How to Avoid Some of the Costliest Mistakes You Can Make as a Contractor
No matter what area of the construction sector you happen to be in, mistakes can be costly. There is no doubt about it. Whether you are a builder, an electrician, a plumber, a painter, a mason or anything in between, each mistake eats away at your bottom line. In order to turn a profit, it is vital to cut back on the number of mistakes you or your workers make. The following are some of the most common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Don’t Undercut Your Bid
In an effort to undercut the competition, contractors will often undercut their own bid. While you want to offer the most reasonable price for any job, you can’t afford to trim budgets for time and materials. An honest bid is always the best policy. If you’ve stipulated in your contractual agreement a solid price, you can’t cut corners in an effort to avoid sustaining a loss. These can be costly mistakes that will come back to haunt you at the end of a job in more ways than you know. Not only can a dissatisfied customer take you to a claims court, but you can also end up with negative feedback online which can, in turn, cost you future jobs as well.
Rushing Jobs to Cut Labor Costs
As one housepainter found out, rushing to get a job done rarely ends well. In an effort to quickly ascend a staircase to get an interior paint job completed, he tugged on the hose causing it to come loose from the unit. Paint went everywhere and it was difficult to clean with puddles on the flooring and paint splattered as high as the ceiling fans. Another contractor didn’t use the proper mixture for the lath surface when applying Kafka natural stone veneer and the results were less than desirable. Aggregates from Kafka are renowned for their natural beauty, but in an effort to rush the job, he didn’t apply tint to complement the color of the natural stone when mixing the mortar with the bonding agent.
Not Using Protective Cover When Called For
That same contractor had a job to install indoor veneer, and in this instance, he did everything correctly. He made sure to use the proper drop cloths and sheeting to ensure no cement was spattered on the hardwood floor and he remembered to match the tint to the color of the stones in the veneer. He also used the proper mix for the lath surface. The results were simply amazing and a simple wall adjacent to the fireplace was transformed into something you’d see in a high dollar ski lodge.
Most often you will find that the costliest mistakes are made either when rushing to complete a job or when cutting back on the cost of tools and materials necessary to get the job done right. Sometimes you may be lucky, but Murphy’s Law still prevails. Always plan for that extra time you may need when something doesn’t go as expected. If you don’t need to spend the time you’d allotted, that would yield the extra profit you’d hoped to gain. Trying to cut corners can be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make. In the end, one satisfied customer can recommend you to dozens more.
