Heavy Construction Equipment Podcast Kevin C

While you set up any form of business, you should not end up using all your capital in buying resources. Remember that you also need money to meet other operational expenses which if not taken care of at the right juncture can prove to be extremely disastrous for your business. Hence, you can’t afford to invest all your monetary resources in buying items which are however essential for your business but still can be possessed using an alternative means. It is essential to prioritize your business needs and understand if you can opt for any other means to possess a resource rather than have to buy it. In the construction sector, heavy equipment play a significant role towards the beginning and the conclusion of a project. However, these machines are extremely expensive and often not within the reach of small time contractors and construction companies. Now if you do not possess heavy equipment you have no other means to start your work. You need some equipment or the other to begin.



The solution is to rent heavy equipment if you can’t buy it. If you rent then you are only obligated to pay the rental and as long as you see a need for the machine you can continue with the rental contract and when the work is over you can hand it over to its owner. Even a small startup construction company can easily afford to pay the rental of heavy equipment. It is also easy to get hold of people who are letting out their heavy equipment on lease. All you need to do is check out on people who rent heavy equipment and see if they have the machine that you are looking for.



Other major advantage of skipping to buy heavy equipment and taking it on rent is that you do not have to worry about paying the creditor for the machine. It is obvious that if you can’t afford to buy it you will have to borrow it and then you got to pay your creditors at the beginning of each month. If in case you fail to pay them then it may have serious damage on your reputation, credit ratings and you may also end up losing your machine. This is definitely not that you would want to happen and hence carry on your work using heavy equipment that you procure on lease.



While you use heavy equipment on lease, you must ensure that you take uttermost care of the machine because if it fails to work then you got to bear the expense of repairing it and getting it back to business. You just can’t hand it over to the owner saying that the machine is faulty. Also remember to inspect the machine well before you procure it. It is advisable to go along with a mechanic or an expert to inspect the machine. If you know to operate it, try your hands on it and check if it is worthy to be taken.



 

Technology has made lives simpler in many ways. Right from the beginning of the day to the end of it, we are completely dependent on some or the other form of technology. It has also helped us a lot in managing our businesses. You pull out any business out of the blue and you will find the need of technology in it. It has helped us in a big way in becoming what we really are. Talking about the construction industry, the need of state of the art machines are hugely felt in this part of the sector. Moreover the heavy equipment are expensive and therefore it is presumably out of the reach of many. As long as one goes out to a lender to lend money to buy heavy equipment the person will be able to buy one or else he has to depend upon people who are willing to let out their machines to folks who need them for construction purpose.



Technology has played a vital role in creating a platform where the people who possess heavy equipment but do not need them for the time being can get hooked with guys who have a construction project running and are in dire need of construction machines. One can make use of this platform to meet each other’s business requirements. The party who is renting his heavy equipment needs to register on an online portal that works in the line of connecting people who wants to buy/sell/ lease heavy equipment. Once he is registered with the site, he needs to prepare a listing where he should put up pictures of the machine and give an elaborative description. This needs to be done to inform visitors about the machine and why they should take this one on rent.



The person who is listing the heavy equipment on an online portal should remember that before he registers with the portal he should also check how known it is amongst people who usually look out for renting heavy equipment. This research is important as it will give a clue to the person whether he will receive many visitors on his listing. The person will be paying some fees to the online site for listing the machine and he should ensure that he is able to rent it in the very first attempt. Spend some time on internet to know which site people prefer to go. Apart from that, what are their security policies and how effectively do they stand to protect the rights of the parties involved in the transaction.



Some online portals also have their agents who help their clients with the agreement part. It is a must to prepare an agreement before you lease out your heavy equipment. The agreement should include all the points that protect the rights of the owner of the machine. After all, you want to receive the heavy equipment in the same state as you have given it to the party.

We are all concerned about our business assets and in no way do we want that to be misused by anybody. It is therefore when we have to rent our office premise or any business related equipment for a temporary period we try to be as cautious as we can so that the person who will use it does not make a mess of it. We know that the items will come back to us and we definitely expect it to come back to us in the same state as we have given it to the user. When we are so cautious about our machines which are often meant for normal use, we can imagine how cautious we have to be when we are dealing with heavy construction equipment. These machines can’t be used in a smooth manner because it is just not meant to be used in that way. Heavy equipment are meant to work in rough conditions irrespective of how turbulent the weather is and we expect it to continue to perform in the same fashion for many more years.



When we are thinking about renting heavy equipment we just can’t afford to be callous and need to give it to a person who knows how to use it well and then also maintain it. One should follow the below mentioned tips if they are in the process of renting heavy equipment.



Try to rent it to people you know:-

If at all you are able to rent heavy equipment to a person who you have known for the last many years you will be assured that the person will use the machine in the most optimal way and will not exploit it which may cause harm to the machine. So when you have decided to lease out the heavy equipment, spread out the word in your business circle so that people who are known to you will come down to you if they are interested to take it on rent. You may also invite people who can come down with reference. You can always cross verify with the person whose reference has been used. This is perhaps one of the healthiest ways to search for guys who are looking for heavy equipment on rent.



Be clear with the terms:-

You may have several terms that you want to put across to the person who will take your machine on rent. You should be quite vocal enough and speak all the terms clearly. The taker should not have any question or doubt in his mind. Also make sure that you prepare an agreement that will contain all the terms in it. Take help of an experienced attorney who has been dealing with preparing documents for renting heavy equipment for the last many years. He will be in a better position to mention all the clauses that will protect the rights of the owner of the heavy equipment as well as the user. Make sure you have that notarized and keep a copy with yourself.

