If you have not read part 1, or part 2 then click to read
Fast forward to the end of the 1990s. I had now moved on from the transgressions of my ex-business partner. I had my Bizprac up and running and was working tirelessly to regain control of my business, as well as my builder costs.
The fallout from my ex- business partner, appeared too great and led to my wife and I losing all we had spent nearly 15 to 20 years building up. It was time to move on while our pride was still able to be salvaged.
Being the forever optimist and I looked around for something to move on with. I still had my laptop and my building estimating software and my “can do” attitude.
I was approached by a number of builders who wanted help to set up their building estimate software. I was also approached by builders using Bizprac who needed my help to set up their job costing software to alleviate their time pressures.
For the next 5 years, I worked as a contract estimator for various builders at various locations on the east coast, working with them and their staff in the use of construction management software.
I really enjoyed the challenge of showing clients that using software for the building industry, allows them to realise the correct profits time after time. Even more self-satisfying, was watching the building owners grow their business, by utilising the job costing software which gave them a budget to actuals in real time. It was not an uncommon practice, for the business owners to tell me how glad they were to have invested in software for the building industry to run their business and what a valuable tool it is.
One company who engaged my services had a building division in Auckland NZ, who were using Bizprac as their primary business tool for management of their construction overhead and profit. However, their estimator was using the same package as my ex-partner used. The company directors were growing frustrated with the lack of transparency within their business. One key reason for this was the sub-standard processes and setup in their existing software.
As I delved deeper, I learned the biggest concern for the directors was, the disconnect between their building estimating software and their job costing software. The directors felt like they did not have the same level of control over the Auckland office, as they had with their Queensland office. With multiple and varied projects, some with tight margins, meant, they needed to have better control over their builder costs.
Upon request of the company directors, my wife and I made the decision to re-locate to the Auckland office. My role was to set up the Bizprac software for the building industry so the job costing software flowed, thus creating transparency for the directors who could then control the business better from Queensland.
It was during my time in Auckland, I was approached to see if we would be interested in buying into a share of Bizprac. This, I realised, was the opportunity I had been looking for.
Through personal experience, I believed in the software. I knew this was an opportunity to inject my life experience and industry knowledge into what was already a great product. This was my chance to make a difference.
Like I did for these builders, you can make a difference to your business, by more closely tracking your builder costs.
“I loved the software so much – I bought the business”
Stay tuned for the final installment of this story!!
