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Shortcuts Are a Dead End
In my distant past, I was occasionally guilty of looking for the “easy” way out. However, every time I tried to shortcut a process or procedure, it always seemed to come back and bite me. So, I can say with some authority that I learned the hard way that there are no shortcuts to lasting success.
What I have also come to understand is that there is a category of what I refer to as “low-bid” contractors who believe that they can shortcut their way to profitability. They bid jobs in ridiculous fashion, often not even high enough to cover the required materials and their overhead, and sometimes not even high enough to cover just the materials specified for a job. The reality is that these contractors often do not know what their overhead actually is, and they are sometimes using outdated materials pricing from previous “similar” jobs, not even bothering to update their materials pricing resources for updated pricing.
As a responsible business owner, it is very frustrating to see this because I know these are contractors living on the very edge. One shortcut, that is cut a little too short, and they are out of business. And almost always, the customers that were shortcutted by these “low-bid” contractors are left with shoddy workmanship, and in the worst cases, nobody to back that shoddy workmanship up.
Unfortunately, at Standard, we have first-hand experience with “low-bid” contractor work because we have been called in on more than one occasion to follow behind a “low-bid” contractor who is no longer in business/servicing the work they “performed.” In virtually every one of these situations, the customer has paid the initial “low” price for their required work, PLUS the cost for another contractor (Standard in these cases) to “fix” the original work. In every case that we have been involved with these circumstances, the customer has ended up paying substantially more in total than what Standard and other legitimate contractors had initially quoted for the same work.
Now, this is not to say that in more extended and competitive times, we must always stick to our desired profit margin (the income you expect to make above your materials cost and overhead). Running out of work/backlog is a cardinal sin in contracting, so we have had to shave our margins from time to time in order to keep a healthy job backlog level. However, if you “buy” a job with an aggressively low margin, shortcuts actually have even less value, and tighter, daily oversight and management of the project becomes more important than ever (there is less financial “room” to cover the unexpected).
So remember, there are NO shortcuts to lasting success. And even in difficult markets, you can count on Standard to remain committed to treating our customers fairly and being able to stand behind our work, maintain our Core Values, and never sacrifice Safety, Quality, and Service.