五大挑战 建筑公司面对的今天
Recently, I gave a presentation to a large group of bankers about how to identify 风险s in their portfolio of construction clients, and the 这样做的重要性. Much of their concern stemmed from their ability to determine whether their construction clients’ could withstand some type of 经济衰退. In response to their questions and concerns, I told them that, over the course of my career, I’ve noticed (and studies support) that construction companies are more likely to run into trouble during periods of extraordinary 比经济放缓时期增长更快.
As you can imagine, my answer appeared to surprise more 而不是房间里的几个人.
But here’s the 事情, we can see this happening. 现在, we are realizing a period of extraordinary growth, which is, of course, a great 事情. 然而, extraordinary growth brings its share of extraordinary 挑战.
Here are my top five 挑战 facing the construction industry 今天. I’ll start with a few relatively basic 挑战 and how they impact business during times of growth, and conclude with the most major concerns. 让我们开始吧!
听...... 集195，“冒险的生意” 雷亚获奖的播客， 不合适的 在意图电台, featuring Joe Urquhart, vice president of Overmyer Hall 比较靠谱的赌博软件, to learn four faux pas that are opening businesses up to 风险.
5 .反应不足 快速完成有问题的工作
When companies are str等hed for manpower they are more 不可能对问题做出快速反应. 为了克服这个挑战，你必须 继续每周监督工作表现. 如果这样做，你看到了利润 fade of more than a couple percent, go into crisis management mode.
While you might be tempted to simply throw more manpower at the job, I can assure you that such a stance will fail to yield sustainable (or 甚至令人满意的结果. Instead, be transparent internally and put your best 解决问题的人马上处理这个案子.
Pulling some of your best employees from another job might result in you losing a few percentage points there, but preventing an unmitigated disaster at the job site that’s causing you problems is worth a 他说得更多.
#4:陷入困境 每日苦差事
When experiencing periods of growth, it’s easy to lose focus on some of the basic “blocking and tackling,” in the interest of moving a job along a little quicker or freeing your team up to take on more work. 不 让自己陷入这个陷阱. 保持领先很重要 essential responsibilities like following proper documentation procedures for change order requests, staying on top of notices of commencement, furnishing, 等., and following review procedures on estimates and contracts. 通常,一个 lack of attention to these ‘details’ can trip up an otherwise 风险-averse company.
#3:短-和 长期效率问题
As your company takes on more volume, you’ll ultimately str等h the capabilities of your existing management team and project managers. When this happens, it’s time to look for opportunities to elevate high-performing 组织内部的员工. 虽然这个目标会帮助你的团队 manage the growing workload more efficiently, moving your team members into new or expanded roles can initially reduce your company’s margin and efficiency on 工作. Just be sure to be strategic in your staffing efforts and plan 相应的.
2 .没有足够的现金 推动经济增长
A growing company needs more cash flow to function. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to make sure that you have enough cash and 获得流动资金. Preparing a weekly, rolling cash budget can help you plan for the increased costs of material and manpower. 要保守 projecting the timing of cash collections, too. 现金预算会对你有所帮助 immensely in understanding the timing and need for liquidity.
#1:承担更多 新事物
This seems to be a constant struggle 在任何 economy. 跟 any surety about the losses they’ve had to cover over the years and, in almost all cases, they can be traced back to a contractor who decided to str等h their company’s capabilities a little too far – particularly with regard to 地理位置、工作范围/类型和工作规模.
It’s within reason to take on a job that str等hes your company 在任何 一个 这些领域. 然而, when you try to move your company beyond your historical norms in two or more 这些领域 … well, let’s just say that you’d better have a ‘fortress’ balance sheet in order to take on that level of 风险.
I can recite dozens of stories in which I’ve witnessed an operator leave their comfort z一个 in an effort to str等h their business into what they thought was “closely related work” on an already sizable job, only to 以一场灾难告终. 例如，可以跟随 project owner, general contractor or developer to a job a couple of hours away from your established marketplace, but if the job is also more sizable than what you’re used to, you may be setting yourself up for more 风险 than you (and (贵公司)可以处理. And this can be difficult to wrap your mind around, because it’s usually the larger-size job that makes you think that the whole 努力是值得的. In reality, the larger job only amplifies the 风险. 相反，这里有一个建议. When it comes to job size, remember that 10 percent of the largest single contract should equal no more than 25 percent of 股本.
你的公司在哪里? 风险?
If you’d like to have a more in-depth dialog about the ‘why’ with regard to any of these top five 风险 indicators, give me a call at 614.314.讨论.
By Doug Houser，注册会计师，工商管理硕士，CEPA，本金及 建筑署署长 & 房地产服务
Looking for more tips and insight to help fuel your 建筑公司? 看看这些资源:
Getting to Know The Bank Financing Structure