The Importance of a Schedule

Everyone reading this most likely has some sort of contracting business that pertains to the construction industry. If not, oh well do not sweat it. Stay and read anyway! However, all of us that have had a contracting business know all too well how important that schedule is to the owner. Whether it be a job for house painters in Miami, concrete contractors Tulsa, or anything in between, the schedule only comes second to the job budget. What does it take to meet the requirements of a job schedule? How does not meeting the schedule impact the budget? How does beating the schedule impact the budget? Well, these are very broad yet relevant questions to a contractor. First, let's talk about meeting the requirements of a job schedule. First off, you need to be in tune with how long it takes to complete your various tasks. For a painter, you need to know how long it will take to tape off, plastic, gather materials, perform work, and clean up. If you tell an owner it will take you 3 days, but takes 5, they will be quite angry and less likely to give you a good review. That is why 'under-promise, over-deliver' is a MUST in our line of work. This not only helps to meet expectations, but to beat them. This will blow the owner away and make it more likely for them to recommend your service to their peers. The second thing we want to talk about is how schedule affects budget. Depending on the owner, being behind schedule can impact how much money a project owner is making (actually losing). Enter the liquidated damages. Most times, a project has specified liquidated damages that are applied if you manage to not complete the project in a timely fashion. This provides more benefit for a company to finish a project because they do not want to be paying out of their own pocket to make up for the money the owner has lost due to being behind schedule. The exact opposite is true for when a contractor is ahead of schedule. Typically, there is a bonus of sorts for being ahead of schedule that can really help a business catapult into the next phase of business they are searching to be in. All that said, get ahead of schedule on your projects!