Author Archives: Kevin

Looking for heavy equipment loan. First get your facts straight

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Want to buy heavy equipment for a new assignment or simply looking to upgrade your fleet, you should understand one thing quite clearly and this is buying construction machines require a lot of money. If at all you have cash in your business, you can’t make use of it entirely as you have to take care of other financial obligations related to your business. This means that whatever you earn from your business does not entirely go to acquire heavy equipment. The allocation of funds should be for the entire business and not only limited to buying construction machines. So the way out is to go out and shop for banks who lends money for heavy equipment and at a lower rate of interest. However, there are few other factors that are equally important to understand before you take the call of approaching the bank and applying for loan.

Approach a bank that understands your business:-

You need not go to the bank with whom you have constant business. They may not have much idea about how you run your business and may foresee hassles in granting you the loan. The other option is to approach those banks which specialize in facilitating loans to construction companies. They have a team who have been working with construction companies and understands their needs. If you approach such a bank, they will send their team to your site and will do the necessary study before communicating on the loan amount. It makes lot of sense to approach someone who knows what you are dealing with rather than someone who does not have the slightest of clue and therefore may end up making a big mess.

Give them precise information:-

Lenders need certain set of information about the borrower and it is the borrower’s responsibility to provide precise and accurate data to the bank. Any sort of intentional incorrect information can lead to direct cancellation of the loan. It has been observed that borrowers assume things that may or may not happen but on the basis of those assumptions they end up giving incorrect data which leads to the decline of the loan amount. There are questions asked if any banks ever declined to offer loan. Borrowers assume that by outing a Yes will go against them and therefore they mess it up there. Banks have sources to pull up information and match it up with the data you have given. If they see any incorrect information, they get the reason to suspect you and also to deny giving you loan.

Your credit rating speaks for you:-

If you have a good credit rating, there is less likeliness that the banks will not find you a convenient customer. Try never to default any loan payments and always maintain a good credit history. This will keep your score high and also your chance to get a quick loan from any bank that you approach. Also the tenure of your business plays an important role for the bank to qualify you for the loan.

 

Place a lien if you are not paid for your work

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Instances where a contractor is not paid for his work are few but they do happen and this is when the poor chap does not know what he should do to claim his money. Construction companies give contracts of their projects to various contractors. The number of contractors involved in a project is completely dependent upon the size of the project. If the project is big and it requires several men to work on it, then the construction company will involve more than one contractor or else he will simply go with just one. The construction company pays the contractor on the basis of the work that has been completed. The pay to the contractor is dependent on which phase the work is on. So as and when the contractor completes each phase, he is paid for his work and simultaneously he in turn pays to the sub-contractors.

There are some construction companies who faces severe monetary crunch and are unable to pay the contractors on time. However, the contractors do not stop the work with the hope that he will be paid after the completion of the next phase and will also receive the amount in arrears. Now suppose he completes the entire project and keeps calling the construction company to pay him but see nothing coming out of their pocket. This is when he needs to take the legal course. All that he can do is place a lien on the project which means that as long as you are not paid for your work, no banks can mortgage the property. So for instance, if you are engaged in building a condominium for residential purpose and you are not paid in full by the company, you can place a lien on the entire project which will prevent the buyers to avail mortgage from banks.

This means that the construction company has to first clear all your dues and only once the lien is removed that he will be able to sell the apartments. Such types of instances are rarely seen but they do happen and whenever it happens, the best way to tackle it is taking the legal course and places a lien on the property. The construction companies are also aware of this phenomenon and therefore they ensure that they pay their contractors their full due. They also make sure that the contractors in turn clear the dues of other sub-contractors who were engaged in the project.

In case you need to place a lien on the project, the best way to do so is by talking to an attorney who will advice you on how you can proceed with it. Remember that placing a lien should be the last option and you should not do this if you do not find the company paying you. By doing this, it can also tarnish the relationship and hence it is suggested to be taken only after you have taken every possible option to claim your money.

