Simplify Your Contracting Business Workflow With These Inexpensive Web-Based Tools

You go to draw out a simple design for a customer, only to realize that you left your paper in the truck. Now your client wants to keep the sketch, and you’re not sure how best to get it to them. What if you could just bring out a tablet and have everything ready to go? These web-based tools help you increase your productivity and accuracy, without breaking the bank.

Office Management

Keeping track of appointments, discussing plans and interacting with customers may call for more than just an email address and a willingness to work after hours. These days, there’s no reason that you have to keep information offline and out of your reach when you are on site. Over 1.4 billion people have access to many tools through Google simply by having a Gmail address. Google’s G Suite offers a variety of cloud-based tools that you can use to take or share notes, maintain a calendar of projects and consultations, and coordinate with clients and other members of your staff. Although the basic suite might not offer everything you need, there is also a community that builds industry-specific applications designed to work with the system.

Design

In many fields in the construction industry, you need to be able to create a mock-up or design of your plans to give it a greater sense of reality. Spending thousands on drafting tools might be out of your budget at first, but these tools are easy to access. SketchUp is a popular browser-based program that offers 3D modeling. The company has a free version that you can use to make 3D models of almost anything imaginable. If you’re unsure how to get started, just take advantage of the thousands of YouTube videos created by users with tips and tricks. For the ability to illustrate your ideas or share floor plans, try something like LucidChart for about $5 a month per user.

Project Management

Ensuring that your projects stay on track may demand some advanced management techniques, especially if you have multiple tasks in the hopper. Project management can often be the difference between finishing on time and dealing with overrun. When you use software like Zoho Projects, you gain access to online planning, scheduling and collaboration in a seamless venue. The best project management tools integrate with other software you use, like Google or Dropbox. That way, you can move from checking on a timeline to updating your team on the latest job effortlessly.

Content Publishing

Everyone needs to make some kind of report from time to time. Whether you want to put together a beautiful bid for a large municipal project, or you just want to send out an enticing quarterly newsletter for your repeat customers, the style of the publishing matters. In the past, you might have had to spend hundreds of dollars to get a single license for the latest publishing software. Now, you have options like LucidPress, an online publishing system that makes designing content simple and sleek. With subscriptions around a few dollars a month, the price is sufficiently low enough that you might not have to worry about buying the service for multiple users.

Accounting

Without a solid plan to account for your revenue and expenses, you won’t be able to keep your contracting business on a solid footing. Knowing how and when to bill people and the best way to pay your employees might cost you hours of work on the side if you do it on your own. Instead, you could sign up for one of the many online accounting subscription services. For example, you may select a company like Intuit QuickBooks Online, best known for its predictable usability. When you register, you will likely pay $5-$70 a month for access, depending on the brand. Just make sure you know what the software provides. Some services will offer just about anything you need for small business accounting, while others expect you to use something else for taxes or payroll.

Using the cloud is a great way to save time, keep in touch with your employees and customers, and spend less of your time managing your contracting business. To ensure that you get the best training and preparation on this career path, visit us at CSLS today!