Monthly Archives: April 2017

Don’t let contractors put lien on your construction property

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If you are thinking to not pay your contractors for their job for whatever reason, you should think twice about it. You may find their work to be of poor quality but when you see the progress of the construction, you can let the contractors know that you do not like their work and they need to focus more on the quality part. Just not paying them their dues can drive you into serious problems. The contractor can place a lien on the construction property and can make the entire thing quite messy for you. It is better to counter them upfront and tell them you do not like their work rather than not paying them their dues.

Let us first understand what a lien on a property is all about. Having first lien on a property means that it completely belongs to you and in case if you want to sell it off and go back home with all the cash you are free to do so. Now if someone puts a lien on your property, it means that if you sell the place you can’t get away with the entire cash amount. You have to first clear the dues of the person/entity that has put the lien on your property and then whatever is left belongs to you. It eventually means that you do not have the absolute right on the property.

This is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg. You may be further entangled with more such complications that will act as a big distraction in your business. Your credit rating goes for a toss. You are also not able to refinance the property with any financial institution. This means that you can’t even keep this place as LAP (Loan Against Property). Moreover, when you are letting you the construction work to a contractor and if he sub-lets it to another contractor, you need to ensure that the contractor pays all the dues to the sub contractor or else that particular person will place a lien on your property. It simply means that whosoever person who has any interest in your property can place a lien on it if their dues are not paid.

In case you come across a contractor who does not carry a good record and you unfortunately give the work to him. In this case, you got to be absolutely sure that you keep records of your payments to him. Such people can create nuisance even after they have received all their dues. In case you are clean, you hire an attorney who will take such guys to task. But before you hire any contractor, it is important that you do a research on their conduct. You can check things like how long they are into this business and how their relations have been with other construction companies. You can check with people in your business circles and hire someone who will not unnecessarily put liens on the property to create problems for you.

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Heavy Equipment Lube Filters

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One of the most important components in heavy equipment is its engine and one always needs to ensure that the engine is in good shape. A construction business owner understands the importance of heavy equipment on his jobsite better than perhaps anybody else could and he will leave no stone unturned to make sure that the machine is performing at its highest utility. This is why he will change the engine oil regularly and will also check that the lube filters are in place so that it protects the engine from any oil contaminants and increase the overall performance of the machine. By installing class filters, one can also reduce the wear and can protect system failure that otherwise can happen more often. Lube filters are also used to ensure that the capacity of oil and flow is not restricted by any outer elements and the oil can flow without any hindrance on the inset and the outset of the engine.

Heavy equipment are usually at work for most of the time in a day. However, there are times when you do not require one particular machine and it lies idle. When construction equipment are idle they stand higher risk of engine break down. This happens mainly because the engine is not been working for quite a time and thus the oil is not flowing as it should have. This basically leads to contamination in the oil and then when you see the need to use the machine again, you find out that it is not working. You begin to wonder what must have gone wrong but it may never click that the machine is not functioning because it has issues with the engine. The lube filter protects the engine in such an occasion and make certain that it works at the time you need it the most. Also lube filter becomes instrumental when the heavy equipment is carrying heavy loads and ferrying it from one place to another.

The need of lube filters have been seen when the machine is required to do tasks in rough weather or harsh geographical conditions especially when it has to work on steep mountains or driving on roads that is full of dust and dirt inviting lot of external particles to make their way in the inside of the engine and thus block the flow of oil. Extreme hot weather is another big problem which can deter the functioning of the engine oil and hamper the productivity and performance of the heavy equipment. The lube filters play a pivotal role in maintaining the proper flow of the engine oil at such high temperature. Not only at high temperature but also when the temperature is down near around to zero degree, the lube filters becomes quite instrumental.

Today we have advanced lube filters that can be installed in heavy equipment. They result in reduction in the operating costs and also reduce oil usage. This means that you do not have to change the engine oil at short intervals. Construction companies are indeed spending good sum of money on advanced lube filters as they feel it is really worth paying more for the stuff that can take good care of the engine.

