The Construction Business Blueprint #040 - AMA Construction Business Owner Edition

In this episode of Construction Business Blueprint, Marc switches things up with a summer survival Ask Me Anything for trade and construction business owners.

These are the real questions coming from construction business owners every week, from prospects, clients, social media conversations, and comments online.

Marc answers questions around stepping back from the day-to-day without the business falling apart, why so many owners are flat out but still skint, how to properly hand over admin to an office hire, whether losing jobs after raising your prices means you went too high, and how to get your team to actually follow new systems instead of treating them like paperwork.

He also addresses a common pushback around client case studies and whether big changes in six months are actually realistic.

This episode is direct, practical, and built around the problems construction business owners are facing right now: lack of control, poor tracking, weak delegation, pricing uncertainty, team resistance, and the challenge of trying to scale without everything still running through the owner.

If you’re busy, stretched, pricing work, managing the team, chasing money, trying to hire, or wondering why the business still depends on you for every decision, this Q&A will give you clear answers and practical places to start.

Subscribe for weekly videos helping construction business owners get more time, more profit, and more control.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to Construction Business Blueprint

00:04 - Summer survival Ask Me Anything

00:15 - Where the questions come from

00:31 - Answering questions off the top of Marc’s head

00:53 - How do I step back without the business falling apart?

01:07 - Write down what actually breaks when you’re not there

01:26 - Why everything living in your head creates chaos

02:04 - Are you missing a team member or getting in your own way?

02:39 - Why am I flat out but still skint?

03:17 - If you don’t track, you’re driving blind

03:42 - Payment terms with clients and suppliers

04:22 - Scope creep, variations, and untracked extra work

04:49 - Why poor estimating kills profit

05:17 - Why do I still feel busy after hiring admin?

05:36 - Setting clear expectations for an office hire

06:17 - Why delegation is not dumping your mess on someone else

06:43 - Did I put my prices up too high?

07:03 - Why price is usually the last place to look

07:38 - Knowing your true cost, overheads, and profit margin

08:16 - Using conversion rate to judge pricing

09:17 - How do I get my team to follow systems?

09:30 - Why people resist change

09:48 - Explain why the system matters before expecting buy-in

10:35 - Are six-month case study results actually realistic?

11:11 - Why growth is not always sunshine and rainbows

11:38 - The difference between information and implementation

12:15 - Why support, guidance, and accountability change the result

12:37 - Send in your questions for the next Q&A

Transcript

AMA Setup And Ground Rules

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, so welcome back to another episode of the construction business blueprint YouTube channel. So today, this week's episode, we're going to do something slightly different. It's an Ask Me Anything, and uh it's a summer summer survival edition, as I like to call it. So every few weeks, what I do is I open up and I take questions directly from you know prospects coming through who want to work with me, conversations I have with construction business owners all the time, client issues or whatever. And we've even got a wee bit of a wee bit of a wild card at the end about some comments that that I get under my posts, etc. etc. Today we're gonna go through it. I haven't planned any answers today. I've got the questions written down and I'm just gonna answer them off the top of my head and just get the first thing that comes to my head essentially. I'm gonna try and keep them short and sweet. I'm not gonna drag them out, I'm gonna try and keep it to the point. I'm gonna answer the question as best I can so that whoever asks the question can solve it like that or get their answers straight away without me going off on it on a tangent.

Step Back Without The Business Breaking

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Question number one is a common one. How do I step back from the day to day without my business falling apart the second I'm not there? There's a few things I would do here. Number one would be document, write down what falls apart. So I know you're saying everything falls apart when I'm not there, but literally write down what falls apart. So is it you know the admin, the pricing, is it that the guys are literally running around bumping into walls, don't know what to do, don't know how to do it. What is exactly going wrong? Try to actually get abundantly clear on what is going wrong when you're not there or what the first thing to feel is when you're not there. Number two is usually communication with the team. So it's usually because everything lives in your head, is why when you step away, nobody knows what's happening. Clients aren't informed, team isn't informed, nobody really knows because you kind of are the gatekeeper to everything. So there's usually a massive lack of communication there in the business between you and your team, showing them what needs to be done. Like from day to day, the guys are waiting on you, telling them what to do every day, don't know what to do. You're you're not mapping that out the week before, you're not giving them any sort of formal instructions, you're not giving them like a site audit report, they're not giving you know, you're not actually bringing them up to speed on what the expectation is or what you know a full week as work of what's expected of guys are. It could be that you're missing a team member, that's pretty much an obvious one. You know, if it is admin, if it is other things, you could be missing a team member that frees you up to to do those other areas better. But I'll kind of be blunt, more often than enough, it's just the fact that you're getting in your own way. So you are, like I said, about keeping everything in your head, usually that's a choice. You are gatekeeping everything because you're afraid to what we call let go, you're afraid to delegate anything, you're afraid to give away too much information, and you like to be the one that answers all the questions. So generally, why the business falls apart when you're not there is because it all lives in your head and it's because you're choosing to be it that way, and you need to kind of get out of your own way, essentially.

