How To Grow Your Building Company By Outsourcing

Are you drowning in admin tasks because you don’t have enough staff?

The problem for residential home builders is that there is so much to do, but until you hit the $10 million mark, it’s simply not viable to employ people in the roles you need.

Which leaves you and your team trying to do everything and mastering nothing.

According to microsourcing.com, 78% of businesses that outsource have a positive experience with their outsourcing company.

Which is why professional builders increase efficiently by outsourcing admin tasks...while old school builders continue to attempt to do everything in-house.

So stop trying to do everything yourself...

And start tapping into other companies’ expert knowledge by outsourcing...

When you do this, you not only reduce your costs, you also get instant access to skill and experience.

You Need To Take Back Control Of The Business

One of the biggest myths about outsourcing is that you will lose control of your business.

The truth is, outsourcing actually gives you more control, it just shifts the process of information.

When you have a set of guidelines and communicate your expectations with your providers in order to meet your needs, then you remain firmly in control of the results.

So don’t listen to the dinosaurs that tell you they do everything themselves in-house because it gives them greater control...

Instead, listen to the builders that are growing their building companies faster by tapping into the massive opportunity we now have through outsourcing.

Here are some tips that may help you.

The First Place To Start

Start by focusing on ‘who’, not ‘how’.

Let me explain.

Whenever something needs to be done, we tend to focus on how it can solve the problem.

That old style of thinking draws into the process of figuring out how to solve the problem and then creating a process that can be followed by a team member for execution.

However, by first thinking who can do this rather than how it can be done, the project can be delegated to an appropriate team, or outsourced to a specialist.

How fast could you grow your building company if you had an easier way to execute your ideas and an unlimited pool of talent to execute for you?

Ask These Three Simple Questions

After you’ve started with ‘who’, next ask yourself three easy questions.

What’s the goal?

What’s the cost?

And what’s the risk?

When you spend a few minutes answering these questions, you and your outsourcing partner will have a clear understanding of what’s expected and how success will be measured.

Your goal should include measurable results and a timeline. The risk would be the total amount of money at stake should things not pan out the way you were expecting.

Balancing the risk versus the results will give you a good idea of which projects should be prioritised for outsourcing in your building company.

How To Find The Right Fit

And in order to get better results from outsourcing, always be looking for specific experience to fit.

It goes without saying that if you are already outsourcing the carpentry rather than employing carpenters directly, then you must have looked for a good fit with the type of work you are doing.

A high-end custom home builder would not be tempted to take on a team of carpenters whose sole experience was working with volume builders.

Equally a builder specialising in houses for investors would not need to pay a premium rate for carpenters that typically work to a higher standard than is required.

It’s the same when it comes to outsourcing your bookkeeping, marketing or even some types of admin.

Look for construction industry experience.

You don’t want to be paying for someone’s learning curve and all the associated risks that come with it.

A bookkeeper that does not understand the work in progress calculation will produce meaningless financial reports.

A marketer that does not understand why people choose a builder will produce copy that fails to generate leads.

And a personal assistant that does not understand the build process and terminology will be forever asking you how to do something.

So seek out experience and choose your outsourcing partners wisely!

The Best Place To Start

So what if you could easily outsource areas of your business like carpentry, marketing, bookkeeping and even answering the phone to specialists?

Would it help you with focusing on ‘managing’ rather than ‘doing’?

Our members thought it would...

Check out the Association of Professional Builders Membership Demonstration to see how we're helping custom home builders.

Click on the link below to learn more.