For more than 16 years, John Beiler, owner of Northwoods Construction in upper Maine, has had between two to four residential or light commercial projects going on at one time, from renovations to remodeling to new construction. He also manages two or three crews on those job sites. In the summer, the company focuses on outdoor work like framing, roofing, and siding, while winter is focused on as much interior work as possible limiting, the exposure to Maine’s harsh winter climate.
Using Technology to Scale the Business
John admits he hasn’t had to market the business because much of his work is repeat business, referrals, and word of mouth. With an eye to scale the business, however, John is looking for systems and processes to teach the next generation and free him up to move the business forward. To help him achieve this goal, John started shopping around for software solutions.
“I’ve tried them all, at least all the most popular software brands and sometimes trying three at the same time,” said John. “What I’ve found is some are big and powerful allowing you do to a lot of things and while that’s great, the learning curve is long, steep, and in some cases cumbersome.”
John found Buildxact one day while scrolling through Facebook. Buildxact is a cloud-based business tool designed specifically for the small builder, remodeler, and contractor with one to a dozen people. A global company, they’ve been helping small construction business owners in Australia and New Zealand successfully for years, and launched into North America at the International Builders’ Show the past January.
How Buildxact is Helping
“Buildxact is intuitive and it does estimating that way I like to do it,” commented John. “It has made my estimating so much easier with its recipe feature. You can group multiple formulas to create a wall assembly — the number of studs, drywall, insulation, sheathing, and siding — scale it in the takeoff by entering the linear feet of a wall into the recipe and then I instantly have a materials list. I can do the same thing with labor cost.”
Buildxact is specifically designed to help small builders and contractors achieve the next level of success. With both estimating and project management all on one platform, Buildxact also offers quick and simple takeoffs, fast and accurate job costing, and professional quotes. And when the job is won, all of that information is used to easily schedule the job, complete your purchasing and invoicing, so you’re always on top of the financials.
“What used to take me 10 hours for a whole house estimate now takes me four hours and that’s time I can spend on scaling my business for the future,” added John.
Learn how Buildxact can help you too. Visit our website, book a demonstration, or try a 14-day free trial today.