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Keep a Plan “B” handy when things do not go your way

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Businesses in any industry functions on lot of planning and strategies. The strategies are usually laid to keep things moving and to pursue the overall motto of the company and that is the growth of the company. But there are times when the plans that you have set up do not go in sync with the current situation and this is when there is a likeliness of things going out of control. This is when a Plan “B” comes into picture. By Plan “B”, we refer to a secondary plan which is in place to defend the company from any backlash that comes as a result of the failure of Plan “A”. So when you see that you are preparing a plan which you feel that has half a percentage chance to succeed, you should also think about preparing a correspondent plan that will take over the initial plan if that fails to work out.

Preparing a Plan “B” is easy but following it is difficult. You need to do some brainstorming and discuss things with people from all the departments on things that you should do if the initial plan does not work out. You may even get suggestions that you will find wise enough to be followed but the real challenge is to implement the secondary plan. You have to change the complete course of action from the first plan to the second. This is undoubtedly the most difficult part because it means that there has to be some sort of changes in every department and not everybody can easily accept changes nor it is simple to bring changes throughout the company if yours is a mighty big one. Therefore before you think about jumping for a Plan “B” it is imperative that you understand the pros and cons and also the shape it will give to your company.

If it is a plan that will not have a major impact on the functioning as well as the finances of the company, then perhaps there is no need to have a secondary plan. Yu can always term the first plan as obsolete and move on with something else. But the problem will be when you are thinking of acquiring another construction company where you will have the maximum stake. In situations like these, you not only put the future of the company at stake but also the interest of the shareholders who have invested their money by trusting your thought process. This means that you can’t afford to go wrong and in case if you do then there should be a plan to back the backlash of your initial plan.

Do not forecast a lot and work more on ground realities. When you forecast a lot, you keep a lot at stake and if your forecasts keeping going wrong, it adversely impacts you as well as the company. Being foresighted is good but if you forecast just on the basis that it will all go your way, then that may prove to be a bad move.

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Active marketing on social media websites

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Cut throat competition has led to invention of new and innovative marketing techniques. In order to stay in the market they all follow the various marketing channels to reach out to a large number of people. You may have a good reputation and have been running the business for a long time but it does not take a while for people to forget you if you fail to keep knocking the minds of people. People forgetting your presence can happen due to many reasons. However, the most primary one is there are multiple companies available in the market that produces the same quality stuff.
So if you miss to stay in the minds of people, there will be someone else who will take your place and soon you will be out of the league. This is quite a dangerous thing to happen and no tenured company will ever want this to happen. The same rule is applicable in the construction industry as well. In order to get new projects or work, you need to be known to others and it is possible only when you stay active on social media websites and speak in volume about your work.
Lay out a strategy in the first place:-
It is crucial that you first lay out a concrete strategy to put up the name of your construction company on social media sites. For this, you need to first have a website that talks about you and your company. The vision of your company should be clear in the website. Once you have your website in place, you need to locate the social media site that is most famous amongst masses. Now there are few websites that are known for casual purpose and some are for business purpose. You should be more active on the business one. However, that does not rule out your chance to post your work on other social media websites. What is important for you is to get known by as many people as it is possible. The more people know you and your work the more are your chances to get businesses from clients. Remember, every prospective client of yours also have an account for posting casual stuffs. They get to see your company on both types of social media sites and therefore they know about you sooner as compared to your competitors.
Be more active on professional social media website:-
You should be active on social media websites to gain attention of people but you should be more active on social media sites that are meant for professional purposes. There you will come across people who belong to your profession and the chance of getting work from them is more. Simultaneously, you will also bump across people who are skilled workmen and you may require their services for the completion of a project. There are websites that are exclusively used by Human Resources team of different companies to hire new talents. They go through the work experience of the job aspirants and if it matches their requirement they are informed about the date of interview. You can also hire skilled labor force from such websites.

