Giving the Designer Touch to Your Clients
If you're in the residential construction business, no one has to tell you how competitive it is. You constantly have to stay one step ahead of your competition who is ready to bid a little lower and take your client right out from underneath your nose. The trick to getting and keeping your clients, even when the other guy comes in a little lower is to project an air of self confidence and make it clear you know exactly what you're doing. Remind people they do indeed get what they pay for.
Nine times out of ten, even the Scrooge client who only looks at the bottom line on a construction job will turn towards that conventional wisdom and agree, sometimes it's worth it to pay a little more to get quality workmanship.
If you have an eye for color, take your construction a little bit further and offer full interior designs to your clients. You can take a beat up, plaster walled room and add drywall over the peeling plaster and once it's taped and textured all that will be left will be to add paint. Consider offering a full interior service as well. There's good money to be made for not only doing interior construction but also
painting the rooms yourself. It's just basically choosing colors that look good together and many clients already know exactly what they want going in.
Another way to do it would be to team up with a degreed interior designer and once you've done the make ready on an interior; arrange for your designer to consult with your client and you can still reap the benefits of your association in the profits and it will also give you an edge of offering a service your competition doesn't.
posted by Contractor Guides
Get Exclusive Knowledge on Calculating Construction Costs in 2007
If you are an architect, contractor or an engineer you can benefit greatly from a guide that helps you calculate construction costs and takes into consideration the price increases that many areas of the industry will be experiencing in 2007.
The
2007 ACE Guide to Construction Costs provides the most accurate and up-to-date data for material and installation costs, labor and equipment rates, and even adjusted allowances for overhead and profit to make sure you're making a profit while bidding competitively. This guide will help anyone in the architectural fields, contractors and engineers bid with confidence on any job.
This guide is published yearly and is made to give a uniform way to estimate your costs and keep control over your budget so you can maximize your profits and not wind up with hidden fees that ruin your profit margin or worse, make it so you have to change a bid to a client and ask for more money - that's a very uncomfortable situation for everyone and makes you look very unprofessional.
The calculating system can be used with or without a computer system. If you've put on becoming computer savvy - you can still use this valuable guide to get your estimates compiled and calculated accurately. No matter what part of the construction industry you work in, your costs for calculating mechanical, electrical, square footage costs and more are covered in this guide.
Now that you have the inside scoop for getting the most out of your bids for 2007, use this guide to make bids that are both cost effective for clients and profitable for your company.
posted by Contractor Guides