Flat Out But Skint Cash Flow Fixes

SPEAKER_00 2:38

So, question number two is something I actually touched on in one of the previous videos. There is something that I see on my phone all the time. Like my team are talking with people back and forth as they come in to inquire to work with us through the website or through social media, and I always kind of see the conversations, I always keep an eye on the conversations and jump in from time to time. But one of the questions I get is that we're flat out. The actual let me just say it word for word. I'm winning work upon skint. Where is the money actually going? So essentially, this is a a very, very common theme, and it's like we're flat out, but the the bank balance doesn't reflect the the activity, the level of activity. And there's a really simple answer to that. You aren't tracking, so you're driving blind. So the reason why you don't know where the money is is because you are not tracking it. You're not tracking project costs, you're not checking your estimates, you're not actually tracking every penny in and out of the business. That's why you have no idea where it is. Now, a different question is where is it actually going that it's setting the end of that? So, where is it actually going? So, it's usually a buildup of a couple of things. So, it's usually your payment terms with suppliers or payment terms, first of all, with how you're how you're quoting for your jobs, your payment terms with your clients. So, are you taking deposits up front? Are you taking milestone payments, or are you still one of these dinosaurs that is waiting to the end of the job to get paid, which is absolute commercial suicide? So that means that you're funding the project right through to the end. So you're always in a cash negative. Number two, your payment terms with suppliers is going to be another one. So are you paying for cash for materials as you go? So again, you're funding the project. So you're actually in a double negative. You're not claiming for the work uh uh in milestone payments, but you're already out of all the materials and subsidizing all the labor throughout as well. So your payment terms with your clients and your payment terms with your suppliers as well is another big one. I would say that the other third most common one is scope creep. Scope creep is when there are extra works or variations or things that are not being tracked in the business and not being priced and brought to the client, or you're waiting until the end of the project to bring up extra works, and then there's a whole falling out at the end of the job with what's actually due and what's not actually due. And actually, probably the biggest one again. I know I'm throwing things in there, but there's more coming to me as I'm thinking about it. The majority of it comes from your estimate. And again, if you're not tracking, like I said, you're not tracking, so you're running blind. If you're not tracking to see what way the project ended up in terms of profitability, you don't know if you ever priced a job correctly as well. So most of you thinking that you're pricing jobs and sticking 20, 30 percent on that 20, 30 percent's eaten up by your overheads or other things, and because you're not tracking that, you actually have no idea. But it usually comes down to actually pricing the project from the start. So hopefully that answers that question. And yeah, if you need help with any of those, by the way, I've got the answer, so reach

Why A New Admin Hire Fails

SPEAKER_00 5:14

out. Okay, another extremely common one is a hire a hiring problem. So I hired an office person, take the admin off me. Why do I still feel like I'm doing everything? Okay, so this is a similar answer to the first one, and it's you need to get out of your own way. So, usually when you take a hire on board, there's a lot of things that can there's a lot of things that can go wrong. So you haven't mapped out the expectations early, you haven't laid out the roles and responsibilities of that person and what they should be doing on a day-to-day basis. You've just kind of said, look after the invoice and looked after the quotes, deal with this, deal with that, but you haven't mapped out how that actually works, what that process looks like. You didn't do your due diligence when you hired that person, so maybe that person isn't up to scratch, and that's because you've just hired maybe somebody you knew, your partner, your daughter, your friend, whoever, you just took somebody on without actually doing the due diligence on what their experience is. You haven't interviewed them because you didn't have the confidence to, and you just took on the first person you've seen, and they aren't up to scratch. So that's sometimes that can just be what it is. So the other one is no training, or you didn't delegate properly. So, kind of a similar answer to the first one setting the expectation of when you bring somebody into the business, it's not just a case of bringing them in on day one. Again, I touched on this on a previous video there. It's not just a case of bringing somebody in and then walking away. So, what what the big mess that you used to deal with before, all you're doing is lifting that mess and putting it on somebody else's desk and walking away. That's not delegation, that's not you know, ha handing over processes or something to do, that's just taking your ship and landing it on somebody else's

