If your prefrontal cortex is working in tandem with your hippocampus, consider yourself normal…and forgetful.  That is right, being forgetful is normal, unless you have figured out how to reverse your age.   What does that have to do with residential construction?  Well, neither your construction nor memory is perfect. That too is normal. It is not Alzheimer’s. It is normal. How are you handling that? Every builder is managing their business in some way today. Most of them will reach some threshold where they can not continue without some system in place. Each of the individuals in the company have the same problem as the company…keeping everything together and moving in one direction. Just like you tell your customers to expect a certain number of action items for you to come back and fix after you have built them a quality home, your business runs the same way.  There are things you have to fix, even in businesses with well run processes, standards and solid management.  The business owner with the perfect memory doesn’t really exist. But every business owner readily accepts there will be changes in their business.  Successfully managing change is essential to profitability.  

You simply can not remember everything, and you can not share 100% of your partial memory, so the trickle down concept ends up really costing your business a lot.  Leveraging technology can fix that. Businesses embrace tools, whether it is a pneumatic nail gun, cell phones, a new health insurance policy, or software, no matter what software or type of software you choose. To reach the full potential a business genuinely has, an Owner must reach beyond their personal capability.  They hire staff, and produce a product or service under the “buy low, sell high” concept and struggle to compete in our hyper-competitive society.  If you have the right “tools” you can accomplish so much more.  Just leveraging technology can touch every single part of your business.  You could solve these problems: 

Are you losing money before you started building?  Manage the entire pre construction cycle, bidding and contracting, price changes, keeping track of trade partners and their bids, what plans you can, and can not, build per lot, what are the lot dependant options, customer selections, change orders, and so much more…all with some sort of construction management system. 

Are you managing your profit by a standard margin or markup, across all options, all plans and your entire company?  Probably not; but if so, is it easy or an arduous process?  Sometimes you pay $64 for a microwave and charge $120. Sometimes you pay $165 and charge $103.  At least many builders struggle with that.  It is tough to manage the ever changing cost of lumber, options, change order fees, non standard options, finishes, room by room, and more.  Builders are awash in change.  It is in fact, what we do, sell and offer in this industry.  Managing that change with Excel or simple databases in real time is grueling. 

Do you know where all your documents are? Which one is the latest version? How do you share certain ones with your home owners while sharing only some others with say your builders, or your trade partners?  Doesn’t sound so easy, right?  Builders deal with this every day.  Technology can fix it. 

Are you succeeding in getting every sales person to do every task you want them to do?  If not, you need a system that is there friend and one they will use.  If you don’t have that, to an extent, you are positioning your sales people to fail, or succeed less and therefore, reducing your own benefit.  Most, but not all, sales people are like water. They find the path of least resistance, but are essential.  That allows them to eventually overcome and succeed, but are not so easy to control.  Position whatever system you choose as their path of least resistance.  You will all win. 

Are you making your builders remember customer’s issues, or what the trade partner’s problems are, or where you stand on every lot they are working on?  Gee, that is tough, even among the young.  Here is a hint.  The perceived memory of an older, well experienced, business person is better than a young, less experienced builder.  But that is just perception. Why, because the older person has learned how to circumvent their weaknesses, including memory, with solutions like notes.  Giving your builder a tool, will help you manage profit, reduce the construction cycle, reduce mistakes, reduce turnover, speed up the transition from one trade type to the next and much more.  That piece of technology might be a web enabled pda such as a blackberry or palm.  It could be software, or maybe a laptop, or some combination of all of them.  But technology, along with training, will streamline all of these types of things.  You and your builders will mutually benefit. 

Where is your best bang for the buck on your marketing dollars?  Are you able to genuinely determine the number of leads that came in, what source they are from, how much that cost, and which ones closed?  Technology does it, along with leadership. It is easy to see how the memory of each and every player on your team can’t possibly be counted on.Wouldn’t it be nice to have insight in to what they are remembering, or forgetting, or at least doing?  Pick your tool, because it is out there, and you can do it. You have the power, the choice and the ability to be a leader, taking your team, where they will not go on their own.  Remember…change is good!  Change is what you live for! 

Erik Cofield, CGA has leveraged technology and provided business management consulting for all sizes and types of builders, developers and Remodelers since 2000, including volume, multi-family and custom, to help them improve their business. He is the National Accounts Manager with BuildTopia (www.buildtopia.com), a widely used international construction management software company. He is the Houston Sales and Marketing Council 2008 Associate of the Year. He is an author, educator, consultant and speaker.  He can be reached via ecofield@buildtopia.com.