Boom And Bust

woodmagman

The time to stream line a business....does it make sense to target specific areas of the more profitable parts of the business during a boom period, even when the less profitable areas are busy. Or should a company wait for things to slow....

concretemasonry

Do you want to grow or stay comfortable in you own market?

When times are boom, a growth oriented contractor has the luxury of taking on some SELECTED work in the less profitable markets to learn. If you wait for the slow down, you end up learning on the little work that you can get.

If you want to be comfortable, build your reputation and do a great quality job with personal service on your selected type of jobs.

Just make sure YOU decide what part and volume of the market you want.

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Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

POOLMANinCT

well said concremasonry.. all I have to add, never neglect or thumb your nose at aftermarket services. in my buisness
service renovation is often thrown away by many outfits... every pool I have built or reovated, was done so with the intention of an open & close, chem supply, repair work etc....
service is "bust proof,"
and rakes in steady predictable revenue... if the bottom fell out of construction for a year or two, I'd have no worries..
as long as I can say to the "man in the mirror' I've been responsible, and did not "flush" any opportunities."

I've always recommend growth in niche work, opposed to branching into other scopes of work. it is the niche work that is exceptonally profitable...

long and short, if it works do more....

ray

__________________
......Less with the jaw & More with the paw.....

woodmagman

My thought process now is that times are good and streamlining is what we should be doing to extract every nickle out of the resouces at hand rather then slugging away at harder more time consuming jobs.
In the good times the resources are hard to come by as are the people to manage those resouces.
I am talking about a 5 digit number per month that we would be cut to take on an additionial 5 percent in profit providing buisness can be increased on the other projects.
It is very hard to cut when it coming in........