Maintaining good relationship with customers can make you best salesman

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For a salesman, creating a bond with his customer is very crucial. What is more crucial is to maintain that bond. It is not an easy task to set up a relationship in the first place. No one likes salesman. They feel that they get too pushy to sell their stuff and this is why people often try to avoid them. In such a situation, it becomes quite difficult for a salesman to even break the ice. He has to struggle a lot to just have a small chat and to be allowed to talk a bit about what he is selling. People who are into selling heavy equipment have to struggle enormously to just fix an appointment. People who have the authority to take decisions regarding procuring of heavy equipment in a construction company are really hard to get by and therefore it make no sense to meet any other person and talk about the stuff.

To begin is always difficult:-

To fix a meeting with the person in the construction company who can take decision if the company will procure machines or not is in itself a difficult task. However, that is how you begin your job. You have to keep calling them and persuade them to meet at least once so that you get the opportunity to present them your stuffs. They may be using a particular brand but if you have something better to offer, they will definitely give it a try. Once you meet them in person, try not to be pushy. You can speak about your product and let them decide if they want to go ahead with it. If you do not see them buying your product try to call them on occasions like their birthdays or anniversaries. If possible give them some gifts on such occasions. This is how you begin your relationship with your client.

Talk about different machines that you sell:-

It is important that you talk about different heavy equipment that you sell. For this it is imperative that you try and know few things about their business and what types of heavy equipment do they require. Once you have those details with you, it becomes simpler to pitch the products. This shows that you have done your homework and anything that sounds to be beneficial to the client will be always appreciated by them. You have to let them know that you can provide them with any heavy equipment that they require for their business. You have to try to become the sole point of contact between the demand and supply of machines. Do not restrict your focus to just heavy equipment but also its ancillaries.

Maintain this relationship that has been formed on solid grounds:-

Once you have already formed a bonding with your client it is crucial that you do everything to preserve it. Never give your client the opportunity to complain. Always be ready to serve them and be pro-active at all times. Also do offer them discounts on machines. That will only help you in strengthening your bonding.

Make your career by becoming construction equipment mechanic

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When the most important part of the construction business stops working, the company is ready to pay any amount to fix that and get it back to work. Heavy equipment is one such important part and the business owners can’t ever afford to see it not working due to technical reasons. They will pay any price to fix the issue and get the machine up and running. This means that the mechanics are high in demand in the construction industry and anybody who wants to make his career in this business can certainly look upon in becoming a mechanic. So when we talk about heavy equipment it involves all types of heavy machines that are used for construction, mining, forestry and agricultural purpose. This point out to the fact that the mechanics are not only restricted to repairing equipment that are used in construction but also that are used for agriculture and mining purposes.

The scope is immense for the heavy equipment mechanics but they have to do a lot of learning before they can actually reach to the point from where they do not have to worry about their career. That is probably the point where they have already reached the zenith of their career and are working as freelancers having tie ups with big construction and mining companies. So who can become a good mechanic is the real question out for everybody. Anybody who loves heavy equipment and like to fix problems related to heavy machineries can see themselves as ace mechanics. The person should have the zeal and confidence to resolve any kind of issues pertaining to construction equipment can see their place as master mechanics and also people who can sell their skill to the needy can make a good career out of it.

Getting education from a good institute:-

The first step towards becoming an ace mechanic is to join a good institute that touches every aspect of heavy equipment. Their subjects should not only focus on one particular kind of machines but should range from different machines. More or less the intricacies of heavy equipment will be similar to each other and having hands on knowledge will help you to develop your skills and will end up making a fine technician out of you.

Speaking with veterans will further clear your doubts:-

While you are still learning in the institute, you should try and meet some tenured people from the industry who are ready to guide you and clear your doubts. These are experienced men and they will prove to be quite handy when it comes to giving accurate answers of your questions. You can do your bit of research first and only when you do not see any answers, you should approach them.

Take some experience by working with veterans:-

You get to learn a lot when you are working with an experienced guy. He will give you a lot of inputs and will sharpen your skills further. Once you begin working on machines and start fixing them, you will see a lot of confidence in you and will start finding things to be simpler.

