Introduction
As a smaller or specialty contractor, you may be curious about the latest construction technology. It's kind of fun to see how other companies are doing things
and stay on top of the latest advancements.
If you believe your own ability to benefit from technology is limited, though, that may be where your interest stops. Especially if you have a smaller team that's
worked together for a while, you may think that introducing a new way of doing things could create more trouble than it's worth. And if you have a restricted
budget to begin with, investing in technology might be harder to justify since the must-have work tools you need every day have to be a priority.
But just because you're not one of the "big guys" doesn't mean you don't have your own set of business challenges. If you're like many contractors, you've
experienced some or all of these costly problems:
ý Tight profit margins. If you're operating with a narrow profit margin,
you know the importance of working as efficiently as possible and
minimizing mistakes. You can't afford to lose money on work that has
to be redone. But few, if any, construction companies have managed
to escape the negative impact of rework. Not only is rework a prevalent
issue in construction, it comes with a high price tag—costing the U.S.
construction industry more than $31 billion annually.
1
ý Cash-flow crunches. The financial strain of late payments is all too
familiar to many contractors. The pain is only made worse when your
work or progress on a project comes into question. Payment is already
slower in construction than in other industries, at 83 days on average.
2
And you won't see the checks arriving any faster if the owner feels that
the work isn't up to par or the project isn't progressing as planned.
ý Shortage of workers. The ongoing construction labor shortage makes
it difficult to get ahead. If you're experiencing your own worker shortage,
you're familiar with the challenges of meeting schedule requirements
with limited resources. You may even have padded your bids to give you
some breathing room,
3
only to lose projects to other contractors that
are more competitively priced. When you're struggling to get the work
done with limited resources, you're more focused on keeping your head
above water than growing your business.
If you've been in any of these situations before, you know firsthand the
stress they create. And if you could avoid being in a similar situation in the
future, you would, right?
Technology may be the last thing that comes to mind when you think about
ways to solve your biggest and most expensive problems. You may reason
that you can't afford to invest in technology or that it will take too long to
learn, adding to your problems instead of fixing them.
But the opposite can be true. If you're willing to be open-minded and
curious about technology solutions, you could find they provide the answers
you've been searching for. You'll even discover that some technology is less
expensive and quicker to learn than you think, providing a hard-to-ignore
return on investment that can be a game changer for your business.
Read on to learn about the technology tool that's helping contractors
like you address their biggest business problems—and gain a competitive
edge, too.
More than 90% of contractors say it's difficult
or moderately difficult to find skilled labor.
4
