strategic plan construction company

Developing a Great Construction Business Strategy + Strategic Plan Template

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to start a construction business, you’ll need to develop an excellent construction business strategy. A well-crafted construction business strategy will help you identify and capitalize on opportunities in the industry and set realistic goals and objectives for your new business. 

This article will discuss why you need a good construction business strategy, how to develop a construction business strategy, and provide a construction business strategic plan template.

Download the Ultimate Construction Business Plan Template

Why you need a good construction business strategy.

The construction industry is highly competitive, and construction businesses that don’t have a well-defined strategy are at a disadvantage. A good construction business strategy will help you:

• Understand the construction industry landscape
• Identify opportunities for growth
• Set realistic goals and objectives
• Develop a plan for marketing and sales
• Secure funding from investors

How to Develop a Great Construction Business Strategy

There are a few key steps you’ll need to take when developing your construction business strategy.

Create a Mission Statement

The first step is to create a mission statement. Your mission statement should briefly describe what your construction business does, who it serves, and what sets it apart from the competition.

For example, here’s a potential mission statement for a construction business:

“XYZ Construction is a leading provider of construction services in the XYZ region. We serve commercial and residential clients, and our team is dedicated to providing the highest quality of workmanship possible.”

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

Once you’ve crafted your mission statement, you’ll need to conduct a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This analysis will help you identify your construction business’s key strengths and weaknesses, as well as any opportunities or threats in the marketplace.

Some questions you may want to consider during your SWOT analysis include:

• What are our construction company’s core strengths?
• What do we do better than our competitors?
• What are our construction company’s weaknesses?
• Are there any areas where we can improve?
• What opportunities exist in the construction industry landscape?
• What trends are happening in the construction industry that we can capitalize on?
• Are there any threats to our construction business that we need to be aware of?

Develop Your Goals and Objectives

After you’ve conducted your SWOT analysis, you’ll need to develop goals and objectives for your construction business. Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. In other words, they should describe what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it.

Some examples of goals for a construction business include:

• Increase revenue by 10% in the first year of operation
• Acquire 50 new clients in the first year of operation
• Expand into new markets within the first five years of operation

Your objectives should support your goals and help you achieve them. They should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound like your goals.

Some examples of objectives for a construction business include:

• Develop a marketing plan to acquire 50 new clients in the first year of operation
• Research construction trends in new markets and develop a plan to expand into those markets within the first five years of operation
• Implement cost-saving measures to increase revenue by 10% in the first year of operation

Create a Marketing Plan

Once you’ve developed your construction business goals and objectives, you’ll need to create a marketing plan. Your marketing plan should include strategies for promoting your construction business and acquiring new clients.

Some marketing ideas for a construction business include:

• Creating a website and blog
• Developing an SEO strategy
• Creating social media profiles
• Creating marketing collateral (e.g., brochures, flyers, etc.)
• Advertising in construction trade publications
• Sponsoring construction industry events

Develop a Sales Plan

In addition to your marketing plan, you’ll also need to develop a sales plan. Your sales plan should include strategies for selling your construction services and closing new deals.

• Some sales ideas for a construction business include:
• Creating a process for qualifying leads
• Developing scripts for sales calls
• Training employees on the sales process
• Creating a system for tracking sales progress
• Setting sales targets and incentives

Create A Financial Plan

Last but not least, you’ll need to create a financial plan. Your financial plan should include your construction business’s operating budget and strategies for funding your construction projects.

Some financial planning tips for a construction business include:

• Creating a construction project budget
• Developing a system for tracking construction costs
• Identifying sources of construction funding
• Securing construction loans
• Negotiating payment terms with clients
• Managing construction project cash flow

Develop an Implementation Plan

After you’ve developed your construction business strategy, you’ll need to create an implementation plan. This plan will outline the steps you need to take to put your construction business strategy into action.

Some things to consider when creating an implementation plan for a construction business include:

• Assigning roles and responsibilities 
• Setting timelines 
• Establishing milestones
• Creating a system for tracking progress
• Allocating resources

Evaluation and Adjustment

Once you’ve implemented your construction business strategy, you’ll need to evaluate its performance and make adjustments as necessary. This evaluation should be ongoing to ensure that your construction business strategy remains relevant and effective. Some things to consider when evaluating and adjusting your construction business strategy include:

• Reviewing financial performance
• Conducting customer surveys
• Analyzing website traffic
• Studying construction industry trends

Construction Business Strategic Plan Template

Now that you know how to develop a construction business strategy, you can use our strategic plan template. This template will help you organize your thoughts and create a roadmap for your construction business.

Business Strategic Plan Template

Mission Statement:

What is the purpose of your construction business? What do you hope to achieve?

Vision Statement:

What does your construction business look like in the future? What are your long-term goals?

SWOT Analysis:

Weaknesses:

Opportunities:

Goals and Objectives:

What are your construction business goals? What are your objectives? How will you achieve them?

Marketing Plan:

How will you promote your construction business and acquire new clients?

Sales Plan:

How will you sell your construction services and close new deals?

Financial Plan:

What is your construction business’s budget? How will you fund your construction projects?

Implementation Plan:

How will you implement your construction business strategy? Who is responsible for each task? When will each task be completed?

Evaluation and Adjustment Plan:

How will you evaluate the results of your construction business strategy? What adjustments will you make if necessary?

Now that you have a construction business strategy template, you’re ready to start developing your construction business strategy. Use the template as a guide, but don’t be afraid to get creative and think outside the box. 

The most important thing is that your construction business strategy is tailored to your specific construction business and its unique needs.

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Strategic planning in the construction sector is not just beneficial; it's essential for sustainable growth and a competitive edge. This process involves defining a company's direction over the long term and determining resources, procedures, and actions to realize that vision. It's a holistic approach that covers everything from project management to resource allocation, aimed at boosting overall efficiency. Through strategic planning, construction companies can navigate the complexities of their industry, anticipate future challenges, and capitalize on opportunities, ensuring their projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards.

Strategic Planning for Construction Companies

Strategic planning in the context of construction companies refers to the process by which these organizations outline their long-term goals and determine the necessary actions and resources to achieve these objectives. This process involves a clear understanding of the company's current position, the external environment, and the internal capabilities. It's about setting clear directions, establishing priorities, making informed decisions about projects, and allocating resources efficiently to ensure the company's growth and sustainability. Strategic planning is not just about future aspirations but also about creating a roadmap that will guide the company through the execution of these plans, ensuring that every project aligns with the overarching goals.

Significance of Strategic Planning in Construction Companies

Strategic planning is crucial for construction companies, given the industry's complex nature, characterized by fluctuating market demands, tight project deadlines, and the need for meticulous coordination among various stakeholders. Engaging in strategic planning enables construction firms to gain a competitive edge, manage risks more efficiently, and align their business processes toward long-term success.

Advantages of strategic planning in the construction industry

The strategic planning process offers several critical advantages for construction companies, which include but are not limited to:

• Improved Project Management: Strategic planning helps lay out a clear pathway for project execution, aligning projects with company goals and ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently. This leads to better project outcomes, on-time delivery, and within budget, thus improving client satisfaction and the company's reputation.
• Increased Operational Efficiency: By identifying and focusing on key areas of improvement, strategic planning enables construction companies to streamline operations, reduce waste, and enhance productivity. This not only cuts costs but also increases the profitability of the business.
• Enhanced Decision-Making: With a comprehensive strategic plan in place, decision-makers have a clear framework and criteria for making important business decisions, from selecting projects to pursue to investing in new technologies or entering new markets. This results in more informed, rational, and strategic decision-making.
• Greater Agility and Innovation: The strategic planning process encourages companies to look ahead, anticipate changes in the market, and prepare for future challenges and opportunities. This foresight can lead to innovation in project execution, adoption of new technologies, and agile responses to changing market conditions, helping the company stay ahead of competitors.
• Risk Management: Identifying potential risks and developing strategies to mitigate these risks is an integral part of strategic planning. This proactive approach helps construction companies avoid significant pitfalls and manage unavoidable risks more effectively, safeguarding the company's assets and future.

In summary, strategic planning acts as a roadmap for construction companies, guiding them through the industry's complexities while setting them on a path to continuous improvement, sustainable growth, and long-term success. The process aligns the company's objectives with its operational activities and instills a culture of strategic thinking and proactive management across the organization.

Six stages of strategic planning for construction companies

Strategic planning in construction companies is a multi-step process that ensures projects are completed on time, within budget, and to stakeholders' satisfaction. Understanding these stages is crucial for seamless operations and sustained growth.

Vision Setting

The first stage involves setting a clear vision for the company. This means deciding where you want your company to be in the future. Consider what kind of projects you want to take on, the size of your operations, and your positioning in the market. This vision will guide the rest of the strategic planning process.

Current State Analysis

Analyzing your current state involves a comprehensive look at where your company stands today. This means evaluating your resources, capabilities, ongoing projects, financial health, and competitive standing. This assessment tells you what you're doing well and where there's room for improvement.

Objective Setting

Based on your vision and current state analysis, the next step is to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives. These objectives should cover various aspects of the business, such as financial performance, project completion rates, customer satisfaction, and market expansion.

Strategy Development

Creating strategies is about determining how you'll achieve your objectives. This involves deciding on the types of projects to bid on, markets to enter, partnerships to form, technologies to adopt, and initiatives to improve operational efficiency. Strategy development requires creativity and critical thinking to navigate industry changes and leverage opportunities.

Implementation Planning

This stage converts your strategies into actionable plans. It specifies who will do what, when, and with what resources. Implementation planning also involves setting up systems for monitoring progress and performance against the set objectives. This ensures that strategies are executed effectively and adjustments can be made as needed.

Review and Adaptation

Strategic planning is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. This final stage involves regularly reviewing progress, measuring results against objectives, and adapting strategies in response to changes in the market or within the company itself. Flexibility and responsiveness are key to maintaining competitiveness and achieving long-term success.

Guide to Establishing a Strategic Plan for Long-term Financial Health in Construction Companies

Conducting a swot analysis.

A SWOT analysis helps identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to your construction company. This analytical tool provides insights into where your company excels, areas that need improvement, potential avenues for growth, and external challenges that may affect your operations. It forms a solid foundation for strategic planning by highlighting key areas to focus on.

Setting clear goals and objectives

After completing the SWOT analysis, set clear and specific goals and objectives to guide your company's actions. These goals should align with the company's overall vision and mission and be measurable to track progress. Setting goals for revenue growth, market expansion, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction drives focused efforts and resource allocation.

Developing an action plan

Once goals and objectives are set, develop a detailed action plan outlining how these goals will be achieved. This includes delineating specific actions, assigning responsibilities to team members, setting deadlines, and allocating necessary resources. An effective action plan breaks down your strategic objectives into manageable, actionable steps that your team can execute.

Implementing and monitoring the plan

Successful strategic planning doesn't end at plan development; it extends into careful implementation and rigorous monitoring. Ensure that every team member understands their role in the plan and has the resources to fulfill their responsibilities. Regularly monitor progress against the set objectives, using predefined metrics and KPIs, to ensure the plan is on track.

Adjusting strategies as needed

The construction industry is subject to rapid changes and unforeseen challenges. As such, it's essential to remain flexible and ready to adjust your strategies and action plan as necessary. Continuous monitoring allows for the timely identification of deviations from the plan or emerging opportunities, enabling adjustments to be made to stay aligned with your strategic goals and respond to the market effectively. Strategic planning is an iterative process, and continuous improvement is key to long-term financial health and competitiveness in construction.

Tools and Techniques for Strategic Planning in Construction

Strategic planning in the construction sector demands a blend of traditional and innovative approaches to tackle complex projects efficiently. Here's how to leverage some effective tools and techniques.

Using project management software

In today's digital age, construction companies can immensely benefit from project management software. These platforms offer a centralized hub for planning, executing, and monitoring every aspect of your construction projects. From allocation of resources to communication among team members, project management software streamlines operations. Additionally, it offers real-time updates, reducing the risk of delays and budget overruns, which are critical for maintaining profitability and client satisfaction.

Employing Gantt charts and critical path method

Gantt charts and the critical path method (CPM) are venerable tools in the construction industry's arsenal for strategic planning. Gantt charts provide a visual representation of the project timeline, highlighting the start and finish dates of various project elements. This clarity aids in anticipating any potential scheduling conflicts. Meanwhile, CPM helps identify the sequence of crucial project tasks that determine the overall duration of the project. By focusing on these critical tasks, managers can optimize resources and minimize project timelines, enhancing efficiency.

Implementing lean construction principles

Lean construction principles focus on minimizing waste—whether it's time, materials, or labor—while maximizing value. Implementing these principles involves a continual process of evaluating and improving construction processes to eliminate inefficiencies. Through techniques like just-in-time delivery of materials or value stream mapping, construction companies can significantly reduce costs and enhance productivity. Adopting a lean mindset encourages a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration among all project stakeholders, leading to more successful and sustainable outcomes.

The successful implementation of strategic planning in construction not only navigates volatile markets with more ease but also ensures the company's long-term financial stability. By focusing on efficiency and improved project management, construction companies can leverage their strategic plans to gain a competitive edge and secure a brighter future.

Are you worried about navigating volatile markets and securing long-term financial stability?

It's natural to feel concerned about the future, especially in industries as fluctuating as construction. However, strategic planning provides a clear path forward, helping your company anticipate changes, manage risks, and seize opportunities.

Get a FREE consultation with our construction finance experts.

Are you ready to transform your construction company's approach to strategic planning? Our experts can guide you through the process of assessing your current operations, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing a comprehensive strategic plan. Contact us today for a FREE consultation and take the first step toward securing your company's future.

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Construction Companies Strategic Plan Template

• Great for beginners
• Ready-to-use, fully customizable Subcategory
• Get started in seconds

In the fast-paced and ever-evolving construction industry, having a solid strategic plan is crucial for success. That's where ClickUp's Construction Companies Strategic Plan Template comes in handy.

With this template, construction companies can:

• Define long-term goals and objectives to drive growth and success
• Identify and prioritize growth opportunities within the industry
• Allocate resources efficiently to maximize productivity and profitability
• Create a clear roadmap for the future, ensuring that every step is in line with the overall vision

Whether you're a small construction firm or a large company, ClickUp's Strategic Plan Template is designed to help you chart a course for success and overcome challenges along the way. Start planning your construction empire today!

Benefits of Construction Companies Strategic Plan Template

Construction companies rely on the Construction Companies Strategic Plan Template to:

• Define clear goals and objectives for the organization, providing a clear direction for growth and success
• Identify and prioritize growth opportunities, enabling the company to focus on areas with the highest potential for success
• Allocate resources effectively, ensuring that the right people, materials, and equipment are available when needed
• Create a roadmap for success, outlining the steps and milestones necessary to achieve long-term objectives
• Make informed decisions based on data and analysis, minimizing risks and maximizing opportunities

Main Elements of Construction Companies Strategic Plan Template

ClickUp's Construction Companies Strategic Plan template provides all the tools you need to successfully plan and execute your construction projects.

• Custom Statuses: Easily track the progress of each task with 5 different statuses - Cancelled, Complete, In Progress, On Hold, and To Do.
• Custom Fields: Utilize 8 custom fields to capture important information such as Duration Days, Impact, Progress, Ease of Implementation, and more, to ensure efficient project management.
• Custom Views: Access 6 different views including Progress, Gantt, Workload, Timeline, Initiatives, and Getting Started Guide, to visualize your projects from different angles and gain valuable insights.
• Gantt Chart: Use the Gantt view to create and manage project timelines, set dependencies, and allocate resources effectively.
• Workload View: Monitor your team's workload, identify bottlenecks, and ensure a balanced distribution of tasks.
• Collaborative Features: Leverage ClickUp's collaborative features such as task assignments, comments, and notifications to keep your team aligned and ensure smooth project execution.

How to Use Strategic Plan for Construction Companies

If you're ready to create a strategic plan for your construction company, follow these six steps using the Construction Companies Strategic Plan Template in ClickUp:

1. Define your mission and vision

Start by clearly defining the mission and vision of your construction company. Your mission statement should describe your company's purpose and what sets it apart from competitors. Your vision statement should outline the long-term goals and aspirations you have for your company.

Use the Docs feature in ClickUp to draft and refine your mission and vision statements.

2. Identify your objectives and goals

Next, identify the specific objectives and goals you want to achieve with your strategic plan. These could include expanding into new markets, increasing profitability, improving project management processes, or enhancing customer satisfaction.

Create tasks in ClickUp to outline each objective and set clear, measurable goals for each one.

3. Conduct a SWOT analysis

Perform a SWOT analysis to assess your construction company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis will help you understand your internal capabilities and external factors that may impact your strategic plan.

