Four successful builders’ habits

Good habits can lead to success, whatever the size and location of your building company. Ditch the ways that aren’t working for you and follow the lead of the examples below.

While not every builder sets out to become the most successful builder in the world – or even New Zealand – most want to be among the best. However, comparing yourself to some of these high achievers – such as the three building companies in Deloitte’s Fast 50 – Fastest Growing Companies this year (Griffbuild, Selah Renovations and Xigo) – can be a bit overwhelming.

Growing a building business can be hard and yet, for some, it seems easy. It also seems there’s no winning formula. Some builders don’t touch renovations, while others swear by them. Some only employ staff and others only sub-contractors. Some operate in large cities and others in regional centres. Yet, in almost every case, success comes down to a few habits; it’s the things they do, not necessarily the stuff they know, that makes the difference.

The good news? Habits can be imitated, so do yourself a favour and make them yours!

1. Take control

You see it reflected in their personal disciplines, their thinking and, often, their waistlines – successful builders act as ultimate owners of everything that happens in their company. They take responsibility, which shows up clearly when something goes wrong. While others might look to blame or rant at someone, a successful builder steps up, takes ownership and looks at what can be done to improve the company.

For example, when a customer complains, a successful builder doesn’t simply blame a staff member. Since the incident happened in his company, he looks for what he did, or didn’t do, that contributed to the unwanted outcome and determines what he can do going forward, so it doesn’t happen again.

A less ‘in-control’ builder might simply lay blame and not try to find out where their action (or inaction) might have contributed. Consequently, they makeno changes and it happens again.

Decide today to take responsibility for everything that happens in your business!

2. Redefine the ‘urgent’

Successful builders usually go for the high-value activities and leave low-value activities alone – completely, in some cases. This keeps them from filling their days with low-value tasks, while rushing around saying “I don’t have time”.

There’s always someone else who can do your lower value jobs. Find them, make them happy and then focus on your higher value tasks. You also need to prioritise those higher value tasks as urgent, because high-value tasks rarely need to be done right away! However, when you make them urgent and do them right away, you’ll find yourself becoming time rich, which has to be good.

Redefining the urgent sometimes means passing up opportunities. This is hard if you’re an entrepreneur but, if it doesn’t fit the business plan, don’t waste time.

Another common problem that many builders encounter is overestimating what they can do in a week and adding all sorts of time wasters, instead of staying focused on a few key things that can be achieved within a set timeframe.

For example, one of my clients, Andrew, grew his presence as the builder of choice in his area by employing teenagers to deliver 500 mailbox flyers every week, month after month, because it worked. Results, though thin to start with, grew over time and Andrew was able to build a maintenance crew of six builders and a renovations crew of eight.

Make sure to determine where you should focus your efforts and don’t let your low-value tasks distract you!

“Successful builders act as the ultimate owners of everything that happens in their company

3. Live outside your business

Do you live to work or do you work to live? Sometimes it may seem that, to be successful, you need to work 24/7 and neglect your personal life. While hard work is admirable, and necessary to be achieving great results, it doesn’t mean that a work-life balance isn’t important.

With his new project manager on board, another client of mine found he actually had time to focus on the really important stuff – like helping his wife with their new baby! Instead of filling his new-found time with busy stuff, he took the time away from his business for his life outside of work. He told me that having a baby to care for gave a whole new perspective on business – “it’s only as good as the life it supports!” Wow!

What an observation. It’s true; most successful builders I’ve worked with make sure to enjoy the life their work provides. Letting your personal life take a back seat can wear builders out and make them resentful for doing so.

So, step back and take a look at your own work-life balance. Are you allowing yourself enough time to enjoy the life you’re working hard to sustain?

4. Study your business indicators

A building business is never static. Growth is never mapped on a straight line. One month income is up, the next it’s down. You might have several large quotes out there and get none of them, then suddenly you’re turning away work. This is all very stressful for the builder who doesn’t study the fundamentals of his business such as quote conversion rate, site productivity, gross profit and more.

However, a successful builder checks the fundamental indicators of his business regularly. Even when times are good, he is aware how his business is performing and, if something isn’t up to par, takes decisive action early before it becomes a problem!

If the number of enquiries converting to quotes starts to drop, it’s important to find out why and makes changes. Maybe the market is losing ground and your marketing is attracting the wrong people, or maybe the sales team is lagging.

If productivity is lagging, the successful builder makes changes in his team straight away. Whatever the problem, early identification and early intervention minimises future pressure.

So, whether business is booming or lagging, take a step back, figure out what’s impacting the trend and figure out how to change or maximise the situation.

Conclusion

It really is true. Success is less about what you know, and more about what you do with what you know. You can do what you’ve always done or you can start practising the habits of successful builders.