As you head into the strategic planning season for 2025, it's crucial to break away from stale approaches that might have held you back in the past. It's not enough to do the same SWOT analysis year after year and expect different results. This time, let's add some firepower to your planning process by asking the right questions to uncover your strengths and weaknesses. Focusing on the key areas of Get Work, Plan Work, Build Work, and Get Paid, we’ll dig into what’s driving your business forward and what’s holding it back.
By answering these questions, you'll gain real, actionable insights that go beyond the surface. Whether it's boosting your market knowledge, refining your bid accuracy, or tightening up cash flow, these questions are designed to help you attack your 2025 goals with clarity and focus.
Get Work: Positioning Your Company for Success
Every construction company needs a strong pipeline of work. But how confident are you that you're in the right markets, targeting the right projects, and winning the right bids? Let’s start with the fundamentals.
Market Knowledge:
- Strengths: Are you using your market knowledge to consistently stay ahead of your competitors? What systems do you have in place to track and anticipate shifts in the market, so you can adapt quickly?
- Weaknesses: Where are you falling behind when it comes to understanding your market’s needs? Are there gaps in your market analysis that could be limiting your opportunities?
Marketing:
- Strengths: Are your marketing efforts producing a consistent stream of qualified leads? Which marketing channels give you the best bang for your buck?
- Weaknesses: Where is your marketing failing to resonate with your audience? Are you missing opportunities to leverage digital platforms or social media for greater reach?
Sales:
- Strengths: What factors are driving your sales success, and how are you maintaining a steady flow of new projects? How strong is your sales pipeline, and are you consistently converting leads into contracts?
- Weaknesses: Where are you losing potential sales, and what’s causing those missed opportunities? What’s standing in the way of improving your bid-to-win ratio?
Bid Strategy:
- Strengths: How well are you tailoring your bids to align with the projects that maximize your strengths? What’s driving your success rate in winning bids, and are you capitalizing on it?
- Weaknesses: Where are you missing the mark in your bid strategy, and why? Are there pricing or scoping issues that consistently lead to lost bids or reduced profitability?
Plan Work: Laying the Foundation for Success
Winning a job is just the beginning. If you don’t have a solid plan in place to execute, those wins can quickly turn into losses. Let's explore how well you're planning your work.
Project Planning:
- Strengths: How effective is your project planning in managing timelines, resources, and costs from the start? What processes do you have in place to anticipate delays before they happen?
- Weaknesses: Where are your project planning processes breaking down, and why? How often are you reacting to problems instead of proactively preventing them?
Value Engineering:
- Strengths: How often are you applying value engineering to deliver cost savings without compromising quality? What’s driving your ability to offer innovative, cost-effective solutions?
- Weaknesses: Where are you missing opportunities to apply value engineering on your projects? How can your team improve its approach to value engineering to deliver even greater results?
Materials/Sub Management:
- Strengths: How effectively are you managing materials and subcontractors to keep your projects running smoothly? What systems ensure efficient coordination between suppliers and subcontractors?
- Weaknesses: Where are supply chain or subcontractor issues causing delays? How can you improve communication and coordination to prevent disruptions?
Build Work: Delivering Quality on Time, Every Time
When it comes to building work, execution is everything. You need to be efficient, productive, and above all, deliver high-quality work. Let’s dive into how well you're getting the job done.
Quality/Rework:
- Strengths: How are you maintaining high quality across your projects and ensuring first-time success? What systems are in place to minimize rework and maximize client satisfaction?
- Weaknesses: Where are recurring quality issues leading to costly rework? What’s causing delays or increased costs due to quality problems, and how can you address them?
Safety:
- Strengths: What’s driving your safety culture on job sites, and how do you maintain a strong safety record? What proactive measures ensure safety is a top priority at every stage of the project?
- Weaknesses: Where have safety incidents or violations occurred, and what led to them? How can you improve safety protocols to protect your team and reduce risk?
Productivity:
- Strengths: What’s fueling high productivity on job sites, and how are you tracking and measuring it? How consistently are your teams meeting productivity goals?
- Weaknesses: Where are inefficiencies slowing down your productivity, and what’s causing them? How are staffing issues or labor shortages affecting your ability to stay on schedule?
Change Order Management:
- Strengths: How effectively are you managing change orders to protect your margins? What helps you maintain strong client communication throughout changes?
- Weaknesses: Where are change orders causing budget or schedule disruptions? How can you streamline your internal processes to handle changes more effectively?
Get Paid: Securing Financial Stability
Even after the work is done, the job isn't complete until you get paid. How well you manage your finances—especially cash flow and accounts receivable—can make or break your business.
Accounts Receivable:
- Strengths: How effectively are you managing accounts receivable to ensure timely payments and positive cash flow? What systems minimize late payments and prevent cash flow gaps?
- Weaknesses: Where are late payments causing issues, and how are you addressing them? What strategies can you implement to speed up collections?
Cash Flow:
- Strengths: How well are you managing cash flow to keep projects moving forward smoothly? What strategies help you avoid cash flow gaps, even during slow payment periods?
- Weaknesses: Where are cash flow challenges hurting your ability to operate efficiently? How can you improve payment terms or collections to better stabilize cash flow?
Financial Strength:
- Strengths: How strong is your financial position, and what’s contributing to long-term stability? What strategies are you using to leverage financial strength for future growth?
- Weaknesses: Where are you vulnerable financially, and what risks need to be addressed? How can you build financial reserves or strengthen your market position?
Conclusion: Ready to Supercharge Your 2025?
If you want 2025 to be your best year yet, it’s time to ask the tough questions. By digging into these critical areas—Get Work, Plan Work, Build Work, and Get Paid—you'll discover the strengths and weaknesses that will shape your strategic decisions. Don’t rely on outdated planning methods. Get specific, get focused, and get ready to take your business to the next level.
