Monthly Archives: May 2016

Retiring from military, go into the construction domain

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People leaving the military are ideally absorbed in any other industry without much hassle. The only condition is they need to have the required expertise to do the job. So if a person who has served the military for years and now wants to lead a civilian life can get ample of opportunities and can make a bright career in any industry that he find himself to apt with his abilities. Mostly men after leaving the military join the construction industry. The reason is that they have been operating heavy equipment while they were there in the military and since they are so used to working on construction equipment that they can’t see themselves anywhere else other than this sector. At the same time, this industry really pays well to its employees. An operator can earn real god money if he is experienced and has worked on quite a number of machines.

Discipline is in their instinct:-

While serving in the military they learn one thing on a daily basis and that is being disciplined. So when a person is a disciplined, rest everything falls in place. He will understand the importance of his work and will never take anything casually. He will remain focused in his job and will have the determination to complete the job within the prescribed timeframe. A person lacking these skills becomes a burden on the company and therefore the construction companies also look for operators who have served the military so that they can give priority to their work and complete it within the given deadline.

Experience in working with more machines:-

People in the military work on different kinds of construction machines. Some of the machines are not used in the construction industry by private construction companies. It could be because the military give orders to produce customized machines that are meant to serve their specific requirements. So the men who have worked on construction machines have undoubtedly worked on the best of machines in its class and therefore have experience in handling them in rough terrain, sliding zones, mountainous region and places where ideally operators find it difficult to work with machines. Just because they are so used to working in such hazardous terrains, they become the first choice of the construction companies.

Can open their own construction company:-

A person after retiring from the military can even start his own venture in the construction domain. If he has hands-on knowledge of working with machines, he has won half the battle. Since he has retired from the military, getting loans sanctioned will not be a difficult task for him. All he needs to do is get the necessary documentation done and start the business. Clients will also have more faith on him knowing that he is an ex-military officer and will have high regards for him for having served the nation. Therefore getting work will not be much of an issue. Moreover, jobs like demolitions are somewhat easy to get. So if you have the right equipment with you and know how to operate it, you can make it big in this form of a business.

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Renting a track loader

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Renting business has gained a lot of momentum in the last few years and this has led to many people taking advantage of this opportunity and letting out their heavy equipment to people who need them for their business. So if you have any heavy equipment that is being unused and you want to get rid of it, rather than doing it away completely, the better option is to rent it out. By renting it to a person, you not only earn recurring rental income but can also sell the equipment at a better price in the future. All you got to do is refurbish the machine and put it on sale. Heavy equipment that can be quickly rented are basically multifunctional. For instance, a track loader is one such heavy equipment that is viable to do every kind of construction activity which is out of its genre. It may not be the perfect tool and one would prefer to use a machine that is especially designed for a particular work but to buy different equipment for every other work is definitely not practical and also not monetarily feasible for any big construction company.

So a track loader can be called the blue eyed candy and the most preferred amongst all heavy equipment. So renting a track loader will never be an issue. You will for sure get many people who will be willing to use the machine by paying you the amount you demand. Just make sure that you do not keep the price so high that people will find it difficult to take. Since it will not produce better results than heavy equipment that is specifically designed to for a particular genre of work, you should quote an amount that people will become ready to pay.

You can advertise your wish to let out the machine on an online portal or can check with few of your pals who are connected with this industry if at all they know anybody who is looking for a track loader. It may not be a one day process as it takes time to get the right person for the machine. You got to be sure that the person will use the machine with care and there will not be any major wear and tear on it. This is perhaps the most critical part in the entire process of renting heavy equipment. Finding the right guy for your heavy equipment is important.

The other important aspect is if the taker will be ready to pay the rental price of the loader. You may quote an amount but it is very likely that the prospective taker will negotiate on it and will try to bring the price down. So you should be ready for negotiations as well and therefore should always quote the price on the higher side. Presently owners of heavy equipment are finding online portals as the most convenient tool to list their machines. You should supposedly not have any issues in renting a track loader on any online portal.

Cost cutting measure is important in construction business

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Every industry has its share of good and bad days. So when they are enjoying their good days it is crucial that they keep enough reserves for any possible decline in their business and when they encounter any fall then they should be quick to adopt cost cutting measure. It is been widely observed that companies take time to adopt cost cutting measures due to which they get themselves into deeper mess and eventually some has to wind up their businesses.

Cost cutting measures do not primarily involve sacking employees though that is considered as one of the measures but that should be the last option. By sacking employees, you will be losing resources that have been with your company for many years and who know the business well. When the tide will turn, you again have to recruit new guys and train them. You may not get back the same human resources that you had sacked once. So keep that as your last option.