Use the Table view in ClickUp to create a SWOT analysis and analyze each aspect in detail.

4. Develop strategic initiatives

Based on your objectives and SWOT analysis, develop strategic initiatives that will help you achieve your goals. These initiatives should be specific actions or projects that align with your overall strategic plan.

Create tasks in ClickUp to outline each strategic initiative, assign responsibilities, and set deadlines.

5. Allocate resources

Determine the resources, such as budget, personnel, and equipment, that will be needed to implement your strategic initiatives. Make sure to allocate resources effectively to ensure the successful execution of your plan.

Use the Workload view in ClickUp to visualize resource allocation and ensure that you have the necessary capacity to complete your strategic initiatives.

6. Monitor progress and adjust

Regularly monitor the progress of your strategic plan and make adjustments as needed. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your initiatives and identify areas where improvements can be made.

Create Dashboards in ClickUp to track and visualize your KPIs, enabling you to easily monitor progress and make data-driven decisions.

By following these six steps and utilizing the Construction Companies Strategic Plan Template in ClickUp, you'll be well on your way to developing a comprehensive and actionable strategic plan for your construction company.

Get Started with ClickUp’s Construction Companies Strategic Plan Template

Construction companies can use this Strategic Plan Template to streamline their planning process and ensure alignment with their long-term goals.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create a comprehensive strategic plan:

• Use the Progress View to track the completion status of each strategic initiative
• The Gantt View will help you visualize the timeline and dependencies of your projects
• Utilize the Workload View to allocate resources effectively and manage team capacity
• The Timeline View provides a bird's-eye view of project milestones and deadlines
• Refer to the Initiatives View to gain insights into the specific goals and objectives of each initiative
• Dive into the Getting Started Guide View to access helpful tips and instructions on how to make the most of this template
• Organize tasks into five different statuses: Cancelled, Complete, In Progress, On Hold, To Do, to keep track of progress
• Update statuses as you make progress on each task to keep stakeholders informed
• Monitor and analyze tasks to ensure successful execution of your strategic plan.

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Breadcrumbs

Developing a strategic construction business plan for growth, follow this six-step guide to create a long-term business plan..

Construction business owners who have made it through the worst economic downturn in nearly seven decades have something in common-they are survivors. Now is the time to move beyond surviving to growing. Taking the time to prepare a strategic plan today will help business owners reap the benefits over the next several years by recognizing and seizing new opportunities ahead of the competition.

With ongoing shifts in the economy and the construction industry, strategic planning can seem like a nice-to-have tool but not a need-to-have one. This mentality can mean the difference between capitalizing on a previously unseen market opening or missing out entirely.

Strategic planning is not a one-size-fits-all model. Strategies that work for one company may not be right for another, but any company that commits to the process should see benefits. Use this six-step framework as a guide to create a strategic plan:

1. Establish an internal baseline.

• What is your business objective?
• Identify your core competencies. What are you good at?
• What is your source of volume?
• What is your commercial objective?

2. Establish an external baseline.

• Identify market dynamics and external factors that impact your business.
• Define your market.
• Conduct a competitive analysis.
• Segment your customers by demographics, value to the business, behaviors, needs or any other essential elements on which you would base your decisions.

3. Differentiate and innovate.

• Why do existing customers choose you?
• Articulate what makes you better than the competition.
• How can you innovate?

4. Align and execute.

• Communicate your strategy internally at every possible opportunity.
• Define priorities for salespeople and align those with compensation plans.

5. Review and measure.

• Test your assumptions, demand proof they are working, and learn from your experiences.

6. Evaluate and modify.

• Adjust plans if necessary, and then begin again.

Throughout the process, it is very important to communicate across the organization. Once the plan is in place, it should be shared with all employees. GE Capital surveyed its small and mid-sized clients and found that 52 percent had a strategic plan, but only the executive team knew about it. Employees should understand the part they will play in executing the plan as well as the decisions that result from it.

Construction Industry Trends Can Pinpoint Next Steps

It is wise to look at industry trends to help identify next steps. Some figures may reveal growth opportunities in certain segments, while others may identify struggling niches to avoid.

The good news is that the United States is not likely to see a double-dip recession. Revenues are starting to grow in different facets of the economy, but that does not mean runaway profits in 2011. The economy is entering a slow growth phase. Only cyclical to moderate growth is expected over the next three years.

While non-residential building construction continues to drop overall-to $78.3 billion in the third quarter of 2010 from $104.9 billion in 2009-segments such as education and healthcare are experiencing less of a decline, while the manufacturing, commercial and office sectors continue to decline, according to GE Capital's fourth quarter 2010 Construction Industry Research Monitor.

Single-family residential construction continues to grow, while multifamily residential construction continues to decline. The renovation and improvement markets showed surprising growth in the first half of 2010, but with the widening gap between the current and future expectations of the National Association of Home Builders' Remodeling Market Index, it is uncertain how long that growth will continue.

When it comes to non-building construction, growth is steady. The construction equipment market has also rebounded strongly, with new orders and shipments at their highest levels since 2008.

Setting the Stage for Change

A construction business owner's first step in the strategic planning process is to establish an internal baseline. These early decisions will drive the rest of the strategy so it is important that the goals are specific and measurable. For example, a realistic goal might be a 2 percent increase in gross margins over the next three years, assuming that expenses and hiring are under control.

Objectives should be based on hard facts combined with the owner's business instincts. When it comes to non-building construction, for example, it is uncertain whether the federal transportation bill will be renewed in 2011. It might not be addressed by Congress until after the 2012 elections. This information may impact the forecasts of road and highway construction companies.

Next, set an external baseline by evaluating existing customers and the competitive landscape. Construction is a largely regional business. But, if some competitors have closed their doors due to the economic downturn, a survivor might grab the opportunity to gain market share by expanding into a larger territory.

This flows into the "differentiate and innovate" phase of the strategic planning process. Thinking creatively about customers, competitors, markets and goals may produce new insights. A seemingly simple question-"What's changed?"-can be eye-opening. After careful consideration, it might reveal untapped markets or new competitive threats.

With this information in hand, owners could decide to expand contracts with existing customers, identify and approach potential new customers, bundle services, develop complementary products and services, partner with other companies or develop new areas of expertise-or a combination of these approaches.

For example, a contractor might make an effort to get involved in the design process earlier than usual. Someone who is very familiar with a particular market could add value by contributing specific knowledge about the chosen building site, permitting departments and the building itself. Doing so could improve the overall quality of the project and help it stay on schedule and within budget.

Realistic Strategies Lead to Positive Results

The fourth step is aligning operations with the strategies that have been mapped out and then executing the plan. This is the perfect time to re-examine your compensation structure. Does everyone understand how they are being evaluated in this reset economy? Bonuses and salary increases should coincide with a company's expected bottom-line growth.

This is also the time to re-examine company expenses. There is an understandable reluctance to make large purchases in a slow-growth environment. Leasing equipment, rather than buying, is seeing new consideration. Even with new lease accounting rules expected from the Financial Accounting Standards Board, there are still benefits to leasing, including better cash management and generally lower payments.

While a strategic plan is a good tool, it cannot be a substitute for great execution. If a company's strategic plan is kept secret, employees will struggle to understand why the company has shifted its focus and how to prioritize their own activities.

But the work is not finished yet. Winston Churchill had it right when he said, "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." There should be specific points in the year at which owners and senior managers review the plan and measure themselves against their original goals. If the plan is not working, they should evaluate their progress and adjust the plan,

Positioning Your Construction Company to Become an Industry Leader

Businesses that have used strategic planning and made it through difficult times know that strategic plans add short-term value by providing day-to-day direction. They also create a framework for activating and managing growth over the long term. Strategic plans can be a gateway to innovation and creativity, sparking new products, services and ideas. Finally, from an operations standpoint, they impose discipline and provide guidelines for allocating money, resources and time.

Creating a strategic plan can enable construction business owners to determine the best way to invest in their own growth once again. Operations should be rejuvenated, which may mean leasing new equipment, expanding into adjacent geographies or hiring new staff. Well-executed and continuously updated strategic plans that are shared throughout the company can help business owners build stronger companies, transforming the survivors into industry leaders.

Construction Business Owner, January 2011

Kristi Webb is the commercial leader of GE Capital's Dealer Finance business, which provides commercial leases and loans ranging from $5,000 to $25M for the wholesale and retail financing of construction equipment.

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Construction Strategic Planning

Strategic planning defines a construction company’s vision of where it wants to be and how to get there. Businesses can apply strategic planning to construction projects or the organization as a whole. In all cases, the plan must be tailored to a company’s needs, as one size does not fit all.

At Spire Consulting Group, our consulting professionals have experience advising construction businesses on creating strategic plans to achieve specific objectives and goals. With backgrounds spanning multiple disciplines, including project management, dispute resolution, and project controls, our experts are prepared to help your company set realistic goals and accelerate growth. Contact our team today to get started.

Our Strategic Planning Process

Whether you need to initiate a capital project or want to focus on business growth, our strategic planning services can help. Our experienced consultants begin the process by understanding your business, its culture, and the stakeholders’ vision. Then, they’ll collaborate with you to create a customized, comprehensive plan to help your organization attain its objectives. As part of our strategic planning service, our consultants can assist you with the following:

• Identify and define your company’s purpose, vision, and mission, as well as its strengths and weaknesses
• Determine external and internal priorities, such as growth opportunities and threats
• Implement risk-control measures at the corporate and work site levels 
• Outline mission and objective statements and required goals
• Assess how to achieve the necessary goals and identify strategic alternatives 
• Implement action plans and delegated tasks 
• Measure, review, and benchmark performance
• Make informed decisions to move your business or project forward

Importance of Strategic Planning in Construction

Strategic planning is vital to the success of a construction project, program, or business as a whole. It provides your organization with a road map and enables proactive rather than reactive responses to problems and changes.

Businesses in the architectural, engineering, and construction industry can gain a wide range of advantages by putting strategic planning initiatives into action, such as: 

• Team a lignment: Align teams to promote better communication and teamwork.
• F ocuse d growth : Discover opportunities for growth within the workflow, directing targeted growth.
• Progress tracking: Enable effective tracking of accomplishments and departures from objectives.
• Effective p roject m anagement: Enhance workflows to guarantee more efficient project execution.
• Risk reduction: Plan and conduct proactive risk assessments to mitigate disruptions and delays. 
• Competitive e dge utilization : Identify trends and maintain business relevancy in a cutthroat industry. 
• Improved r esource allocation: Allocate resources properly to achieve strategic objectives. 

In essence, strategic planning gives construction companies a blueprint for success, improving coordination, spotting opportunities for expansion, and fostering efficient operations.

Why Choose Spire Consulting Group

Our consultants have firsthand experience in the construction and engineering industries, so they’re equipped to apply their real-world knowledge to solving complex project problems like schedule delays and disruptions . If you need guidance on strategically planning a large-scale project, our experts can support you.

Our consultants also possess the facilitation skills to understand your business and its unique vision so we can lead your team in the right direction. While visions may be lofty goals, it’s important to dedicate the planning and resources to execution. Too often, companies develop strategies without sufficient support to make them happen. We understand this issue and will work with you to realistically define what you need to achieve your vision.

Let’s Discuss Your Project

If you’re ready to define clear and achievable goals for your team, contact Spire Consulting Group . Our strategic planning experts look forward to helping you create a straightforward road map tailored to your company’s needs.

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Revealed: The importance of strategic planning in construction companies and projects

Written by LetsBuild

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Strategic planning is a crucial aspect of higher management in any company across all industries. Strategic planning includes designing a company’s response and behavior in a competitive market, creating a market strategy, and adapting company resources to support the strategy.

The continuous process of strategic planning defines a company’s future . A strategic plan is developed to record the company goals and outline the steps needed to take and the milestones needed to achieve to reach those goals. In this article, we hope to impart great appreciation in having a strategic plan to keep your company right on track with all the needed tasks and activities, identify areas for improvement, make course corrections, avoid execution pitfalls, and lead all activities to get you in the right direction. Allow us to contribute our knowledge and help you develop your own strategic plan for your construction company.

Table of Contents

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What should be the goals of a construction company.

Most often than not, great strategic planning starts by defining a company’s mission statement. A great mission statement is one that is imbibed as a living asset by the company and its members. As you define your company statement, you will start to have an idea about your company goals and ambitions. As you start drafting and outlining your strategic plan, some adjustments will have to be made with your mission statement. However, you have to make sure that your strategic plan does not stray from your company goals.

Your company goals are usually the fuel to your strategic plan . There are many different types of goals to set: they can be (1) organisational, (2) financial, (3) human resource, (4) leadership, (5) marketing, and (6) sales. For a construction company, here are the few competitive goals:

• Deliver high-quality projects
• Keep construction projects on time and within the budget
• Be data-driven
• Connect the worksite to the office in an effective manner
• Standardise construction systems and processes
• Invest in staff and team training
• Customer satisfaction

Your goals define your strategic plan, your mission statement and everything else you do within your project. The more specific you are with your goals, the better. Don’t stop with “we will improve productivity”. Be more exact. “We will improve worksite productivity by 50% by improving communication through the implementation of construction collaboration software.”

What is strategic planning in construction?

Strategic planning in construction usually involves a six-step framework. This is not a one-size-fits-all model but a recommended process that has reaped equal benefits for a lot of construction companies.

1. Studying the company mission:  The company mission expresses the project owner’s perspective when it comes to the scope of company activities and goals. By defining your company mission, you establish an internal baseline. Maybe start asking yourself these questions:

• What are your company and project objectives?
• What is your company good at? List all your core competencies.
• What is your commercial objective?

2. Examining the business environment of the company: Economic factors that affect the business activities and related factors particular to the construction industry. The business environment survey reveals specific project opportunities and calls attention to risks and possible threats to a company’s activities. By studying the business or market environment and trend, you establish a healthy external baseline.

• What are the external factors that impact your construction business?
• What are the identifiable market dynamics?
• What are your customer demographics, behaviours, needs, etc. that could help you with your decision making?
• What competitive variables can you analyse?

3. Analysing company resources : The main resources in construction include the construction capacity, the procurement system, the marketing system, the organisation, personnel, finances and knowledge. Following the identification of these main resources, their strengths and weaknesses are also defined.

• What makes you better than the competition in terms of your resources?
• How can you innovate?

Read more: What is lean construction?

4. Developing strategies : By mapping the variegated possible activity areas, a strategy is developed and may follow one out of several general strategy types that must be adjusted accordingly to particular market and company conditions, and company resources. In choosing the most optimal strategy, the careful analysis of costs and benefits must be mainly considered in the strategy implementation.

• What market and company conditions should be considered?
• In what logical order should activities be done?
• Who is going to do what?

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5. Aligning and executing strategies:  Your strategic plan will balance all your company’s short and long-term operations and goals to meet your overarching mission. The key is to communicate your strategic plans internally at every level and every possible opportunity. External communication with subcontractors must be aligned as well. Your stakeholders and teams should understand the roles they have to play and the decisions they have to make in executing the plan.

• What steps are needed to take to support further actions?
• Do you have the correct staff to support the actions needed to accomplish a milestone?
• What are the activities needed to accomplish before reaching a goal?

6. Review, measure, modify:  Your strategic plan will result in strategic processes and systems that will need to be evaluated and measured. Those that work must be learned from and standardised, while those that don’t must be adjusted.

The importance of strategic planning in construction

Strategic planning is essential to determine the direction for your construction company. Having a well thought out strategic plan focuses your efforts and ensures that all your stakeholders and project team members are working towards a common goal.

• Strategic planning assures that all your actions are logical and planned to contribute to the efficient delivery of the project and your overall standard construction process.
• Strategic planning aligns all resources for optimal results.
• Strategic planning prioritised financial needs.
• Strategic planning builds your construction firm a competitive advantage.
• Strategic planning engages with your stakeholders and project teams and communicates effectively what needs to be done.

Another significant aspect of strategic planning is to help you manage and reduce risks. Construction strategic planning helps you:

• Analyse potential construction and business risks.
• Implement risk control measures on a business level and in the worksite.
• Eliminate uncertainties.
• Consider how to mitigate the impact of risks, if ever they should occur.

What are the objectives of construction planning?

The objectives of construction planning revolve around the basic management and balancing of three aspects: scope, time and cost. Construction planning, ideally, is a continuous process, which should be revised and modified as the execution of a construction project progresses in real time. Good construction planning should be within the boundaries of the defined scope, cost and schedule without compromising the quality of your construction project.

