Most construction company owners and managers spend most of their working hours on two of the three required operational functions is takes to make a profit and grow their companies. First you must win profitable revenue. Pounding the pavement to find good projects to bid is hard work. Then it takes more effort to estimate and put together a competitive bid. And then you lament over how much to mark-up or cut your bid to beat your competition. Secondly, after you land a contract, it takes more hard work and time to get everything ordered, subcontracted, scheduled, installed, completed, and paid.
All this effort to find and do work leaves little time to focus on the third and most important function required to make a profit. Knowing and tracking your numbers must be the number one priority for construction business owners to be successful. Unless your goal is to be busy and broke, you must spend an equal amount of time focused on accounting, financials, and job costs. Too many shops do great work, with excellent quality, and make too little money because they don’t know their costs, and how much they need to charge to make a profit at the end of the year.