fit in that pattern. So, let’s say that you’ve had twenty calls this week from people looking for someone to repair their house’s foundation. If that’s the only repeating request you’re getting, and you’re trying to identify a demographic, it’s safe to say the majority of the work in your area is residential.
That means that instead of running an ad about building an office, you should probably focus on a home repair angle. That doesn’t mean you can’t do other kinds of work, it just means that the easiest course of action will be to stick with the demographic you’re getting naturally.
Promising Purpose: Choose Your Brand’s Blueprint
The third cornerstone is your purpose or mission statement, it’s even more important than your services. It’s an area where you’re free to create a real impression.
When coming up with a blueprint for what your brand’s purpose should be, consider what customers value. Construction is known as a dangerous industry, so perhaps they’d like to hear about how you’re improving safety in the field; technology is playing a huge role in construction safety.
Or maybe they want to hear about your emotional connection to the work. Explaining what the industry means to you could help people find your company relatable.
If neither of those is appealing, you could go with the tried and true practice of committing to excellent customer service. It’s a simple idea, but if done right it pays off. Just look at how it’s working out for giants like Amazon, who guarantee free returns if their customers aren’t happy.
Whatever promise you decide to build your brand on, make sure you keep it. Your customers aren’t interested in hearing about how much you value them only to have the person who answers your phone hang up when they call.
Building a brand takes commitment and dedication at every level so make sure your team is on board.
Planning For Tomorrow: Lay The Groundwork For Continued Success
Finally, we have the last cornerstone, preparing for tomorrow. This is the part where you lay the necessary groundwork for your future. You need to analyze what you’ve done so far and determine what tactics to take into tomorrow.
Focus on identifying areas that need improvement, or that may become obsolete. Staying ahead of the game allows you to keep an edge on your competition.
You can begin your improvements by making plans to incorporate new technology as you go along. Drones, smart machines, and artificial intelligence are already being adopted by the industry, and that will only continue in the future. They offer advancements in efficiency and safety, so they’re definitely worth the investment.
Sit down with a tech expert and make some plans to ensure you remain up-to-date as things progress. Adapting as you go will prevent the need for a total overhaul later on.
A strong foundation allows a business to last, so make sure there are no cracks when you build your construction company.
