Collaboration. Between those of you in construction and the trades. Those in property. And those who kind of have a place in both camps – for example architects.

Let’s firstly look at those who build stuff, or maintain it when it comes to property.

Growth when you’re busy…

An age old problem for the trades and construction – managing quite demanding peaks of demand and project work.

At least a partial solution is collaboration. Trading spare capacity with people who would usually be rivals.

So instead of having to find more people to permanently employ during peak demand, and risking being stuck with the salary afterwards when the demand reduces or even disappears, this is a potential way of…

Saying Yes Instead of No To Grow Your Business Without The Salary Hangover

You trade any spare capacity you have week to week with others. Or, sub-contract it.

That can help at least a little so you have access to people with the same specialisms as you.

You can figure out a way of working together – even to the extent of getting your stock of workwear to those people so you can stay on brand!

And agree sensible prices – so the person who is giving you a little spare capacity makes a small margin, but not excessively so you can still protect your own margin on the project.

Going One Step Further – Bringing In Contracted Skilled Labour

But spare capacity may still be limited. That’s why you may be better formally sub-contracting projects in a more planned way.

That means accepting a lower margin because the job needs to be worthwhile for those you offer the project too. But it can still help you say YES to more projects by wholly or partially sub-contracting parts of the work.

But the other option is bringing in the right people to plug gaps on a project through an agency arrangement.

That often fails because the agency does not always match precisely the skills you need. So what we are planning is a pre-consultative phase.

This is where any agencies within the CAPLO community have at least a one-to-one chat, not necessarily related to specific projects, but generally to get an understanding of precisely the people you would typically need.

Now agencies are particularly effective. They will add a lower margin typically than in a sub-contracting arrangement.

But they need more information to deliver precisely the people you need, prepped to deliver, rather than reactively “throwing people at the problem”.

BUT reactive and emergency response can be more accurate if the agent is fully clued up on who you need, and has in fact earmarked certain people on their books as ideal for your precise type of work.

The Collaboration Corner Solution – For Those In Construction And The Trades

It’s a sub-community. Optional – you can opt in if you want to be part of it. And instead of waiting for the last minute challenges, you can:

– Opt-in – which means you can state whether you want to offer spare capacity, be available for sub-contracting, or be interested in contracting people in.

– Complete a profile ticking each skillset you have – this will mean we can set up a searchable portion of the website where you can quickly find people with the skill you want, who may have capacity.

– Advertise any spare capacity you have in a separate WhatsApp group. Each Friday/Monday post availability so others who need it can potentially take you up on it.

 

 

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