Managing Project Management: Could Your Business Do Better?

Tradespeople enjoy hands-on work by nature, which is why project management often falls behind.

Unfortunately, this is also where many businesses fail.

In the past, project management issues have led to delays, cost overruns, and other problems that impact a company’s profitability, as well as their reputation.

That’s why it’s a good idea to take a step back and evaluate your management processes. Once you’ve got a good idea of potential weaknesses, it’s time to look into where you could be more effective.

One solution would be to look at implementing new project management methodologies, such as Lean or Agile. It’s a great way to make the process fresh and reevaluate the way you do things.

‘Lean’, for example, is all about maximising value and minimising waste, with several key principles and steps that you might apply as you undertake every new project. This approach can help to:

• Reduce lead times
• Decrease overall costs
• Improve quality and efficiency
• Better customer satisfaction.

Another solution is to find new job management software to help with things like estimating and day-to-day business.

Buildxact, helps business ‘runners’ in construction to do takeoffs online up to 80% faster, streamline estimating and quoting, order materials, and keep track of profit and cashflow. You also have access to a Mitre 10 price list, where you can make direct orders for materials and it automatically takes that into account.

How you relate to clients and stakeholders is vital to the longevity and flexibility of any business, particularly in construction.

Consider the level of trust and transparency you’ve developed with these key figures, and any ways you might improve. This often leads to better communication and collaboration and, as a result, more successful projects and happier collaborations.

On top of this, strong relationships with subcontractors and suppliers can make it easier to access the resources to complete projects on time and within budget, avoiding blowouts or delays.

There are several useful tools out there to take the hard work out of several workplaces processes.

Health & Safety Requirements

The right tools can help with things like generating site-specific plans, providing workers with easy-to-access tools, and 24/7 support when you need to report an incident.

HazardCo is a great option – they’re a Mitre 10 partner, and a simple platform to bring all of this together.

Never the most thrilling job, an easy-to-use invoicing system can save hassle by allowing you to send invoices, claim expenses, pay bills, track projects and more, all in one place.

Xero is our top suggestion here. You can even connect your Mitre 10 TradeOnline account to have purchase invoices flow in automatically.