Following the representation of the Project Management Triangle, the peripheral objectives contributing to the balance of these three aspects include these typical project planning objectives:

• Your construction plan should involve the planning of each activity in the entire construction project process.
• Your construction plan should define and detail all construction methods involved.
• Your construction plan should have an outline of all construction machinery and equipment needed to execute the project.
• Your construction plan should include your procurement details of all the needed materials.
• Your construction plan should also detail human resources and employee skills.
• Your construction plan should also include all required documentation and drawings.
• Your construction plan should also have financial planning integrated alongside all construction activities.

Now that you have a clear idea of what strategic planning is and why it is important in improving your construction outcomes and growing your construction business, it is time to sit down and start writing your own. It is not an easy task but it is going to be a roadmap towards huge success. If you found this article informative, you will enjoy learning how we can help you be more efficient and effective in project execution , which will ultimately bring you more projects in your portfolio.

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A strategic plan is a business plan with a specific goal. It documents a vision for what you want your company to achieve and provides a road map for how to get there. The goals can be organizational, such as developing better customer service than your competition; transitioning to a new construction specialty; or improving the quality of your work output. They can be marketing-oriented to attract new customers or they can be finance-oriented to improve profitability or get payroll financing at the bank.

Mission Statement

Your mission statement is the heart of your business brand, and the brand is what your company looks like to potential customers. Write your mission statement to express, in one or two sentences, what your company does, for whom, where, when, why and how. For example: "Joe's Cabinets designs and builds exotic wood custom cabinets for discriminating interior decorators and individual homeowners. We specialize in on-site design consultation and quick turnaround to meet the highest standards of our customers, and use only the finest woods and artisan craftsmanship."

Identify a Goal

If you need more business, your goal is marketing. If you take an objective look at your company and don't see your mission statement, then you goal is operational. If you are having trouble with consistent profitability, your goal might be to improve your pricing, work contract, collection procedures or bank financing. The best way to identify a goal is to make a list of problems in your business and prioritize them. Do not turn all your problems into goals. Take only one or two at a time or you will be overwhelmed by your strategic plan.

Perform SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a method for examining a specific topic or goal. Look at your goal in terms of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats associated with that goal and your current business situation. SWOT analysis is often more productive if done in a group, so consider inviting your key employees, suppliers or best customers to participate. Take each quality separately and list the comments. You might discover that one of your weaknesses is not having someone to answer the phone while you are out in the field. Or maybe you have missed an opportunity to market to local architects. If your SWOT analysis turns up too many goals, take each one and apply SWOT analysis again to arrive at your top-priority goals.

Write Your Strategic Plan

Writing out a strategic plan might be the hardest part of the process. However, a written strategic plan is a great road map to review to make sure you are putting all your good ideas into action. Start with your mission statement, then provide a detailed description of your goal. List the results of your SWOT analysis for that goal and your plans to optimize the positives and reduce or control the negatives. Include an action plan, which is a schedule of activities that will lead to your goal, with dates and benchmarks. A benchmark is a sub-goal, such as compiling a list of 25 architects to contact. When you have that list finished, you have reached a benchmark. All your benchmarks should lead to the satisfaction of your goal. Next, estimate the costs and benefits of your plan. If your goal was to create more business and, after you completed your project, your business didn't improve, go back over the plan to discover where you might have made a false assumption, such as contacting only out-of-work architects. Make the necessary adjustments to your strategy and begin your action plan again. Keeping your written strategic plans for future reference is a great way to have a library of ideas to consult when business gets either too slow or so busy you need to expand.

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Victoria Duff specializes in entrepreneurial subjects, drawing on her experience as an acclaimed start-up facilitator, venture catalyst and investor relations manager. Since 1995 she has written many articles for e-zines and was a regular columnist for "Digital Coast Reporter" and "Developments Magazine." She holds a Bachelor of Arts in public administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

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How to Write a Construction Company Business Plan (12 Steps)

You are starting a construction business. You own a construction company. Do either of those statements sound like you? If so, you need a construction company business plan. Building a construction company is hard work, but you don’t reach success on hard work alone. You also need strategic planning, an in-depth understanding of the competition, and a way to finance your business. These are all things that construction business plans address. In this post, we take a deep dive into how to write a business plan for a construction company. Read on to learn everything you need to know.

Why Do You Need a Business Plan for Your Construction Company?

Before you get too deep into “how” to write a home-building business plan, it’s helpful to understand “why” you should write one. There are three main considerations here: competition, growth, and financing.

Competition

The 50 U.S. construction companies with the highest annual revenue all made more than $1.5 billion in 2020 , with the highest-grossing company topping $14.4 billion. This is the level thousands of construction companies in the U.S. and around the world are trying to reach, and the fight to get there is fierce. With that in mind, you need to understand your competition. This is a primary purpose of a construction company business plan. You probably already know who your competitors are, but you need to do market research and write it all down. A construction or general contractor business plan will force you to do that.

Like it or not, if you’re not growing, you’re more than likely dying in the construction industry. And your financial backers will want to see that you intend to grow. That means you need to have a plan for growth — how to achieve it and how to manage it when it happens.

How are you going to fund the expansion of your business? How will you get the initial capital to buy equipment? There are plenty of questions related to finances when you’re building a construction company. And any large or small construction company business plan will answer them and help you get the financing you need in the process.

Two Types of Information to Include in a Construction Business Plan

The information you include in your commercial or residential construction business plan will fall into two categories: industry information and general business information. Both are important to your business for different reasons. Perhaps the most important reason to include thorough information in your business plan is that it demonstrates your knowledge of the industry and business in general to the investors and banks who will read the plan when considering you for a loan. See below to learn more.

Industry information:

What do you know about the construction industry that others don’t? In other words, what makes your approach to your construction business different from the rest? This is what investors in your business will want to know as they try to gauge your chance of success. Don’t rely on empty buzzwords here — words like friendly, service, reliable, and the like. These are fine words, but you need to be more specific. How does what you know about the construction industry make you capable of running a successful construction business? Make sure those points are clear in your construction company business plan.

General business information:

In addition to your expertise in home building, you need to demonstrate some knowledge of general business practices. That means construction business plans need to have detailed information on the basic running of the business, the plan to get construction jobs, cash flow, corporate taxes, and similar items.

How to write a construction business plan

A business plan for a construction company is not a single page of text. It’s a complex, multi-part document that requires a lot of information. While not all construction company business plans are the same, most of them have a similar format. They include 12 key sections, which we explore in more detail below.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary is your introduction. It needs to summarize the rest of the document but not go into too much detail. Try to limit the executive summary section to a single page if at all possible, and cover topics like the following:

• The reason you are starting a construction company
• Your goals for the business
• Where you plan to operate and offer residential construction services
• Your estimated business expenses and profits
• How your home building business will fit into the existing market

Again, don’t go into too much detail here. The details will come later in the business plan. Just hit the high points.

Company Description

The second part of your construction business plan will echo some of the points you raised in the executive summary, but it will go into deeper detail. In the company description section, the takeaway point for a reader should be why you think your business will be successful. To that end, you need to describe any specialties you or your business partners have, any special positioning you can achieve within the market, and any revenue streams or reduced expenses that can make you more competitive. You will also need to describe the existing competition here. Who are your competitors, how successful are they and why do you expect to outperform them? These are all questions your company description should answer.

Operational Plan

You will get into even more detail in this section. But instead of focusing on who you are and what your business will be, you will use the operational plan section to describe how your business is going to run day in and day out. You’ll need to cover a few key areas: Technology: List and describe the pieces of technology and equipment you will use in the operation of your construction business. This can include initial construction equipment purchases and office technology like computers, programs, and even home design software .

Bidding processes: How do you plan to bid on residential construction jobs? This is an important part of generating revenue for your construction company, so it needs to be described in detail in your business plan.

Production schedules: When you get a home-building job, you are instantaneously on a tight schedule. As you know, it takes a lot to take a home from paper to real life, and the logistics behind that process are complex and unforgiving. So, make sure your business plan demonstrates your knowledge of production schedules and, more specifically, how you plan to structure your company’s production schedules.

Inventory partners: Being willing to build homes is one thing, but having the right partnerships in place to get the job done is entirely another. Which vendors and suppliers will you work with? Why? Do you have any existing relationships that could prove beneficial to your business? Answer these and any related questions in your operational plan.

Market and Competition

You’re probably not going to be the first construction company in town. Who else is already established in your intended service area? How successful are they? Your construction company’s business plan needs to contain an in-depth analysis of the competition you’re going to face, as well as the market for residential construction services in the place you plan to operate. The reason why is simple. You need to know who your competitors are so you can see what they’re doing and look for ways to grab some market share from them. And you need to know whether people want the service you are going to provide. This section will cover all of that — for both your knowledge and that of your financial backers.

Construction is a service, but it contains within it multiple related services that you can choose to offer or not offer to your customers. This is going to be an important part of your business plan — starting a construction business without a list of services you will provide is like opening a store without knowing what you’re going to sell inside it. So, make a list. Here are some of the construction-related services you may want to consider:

• Residential construction
• Commercial construction
• Home design
• Landscape work

Sales & Marketing

You may not be a marketer at heart, but you’re going to have to have a plan to market your construction business and bring in home-building jobs. The sales and marketing plan you write in your business plan should be as detailed as possible. Include information on the following subtopics:

• Your marketing budget
• Your company’s marketing assets, such as a website
• Advertising plans (such as billboards, newspaper ads, and search engine advertising)
• Whether and how you plan to leverage social media
• Loss leader plans, such as offering free home design consultations
• How you will measure the success of your marketing efforts

In addition to marketing, this section of your construction company business plan will need detailed information on your sales processes. Will you have dedicated salespeople? How will your sales team get leads? Will salespeople be paid on commission? Answer these questions and more.

Managers can make or break a construction business. These are the leaders of your company — the ones who will define the path your business follows and bear the responsibility for the successes and failures you have along the way. That’s why this is an essential part of your home-building business plan. Management may shift over time, but at the start, you need to have a good idea of who’s going to be in charge of what. You will also need to include an explanation of why you have chosen these people, who they answer to, and what you are planning to pay them.

For financial backers, this is going to be one of the most important sections of your business plan. They want to know how you plan to manage the money they may give you so they have an idea of whether this is a sound investment. Give them as much detail as possible. Cover everything from your revenue projections and operational costs to employee wages and the price of your services. Wherever possible, you need to include exact figures based on hard data and research instead of soft estimates based on your own beliefs. Remember — lenders and investors have a head for numbers, so they will immediately notice if you’ve left something important out.

The funding section of a business plan for a construction company is an extension of the finance section, but it’s not the same thing. This is where you describe how you plan to obtain the money you need to start, run, and expand the business. The audience reading your business plan will hopefully play a part in the funding — that’s the whole idea, anyway — but you need to convince them that you will be able to use their funds wisely to generate revenue. Be specific about how much startup funding you’re going to need and why. Go into detail about how you will repay a loan or generate returns for investors. Describe how initial funding will be used in your business — to buy equipment, hire talented employees, market your business, and so on. With these bases covered, you will set yourself up to receive the funding you need to get this business off the ground.

Financial Projections

You’re hoping for a bright future for your new construction company. That’s a given. But you need to show that bright future with the financial projections in your business plan. Include projections for revenue, expenses, and profits for five years out from your starting date. Don’t just say you plan to bring in $100 million by the fourth quarter of year three — show the numbers behind how you’ll get there. You will be able to reference the information from the other sections of your business plan to support your projections.

Funding Request

If you need investments or a loan to start your construction business, you need to include in your business plan a specific funding request. This is where you ask for the money you need. Here again, you need to provide some detail:

• How much money do you currently have for the business?
• How much are you contributing alongside the investment or loan you are seeking?
• What assets do you already own, and what assets do you still need to acquire?

Many of the facts and claims you have made in other sections of your construction company business plan will have supporting information or related documents that won’t quite fit. The appendix is where you include those references. Any extra information that could help financial backers understand your proposed business should be included here. And don’t worry — this section will not likely be read in its entirety, so you can include everything. In general, more information in a business plan is better than less.

Final Thoughts

Writing a construction company business plan is a big task, but if you break it down into small steps, you can get it done. From the executive summary to the appendix, your business plan needs to demonstrate your ability to achieve success in the residential construction industry. With your business plan written and your company started, you’ll need to get home-building jobs and please your clients. Cedreo can help with that. Our home building software can help you quickly create 3D home designs to help clients visualize the project and make them much more likely to close the deal with you. Interested? Learn more about our home building software here, or contact us for more information.

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Construction Strategy Template

What is a Construction Strategy?

A Construction Strategy is predominantly concerned with all aspects of the design that affect the buildability or logistics of constructing a project.  

What's included in this Construction Strategy template?

• Construction Strategy statement
• 4x Construction Strategy Values
• 4x Construction Strategy Focus Areas
• 13x Construction Strategy Objectives
• 21x Construction Strategy Projects
• 33x Construction Strategy KPIs

Who is this Construction Strategy template for?

This construction template can be used by all individuals in the construction industry from project managers down to builders. 

How is this Construction Strategy template relevant to your organization?

The Construction Strategy template will help your team and you consider the project's scope. This strategic plan engages stakeholders and ensures all your resources are optimally aligned to deliver a competitive advantage. 

1. Define clear examples of your focus areas

Focus areas are the building blocks of your strategy. They expand your vision statement and provide your team and you with some structure around achieving your goals. 

Examples of focus areas for your construction strategy could be Supply Chain, Resources, Team Management, and Technological areas.

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

Objectives are the milestones that guide your business to achieve strategic success. You can use this strategy template to set out clear objectives and allocate them to your employees to let them know what they are expected to achieve and by when. 

Possible objectives for the Supply Chain focus area could be to Develop forecast accuracy in supply chains, improve the efficiency of shipping and freighting functions, Maintain optimal inventory, Include sustainability as a facet in supply chain operations. 

3. Set yourself measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

KPIs are important because they break down the larger objectives into smaller, more measurable, and trackable targets. Likewise, they also convert visions into quantifiable, clear, and coherent metrics. 

KPIs for this automotive strategy could be Reduce mean absolute percent error in Q1, Decrease average supplier defect rate, Decrease late delivery rate, and Increase NPS score for the training events (just to name a few). 

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Projects are the driving actions that facilitate the accomplishment of a goal or objective. As your team and you create this construction strategy template and add projects, it's important to realize that not all projects succeed. However, implementing projects and learning from those that failed adds value to your goals. 

Examples of a project for the objective Maintain optimal inventory could be Utilize barcode systems and RFID devices for inventory management.

5. Utilize Cascade tools to track and visualize performance

Using Cascade's tools helps you view your quantifiable goals more visually. You can create graphs and charts to track and monitor your team and your process. The biggest benefit of displaying measurable metrics visually is that it prevents miscommunication and helps you easily understand the displayed information. 

Creating a Strategic Plan for Construction Contractors

It’s winter right now, and if you’re in construction, this may be a slower time of year for you. It’s a great time to create a strategic plan for your company for the coming year. How do you do it? We’ll walk you through it.

Topics we cover in this episode include:

Why now is a good time to think about your strategic plan

Ground rules for your strategic plan, what should be included in your strategic plan, the importance of a good budget, analyze your risk, how to use kpis for strategic planning.

• Note the trends in your market 

Get input from your key business advisors

LINKS Join the conversation on our LinkedIn page:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/CarpenterCPAs FIND US ONLINE Wade Carpenter , CPA, CGMA |  CarpenterCPAs.com Stephen Brown , Bonding Expert |  SuretyAnswers.com

[00:00:00] Wade Carpenter: As we’re recording this, it’s a cold January day. And if you’re in construction, this may be a slower time of year for you. How do you create a strategic plan for your company for the coming year? Come on in, let’s talk about it.

This is the Contractor Success Forum. If you’re new here, I’m Wade Carpenter with Carpenter Company CPAs.

With me, my co host, Stephen Brown, with McDaniel Whitley bonding and insurance. Stephen, planning is a common theme around here, but today is more along the lines of thinking through where we’re heading long term. Kick us off with your thoughts on this.

[00:00:37] Stephen Brown: Strategery is what I’m thinking about, Wade. You remember, President Bush–

[00:00:42] Wade Carpenter: Yep.

[00:00:42] Stephen Brown: Will Ferrell used to imitate him using all the words that he made up. Strategery. It’s a fantastic word. Strategery. That’s what we’re talking about.

[00:00:50] Stephen Brown: Okay, so things are slowing down maybe a little bit. I don’t know, but it’s cold.

You can’t get as much outdoor work done. You’re focused more on inside stuff that you have to do and you want to develop a strategic plan for your company. So it doesn’t have to be hard, but you’ve got to start. And you’ve got to have a game plan. So just like a blueprint for building a construction project, you lay out a blueprint of what you want your strategic plan to accomplish.

