Growing a construction company is much more difficult and taxing than completing projects.
From acquiring a new project to meeting deadlines, managing the budget, and many more things in between- you will find yourself drowning in responsibilities when you start a construction company.
A construction business plan can come to your rescue in such burdensome situations. If prepared well, it can become a reference point for your company as it continues to grow.
Confused about how to write a business plan?
Well, this article will serve you perfectly. It will help you understand the contents of the business plan and offer a sample template for your construction company.
So let’s build a solid construction company business plan with this detailed guide.
Let’s dive right in.
Key Takeaways
- Venture into the market by conducting thorough industry and market analysis.
- Widen the scope of your service offerings to cater varying needs of your target audience.
- Create a detailed operations plan to get thorough guidance in your business operations.
- Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify your competitive edge over the competitors.
- Determine your marketing strategies to launch your business and get it popular amongst your target market.
- Define your business objectives, goals, and mission values to create a foundation for essential business policies.
- Account for various project costs, operating costs, and office expenses to form realistic cash-flow projections.
Why do you need a construction company business plan?
Apart from the fact that investors and banks would ask for a business plan when you seek funding, here are a few more reasons you need a business plan.
- A business plan offers a roadmap to your business. It acts as a guiding block that has answers to all your how, when, where, and what.
- It helps in determining the exact target market for your business and formulating strategies to cater accordingly.
- There are millions of construction companies competing in the industry. You can identify your strengths through a business plan and design a competitive edge to stand apart.
- A well-rounded plan prepares you for emergencies that may arise in your business by making a plan for every situation.
- A whole lot of business processes repeat every day. A business plan helps bring consistency by establishing SOPs for various business activities.
And of course, you get your desired funding with a solid business plan that vouches for the potential of your construction company.
Key components of a construction business plan
Writing a business plan gets much easier with a structurally defined flow. Well, let’s have a look at key components that a construction company business plan must have.
Executive Summary
A brief summary of an entire business plan that will encourage the readers to read further.
Company Overview
A brief company description including every detail from company structure to its mission statement and future goals.
Market Analysis
A thorough analysis of the construction industry and your target market. It also includes sections for competitor analysis, future market trends, and scope of growth.
Construction Services
Outline the construction services that your company will offer. Highlight any additional services that will make you a distinct player.
Marketing and Sales Strategy
It includes a strategic plan to achieve success through marketing and sales. Determine the best course of action for your business.
Management Team
Introduce key personnel in managerial and leadership roles. Discuss their roles, qualifications, experience, and expertise.
Operations Plan
A detailed plan that streamlines the everyday operations right from construction methods to hiring employees.
Financial Plan
A financial plan highlights the prominent figures and key reports of your construction company by making necessary financial projections.
Let’s dive further into these topics and get a detailed understanding of writing your business plan.
Related Construction Company Resources
A step-by-step guide to creating a construction company business plan
A poorly written plan serves no purpose. However, with this step-by-step guide, you will uncover every detail that goes into making a fantastic and purpose-serving business plan.
1. Get a business plan template
Writing a comprehensive business plan is taxing and time-consuming. But if you do it well, you will have a guidebook for running your construction company.
Now, there is a lot that needs to be considered, planned, and accounted for as you start writing the plan. Even if you closely follow a construction business plan outline, there are higher chances of you losing track or getting stuck at certain sections.
This is why you need a business plan template to give a solid structure to your business idea. With industry-relevant examples and a guide, the Upmetrics business plan template is easy to edit and customize.
Whether you own a general contracting firm or specialize in residential construction or specialty trades- we have plenty of construction-related templates for you to choose from.
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2. Write an executive summary
The executive summary is a concise yet insightful description of your entire business plan.
This one-page document summarizes the most important questions that a reader might have and offers a peek into what they are about to uncover. Investors take a brief glance at your executive summary before deciding whether to proceed further or not.
An executive summary must outline the following details of your construction business in persuasive consecutive paragraphs.
- The exact business opportunity
- The target market
- The problem and the solution to it
- Products and services offered by you
- Market size and growth potential
- Financial highlights
- Operations
- Management team
Maintain a personal storytelling tone while writing this section and encapsulate every minute detail that can make a difference.