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How to become a successful heavy equipment salesman

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Success in any industry and in any profession comes with determination, knowledge and the zeal to work hard in that stream. People should be running after achieving this basic criteria rest follows. Some people are of the opinion that selling a thing is the most difficult job. But as a matter of fact, day in and day out we are in some way or the other selling something or the other, sometimes knowing and many times unknowingly. This means that we are constantly in the process of selling. It is just that we are not aware of it. People who are salesman experiences different kinds of scenarios with each passing day. The ones who are able to manage those situations well find themselves near to success. It is because they learn from those situations and apply it the next time they get them.

Selling heavy equipment is like any other product is full of challenges and perhaps it is a bit more difficult than the rest. There is huge demand for good machines but at the same time there is good deal of competition as well. It is not just the domestic players that you have to deal with but also the foreign players that has seen US as their potential customer. The end user has more options now and this makes your job a bit difficult. There are few things that you can do differently from the rest of the population that can make you successful in this form of the business.

Know your product well:-

Salesmen are normally sent to sell products without them knowing much about it. This can’t be expected to be done in the case of heavy equipment salesman. He/she is supposed to know his product well. When they speak to their client they need to speak sense or you just lose the deal. When you do not have answers for the questions posed to you, make a note of that and inform that you will let them know about it. Please do not speak something that you are not sure about. You never know how much the prospect knows about heavy equipment and if he/she finds that you gave him an incorrect input, you are done with him.

Sell machines that suit his/her requirement:-

The conversation between you and the prospect went successful and he/she is ready to buy a machine. Now there are 2 different types of machines that can be sold to him/her. However, one will be quite effective and the other is not. But you get more commission on the latter. Here comes your commitment towards the buyer into play. You should sell the one that suits his requirement and not the one that earns you more money.

Give correct suggestion even if it costs you a sale:-

A construction business owner at times sees himself/herself in a dilemma where he/she is required to choose a machine produced by two different companies. You as a salesman will suggest him as per his requirement even it means doing away with your brand. You may not be able to make any money at that point in time but have won the trust of the person. This will get you more business in the future.

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Aspire to become heavy equipment mechanic

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It is always advised to follow your dreams, to do that you indeed want to do. Not many people are able to recognize what they want to do and the few who does recognize are indeed the fortunate ones. It is probably those guys who taste success after success at every walk of life. Talking about heavy equipment mechanic, one can definitely pursue it as there is huge potential in this line of business. Construction industry is here to stay and so are heavy equipment companies. As long as both the industries co-exist heavy equipment mechanics will have every opportunity to earn lot of money and also see them growing in this business. For heavy equipment mechanic, they have the option to work in a workshop or get associated with a big construction company that has a fleet of heavy equipment or work as a freelancer. In both the cases the earning potential of the mechanic does not diminishes.

Ideally a young boy is motivated to become heavy equipment mechanic if his father or someone in his family is a mechanic and the boy has a very close relation with the person. It has been observed that people who have generated the interest to become heavy equipment mechanic from a tender age have someone or the other from their family working as heavy equipment mechanic which in a way has also driven their interest to the same line of business. It is because they have seen their elders doing the work from an early age they probably want to do the same. A little encouragement from the family does all the wonders for them. Get into an institution that creates competent mechanics. Study hard while you are there in the institute and try to come out with flying colors.

Once you are out of the institution the journey has just begun for you. Try to get into a workshop that deals with heavy equipment. If there is one such workshop in your family you can sneak in there or can find your way on your own. But it is in the workshop where you get most of the practical training and learn how to fix heavy equipment. You learn a lot when you work on different types of machines and also when you have an expert right next to you guiding you to do things. You tend to become a good mechanic if you can incorporate the knowledge that you have gained while learning in the institution and the practical stuffs that you have learned in the workshop.

After spending for few years in workshops and having gained some experience you can try moving into big construction houses that pays you well. If you are confident that you know your work well and you can tackle any kind of problem related to the machines then you should try to open your own workshop and work as a freelance mechanic. But it is advised that one should not work as a freelancer as long as he has worked for at least 10 years as a mechanic. 10 years of experience is needed to prove your excellence in the field.

