Builder uses software to overcome estimating heartache

Building a new construction business takes time, dedication and a willingness to try new ways of working to grow profitably.

Josh Bradley discovered the importance of this when he began using digital technology to manage construction projects for BradWay Construction & Restoration. BradWay Construction & Restoration serves stressed homeowners who struggle with the uncertainty of project design and the frustration that results from poor craftsmanship.

“So many times they’ll hire a contractor, either they don’t trust them, they don’t know them, or there’s no references, and then their final product is not what they want,” Josh Bradley said. “My favorite thing about being a home builder is helping the customer get exactly what they paid for.”

Helping the customer means completing all sorts of residential construction projects, from structural repair, remodels, to new builds, to unique amenities like curved stairways and intricate archways. 

Delivering this kind of diverse work has fueled BradWay Construction’s growth, which has mainly taken place by word-of-mouth. But that growth took a toll on Josh in term of his time, and ultimately, his health. Before using construction management software, estimating a home project required hours of meticulous work, listing individual tasks and then figuring out the amount of materials and labor needed to complete those tasks.

Spreadsheets proved too cumbersome

Before using construction management software, he spent a great deal of time using computer spreadsheets that became hard to manage. The spreadsheets ended up pages long and could disrupt hours of work if something was overlooked, Josh said.

“I’d wait for the kids to go to bed, and then I’d work until 2 or 3 in the morning bidding work, bidding work, and every time I would bid something, I’d have to do it over again for the next project. And there’s no templates, no storage (with spreadsheets); so I just started over every project.”

And all of this work, often late into the night, wore him down.

“I had heart palpitations, all kinds of stuff. I was missing so much sleep. So I talked to my business partner, I’m like, ‘Hey, we have got to find something that takes away some of our headache with estimating.’”

That something turned out to be Buildxact.

Running his construction company became more efficient once Josh started using Buildxact, he said. Buildxact cleared away the clutter because it brings all facets of project management—customer management, takeoffs, estimates, schedules and invoices—all into one simple platform.

“Before, we’d write a name down, and then it would make it to an email, then it progressed to a piece of paper, then to a spreadsheet, and it just became like four or five places where I was keeping this information. If you saw my desk, it would be a stack of things. Whereas Buildxact has consolidated all of that into one point of access.“

Pricing custom home builds more accurately with software

A great advantage to using Buildxact is the ability to pull material price and labor estimates based on geographical location using the software’s pricing assistant, Josh said.

Estimates from successful jobs can then be saved as project templates to speed up estimating for future projects of similar size and scope. Josh also uploaded into Buildxact a lot of the data he already built into spreadsheets to make a simple transition from spreadsheets to Buildxact construction estimating software.

“Getting started with Buildxact was pretty easy,” he said. “It was actually intuitive because it’s set up in a way that you would follow in real life. It’s all right there, and there’s tutorials to step you through some of the pieces of the software if you struggle or get hung up.”

Managing construction projects more efficiently

Working through problems, having the perseverance to succeed. has served Josh well over the past few years. To date, he’s built his business largely on word-of-mouth and the quality of his work. But now he’s ready to scale his business.

“We have no marketing, no website, no Facebook, no social media, and yet we’re booked out,” he said. “We’re above and beyond honest with our customers, and they trust us enough to refer us to other customers. And that has worked for almost two years. Of course, referrals, it’s hard to scale referrals, and so that’s why we’re getting into the marketing side.”

With Buildxact, marketing will become easier because all of his customer information is now in one place where it can be shared among his team. One of the best features of Buildxact is the time it saves by bringing customer communication, bidding and scheduling together while leaving paper notes, spreadsheets and cumbersome email behind.

“It’s almost like hiring a couple of people at a much lower cost,” he said.

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