There are many reason but mostly it comes down to poor business management and growing faster than they can learn to administer. Success is the catalyst for growth and eventually failure, most cowboy builders are good hard workers who grew too fast without the right knowledge or system

A good honest hardworking builder can work and run a single modest sized building project like an extension relatively easily. They can see what they need, produce work and check the quality with full knowledge of the method and steps to completion. After successfully completed a few building projects they will soon become recommended and so will take on 2 projects at a time. This will still be manageable as they can work on both site and still monitor the work other sub contractors do and relay what the next steps are and plan the materials. If the builder stays at this size then with a small amount of book keeping and planning the build projects we run fine.

So why does the builder fail

When the builder then take on 3 or 4 projects at the same time the management required trebles. They cannot monitor everything on the sites and rely on other less committed to think for themselves on the project. Communicating the plans and getting ahead of the material orders is difficult and essential.

The reasons builders fail and go bust

Cash flow management, builders are generally not accountants or particularly computer literate, spreadsheets monitoring expenditure are difficult to design and manage. This become essential with large outlays for equipment hire, materials to purchase not too mention to spiralling wage bill and hmrc tax payments. Its easy to fall behind if project don’t hit the payment milestones.

Project Management for builders becomes difficult as what was planned out in their head for the project they are working on needs communicating other running the sites. This can be key dates for delivery, client decisions and doing thing in the right order.

Communication, it is now essential both the clients and trades know what, where and some times how to do tasks. Too much can get lost in a phone call and not all builders will do thing the same way.

Purchase orders for builders will become quite a task and making sure they are correct quantities at the best price and quality is important. Not having materials on site on time will mean you will be paying people to stand around. Tracking this properly mean you know if your project is within the budget set.

How can builder grow successfully

Without going to college to learn project management and accounting what can a busy builder do to leverage his abundant build knowledge. A management system designed by similar busy builders is the only way forward. We believe the answer lies in our unique builder management software, it makes project planning easy and relays all instructions to people on site. It tracks costs too so you can see your cash flow at a glance. The best part is it has been designed by builders for builders the solution are born out of working through these problems.

Having a system that can be update on the phone on the site with simple task planning and tracking helps a good builder grow. Knowing the cash flow is in good order and everything is covered give peace of mind too. So don’t stress or stay small due to fear get the right system that can do the thinking for you and ensure you protect your reputation and every project runs like your there everyday.