The HBXL mission to help builders protect their 2022 profit

Friday, October 01st, 2021

Article By: Joanna Mulgrew

We’re on a mission to help builders protect their profit into 2022, when jobs that are being quoted now actually kick off.

Hello,

Joanna here, the Operations Director for the HBXL Group of companies.

Over the next few weeks we will be sharing advice and tips to help you, a busy builder and most probably owner of a building firm, navigate these turbulent times. We’re going to show that change can happen – and should happen if you want to compete in an increasingly digital world – one that’s challenging the construction industry more and more each day. We’re going to show that it’s possible, without a huge outlay or hours of training, to…

  • Protect your profits
  • Justify your costs
  • Manage your jobs better
  • Save time doing admin
  • Meet your legal obligations on site
  • Get paid on time
  • Widen your services with CAD drawing.

‘Unprecedented’ was the word everyone used to describe our disrupted working lives during the pandemic. Now the word describes the worrying financial issues so many businesses are facing. The Federation of Master Builders has reported that 98% of FMB members were experiencing price increases for building materials. It’s our mission to make sure builders don’t lose money as a result.

Future-proof your business for 2022

Here at HBXL we have a very real fear of some building firms sleepwalking into 2022 unaware of the debts they’re about to run up. In the last 12 months alone, building material prices have risen by 20%. No one is predicting this will slow up any time soon.

If you quote jobs using today’s prices then I can almost guarantee that the products (and subbies) in question will not be the same price in four, six months’ time when you pitch up to do the work. In fact, even when you’re working on the job, as each month passes, the costs will continue to go up. It’s proving to be a real eye opener as we show on screen the ‘now and then’ during online demonstrations of our estimating software, EstimatorXpress. We’re talking thousands of pounds lost from just a few months’ gap between quote date and start date.

I presented a spreadsheet example at a recent webinar – watch it here (it’s 9 minutes in) >>

Reality check your current quotes – free for 14 days

Here’s what you do to get a ‘start date’ price not a instantly out-of-date price:

  1. Download a free 14-day trial of EstimatorXpress*
  2. Book an online demonstration of the software to familiarise yourself with the way it works and follow our how-to videos
  3. Try out a recent quote of yours – first looking at current prices
  4. Compare your material prices against our own material prices library (we do a UK wide sweep every month). How’s it looking?
  5. Calculate when the job is likely to start and how long it will take
  6. Then using our inflation tool you’ll arrive at a new total – a realistic total
  7. Then add your profit margin
  8. How’s it looking now? Does the job still look viable?

If it’s predicting you will lose money on the job we’d advise having a frank conversation with the customer. Ask building firm mentor, Simon Lazarus of the Better Business Group and he’ll tell you that it’s better not to do the job at all if it’s only to break even – or worse.

What next for builders who want to protect their profit?

To see where you stand, give us a call on 0117 916 7898 for a chat about your business and how we can support you.

Adrian our founder, was previously a builder then property developer. He set up HBXL to give building firms the support that was lacking in his day. He wanted someone doing the admin spadework for him, calculating the cost of each job, setting out a plan for getting it done in time and on budget. Thousands of building firms are grateful for his vision, now being realised by a team of skilled software developers and technicians.

We’re on a mission to help builders protect their profit all the way into 2022. We want you to make money – not lose it. So get in touch now.

Watch our recent video broadcast: How to future-proof your building firm for 2022 >>

 

*Lapsed EstimatorXpress users do not qualify for the 14-day free trial