Month: March 2022

Cal Wilson / March 11, 2022

2022 is looking to be a year of careful balance for construction companies. On the one hand, demand for projects is up, increasing job opportunities across the industry. On the other, ongoing supply chain issues, among other causes, are seeing the cost of doing business steadily increasing.  

In this article, we’ll examine the current climate for the construction industry, and share some advice on how contractors can keep certain expenses low to protect their bottom line and make the most of growing demand.  

Industry demand is on the rise in Q1 of 2022.  

A recent survey conducted by Associated General Contractors (AGC) and Sage found an overall optimism looking ahead into 2022 across construction contractors.  

Specifically, the survey found that contractors expect to see a high demand for the following kinds of projects: 

• Highway and bridge  
• Transit and rail  
• Airports 
• Water and sewage
• Power infrastructure
• Private sector
• Healthcare facilities
• Residential
• Educational facilities
• Manufacturing facilities

According to AGC and Sage, the only areas in which construction companies are unlikely to see an increase in business are in retail and private office projects.  

Many companies are looking to expand.  

These positive projections are leading many businesses to expand. In fact, 74% of the firms AGC and Sage surveyed responded they looked to increase their headcount in 2022, compared to only 9% looking to downsize.  

However, with continentwide labor shortages impacting all industries, many construction companies looking to expand are having trouble doing so. Not only does this prevent the companies’ desired growth, but also limits the projects they can take and turnaround time of completing said projects. 

The supply chain is also an issue. 

Labor shortages have only been made harder by supply chain delays inflating the price and availability of materials. The majority of contractors have found that projects are taking longer and costing more.   

According to international property and construction consultancy firm Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) construction costs in Canada and the United States are up an average of 7.42% from pre-pandemic rates.  

So what do construction companies do to stay profitable? 

Even in difficult economic situations, there are strategies businesses can take to remain profitable.  

With the supply chain crisis, certain expenses are inevitably going to increase. Materials, for example, are an area where it is difficult to make concessions based on price, considering their necessity in finishing any job. So while the prices of materials and their delivery may be on the rise, cost management in other areas can go a long way in helping your bottom line.  

One such expense is fuel.  

Fuel is a big spend for many contractors.  

Every contractor goes through some degree of motor fuel, and that spend will vary from project to project. It is difficult to dedicate the time to sourcing the most cost-effective and dependable fuel supplier. However, optimizing fuel costs can hugely benefit your business’ bottom line.  

According to industry publication Construction Business Owner,  some areas where contractors struggle with their fuel spends include: 

• Knowing how and when to purchase fuel at optimal levels.  
• Ensuring accurate fuel inventories.  
• Implementing tank monitoring and fuel-control systems, which “can drive greater business value through access to real-time fuel usage and cost data”. 
• Auditing transportation and fuel related expenses to implement savings strategies and keener financial management.  

“No matter the size of the company, there can be a lack of coordination and communication between its various expenses,” Construction Business Owner warns. “This can result in additional, often unnecessary fuel-inventory reporting processes that can lead to disruptive runouts or inefficient refueling needs, with any mistakes potentially leading to higher fuel costs or prohibitive equipment downtime.” 

Depending on your location, some of your fuel expenses might be tax deductible.  

One solution to saving on fuel expenses is by understanding which of them are tax deductible. Quickbooks advises that construction businesses, you can’t deduct the commute between your home and the jobsite, but you can deduct trips between multiple job sites, as well as those made for business-related trips throughout the day. 

On top of the price of gasoline, various other transportation related expenses can generally be deducted on your yearly taxes. These include: 

• Lease payments 
• Insurance
• Maintenance and repairs
• Vehicle registration
• Parking and tolls

Come tax season, make sure to work with your bookkeeper to be thorough and use deductibles to your business’ advantage.  

Work with professionals.  

There are software and technology that assist in monitoring and alerting managers to best fuel practices. Likewise, working with cost reduction professionals can save the time and hassle in auditing fuel spend, researching market insights, and finding and implementing solutions. 

In conclusion..  

With the construction industry looking forward to a prosperous year of growth and new projects, economic issues such as labor and supply shortages. 2022 will be a year of balancing opportunity with expense, and as such, there is no better time than the present to optimize fuel expenses.  

