4 Ways Contractors Can Save Money On Site Jobs

The costs associated with site jobs can quickly eat into your profits if you do not manage them correctly. These unavoidable but high expenses include labor, time, and materials. They can very rapidly spiral out of control, especially when you take into consideration the fact that around 85% of all construction projects go over budget - even when they have been planned meticulously. 

By lowering your costs, you can improve your bottom line, and well, that’s what running a business is all about, isn’t it? Here, we look at some of the most common mistakes contractors make when working on-site, and what you can do to avoid them.

Not shopping around for materials

When you are making a significant personal purchase, you do your research and find the cheapest place, don’t you? For some reason, many contractors head straight to the nearest hardware store and pick up their materials for a much higher price than they could if they shopped around and went with wholesalers who sell to tradespeople.  Buying commonly used materials in bulk will mean you pay a much lower cost per unit than normal retail price, which means big savings and more profit.

Poor site management

Efficiency and productivity are critical to getting a project completed in time. When it runs over, it starts costing you and can be damaging to your reputation. Make sure that you spend some time picking a team of workers that work well together - workers not on task, absenteeism, and poor punctuality can impact your business. If you are not on-site every day overseeing the work, it is important to hire a competent site manager who has experience in the size and type of project that you are working on. Regular reminders of the expected completion date and individual and team targets are a good way of pushing the work on, and excellent communication skills are essential.

Purchasing specialist equipment

Obviously, if it is something you use regularly, it will probably work out better to buy it in the longer term, but if it is something that you do not use very often, or is particularly specialist, it may be worth looking at leasing or hiring the equipment. By looking into hiring a crane rather than buying one, you are exempt from paying maintenance and repair costs, and you do not have the problem and expense of finding somewhere to store it.

Human error

Everyone makes mistakes at some point but making sure that human error is kept to a minimum is essential for saving you money and protecting your profits. As mentioned above, an efficient and experienced site manager overseeing all of the jobs is crucial, as is hiring the right team. However, it is important that work is not rushed to meet deadlines as when it comes to construction, shoddy quality work is not only bad for your reputation, but it can be dangerous as well. Make sure everyone is looking out for one another, and when something doesn’t look quite right, sort it straight away before it gets any worse.