Within the next 5 years, about 80 percent of construction companies may not make it. Here are the top 10 reasons why:

1. Running a business without a business plan
   Businesses will always have risks. These things are completely inevitable. What’s foolish, however, is to run them with no effective planning. A business plan will always be one of the main foundations, and although all of the objectives may not be met, at least you have the plan to compare expectations and realities, make the right adjustment, and lead your business toward the right direction. Remember, when you don’t have a plan, you’ll be running a business aimlessly, and it’s now easy for your competitors to beat you.
2. Starting a business in purely loans
   Creating a construction company isn’t the cheapest business out there. The typical startup cost can run between $50,000 and $100,000, especially if you have plenty of services to offer. The costs cover the equipment, vehicle, labor, registration or business licensing, surety bond, and insurance, to name a few.
   Thus, most of the small business owners run to lenders to get a loan, and that’s really a problem. It becomes one, though, if you loan everything you need as the interest will only absorb all your earnings, leaving you with very little cash flow. Before you get into the construction business—or any business, for that matter—make sure that you’ve also saved at least 20 percent of your total startup cost.
3. Not obtaining any certification
   One of the biggest mistakes small construction companies make is to pretend they can get away with running a business with no certification and business license. Sooner rather than later, the government will know what you’re doing, and you can get yourself penalized by the millions or worse be sent to jail. Let’s not forget that issues such as this can ruin your reputation and supersede you no matter how good you are.
4. Not doing enough marketing
   Do you know that almost 90 percent of construction companies are now into social media? Being on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts boost their leads’ awareness. If you haven’t done this yet, then it means you’re falling behind.
5. Getting into bad contracts
   You should never get into any kind of construction work, especially if it covers a huge amount of money, without any kind of contract, which serves as protection for the involved parties. Nevertheless, before you get into any, make sure that you’ve read all the provisions and never sign anything that may put you in a tight situation, such as waiving the right to sue the client for breach of contract or the right to demand payment at the right time.
6. Not addressing concerns and questions immediately
   Customer service ensures that you can maintain the loyalty of your customers and even encourage them to share your business within their network. One of the best ways to do that is to entertain their questions and do something about their concerns as soon as possible. Not paying attention can be easily construed as rejection and lack of professionalism and empathy.
7. Not upgrading systems and technologies
   Not all technologies and systems work, and not all are worth adopting. However, upgrading systems and technologies guarantees that you can do the job more effectively and more quickly. You can be more efficient and productive, and these two things can make clients happy.
8. Maintaining a bad client
   You know you have a bad client when he keeps changing his requirements, when he easily compares you with other contractors, when he likes to bargain for all your services to dirt-cheap prices, and when you are already bullied or harassed. Usually, the most important question to ask when all these happen is, is he worth keeping? Is the amount he pays more than enough to cover for his attitude? The answer to both is no.
   Bad clients can take away all your time, put a lot of pressure on you and your business, and may even spell the downfall of everything you worked hard for. If you don’t want to attract bad clients, improve your industry reputation and perform strategic marketing.
9. Saying yes to all kinds of work
   This is especially true among new construction businesses. The market is facing tough competition, so every potential work is considered gold. But here’s the thing with saying yes constantly: you sacrifice your effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of work. Say yes only to those that you can do based on your logistics and capabilities.
10. Not covering yourself with insurance
    Certain construction insurance covers cost of damage to property, accidents involving your employee or client, and even legal proceedings. Simply put, they protect your business from being drained of its financial resources during unfortunate situations.

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Some people love the noise of life rushing by, the constant alert from an email or a text message, or the honking of horns on their morning drive.

Some love peace and quiet, perhaps it’s the tranquillity of living in the country, finding a comfy spot in the library or snuggling up in bed with the kids asleep in the next room.

What we all hate is noise when we want quiet. In fact, an interdepartmental group of UK government economists estimated the cost of urban road noise in England alone at $8-11 billion annually. That’s a significant problem by any standards.

For example, it’s 6pm and you’re putting the baby to bed and all you can hear outside is banging, crashing and shouting from the construction site across the road. You have no idea who to talk to on site to tell them to keep it down, and all you know is that it will continue every day until the block of flats have been complete.

Working from home without noise

Similarly, you work from home and you have a very important presentation to prepare. It’s 10am and you’re trying to concentrate on your pitch but the drilling coming from the utility works outside your house is giving you a headache, which adds to the tiredness you’re already feeling from the sleepless night you had due to worrying about your presentation.

Both of these situations could have been avoided if the contractor in question had thought ahead and had included some noise reduction solutions in their site plans.

The construction industry is growing, but so is the need to reduce noise.

Noisy construction sites, utilities maintenance, rail engineering and music events are all part of our day to day life and in theory, the more noise, the more our economy is growing. But that doesn’t mean solutions can’t and shouldn’t be put in place to reduce the inconvenience on local people.

Noise reduction barriers, such as the Echo Barrier H2 are the ideal solution. They are cost effective, available to hire and purchase, are lightweight and easy to install and transport and weather proof. They are simple to put up and can be hung on traditional site fencing and hoarding, reducing the noise leaving the area by up to 30dB.

They allow companies to demonstrate an effort to reducing their impact on local people; if people see than something has been put in place to reduce the noise, then they are less likely to complain.

It will also improve the reputation of the contractor locally as well as with their own employees, improving their working environment and reducing the threat of potential noise related illnesses.

In summary, keeping the peace can have commercial as well as health benefits and should be a vital part of any site management planning.

For more information on noise reduction solutions contact us!