Whether you’re playing sports, board games, cards, or lifting weights, you’re tracking your performance, or your score, right? So how are you keeping score of your business? Granted, you probably won’t be comparing your business scores to those of other businesses; what’s far more important is comparing your current scores to your past ones. How do we do that in the great game of business? What and where is the big scoreboard that your team keeps an eye on?
We can’t tell you how many contractors rely solely on their balance sheet at the end of the year as their only scoreboard. This obviously works for millions of owners and employees, but how did you get there? What events and actions lead to that score – understanding a good score, is just as important as understanding a bad score.
Ever hear the phrase ‘aim small, miss small’? While this phrase mostly applies to shooting at a physical target, we think it’s applicable in pre-construction too. What I mean by that is, by tracking small, maybe even seemingly insignificant metrics, missing one or two of these metrics won’t kill you, but nailing all or most of them consistently will yield big results.
You may have also heard the phrase, “you can’t improve what you don’t measure”. This phrase has become our mantra since introducing our Monday.com partnership in 2023.
Let’s dig into what these metrics can be. In the great game of business, two of your most coveted assets are time and money. So let’s start there. How is your pre-con team spending their time? What does the business get in exchange for it? Takeoff Monkey can help you track these valuable assets just by doing what you’re already doing!
The first thing I’d want to know is where my biggest waste of time is and what’s causing it. Those GCs that send you a dozen pricing requests each week, are they really one of your better customers? Or are they just taking advantage of your team’s good nature? We can help you identify who your best clients truly are by the numbers, regardless of their happy hours, luncheons, and golf tournaments.
What about the type of project? Or the location? Are these things a factor in your winning recipe? Maybe the downtown mixed use high-rises will look awesome on your website, earn you bragging rights amongst your peers, but are these jobs really making you money? Or are they just costing you out the yin yang in parking tickets and overtime? Maybe multi-family isn’t your favorite flavor of construction for whatever reason, but it could be your best line of work. Tracking the location becomes especially important for companies with multiple locations. Maybe we discover that market A is killing it with a 20%+ win rate but has a disproportionately low amount of staff and overhead burden… meanwhile, market B’s performance is mediocre at best, yet it is monopolizing more than half of your overhead.
Taking a closer look at your personnel performance may not be everyone’s favorite thing, but in the great game of business, understanding it and reacting accordingly can make a big difference. Which of your estimators are top performers? Which are bringing up the rear? More importantly, what makes the best performers the best? Where is their time focused? Or just as important, where are they not spending time? In fact, this metric is critical for employee development, distribution of the bonus pool, and making important staffing decisions
How about your clients… Which of your clients are eating up the majority of your team’s time? What are you getting in return? Frequently our clients are realizing that just because a general contractor frequently sends pricing requests, does that really mean that they’re a good client? Or are they taking advantage of your team’s most precious asset? We can help you identify who these ‘tire kickers’ are, and then respond accordingly.
In the great game of business, success isn’t just about winning once—instead, it’s about winning consistently. To do that, you need to know which actions and decisions are truly driving your results. By tracking the right metrics, you can identify your biggest time sinks, uncover your most profitable clients, and pinpoint the projects that truly move the needle. With Takeoff Monkey, you’re not just gathering data—rather, you’re gaining insights that empower smarter decisions, greater efficiency, and ultimately, a better score. Ready to start keeping score where it counts? Let’s play to win.
