Construction project management secrets from the experts that lead to massive growth

The Breakthrough Academy hosted the webinar, “Scaling to 8-figures and beyond: Two builders share project management secrets behind rapid growth” recently. One of Buildertrend’s own, Zach Wojtowicz, joined as a guest star to help answer the industry’s most burning questions about project management.

Zach, director of customer success and co-host of “The Building Code” podcast at Buildertrend, has worked in several builder-focused roles over the last four years – and learned a lot along the way.

Zach started out as a customer success coach providing daily 1-on-1 software trainings to builders and remodelers over the phone. He then became an onsite consultant, traveling around the country to meet with Buildertrend customers in person to help train their teams while gaining a deep understanding of their processes. Now a director of the team that trains our customers, Zach knows the construction industry inside and out – and understands its challenges.

Whether you own a new construction company or you’ve been around for decades, there are plenty of helpful tips and insights from Zach, Benji Carlson of Breakthrough Academy and two construction business owners who have seen massive success. Watch the video or read on to learn more about how project management can help you quickly scale your construction business.

What are the biggest challenges in construction project management?

Benji starts off the webinar by asking the audience of construction professionals what project management struggles they most often face, and these were the top answers:

• Staffing
• Scope creep
• Lack of communication
• Not enough standard operating procedures
• Scheduling

As a construction business owner, if you relate to any of these challenges, it’s a sign that your project management systems need improvement. These challenges, along with projects going over budget and over time and relationships with clients or subs that worsen over the course of the job, are keeping you from growing your business.

What’s your evolution story, from chaos to calm?

Iain Kent, owner and general manager at remodeling company Eagleview Construction, shared that he was originally trained in project management before starting his small construction business. At the time, this new business had no project management systems in place, and when he tried to implement them, he received pushback from the team. But once he started enforcing systems and adding more techniques, they began seeing 70-80% growth year-over-year.

Greg Hasler, owner and lead contractor at custom home building company Hasler Homes, started his business 11 years ago and didn’t have any knowledge of project management. He felt his projects were running him, instead of the other way around. Once he started hiring the right team members and adding project management systems, things changed quickly. They scaled from $1 million-$3 million per year, then $6 million-$10 million per year.

Zach explains that Buildertrend is the tool that helps calm the chaos in construction. But in the end, the person behind the tool is where the growth really comes from. His advice for business owners in the industry is to have a clear vision for your project managers and how you want them to grow. Whether your project managers are only in charge of scheduling or they manage everything to do with a job, using software can help them level up faster.

What are your core project management systems?

Iain – “Buildertrend is our main software. We use it to run schedules, site, field and design stuff, data and client interactions. We also use Excel for some budget tracking.”

Greg – “Our biggest contributor is Buildertrend. We do use Excel for budgets and QuickBooks for accounting. Also, Google Drive for internal documents.”

Zach – “Buildertrend is the system. Builders benefit from repeatability through Templates. Even if the scope is longer or bigger, your project managers don’t have to start from scratch on every job. It’s a single source of truth. You can build without it, but it makes you more efficient so you can scale and make more profits. The job is harder without it.”

Who makes a great project manager?

Greg – “There are about 24 core skills that make a great project manager. Organization, communication, problem solving, leadership, grinding, to name a few. Being tech savvy is huge, such as being able to research stuff and use computers.”

Iain – “They don’t need to have a ton of construction experience. My best project manager came from running coffee shops. They don’t need to know how to frame a wall – they need to be able to schedule, budget and communicate. Also being able to see data trends and make decisions based off it. Drafting a schedule is easy, but keeping it on track and making changes as needed to plan ahead is what’s important.”

Zach – “Urgency is key. They live for the problem. They’re obsessed with optimizing. It’s a way to get more youth into the industry because you’ll find good project managers in students who went to school for something else but have the right skills. It allows you to broaden your horizons when hiring.”

What does great project management look like?

Iain – “Problems are taken care of before they become problems.”

Greg – “Schedules are on schedule, budgets are on budget and you’re working in a stress-free environment.”

How do you hold project managers accountable?

Greg – “We hold goal-setting reviews to determine what’s doing well that we can replicate and what can we do better. We also hold weekly, 30-minute 1-on-1 meetings that are hyper-focused on the results of a project.”

Iain – “We have very detailed employment agreements, so they can see exactly what will be expected of them when they’re hired. They also get bonuses based on a percentage of gross profit and customer satisfaction.”

Zach – “Business owners can use the data in Buildertrend to see if their project managers are actually meeting goals. Are they uploading enough photos for clients like you asked them to? Use the tool to hold them accountable – it holds receipts of the work that’s being done. You can also see improvement trends for individuals. Bonus them based on their Buildertrend usage because it gives them a WHY to use it and it helps build good habits.”

What is Buildertrend?

Zach – “Buildertrend is an all-in-one solution for construction companies. It’s a CRM, a scheduling tool, file storage, financial management. You can get insightful data into your business. It’s a way to keep your clients and subs better informed throughout a project.”

If you’d like to see the Buildertrend software in action and learn how it can help with project management, schedule a demo with one of our team members.

What’s the Breakthrough Academy?

Benji – “We coach business owners and help them systemize their businesses for growth. We’ve created standard operating procedures, hiring frameworks and more in our extensive resource and content library that you get access to when you join our program. You’ll work 1-on-1 with our coaches to help implement those resources.”

If you’d like to learn more about how the Breakthrough Academy can help with project management in your business, schedule a meeting with their assessment specialists.

Ready to take your construction project management to the next level?

You’ve heard it from a top builder, remodeler and Buildertrend expert: Software and systems are the key to experiencing massive business growth.

If you’re sick of putting out fires in your business, hiring the wrong team members and losing out on major profits, schedule a demo to see how Buildertrend can help calm the chaos in your business and help you scale more quickly.