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Selling heavy equipment – design a website that matters

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If you have a business and not a website, it means that your business is no longer in existence. From the smallest scale to the mightiest of businesses that we know exits in the US, they all have a website. The smaller businesses may not have an attractive one but they still have one which they can show to people who want to know about them. It is a no brainer that attractive websites are expensive and people with a very meager scale of business will find it hard to pay for it.

Apart from that, the website needs to be maintained and updated for which you have to again shell out good chunk of money. It may not be possible for a small businessman to afford that. Therefore what he can do is design a website that matters to his business. Every time you do not need an extravagant website to display how popular is your business. At times you can even keep low and update stuffs that really matters.

If you have newly started the business of selling heavy equipment you have to shell out some portion of your investment in designing a website. You need the help of a website designer who can get this work done for you. Approach a website designer who has worked for other construction and heavy equipment companies. They will know your requirements and what you want to feed into your website. Apparently, not many firms that deal with selling heavy equipment know what they want to put in their website.

They have a rough idea on what they need but will not be able to explicitly convey it to a website designer who has never worked on one such website. So approaching someone who has already worked for such companies will prove to be quite handy. You have to just tell them your budget and they will do the rest for you.

Check the progress of work at regular intervals:-

Designing a website is not a work that can be done in a couple of days. It at times takes months to do the job. Lots of changes are made while the website is in the process of getting designed and on many occasions changes are also made after it is ready to view. It is also not a one-time affair. You have to keep on changing stuffs in it whenever there is a major change in your business. For instance, due to some reason you have stopped selling heavy equipment of a particular brand, you have to update that on your website as well and vice-versa.

Ensure that the website provides all information about your company:-

Your website should be fully equipped to speak all that you want to convey to others. You can even upload your videos where you can give your message to your viewers. The kind of machines that you sell and at what price they are available to others must be mentioned on the website. More importantly a tab that will spell out your contact details is also important. This will help others to reach you if they seek doing business with you.

Various methods to market your construction business

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We can’t grow our business if we are unable to pervade what we are doing to the mass. People should know about the business you are doing so that they can also directly or indirectly become a part of it. Other than that if only people know about you and your work, they will be able to give you more work or can recommend others to give business to you. End of the day, what matters the most is how soon you can market the name of your brand to others and what method you can take to reach out to millions in no time. With the advent of modern technology it has now become simpler for a person to market his product nationally as well as internationally. He can become a huge brand within months. This does not mean that he can skip the struggle that people normally have to become a known identity. It is just that the process has become simpler than what it was a couple of decades ago.

In order to reach out to large number of people at a time and let them know about your construction business, you can follow the steps mentioned below.

Create a professional website:-

The identity of your business is your website. If someone wants to know more about you and your business they will hit the name of your business on google and from there they will pull out the details that they want to know about you. Your website should be professional but attractive. Try to put all the information that you want people to know. Your existing projects, the projects that you have completed and the ones that you have in hand should be mentioned in there. If you are a start-up then mention your aspirations and your goal to take the company in the next few years.

Marketing via blog:-

People love to read blogs and they believe that it helps them a lot to learn new things. In a blog you write stuffs that help someone to understand new things about the construction industry and then you leave the blog open for people to leave their comments. If someone has a query and they talk about it there in the blog, he can expect to get answers from others who are reading the blog and if you know the answer/solution then you can chip in and provide your view point. What is happening here is something quite fruitful to you. People get to know you through your blog and if at all you have some announcement to make, you can pretty well make use of the blog to do so. You may get suggestions and at times even new businesses through that medium.

Social media:-

One of the most powerful tools in today’s times to reach out to millions at one shot is Social Media. You post your message in a social media website and it reaches to everyone irrespective of people knows your or not. Make good use of this tool to speak about your construction business. It will always earn you rich dividend.