But wait, don’t start writing yet. Write your executive summary only after you are done writing an entire plan. This will help you summarize effectively.
3. Prepare a company overview section
This section of a business plan will focus entirely on the details of your construction company.
From the type of construction company to the construction company’s goals- everything in this section is about your company description.
To begin with, highlight the type of construction business you will start. For instance, a residential construction company, general contracting company, industrial construction company, or specialty trade construction.
Clarify, if this will be a new business or an extension of existing business. If the business is already operating, offer a brief description of the business history.
After that, highlight the business structure of your construction company. Are you going to be a sole trader or start a limited liability company (LLC) or a limited partnership firm? The business structure you choose will decide how the finances and taxes will work in your business.
Now, this section is your chance to weave magical stories around your construction company. Present the mission statement, company’s objectives, and future goals over here.
For instance,
Mission statement: Syncore aims to become a trusted name for sustainable residential construction projects in Arizona by 2028. With our commitment to the highest quality standards, we will penetrate the market with our premium budgeted solutions.
Business goals:
- Onboarding and signing 15 construction projects in a span of 6 months.
- Generating revenue of $2 million by 2025.
Like this, you will write this entire section in parts by offering a brief overview of your construction business.
4. Conduct a competitive and market analysis
In this section of a business plan, you begin with industry analysis and then narrow it down to your particular market segment. This is important to show your potential investors that there are promising opportunities in this market.
Using market research practices determine the target market for your construction business. Create a buyer persona to identify what your ideal customer will look like.
Further, highlight your competitors in this competitive construction industry. Using SWOT analysis and PESTEL, determine the strengths and weaknesses of competing construction companies. In this section, you will also highlight your strengths to gain a competitive edge over existing players.
Don’t limit your market study to merely understanding the current scenarios. Extend the research and identify future trends and growth possibilities in your targeted market.
For instance,
If you are a residential construction company focused on sustainable building practices, you must include the following details in your market analysis section.
- How large is the construction industry?
- What segment of the construction market will you capture?
- Who will avail of the construction services?
- What is the spending capacity of your target customers?
- Who are the top competing construction companies?
- What are the emerging trends in the industry and how will you leverage those?
- What is the growth potential of your target market?
Focus on quality market research as this will form the base of your further projections and strategies.
This screenshot of the construction business plan example highlights only the market size for HDFL construction. You can also include details like competitors analysis, growth potential, and market trends here.
5. Describe your construction service offerings
What construction services will you offer your potential clients?
Offer a detailed answer to this question, as you write a business plan section for service offerings.
Overall, this section should highlight every service offering that will bring you money. This could include services like,
- General contracting services
- Design and Engineering
- Construction
- Renovation and remodeling
- Project management
- Specialty services i.e. concrete work, HVAC installation, Roofing services
- Maintenance and repairs
Offer a brief understanding of these service offerings and highlight construction jobs you will specialize in. For instance, remodeling of kitchen and bathroom.
Now, will your construction company sell any construction materials for profit? If so, include details for that as well.
It’s important to consider the breadth of your service offerings to keep the customers coming back.
Overall, this section is your chance to prove to potential investors that your services can stand solid in the competitive construction industry.
6. Propose marketing and sales strategies
According to the IBIS world report, there are more than 3,787,470 construction businesses in the USA. Starting a construction company will add one more to this list, but hey- How do you wish to make a brand that your target audience can recall easily?
All the market assessment and understanding of your potential clients will come in handy at this stage as you make your marketing plan and sales strategies.
Take an opportunity to lay out your sales plan in this section. If you have existing customers, explain how you plan to retain them.
After you are done making your sales strategies, touch the marketing aspect.
Firstly, identify the way you want your brand to be recognized- as an ordinary construction firm, a luxury construction company, a sustainable solutions firm, or an affordable construction company. This will help you make a marketing plan.
Your marketing strategy should answer the following questions:
- Which marketing channels will you use- Online, offline, or a mix of both?
- How will you generate more leads?
- Online marketing methods- search engines, social media, Email marketing, content marketing, etc.
- If you are going to be utilizing social media platforms- which ones?
- How much will you budget for paid ads?
- Will you use billboards, pamphlets, and newspaper advertisements to market your business?
