Strategic and Business Planning For Contractors and Builders

If you haven’t developed a consistent and structured process to create a strategy and build a business plan, you’ll want to start NOW.? And if you have both a strategic plan and a business plan, the information below may help you improve them.

Strategic and Business Plans for Contractors:

• Can and should be indispensable management tools
• Introduce discipline and a logical thought process into the planning process
• Greatly improve the company’s ability to establish and meet goals consistently
• Will become written documentation of where the company is going, how it will get there, and what it will look like once it gets there
• Become the basis for evaluating and controlling the company’s performance
• Are tools for effectively communicating with employees and other stakeholders

Strategic Planning Principals and Concepts for Builders or “Where You’re Going”:

• Look beyond today and question traditional assumptions about the business
• Listen to all input, challenge the status quo, and look at all possibilities
• Search outside the organization and benchmark others
• Consider market, industry, and competitive trends
• Seek to identify unexploited and undeveloped opportunities
• Find new market segments, customers, products, and services
• Address ‘the fear of change’ mentality by clearly charting a path forward
• Engage and communicate with key employees on the journey and goals
• Celebrate major accomplishments

Business Planning Fundamentals for Contracting (Supporting the Strategy) or “How To Get There”:

• Review of previous year performance
• Establish the company financial budget
• List the assumptions for the upcoming year
• Outline company strengths, weaknesses, and core competencies
• Identify critical issues and challenges
• Summarize opportunities and keys to success
• Establish SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely)
• Prioritize tactical actions and include SMART goals for each of them related to sales revenue and profitability, market segments and customers, operations, financial, general & administrative, and human resources
• Establish measurement and reporting processes for each of the goals
• Keep people informed and celebrate achievements

Following these guidelines, principles, concepts, and fundamentals will assuredly help contractors and builders like you “chart your path to improved performance,” thereby taking your company to the next level.

Don’t miss out on what has been proven to be one of the most important business best practices–to build plans and execute them successfully. It will make a difference!

And here’s a place to start: Your building supplier should be an integral part of your business plan’s goal of saving time and money. Contact Metro today to find out how we can help you – just as we’ve helped countless builders and contractors in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut since 1984.