As a business owner, you are naturally very curious about your competition, and you should be. While the work flow is generally quite similar from one general contracting company to another, there are many times when you can’t help but wonder what the other guy – or gal – would do in your place. This desire to upgrade is also referred to as “best practice”.
If only you could be the fly on the wall, and see how your competition is handling the same types of projects that you are, overcoming the same hurdles and dealing with the same kind of demanding customers. How do they handle their payroll? Who does their bookkeeping? Do they charge by the hour or by a flat rate? How do they handle job costing? Are they using a management consultant?
Short of engaging in some illegal espionage practices, your best bet for getting a look at the competition is through a competitive analysis. A business consultant can do the legwork and provide you all of the available information on your competitors, as well as the industry in your area, all neatly formatted into one tidy package, so that you can get a better idea of how you stack up against the competition. This will not only help to satisfy your curiosity, but help you become a more competitive bidder on future contracts. It is also best to keep in mind that other general contractors just as yourself may also be doing a thorough competitive analysis and finding ways to influence their business in the market.
Your business consultant can also help educate you on construction best practices, to set up a standard methodology for handling different situations. He or she has no doubt a good fitting management consultant has been in the industry long enough to understand practices, and is ready to share with you many years of experience with many different types of clients. As a new general contractor, looking to move to best practices, you need to have a conversation and even use the management consultants change your ongoing service to business and make it more efficient. There are some good business consultants out there ready to help guide your footsteps and nurture your business success.
