Business Plan for a Construction Company

A small construction firm’s owner-manager or potential owner-manager can find a road to success with the help of a construction business plan.

An owner-manager can use this free sample business plan construction company guidance to assist in creating a business plan.

The following questions need to be taken into account while creating a path to profit: What industry do I work in? What do I market? Where is my marketplace? Who will buy? Who are my rivals? What is my approach to selling? How much money is required to run my business? How will I complete the task? What managerial measures are required? How can they be executed? When should I make a plan revision? Where can I find assistance?

No one can provide you with such answers. You must respond to them as the owner-manager and create your business plan. This guide’s pages combine text with workspaces so that you can fill them with the data you compile while creating your business plan. It follows a logical progression from a sensible starting point to a commonsense finishing point.

What does this mean for me?

The hammer, trowel, pliers, and wrench are common construction-related tools. They are required to complete the work and have a variety of purposes. The owner-manager of a construction company must also employ management. If the company is to operate smoothly and effectively, each job needs to be planned out and arranged. Your ability as a manager will improve with the help of the business strategy.

You might work in residential, commercial, or industrial construction because of the industry’s variety. You can work as a general contractor or a specialty contractor. But the same fundamental managerial abilities are required. The numerous areas that you as a manager will be concerned with will be guided by this plan. As you go through this plan, adjust meet your unique needs.

When finished, your business plan will assist in directing your day-to-day operations. Knowing where you want to go makes it simpler to plan your route there. The business plan can also act as a tool for communication, informing important personnel, vendors, lenders, and anybody else who needs to know about your objectives and procedures.

The business plan can be beneficial to you whether you are just beginning to consider opening your own business or you have already done so. The amount of jobs you can effectively manage will expand as your managerial skill does as well. The rigorous execution of this approach might highlight your shortcomings. This is crucial. Being a successful contractor requires not just in-depth knowledge of your industry but also awareness of your limitations and the need for expert guidance in these areas.

The purpose of my business

Most contractors work for themselves and want to make money. very significant factors. But keep in mind that unless you also meet a market need at a competitive price, no one is going to stay in company. In a competitive economy, profit is the incentive for meeting consumer needs.

Your early profits may not seem like much of a reward for the long hours, arduous effort, and burden of being the boss. But owning your own firm also comes with other benefits. For instance, you might enjoy putting goods on your staff members’ tables. Or perhaps creating a company you can leave to your kids will make you happy

What Industry Am I in?

This inquiry can appear to be very stupid at first. If there is anything you can be certain of, you can say, “Whatever state of huskiness I’m in.” But hold on. Let’s investigate the query further. Let’s imagine you claim, “I construct houses.” Are you a bespoke or speculative builder? Do you remodel homes? A subcontractor, are you? Can you plan a full job and yet make money? You should understand the monetary significance of this way of thinking by making plans in accordance with your choice.

Think about this instance. Soon after World War II, Bob Rogers launched a modest construction company. Mr. Rogers focused all of his efforts on creating taverns due of his aptitude and knack for design. Up until the early 1960s, there was enough demand for this kind of architecture to keep him and his team busy. Then, sales started to decline.

He was able to run his firm successfully for the remainder of his life by downsizing to a smaller space with lower overhead and firing half of his staff. After his father passed away, his son looked at the issue and concluded that he wasn’t actually in the business of constructing bars for profit. He worked in the custom finishing industry.

Estimating the potential for sales

Your sales potential in the service industry will be influenced by the region you cover. How many people in this area will use your services, in other words? Will your clients be consumers, businesses, or a combination of all three?

Think about the nature of your service while choosing a location for your firm. If you pick up and deliver packages, you should choose a location with a short travel distance so that you can later install a radio dispatch system. Or, if the customer must visit your establishment, the location must be accessible and convenient.

You must choose the website with the highest likelihood of success. You can use the suggestions below to help you think through this issue.

