So you've secured an order to carry out a sub contract package, and now you have 2 weeks before you're expected to start on site.
The issue you have is, you're trying to get another project over the line which needs your full attention. 

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The only time you have available to work on things like procurement of materials and labour is after work when people have gone home for the day and merchants are closed. We can help provide a procurement service, going out to the market, putting together a procurement schedule in line with a programme advising of long lead times that need to be considered.

As the job progresses, you'll need to properly administer the contract submitting CVI's, RFI's, Vo's to make sure you and your client are on the hymn sheet all the way up to final account stage. The key to monitoring your company's performance is producing robust cost reporting. We can plot all costs alongside, tender stage forecasts and see where you're losing money and the areas you're making money.
 

It's so easy to overlook items at tender stage. 
Tender docs can be very daunting to people who don't deal with them day in day out.

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We offer estimating services to either price up the job for you, or sit down with you and work through it together.

Fees are calculated on a time related basis. Level of accuracy will reflect the detail provided within the tender docs.

We will produce a list of inclusions / exclusions / assumptions

We advise that we hold a tender adjudication prior to submission to ensure that you're fully aware of what is being submitted and agree that you can  deliver the scheme/project in line with the submission should you be successful.

The construction industry is probably the most adversarial industry there is, with QS' looking for any reason to chip applications, accounts dept's knocking back invoices due to poor format or late submission.

Cashflow is the lifeblood of a business. £100m+ companies with  5 years secured work go bust every year due cashflow problems. 

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Working for yourself, the last thing you want to do is come home from work tired, pull out a laptop and try and put together an invoice with mistakes such as cell calc errors, incorrect previously paid figures etc etc.

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We can create a bespoke template for your company, and make sure they're submitted in line with your clients commercial timetable. We'll take care of the previously applied, retention and VAT adjustments that need to be made in the correct order.

You go to work to get paid, so make sure you get paid!

More and more contractors are now making the requirement of an SSIP (Safety Schemes  in Procurement) compulsory.

The most common which you are likely to have seen include CHAS & Construction line.

Whilst some people will work towards creating an infrastructure to satisfy the assessment, there's logic behind the requirement. In our other services, we take care of RAMS & other compliance certification, which you may require in order need to get these accreditations.

From experience, the PQQ's that you fill out, ask on the front page if you have an SSIP, and if that box is ticked ‘No’, they'll just reject your application.

For the money it costs to set up, you'll no doubt recover costs inn your first job anyway, therefore in the scheme of things it's a small price to pay, given the number of doors it can open for you.

If you've never opened a PQQ before, the chances are the first time you open one, you'll close it down after 5 seconds of scan reading, and procrastinate on completing it another day.

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Once you have all of the information to hand, they won't take long at all, however it's getting to the stage, you can produce a full suite of tailored documents bespoke to your company that satisfy the assessor. 

Frameworks are normally weighted across cost & quality therefore you not only have to produce a competitive tender / schedule of rates, your bid submission needs to fill the assessor with enough confidence that you're competent and that you've enough experience to deliver the schemes they have on that framework. 

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We can do this for you.

As the construction industry continues to evolve, the health and safety measures increase.

At present it's compulsory to have the following:

CSCS Card

Facefit Test Certificate

Asbestos Awareness Certificate

Depending on the nature of the works you're carrying out, some instances may require special access certification.

Build Assistant can help with all of this. We can get you fully compliant and ensure that your company isn't exposed.

If you need to find a estimate you submitted for a client, if you need to find an invoice for your accountant, if you need to find a copy of a training certificate for evidence, if you need to find a copy of an insurance document, then you should be able to methodically go straight to it with a good filing system.

Build Assistant can build a cloud based system for you so that you can remotely access it from any computer, and in the event you change/lose your computer then all your files are safe.

We appreciate that some people aren't as technically able as others, therefore we ensure a structured user friendly system is put together to make it as simple or as complex as you want.

A lot of PQQ's will request documents such as environmental policies, health & safety policies, quality policies, training development policies etc etc. Whilst these are a requirement for PQQ's, they should be reflected in your companies ethos and how you operate rather than a box ticking exercise.

Build Assistant will sit down with you and understand exactly how your company works and write them tailored around your company.

We also provide a template service and produce documents from something as simple as company letterheads, to generic risk assessment & method statements, for you to amend accordingly from job to job.

The last thing you need on your plate when trying to get a job over the line is pulling together data sheets for sheets of plasterboard and ceiling tiles.

We'll pull all of this together and offer both a hardcopy and electronic copy service to keep your client happy.

Rightly or wrongly, we judge people on their appearance as soon as we meet them.

If someone turns up presenting themselves with a brand, it shows establishment and professionalism. Small things like a logo on a business card showing a company website is a minimum every company should have.

The era we live in, if we want something whether it's goods or a service, we tend to pull out our smartphones and type in 'Bricklayer in North West' and it will bring up a list of registered companies in the search engine. Internet presence is key. In fact it's essential in the building industry, it allows people to look at previous work and shows you've nothing to hide.

Quantity Surveyors who are looking for new tradesman will take this approach. Getting approved by main contractors comes down to risk assessment. Therefore if they have access to a website to look at your experience and accreditations they will feel you're a competent contractor, not an untraceable cowboy.

There's a number of ways you can do this.

Display your logo on signage & banners.

Let future clients know who's transforming this development. All of this gives you more recognition, presence and establishment. Logo'd up clothing & PPE again let's people on site know who is in your team.

A tidy presentable van with van livery gives a good impression rather than a plain white transit with a rusty panel. All of these build a brand. Your brand. Best of all, its tax deductible.

The best way of advertising is letting people find you, plus it saves you the hassle of pitching your company separating yourself from your competitors.

The most efficient way of marketing is SEO.

People will type into google what they want, and it's our job to get your name to come up before your competitions.

Then there's small alternative such as company brochures, company introduction packs, leaflets, promotion emails etc etc.

We can help with this

Monitor your sites progress with a professional drone flyover that lets you and your clients see an aerial view of the development.

There are a number of benefits of using this service, these include;

• Professionals can keep use this to demonstrate their previous experience on projects

• Companies can show new clients a visual diary of their previous case studies

• Companies can use this to coincide with their progress report

• Main contractors have video evidence of what works were carried out on what date in the event of a dispute

• Visual aid without the expense of access equipment for surveys/inspections

• Let’s senior management see progress on site in the event they can’t attend.

The equipment we use is the best available in the marketplace to ensure you receive the best quality video footage of your development.

Case Studies are the ammunition you need to let your new clients know what you're capable of. Taking professional photos of your work can pay dividend for a small fee.

Build Assistant also provides a photography service to snap your team photo's and your working environment.

Trying to emulate the office based amenities can sometimes be a rocky transition, with pre construction information being collated, start dates approaching and procurement to execute.

The last thing you want to worry about is turning a piece of grass into a fully hoarded compounded that fits your traffic management plan and is adequate for the people on site.

Build Assistant can either refurbish a dilapidated unit into a site office, or we can form a compound with hoarding, temporary services, containers, offices, toilets, dry rooms, storage cabins, crush & run base, gates, CCTV & furniture if needed. We can also produce a traffic management plan if required.

In the era we're living in, we shouldn't be trying to deliver projects without the basics of an internet connection to send and receive emails as a minimum.