Cal Wilson / March 11, 2022

When creating a budget for your business, it is helpful to separate and account for fixed versus variable expenses. Mistaking the latter for the former can cost you, and the better you understand all your expenses, the better chance you have of optimizing them.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, the best way to describe the difference is that fixed expenses are costs that stay the same from month to month, whereas variable expenses are ever-changing and harder to predict.

Fixed expenses.

Fixed expenses often represent the largest part of your budget. For a business, your fixed expenses are going be costs such as rent payments, insurance premiums, property taxes, and so on. While these are not easy to optimize, they are easy to work into your budget, as they are unchanging and paid at a consistent frequency.

If you can lower these expenses – say, by finding a different insurance plan that works for your needs – you automatically save more money each month or pay period.

In business budgeting, it is important to remember that all your fixed costs must be paid, regardless of your sales that pay cycle. If you’re starting a business, making sure you can cover these expenses for a period before you start bringing in revenue is crucial to staying afloat.

Variable expenses.

Your variable expenses are going to represent the costs incurred by how a given month or pay period goes for your business. How many credit cards you swipe, how much electricity you use, or how much waste you generate; all of these are going to incur a bill that varies every cycle.

Some of these expenses can be harder to reduce than others. How much heating you use to keep your office warm, for example, may be more difficult to lower than the amount of waste your organization is generating. However, in many cases, these expenses are in areas that you can strategize or work with professionals to identify savings, creating a more predictable monthly bill.

Employees can represent either kind of expense.

Depending on how you staff your business, your employees can be either a fixed or variable expense. Anyone hired on full time, who is guaranteed a forty-hour work week, will be a fixed expense, whereas a seasonal or part-time employee will likely be a variable expense, as their hours are subject to change month to month.

Budget with these expenses in mind.

When you’re budgeting, it’s important to separate your fixed costs and your variable costs. If you’re able to determine what you absolutely will be spending in your fixed costs, then it is easier to identify and strategize areas to save with your variable costs.

Month to month, keep track of your variable expenses. Maybe one month you allotted too little to certain expenditures and went over budget. If you keep a closer eye on each cost category, you can do a better job budgeting and planning for the future going forward.

Don’t settle on expenses.

The lower you can keep your costs, fixed or variable, the better the results for your bottom line. If you don’t have experience negotiating rates or deciding what expenses are fair in comparison with the rest of the market, don’t settle. Explore your options, bring in consultants, and work with professionals who can guide you in the right direction.

Especially for the fixed expenses you will be locked into for some time, this could be a make-or-break decision for your business. Why pay more than you have to?

Cal Wilson / March 11, 2022

Cal Wilson / March 11, 2022

It doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that when prices are climbing, gasoline is included. Experts are divided as to whether gasoline prices are going to keep increasing, or finally drop. In this article, we look at the state of gas prices, and what your business can do to help reduce your fuel spend.  

Gas prices are at a record high.  

As of February, gas prices are the highest they’ve been since September of 2014, with no immediate prospects of relaxing. In the United States, gas prices are nearly a dollar higher per gallon than they were in February of 2021.  

In fact, conditions are so grim that head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, Patrick DeHaan, believes ”the national average could be pushed to record territory by the start of the summer driving season.” 

The rates in Canada are much the same. For example, Metro Vancouver saw gas prices hit a record high in January, with prices reaching 176.9 cents per litre. In Newfoundland & Labrador, residents are comparing gas prices to a second mortgage.  

And while demand is also falling across the continent for consumers, hopefully leading to an eventual decline in prices, this does little in the meantime for the businesses who rely on motor fuel for their daily operations.  

This is abnormal for winter months.  

The surging prices across winter months, in colder regions, has been especially surprising.  

As explained by the publication Money, in colder months, “gas stations generally switch to a different blend of fuel that is more suited to colder weather. Because that winter blend is cheaper than the fuel blend sold in the warmer months — and because the demand for gas also tends to decrease when the weather is colder since fewer people are traveling — the price of gas usually falls at this time of year.” 

What is behind the climb in prices? 

Oil industry struggles at a global level are part of the reason prices are so high. Conflict in oil producing regions, COVID-related restrictions impacting the industry, and supply chain issues all account for these struggles.  