Sprinkle water to keep the construction site dust free

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It becomes difficult to breathe while you are inside a construction site. The amount of dust that you can see all around the site will make you wonder how the employees are working in such a perilous zone. They might contact any air borne disease which could be quite fatal to them. Also comes into the mind the necessary steps the company is taking to keep the dust under control. Well, frankly where construction is in full swing, dust is bound to flow in the environment and nothing much can be done by anybody to contain it. However, there is one step that can be taken to contain dust and it is to sprinkle water at regular intervals so that the water pulls the dust on the ground and allows fresh air to breathe. But there are places where there is water scarcity in that particular area. In such places, even sprinkling water can be a problem.

In order to bring dust under control, there is no other medium other than spraying water on the ground and if at all there is any other way to contain this problem then that will be very expensive, probably out of the reach of many construction companies. They will certainly not want to invest a good chunk of money to keep the dust level under control. Though it is a must to equip and implement whatever process you can to keep the construction site dust free, construction companies would not want to adopt any expensive modes. So this leaves them with the option of spraying water.

For places where there is water in abundance, construction companies can store gallons of water in a storage tank and then later fill it up in a truck that has a pipe attached to it and then use the truck to spray water all over the site. By doing this, you make the process portable; which means you need not have a large pipe that goes across the entire corner of the jobsite. One can only imagine this and wonder how tedious it will be for the person who moves around the jobsite with the pipe spraying water. For a big construction site, using a water tanker that can move while spraying water is the best option. Please do not make use of fresh drinking water for this purpose. You will only end up finishing your resources sooner than you have thought.

You can make use of water that you get while excavating earth. Though the proportion of that water will be quite limited for your use, you can also make use of saline water of the sea. For that, you need to make necessary arrangements to port water from the seabed to the construction site. This exercise may prove to be a bit expensive but certainly advisable rather than exhausting the fresh water to control dust. Using nozzles while sprinkling water is recommended as it not only settles down the dust but also allows it to return to the ground making it a convenient process of dust control.

Cat 953 Track Loader is one of the best of its kind

For contractors who are into excavating work often find a track loader as a good substitute for a full scale excavator. Though it can’t completely replace an excavator because of its phenomenon features, it can nevertheless play a crucial role in excavation work and can do a lot more other activities which can’t be expected from an excavator. Overall, a track loader is a heavy equipment that is capable of performing tasks that are ideally performed by other heavy equipment.

It has the potential to do all the work for which we normally seek the help of other heavy equipment but it somehow lacks to perform the job that is done by the core machines under certain set of conditions. This is perhaps one of the reasons why mostly all construction companies will want to possess a track loader. For instance, an excavating company will possess an excavator but at the same time will also keep a track loader handy. The track loader will perform jobs while the excavator is busy excavating. Thus the construction company will be able to complete its work in time.

Contractors prefer using CAT track loaders as they find it to be convenient and user friendly. The acceptability of CAT track loaders has increased all the more with the arrival of the CAT 953 loaders. The net power of the loader is 110 hp which is phenomenal in this class of machine. It also has a displacement of 317.3 cu in. Moving towards the operational part of the machine, the operating weight of the machine is 14098 kg. The total fuel capacity and hydraulic system fluid capacity of the machine is 192 liters and 58 liters respectively. The capacity of the bucket when struck is 1.3 m3 and when heaped is 1.5 m3. It has a maximum speed of 10.4 km per hour.

If we check the undercarriage segment of the tracker, the track show width is 380mm and the number of track rollers per side is 6. The length of the track on ground is 7.5 ft in with a ground contact area of 1.7 m2 and ground pressure of 11.3psi. The dimension of the loader just meets the industry standards. The total length of the loader with the bucket on ground is 19.2 ft in and the width to outside of track is 7.2ft in. The total height of the machine to the top of the cab is 10.1ft in and has a ground clearance of 1.2ft in.

CAT has also manufactured multi-terrain loaders such as 257D, 277D, 287D etc. These loaders are considerably tougher as compared to the conventional ones. They have the potential to perform at rough terrains where the land is ultra-muddy or you have to work on a slope and still stay fixed to the ground. You definitely need special types of machines for unconventional jobs and CAT has been successfully able to meet the demands of the customers and keep itself in the top most position.

