Protect Your Contracting Business From Unnecessary Costs
Managing a contracting business has the opportunity to be extremely profitable when we save time and maximize our hourly rate.
In this blog we will discuss the unnecessary costs contractors take on as well as ways to reduce the time spent without getting paid and increasing the total amount of jobs you’ll be available to complete.
The costly side of free estimates
Providing free estimates has been the standard for many years. It’s expected that contractors will drive job site to job site to provide competing bids. This process is all set in place for the client to determine which company is going to win the project.
While free estimates are a great way to meet potential customers and evaluate the project. Unfortunately we don’t win every job after providing a free estimate. Leaving the contractors spending money however not making it back.
If a client receives 3 bids and only selects 1 contractor for their project that means 66% of the time contractors aren’t making money.
What’s the cost of losing a free estimate?
Lead fee: Did you pay a lead company for this opportunity? If so, how much did they cost your business?
Your Time: How much do you charge hourly? $100 an hour?
Gas: Average gas prices are $3.50.
The cost of free estimates quickly add up. If we lost 10 hours a month and 150 miles of driving there’s over a thousand dollars that didn’t need to be lost in the business.
Let’s talk about how to keep this money in your business!
Your hourly rate and the value of time
How many quotes can your business complete in a day?
Every time we step into the truck to provide an estimate site unseen we are rolling the dice. It can be a costly gamble for us.
If you were to provide 10 estimates on average, then how many of those estimates are going to turn into jobs that pay your bills?
When you provide a bid there is a lot of information that goes into it, from your equipment cost to your hourly rate, your travel time and your customer’s budget.
When we implement tools that provide the ability to review the job site virtually you’ll be able to see the job site and provide a bid before ever stepping onto the property. This will assist your business in winning more projects and increase your profits as you’re not spending so much time on the road to provide estimates.
This effectively increases the value of your time as you’re much more efficient.
Tips for contractors to reduce expenses
With the traditional way of business we’d drive out to provide an estimate. This has us spending more time driving and less time spent working and making money.
Not every customer is a good fit for our business and it’s nice to know this before we drive to their location.
We want to make sure we are providing the best quality of work and we can’t if we’re wasting time and money on customers who don’t want us there.
It’s always helpful to provide tools for clients to effectively communicate the needs of their project. When a client has a hard time communicating their idea of what they want and what needs to be done it opens the door for miscommunications. Using videos will allow your clients to better communicate their needs and saves you time because then you know that those customers are interested in you as a company and not just the free estimate.
This contractor application is the solution
BidMyVid is the application that every contractor needs. Within a few clicks of a button, you can review the job site on your phone ,provide a free estimate, ask questions about the project to be sure it’s a good fit for your company, submit a bid for the project with complete confidence, and have that bid accepted. You not only save time but money as well. With this time savings you’ll be able to provide more bids than ever before increasing the amount of job opportunities you have.
Start your FREE trial of BidMyVid today. Saving yourself the drive is worth it!
