In an ideal world, the best business cycle is one that never slows down. You are always working and always generating income. That’s just not our industry. Totally outside the impacts of the pandemic, ours is an industry that tends to be cyclical. A natural and recurring cycle of ups and downs is especially true if your business is based in a northern climate where winter weather puts the brakes on many projects for three or more months every year. When business is in a lull, some people use the downtime to tackle all those tasks that pile up in their busy season. Others turn their attention to interests completely unrelated to business.
If you fall into the latter category, when business picks up again, you may find yourself with the additional challenge of how to stay on top of all those little things you could have organized during the lull. Dealing with paperwork and other administrivia is rarely the best-loved or most stimulating of tasks, but those are the important, though pesky details of actually managing a business. When we keep on top of it all, rather than letting towering piles of paper become an unnoticed element of office décor, we are better equipped to focus on the more exciting aspects of the job, win more business and deliver better results. Before construction activity surges again in February, now is the time to look for ways to make your business more streamlined and efficient.
Downtime and Pandemic Productivity
Everyone has a “to do” list. Some items on the list might be domestic duties, such as cleaning out the closets, the attic, the basement, the garage, the junk drawer, or whatever other space is typically neglected until its contents start to leak out into living spaces. Then there are the intellectual promises to self, such as reading a classic, taking a course or catching up on all 60 episodes of Game of Thrones. Plans for travel, sports and entertainment activities might have been put on hold by the pandemic, but there are lots of other tasks that held people’s attention this year.
When the pandemic lockdowns first started, most people found themselves at loose ends. Even those who had switched to remote work discovered unexpected windows of free time, once hours-long commutes and site visits were eliminated. Did that translate into higher productivity? It’s doubtful, as all that extra time quickly evaporated. Many found their days filled with Zoom meetings and parents unexpectedly became teachers, even as some hit the sofa for marathon Netflix viewing.
On the business front, work priorities may have shifted due to the pandemic, but work activities seemed to expand to fill every available hour. Back in April, Architectural Digest optimistically offered guidance to AEC professionals on how to spend all that newly discovered free time productively. One recommendation was to look under the rug, i.e., tackle those back-burner projects that we all should do but always seem to set aside for more pressing client needs and business priorities. If your business kept moving along, without any significant pandemic pauses, you may not have even had an opportunity to lift the proverbial rug. Maybe a seasonal slowdown will provide that chance.
What to Do When the Temperature Plunges
If your firm operates in a state that experiences severe winter weather, the slowdowns that often accompany a seasonal ground freeze are an expected part of the business cycle. When the weather drives you indoors, take advantage of the break from your typical routine to think about how you do business today and how you might do business in the future. What if you could clean up and clean out all the little things that drive you crazy with frustration? What interferes with your ability to operate efficiently? What are your biggest time wasters? What kinds of changes would make it easier to do your job and set yourself up for success?
While you’re doing all that thinking, here are a few more questions to ask yourself:
Can you do business on the go from any remote location?
When you can access your projects with the press of a few keys, you can find answers and respond quickly to every question.How challenging is it to keep track of contract details?
When you have a tool that makes it easy to track your contracts, including all the latest updates, you can manage your projects more effectively.How clearly can you envision the state of your finances?
Imagine having a real-time pulse on budget, cash flows and contracts.How many spreadsheets does it take to manage a project?
With project management software, you could ditch all the spreadsheets and gain greater visibility into project progress, plus real-time reporting with granular detail.
Put Your Downtime to Good Use
So, go ahead and clean out those closets. According to the Lost and Found Survey by Pixie, you’ll put a personal dent in the 2.5 days and $2.7 billion that Americans spend annually searching for lost items and replacing those that are never found. And consider devoting some of your seasonal downtime to setting yourself up with a project management tool that can transform the way you manage the details of your business in the future. By organizing your project data before business picks up in the new year, you will be able to respond more effectively to every opportunity, track project details more easily, and most importantly, ensure more timely invoices with every job. Let Maginox help set your business up for success in 2021.