Think about the following factors while choosing a region to serve:

the population’s potential for growth
the population’s income, age, and occupation
Numerous competing services available at the place you propose
zoning laws and local bylaws
Trading-zone type (commercial, industrial, residential, seasonal)

You might contact the local chamber of commerce, as well as the producer and distributor of any equipment and supplies you’ll be using, for more assistance in making your decision

When choosing a certain location for your business, you should take into account the following list of considerations:

Will the client visit your location for business?
How much room do you require?
Will you subsequently want to enlarge?
Do you require any specific lighting, heating, or ventilation features?
Is there parking here?
Is there a public transit system?
Is the location suitable for walk-in clients?
Do you offer pickup and delivery?
Travel time would it be too long?
Will you account for travel time while making service calls?
Would a position near an expressway or major thoroughfare reduce travel time?
Will the rent savings from a remote location outweigh the inconvenience?
Will you have to spend as much on advertising to promote your business as you save on rent if you choose a remote location?
Will the customer be able to easily find your business if you choose a remote location?
Will there be an adequate labor supply and the required skills?
What rules apply to zoning in this area?
Will there be sufficient fire and law enforcement protection?
Will it be necessary to purchase crime insurance, and if so, how much will it cost?

Is there a solid economic foundation in the area where you intend to settle? For instance, are surrounding industries employing full-time employees? only on the side? Have any businesses closed their doors in the last few months? Are any new industries expected to start up soon?

Construction Business Marketing Plan

Your first marketing choice was made once you decided what kind of construction business you truly were in. You now have to make various marketing choices in order to sell your service or commodity.

Your marketing goal is to locate enough customers at the proper moments to sustain your firm at a profit. You must schedule your job starts in order to reduce downtime in between jobs. In order to avoid going without money while looking for work, you should start at the appropriate periods and secure adequate jobs.

An individual may not be prepared to start a construction business unless they can generate enough ideas to keep a crew busy throughout the entire year.

What City Is Your Market In?

Describe your market area in terms of location and the demographics of your target market (age, educational demands, income, etc.). If you are a bespoke builder, for instance, you might choose to construct houses in the $180,000 to $500,000 price range. This would imply that your clients must earn within those categories of income. If the owner’s lot is within 30 miles of your office, you might decide that you can profitably build these dwellings on it. (A customer profile is important because it will enable you to focus your advertising on the media most likely to reach the potential consumer you have identified.) Describe your market in the space below, taking into account the region and client profile.

Advertising for construction companies

You have identified the product you are promoting, the target market, and the motivations behind the purchase. The ideal technique to inform your potential clients about your goods must now be chosen.

What should your advertising convey to potential clients?

What format should you choose for your advertising? Consult the local media (newspapers, radio, television, and direct mail piece printers) for details on their offerings and the value they provide.

It’s up to you how you choose to spend your advertising budget, but avoid the common mistake made by many businesses. It is remarkable how many corporate managers believe themselves experts on advertising content and media choices without any expertise in these fields, as one consultant puts it.

The work-block that follows should help you decide what kind of advertising is necessary to promote your construction services.

Type of Advertising, Audience Size, Frequency of Use, and Cost of one advertisement / Estimated Cost

Competition

Low profit margins are frequently a result of the competitiveness in the construction business. However, this does not disadvantage you if your business is just getting started or is a tiny one. Due to lower overhead costs, smaller businesses may frequently compete with larger ones. You may save money by having your office in your home, for instance. Often, you may conduct business directly from your vehicle, save you the cost of a field office.

Price competition predominates in the market, while having a solid reputation for quality and effectiveness is advantageous. However, a high failure rate for bad planners and performers is the outcome of any competition. This emphasizes the importance of meticulous planning, especially when it comes to estimating and bidding.

Answer the following inquiries to determine your level of competition so that you can make appropriate plans.

Who will be your main rivals?
How are you going to compete with them

A sales plan for your construction company

The construction industry’s market is distinct in a number of respects. As a contractor, you’ll discover that the status of the economy, local employment stability, the seasonality of the work, labour relations, reliable subcontractors, and lending rates all affect your market. Additionally, you will discover that as a contractor, you are inescapably reliant on others, including clients or financial institutions for payment and other contractors for the completion of their task. When you estimate and bid on a job, you should also take your cash flow into account. You must receive the funds in time to fulfil your own obligations.

Estimating

The success of an owner-manager in the construction industry—whether they turn a profit or not—largely depends on the procedures used for soliciting bids. As a result, you must provide accurate and thorough estimates.

Many of the more prosperous contractors credit their estimation processes with their success. Before submitting a bid, they construct the task on paper. They divide the work into work units and material parts as they accomplish this. After that, they give each thing a price. The sum of these expenses will be the construction’s direct cost. You must also account for a job’s indirect costs. You will, for instance, incur overhead costs for things like the upkeep of your office, vehicles, licence fees, and so forth. The cost should take into account any interest fees you will have to pay on any loans you make to start the project. You must pay for insurance premiums, surety bond fees, travel charges, advertising expenses, office salaries, attorney fees, and so forth. Additionally, they must be paid from your gross income.