Bring down unnecessary expenses:-

You got to track down the overall operating and non-operating expenses in your company and have to cut down the costs that you feel is completely unnecessary. If you check your records, you will come across a lot of such expenses that should not have been done in the first place. Since you never bother to check the records, it must have occurred but this is what you need to curtail. You need to cut down all the expenses that are either not needed or not much needed by the company. Only spend the money on important things and things that are absolutely necessary for the smooth running of the business.

Rent out or sell heavy equipment that are redundant for your business:-

If you take a day’s time and check which all heavy equipment are indeed functioning, you may be surprised to know that out of the entire lot of heavy equipment you possess, you use only half the machines for your projects. Rest of the machines are not working but you still spend a good deal of money on maintaining them. That is again costing your business. Hence, it is important that you take stock of the heavy equipment that are not in use and may remain out of use of many more months so that they can be rented out to guys who need them. In case, if the machines have gone redundant, then it is advisable that you get rid of them. In this way, you will make some money for your business.

Sack employees if you really have to:-

Well, this should be the last option in your kitty. You can do this only if you feel that this is the only step you have to save your company from getting wrapped up. However, you have to take immense care before you lay off your employees. It is important that you remove people who are not good workers and often have been a pain to the company. Check their performance sheet and then take a calculated decision. Remember, once you lose them there are not much chance to get them back.

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Construction sector is a booming one for small time contractors

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Construction industry is one of those industries that is known for making not so rich people ultra-rich. It is just that they need to know how to work in this industry keeping your discipline intact. If you are a person who is disciplined and also focused to your work, you can yield good results and the industry will always reward you for your hard work. Other than being focused, there are few more things that are quite essential when it comes to making it big in the construction sector. Particularly for small time contractors who are striving hard to make it big, they need to follow some very basic and simple rules that can help them a long way in achieving what they have desired from this sector.

Maintain a good rapport with your competitors:-

This industry is full of competition where every other guy is ready to take away your business if you hold things loosely. It becomes very difficult to maintain good relation with your competitors but you still have to do so. You never know when one of your competitor with whom you have a good relation may come with an offer for you that can give a new dimension to your business. Having a strenuous relationship never helps anywhere and especially in a sector like this, you got to be very careful before you speak anything that may deteriorate your bonding with the next person.

Knowing the industry well:-

It is often said that you should do something that you know you can do well. This is very much applicable for the construction sector. Just because this industry can reward you lot more than any other industry can does not mean that you should just jump into it without giving a second thought. If you do not much about the construction business, it is advisable that you stay out of it or get into it only after you have learned the trick of the trade. Entering the industry before that can only make things messy for you.

Have a mentor to guide you:-

It is very important to find someone who can guide you all the way through. It is never easy to be in such a dynamic industry without getting proper guidance from an expert mind. Having a mentor who can walk you through the difficult phases in your business is really worthy. You may not be able to evaluate how much your mentor’s advice will save you from any sort of miseries. It is however difficult to find such a person but you have to keep trying. Ideally, one can find such a person during his initial days of struggle. It is only during that phase of his life that you get to meet good, bad and ugly guys. You then have to check on whom can you trust the most and once you have found the person, you can rely on him for any kind of advice.

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Newbie should remain open to advice

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When you are new to something, you should better be open to learn anything and everything that comes your way. This means that you should be ready to take advices from people. Well, this does not imply that you should be following them irrespective you find them to be right or wrong. Being a part of the construction industry, you will come across many people who will give you advice on many things. Out of them some may work and many will not. However, listening to them will cost you nothing and therefore keep your ears open. The only exception is when you hear someone speaking things that do not make any sense to you; you should try and avoid such men. There are many legal hassles that one has to go through when they kick start their construction business for which you need to know the right person to approach. Let say you need help of a good attorney but you do not know any. This is when you reach out to people who can help you find a good attorney who will advise you on legal matters.

Not all advice come free. Like in above example where you are required to take some legal advices from an attorney. The attorney will for sure charge you fees for his services and that will not be free. Now what needs to be noted is how worthy is the attorney to you. If you see that his advice works for you, then you can continue to stick with him or else you got to look for someone else.

One of the most crucial departments where you require regular advice from people is buying or renting of heavy equipment. Since being new to the industry, you often require help of guys who are a bit tenured and who understand the criticality of this industry. Right from acquiring a project to determining the number of workers you need for the work, you need a person to guide you throughout. Picking up the right set of heavy equipment is quite important. You may not know accurately which machine can be used for what purpose. You may know that an excavator can be used for excavating work but you may not know that changing its accessories will allow it to do much more than just excavating. This is perhaps where you need expert advices so that you can make the right selection.

