Five Ways To Increase Profits As A Contractor
This will probably be one of the most popular articles
that I have ever written. Every contractor that I know wants to know
some of my secrets about my success. I rarely share them with anyone,
but today I'm going to share them with you. I hope you can use at least
one of them to make more money as a contractor.
1. Make lists for your projects. With the price of fuel continuing to
rise, you can't afford to be driving all over town, looking for building
materials or specialized parts. Try to get as many things as you need at
each place that you visit, to decrease the amount of trips you are
making anywhere on a weekly basis.
2. Track all of your mistakes on a separate piece of paper. Any mistake
that you make, cost you money, they need to be tracked and eliminated.
If you're spending one hour every morning looking for something, it's
costing you money and this problem needs to be solved as soon as
possible.
3. Take pictures of everything. If you don't have a digital camera,
you'd better go get one and start taking pictures of everything that
you're working on. Often I review these pictures, looking for mistakes
and ways that I can do more in less time. Saving time in the
construction business usually translate to saving money in your bank
account.
4. Ask your customers for job referrals. Whenever you see your clients,
ask them if they found any jobs for you. Try to have fun with them, but
these people are like money in the bank. I had one woman produced at
least one large job a year for me, until I moved away.
5. Start reading books. Start reading books on personal development,
psychology, business, construction, architecture, engineering, sales and
books on relationships. If you don't enjoy reading, there's plenty of
movies and audio books on a variety of topics that can make considerable
contributions to increasing your profits.
Each one of these things can help your business grow if you leverage
them and use them correctly. It takes less than 30 days to create a
habit and change certain things that aren't working for you personally
or in your business.