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Construction companies can often tackle both big and small jobs thanks to their huge teams and wide coverage of skills and experience.

The same company that fixes your roof can also be a company that builds entire houses from scratch. While there are certainly some companies that specialize in various aspects of construction, it’s never a bad idea to pivot your skills to cover a wider range of services.

But how do you go from a local home-grown contractor to a full-on construction company? What kind of considerations do you have to keep in mind, and how do you manage growth without crumbling under the pressure? Here are some things to consider.

Filling in the employment and service gaps

One of the biggest challenges of growing your local contracting company is finding people to tackle different skill requirements. For instance, if you’re currently missing a competent building planner or roof specialist, then you may need to recruit one into your team so that they can be a part of larger building projects. Similarly, you might find that you lack specialists in utilities like water and electricity. If that’s the case, then you’ll want to hire more professionals to work in your team so that you can cover a wider range of services.

The alternative is to hire other contractors to work on your projects with you. This will need to be disclosed when you advertise your services so that your clients know that you’ll be subcontracting. This is relatively normal for complex projects, such as if your client requires highly specific design elements that you can’t manage.

But in addition to these skill gaps, you might also need to hire other services to handle other aspects of construction. One example is waste disposal. If you’ve been contracted to demolish a building before you build on top of the land, then you may need a dumper hire recommendation or to get in touch with a waste disposal service that you can work with on a long-term basis. Partnering with other local services can be a great idea if you’re looking to grow a network of specialists. But if you can afford to invest the time and money into new employees, getting them on your team could be the better long-term solution.

Investing in project management tools and processes

Large projects tend to be far more complex and demanding than small ones due to all of the extra considerations that you have to keep in mind. There are more staff members to manage, more details to keep an eye out for, and also more financial obligations to meet. As a result, you’ll often find yourself swarmed with tasks which can drastically reduce your productivity.

So in order to overcome this, you have to invest in your project management tools and processes. Getting organized is one of the best ways to smooth out the growth of a larger company, and it prevents things from turning into a complete mess later in the future. Not only will this make it easier to manage your business, but you’ll also find that it’s easier to juggle multiple projects at the same time which is essential for larger construction companies.

Good project management skills can take a while to learn, especially if you’re not put into a situation where you need to streamline processes and improve your company’s overall efficiency. So if you invest in these tools from an early stage, you can get accustomed to managing larger projects so that the skills carry over when you grow your business.

Ask yourself if it’s the right move to make

Finally, don’t forget that there are plenty of successful construction businesses that don’t operate on a large scale. There are plenty of companies that are content with being the local go-to contractor for various jobs, and they don’t have much desire to take on bigger projects. Not only is it daunting, but it requires some serious commitment and investment in order for it to work. In addition, it’s often more charming to work with local clients on smaller projects. You get to work with your local community, build a loyal customer base, and often reduce your prices so that it’s affordable for everyone.

So before you take the plunge and invest your resources and time into growing your construction company, ask yourself if it’s really the right move for you. Consider if you’d be better off working locally and holding on to your local contracting group, or if you really do want to grow into a large construction company.

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