Taking the right move in the construction industry is also important because any wrong step can lead you to a lot of hassles. For instance, you can’t construct anything on a land that has lien on it. There are many legal hiccups that you may have to encounter. Also where the title is not clear and you step into build something there. There are chances that on one fine morning you may get a notice from a title holder. Therefore before you take up any new work, you again need to take advice from people so that you do not end up into troubled waters.

Heavy Equipment Recruiters

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Construction companies are always on the look of operators who are good in working with different kinds of heavy equipment. They do not experience finding fresh guys from institutions that teaches students to become competent operators However, they lack experience and this is why they also need people who are experienced in this profession. Someone who has worked for more than 5 years is good enough for the companies to hire them at a level above the juniors. The only problem they encounter is that they have no idea from where and how to get these experienced operators working for their company. This is where the concept of heavy equipment recruiters becomes instrumental. They are the ones who can act as a bridge and can get the operators looking for a job and the construction companies looking to hire operators at a same place so that both can meet each other’s needs.

 

Things that are required to become a heavy equipment recruiter may not be as simple as it appears to be. A person who wants to act as a bridge between the construction companies and heavy equipment operators should have ready information about who needs whom. If it is difficult for the construction company to find operators, it is also hard for the heavy equipment recruiters to do so. They follow few very basic rules that get them the lead and thus they can make the resource available to their clients.

 

Letting others know what they are into:-

Heavy equipment recruiters have to start with letting others know the type of business they are into. This will only help them to get clients who understand their business and will contact them to hire operators for them. This is perhaps the first most crucial step that they need to be taking and must ensure that they pervade the word about their work to every big and small construction company. Once the companies know them, they will place their requirement with them and they in turn will circulate an advertisement mentioning the requirement of the client. As per the requirement, eligible operators will either call them up will send them Resume to the recruiters. They can then call them up for an interview on a date when the representative of the construction company is also available so that he can take the interview of the candidate and if things go well, the company will get an operator.

Recruiting may not be a day’s affair:-

The role of the heavy equipment recruiters becomes essential when the recruitment process is not just a day’s affair. At times, it takes the entire week as the date of the construction company interviewing the candidate may not match as per the convenience of the candidate. It becomes the responsibility of the recruiters to call up the candidate and settle things well in advance. It should not happen that the construction company comes up to the venue for the interview and they end up with no candidates. That may not go well with the company and they may think of ending their relationship with the heavy equipment recruiters.

 

Hire experienced technicians to take care of heavy equipment

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One of the biggest hindrances that many construction companies encounter is the abrupt breaking down of the heavy equipment which ultimately leads to no business activity in that area for the next few days. It is quite evident that not every construction company can afford to deploy more than one heavy equipment in one location. They simply do not have enough heavy machinery to manage their business affairs on the jobsite and on top of that if they experience a break down with any of the machines that are currently in use, they suffer heavy loss for the number of days the machine remains inactive. Taking this into consideration, the way out of this mess is to ensure that you have someone to repair the machine whenever it breaks down.

The easy solution will be to hire technicians who will be a call away from the jobsite and can fix things instantly. If for some reason the machine needs any crucial part to be replaced then that should be done without any further delay which means immediately. Such should be the instruction coming from the higher management that as soon as there is a problem you have men to resolve it and this is how things will be in place.

Now when we talk about hiring technicians, it is prudent that one should hire experienced technicians who have worked earlier with most of the heavy machines that are normally used in a construction jobsite. The benefit in hiring such technicians will be that they will take less time to resolve the problem and also they will provide with highly effective solutions. This is perhaps something that we can’t expect from an inexperience technicians. They will relatively take more time to identify the issue whereas the experienced ones by then will be over and done with it. It will make life lot easy for the people directly involved in the business. An operator will be always at ease as he knows at the back of his mind that there is someone to help him if the machine goes bad. So he can work without any limitations.

So when we talk about hiring experienced guys does not mean that you only have a bunch of experienced men working for you. This may create a level of uneasiness amongst the technicians and in order to avoid this scenario, it is advisable that there should be a mixture of both experienced as well as inexperienced technicians. In this way, people who want to become good technician gets employment and you on the other hand can get a bit of cheap labor. Remember, experienced technicians charges good chunk of money as their compensation which most construction companies find difficult to give. Therefore, they are compelled to have a mixture of experienced and inexperienced men in their company so that they do not have to pay more for their services.

Alternatively, there is a high risk that the experienced guys may switch companies for better salary and benefits. So, having a mixture helps them to a larger extent.

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