Category Archives: Construction

Maintain your focus throughout your journey in the construction business

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We must have seen many individuals making it big in their business but at the same time have also heard stories about few who dreamt of owning an empire but could not do much. There are also numerous stories where people have flunked in their business after having spent considerable number of years in it. It definitely feels sad hearing to nostalgic events but it is more important to gather lessons that life has taught them. We can also learn about those mistakes which they have committed and that we should not be doing when we are pursuing our dream to set up a business empire. One of the most crucial things that every business owner needs to have is being focused with what they are doing. They need to understand that they will come across too many distractions and they have to overcome those distractions by remaining focused to their job. If they are connected to an industry that is volatile and can take any turn, they got to be careful for every step that they take.

One such industry that is quite unpredictable and needs a lot of focus to remain afloat is the construction domain. If you are a new startup company and are struggling hard to remain intact in the market there is a higher chance that you may lose your focus and get diverted to things that are important to you but not at the moment. Construction industry has its phase and like every other industry which has good as well as bad phase, it too has its share with the good and bad phases. So you got to understand how to duck the bad phase and score during the good times. How to do this can be better learnt by remaining focused to your work. When you are attentive, you sort of mark down the mistakes that you did and avoid doing them again. This is what many skip to do.

In the construction world, you will come with new challenges every other day and these new challenges are nothing but mere distractions. You got to learn to manage them and come out with a solution without losing your focus. If you lose it then you get diverted in dealing those challenges and get so messed up that you eventually think of doing away with the business. Though it is a fact that you have to deal with all the business challenge alone but that does not mean that you will get strayed away from your core objective. That is the crux that you need to learn.

Negativity is another big challenge that can let you down quite easily. While you are new to the business, you will come across many people who will advice you negatively. People may say that the initiative that you have taken will not work and will come up with number of reasons why it will not. You will hardly come across anyone who will support you for your efforts. It is this moment where you being focused come to play. You should be confident about the initiatives but also not give others a deaf ear. Go ahead with things that you are confident and there are many examples of people who have proves other wrong by believing in themselves.

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Review of strategy is important for the growth of a construction company

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We often consider planning to be one of the most important components towards the growth of a business but there is something that is equally important and that is reviewing those plans. It makes absolutely no sense to prepare a plan if we do not take care to review it. Things may go haywire and we will not even get to know about it as long as we do not sit to check the ground reality. This is why reviewing the plans is very crucial for the growth of any company. It becomes all the more important when one is take care of his construction business. This form of the business has too many ups and downs in it and one has to go through a lot of hardships to put everything in place. To set things right, a lot of people have to get involved in various sets of planning and knowing the nature of the business which is pretty dynamic and where anything can happen at any moment, one needs to make sure that he keeps on checking if the actual are in sync with the proposed plan and if not take corrective measures to set it right.

Involving all the head of departments for setting the plan:-

When you are building a plan, it is essential that you involve the heads of all the departments so that they can all give their inputs pertaining to the cause of the plan. You can have deep insights from them about how the department can perform and if there will be any requirement of additional workforce in the due span. You can rely on their advices and then go about framing the plan. In this way, they all will be aware of your goals and then it just will not be your goal but will become the goal of the company. It is not just you who will be working hard to realize the goals but your entire team will be with you.

Have a quarterly meeting with all of them to check the actual:-

Reviewing of plans should be conducted once in 3 months. This lets us know the real picture from the proposed one and what needs to be done to get things back on track if at all it is out of place. It also ensures that things do not completely out of hand which is possible if you take up the same meeting after a year. You will probably find that the damage has become irreparable and may have to start all over. That will be a sad part for the management also a question on your leadership quality.

Check area of opportunities and eliminate threats:-

It is only during the review that you get to know the possible threats that exist and can act as a big danger to the project. You can’t get to know the threats while you chalk out the plan. In the same way, while you start working on a plan you also come to know if there are any more opportunities that you can explore. Pick up all the opportunities and try and eliminate the threats.

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Why most construction companies want to use CAT heavy equipment

Among the 33 heavy equipment manufacturing companies present worldwide, it is only Caterpillar Inc (CAT) which is the world leader. It is the leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. It’s construction industries segment’s product portfolio includes more than 300 various machines and related parts, such as backhoe loaders, compact wheel loaders, small track-type tractors, small wheel loaders, track-type loaders, medium track-type tractors, skid steer loaders, mini excavators, select work tools, multi-terrain loaders, small, medium and large track excavators, motor graders, medium wheel loaders, wheel excavators, telehandlers, compact track loaders, pipe layers and mid-tier soil compactors. These are the workhorses of any construction and mining industry and make their job easy and quicker. CAT produces equipment which are embedded with latest technologies for increased safety, comfort, reliability, durability and of good quality with an aim to help customers meet their needs. Customers have found their equipment up to their expectations and are satisfied. Hence, they are popular and widely used in construction industry making CAT a world leader. Further, no competitor company can match with caterpillar’s product range

 

The following are the reasons for construction companies use CAT heavy equipment:

  • Focus on customer satisfaction:
  1. They have more than 300 machines which are durable, innovative and reliable which satisfy customers for the investment that they have made in purchase of the equipment. CAT has ability to see the job from customer’s point of view and meet their needs.
  2. CAT sells both new and used machines. The used machines are sold at a cheaper price than the new products.
  3. CAT gives option to customers to upgrade their equipment. This opportunity allows customer to use the same machine for a long time.
  4. Their products, services, solutions offered by them, help customers to succeed.
  5. They provide solutions for maintenance which minimizes downtime, reduces cost and keeps equipment in run mode during peak performance. In addition, local CAT dealers technician’s have the experience, knowledge and training necessary to troubleshoot problems faced by customers and provide maintenance and repairs of equipments. Thus, efficient service by CAT allows the customers to manage their business effectively.
  • Marketing and Distribution: Its pioneer in exploring new age marketing
  1. They have the best distribution and product support system as compared to any other capital goods industry.
  2. They have dealers which are as old as the company. They have wide and strong network of dealers in different countries.
  3. They have built their brand and improved corporate image. They participate in various marketing channels such as trade shows and participating in technical seminars. Also use of internet has been used for advertising.
  4. Construction boom in Asian countries gave them good opportunity to expand especially in China.

This strategy has increased and made customer base stronger in developed and developing countries.

 

Thus, good marketing strategy along with innovative and durable products has won over the customers, due to which Caterpillar Inc’s equipment and machinery is widely used in construction industry.

Avoid making poor investments that can cost you your company

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Taking right decision and making good investments are both quite crucial for the success of any business and when it is about construction, you got to be sharper with your thinking skills. Any poor decision can cost your business a lot and simultaneously any bad investment can have a drastic impact on your business. When you are dealing with investments in the construction sector, you are ideally dealing with lot of money and you got to be doubly sure that the plan will not backfire before you go ahead with the decision of making some big investments. For instance, you plan to hire some men for a new project that you foresee to bag. You are somehow confident of the fact that you will be able to get the project and have therefore allocated capital to pay salary for the additional workforce. In this scenario, you are heavily investing on human resources. So as long as you are not completely sure about the project, you should hold up your plan to hire any further resource.

People have lost millions in their business after having made the mistake of making poor investments. They were not aware that situation will take a downturn and they will have a hard time to come up with it and will lose a major chunk of their business capital. Even the most powerful in the construction sector have to face the music at times and they learn their lessons the hard way. There have been cases where the head of the departments had to resign for taking callous investment decisions that has cost the company a bomb. Mighty construction companies at still able to take the blow of bad investments but it is irreparable loss to small construction houses and contractors who vie for every small project.

Buying heavy equipment has been one of the most common poor investments by big as well as small construction companies. For some reason they could not figure out the kind of heavy equipment they need and they end up buying machines that were not required in the first place. They realize it later that the machine they have bought was capable of doing multiple tasks and they need not buy more machines. Since they have already invested in heavy equipment, they are left with not many options. They either sell it off at a lesser price or let it out to others.

In case, they have taken loans to buy heavy equipment, things become all the more difficult. They have to pay the bank the entire amount along with the interest or else it might have an impact on their credit rating which is in no ways good for the business. You get investments from private investors who are not necessarily banks and they invest in you by knowing that you have a good credit rating. So any poor investment decision should not be the reason for your credit rating to take a dip. This is perhaps the last thing you would want to happen.

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Running a storm clean-up project using heavy equipment

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Heavy equipment is one of those inventions that have made life way easier. The different types of heavy equipment that are available in the market can take care of any kind of heavy duty work. It can construct, destruct and remove anything from anywhere, without much of a trouble.

Though storms like hurricanes, tornadoes and cyclones and even the snow storms are some of the natural forces that cannot be prevented, the damage that is caused by these can well be repaired and managed with the help of the heavy equipment.

Managing the damages:

Storms are sometimes extremely disastrous, resulting in so much of damage and financial losses that it becomes absolutely difficult to overcome the losses. What is an added trouble is that storms simply disconnect the world and this brings the livelihood to a standstill. Even after the storm has stopped, people fail to get back to the normal life to cope. This is because, the roads, the houses and everything else is affected by the storms. In such a case, heavy equipment comes in as a help to remove the debris and to construct the damaged.

  • Managing the railroad damages:

 

Railroads are one of the most important aspects of communication that is often damaged by the storms. There are some areas of the railroads, where it is absolutely difficult for the rail equipment to go in, in order to remove the debris. The nearby forest and woods often get torn apart and block the railroads. In such cases, the mulcher excavators help in removing the debris. These mulchers can mulch down the logs, stems and the huge amount of forest debris within a very short span of time.

  • Repairing roads:

 

Often roads are damaged severely after a storm. The bitumen and asphalt come out of the roads, making it absolutely impossible to drive on and also dangerous. The bulldozers, excavators and motor graders, crawlers as well as chip spreaders can manage the task within a day or two.

What needs to be mentioned here is that reaching the remote areas is a difficult task for many vehicles because of the waterlogging. However, the heavy equipment that is specially designed to manage storm damages, are capable of going through water.

  • Dumping the debris:

 

Along with removing the debris, it is also very important that you take the debris to the dumping grounds. The loaders help in this task. The loaders come in various sizes and they can carry huge amount of loads from one place to the other. You can also hire the dumping trucks for this task of carrying the debris.

Depending on the damages and the type of help that you need, you can choose the heavy equipment. The heavy equipment for storm clean-up can either be hired or purchased. You can decide whether you want to own the equipment or hire it when you need it. There are many suppliers, who offer both brand new and used heavy equipment for various purposes. Choose a good and reputed supplier.

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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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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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