By Garry Bartecki, GB Financial Services, LLC ConstructionPros.com
With prices on the upswing, be sure to double check your own costs, to see how they compare with this time last year. Talk to vendors and others and let them know you’re paying attention.
How is the economy treating you this year? Are you having fun yet? Probably, if you had a nice construction backlog coming into 2024, or work in a warm climate where more people are migrating to, or if you are lucky enough to get a piece of the government programs building, or refurbing manufacturing or chip sites. But no matter where you stand, there are plenty of issues you need to keep an eye on to protect profits and cash flow.
We might as well start out by dealing with the elephant in the room, known as INFLATION and/or SHRINKFLATION. Either the price goes up for the same volume you are used to buying, OR, the price stays the same, but you receive a smaller amount of product. Now, I know you fall under the former, but not so sure you incur the latter. Could it be you purchased a box of nails that looked to be a little smaller or was a little lighter than you are used to? Hey, why should you be immune to what those bad manufacturers and distributors are doing to the folks buying groceries?