Trade groups frequently offer a set of business forms to their members as one of their services. This bundle would include the cost estimate form. The fact that these forms are created especially for the particular trade is obviously a benefit.

Whatever form you use for your estimate, it needs to have sections for “activity,” “material,” “labour,” “subcontracts,” and “estimated cost.” Additionally, it must include sections for overhead, profit, and the direct and indirect costs of building.

This company will become a priceless record if it includes a column for the actual cost as contrasted to the expected cost of a certain work item. With this useful resource, you might assess the profitability of a task after it is finished. You might then alter future bids on comparable projects after seeing where your estimate was too high or too low. Additionally, when it comes time for your financial accounting, this additional column will be required.

Bidding

You should consider a number of variables before deciding whether or not to submit a bid for a given job. The first thing to consider is whether you have the ability to finish the task on time and to the required standards. Avoid going out of business by extending yourself too far. You must act within the boundaries of your skills. Any job requires that you either follow every step of the process yourself or locate professional supervision.

Organizing the Task

When your marketing activities generate work that needs to be done, production issues arise. How will you organize the work to finish it on schedule?

Whatever method you use to organize the work, it should aid you in two specific ways: (1) it should keep you on track with your production schedule, and (2) it should provide you the flexibility to adapt production to take account of changing circumstances. like inclement weather.

Consider both the timing of commencement and the timing of the various processes involved in building your company as you plan the work. You will be able to take on as many tasks as you can manage if you have enough assistance and supervising staff. Here, it’s also important to take into account the job’s size and character.

The timing of the construction process’s steps—also known as the work scheduling—will list the various operations in order and give each one a working day designation along with a space for a calendar day designation. It is possible for several operations to be ongoing at once. Such a schedule will allow you to quickly determine whether the job is moving along at the proper pace. Commercial scheduling boards made for this purpose are offered by many businesses.

A sample work schedule showing how yours might be organized is provided below. There is a column that can be completed with either a solid mark or a “X” to denote either incomplete or finished work, as you will see. An “X” next to a day on the calendar would mean that you are on schedule for that day. A delay is indicated by an open line. Therefore, this is a practical technique to identify problems that are creating delays and it offers you the chance to make adjustments.

Work schedule

Your work schedules should be saved. They’ll serve as the foundation for upcoming projections. For instance, if you are estimating a specific work, you have knowledge of the production procedures, a forecast of the materials you will need and when you will need them, a forecast of the time it will take to complete the job, and any idiosyncrasies that might affect its completion. You’ll have a better chance of submitting an appropriate bid if you take all of this into account.

You can determine how many employees you will require by properly maintaining such records. If the work is behind schedule, you might need to add extra personnel to the project to ensure scheduled completion and avoid being penalised, if that is what your contract requires, which could result in a higher financial loss. Additionally, these data will help you determine whether your company needs an organisational structure.

Performing the task

You need to be organized if you want your business to run smoothly. Organization is crucial because you won’t be able to handle all the work when your business expands. You must assign tasks, assign power, and assign accountability. The organization chart is a practical tool for accomplishing this. It makes it very clear who is in charge of your company’s main operations.

Many construction enterprises started out as one-man operations. The owner is responsible for practically everything.

As the business expands, professionals might be added, such a general superintendent, an office manager, and an engineer/estimator.

What are the requirements for personnel?
Will you have a permanent crew on board, or will you employ people as needed?
How many employees will you require?
What will your hourly rate be?
How much will ancillary benefits cost?
Will you act as the project manager, or will a foreman be hired? What will the foreman’s pay be if you recruit him?
Will you require administrative assistance? What is the price?

Equipment

What unique tools would you require (assumedly your workforce will provide their own hand tools)?
Equipment: Buy, Rent, or Your Cost
Will you work from home or will you need an office?
What will the rent and other costs be if you require an office?

Make Your Plan Financial

The fundamental unit of financial management is the job, just like it is with the other facets of running a construction company. Planning the financial components of a project is just as important as planning the actual building. Each job’s payment must cover the direct and indirect costs of construction in addition to the assigned share of overhead. Construction Company Free Sample Business Plan.

Accounting standards will differ from business to business and from industry to industry. Your attorney will work with you to establish the accounting system that best suits your requirements.

However, it is up to you to create the grand plans. You must set the objectives required to direct and run your company. This summary will be extremely helpful in building strong communication with your banker (or other lender).