So that’s why it’d be a good idea for us to talk about what would be involved in a strategic plan. What do you need to think about? Of course, you know what you need to think about better than anyone else. But since you and I work with so many different construction companies, there’s a kind of a generic standard that all these companies need to think about.

And we preach it all the time at the Contractor Success Forum because that’s just what we do. Wade, what is your concept of a strategic plan? What does it look like? What does it entail?

[00:01:53] Wade Carpenter: You’re absolutely right. This is a great time of year to be talking about this, and a lot of times it’s the first of the year and everybody sets goals for their personal lives or losing weight or whatever it is, and a lot of times the business owners are setting goals for their company for the year.

And, maybe it’s something where they want to get their books in order or they want to get better job costing . A lot of times it’s just, we want more profit, more cash flow this year.

If you never stop to take a look around you and figure out where you’re going, a lot of times you’re going to stay on the same path for 20 years and it never really pans out for you.

And so I think this is a great episode and great thought to Hey, let’s look at what happened last year and what we’ve been doing and should we continue doing it?

[00:02:39] Stephen Brown: Okay. So there’s so many different things that could be involved with a strategic plan.

[00:02:45] Stephen Brown: One thing that I thought instead of focusing on all the different items that should be in a strategic plan, first and foremost, set some ground rules to a strategic plan. And those ground rules are KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid, but also, that acronym SMART.

So SMART is you’re specific. Whatever your goal and objective is, it’s specific, it’s measurable, it’s attainable, it’s realistic, and then there’s time based to it. So you say, what does that mean? I’ll just give you an example. You have a strategic plan. You say, I’m gonna reduce my debt in 2024. And that’s not SMART.

A better way to think about it is, I’m gonna reduce my debt by 50% within the next 12 months. So you see, you have a timeframe involved. It’s realistic. It’s measurable, it’s attainable and it’s specific.

[00:03:42] Wade Carpenter: I’m thinking exactly the same kind of thing. A lot of people say I did 2 million this year. I think I need to do 5 million by the end of the year. And maybe you can, but you need to have a plan to get there. And a lot of times we stick some arbitrary number, but we’re not actually targeting, hey, I want profit to be X, and how do we get profit to be X?

[00:04:04] Stephen Brown: And you are so busy as a contractor running projects, drumming up business. You think, I don’t have time for strategic planning, but I don’t have time not to strategic plan. Because you and I both know that the contractors that don’t take the time to plan strategically for their business, like you said, they end up getting lost.

It’s like taking a hike in unfamiliar woods without a compass. You wander. You go down the same path for 20 years. That was a great analogy.

Contractors that are not strategic in their planning, make the exact same comment you said. I want to do 5 million next year. And we’re like no. You want to make 5 million next year.

We’ve been screaming about Profit First and sales and profit being the key measuring device. It’s the thing that runs through every one of our podcasts, Wade, but a contractor that just says that it’s just so off base that it’s just almost painful for us to hear.

Isn’t it?

[00:05:01] Wade Carpenter: I did a webinar last week and started using this analogy about, like, how full do we want our chili pot. And we try to put so much in there and we just need more revenue. And more revenue causes more problems if you don’t plan for it.

Me and you go back to the days of 1975 and Jaws and, “we’re going to need a bigger boat.” And everybody thinks hey, we’re going to need a bigger boat.

And that’s always the–

[00:05:25] Stephen Brown: Yeah.

[00:05:26] Wade Carpenter: That’s always the answer.

It’s we just need a bigger boat. And sometimes it’s not the right answer.

A lot of my contractors that make very little money, they work all day and night, and their people will take home more than they do. And they have all the work they can do. But they’re doing the exact wrong type of work.

They’re doing work that’s not profitable. And they have so much work, it’s let’s just do more and more of it, and just stopping to say, hey, should we take this work? Yeah, it’s revenue, but is it making us profit? That’s my point.

[00:05:58] Stephen Brown: Their logic is, if you work hard enough, good things will come. I’m building this company. I’m doing this for my family. But, if you’re not taking profit to support yourself and your family, you’re not being strategic. And you’re not doing what you need to do.

It’s okay. Just take a break. It’s alright. Wherever you are in the construction process of your business, constructing your business to be successful, you can always just stop and take a breath and say, maybe I ought to change this. Maybe I ought to do this.

And also, maybe getting someone else in there to be an extra set of eyes and ears. If you don’t have a board of directors, that might be part of your strategic plan.

Put together a board of directors. They don’t have to be contractors. They just have to be business people. And they can help you see the forest through the trees. That’s one idea.

Another thing is to listen to this podcast, maybe take some notes, feel free to reach out to us with comments and we’ll give you our thoughts on the elements of what needs to be in your strategic plan.

[00:07:02] Stephen Brown: But some examples of those things that need to be in your strategic plan, the fundamentals. Keep it simple. Be smart. Okay. That’s the foundation of your planning. What items should be in that plan?

Organizational structure. Who have I got doing what? What do I need next year that I don’t have? Who’s really good at doing this and not so good about doing this? Who do I need to hire in the next year? Are my employees happy? What can I do to improve that? So the whole realm of just organizational structure is huge.

There’s so many moving parts to that. But you just got to start. So you just simply write down organizational structure. If that’s important to you right then.

All right, your turn, lay one out.

[00:07:46] Wade Carpenter: Obviously , a lot of my focus goes to hey, are we making profit and cash flow.

[00:07:50] Stephen Brown: Okay.

[00:07:51] Wade Carpenter: We think about hey, let’s take that big job because it’s a lot of revenue, but a lot of times those bigger jobs are smaller gross profit. And if you are going to grow to that next level, can you afford to cash flow it? You may not understand that.

Also the webinar I was talking about last week, we talked about pricing. And are we actually pricing properly? Do we understand the inputs that go into it? The overhead and what margin we’re actually making on it? And even if you do understand what those factors are, so many contractors do not actually figure out the markup properly.

They’re saying, hey, my overhead is 10 percent and my profit is 10%. So to get there, we just need to add 10 plus 10 onto our cost. And it does not work. And I don’t have time to go into the math right now, you should understand the difference between markup versus margin.

[00:08:44] Stephen Brown: Okay. So financial planning. It encompasses so much, just like organizational structure. Do you have a simple budget? Oh my gosh, I’m sorry I said that, Wade. It’s a painful word to hear, but it’s just simply I got X amount of assets and X amount of liabilities and I subtract the two.

X amount of income, X amount of expense. That’s the most simplistic form, but this year I have a CFO that’s actually doing a pro forma budget for their construction company next year.

Wade, what’s that all about?

[00:09:16] Wade Carpenter: It’s a different approach.

Looking at the budget is like, looking in the rear view mirror and what happened and going forward from that versus pro forma is like, what do we actually expect to happen? old analogy, you’re driving your car by looking out the rear window. We want to look forward and what we’re doing and is it the right thing we got on our plate?

[00:09:37] Stephen Brown: Fantastic. Now, I knew I’d goose you up with that one because there’s nothing more exciting to an accountant than a pro forma budget. It’s exciting to me. I hate the B word. That’s scary. It’s intimidating, but wow. Instead of looking at the rearview mirror, you say you’re looking out the windshield for what’s coming up in the next year. That’s fantastic.

So we have clear and concise goals. We threw out a couple of topics like your organizational structure, your financial planning. else might be involved?

[00:10:09] Stephen Brown: I’ll just throw the next one out and it would be analyzing your risk. Nothing more risky than a construction company, Wade.

 How do you do that? I would say call in your insurance agent, call in your safety manager. Analyzing risk might be your safety program for keeping your workers healthy. It might be looking at the risk of your materials and supplies not coming in as they’re supposed to.

It might be analyzing the risk of how much you put out there on a job that’s a little bit different than you’re used to doing. There may be great reward, but learning how to do that risk sometimes costs a lot of money. So the more you think and strategize about that way, the better.

[00:10:54] Wade Carpenter: Absolutely. Actually, you stole mine because that was what I was going to–

[00:10:58] Stephen Brown: I’m sorry, .

[00:10:59] Wade Carpenter: It’s okay, but I’m approaching it a little differently. We’ve talked about it many times.

What happens if you get hit by that beer truck? A lot of contractors do not understand what a burden we put on our family when something goes wrong. A lot of times we’re not thinking about our retirement, or maybe we are thinking about retirement, but we are just so strapped with the day to day that we never really get there.

And setting it up to be able to continue after you’re gone, does it have any worth? Can you sell it? I think I’ve told this story many times. I was talking about business valuation in front of a group of contractors one time, and one guy stood up and said, hey, my business has no value because if I die, there is no business. And if that’s the type of business you build, that’s absolutely what you’re going to get.

 If that’s your goal, that’s okay. But just also think about what you’re putting on your family members if you consistently having zero profit, you’ve got nothing put aside for your retirement.

[00:11:59] Wade Carpenter: You started me on a rant and I’ll shut up.

[00:12:01] Stephen Brown: No I know of a couple of guys that put out a podcast recently on succession planning that was fantastic, but, we’re very humble when we say that, but succession planning, what a great topic, what a great category.

So when you’re doing your plan for the year, you should also be thinking out in the future, not just the next year. Long term because you have to start that long term planning somewhere, right?

[00:12:25] Stephen Brown: Okay. Back to financial planning. How could you use key performance indicators for strategic planning?

[00:12:33] Wade Carpenter: That’s one of the things that I would absolutely say you need to do.

And some of these little measures we think is not really effective. But, last year I did something very similar and I actually had somebody keep me accountable for it. And every month I reported this is what we accomplished on our goal. And you’d be surprised hey, this sort of spurred me on to hey, I’m on track to make my goal, or I’m not.

And, you can’t just say, hey, we did X amount of revenue. It’s gotta be a little more thought in it than that. Are we making the profit? Are we improving our balance sheet? We don’t get all those sometimes from everything you can see on a P& L. You’ve got to do a little measure and if you’re thinking hey, we’ve got to grow to this number of employees to be able to do this.

A lot of these different KPIs that you mentioned, they’re going to change depending on what your goals are. And this is absolutely the way I would say, do it. Set what those goals are, and then set the performance indicators that you need to get there, and have somebody hold you accountable.

[00:13:40] Stephen Brown: Okay. That ties into, the last few topics we’re going to have here.

Note the trends in your market

[00:13:45] Stephen Brown: What trends are going on in your market that you need to be aware of, and you need to adapt to, and that you need to change to get through? That’s hugely important.

The study of that, what a better time to do it than when you’re doing your strategic planning.

And then, as we talk about implementing these things, then you have to also have a category, Wade, of monitoring the things that you want to get done. How would you monitor the strategic plans, Wade?

[00:14:15] Wade Carpenter: One thing we just talked about was the KPIs and having, not just a this is what we did this month, but hey, looking at it over time, and are we actually on track? Having just some simple dashboard set up to do that. You talk about your financial board of directors .

Stephen, you don’t toot your horn horn enough too, because the bond agents sometimes are the most critical people that you can have in your corner and letting them know what’s going on and what you’re anticipating.

The bankers. Hey, we’re anticipating we’re trying to grow to this point this year. So our cash flow, we may need to stretch our line of credit a little bit this year to get there and tell them why versus you get in this cash crunch and then you all of a sudden, hey, we got a problem. Help me out. That’s a very different approach.

[00:15:03] Stephen Brown: Yeah. Wade, that was just an easy chip shot to the very last part. And that is, the people that you bounce things off of to get good advice. What a good time of year, would say this to take your bond agent deer hunting with you or duck hunting, let’s just hang out. Let’s just talk.

You don’t have to talk business all the time, but let me just say this. As a guy, you remember in the old Westerns, if you got into another guy’s business, you were going to get shot. That was in every Western. That’s just the ultimate. And guys, as a general rule, we are not going to volunteer our advice or information unless you ask, right?

Now for you, for your situation, you perform best with the clients that respect your advice and take your advice. So do I. Every advisor does. So let your advisors, let your CPA, let your bonding and insurance agent, let your banker and let your attorney know that I am strategically planning for my company and I need your advice. Here’s what I was thinking. What do you think? I’d really appreciate your input.

Wow, that was hard, wasn’t it? But it’s everything. You’ve got to ask. So that was the last of my topics. Don’t be afraid to ask. And the rut is over here in West Tennessee, so I don’t think I’ll be deer hunting this year.

But, it’s a good time to spend a little quality time with your key advisors and or board directors if you have one.

[00:16:25] Wade Carpenter: Absolutely. What you said about having a board of directors, in working with contractors for 30 plus years, a lot of times contractors want people to think they’re doing better than they are. , I hate to say it, sometimes they’re embarrassed or they don’t want this stuff shared with somebody.

But hey, this is confidential. And we’ve seen it a lot of times more than you think. And you think it’s just you, but it happens all the time.

[00:16:53] Stephen Brown: Over and over. Just like Attorney Client Privilege, Wade,

[00:16:57] Wade Carpenter: Yeah.

[00:16:58] Stephen Brown: All of the Financial Board of Directors we discussed, have to keep your information. We can’t talk about your business with other people. We can talk generically. But our job is to give you the best advice we can on what we know.

So why not use us?

[00:17:15] Wade Carpenter: A lot of times we might be embarrassed about our finances, or we don’t really want to talk about it, or we don’t want people thinking that we’re not doing better than we really are. And that’s half the battle, is getting somebody in your corner that understands what’s going on because we all get these blinders on in our life, whether it’s personal or business related.

 Sometimes you need somebody to give you a real wake up call.

[00:17:40] Stephen Brown: That’s like saying I am too overweight to hire a personal trainer. What does a personal trainer think? Ah, you’re overweight, we had to get you in shape, right?

[00:17:50] Wade Carpenter: Many different analogies with that too. I mean, I think people you know, they’re not profitable. And so they ask me like, hey, can I start Profit First? I need to get profitable for a start. When better time should you be doing something like Profit First when you’re not profitable?

[00:18:05] Stephen Brown: Great point. Strategery. Be strategic and get going. Start. , Hopefully we were some help. to our listeners, Wade, in this regard. And again, please reach out to us. Say, I’m struggling with this. I’m struggling with that. What do you think about this? We’ll tell you. And that’s what we’re here for.

We want you to learn from the mistakes of others that we’ve seen. And all advisors appreciate being asked their opinion. I can tell you that. And being old guys like Wade and I are, we have an opinion on everything. You can argue with us and we’ll defend it.

But folks, that’s all I had. Thank you for listening.

[00:18:45] Wade Carpenter: Thank you all for listening to Contractor Success Forum. Check out the show notes at Contractorsuccessforum. com or on the Carpenter CPA’s YouTube channel for more information. And we would sincerely appreciate it if you would consider subscribing and follow us every week as we post a new episode, and we will look forward to seeing you next time.

• Sample Business Plans
• Construction, Architecture & Engineering

Construction Company Business Plan

Growing a construction company is much more difficult and taxing than completing projects.

From acquiring a new project to meeting deadlines, managing the budget, and many more things in between- you will find yourself drowning in responsibilities when you start a construction company.

A construction business plan can come to your rescue in such burdensome situations. If prepared well, it can become a reference point for your company as it continues to grow.

Confused about how to write a business plan?

Well, this article will serve you perfectly. It will help you understand the contents of the business plan and offer a sample template for your construction company.

So let’s build a solid construction company business plan with this detailed guide.

Let’s dive right in.

Key Takeaways

• Venture into the market by conducting thorough industry and market analysis.
• Widen the scope of your service offerings to cater varying needs of your target audience.
• Create a detailed operations plan to get thorough guidance in your business operations.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify your competitive edge over the competitors.
• Determine your marketing strategies to launch your business and get it popular amongst your target market.
• Define your business objectives, goals, and mission values to create a foundation for essential business policies.
• Account for various project costs, operating costs, and office expenses to form realistic cash-flow projections.

Why do you need a construction company business plan?

Apart from the fact that investors and banks would ask for a business plan when you seek funding, here are a few more reasons you need a business plan.

• A business plan offers a roadmap to your business. It acts as a guiding block that has answers to all your how, when, where, and what.
• It helps in determining the exact target market for your business and formulating strategies to cater accordingly.
• There are millions of construction companies competing in the industry. You can identify your strengths through a business plan and design a competitive edge to stand apart.
• A well-rounded plan prepares you for emergencies that may arise in your business by making a plan for every situation.
• A whole lot of business processes repeat every day. A business plan helps bring consistency by establishing SOPs for various business activities.

And of course, you get your desired funding with a solid business plan that vouches for the potential of your construction company.