Most of the business decisions are taken at the end of a meeting. However, it largely depends upon how prepared the person is who is seeking for work or is selling his product. You got to make an impact in the minds of the listener with your presentations and ensure that they find it to be impressive. Anything short of impressive can turn out to be a disappointment for you. Therefore, leave no stone unturned when you are preparing yourself for a meeting and make sure that you have all the content with you that you will share with others to get business. At times you have to go through a series of meeting before hearing a final yes and that could be quite agonizing as well as annoying but you have to give your best at each shot that you take. Remember that there are too much of competitors around and they are also vying to sell their product or get the business. You have to prove that you are the best and can offer what others can’t in terms of services.



In order to get a construction project one needs to be very sharp with his presentation skills. He needs to mention all his achievements and parallel projects that are being managed by him to the people in the meeting. Your website would contain this information but during the meeting no one would want to visit your website to validate the facts and therefore you should take this opportunity to pose the facts in your way. Try not to state something that is not relevant or does not exist. The guys in the meeting will definitely verify the information given by you before they decide to give you the work. Hence, do not speak out a word that is not true. You can play around with things that your company has been involved in or engaged with but in no way overstate your role or else you may get caught.



Carry a formal approach:-



Your approach will be the first thing that will be witnessed by the project givers. Presentation comes later, what comes first is the way you are looking at that point in time and how you carry yourself throughout. Wear something formal which looks decent and professional. For men, try not keep a beard but if you have to sport one, trim it so that it looks good. For ladies, they just need to ensure that they do not overdo their make-up. Do not apply a lot of cosmetic on your face. That may ruin the way you look. Try to keep it normal all throughout the meeting.



What you speak matters:-



You may have a splendid power-point presentation but that will not help if you just read from the slides. You should rather remember which slide contains what information and should talk your mind. This will show how confident you are and how much you know about your own company. People will definitely go through the slides but they will be more interested in listening to you. This is where you should prepare yourself the most.

Human resources are perhaps the most important resource in every industry. You can have good machines, may be rich with financial resources but as long as you do not have humans to control them and work on them, it is futile to have so much of resources at your disposal. It just does not make any sense. There should be a blend of all the resources to run a business which also involves humans. So when we talk about human resource, it should be limited to men who have the capability to perform the work given to them. You can’t expect anybody to do anything. For instance, you can’t expect an engineer to operate a machine for you. He is just not meant to do that work. His expertise lies in some other trade and you have to give him that work. Precisely in the construction sector as well, you are expected to follow the same rule. You should hire labor according to the nature of work and as per their expertise level.



Once you have hired the efficient workforce you should be cautious and treat them well so that they do not leave you for a better company. Just by paying them a high salary you can’t keep them content. They need a better treatment from you and if they get what they want then there is high chance that they will stay with you for long. Moreover, you also can’t afford to lose your men especially when they are skilled and hold an important position in your company. A good supervisor is very hard to be found. He is the one who has his grip on the labor. In order to get the work done, he will tighten the grip and when there is less work or no work, he will ask his boys to relax. He is also a person who has earned the respect of his boys and his boys will not say no to him when asked to work beyond working hours. This supervisor is an efficient employee for you and you can’t let him go for any trivial reason.



Be a boss with a friendly nature:-



When it is about people management, you can’t afford to be bossy with them. Professionalism is expected in every professional industry but at the same time one much also keep in mind that the guys with whom he will be dealing are men like him and they will delightfully do a work when asked in a friendly manner. If you maintain a friendly attitude towards all the employees of your company they will indeed work harder for you and will not want to leave you.



Increase the pay on an annual basis:-



It is needless to say that we all work for money and one expects a slight increase in his salary at the end of each year. At times, you have had a bad year with no much business and hence have not earned enough profit. In such a situation, you should take all of them into confidence and explain the reason why there will be no increase or a minimal increase in their package. There is high chance that they will understand your position and will stick to you.

We have often come across companies that perform well, make a brand and then sell it to another big company. This is indeed a good way to earn handsome money in a short period of time. However, there are also instances where a big company has taken over a not so famous, sick and dilapidated company. It does that just to acquire its resources and give the owner of the company its share for selling the unit to him. There involves a lot of risk when you buy a sick unit. Firstly, you have to put in a lot of effort to get the company back on its toes and in order to do that you have to have a strong foolproof strategy in place. Therefore, experts in the respective industries often term this kind of takeover to be a dangerous one. But people have their own reasons to buy a non-performing asset. The reason is the non-performing asset is still an asset and before it turns into a liability it should be utilized for good.



The risk is perhaps a little less when it comes to construction segment. It is because the company who buys the unit gets all its resources too and do not have to spend a fortune if it directly buys the same resources from the market. Moreover the transaction that happens is quite cheap. The company that is taking over the sick unit buys all its resources at a very cheaper price. It also gets experienced employees at the same rate. If it had to hire from out, the company definitely had to spend good amount of money in employing human resources which is saved in this case.



Legal work should be accurate:-



When you decide to buy a non-performing construction company and enjoy its assets you also have to make sure that you take care of the legal part very minutely. There are a lot of legal papers that needs to be cleared before you can actually buy the company. You also need some sanctions from the government of the state or county before you end up buying the unit. In order to make sure that the acquisition is done in the most proper way you should hire a attorney who knows about the laws of the land and can guide you accordingly. When you buy a construction company of some other state you are absolutely not sure about how things work there. This is where the attorney comes into play and will guide you through the entire acquisition process.



Construction company of different genre can be a problem:-



If you buy a company that deal with construction in forest lands and you have no intention to get into that it will make no sense to buy a unit related to that genre. If you construct houses then you should also buy a non-performing company that was into building houses. The men employed with the other company will know the kind of work and need not be re-trained completely.