Where the money will come from is the first thing you should think about while organising your finances. How much business (sales) can you expect to generate in dollars during the next 12 months?

Expenses

You must consider expenses in relation to annual sales volume. How much would it cost you to conduct this amount of business, for instance, if you aim to complete $300,000 worth of work? What will be left over as profit at the end of the year is much more crucial.

Your remuneration is profit. Even if you give yourself a salary to cover living expenses, your firm still needs to turn a profit to last year after year and recoup the time and money you invested in it. Profit makes your business stronger since it provides a financial reserve for any tough times.

Your annual expenses can be calculated with the help of the “Expenses Worksheet.” The operating ratios for your industry must be obtained in order to use this worksheet. Consult the trade group that represents your region of the building sector if you don’t have these numbers.

Worksheet for Expenses
Matching Resources and Costs

The second thing to consider is whether there will be enough money flowing in to cover these costs and keep your business operating in the case that there is a lull before your next job.

The cash projection is a management tool that can greatly reduce your tension during lean months. You can estimate the quantities of cash you anticipate flowing through your business over the course of the next 12 months by using the worksheet “Estimated Cash Forecast” or by having your accountant use it.

Keep in mind that the costs associated with purchasing the tools and supplies necessary for a given job may arise a month or two before a payment is received.

Is more money required?

You might anticipate times when you won’t have enough money. For instance, you will require materials and resources when you begin a project. Your first payment might not come for a month or two. If trade credit is unable to fully meet your cash requirements, what should you do in the interim?

Your bank might be able to assist with a quick loan. A banker will want to know whether your company’s financial position is robust or weak before extending you a short-term or long-term loan. A balance sheet will be requested by the bank representative.

There is also a blank balance sheet. Use it even if you don’t need to borrow. Or, have your accountant utilise it to create a “portrait” of the financial health of your company. Additionally, even if you don’t require a loan, you might want to present your strategy to the bank that manages the account for your business. Never too early to start cultivating positive ties with your banker. For you never know when you’ll need to borrow.

Feedback and Control

At each level of your management process, you will need input to ensure that your plan is effective. When approaching a task as a manager, you will need to plan, direct, and manage the task. You will require sufficient funding for the duration of this process. Therefore, the management controls you set up ought to give you the data you require to keep your business “on the money.” You will need to carefully estimate your bid throughout the planning phase. Your job cost analysis will be necessary to manage the project and ensure that it will turn a profit. And your forces need to be structured if you want to control the job. To ensure effective performance, this calls for the planned production of each task (a work schedule), qualified staff, and your own follow-up.

Is Your Plan Practical?

After all your planning, take a step back and review your strategy. Is it plausible? Can you generate enough revenue to support yourself?

If your strategy is not feasible, now is the time to make changes, not after you have spent time and money on it. Make the necessary changes if you believe they are necessary before you launch your own company. Return to the cash flow and make the necessary adjustments. It is preferable to present your strategy to a person who was not involved in its creation. Your banker or any outside counsel could be able to highlight your advantages, which, if stressed, could result in money.

Consider delaying starting a business until you feel as comfortable with the management tools as you do with the tools of your profession if you have serious misgivings about your venture or your capacity to manage it.

Updating your plan

How many people can foretell the future in this world? very few, in fact! The situation will probably alter. Expect things to turn out differently than you anticipated. This comes as no surprise. Often, the capacity to be vigilant and keep an eye out for changes is the only thing that separates successful planning from poor planning. Keep track of the evolving situation and modify your plan as necessary. How to Write a Construction Business Plan.

An owner-manager must do the following to modify their plan to reflect changes:

Pay attention to changes that occur in your market, industry, and client base.
Compare your strategy to these modifications.
Ascertain whether your proposal need any revisions.

You are free to employ whatever strategies you choose to adapt to shifting circumstances. Talk about your plan once a month or so. Check to see whether it requires altering. If changes are required, make them and implement them.

Execute your strategy

You are prepared to execute your plan after it is as close to your goals as possible. Remember that the difference between a plan and a dream is action. A plan has no more worth than a dream that fades away over the morning coffee if it is not carried out.

Getting the necessary funding to get started would be the first stage in the action plan. Do you currently own the funds? Will you get a loan from a bank, a friend, or a relative? When and where will you appoint qualified workers?

What else requires attention? Look for constructive action measures to get your business off the ground. For instance, where and how will you obtain the necessary licenses to work as a contractor?