Resources to Support Your Business Through the Downturn With the housing market beginning to soften, now is the time to plan and adjust for the year ahead. Our sector is used to managing these cyclical changes, and this time is a little different. We are not facing the same sharp shock we have seen previously, but rather a more gradual decline. This provides us with time to stop, take stock and plan for the period ahead.

With this is mind, we have pulled together some resources which may provide additional support: 

2023 Economic Outlook Webinar

This webinar talks about what the economic slowdown may mean for you and how you can proactively manage your business through this.

This is a unique opportunity to pause and reflect on what changes you can make to ensure your business weathers the upcoming economic challenges.

Kelvin Davidson, Chief Property Economist at CoreLogic, led off with the economic outlook for the building industry in the year ahead, sharing key insights, perspectives and stories that paint a picture of what this means for the sector.

This is followed by our president Johnny Calley, who shared what he’s thinking about the upcoming period and how his business may need to adapt. To watch the recording of the webinar, please click here (you will need to sign into Offsite first).

Good Financial Practices for Residential Builders Webinar

The webinar on Good Financial Practices for Residential Building, held in conjunction with Residential Building Services Limited (RBS), helps builders in the residential building sector maintain strong financial management.

Ray Wilson from RBS talked about what happens if a firm isn’t quick enough to react to downturns in the market and how to navigate through these challenges to maintain positive cash flow in your residential construction business.

The webinar covered:

  • Early warning signs of a downturn
  • Addressing overhead structure as construction activity decreases
  • Options for turning fixed overheads (such as wages) into flexible overheads
  • Cash is king – raising stage claims as they fall due

Please click here for the recording of the webinar.

Managing Cashflow in Tough Times Webinar

Peter Cody, Partner at PwC, originally delivered this webinar in April 2020 for our members to help cope with the immediate impact of COVID-19.

As the best practice of cash flow management discussed in the webinar has implications beyond the early days of COVID-19, we recommend members to revisit the webinar to prepare for the potential downhill of NZ’s residential construction industry in 2023.
Peter also provided a Construction cashflow forecast template which members can download and use to help them do regular forecasting more easily and effectively.

Please click here to access the webinar recording and the template.

 

Avoid Payment Drama – Set Up Your Contract for Success

In this webinar, Rachel Conner and Keelin Weekly from Hazelton Law discussed pricing contracts effectively, prioritising good administration throughout jobs, including the District Court decision against Buchanan Construction Limited v Watson and resolving payment disputes.
In this interactive webinar, members asked some very good common questions on issues that were answered by Rachel and Keelin.

The District Court decision in Buchanan Construction Limited v Watson is a case-study on the mess that a residential builder can get itself into when trying to recover payment if its invoicing and/or payment claim documentation is not up to scratch.

To access the recording of this webinar, please click here.
 

Marketing fundamentals for builders

It can be difficult to know where to start with marketing a building business.

This course has been developed with residential builders in mind to help you:

  • Attract more and better clients
  • Build your brand and reputation
  • Make better decisions on where to invest your resources
  • Get a better return for your marketing spend

To start the course, please click here.

Find and Win the Clients you Really Want

Learn all the marketing essentials you need to effectively promote your business, so you find and win the clients you really want.

The webinar covers the following:

  • Understanding your ideal customer – who you want to attract?
  • How to build your brand so that your ideal clients choose you
  • Promoting your business – how to reach potential clients
  • How to leverage social media
  • Q&A session Chris Boyle, the owner of Mighty, a marketing agency that specializes in working with companies in the building and construction industry, takes you through the core aspects of marketing you need to understand and do to get more of the clients you really want.

Please click here to watch the recording.

How to Promote your Business: an Advertising Guide for Members

When looking to promote your business it is important to understand what options are available. Keeping up with all the various ways to advertise and promote can be overwhelming.

Advertising that you are a Master Builder alongside your own logo and branding is an essential way to show to potential customers the quality of the work that you produce.

To simplify things, we have broken down some great ways to advertise, and how to make it happen in an advertising guide for members that you can find in the resources section of Offsite, or you can click here.

Please also click here for our Elevate induction course on how to maximize the value of your Master Builders brand for your business.
Other Learning Resources for Master Builders

Master Builder members have a dedicated educational platform called Elevate which you and your staff can use to access training on a wide range of topics to help you build a better business. If you would like to know more about the resources on Elevate please click here.