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Starting a demolition company

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Most of the construction and renovation companies do not do all the work on their own. They rather prefer to give few jobs to other contractors. It is also not possible for a mid-size construction company to manage all the work on their own. They may not have the required heavy equipment at their disposal and they will not want to buy machines just to get one particular work done. It is therefore that they prefer to invite contractors who can do that set of work for them and pay them good price for the job. In a construction site, one of the most important jobs is to demolish existing structures and that part of the work requires good number of heavy equipment. Now a construction company can’t afford to buy every kind of heavy equipment that is required for the demolition purpose and this is why they let out that work to demolition companies.

It makes ample sense to start a demolition company where you need to possess some heavy equipment that is predominantly used for demolition jobs. There are many such demolition companies that are making good chunk of money doing this work. There are of course few challenges that one has to go through during the initial phase but once the business kick starts, rest all falls in place.

We will be discussing on few reasons why one would want to start a demolition company.

Less investment:-

To start any type of company, the first thing that you need to crack your brains for is to arrange capital. No company can be started without required amount of financial inflows in it. This is probably the only form of business where the amount of capital that you need is less and still you can manage to get business from people. All you need is few competent men who know their job, an office space from where you can operate your business and some heavy equipment that are used for demolition works. Once you possess these 3 thing, all you have to do is hunt for work. Meet as many construction companies as you can and tell them all about the existence of your company and the experience you own. They will for sure give your business if you are a bit old in this profession. So ultimately you can form a demolition company with absolutely very less capital.

No need of sharp technical know-how:-

To start a demolition company, you need not have sharp technical know-how. All you need to know is how to do business. Having said this, you definitely need to have some basic information about heavy equipment and stuff or else people might take you for a ride. It is just that in order to start a demolition company, you need not have a college degree or need to do some hardcore studies. You only need to know your stuffs well. If you have some experience by working in a demolition company, it will always work as an advantage for you.

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Buy heavy equipment from companies to get the best deal

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The different types of heavy equipments are the workhorse of construction industry. Heavy machinery and equipment is a serious business and costly too. While buying these equipment a number of factors should be considered as duration, scale, budget and their future use. The harsh construction activities leads to wear and tear, hence buying quality equipments is of utmost importance. In such cases it is good to buy the equipment from a branded company. Companies like Caterpillar Inc. sell both new and used (in running conditions) equipments. They offer good deals for the same.

Some useful tips on buying equipment from companies are as follows:

  1. There are a number of construction projects in pipeline. If the existing current equipment will not be able to complete all tasks, then additional equipment are required. While purchasing equipment in bulk one should check if they adhere to quality standards and are user friendly. They should be compatible with the worksite conditions. Such bulk purchase should be made from companies since goods can be negotiated with them.
  2. The company’s Application specialist also guides and gives suggestions/advice on operation of these machines. In addition, he provides troubleshooting to the problems faced by the customers while using these machines.
  3. Construction is an expensive business. Purchasing brand new equipment requires a lot of planning. The owner may not be able to purchase brand new machines due to economic constraints. Further, always the operators are not comfortable while using new machines embedded with latest technology. Hence, the company has to impart training to them which adds to the cost. In this case purchasing used (pre-owned) machines is helpful. One just has to ensure that all the parts are in working conditions and will not have to bear huge repair costs in future.
  4. When purchased from companies, the equipments have warranty period. If anything goes wrong with equipment during this period it will be repaired free of costs. The equipment needs to be backed by the in-house service team.
  5. Buying from companies will be economical since they offer routine inspection and guide on maintenance of the equipment. The spare parts will be also available with them.
  6. At times these companies lend their equipment to the customers for fixed time period. This practice allows the customer to get used to equipment and later purchase it.
  7. Many times these equipment are given on loan basis. One just has to pay monthly instalment till it recovers the cost.

Heavy machinery and equipment is an expensive business. The production depends on the kind and quality of equipment used. One has to ensure that these machines are bought from trusted dealer or companies so that it turns beneficial in the long run.

