Over the course of the last decade, about 7 million new homes have been built throughout the country. In the coming years, there are going to be millions more that will join them.
If you want to get in on the new housing craze that has swept across the country, you might be able to do it by starting your own building contractor business. There is always room for another building contractor in most cities and towns across the U.S.
Does kickstarting a building contractor firm sound like the right move for you to make right now? If so, you should be sure that you take the right steps to get your new business off the ground. It’s important for you to cross all your T’s and dot all your I’s before you begin running a company as a home builder contractor.
Check out the steps that you’ll need to take below and then go get started.
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Start by Scoping Out Your Potential Competition
How many other building contractor businesses are there operating in your general area right now? That’s one of the first questions that you’re going to want to ask yourself when you’re kicking around the idea of starting one yourself.
You should Google “building contractors near me” to see how many names pop up. Then, you should do your homework on each and every one of the other building contractor businesses in your city or town.
By doing this, you’ll give yourself some sense of what kind of competition you’re going to be up against when you begin building your business from scratch. You’ll know what to expect and how to separate yourself from the pack.
Create a Complete Business Plan for Your Building Contractor Business
Once you’ve done the necessary market research on building contractors in your area, the next order of business will be to focus on yourself for a while. You can start to do this by creating a complete business plan that includes all the important information about your business.
In your business plan, you’ll want to include a mission statement for your business. You’ll also want to include information about the market in which you’re going to operate as well as information about your marketing plans (more on this in a few minutes!).
Your goal should be to paint a complete picture of your building contractor business by the time you get to the end of your business plan. It’ll really come in handy if you decide to reach out to lenders for funding to get your company up and running.
Register Your Business and Sign Up for the Right Insurance Policies for It
After you’ve laid out a business plan and are happy with it, you can go ahead and register your business to make it legit. To do this, you’ll need to come up with a great name for it and touch base with your state and/or county so that you can obtain the right licenses to run your business.
When you’ve worked your way through that, you’ll also want to sign up for the right insurance policies for your business. It’s best to go with contractors insurance that is specific to your industry.
You’re going to have a very difficult time convincing potential clients to work with you if you’re not able to say you’re 100% insured. So don’t be afraid to lock down insurance policies for your business sooner rather than later.
Secure an Office Space for Your Business
As a building contractor, you’re going to spend a lot of time out on job sites. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to need to have a home base where you can:
- Keep track of the projects that you have going on
- Meet with clients
- Hold meetings with your employees
Look for a conveniently located office space for your new business. It should be in a clean building that’s easy for you to access whenever you need to go there.
Set Up a Website and Social Media Pages for Your Business
In addition to setting up a physical location for your building contractor business, you’re also going to need to make a splash in the digital world. You can do this by creating a website for your business and stockpiling it with any and all information that will help sell your services to clients.
You should take things a step further, too, and set up social media pages for your business. It’ll provide you with a place to connect with clients and to show off some of the work that you’re doing at any given moment.
Obtain the Necessary Trucks, Equipment, and Tools for Your Business
It’s obviously going to be impossible to start and run a building contractor business without having everything you’ll need to build homes and other structures. To complete jobs, you’re going to need trucks to get around and equipment and tools to build with.
Buying all of these things isn’t going to be cheap. You may want to think about taking out a loan to provide you with the funding that you’ll need to purchase everything it’ll take to start taking on jobs.
Begin Marketing Your Business to the Masses in Your Community
All of the other steps that we’ve listed here are very important. But you could argue that this one is the most important one of all.
You might have an incredible building contractor business. But if no one knows about it, what good is it going to do you?
Find ways to market your new business to the masses right from the start. You can do this by advertising on the radio and in newspapers if you want. But you can also use the power of the internet to get your name out there into the world.
Regardless of which route you choose to take, marketing your business is going to be of the utmost importance, both now and well into the future.
Follow These Steps to Establish Your Building Contractor Business
You’re not going to be able to establish a building contractor business overnight. It’s going to take weeks, if not months, to do it, depending on how big it’s going to be at the start.
But you can get things moving in the right direction by utilizing the steps that we’ve presented. They should put you on the right path and lead to lots of long-term success.
Take a look at the other articles on our blog to find more useful business advice that will help you start a building contractor firm.