CONTRACTOR ’ S CORNER
ADOPTING TECHNOLOGY
FOR AN EFFICIENT SEASON
MARVIN JOLES III
As we get into the New Year , in most regions this time of year hits us in our slow / off part of our work season . Most the asphalt industry business owners I know , use this time of year for maintenance , education , staff hires , training , tax prep and field prep . In a recent episode of Blacktop Banter , I interviewed Shawn Boyce with Brothers Paving and we went into detail about something that could have as big of impact on a business ’ s success as anything , job costing with software .
Now we know there are tons of CRM ,
Estimating / Invoicing , Mapping , Job Costing and Team Organization Software out there . But with so many of them out there , it begs the question of WHY ? Why are there so many , who is really using them and are they worth it ?
Shawn went into detail about the one he founded and how they use it at Brothers . He stated there are 1000s of users of that one , which shows there are many business owners using the complex and detailed one he uses , and that it must be working , as Shawn ’ s company has been using theirs for over a decade . He went on to tell listeners about how they had an increase in gross sales over around 30 % once the sales team started using it , and pointed to efficiency being the reason .
Now , there are some software programs that are simple estimating / invoicing / email style . Some add calenders for projects and team communication , and some add a lot more interactions like mapping , job costing , customer interactions , employee time sheets and more . There is something there for everybody no matter the stage of your
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