Key components of a construction business plan

Writing a business plan gets much easier with a structurally defined flow. Well, let’s have a look at key components that a construction company business plan must have.

Executive Summary

A brief summary of an entire business plan that will encourage the readers to read further.

Company Overview

A brief company description including every detail from company structure to its mission statement and future goals.

Market Analysis

A thorough analysis of the construction industry and your target market. It also includes sections for competitor analysis, future market trends, and scope of growth.

Construction Services

Outline the construction services that your company will offer. Highlight any additional services that will make you a distinct player.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

It includes a strategic plan to achieve success through marketing and sales. Determine the best course of action for your business.

Management Team

Introduce key personnel in managerial and leadership roles. Discuss their roles, qualifications, experience, and expertise.

Operations Plan

A detailed plan that streamlines the everyday operations right from construction methods to hiring employees.

Financial Plan

A financial plan highlights the prominent figures and key reports of your construction company by making necessary financial projections.

Let’s dive further into these topics and get a detailed understanding of writing your business plan.

Related Construction Company Resources

• Construction Company Marketing Plan
• Construction Company Financial Plan
• Key Stats for the Construction Sector
• Start-up Cost For Construction Company
• How to Start a Construction Business

A step-by-step guide to creating a construction company business plan

A poorly written plan serves no purpose. However, with this step-by-step guide, you will uncover every detail that goes into making a fantastic and purpose-serving business plan.

1. Get a business plan template

Writing a comprehensive business plan is taxing and time-consuming. But if you do it well, you will have a guidebook for running your construction company.

Now, there is a lot that needs to be considered, planned, and accounted for as you start writing the plan. Even if you closely follow a construction business plan outline, there are higher chances of you losing track or getting stuck at certain sections.

This is why you need a business plan template to give a solid structure to your business idea. With industry-relevant examples and a guide, the Upmetrics business plan template is easy to edit and customize.

Whether you own a general contracting firm or specialize in residential construction or specialty trades- we have plenty of construction-related templates for you to choose from.

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2. Write an executive summary

The executive summary is a concise yet insightful description of your entire business plan.

This one-page document summarizes the most important questions that a reader might have and offers a peek into what they are about to uncover. Investors take a brief glance at your executive summary before deciding whether to proceed further or not.

An executive summary must outline the following details of your construction business in persuasive consecutive paragraphs.

• The exact business opportunity
• The target market
• The problem and the solution to it
• Products and services offered by you
• Market size and growth potential
• Financial highlights
• Management team

Maintain a personal storytelling tone while writing this section and encapsulate every minute detail that can make a difference.

But wait, don’t start writing yet. Write your executive summary only after you are done writing an entire plan. This will help you summarize effectively.

3. Prepare a company overview section

This section of a business plan will focus entirely on the details of your construction company.

From the type of construction company to the construction company’s goals- everything in this section is about your company description.

To begin with, highlight the type of construction business you will start. For instance, a residential construction company, general contracting company, industrial construction company, or specialty trade construction.

Clarify, if this will be a new business or an extension of existing business. If the business is already operating, offer a brief description of the business history.

After that, highlight the business structure of your construction company. Are you going to be a sole trader or start a limited liability company (LLC) or a limited partnership firm? The business structure you choose will decide how the finances and taxes will work in your business.

Now, this section is your chance to weave magical stories around your construction company. Present the mission statement, company’s objectives, and future goals over here.

For instance,

Mission statement : Syncore aims to become a trusted name for sustainable residential construction projects in Arizona by 2028. With our commitment to the highest quality standards, we will penetrate the market with our premium budgeted solutions.

Business goals :

• Onboarding and signing 15 construction projects in a span of 6 months.
• Generating revenue of $2 million by 2025.

Like this, you will write this entire section in parts by offering a brief overview of your construction business.

4. Conduct a competitive and market analysis

In this section of a business plan, you begin with industry analysis and then narrow it down to your particular market segment. This is important to show your potential investors that there are promising opportunities in this market.

Using market research practices determine the target market for your construction business. Create a buyer persona to identify what your ideal customer will look like.

Further, highlight your competitors in this competitive construction industry. Using SWOT analysis and PESTEL, determine the strengths and weaknesses of competing construction companies. In this section, you will also highlight your strengths to gain a competitive edge over existing players.

Don’t limit your market study to merely understanding the current scenarios. Extend the research and identify future trends and growth possibilities in your targeted market.

If you are a residential construction company focused on sustainable building practices, you must include the following details in your market analysis section.

• How large is the construction industry?
• What segment of the construction market will you capture?
• Who will avail of the construction services?
• What is the spending capacity of your target customers?
• Who are the top competing construction companies?
• What are the emerging trends in the industry and how will you leverage those?
• What is the growth potential of your target market?

Focus on quality market research as this will form the base of your further projections and strategies.

This screenshot of the construction business plan example highlights only the market size for HDFL construction. You can also include details like competitors analysis, growth potential, and market trends here.

5. Describe your construction service offerings

What construction services will you offer your potential clients?

Offer a detailed answer to this question, as you write a business plan section for service offerings.

Overall, this section should highlight every service offering that will bring you money. This could include services like,

• General contracting services
• Design and Engineering
• Construction
• Renovation and remodeling
• Project management
• Specialty services i.e. concrete work, HVAC installation, Roofing services
• Maintenance and repairs

Offer a brief understanding of these service offerings and highlight construction jobs you will specialize in. For instance, remodeling of kitchen and bathroom.

Now, will your construction company sell any construction materials for profit? If so, include details for that as well.

It’s important to consider the breadth of your service offerings to keep the customers coming back.

Overall, this section is your chance to prove to potential investors that your services can stand solid in the competitive construction industry.

6. Propose marketing and sales strategies

According to the IBIS world report , there are more than 3,787,470 construction businesses in the USA. Starting a construction company will add one more to this list, but hey- How do you wish to make a brand that your target audience can recall easily?

All the market assessment and understanding of your potential clients will come in handy at this stage as you make your marketing plan and sales strategies.

Take an opportunity to lay out your sales plan in this section. If you have existing customers, explain how you plan to retain them.

After you are done making your sales strategies, touch the marketing aspect.

Firstly, identify the way you want your brand to be recognized- as an ordinary construction firm, a luxury construction company, a sustainable solutions firm, or an affordable construction company. This will help you make a marketing plan.

Your marketing strategy should answer the following questions:

• Which marketing channels will you use-  Online, offline, or a mix of both?
• How will you generate more leads?
• Online marketing methods- search engines, social media, Email marketing, content marketing, etc.
• If you are going to be utilizing social media platforms- which ones?
• How much will you budget for paid ads?
• Will you use billboards, pamphlets, and newspaper advertisements to market your business?

Keep in mind the marketing channels where you can find your potential customers. For instance, you are more likely to find conversions through Email campaigns than social media campaigns, if you are finding clients for commercial construction.

All in all, in this section you have to draw potential investors’ attention with your sales and marketing strategy.

7. Introduce your management team

Everyone is aware of the cutthroat competition in the construction industry. Knowing that you need an able team to transform your business plan into a successful venture.

After laying out your marketing strategy, it’s time to introduce the key management and leadership team to your business plan.

It’s okay to brag about the talented individuals you have in your company. From construction heads to project managers, highlight the achievements, experience, and expertise of these people and prove their asset-worthiness for your company.

Also, draw the hierarchical map to give potential investors an idea of your organizational structure.

This is your time to prove that you have both the means and manpower to run a successful company.

8. Outline your operational plan

You may know construction, but do you know how to run a construction business?

As someone said, “ Seamless operations are the silent engine of extraordinary business achievements”

Before even taking the first project, it’s important to define operations and SOPs for different business activities. Make it so thorough that it can act as a guidebook whenever a problem arises in your construction company.

As you write a business plan for this section, focus on answering the following questions:

• What construction materials will you use?
• What will be the supply chain process in your construction company?
• Who will oversee the project management on site?
• What will be the timeline for completing projects?
• What will be health and safety protocols for construction workers?
• What will be the process of construction work?
• How will the communication flow within an organization?
• What technologies and equipment will you use?
• How will you ensure quality work?
• How will you hire employees?
• What accounting software will you use?

This is just a general gist of questions that can help you prepare this section. Consider it as a living document that will undergo various changes as the business commences and grows.

A thorough operations plan will lay a clear groundwork for running a company. Moreover, it will instill investors’ faith in your ability to run a construction company.

9. Create a financial plan

Writing a sound financial plan is a challenge but nothing that your determined mind can’t handle.

Whether you plan to raise funds or get bank loans, you need a sound financial plan. Investors will analyze this section and only if they find your business financially viable, will they invest.

In this section, you will make financial projections and estimates for your construction company. This includes forecasting sales, estimating startup costs , projecting overhead costs, and making a pricing plan.

Using the startup costs projection, determine how much funding is essential to start your own construction company.

Also, prepare different reports like income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and break-even analyses using the projections made earlier.

To make a financial plan more relevant, consider various progressive and aggressive situations.

Lastly, prepare graphs, charts, and diagrams to make this section visually appealing and easy to grasp.

Now, stop. Don’t start writing a financial plan yet. You need a financial forecasting tool from Upmetrics to help you with projections and calculations of cash flow, sales, revenue, and everything else. Simply enter the data and it will make detailed and precise calculations for you.

Trust us, you don’t want to scratch your heads writing the entire plan from ground level.

And that’s it! With all this information you pretty much know everything that a construction business plan must have.

Construction Industry Highlights 2023

Now that you are almost set to open a construction company, here are a few industry statistics that might interest you.

• Market size : The US construction market sector was valued at 1.8 trillion US dollars in 2022.
• Growth of the virtual construction market : The global BIM market is 7.9 billion US dollars . North America is projected to be a market leader capturing 30% of this market.
• Rise in prefabrication and modular construction : Healthcare facilities followed by hotels/motels and educational institutions are most likely to avail of modular construction facilities.
• Major concerns : The leading concerns encircling the construction industry are inflation and supply chain disruptions faced by nearly 90% of constructors.
• Sustainable and green building : There is a continuous increase in demand for sustainable and green building solutions. As for 2021, the green building market in the USA was reported to be approximately 83 billion dollars .
• Growing investment in smart cities : According to IDC, the investment in smart cities is expected to grow to 203 billion dollars by 2024.

From sustainability to tech-centric processes, the construction industry is making huge shifts in trends. Both, small businesses and large have to evolve according to changing times to keep themselves relevant.

Download a sample construction business plan

Facing difficulty writing a business plan? Well, we have a perfect resource for you.

Download the Upmetrics sample business plan template. Our template offers step-by-step instructions and prompts to ease the entire plan writing process. It’s designed to meet modern market needs and is perfectly detailed with construction-relevant examples.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

Write your business plan with Upmetrics

A lot of us struggle when it comes to translating our ideas into a solid business plan. But not with Upmetrics.

Upmetrics is an intuitively designed business planning app with more than 400+ sample business plans . Our business planning tool features AI assistance that will transform your business writing process. Not only that, it allows you to design, collaborate, and share your business plan in real-time with your team.

So what are you waiting for?

Let’s Build your plan with our business plan builder.

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Frequently asked questions, what kind of market research should i include in my construction business plan.

The market research for your construction business plan must include the following details:

• The market size of your targeted market, i.e. commercial construction, residential construction, etc.
• The target audience of your services and their buyers’ persona
• Top competing firms and companies offering similar services
• Emerging trends in your market
• Growth potential for your firm

Is a SWOT analysis necessary for a construction company business plan?

Absolutely yes. There are more than a billion construction companies in the USA itself. Starting another business won’t guarantee success unless you have a business that can withstand the dynamic competitive environment. SWOT analysis will make you aware of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, and the opportunities it can avail

What are the initial startup costs for a construction company?

It is possible to start a construction company with as little as $10,000. However, if you plan to set up a mid-sized construction company, expect to spend anywhere around $50,000-$250,000 on getting a basic setup. This includes accounting for licenses, insurance, office setup, construction materials, and payroll for the initial months.

Can I get government grants for a construction business?

Yes, you can apply for government grants to start your construction business. Check the local, federal, and state regulations to see which grants are applicable to your business. Check the eligibility and apply accordingly.

How often should I update my construction business plan?

A business plan is a living document that can guide you toward success if mapped properly. Ideally, you should update your business plan every 4-6 months to make it relevant. Set aside time to do so as a renewed plan will offer deep and meaningful insight into your business goals.

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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Strategic Plan for a Construction Company Business

by Brian Hill

Published on 1 Jan 2021

All small-business owners can benefit from developing a strategic plan, and owners of construction companies are no exception. Just as you create blueprints for each of your construction projects, the strategic plan serves as a blueprint for growing your business's revenue and profit. It also focuses your team's efforts on achieving the goals you have set and provides a means to measure your progress toward the goals.

Evaluate your current situation. Analyze last year's results and determine which of your products, markets, divisions or business segments contributed the most revenue. Also review which ones were the most profitable. Evaluate areas in which your company excelled and areas where it fell short of achieving the expected results. For example, you may not have achieved the level of on-time performance -- completing projects on schedule -- that you planned. These construction delays may have negatively impacted your ability to accept new projects.

Review the competition. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your major competitors. Then compare them to the strengths and weaknesses of your own company. Listing these side by side can give you a clear view of where your competitors may be vulnerable. Describe what your competitive advantage is. For example, you may have the most efficient group of subcontractors, which allows you to consistently complete projects within budget.

Seek out expansion opportunities. Forecast the major growth areas for your industry or your market niche. Consider new markets or customer segments for the products you currently offer. Also consider new products, services or production capabilities you could add. A swimming pool contractor, for example, could add a monthly pool maintenance service and create an additional revenue stream from its customers.

Set goals and metrics. Set sales revenue targets, and goals regarding the number and type of projects. Make sure that within these numerical goals, you include metrics that show the steps required to accomplish them. For example, one metric could be the number of leads you obtain from home and garden trade shows. By looking at how many leads you actually generated and the conversion rate of leads to customers, you can see whether you chose the right shows to attend and whether your sales force's efforts were successful.

Develop marketing strategies. Review your goals and determine the strategic steps involved in achieving them. A home builder that forecasts a relatively weak new home construction market for the upcoming year, for example, may put more emphasis on obtaining remodeling projects to maintain cash flow. The owner would need strategies to reach out to homeowners that are considering remodeling, such as direct mail or advertising in home improvement magazines.

Create a revenue, cost and profit forecast. Determine the cost of implementing each strategy. Forecast the revenue that will be generated through your marketing strategies. Create a month-by-month spreadsheet with the revenues and costs, and the resulting bottom line profit. Review your net profit margin -- net profit divided by total revenue -- to see if it is in line with averages for your industry.

Make sure to include an implementation plan. Outline each of the smaller steps or tactics required to implement each strategy and the deadlines for each. Assign responsibility for completing each step. A construction company owner may have an advantage over owners of other companies because he is used to creating project plans. In this case, the project is to build his company.

Looks at your competitors in broad terms. Home improvement stores also subcontract construction work and should be considered competitors of home building and remodeling companies.

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Creating a Construction Company Growth Strategy

The construction industry faces challenges and successes as the market changes each year. Recently, your construction business may have become stagnant. If you’re struggling to find customers and keep your employees, it’s helpful to come up with a new business plan. Follow these tips for your construction company’s growth strategy.

Table of Contents

• Define Your Value Proposition
• Identify and Measure Your Key Business Objectives
• Understand Your Ideal Customer
• Pay Attention to Your Revenue Channels
• Watch Your Competition
• Consider Innovation
• Evaluate Your Progress

How Do You Scale Construction?

Growth strategies and how to apply them to your team, contact coachfirm to help create your construction business growth strategy, how to grow a construction company.

These steps can help you create a construction company growth strategy.

1. Define Your Value Proposition

As you figure out how to grow your construction business, it’s helpful to define your company’s purpose so you know how to move forward. A value proposition is a clear, compelling sentence that tells prospective customers what you provide when they invest in your services. It also reveals what your company stands for and how you operate as a business. Your value proposition should be persuasive and attractive to potential customers. Use your value proposition as a headline on your company’s website or place in the newspaper.

2. Identify and Measure Your Key Business Objectives

After you’ve created a value proposition, consider using the following key business objectives to measure your success and help your company grow:

• Maintaining a steady stream of income to make a profit
• Using your resources to increase productivity
• Providing excellent customer service
• Keeping current employees and attracting new ones
• Creating core values that drive your vision
• Cultivating sustainable growth
• Having cash or fluid income
• Adapting flexibility
• Rising above the competition

3. Understand Your Ideal Customer

Since your construction business should meet your customers’ needs, it’s helpful to know your target audience. When you’re focused on your ideal customer, you can make effective connections and provide what they want. For example, if you perform construction projects for homeowners, you wouldn’t advertise your services to commercial property owners. Think about your ideal customer’s characteristics, such as their age, gender, household income and geographical location. Create a persona type to help you figure out how to advertise to your target audience.

