Wise Up Wednesday: Protect Your Profits From This Shambles
Protect your profits from this shambles. We can all agree that Brexit is a complete shambles, and like me you are probably heartily sick and tired of the whole sorry mess, irrespective of which side of the fence you’re on!
And whatever is going to happen it won’t change the fact that the Construction Industry is in a fair old mess too.
The fact is that the muppets are so busy dealing with the chaos they have created for us all, that you are not going to get any help from the “government” any time soon.
They seem completely incapable of taking any meaningful action about anything. But hasn’t that pretty been much been the way for years?
So guess what? You need to protect your own interests and Wise Up about how to do that, so that’s what this week’s Wise Up Wednesday is all about.
So How Do You Protect Your Profits?
How can you ensure you and your business are safe, get paid what you are owed, and make a decent profit? After all that’s not too much to ask, is it?
The answer is that that there is no single answer, but there are some steps you can take that will ensure you have the best chance of surviving and making a tidy profit.
Working Backwards
I’m going to work backwards to the beginning of the job, and hopefully you will see the logic behind my thinking.
Immediate Payment Issues
Rather like the guy who found himself up to his neck in alligators, it is no use him dwelling on the fact that he set out that morning to drain the swamp! He needs to take action.
So, first things first, if you have an immediate payment issue, then we are here to help and our Consultants are experts at getting good hard cash in for you guys.
You can give our friendly team a call on 01773 712116 or email info@streetwisesubbie.com and initial telephone advice is free (and subject to our terms and conditions), and there is no obligation, no catch, just good honest advice.
Onerous Contracts
It could be that you are suffering financially because you have agreed to some rather onerous terms and conditions. Of course everything will be sweetness and light at the outset, but now things are taking a turn for the worse and Contractor is clobbering you with the contract.
Again you can call our friendly team for advice and we will help you to sort it out, but how about knowing from the outset whether the contract you are about to dive into is onerous?
Back To The Future
So now we have worked our way back to the future. We are back at enquiry stage, in fact we are back at pre-enquiry stage. When that lucrative project is just a twinkle in someone’s eye.
If you think you’re doing great because you have a big pile of enquiries to price, then let me ask you to take a step back and think about them for a minute.
How many came through the door unsolicited from companies you have never worked for before? Why did they choose you? Is it because no-one else wants to work for them, and no-one will price their work?
Next weed out how many are from Contractors you have worked for before, but don’t have a great relationship with? How many others with a better relationship are you pricing against? Are you only going to get the job at a rock bottom price?
And what about the risk in the ones you have left?
What are the terms and conditions?
What’s the risk if things go wrong?
And most importantly, is it the kind of work that you are really really good at and can make a good return from?
If this has got you thinking then maybe it’s time for you to take control of the enquiry process and fill your estimating office with exactly the right kind of profitable low risk jobs that you do want to price, rather than ones you don’t!
Protect Your Profits From The Shambles
We can help with that too, so why not give us a call on 01773 712116 and have a chat about how we can help.
Whatever You Do – Don’t Prevaricate – Take Action – Don’t Go It Alone
If things are going wrong there is a tendency among Specialist Contractors to think that they should know what to do, that it’s all their fault and that they should try and muddle through on their own.
Please don’t do that.
Worse still, the Main Contractor may even encourage you to do nothing!
All this is BS! Dealing with problems is time consuming and stressful. And it isn’t easy.
So, if you are in a situation where you’re not getting paid, or things are not going according to plan, then please seek our professional advice.
Initial telephone advice is free (subject to our terms) and there’s no obligation, just good honest advice from our friendly and approachable experts, so please give us a call on 01773 712116 or email us here.
StreetwiseSubbie will give you access to all the tools you need to protect your profits from this Brexit shambles.
Follow