Blogs
Many of us have ordered items through Amazon, eBay and other on-line stores. Sometimes we receive items that are the wrong size – which might be our fault because we ordered the wrong size, maybe we were over optimistic, perhaps we got confused between US, UK and European sizes, or possibly the item is smaller […]
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In what typically passes for “bonding” in the industry, people often share their war stories over a drink or two and some of the best stories concern tendering disasters. As you would expect I’ve heard my fair share of these tales and had quite a few personal experiences as well. The thing is, the same […]
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South Australia’s construction industry will witness a boom with the onset of mega works in construction, adding up to almost $1 billion worth of projects. That too, in a short period of the two-quarters. Finally, South Australian residents will get what they have been waiting for to start for so long. You will see the […]
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Winning a Tender – It’s Like Passing an Exam! If you thought, in order to win tenders, all you need is to quote the lowest bid in an impressive letter, think again. It takes much more than that! It’s quite similar to clearing an exam; you’ve to prepare well, understand and follow the instructions and […]
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From my experience working with companies in major construction, the majority of people don’t fully understand the ways content such as; blog posts, videos and business listings can attract more traffic to your website and create potential customers, as they believe because they are in a niche market they therefore have no need to publish […]
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These days if you ask most successful businesses where they find most of their potential customers they will tell you through online marketing. It’s rare that companies get more customers through ads in the local newspaper or ads in the telephone book these days. Most people find out about companies based on Google searches or […]
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Time management carries a great deal of significance for construction managers. In fact, your ability to be successful in your projects depends on how efficient you are able to manage the time at your disposal. For a construction manager to deliver the best, one has to learn how to manage the people, workflows, and processes […]
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Patience is a Virtue Very few things in life that are worth having come easily. Unfortunately, that includes marketing as well. Of course, we all want to spend as little as possible and get the fastest results, but there are no shortcuts to good marketing. Now, there’s nothing wrong with using shortcuts to get a […]
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Do your employees understand how important good client relations are? Construction companies are always searching for new projects to bid on. You examine bidding lists, visit potential clients, and even advertise. But an important source of new construction projects are your existing clients. Your existing clients not only could have further projects for you to […]
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How’s your relationship with the business? Is your business serving you or is it constantly demanding more than you can give? Instead of taking the easy road and blaming the business, it might be time to consider whether the constraint may actually be emanating from you? Let’s visit a dysfunctional business – what do we […]
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Do your subcontractors really understand what is expected of them? Many readers will say, ‘of course yes, it’s spelled out in our contract document.’ But, are you sure? Several months ago the neighbours across the street engaged a contractor to do renovations on their house. One Saturday at 6.45am the neighbourhood was awoken by loud […]
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Are you paid on time? Do you pay timeously? Late payments are the bane of the construction industry hurting many companies. Some major multi-national mining companies pay their suppliers and contractors 90 days after invoice. Even large contractors habitually pay their subcontractors and suppliers at 60 and even 90 days. Wow, they must be nuts! […]
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My anecdotal evidence suggests that 90% of business partners in engineering and construction firms are experiencing strained relationships. While this is just my observation as a consequence of working with business owners to sort their issues out, the fact that this pattern keeps repeating itself tells me that for many firms this is a significant […]
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Can you recall the last time you bought a new car? I’ll bet that almost as soon as you paid for it an amazing thing began to happen. The exact same model of vehicle started to pass you on the road, a few more began to show up parked in your neighbourhood and you might […]
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If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been in a Tender review meeting and heard “it’s all about price”…well you know how the rest of the saying goes. Variations on the theme I’ve heard include “the lowest tender always wins”, “money is the only language they understand“ and my personal favourite “why […]
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