4. Pay Attention to Your Revenue Channels

Revenue channels are ways for your construction company to make money. Think about what services you offer that bring revenue into your business, and use your resources to maximize your profit. It’s helpful to diversify your revenue channels so you can maintain your cash flow during various market trends. Some of the popular revenue streams in the construction industry include:

• One-time contracts and bids from private and public works construction projects.
• Service work and ongoing monthly or annual accounts.
• Passive income from real estate.
• Supplying materials in a warehouse.

5. Watch Your Competition

Other construction companies nearby may be thriving in areas where you’re struggling. Think about what your competitors offer their workers and customers to determine where you could adjust your work environment. Stay ahead of the competition so you can retain your employees and bring in revenue from new customers.

Keep track of current marketing trends, such as using sustainable products, to attract a wider audience and beat the competition. You should also provide a positive work environment for your employees to keep them motivated to stay. If competitive companies offer more benefits or a more pleasant atmosphere, you might lose your best employees to the competition.

6. Consider Innovation

Think about how you can make your business run more smoothly to save time and money on your projects. Research disruptions in your supply chain and find ways to get products to your worksite cheaper and more quickly. Consider setting up innovative technology that allows everyone to be on the same page, such as:

• Construction sites with pre-fabrication and communication capabilities.
• Cloud systems that allow the whole project team to connect from different locations.
• Digital supply chains to keep track of your inventory.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) or other digital services to educate your employees on new information.
• Online databases to keep track of resources.
• Digital accounting services to send invoices to customers efficiently.

7. Evaluate Your Progress

Your growths strategy may involve improving your weaknesses, but you may also want to focus on your strengths. Measure your company’s success through key performance indicators (KPIs) that are relevant to the construction industry. These characteristics will help you meet your short-term goals and ensure long-term resilience.

You can keep track of your progress with the following KPIs:

• Safety: Having a safer construction site lowers your insurance rates, reduces risks and saves money long term. You can measure your company’s safety by keeping track of the rate of incidents at your worksites or how often you’ve had to have a safety meeting.
• Quality: Provide better quality services to improve customer satisfaction and reduce the time and money you spend on a project. You can measure your projects’ quality by the number of defects you’ve had per project and the time and money spent to fix the issue.
• Performance: Measuring your team’s productivity on each construction project helps identify where they’re exerting most of their effort so you can plan your resources accordingly. You can measure your team’s performance through downtime, the amount of revenue earned per hour or the waste or recycling produced per job.
• Employees: Workers who are happy with their jobs are more likely to be motivated, so they’ll produce better results and bring in more customers. You can measure employee satisfaction by looking at turnover rate and training completion.

Scaling your company means adjusting to its employee and customer growth. As your business improves and changes, you may discover that some of your old systems don’t work anymore. You can ensure success during this change by:

• Keeping it simple: As your business grows and changes, your team might get complicated. Keep everyone on the same page by creating an efficient flow of communication. Designate people for specific jobs so that everyone knows their responsibilities. You should also try automation tools to reduce the amount of work everyone else has to do.
• Prioritizing new and existing customers: Even though you should think about attracting new customers, you should also remember your existing ones. Find ways to make both groups feel important. If all your clients are satisfied, they’ll be more likely to recommend your business to others.
• Investing in the right technology: You should update the technology for your construction company to operate your business more efficiently. Research what resources would be best for your team’s every day operations. Think about what you could make digital to save paperwork, time, energy and money.

Here are some of the ways you can use the following growth strategies to improve your company:

• Create a mission statement: Your company’s mission statement inspires you and your team to pursue growth, and it attracts potential customers. You may want to have a team meeting to discuss your mission statement so that everyone feels included and significant.
• Identify your goals: As part of your mission statement, think about what you’d like to accomplish. Make a list of SMART goals, items that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-sensitive. Consider asking your employees to come up with individual goals so they can stay motivated.
• Perform a SWOT analysis: Review your company and figure out its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. You may want to send out a survey to your employees to discover what they think. Find ways to build your strengths, improve on your weaknesses, explore new opportunities and eliminate threats.
• Look at a construction company strategy example: Research other construction company’s growth strategies and figure out how you can incorporate what they’ve done in your own business.

If you need help creating your  construction business growth strategy , work with a business coach at Coachfirm. Use our  small business self-assessment questionnaire  to discover more about how you need help with your business. Fill out a  contact form  online or call 888-777-0303 for more information about how to grow your construction company.

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Key Construction Company Goals Leading to a Successful Growth

The construction industry is enormous, ranking among the largest sectors in the world economy. The worldwide construction sector is projected to achieve an approximate value of $10.5 trillion by 2023, experiencing a steady growth rate of 4.2% annually. This upward trend is anticipated to persist, leading the industry to reach $12.9 trillion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% from 2023 to 2028. Success in this highly competitive field hinges on strategic planning and flawless execution. However, construction companies need guidance in this fast-paced and demanding environment.

Clearly defining your construction company’s goals is crucial to stand out and attract new clients. Need help figuring out where to start? Don’t worry; Buildern is here to help. In this article, we’ll list essential construction company goals and teach you how to prioritize them.

Let’s not waste more of your time; let’s get started!

Goals That Lead to Success for a Construction Company and How to Achieve Them

1. build a strong and efficient team.

Nothing is more important than having a professional team for a construction business. Most success factors depend on your employees, so you cannot afford to have workers who constantly fail in their tasks. If your roofer cannot build a maintainable roof or the plumber is not really good at repairing pipes and fixtures, your clients will hardly be satisfied with the results.  

When building your team , try to hire professionals who have already been working on similar projects and know how to ensure quality results. But hiring skilled employees is only half of the job: most success depends on how your construction business will treat them. First, provide them with sufficient training so that they can learn all the details they might have skipped during their past projects. If you see that your employees excel at their jobs during work, show your appreciation with promotions, bonuses, and similar rewards. 

Evaluate Communication and Teamwork from Within

Another way to maintain a strong team and reach success in construction is by having a healthy communication flow between the employees. It is crucial that all of the members of your team work together without confronting any major miscommunication issues. To learn more about managing a construction team effectively, check out Buildern.

Here’s how to evaluate whether your construction business is doing well on this task or not: 

• Your employees communicate with each other during the project, which helps them understand how the process is going, some common problems and issues they face, and what remains to be done. 
• After the project is completed, your employees can easily communicate with each other and see clear results. They examine the most common construction management challenges and difficulties, analyze the process and discuss what can be done better next time.

2. Develop a Strategy 

Every business should have a clear vision and mission statement. So the first thing to do is to document it — define your company’s objectives in the mission section and describe what you imagine to achieve in the future in the vision. 

When that’s done, you can develop an actionable plan to help you reach your construction company goals. Create metrics that will help you estimate how good your company is doing and celebrate whenever you witness significant growth. 

Remember that one of the ways to follow your strategy is to divide it into smaller pieces. Create small, practical tasks that you can work on day by day and which, at the same time, help you reach your larger goals. Time managemen t is key here, as you’ll fall behind without following your timeframes and milestones. 

Of course, we understand that it is almost impossible to have everything planned out; that’s why it would be helpful for your construction business to also assess risks and have backup plans in case something goes wrong.

3. Set and Follow Safety Standards

Ensuring construction site safety is a must for all construction businesses. The construction site is known to be one of the most dangerous workplaces globally, with thousands of construction workers getting fatal injuries during work. Although it is impossible to ensure a 100% safe workplace, you should do your best to avoid accidents.

Here is what you should include in your safety plan: 

• Safety training for your employees 
• The potential risks that can happen during the project and how you can prevent them 
• Workers’ compensation insurance 
• COVID -19 prevention practices 

And don’t forget to consult your employees when designing the safety plan, as they are the ones who actually work in the field and know all of the risks and accidents better. 

4. Create a Succession Plan 

Succession planning is when you develop a proper strategy for replacing or passing the leadership roles. With it, you identify potential leaders who can take on vacant positions when they arise. 

As we’ve mentioned, your safety plan helps you pinpoint the potential risks, but you’ll also need a succession plan that can define who is going to take care of what during the crisis and what exact steps should be taken. 

So prepare a written and documented succession plan that all your employees will know and agree on. 

5. Take Care of Cybersecurity 

We have mentioned site safety before, but one of the key goals for the construction company is to ensure safety in the digital world too. Yes, we’re talking about cybersecurity .

It doesn’t matter if your company is big or small — having your and your client’s data protected is crucial, as otherwise, you’ll put your contractors at risk of a cyber attack. 

Constantly practicing vulnerability scans, making internal controls, and assessing risks will help your construction business stay safe from cybersecurity threats.

6. Deliver Consistent Customer Service

If you want to maintain your clients and build long-term professional relationships with them, you need to communicate with them throughout the project and allow them to participate in the decision-making process. And even if for whatever reason your company faces significant issues, try to explain it to your customers, showing exactly why problems arose. 

Overall, communicating with dissatisfied clients and doing your best to solve their issues will make them happy with your services in the end, turning them into loyal customers. 

One of the best ways to give your clients peace of mind is by letting them follow the project’s progress in real-time. They pay for your services, so they should clearly understand what is happening on their construction site. You will avoid misunderstandings and build a good rapport by communicating with your clients and keeping them up-to-date.

Here’s where Buildern comes in – offering the perfect solution to empower your construction business. Buildern goes beyond traditional construction project management software, providing the tools to achieve these goals and secure your path to success.

Users view it as a platform that allows them to communicate successfully with all the project stakeholders, from the owners to the on-site workers. It helps contractors record and track everything from project completion percentages to invoices. And by inviting your clients to Buildern’s project dashboard, they can easily follow the project’s progress and get a clear picture of what is happening on their construction site.

7. Make Smart Business Decisions

Working with serious large projects is pretty tough. And that’s what you do, most of the time, if you own a construction business. So, you should be able to make the correct choices and decisions, as every one of your decisions has the power to either contribute to your project’s success or be the reason for its failure. 

So, when making an important decision: 

• Take your time
• Analyze all the angles and options 
• Objectively assess your project needs
• Think long-term: keep your company’s future in mind 
• Remember your construction company goals and aspirations

8. Properly Invest in Your Construction Business

Finally, the last one on our list of goals for a construction company is putting in enough effort. Investing both time and money will help you reach success in construction quicker. So buy proper equipment and technology, train your employees, practice professional marketing, get good project management software, and put as much time into your construction business as possible. 

Accelerating Project Estimation with Buildern’s Intuitive Interface and Powerful Features

Businesses focused on growth rather than momentum incomes need an efficient and accurate way to estimate their projects. The good old manual calculations are still the go-to solution for some, but advanced software solutions are proving to be a much faster and more accurate way to estimate projects. As a construction project management professional, you know that finding the ideal software to streamline processes is crucial for success. With numerous options available, it can be challenging to determine which platform best suits your company’s needs.

Buildern offers innovative construction estimating software that proves indispensable for accurate project planning, empowering construction companies to reach their goals with unprecedented efficiency and precision. In a fraction of the time, Buildern streamlines the estimation process with its user-friendly interface and robust features, empowering project managers to create detailed and reliable estimates.

Neatly organized and broken down into categories, the estimates created via Buildern impress even the most scrupulous client.

Buildern’s toolset is critical for ensuring operational efficiency and financial prudence in a competitive business landscape. Its comprehensive approach collates all job-related information into a single, easily accessible database. Such a functionality streamlines data management and empowers users to calculate profit margins accurately.

This construction cost estimator does more than just crunch numbers. It provides a strategic advantage, facilitating the groundwork for proposal submission and introducing you to a competitive bidding process. With Buildern, you’re not just keeping up with the competition but staying ahead.

Thus, companies can easily keep up with the fast-paced construction industry without sacrificing accuracy or time.

Recommended reading: No Penny Is Underlooked: 5 Types of Construction Cost Estimation

By utilizing advanced algorithms and each user’s custom project data, the software ensures that each estimate reflects real-world costs and complexities, leading to more informed decision-making and minimized risks. With Buildern, a project management tool from construction pros, you can now take advantage of the intuitive interface and powerful features that allow for fast and easy project estimates. This will save the builders time and effort they would otherwise spend on painstakingly manual estimations.

Furthermore, Buildern fosters collaboration among team members, enabling seamless communication and fostering a cohesive approach to project management. Whether you’re a small-scale contractor or a large construction firm, Buildern equips you with the tools needed to optimize your project planning and propel your company toward success. 

Learn more about Buildern’s game-changing capabilities!

Find Your Top Priorities

Of course, it might change from business to business, but overall there are mainly three ways construction owners spend their time: 

• Building long-term relationships with their customers 
• Leading and overseeing their management team 
• Doing work related to the construction project

To reach success in construction faster, you should figure out which work gives you the most return on your hard work. For instance, should you treat your clients to dinner or rather stay in the office and order materials? 

Well, the answer is simple: you can find someone to order materials for you, but you’ll hardly find someone who can build customer relationships or employee trust instead of you. 

Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself when prioritizing your tasks : 

• Am I using my time and talent in the best possible way? 
• Will the task that I’m doing help me reach my construction company goals? 
• Will the work I’m doing help me maximize my construction business profits? 
• Am I getting the biggest return on energy ? 

The problem is that many construction business owners find it challenging to organize their time efficiently, even when knowing their priorities. This is because from 7 AM, even before your day starts, your inbox starts to be filled with ASAP emails, customer requests, project issues, and thousands of problems or jobs, all of which require immediate attention! 

So it can be overwhelming to leave that all aside and think clearly about which task you should focus on. Professional advice would be to learn to say no to some of the tasks that take your time from the ones that actually are worth working on. Keep the mentioned questions in mind, and never forget your key goals. 

Another thing that can help you understand how to prioritize your goals is construction company KPIs. So let’s take a look at them. 

KPIs for Construction: Brief Breakdown

Short for Key Performance Indicators, KPIs are a set of measurements used to assess the company’s long-term performance. They are mainly used to understand the company’s financial, strategic, and operational success compared to other companies in the same sector. 

Using KPIs in the construction company comes with various benefits. They allow your construction business to assess precisely how successful the construction project has been. They are also a perfect tool for reaching your short-term financial objectives. 

When it comes to KPI management, for any construction company, using the software can be one of the easiest solutions for defining and tracking construction company KPIs throughout the project. 

5 Key Construction KPIs to Consider

If the construction site is safe, the possibility of unfortunate accidents decreases. Hence, the chance you’ll finish the project sooner and avoid extra costs is higher. Not to mention that ensuring your employees a secure and safe working field is simply a moral and ethical obligation. 

So security measurements should be on the top of your list. Here are three crucial construction safety KPIs to keep an eye on: 

• The rate of incidents
• The number of safety meetings 
• The number of accidents per supplier 

2. Quality Control 

Overseeing the work and ensuring that high quality is maintained in every aspect of the project will help to reduce the chances of rework in the future. So it’s crucial to ensure the project follows all the quality requirements. Here are some construction company KPIs that can help you: 

• The number of defects during the work 
• The frequency of site inspections 
• The amount of time dedicated to rectifying the defects 
• The costs of the rework activities
• Internal customer satisfaction  

3. Labor Productivity 

When your employees are productive, the work gets completed faster and more efficiently. But how can you really estimate your workers’ productivity ? Consider using these KPIs: 

• The average revenue your construction business gets for every working hour 
• Rate of the equipment downtime 
• The amount of waste/recycling per job 
• The percentage of labor downtime 

4. Employee Satisfaction 

If you find out that your employees are not productive in the workplace, it can be because of their lack of satisfaction with their work or the company. Measuring the level of employee satisfaction will help you understand if something is wrong with your company culture.

Employee satisfaction KPIs are: 

• The number of training completed 
• Turnover rate 
• Worker satisfaction 

5. Buyout Process

The buyout process begins when the general contractor wins a bid . During this process, the general contractor determines the percentage of work bought and tries to monitor the buyout for potential issues.

The main KPI here is: 

• The time between when the general contractor wins the bid and when the subcontractor buys out. 

The eight essential construction company goals that we’ve listed in the article will help you reach success in construction and grow your business quicker. But keep in mind that although knowing your goals is essential, you should know how to develop strategies that will help your business reach them. 

And in case you need some tips and tricks on your way, don’t forget to check out some of our other construction management articles that might come in handy for project management.

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What is a business plan, and when do you need one?

