Nick Cook, an experienced builder and founder of the online build cost calculator ProntoCALC, explains why the UK’s average aged builder (aged 54 years) may need to change his ways and rethink his approach to adapting to today’s modern technology.
If you are one of the UK’s average aged Builders, it’s highly likely that you have been pricing up building projects for around 30 years. It could be that you are not completely comfortable with new technology and that you feel the old way is the only way.
The days when a finger in the air or a pencil and paper quote scribbled out after a meeting will suffice are now firmly in the past when it comes to winning building work. Even a two-page email quote, isn’t enough to make a Builder stand out as trustworthy, competent and professional as homeowners have become far more demanding when selecting Builders for their building projects.
So what is the best way to accurately cost up building work, and why on earth should you change how you produce estimates?
Here’s 5 reasons why the average Builder should change to the ProntoCALC build cost calculator and take a free trial today.
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Time – You have more than 10 years left of your working life with computers now being included in all aspects of it. It will probably take you few days to price a project sending your client 1 or 2 pages of information. This can now be done in a few hours using ProntoCALC (16 pages). If you do not provide the detail for the project, the customer doesn’t know what is and what isn’t included in your price.
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Customers – All of your potential customers have internet access providing information on anything they wish to research, including this pricing system. No longer will a couple of A4 pages with a number on it be accepted as an estimate. They expect detailed information about the whole of their building project. They want to know what is included for the floor tiles, how much for the bathrooms or how many lights have been included in the kitchen.
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Presentation – With very simple input information needed, a 16 page PDF schedule of all of the budget details is created. This can be sent straight from the site to your customers. Any item can easily be adjusted in the review section.
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Rates – So do you need to put in all your rates into the website? No. Price one of your completed projects on the site and go to the Flex my Rates section. Slide the flex bar so the site matches your figure and make a note of the % rate. Using this % the rates on the site now match those of your completed project. You no longer need to remember a rate for each individual item, all you need to do is put in the size of the building. Fill in all the boxes so that nothing is forgotten.
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Management – Effective cost management is the key to success when running a project. For cash flow, the invoicing of the appropriate sums through the project is highly important. Also the final invoice will be highly influenced by the design changes and variations that need managing. ProntoCALC `Go Build` helps the Builder and client work together to ensure that the project runs smoothly. It allows you to keep an up-to-date schedule of all your Client’s requested variations. A good build cost system will help you prevent profit leakage and track each change, Project Managers/Builders can therefore closely monitor all variation works. ProntoCALC `Go Build` will provide the records and reports so that the Client is only asked to pay for works carried-out. The Builder will then get paid for all of these works.
ProntoCALC allows you to easily estimate costs involved when building an extension, new build, barn conversion or other types of building work. It makes it quicker and easier for you to price work and presents the costs in a 16 page format that will win you work.
To sign-up for a free 14-Day trial, visit www.prontocalc.com
