If you are trying to grow a contractor business, you understand your company’s reputation is incredibly valuable for acquiring new clients. Businesses are judged in different ways. Some are judged by the design of their workspace, others by awards or published articles. Contractors are often judged by their work site. This might not seem fair, but sometimes it is more important to your client that you are respecting the property, than the actual work you are doing. Especially if they don’t understand what you do. What this means is that, if you work in other people’s properties it is critical to keep the space as clean as possible.
- Rent a Skip Bin: One of the easiest ways to keep ahead of the mess is to hire a skip bin and place it somewhere that it is accessible and easy to use. You can find skip bin rentals at https://www.wastedopportunities.com.au/, a leading waste management provider. These days waste management companies not only deliver the bin, but when they retrieve it, they make sure that all the waste is sorted and either recycled or disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way possible. You can use this service to promote your own company’s commitment to the environment. It’s a good solution all around.
- Have a Strategy: When laying out the job, develop a strategy you can repeat that creates the least amount of waste and disturbance. You can fine tune the procedure until everyone on the jobsite learns their role in keeping the site clean. Lay out plastic sheeting and other protective barriers first, and if you are entering finished buildings, have a boot policy, so your employees aren’t tracking dirt around. You can find disposable booties to cover work boots.
- Have a Cleanup Routine: The contractors that impress the most are those that make a special effort when they leave a job site. It is very impressive to see the workers gathering all the scraps, vacuuming up debris, even washing walls and windows to get rid of fingerprints and unintentional marks.
- Uniforms: Your workers might resist at first, but one way to having the crew look professional, is to have them wear some version of uniform. It could be as simple as matching T-shirts, or company overalls with your logo clearly displayed. Buy new safety gear, because it looks good. And don’t let your workers show up in grubby clothes. Another benefit of uniforms is advertising. Anytime you can get your logo into a potential client’s line of site is a good thing.
The way people perceive your business is very different than the way you see it. This is good and bad. You know all the details, and so you can overlook a worn-out piece of machinery, or some organized chaos, because you know it is all going to work out in the end. But your client is going to trust an operation that looks professional and seems to be on top of things. Even if those things aren’t critical to the project. Try to see your team the way you judge others in their professions and then clean up your act.
