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Helping contractors deliver profits on construction projects

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Solve Every Commercial Problem

If you want to increase your profits you need to be able to solve every problem. There are nine basic tools that every contractor needs to make money. In today’s issue, I want to go through the nine tools. Tools 1 to 3 help you manage your tenders. 1. Decision Making Tool- Ensure you price the right opportunities that are going to make money. Every construction contractor needs a way of quickly deciding whether or not to price a tender. You need to make sure you don’t end up with a series of...

If your works have been delayed you may have incurred additional costs. To recover this money, you need to put together a claim for prolongation costs. The first step is to prepare a programme showing the actual or anticipated effect of the events. Then, you can see the extension of time you are entitled to. This will provide protection against damages. The programme also needs to support your claim to recover additional costs. The costs you need to recover can be split between prolonged...

You need to make sure you don’t get hit with delay damages. We were at a weekly progress meeting and the client told us they were going to instruct additional works. They wanted us to install an additional 40 piles. We told them that this would delay completion of our works. For every day that we were late completing out works, the contract stated that the client could deduct damages. This meant that we had to demonstrate that we were entitled to an extension of time. This would protect us...

There are two ways to increase our profits. Maximise the amount we get paid. Reduce our costs to a minimum. Today we will focus on controlling our costs. Tender We start with the tender. I recommend building up a tender using a schedule of planned resources. The tender should be split into people, plant and materials. This means we can easily identify the amount we have allocated to each. Budget Once the project has been awarded, we need to put the tender aside and put together a budget. We...

It's often said that all we have are the black words on the white page. But sometimes we can rely on words are not written down in the contract. They are written down in other places. These are "implied terms." What are implied terms? A common example of an implied term is when the client has not provided access in accordance with the contract. This means that the contractor cannot begin their works on time. In our example, the contract has an access date and a completion date. The client is...

As a construction contractor, you know how important it is to have all the necessary information to complete your work on time. Unfortunately, clients are often late in providing construction information. Late provision of information can lead to the following problems: - Delayed start and completion of works - Increased costs - Client deducting damages for late completion It is essential to protect yourself and ensure that you are compensated when the client does not provide information by a...