I’ve been thinking that running a building company has a fair amount in common with getting fit.
Bear with me.
Say you decide you want to get fitter. Properly fitter. Lose a bit of weight perhaps. Build some muscle. Get stronger. Have more energy.
You can buy the trainers. Download the app. Join the gym. Buy the watch that tells you exactly how badly you slept (IYKYK…). You can even ask AI to write you the perfect training programme before breakfast…
But at some point, you still have to do the reps. And I think there’s something in that for building companies.
Because there are plenty of things most builders would like to improve:
- Win better quality work
- Make more profit from it
- Spend less time quoting in the evenings
- Get off the tools a bit more
- Build a team that doesn’t need them every minute of every day
- Have more time for themselves and their family
- Or eventually build a business they can step away from altogether.
None of those things comes from one clever app, one AI prompt, one marketing campaign or one change to the way you quote.
They come from lots of improvements, consistently made.
Buying the kit isn’t the same as getting fit
This is where I think technology can sometimes be sold badly. AI is the obvious example at the moment.
There are extraordinary things it can do. We use it ourselves at HBXL and we’re exploring where it can genuinely make life easier for builders and for our own business.
But AI isn’t a business strategy. Neither is a cheap app that promises to transform your productivity.
And, for that matter, neither is buying HBXL software. Because software sitting on a laptop achieves very little.
It’s what you do differently because you have professional software that matters.
If estimating software means you stop relying on remembered material prices, properly account for labour and overheads, allow for wastage and contingencies and put a realistic profit into every job, that can make the business stronger.
If design software means you can respond to a potential customer more quickly, take more control over the design process and show them what their extension could actually look like, that can make the business stronger.
If project management software gives you a consistent way of organising jobs, people, tasks and information rather than keeping half of it in your head, that can make the business stronger.
The digital tool matters. But the way you use it matters more.
What does a stronger building business actually look like?
For a small residential building company, getting ‘fitter’ doesn’t necessarily mean getting bigger.
- It means having more control
- Knowing what your overheads cost you before you price a job
- Using realistic, up-to-date costs rather than assuming they’ve not really changed
- Allowing properly for labour, materials, wastage, subcontractors, contingencies and profit
- Having a repeatable process for producing and following up quotes
- Knowing which work is worth pursuing and being prepared to walk away from the work that isn’t
- Putting systems around enquiries, estimating, contracts, health and safety and project management so fewer things depend entirely on the owner remembering to do them
- And using technology where it genuinely saves time, improves accuracy or makes something easier to manage.
None of those are unreasonable goals, and all of them are achievable.
You probably won’t notice the difference on Tuesday
Do a workout tonight and you won’t wake up tomorrow looking dramatically different.
Price one job accurately and your building business won’t suddenly transform either.
But do it again.
And again.
And again.
- Start saying no to work that was never going to make you enough money
- Start following up enquiries properly
- Start knowing what your overheads actually cost you
- Start protecting time to price work rather than squeezing it into Sunday evening
- Start putting systems around the things that currently rely entirely on you remembering them…
And six months later, you may have a very different business. Not because of one enormous change. Because of dozens of small ones.
Building a stronger business takes some resistance
I’m no expert but I know muscle is built through resistance.
And there’s a business lesson in that too.
Changing the way you run a building company can feel harder before it feels easier.
- Learning new software takes some time
- Putting proper processes in place takes time
- Changing the way you’ve estimated for 10/20 years takes some discipline
- Delegating something you’ve always done yourself can feel uncomfortable
- Turning down the wrong job can feel particularly uncomfortable when somebody is waving money at you.
But if your ambition is to build a stronger business, some resistance is inevitable.
The question is whether you’re prepared to work through it. Are you determined enough?
Decide what you’re training for
A question we always ask builders is ‘What are you doing this for? What are you working hard for? What’s the plan?’
- For one person success is having 20+ employed people
- For another, success might mean getting off the tools and running several projects at once
- For somebody else, it might mean staying small, doing four really good projects a year and making considerably more money from them
- It might mean employing an estimator
- Closing the laptop by five every week day
- Not quoting at weekends
- Taking a proper holiday
- Being able to retire at 60 rather than wondering whether your knees will make the decision for you.
You need to know what you’re training for.
Because once you do, you can start putting the habits, processes and tools around you that help you get there.
Where does AI fit into running a building company?
I’m a big believer in technology. I wouldn’t have spent so much of my working life around construction software otherwise.
And I’m hugely excited about what AI might allow smaller building companies to do over the next few years.
It can already help with some of the everyday thinking, writing, organising and administrative work that eats into an owner’s time. And we’re all looking at where it can add real value within construction businesses and construction software.
But I don’t believe the winners will simply be the building companies with the most technology.
They’ll be the ones that use it deliberately, consciously, if that makes sense?
AI should help a good process become easier or faster. It shouldn’t be a substitute for having the process in the first place.
The same applies to any digital tool.
Before adopting one, it’s worth asking a simple question:
What am I trying to improve in my building company?
Accuracy? Time? Profitability? Organisation? Customer experience? Communication? Control?
Start with the business problem. Then decide whether technology can help solve it.
Not the other way round.
There is no quick fix for running a better building company
There isn’t one piece of software, AI tool, business course, marketing campaign or clever idea that suddenly gives you better customers, healthier profits, more time and a business that can function without you.
Building that takes time.
- It means getting the basics right
- Knowing your numbers
- Valuing your time
- Pricing work properly
- Putting repeatable processes in place
- Using the right tools
- Learning what works.
And sticking with those improvements for long enough to see the benefit.
There’s no two-week transformation programme for a building company.
But you can make it fitter.
You can make it stronger.
And you can build a business that works considerably harder for you, rather than one that constantly asks you to work harder for it.
What would make your building business stronger?
If your building business was a person walking into a gym today, what would it need to work on most?
Profit?
Time?
Organisation?
Winning better work?
Getting less dependent on you?
And perhaps the more important question:
What’s one thing you already know would make the business stronger, but you keep putting off doing?
Joanna Mulgrew is Managing Director of HBXL Group, which provides software, estimating services and funded training to help UK building firms improve the way they price, plan and manage their work.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