Keep in mind the marketing channels where you can find your potential customers. For instance, you are more likely to find conversions through Email campaigns than social media campaigns, if you are finding clients for commercial construction.
All in all, in this section you have to draw potential investors’ attention with your sales and marketing strategy.
7. Introduce your management team
Everyone is aware of the cutthroat competition in the construction industry. Knowing that you need an able team to transform your business plan into a successful venture.
After laying out your marketing strategy, it’s time to introduce the key management and leadership team to your business plan.
It’s okay to brag about the talented individuals you have in your company. From construction heads to project managers, highlight the achievements, experience, and expertise of these people and prove their asset-worthiness for your company.
Also, draw the hierarchical map to give potential investors an idea of your organizational structure.
This is your time to prove that you have both the means and manpower to run a successful company.
8. Outline your operational plan
You may know construction, but do you know how to run a construction business?
As someone said, “ Seamless operations are the silent engine of extraordinary business achievements”
Before even taking the first project, it’s important to define operations and SOPs for different business activities. Make it so thorough that it can act as a guidebook whenever a problem arises in your construction company.
As you write a business plan for this section, focus on answering the following questions:
- What construction materials will you use?
- What will be the supply chain process in your construction company?
- Who will oversee the project management on site?
- What will be the timeline for completing projects?
- What will be health and safety protocols for construction workers?
- What will be the process of construction work?
- How will the communication flow within an organization?
- What technologies and equipment will you use?
- How will you ensure quality work?
- How will you hire employees?
- What accounting software will you use?
This is just a general gist of questions that can help you prepare this section. Consider it as a living document that will undergo various changes as the business commences and grows.
A thorough operations plan will lay a clear groundwork for running a company. Moreover, it will instill investors’ faith in your ability to run a construction company.
9. Create a financial plan
Writing a sound financial plan is a challenge but nothing that your determined mind can’t handle.
Whether you plan to raise funds or get bank loans, you need a sound financial plan. Investors will analyze this section and only if they find your business financially viable, will they invest.
In this section, you will make financial projections and estimates for your construction company. This includes forecasting sales, estimating startup costs, projecting overhead costs, and making a pricing plan.
Using the startup costs projection, determine how much funding is essential to start your own construction company.
Also, prepare different reports like income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and break-even analyses using the projections made earlier.
To make a financial plan more relevant, consider various progressive and aggressive situations.
Lastly, prepare graphs, charts, and diagrams to make this section visually appealing and easy to grasp.
Now, stop. Don’t start writing a financial plan yet. You need a financial forecasting tool from Upmetrics to help you with projections and calculations of cash flow, sales, revenue, and everything else. Simply enter the data and it will make detailed and precise calculations for you.
Trust us, you don’t want to scratch your heads writing the entire plan from ground level.
And that’s it! With all this information you pretty much know everything that a construction business plan must have.
Construction Industry Highlights 2023
Now that you are almost set to open a construction company, here are a few industry statistics that might interest you.
- Market size: The US construction market sector was valued at 1.8 trillion US dollars in 2022.
- Growth of the virtual construction market: The global BIM market is 7.9 billion US dollars. North America is projected to be a market leader capturing 30% of this market.
- Rise in prefabrication and modular construction: Healthcare facilities followed by hotels/motels and educational institutions are most likely to avail of modular construction facilities.
- Major concerns: The leading concerns encircling the construction industry are inflation and supply chain disruptions faced by nearly 90% of constructors.
- Sustainable and green building: There is a continuous increase in demand for sustainable and green building solutions. As for 2021, the green building market in the USA was reported to be approximately 83 billion dollars.
- Growing investment in smart cities: According to IDC, the investment in smart cities is expected to grow to 203 billion dollars by 2024.
From sustainability to tech-centric processes, the construction industry is making huge shifts in trends. Both, small businesses and large have to evolve according to changing times to keep themselves relevant.
Download a sample construction business plan
Facing difficulty writing a business plan? Well, we have a perfect resource for you.
Download the Upmetrics sample business plan template. Our template offers step-by-step instructions and prompts to ease the entire plan writing process. It’s designed to meet modern market needs and is perfectly detailed with construction-relevant examples.
The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan
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