Keeping Your Construction Company Moving When Business Isn’t

Residential construction company owners have a lot to lose sleep over these days. First, there’s the decrease of work — a year ago, business may have been booming. Now, it’s barely limping along in many parts of the country.

Then there are the building costs — many materials have gotten more expensive, which isn’t helping. And reports keep pushing the end of the housing slump further and further into 2008, showing no relief on the immediate horizon.

Which is why many construction small business owners may be wondering what things they can do to help business run as smoothly as is humanly possible until the situation improves. It got us wondering, too.

Some tips and tools that may help:

• Offer More Services to More People. An Ohio-based construction company owner wrote to Fortune asking for advice on how to keep his business afloat in these tough housing times — and he received some helpful advice about taking on subcontractor work and looking outside of his local market for work.

• Conquer New Markets and Charge Less to Work More. Some other construction business owners offered advice about reducing prices and hitting up other construction industries on Fortune‘s Small Business blog.

• Keep your profit margin healthy. Don’t go over your budget — if you can’t pass the costs on to the client, you’re going to eat them, and as work slows, you’re going to feel it. ConstructionBusinessOwner.com has some tips for keeping budgets in check.

Have any other solutions to offer small business owners in the construction industry? Post them below.