Likewise, in mid-February, the Energy Information Administration reported declines in inventories of both crude oil and petroleum, despite gasoline reserves being on the rise. Why does this matter? Well, 52% of the retail price of gasoline is based on how much the wholesale crude oil costs.  

 “As long as the price [of] oil remains elevated, consumers will be feeling it at the pump,” said AAA spokesperson, Andrew Gross in a statement. 

Now is not the time to be lax with your fuel spending.  

While different experts have different predictions for the price of gas in coming months, your business needs a more concrete strategy to save than hoping costs will come back down. Whether prices are going to rise more or finally fall during the coming months, your business should be prioritizing optimizing this spend where possible.  

Let’s look at a few different strategies you can use to bring down your gas spend.  

Fleet cards.  

A fleet card (or fuel card) is a type of payment card that allows for easy management of expenses associated with company-owned vehicles. Fleet cards are designed to be used specifically for expenses related to managing vehicles. Businesses such as trucking companies, ridesharing services, or delivery providers will often issue fleet cards to employees who use and operate corporate vehicles. This helps to cover fuel, vehicle repairs, and maintenance expenses.  

Fleet cards will help your fuel spend in the following ways: 

• Accurate records and flexible reporting – fleet cards enable owners/managers to stay informed of all business-related expenses via real-time purchase reports. 
• Spending history and budget control – because each fleet card is linked to an individual employee, a business can use their transaction information to monitor spend efficiency and fuel consumption, potentially reducing overall company fuel expenses and allowing for more accurate budgeting estimates.  
• Fuel discounts – many fleet cards that are currently on the market offer additional fuel discounts and regular promotions. 

Fleet cards are also accepted at most gas stations, so your drivers will be able to fill the tank when and where they need to.  

Route optimization. 

Route optimization is a solution offered by several providers which uses software to determine the most cost-efficient route for a vehicle or fleet of vehicles. A good provider’s solutions will factor in every variable that could affect a driver’s route, including, but not limited to: 

• Number and location of stops 
• Number of deliveries 
• Time windows 
• Number or turns and intersections 
• Traffic patterns 

This is difficult work for a computer to do, let alone a human brain. As Verizon puts it, “[w]ith just one vehicle and 10 stops, the number of possibilities is 3,628,800. But if you have a fleet of five vehicles, that number jumps to a whopping 37,267,043,023,296,000. This is why route optimization is mostly performed by computer algorithms and advanced heuristics that can quickly narrow down the options.” 

Optimizing your fleets’ routes means less time driving, reduced fuel costs, and increased productivity. All of these things improve your bottom line and make the job easier on your drivers.  

Best driving practices.  

While it seems mundane, keeping your drivers up-to-date on best driving practices can also help save on fuel. A change to everyone’s day-to-day habits may not have an immediate effect, but over time, it will result in less fuel wasted.  

In fact, according to the Government of Canada, adopting fuel-efficient driving techniques can “lower your vehicle’s fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 25%.” 

The government’s five main tips for fuel efficiency are: 

1. Accelerate gently 
2. Maintain a steady speed 
3. Anticipate traffic 
4. Avoid high speeds 
5. Coast to decelerate  

Other practices to consider implementing include: 

• Reducing time spent idling – make it a habit to turn off your engine if you’re stopped out of traffic for more than 60 seconds. 
• Keep an eye on tire pressure – underinflated tires can increase fuel consumption up to 4%!  

In conclusion… 

Right now, there’s very little we can do to control or predict the price of filling up our tanks. However, business must go on. The best thing businesses with fleets can do is be aware, and practice other strategies to help reduce their fuel spend.  

Cal Wilson / March 11, 2022

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) helps businesses across the world better manage phone systems which need a growing number of lines, virtual solutions, worldwide capacity, and more. In comparison to traditional analog phone systems, VoIP phone systems tend to have lower costs and higher reliability.  

For these reasons, VoIP is becoming increasingly popular with businesses. This trend isn’t slowing down in 2022; in fact, it’s picking up speed. In this article, we look at the future of VoIP technology, and what you can expect to see from providers this year.  

The industry is growing.  

With the digitization of communication still going strong, the VoIP industry is seeing the benefits. One provider, RingCentral, reported its subscription revenue grew 34% since pre-pandemic sales. Experts predict the industry will grow by at least 55 billion USD by 2025. This is due in part to the technology’s large expansion into previously untapped markets.  