Put Prices Up And Lost Jobs

SPEAKER_00 6:40

desk. So, question four, another common one. I put my prices up and lost two jobs. Did I go too high? Well, maybe, but maybe not. Probably not actually. The the only person that kind of knows that uh the answer to that question would be you. There's so many variables here about increasing your prices. But what I always say to my clients is when you increase your prices, or if you're losing jobs, or if you're not winning work, price is usually the last place that you would look. So the first and foremost, the first place to look is are you pricing the project for the right client? So, what are the clients' expectations? Are they looking for a 10k project with a 5k budget? If so, then because the price was 10k for the for the work, that's not why you lost the job, it's because that client wasn't a qualified client. Then their expectations were were too low. A lot of times it could be right back down to the presentation of the quote, who you were competing against. There's so many variables here. But the only exact sense really for this is to again be abundantly clear on your margins. And to do that, you need to be pricing everything at a cost, adding on your overhead percentage, and then adding on your profit margin. So you'll know that you have a certain margin there to play with. You know, if you're only putting 20% margin on the job and you're not winning the work, well then somebody is doing that just to cover a wage. You're who are you competing against? You could be a guy who has a reputable business, who has staff and team to pay for, he has overheads, and you're pricing against a one-man band. You know, they're always going to be cheaper. If the client values the cheapest quote, then they're not the client that you want to be pricing for anyway. So that goes back to the earlier answer. But to answer the question, a way to know this is, and the answer to the question is as directly as possible. I know there could be so many different variables here. So the best way I can think of the answer is is using your conversion rate. So out of all of the projects that you're pricing, you should only be winning about 50%. That's a good gauge. That means that you're you're not too expensive, but you're also not too cheap. So if you're winning every project you're pricing, you're far too cheap. If you're losing every job, you're either shit at what you do, you've got a bad reputation, or you're far too expensive. If you're somewhere in the middle, then you're doing okay. How to know when you should increase your prices is if you're over that 50% mark of how you're winning work, if you're winning about half of your quotes, 50%. If you're 60 plus, you can increase your prices straight away by 10% and then review it again and see where your conversion rate is. If you're if you're less, then you need to look at why. You know, is it how long you're taking to get quotes back? If it's the right client in the first place, there's so many variables as to why you're not winning work, but that conversion rate is the is the answer to when you should know whether to increase or decrease your prices or whether you should adjust your prices. So that's that's kind of the answer to that question. It's all based on your conversion rate, and you should be only winning about 50% of the the projects that you're actually pricing.

Getting The Team To Use Systems

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Okay, so question five here, uh another common one, and and to be honest, one that my clients face all of the time. My team thinks that the systems that we're trying to put in place are just more paperwork. How do I get them to actually follow them and how do I actually get them on board? Let's be honest, people don't like change. People don't like change because that's that's just human behavior, you know, something new, something to add on. But let me be really brief with this answer and try and answer it very quickly. Is most people, most team members won't take on something new or a system or a process because they don't understand why they're doing it. They don't understand how it benefits them because that hasn't been clearly communicated. So when you're putting a system or a process or trying to try something new out with your team, you don't just go from a Monday of doing something one way on Tuesday saying here, now you have to do it this way and fill out all these forms. You have to bring them on board and talk them through why you're doing it, how it impacts the business, how it's going to help them, you know, because they have to benefit from these things. So you have to communicate why you're doing something. It's not just enough to say this is what we're doing and dictate to them, you know, it was white, now it's black, and that's just how it is, and just get on with. And if you don't like it, lump it. You know, that's not that's not leadership. The answer to the question: most people aren't on board with genes because you haven't consulted them on it and you haven't explained why or communicated why it benefits you

The Truth Behind Fast Turnarounds

SPEAKER_00 10:30

and the business. So, another one, like I said, I had a bit of a wild card, so I got a comment, I get comments all the time under all my videos, telling me that I'm my pricing the way I price is wrong, even comment, you know, comments under these videos of advice that I'm given. People always like to put their two cents in, but I'm actually at the minute we've got a bit of an ad campaign going there about sharing one of our clients, Dan, and Dan has had great success over six months. And I got somebody comment underneath it and say, Mark, I can see you posting these case studies or this guy, Dan, six months and everything turned around, margins up, blah blah blah. Come on, that's not real life. I have people actually contesting whether things are actually true or not, and I want to address that one as well. It's a fair comment because I want to just address the fact that it's not all plain sealing. These guys that come into me and we work together, it's never straightforward from the start. So, all these problems that we have above are all things that we face all the time. The difference is that there's somebody in their corner at all times to deal with those problems as they come. So, the answer to the question, that guy's right. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, it's not all straightforward, but it is true, and these guys are real life examples of it because, like everything that I go through in these YouTube videos, it's all well and good to take in the information that I'm talking about here on camera, and it's one thing to go away and then implement that. And I try to make that as easy as possible for everybody during these videos. I try to break it down, I try to give people actions on what to do. But if there's someone there at every step of the way, no matter what goes on, to answer a question, to show them how it's possible, to actually walk them through the process step by step to adjust things when they go wrong. That's how that happens inside six months. So, yeah, we can't expect me to issue a framework and for you to just watch this video and fix all those problems. Like I answered those questions for those guys, but those guys have to go away now and try to implement and implement that in their business. It's answered a question, but will it actually change anything? No, because the difference is the support, the guidance, and the accountability at every step of the way. So, although these QA's might help, the answer to the question, no, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, it's not all playing sealing. These channels are things that will happen time and time and time again. The difference is having somebody in your corner to take you through all those issues as and when they arise and to nip the problem in the bud before the next one comes.

Keep The Questions Coming

SPEAKER_00 12:36

With regards to the questions, keep please keep the questions coming. So if you want to comment below with any questions, reach out to me on any socials. If you want questions answered, please feel free to reach out. Always happy to help everybody and as many people as I can. I won't be able to get the everybody. However, you know, hopefully your comment or your question makes the next video. So keep watching.