According to Cobello, a business plan is a document that contains the mission of the business and a brief overview of it, as well as the objectives, strategies, and financial plans of the founder. A business plan comes into play very early on in the process of starting a company—more or less before you do anything else.

“You should start a company with a business plan in mind—especially if you plan to get funding for the company,” Cobello says. “You’re going to need it.”

Whether that funding comes from a loan, an investor, or crowdsourcing, a business plan is imperative to secure the capital, says the U.S. Small Business Administration . Anyone who’s considering giving you money is going to want to review your business plan before doing so. That means before you head into any meeting, make sure you have physical copies of your business plan to share.

Different types of business plans

The four main types of business plans are:

Startup Business Plans

Internal business plans, strategic business plans, one-page business plans.

Let's break down each one:

If you're wondering how to write a business plan for a startup, Cobello has advice for you. Startup business plans are the most common type, she says, and they are a critical tool for new business ventures that want funding. A startup is defined as a company that’s in its first stages of operations, founded by an entrepreneur who has a product or service idea.

Most startups begin with very little money, so they need a strong business plan to convince family, friends, banks, and/or venture capitalists to invest in the new company.

Internal business plans “are for internal use only,” says Cobello. This kind of document is not public-facing, only company-facing, and it contains an outline of the company’s business strategy, financial goals and budgets, and performance data.

Internal business plans aren’t used to secure funding, but rather to set goals and get everyone working there tracking towards them.

As the name implies, strategic business plans are geared more towards strategy and they include an assessment of the current business landscape, notes Jérôme Côté, a Business Advisor at BDC Advisory Services .

Unlike a traditional business plan, Cobello adds, strategic plans include a SWOT analysis (which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and an in-depth action plan for the next six to 12 months. Strategic plans are action-based and take into account the state of the company and the industry in which it exists.

Although a typical business plan falls between 15 to 30 pages, some companies opt for the much shorter One-Page Business Plan. A one-page business plan is a simplified version of the larger business plan, and it focuses on the problem your product or service is solving, the solution (your product), and your business model (how you’ll make money).

A one-page plan is hyper-direct and easy to read, making it an effective tool for businesses of all sizes, at any stage.

How to create a business plan in 7 steps

Every business plan is different, and the steps you take to complete yours will depend on what type and format you choose. That said, if you need a place to start and appreciate a roadmap, here’s what Cobello recommends:

1. Conduct your research

Before writing your business plan, you’ll want to do a thorough investigation of what’s out there. Who will be the competitors for your product or service? Who is included in the target market? What industry trends are you capitalizing on, or rebuking? You want to figure out where you sit in the market and what your company’s value propositions are. What makes you different—and better?

2. Define your purpose for the business plan

The purpose of your business plan will determine which kind of plan you choose to create. Are you trying to drum up funding, or get the company employees focused on specific goals? (For the former, you’d want a startup business plan, while an internal plan would satisfy the latter.) Also, consider your audience. An investment firm that sees hundreds of potential business plans a day may prefer to see a one-pager upfront and, if they’re interested, a longer plan later.

3. Write your company description

Every business plan needs a company description—aka a summary of the company’s purpose, what they do/offer, and what makes it unique. Company descriptions should be clear and concise, avoiding the use of jargon, Cobello says. Ideally, descriptions should be a few paragraphs at most.

4. Explain and show how the company will make money

A business plan should be centered around the company’s goals, and it should clearly explain how the company will generate revenue. To do this, Cobello recommends using actual numbers and details, as opposed to just projections.

For instance, if the company is already making money, show how much and at what cost (e.g. what was the net profit). If it hasn’t generated revenue yet, outline the plan for how it will—including what the product/service will cost to produce and how much it will cost the consumer.

5. Outline your marketing strategy

How will you promote the business? Through what channels will you be promoting it? How are you going to reach and appeal to your target market? The more specific and thorough you can be with your plans here, the better, Cobello says.

6. Explain how you’ll spend your funding

What will you do with the money you raise? What are the first steps you plan to take? As a founder, you want to instill confidence in your investors and show them that the instant you receive their money, you’ll be taking smart actions that grow the company.

7. Include supporting documents

Creating a business plan is in some ways akin to building a legal case, but for your business. “You want to tell a story, and to be as thorough as possible, while keeping your plan succinct, clear, interesting, and visually appealing,” Cobello says. “Supporting documents could include financial projects, a competitive analysis of the market you’re entering into, and even any licenses, patents, or permits you’ve secured.”

A business plan is an individualized document—it’s ultimately up to you what information to include and what story you tell. But above all, Cobello says, your business plan should have a clear focus and goal in mind, because everything else will build off this cornerstone.

“Many people don’t realize how important business plans are for the health of their company,” she says. “Set aside time to make this a priority for your business, and make sure to keep it updated as you grow.”

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Strategic planning: How to set and meet your long-term goals

July 1, 2024 - 10 min read

Strategic planning is an ongoing process that defines your business goals and creates a roadmap for achieving them. Done well, strategic planning will help you focus on your long-term business development, instead of just reacting to changes and challenges in the market.

Strategic planning is important for:

• Creating a framework to track your progress
• Defining the KPIs to measure your performance effectively
• Identifying and eliminating mistakes in your planning
• Proactively identifying new opportunities and threats to your business
• Informing your resource allocation
• Aligning your stakeholders around a shared purpose and objective, even when they're working across departments

It’s important to remember that strategic planning is a tool that informs your decision-making process rather than a list of steps set in stone at the start of a new business phase. Strategic plans are also different from tactical plans, which are action-oriented steps to take, or project plans, which relate to a specific aspect of your company’s work.

So, in this post, we’ll show you the  essential parts of a truly flexible and responsive strategic plan , take you through the steps to create one, and show you how to implement it in a way that supports your team.

Essential elements of a strategic plan

Let’s start with the common elements of a strategic plan and the things you can consider as you lay one out. 

The more you understand these aspects, the easier it will be to create a plan that bridges the gap between your planned strategy and the real-world work it entails. 

Values statement

Your values are the principles that guide your professional behavior and the decisions you make. In a values statement, you define what’s important to your organization and how you want to conduct business. 

Values statements influence the way businesses work internally as well as the way they build relationships with their customers. For example, values can inform everything from workplace communications , to the training and support you provide, to the way you recognize achievements within your team. 

There’s a lot of overlap between business values and company culture , and this internalization is what makes values so central to strategic planning. 

When you look at your goals for the next three to five years (the period typically covered by a strategic plan), you should make sure your plans align with the way you want your employees and customers to experience your business. 

Clarifying your values at the beginning of the strategic planning process helps you keep this in mind, even if your plan evolves.  

Vision statement

Your organization’s vision statement sets out your long-term aspirations, focusing on what you want to achieve in the future. Vision statements should be concise, aspirational, and connected to your business’s core values — like the ones you laid out in the first section of your strategic plan. 

Because of the motivational element of a vision statement, it can be helpful to involve different stakeholders from across your organization (and even your client base) when you write it. This helps create a vision statement everyone feels represented by, which you can rally around when your work runs into challenges later. 

Mission statement

In contrast to the vision statement, your organization’s mission statement describes why it exists, who it serves, and what it does. It also explains — in a nutshell — how you intend to achieve your vision. 

For example, a creative and design agency’s vision statement might be:

“ To be the premier creative agency in our city, transforming businesses through innovative visual experiences. ” 

This could translate into a mission statement of: 

“ To create exceptional, user-centric designs that combine creativity and modern techniques to drive client success. ” 

As you can see, the mission statement switches focus from the ideals laid out in the vision to the practical steps that make those ideals a reality. 

SWOT analysis

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. SWOT analysis helps you understand the internal factors that could impact your strategic plan (your strengths and weaknesses). It also gives you a broader understanding of how your organization fits into the business landscape (the opportunities and threats). 

Another useful term for some business models is “PEST analysis,” which stands for political, economic, social, and technological. This type of “environmental scan” can give business leaders a deeper understanding of the external factors that could influence the entire organization during their next planning cycle. 

Understanding the internal and external pressures on your business before you start implementing your strategic plan will help you position yourself for success, develop strategies to gain a competitive advantage, and manage potential risks .

The business goals section of a strategic plan explains what your company wants to achieve in concrete terms. 

One of the most popular ways to approach goal setting is to use SMART principles , choosing goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 

With SMART goals, you gain a clear sense of purpose (from the specificity of the plan), motivation (from the achievability and relevance of the goals), and an additional push from a deadline. What’s more, the measurable aspect means you can gauge your progress and compare your achievements to the anticipated results. 

Other goal-setting techniques used by businesses include: 

• The balanced scorecard (or BSC) approach, which considers the goals from four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. This aligns the planned business activities with the company’s core vision and values, not just the finances.
• Objectives and key results (OKR) frameworks, which look at the history, benefits, and key components of your goals to determine your focus. 
• Management by objectives (MBO), which emphasizes the importance of clear goals, involves employees in decision making, and bases evaluations on whether the goals were achieved. 

Your objectives are the actions you’ll take to achieve your goals. 

To return to the agency example above, if one of the goals was to build long-term relationships with clients to ensure their ongoing success, the objectives could include:

• Establishing a system for gathering feedback and reviews 
• Conducting regular client satisfaction surveys 
• Regularly sharing actionable client insights with your wider team 

Objectives start to put your strategic plan into more practical terms, so you can order or categorize them as you lay them out. Grouping or prioritizing your objectives will make it far easier to manage your resources, delegate tasks, and show your team which of the objectives they should address first. 

Action plans

Finally, your action plans , which are sometimes described as “tactics” or “approaches,” outline the specific steps you’ll take to achieve your objectives. These plans break your objectives down into actionable tasks and subtasks — the stepping stones that take you through your strategic plan.

Action plans address the way the rubber hits the road, so it can be helpful to include some buffer room in this area of your strategic plan. Some businesses even make contingency plans at this stage before introducing the plan to their team members. 

Considering contingencies now means that when changes occur, you should be able to adjust your plan rather than starting from scratch once the emergency has passed. 

When you truly get to grips with these elements, you’re more likely to see the benefits of strategic planning when work begins. These benefits include: 

• A clear direction and focus for your team
• Increased engagement from teams that understand their roles and goals
• Effective decision making informed by up-to-date information
• A proactive management approach , set up to take advantage of opportunities and address challenges as they arise
• Long-term sustainability , based on an understanding of the business environment and risk mitigation 

Having said this, it’s essential to remember that any of these aspects could change over the course of the years you’ve planned for. Considering the vision, values, and opportunities that drive your business — and the steps you’ll take to put them into practice — should be an ongoing process as your work develops. 

When you get to grips with the idea of using your strategic business plan as a shared reference rather than a rulebook, you’re ready to create a plan of your own. 

Now, we’ll look at the strategic planning process in more detail. The examples here will show you how to bring an effective strategic plan together, align your  work with your goals, and put your team in the best position to focus, prioritize, and achieve their ongoing goals.

How to make a strategic plan: Step-by-step guide

The steps we detail here can help you create a solid but responsive strategic plan. 

1. Assess your business environment

• Analyze internal pressures within your business 
• Research the external environment you’re operating in
• Gather data and feedback on your team’s past performance 

Strategy formulation starts with a thorough understanding of what’s going on inside your business and in the external environment. Alongside the SWOT analysis we discussed above, many strategic frameworks start with an analysis of your company’s current position, including your performance in the previous fiscal year or planning cycle. 

With this assessment, you’ll set yourself up to create and measure the short- and long-term goals that can bring your company’s vision to life. 

To make these judgments more accurately, strategic planners often pull up the following records at the very beginning of the process (and then continue to reference them as time goes on): 

• Time tracking reports to assess what the team has been able to achieve in their billable hours and identify areas for improved efficiency 
• Cash flow data to assess their budget, find out where investments can be made, and identify areas where they need to reduce waste
• Feedback reports from customers, clients, or their team to quantify what the business does well, and identify areas where they’re not fully addressing a pain point 
• Resource allocation, including the way tasks are delegated among the number of team members available (this information is particularly useful for human resources teams at the start of a new phase, as they may have to, for example, hire additional employees to tackle a larger project)

Once you’ve identified any issues with past performance, you can consider areas for improvement, what you can realistically achieve, and take the other factors that will impact your desired outcomes into account. 

2. Define goals, strategic objectives, and performance metrics  

• Write out your long-term goals and break them into achievable steps
• Decide how best to measure and compare your progress 
• Find a logical way to visualize your tasks and your progress to keep your team on track

With the groundwork in place, you can turn your focus to operational planning and strategy development. 

In this planning phase, you consider the common goals shared across your organization. Then, you start to break them down into the short-term tasks you’ll need to achieve, and even the milestones that could make up those individual projects. 

With the goals as a framework, the next stage is to plan how to measure and visualize your progress. 

Consider which teams or team members need an overview and how to present the information in a way that fits their work. For example, while a marketing team might view a product launch as a series of dependent steps, the development team behind the scenes might be dealing with a backlog of tickets or bugs, where a linear overview doesn’t fit their more cyclical methodology. 

Finally, identify the first tasks in your strategic plan and decide who to delegate them to, how to communicate this, and how you’ll make sure the team members have the tools they need to start. This will make the execution phase much smoother. 

3. Implement and share your plan

• Onboard your team
• Delegate tasks 
• Ask for initial feedback 

Prior to this stage of the process, strategic planning was largely the responsibility of senior leadership. Now, you move to strategy implementation, where you bring your team members up to speed, assign ownership of the different aspects of the plan, and give them the tools they need to track their work and collaborate. 

Your exact strategy execution depends on the size of your organization, the planning tools you prefer to use, and the structure of your teams. 

For example, you might share a plan document, explaining the next steps while emphasizing your intention to adjust the steps if necessary. Other teams might invite employees to a shared workspace where they’ll find the goals and milestones. Some teams might hold a formal meeting to launch the new strategy, whereas others will see it as an extension of their current work.

However you approach this implementation, once the team is up to speed, you can start working toward your strategic goals. Remember, it can be beneficial to ask for feedback from your team, even at this early stage, to promote transparency and make sure you’re on track. 

4. Revise and restructure 

• Gather data on your progress 
• Create and share reports with your team and key stakeholders 
• Respond to changes and communicate the updated strategic plan

As we said above, successful strategic planning can respond to change. When you set out to create a strategic plan rather than a project plan or an annual business plan, you expect to adjust it as you learn more. The framework you create in the first three steps puts you in a strong position to do this. 

As your team starts to work through the action plans, you should monitor: 

• Task status data , which can help you identify or preempt delays and bottlenecks
• Your team’s capacity , to avoid burnout, reassign tasks, or adjust resource allocation
• Your KPIs , to see how your real-time performance matches up to any projections or expectations you created in the initial planning phases 

Sharing reports with this information with stakeholders can motivate your team, help them adjust their priorities, and invite suggestions for improvements. The most useful reports will be based on real-time data, so you know you’re acting on the latest information, staying agile, and adjusting your plan as necessary. 

It is possible to plan for and implement these steps with spreadsheets, emails, and shared documents, but it’s not ideal. 

With several potential versions of your plan in play, it can be difficult to locate the most up-to-date information in email chains, announcements, or shared documents.

With work shared across your company, it can be hard to communicate and share resources without creating delays, bottlenecks, and information silos. 

And with collaborative, aspirational goals, you need to find a way to unite your team around your shared purpose.  

So now, let’s turn to the software features that can help you assess, define, implement, and refine your strategic planning and support your team as you put it into action.

Get the essential tools for strategic planning with Wrike

With Wrike, you can: 

• Assess a wealth of data relating to your work , whether you’re making a new strategic plan or adapting as you go
• Implement your plan easily , and help your team see how their tasks contribute to your organization’s goals
• Align your entire team , even when multiple, distinct departments have a role to play 

Note: Wrike gathers data on your team’s work, performance, and capacity as they move through their tasks, and we use this information to generate the highly detailed, targeted insights you need for ongoing strategic planning. You can also import data from XLS spreadsheets , Outlook Tasks, or MS Project when you set up Wrike, so you can start with all this essential planning data at your fingertips. 

Generate comprehensive overviews and reports to align your teams

Wrike’s real-time, dynamic workspaces make it effortless to set and share your organizational goals. In your workspace, you can list every task that makes up an objective and every milestone that represents a goal, and make sure everyone on your team knows the role they have to play. 

Most importantly, Wrike gives you multiple ways to create a business strategy map, so every subteam — and even the individuals who make them up — can view their progress in a way that makes sense for them. 

