3 Ways to Reduce Commercial Construction Costs

Every business wants to reduce their overhead costs, and the commercial construction industry is no exception. When you're looking for ways to increase profit margins, it pays to look for ways to become more cost-efficient. It's possible to do so without jeopardizing the quality of your project or the morale of your crew members. In this guide, we’re going to look at three ways of reducing commercial construction costs efficiently.

1: Use Strategic Cost Estimation Practices

According to Construction Analytics: Economics Behind the Headlines, "Nonresidential Buildings construction spending is forecast to increase 5.8% to $444 billion in 2018, dip -0.2% to $443 billion in 2019 and climb 8.9% to $482 billion in 2020."

Developing strategic cost estimation practices involves the inclusion of all construction costs. That way, you have the information in front of you regarding controlling and reducing commercial construction costs. Taking this step also helps ensure you'll meet the project's deadline and remain within budget.

These strategies help projects stay within budget because:

• Managers and stakeholders can make decisions using the data in front of them.
• Team members know the costs of the plan throughout every stage of the project.
• Lines of communication remain open to ensure all information is understood and received on time.

Cost estimating occurs in collaboration with the architects, contractors, and all others working on the project. The use of CRM, in conjunction with this step, helps easily manage a company’s interaction with current and potential customers within a dedicated cloud-based management tool. This helps to stay organized when dealing with multiple data-sets.

2: Crew Management and Cost Efficiency

Commercial construction companies depend on heavy equipment daily, and this comes at a cost. Therefore, it's essential to keep these costs down by:

• Estimating how much expenditures are necessary for the crew and fleet monthly.
• Analyzing your fleet's usage.
• Replacing older fleet vehicles with newer, higher efficiency ones that will save money in the long run (budget constraints can include rental of these vehicles).

Incorporate Reporting

It’s also possible to reduce commercial construction costs through the use of reporting. Create professional, data-driven reports during your estimation process. This helps drive better decisions through key findings that wouldn't stand out with regular reports, as well as improve workflow processes.

Increase Employee Performance

Additionally, consider hiring employees who are willing to multi-task. What that means is they're ready to consistently deliver above and beyond the description of their scope of work. Implementing this strategy means your commercial construction business is extracting maximum productivity from every employee. In doing so, you're eliminating downtime while simultaneously reducing construction costs and saving time.

3: Out with the Old and in the New

Why is replacing old technology with new technology a critical step regarding reducing commercial construction costs? In addition to increasing your construction company's expenses, outdated and old technology also hampers your employees' productivity. There are several ways for addressing this issue, including:

Look at your current technology:

Is it possible to find a cost-effective way of speeding up operations? Do you find your employees are performing repetitive tasks that new technology could eliminate that issue?

Consider going green:

Despite the high cost of the initial investment, you'll see a cost-reduction in the long run. The implementation of sustainable and energy-efficient practices are excellent strategies regarding cutting down operating costs tremendously.

• Optimize: Analyze every area of your commercial construction business. When you look at everything from equipment in the field to lighting in your offices, the optimization of their uses helps deliver more while simultaneously costing less.
• Recycle: Are there items, materials, or equipment you can recycle instead of throwing them away? If so, incorporate sustainable thinking into your cost-reduction plan.
• Reuse: Are you looking for ways to reduce waste by reusing materials or other items? Think about what your commercial construction business can reuse as a way of reducing costs.

Implement user-friendly software:

Look for new tools and software to streamline your processes and are user-friendly. The majority of them don't require advanced skills for implementation. Making this choice reduces the need for high-level training or skills.

Incorporate practical training:

Speaking of training, when switching to new software and tools, you must train your employees accordingly. That way, you are sure costly mistakes aren’t occurring.

There is a broad range of benefits to using new and improved digital technology for improving productivity and lowering expenses. The first benefit is the use of takeoffs. Perform fast digital takeoffs right from the blueprint. This helps reduce takeoff time that is often slowing down the estimation process. Next is using digital technology’s tracking feature. That way, you can keep track of your employees' performance, productivity, and progress. Another benefit is effective communication. Communicate with crews in the field in real-time using updated technology.

Conclusion

Now that you know three ways of reducing commercial construction costs effectively, it’s time to put this information to work. ProEst is a proactive approach to helping reduce commercial construction costs efficiently so that your business can flourish with an increase in profit. Contact ProEst and schedule a free 1-on-1 walkthrough session today!

ProEst is a cloud-based pre-construction estimating platform that helps you create accurate estimates and digital takeoffs directly from blueprints quickly, allowing you to determine the most favorable rates for your company within the estimation process. There’s no guesswork involved. ProEst makes quality assurance in commercial construction projects estimation effortless. You won’t have to engage your entire team to be sure your numbers are accurate.

If you would like to learn more about how your commercial construction company can increase its profits and reduce miscalculations during the estimation process, reach out today and schedule a 1-on-1 walkthrough with one of our specialists!