For years, specialized business phone systems were used mainly by larger enterprises with hundreds of employees. Nowadays, the cost and customizability of VoIP has made it accessible to all businesses, whether you’re an office that needs a few phone lines or a call center requiring hundreds.  

The VoIP industry’s growth will include exciting new trends that take the convenience and mobility of this tech forward into a new era.  

VoIP is part of the rise of UCaaS.  

In 2022, we will likely see VoIP expanding as one part of a larger Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) product. UCaaS platforms offer services like VoIP along with a suite of other cloud-hosted communication services, such as video/web conferencing, instant messaging, faxing services, and collaboration tools.  

As TrustRadius explains, “one large benefit UCaaS brings is the ability to centralize virtually all online communication within one platform. Rather than having to purchase a separate video conferencing tool, instant messaging application, and voice solution, companies can invest in one product that has it all.” 

One of the trends that will continue to grow in 2022 with UCaaS is integrated communications apps, which host all the communications tools, including VoIP, from a single application. This prevents the frustration of having to switch between multiple apps or overload your devices with several different communications software running.  

As UCaaS continues to save enterprises time, money, and hassle, VoIP will continue to grow alongside it.  

5G capability will expand VoIP’s accessibility.  

With the number of 5G compatible devices being sold on the rise in North America, VoIP systems will inevitably be impacted.  

5G compatibility for devices with a VoIP phone installed could potentially solve two of the biggest concerns that hold some back from making the transition from traditional phone systems: 

• Call latency leading to dropped calls. 
• Quality of service on 4G networks.  

While VoIP is an improvement on traditional phone systems in a lot of ways, we all know internet connectivity can be spotty, especially in high traffic environments. Luckily, 5G promises significant improvements. While VoIP services on 4G networks can take 10 milliseconds to connect to a network, creating some latency, 5G is reported to speed this up to less than one millisecond.  

Likewise, because of the capabilities of newer devices and stronger networks, many VoIP providers now support applications on iOS and Android, alongside the typically desktop/softphone solutions. This has huge benefits for companies with remote or travelling workers.  

VoIP will be integrated with AI.  

In 2022 and onwards, we will see increasing integration of VoIP with AI customer service technology. 

With AI’s propensity for analysis, automation, and convenience, the combination of AI and VoIP will seriously change the way many businesses do customer service. It enables companies to: 

• Set up advanced call routing. 
• Use auto attendants to handle incoming calls.  

• Speed up communications for customer service lines and reduce wait/hold times. 
• Create smarter digital assistants that will conduct real-time analysis that gathers a customer’s emotional state and other information.  
• Use Natural Language Processing (NLP) tech to translate voice or video calls in real time.  
• Prevent fraud for businesses of all sizes.  

The potential benefits of this technology are endless and will result in quicker interactions and less customer frustration.  

VoIP and CRM integration.  

Some companies have already made the smart move of integrating their VoIP solutions with their CRM data. Going forward, this will become increasingly standard practice.  

When VoIP and CRM are integrated, whenever a known customer or client number calls, the system automatically loads all their information, saving time and confusion on both ends of the interaction. In sensitive industries, such as banking, this can also prevent mistakes and data breaches from happening.  

The Education Industry is tapped for VoIP adoption.  

While enterprises were early adopters of VoIP across industries, 2022 is looking to be a big year for VoIP and UCaaS integration within the education world.  

The rise of remote learning has created a need for virtual communication platforms that are accessible to teachers, staff, and students alike.  

A good UCaaS system would provide a host of benefits to a school doing in person, remote, or hybrid teaching. This includes: 

• Adding supplemental learning sessions, enrichment classes, labs, and more virtually.  
• Offer tutoring to the curriculum hosted online.  
• Allow staff, students, and parents to request equipment, forms, books, and more in an automated, trackable way.  

• Allows teachers to send bulk emails, announcements, and voice messages to students. 

While post-secondary institutions are leading the adoption of this tech, it seems that UCaaS is the future of education across the board.  

In conclusion… 

2022 is projected to be a great year for business phone system providers, whether that be just VoIP or UCaaS as a whole. Global circumstances, tech advancements, and more have created the perfect environment for the rapid growth of virtual communications solutions, which means a lot more opportunities for businesses to find services that fit their needs.