 

Factors that affects the construction industry

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For the functioning of any industry/business, there are few factors that have to work positively or else the chances of the industry to develop any further become obscure. This is why there are companies who have hired strategists so that they can frame plans to ensure that the factors that can have a positive impact on their company never cease to exist. The entire construction domain heavily depends on such factors which in a way have to be conducive for the industry to exist. For instance, constant availability of raw materials is one of the most important immediate requirements of the construction business. A couple of days ago you may find the stock to be in order but just within 2 days you may find it to be almost empty. Now the contacts that you have with the suppliers’ is instrumental. That acts as one of the factor.

After having ordered the materials you also need to keep a tab on the time it may take for the stuffs to come. Now there can be some factors which are beyond our control. Factors like flood, hurricane and other such natural catastrophes can’t be known and therefore if something of this kind strikes the place from where the raw materials was supposed to come it will only unnecessarily delay the project. It is therefore important that you have to foresee the requirement as you will not be able to foresee the catastrophe and accordingly keep your stock up to date.

There are also few factors that can affect the overall construction industry positively. One such example is fall in the price of fuel or lowering of interest rate by the federal government. Both can be good news for the construction company who manufactures condos, PUDs and single unit residences. They will be able to save a lot on fuel and still get the same work done and sell it at no lesser price or perhaps at a slightly lesser price. Fall in the interest rates does not have a direct impact on the construction company but it more or less benefits the common man who goes out hunting for a home. If the interest rate is down, it means that the general public will now aggressively look for a property and the construction company will be able to sell their produces like hot cakes during this time.

Construction industry is closely linked with the heavy equipment sector. So if there comes a problem in the heavy equipment sector, it will have a direct and a big impact on the construction industry. Fall in fuel price normally hurt the economy of the heavy equipment industry. This means that though the fall in fuel price can bring smile on the faces of the contractors but can simultaneously make the heavy equipment industry look grimmer. Heavy equipment companies will therefore begin cutting costs by shutting down few of their offices or can even increase the price of their machine to sustain. They may even call off the production of some affordable heavy equipment to save themselves from incurring losses.

 

How to hire competent operators

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Hiring competent workforce can be a real challenge for any company. They often see this as a pain and the HR finds this to be the most challenging task out of the many activities they conduct on a daily basis. It is simply not possible for any human being to judge another person by having a 15 minute talk. You may not know if the person knows about the subject that the company wants him to work on or for that matter how the person will be facing once he is hired. If the job demands a person who can work under pressure, it is virtually not possible for an HR to identify the person who can indeed work under pressure and still deliver results. But when the company needs human resource, the HR team has to get into this work of hiring men/women and they have to ensure that they pick the right guys/gals from the lot that come for the interview.

The construction industry is a highly competitive business and here the impact of hiring a wrong candidate can prove to be really costly to the company. The HR of the company does understand the seriousness of the business and this is the reason why they take utter precaution while hiring for important positions. They conduct levels of interview with the same person in order to judge the kind of person he/she is. The different levels of interviews are held by different people and then their view on the interviewee is collated and a decision is finally taken if they all agree to hire him or not.

Hiring an operator becomes more challenging because here the person interviewing the candidate should have little technical knowledge about heavy equipment and how it works. So firstly, the ground level HR can interview him by checking his credentials and qualifications. If the HR finds him to be apt then he goes to the next round where he is interviewed by guys with sound technical knowledge.

Asking the right question is important:-

When you are hiring an operator, you can’t ask him questions that are relevant to a mechanic. You should be checking with him the different types of heavy equipment that he/she has worked on and the models. On the basis of his answer, you should be putting forth your next question. He may not be able to answer a question that does not fall within his domain and therefore asking the right question is important.

Check his skills on the machine:-

When you are hiring heavy equipment operator, you should make it a point to check his skills on the machine. You can provide him with construction equipment and give him a task to complete. The task should not be a complex one as you are only checking his skill and not trying to get a part of the work done. You need to see how well he can maneuver and how smooth he is on the machine. If the operator is really good on it, you can hire him.

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