Try adding some of these views to your organization’s workspace:  

• The Table view gives you a spreadsheet-style overview of your tasks, folders, projects, or spaces.
• A project dashboard is configured with widgets to filter your work management data to show the headline statistics, track your key performance indicators, alert you to risks, and show you the project status information you need to plan your approach.
• A Gantt chart helps you visualize your project timeline , find the critical path , and plan for the task dependencies that inevitably arise when a large team collaborates.
• The Kanban board represents your tasks as cards, giving you an instant overview, helping you identify bottlenecks, and visualizing where each task sits in your workflow.
• Wrike’s workload management tools help you accurately assess your team’s capacity and easily reassign tasks to help you meet your deadlines and goals.

Cross-tagging for effortless resource sharing 

Wrike’s unique cross-tagging feature is a game changer for organizations that need to bring scattered or cross-team employees together. 

Put simply, cross-tagging simplifies asset management, leads to better connectivity within and across teams, and dismantles the information silos that can slow a project down. 

Seamless communication in one platform

With Wrike, you can communicate seamlessly across your entire organization, with an intuitive system of notifications and automations. 

For example, whenever someone in your workspace is assigned a new task, they’ll receive a notification in Wrike, and also through one of the messaging platforms Wrike integrates with if you choose. The task (along with all the files and information they need to get started) will automatically appear in their personal dashboard, and they can start planning their approach straight away.

This is a fantastic way to speed up your review and approval workflows . Simply set tasks to notify designated approvers when they reach a certain status, or tag requested changes to team members with a simple @mention. 

This system speeds up your work and saves the confusion of endless internal email chains. It also builds the accountability and sense of ownership that can help keep your team on track to achieve their strategic goals. 

Strategic planning templates to get started fast

With Wrike, you can build a custom, automated workspace that meets all your team’s needs. 

Whether you’re looking for a single platform to track progress for a compact team or you need to scale up as you grow, Wrike helps you draw your strategic plan from a central source of truth and keeps everyone in the loop as you work toward your goals. 

To make strategic planning even easier, Wrike includes templates to help you build your workspace with your goals in mind. 

For example: 

• The strategic action plan template gives you features to optimize your task management , with departmental folders; daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly dashboards; and a clear picture of your objectives.
• The OKR template helps you define and work toward your objectives and key results at an earlier stage of the strategic planning process. This template is set up to record specific goals and metrics and determine the tactics to help you achieve them in Wrike. 
• The business goals template will help you set clear objectives and simplify your internal strategic planning. This template focuses on assigning accountability and tracking your project milestones, so you can set solid targets, communicate effectively, and collaborate cohesively from the very beginning of your new planning cycle.

Plan strategically, optimize with Wrike 

Strategic planning requires oversight, nuanced understanding, and an element of flexibility. When your team works in Wrike, you access all this, and more, with ease. 

Take a look at some of the results our customers have seen: 

• Staffing and recruiting company Aerotek cut weeks from its planning time and reduced internal emails by 85–90% .
• Manufacturing and technology specialist House of Design saved 16,600 hours in three years by streamlining its workflows and collaboration systems.
• TV advertising agency Marketing Architects slashed the response time on approvals from one day to only 20 minutes .
• Health, technology, and software company Fitbit is saving over 400 hours in meetings each year, and spending 50% less time on timeline building and management. 

From your first goal-setting meetings, to bringing your team on board, to honing your plans as you learn more, Wrike gives you all the tools you need to make your strategic planning successful. 

Morgan Jones

As a Content Marketing Manager at Wrike, Morgan is focused on developing and creating content for various channels, including blog posts, articles, social media copy, and email newsletters. With 10+ years of marketing experience, she has created content and marketing materials for various industries, including tech, franchise operations, financial institutions, and an international professional association. Her interests are in communication, collaboration, and productivity. She lives outside Orlando, Florida, with her husband and three children.

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Strategic Success: Overcoming Common Hurdles in Implementing Organizational Strategies

The successful implementation of organizational strategies is key to achieving strategic success. However, this is often easier said than done, as organizations face various hurdles along the way. In this article, we will explore the common hurdles in strategy implementation and provide insights into how organizations can overcome them to achieve their desired outcomes. Understanding Organizational Strategies Organizational strategies are the plans and actions that organizations put in place to achieve their long-term goals and objectives. These strategies provide a detailed outline for how an organization will allocate its resources, compete in the market, and ultimately achieve success. Organizational strategies are not just limited to large corporations. They are equally important for small businesses, non-profit organizations, and even government agencies. Regardless of the size or nature of the organization, having a well-defined strategy is crucial for long-term success. The Importance of Strategic Planning Helps organizations anticipate and adapt to changes in the business environment. By conducting a thorough analysis of internal and external factors, organizations can identify potential opportunities and threats.  Assists in aligning the efforts of employees and departments. When everyone in the organization is aware of the overall goals and strategies, they can work together towards achieving them.  Provides a roadmap for resource allocation. By setting clear goals and objectives, organizations can prioritize their resources and investments.  Common Hurdles in Strategy Implementation Despite careful planning and preparation, organizations often face hurdles when it comes to implementing their strategies. These hurdles can hinder progress and prevent organizations from realizing the full potential of their strategic initiatives. Let's explore some of the common hurdles in strategy implementation. Lack of Clear Communication When the strategic goals and objectives are unclear or not effectively communicated to all levels of the organization, it can result in confusion and employees not understanding their roles and responsibilities. This lack of clarity can greatly impact the successful implementation of the strategy. Clear communication is essential in ensuring that everyone in the organization is on the same page. It helps align everyone's efforts towards the common goal, and it fosters a sense of unity and purpose. Overall, this can be accomplished by providing regular updates and feedback to employees. Open and transparent communication channels create an environment of trust and collaboration, enabling employees to contribute their ideas and concerns, ultimately enhancing the strategy implementation process. Resistance to Change Employees may resist changes that come with the implementation of new strategies due to fear of the unknown, concerns about job security, or the perception that the changes may not be in their best interest. As such, overcoming resistance to change requires effective change management strategies. Leaders need to address employees' concerns and fears by providing clear explanations of why the change is necessary and how it will benefit both the organization and the individuals within it.  Additionally, creating a supportive and inclusive culture that embraces change is crucial. Leaders should encourage open dialogue, provide training and development opportunities, and recognize and reward employees' efforts and contributions during the implementation process. Insufficient Resources Without the necessary resources, organizations may struggle to execute their strategic initiatives successfully. Therefore, it becomes imperative to secure sufficient resources and then allocate them accordingly. All of this involves careful planning, as organizations need to assess their current resource capabilities and identify any gaps that need to be filled. What's more, they need to prioritize and allocate resources based on the critical areas that will have the most significant impact on the strategy's success.  In addition, companies can explore partnerships and collaborations to access additional resources. By leveraging external expertise and resources, organizations can overcome resource limitations and enhance their strategy implementation capabilities. Overcoming the Hurdles While these hurdles can be daunting, there are strategies that organizations can employ to overcome them and ensure successful strategy implementation. Let's explore some of these strategies. Building a Strong Communication Framework Effective communication is key to overcoming the hurdle of lack of clear communication. It is essential for organizations to establish a strong communication framework that ensures the strategic goals and objectives are clearly communicated to all employees. This involves regular communication channels, such as team meetings, email updates, and intranet platforms, to keep everyone informed and aligned. In addition, organizations can leverage technology to facilitate communication. They can invest in collaboration tools that enable real-time communication and document sharing across teams and departments. These tools not only improve efficiency but also promote collaboration and knowledge sharing, which are crucial for successful strategy implementation. Managing Change Effectively To address resistance to change, organizations must manage the change process effectively. This involves providing employees with the necessary information, training, and support to help them adapt to the changes brought about by the implementation of new strategies. Engaging employees in the change process and addressing their concerns can significantly reduce resistance and increase buy-in. One effective strategy for managing change is to create a change management team or committee within the organization. This team can be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive change management plan that includes clear communication, training programs, and support mechanisms. Businesses can also provide ongoing support to employees during the change process. This can mean coaching or mentoring programs to help individuals navigate the challenges associated with change.  Allocating Resources Wisely Organizations should carefully allocate their resources to maximize the chances of successful strategy implementation. This involves conducting a thorough resource analysis to identify any resource gaps and then allocating resources in a strategic and prioritized manner. Effective resource allocation ensures that the necessary tools, technology, and talent are available to support the execution of the organizational strategies. Companies can consider leveraging partnerships and collaborations to optimize resource allocation. By forging strategic alliances with external organizations or industry experts, organizations can access additional resources and expertise that may be otherwise unavailable. Furthermore, organizations can invest in continuous learning and development programs to enhance the skills and capabilities of their workforce. By providing employees with opportunities to expand their knowledge and acquire new competencies, organizations can strengthen their resource base and increase their capacity to execute strategies effectively. The Role of Leadership in Strategy Implementation Effective leadership plays a crucial role in driving successful strategy implementation. For instance, leaders must clearly articulate the vision and purpose behind the organizational strategies. They need to craft a compelling narrative that resonates with employees and inspires them to actively participate in the implementation process. By providing a clear sense of direction, leaders can create alignment and drive momentum towards the achievement of strategic goals. Leaders must also encourage team collaboration, by creating an environment that fosters open communication and values diverse perspectives. By promoting teamwork and collaboration, leaders can leverage the collective intelligence and creativity of their teams, leading to innovative solutions and successful strategy implementation. Implementing organizational strategies is a complex process that requires careful planning, effective communication, and perseverance. By understanding the common hurdles faced during strategy implementation and employing the strategies outlined in this article, organizations can overcome these hurdles and achieve strategic success. Through clear communication, effective change management, and resource allocation, organizations can navigate the path towards successful strategy implementation, ultimately driving sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Unravel strategic success by overcoming common hurdles in implementing organizational strategies with Wrike. Start your free trial now and set your organization on the path to success. Note: This article was created with the assistance of an AI engine. It has been reviewed and revised by our team of experts to ensure accuracy and quality.

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PR1MA collaborates with Huawei, Sany Construction on sustainable, affordable housing

Thursday, 04 Jul 2024

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KUALA LUMPUR: Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia (PR1MA) has established a strategic partnership with Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Huawei Malaysia) and SANY Construction Industry Development (M) Sdn Bhd (SCID) for the development of sustainable affordable housing for the people.

In a statement today, PR1MA announced that it had issued a Letter of Intent to explore collaboration with Huawei Malaysia and re-signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SCID, a subsidiary of China-based SANY Global, to continue PR1MA’s sustainable development efforts across Malaysia.

The collaboration between PR1MA and Huawei Malaysia will be facilitated through PR1MA's subsidiary, PR1MA Communications Sdn Bhd (PCSB), which will integrate Huawei Malaysia's smart devices into PR1MA developments.

Meanwhile, it said the MoU between PR1MA and SCID is an extension of the MoU signed on April 1, 2023, to strengthen collaboration under the construction, human capital development, and sustainable management agenda based on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) principles.

"This effort is in line with the MADANI government's commitment to exploring potential cooperation between Malaysia and China in housing, technology, and urban planning,” said PR1MA, an agency under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT).

It added that the strengthening of the collaboration between PR1MA and SCID aims to continue joint efforts with global industry giants in the implementation of the Industrialised Building System (IBS) technology, especially for PR1MA City launched in June.

"This collaboration will also explore strategic cooperation under the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme and the adoption of eco-friendly technologies such as solar energy systems and electric vehicles (EV), including waste management trucks, sanitation trucks, and vehicles,” it said.

The agency added that through the initiative with Huawei Malaysia and SCID, PR1MA aims to introduce more innovations in the housing sector that will bring long-term benefits to PR1MA residents and homebuyers. - Bernama

Tags / Keywords: PR1MA , Huawei Malaysia , SANY Construction ,

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Kane County considers creating first strategic plan since 2006

Kane County is considering a strategic planning process to create a five-year road map for the future of the county, which would be the first time the county has created such a plan since 2006. The Kane County Executive Committee discussed the proposed five-year strategic plan at its meeting on Wednesday and unanimously approved a resolution to seek out proposals from consulting firms to help develop the plan. That resolution now goes to the Kane County Board, which meets on July 9. “I don’t understand how, as an organization, we...

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• Tighter margins: $4 corn and $10 soybeans
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The USDA Outlook Board published Long Term Agricultural Projections in February of 2024. USDA economists studied the supply and demand of agricultural products and projected marketing year average estimates for commodities out to 2033.

USDA is projecting corn and soybeans to quickly return to the $4 and $10 area and stay there for several years. This follows a five-year period of very strong commodity prices.

The average cost of production including operator labor and management is $4.21 for corn and $9.82 for soybeans on cash-rented ground for the last 5 years among farms in the FinBin database. This database contains the financial results of more than 2,000 farms each year. Farms must be proactive and address these tightening margins.

Preparing for lower agricultural margins requires strategic planning and proactive measures to ensure the sustainability and profitability of agricultural operations.

Here are the top five things to prepare for:

Cost management and efficiency improvement

• Conduct a thorough analysis of your production costs and identify areas where you can cut unnecessary expenses without compromising the quality of your product.
• Implement precision agriculture techniques to optimize inputs like water, fertilizers, and pesticides. This can help reduce costs and increase yields.
• Invest in energy-efficient equipment and renewable energy sources to lower utility costs.

Diversification of income streams

• Diversify your crop portfolio to spread risk and reduce dependency on a single crop. This can help buffer against price fluctuations and adverse weather conditions.
• Consider alternative agricultural enterprises such as livestock, agro-tourism, or value-added products.
• Explore opportunities for off-farm income to supplement agricultural earnings, such as part-time jobs, consulting, or renting out farm facilities.

Market strategies and sales optimization

• Increase direct-to-consumer sales through farmers markets, CSA (community-supported agriculture) programs, or on-farm sales.
• Develop and market value-added products to capture more value from your produce. This could include organic certification, specialty foods, or processing raw products.
• Strengthen relationships with buyers, retailers, and distributors to secure better terms and ensure stable demand.

Financial planning and risk management

• Create detailed budgets and financial forecasts to plan for various scenarios and ensure you have a clear understanding of your financial position.
• Invest in crop insurance and other relevant insurance products to protect against unexpected losses due to weather, pests, or market volatility.
• Manage debt carefully by refinancing existing loans at lower interest rates, paying down high-interest debt, and avoiding unnecessary new debt.
• Prepare financial statements, such as balance sheets and accrual income statements to monitor financial progress and to find strengths and weaknesses.

Technology adoption and innovation

• Adopt precision agriculture technologies such as GPS-guided equipment, soil sensors, and drones to improve efficiency and productivity.
• Use data analytics to monitor crop performance, predict trends, and make informed decisions.
• Implement automation where feasible to reduce labor costs and increase operational efficiency. This could include automated irrigation systems, robotic harvesters, and advanced sorting and packing equipment.

Preparing for lower agricultural margins requires a multifaceted approach that focuses on cost management, diversification, market strategies, financial planning, and the adoption of innovative technologies. By proactively implementing these strategies, farmers can enhance their resilience, maintain profitability, and ensure long-term sustainability in the face of challenging economic conditions.

Author: Garen Paulson, Extension educator, Southwest Minnesota Farm Business Management Association

Permission is granted to news media to republish our news articles with credit to University of Minnesota Extension. Images also may be republished; please check for specific photographer credits or limited use restrictions in the photo title.

© 2024 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

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1993 how the construction company remstroy was created   the year 1993 was a period when a lot of construction companies, which had been working successfully during the soviet times and had rich staff capacity, were forced to cease their activity for various reasons. a lot of capable specialists either had to look for another job or change their field. but there were also those who were willing to realise their potential in the field of construction in accordance with the received degree and the experience they had accumulated. thus, in 1993 in elektrostal (moscow oblast) a group of specialists and people sharing each other’s ideas, who had enormous educational background and the highest degree in architecture, organized and registered ooo firm erg which began its rapid development and successful work, offering its service both on the construction market and other areas. 2000 industrial construction is the main area   seven years of successful work have shown that combining different types of activities in the same company is not always convenient. and in the year 2000 the founders of ooo firm erg decided to create and register a monoprofile construction company ooo remstroy construction company. industrial construction was chosen as the priority area. it was in this area that the directors of ooo sk remstroy began their working life and grew as specialists. in order to achieve the set goal, they selected a mobile team of professionals in the field of industrial construction, which allows us to cope with the tasks assigned to ooo sk remstroy throughout russia and the near abroad. 2010 manufacturing of metal structures   we possess modern equipment that allows us to carry out the entire cycle of works on the manufacture of metal structures of any complexity without assistance. designing – production – installation of metal structures. a staff of professionals and well-coordinated interaction of the departments let us carry out the work as soon as possible and in accordance with all customer’s requirements.” extract from the list of members of self-regulatory organizations, construction.

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