Are you a self-employed tradesman or woman wondering how to grow your business? SME Loans has advice on taking the next step.
Whether you are a brand-new trades business or you’ve been in operation for many years, you might want to take it up a notch and start taking on staff and working on bigger projects.
Consider the following tips:
- Hire right and provide regular staff training & team building
Your business can only be as excellent as your staff members are. So, the first person you hire needs to be up-to-date with the latest legislations, products, and trends – and able to communicate with your customers. Providing staff training on a regular basis needs to be factored into your budget. Incorporate at least one team building event or get away per year to keep staff connected and interacting well with each other.
- Ramp up product quality
If you want to retain and then expand your customer-base, you need to ensure that your product catalogue (and your services) are of the highest quality. It might cost you a little more to afford better quality products, but the payoff in the end will be worth it. Make sure you are continually assessing the products you use and their suitability for the projects you’re working on.
- Make sure you can fund your growth
Taking your business to the next level requires budgeting not only to make the business operational on the day-to-day, but to plan and invest profits back into the company. As simple as it is, it is often neglected: your construction business can only grow if you have the money to do so. If you need to purchase expensive equipment or invest in other kit, you could apply for a short-term business loan that will cover you. There are plenty of alternative finance lenders that can help, for example SME Loans deals with small businesses and sole traders.
- Get proactive with marketing
It is an unfortunate fact that many construction companies do not have a good online presence. Of course, when someone needs building work done, they turn to the internet to do research and find service providers. If it is not something that interests you or you don’t have time, you can outsource your online marketing to a reputable company that can get your website outshining that of the competition.
- Get referrals through relationships with related non-competing businesses
Networking is essential to your business and the good news is that it will not cost you the earth. Start reaching out to businesses that work within the same industry as you but are not direct competitors. You can use social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to do this. Form a relationship with them where you refer customers to them, and they refer customers to you in return. You obviously come across the same or similar type of customers in your industry and it’s a great way to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with potential industry influencers.
- Keep up with the times
As an evolving industry, construction tech, equipment and materials are always changing and improving. Everything from the tools used to complete construction tasks to the computer programs used to manage workflow have changed over the years. If your business is not following current changes such as working with new materials and building strategies, you are going to be less competitive than other construction businesses.
Have you already scaled up your business? What tips do you have for other builders?