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When you are a part of the construction industry always have a role model

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When life gets tougher you seek for an inspiration and in case you have a role model in life it becomes easy for you to come out of that difficult situation and face the challenge with open heart. When you are part of the construction industry, you will time and again come across situations that you will find to be quite challenging and there will be numerous occasions when you will feel like giving it up. In situations like these, it is important that you seek help of the person whom you believe to be your role model. A role model can be a person either living or dead and therefore you may not necessarily get to speak to him in time of distress. But you can certainly read up his works and get inspired to know what sort of challenges he has faced during his times which may be tougher than yours and perhaps then you will get some courage to deal with things.

Female works can be exceptional role models as they have to go through a lot than men do. They have a family to take care of and they can’t shrug off their responsibility by saying that they have too much of work in office. So women who have successfully managed to tackle both the fronts have turned out to be better role models and the world look at them with respect and honor.

If the role model is in your reach, it benefits you more than anything else can. Ideally, we have role models who are well established and it may not be easy to reach to them every time we need their help. However, if you idolize a person for his hard work and the person work right in your office then it becomes simple to approach him anytime when you feel like talking to him. For most people, their parents are their role models and if your father or mother is from this industry then you always have them for a short discussion. You can sit with them and talk about the issues you are experiencing and they will show you some way that might be the best for you. You will never find yourself short of good people around you. It is just you got to be equally good to everybody around you.

There are few people who adore men belonging to an industry different from the construction. You need not have your role model from the area of your business but can have from any profession and from any walk of life. Every person has a story that can inspire you and the guy from the construction industry frequently find the needs of such stories as they are often haunted by difficult times. It is these stories and the lives of such people that help them in rough times and show them the way to get over it.

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Types of heavy equipment that you need to clean storm damage

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Storms can attack suddenly and at any point of time in the year. It can be caused by the pressure changes as well as due to natural climate and season changes. Whatever the cause behind the storm may be, some of these storms are extremely dangerous and they have a disastrous impact on the area that it attacks on.

You will see there are different kinds of storms. If you are from a colder region, you will get snow storms. If you live in the coastal areas, you will find the cyclones and hurricanes and tornadoes there. Whatever the type of the storm may be, you will need to make sure that you can cope with its impacts.

The difficulties that you have to face:

Usually, the storms are followed by heavy downpour and this continues for a number of days. There is waterlogging in some areas and some of the areas are flooded. Trees fall down and they often block the roads. The huts lose their roofs and wooden huts are completely smashed and broken. All these result in a huge amount of solid debris that needs to be removed from the ground.

For that there is a strong need of some of the heavy construction equipment that can perform heavy duty works without any trouble. Removing the concrete debris, woods and tree logs etc. is not an easy job. Doing these manually would take a lot of time. It will only hinder the chance of getting back to normal life within a short period of time.

Choosing the right heavy equipment:

Hence, it is a must that you choose the right heavy equipment for storm clean-up. Here is a list of all the machines, tools and heavy equipment that you would require to get rid of the solid debris caused by a storm.

  • Loaders and dump trucks:

 

These are very useful in removing any sort of solid debris like concrete, wood and rubbish, including dust and dirt that might be deposited in any region as a consequence of storm.

  • Snowplough:

 

This is the heavy equipment that is used specifically for the purpose of removing snow. Regardless of how thick or high the snow might have deposited, the snow plough can easily remove that from the roads as well as the sidewalks.

  • Loaders with grapples:

 

These are very useful for removing huge and long logs. These loaders come with grapples that help in lifting long and heavy elements. Tree logs can be easily removed with the help of these.

  • Excavator mulchers:

 

One of the most interesting and useful heavy equipment is the excavator mulcher. It comes with unique machine or tool that has very sharp blades and can be used for removing the fallen trees.

These are just some of the most important heavy construction equipment that you need to have after a storm. The best part of the heavy equipment is that you can hire them or own them. The storm cleaning service companies have these machines and tools. Hence, it becomes quite easy to clean the debris after a storm.

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