Are You Advancing or Just Continuing? How to Measure Real Progress in Your Construction Business

Throughout my career in sales, marketing, and business development within the construction industry, I attended countless training sessions. One lesson that stands out and remains invaluable, even today, is understanding the difference between advancing and continuing. Although I first encountered this concept in a sales context, I’ve found it’s a powerful way to measure genuine progress in every area of a business.

The Difference Between Advancing and Continuing

Most business owners have every day filled with endless tasks. However, not all activity leads to real growth. You might be busy meeting deadlines and ticking items off your Todo list. But if you’re not measuring and aiming for meaningful milestones, you could simply be continuing rather than advancing.

Advancing means making measurable progress towards your goals. Whether that’s increasing revenue, improving project efficiency, or expanding your client base.

Continuing is about maintaining the status quo, keeping things running, but not necessarily moving forward.

Balancing Continuation Tasks with Daily Advancements

Much of a typical working day in construction is inevitably spent on essential tasks that keep your business running, such as working on site, ordering materials, handling paperwork, and responding to emails. These are “continuations.” They maintain operations and ensure projects don’t grind to a halt.

However, while necessary, continuation tasks on their own rarely push your business forward. That’s why it’s valuable to set a daily target for at least one or two advancements: actions that make measurable progress towards your key business goals. Whether it’s following up a lead, introducing a new process to improve efficiency, or securing a new client meeting, prioritise making advancements part of every day’s agenda.

By consciously aiming for a set number of advancement actions each day, you bring proactive focus to your growth targets, ensuring that, alongside keeping the wheels turning, you’re also firmly steering your business forward.

 

How to Measure Progress

To ensure your business is advancing, you need to track the right metrics and KPIs. Here are some practical steps and examples tailored for trade and small to medium construction businesses:

1. Define Clear Deliverables and Milestones

When setting a goal or beginning a new project, break it down into clear, manageable steps. These are your milestones and deliverables.

For example, if your goal is around gaining new clients, you could set a milestone to contact three potential clients each week. Break this down into actionable steps such as identifying prospects, sending introductory messages, and making follow-up calls. Each step is a small advancement that moves your business closer to securing new contracts and growing your client base.

2. Use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs are essential for measuring real progress. Consider tracking:

Revenue Growth: Are your sales increasing month over month or year over year?

Profit Margins: Are you becoming more efficient and profitable with each project?

Project Win Rates: What percentage of your quotes are turning into contracts?

 

3. Regularly Check and Report Progress

Don’t wait until the end of the year to assess progress. Regular check-ins, weekly or monthly, help you spot issues early and make necessary adjustments.

 

Summary

Forward progress is the result of conscious decisions to move forward, even while completing the necessary tasks that keep daily operations running smoothly. By distinguishing between continuing and actively advancing, and by setting clear targets for meaningful actions each day, you can ensure your business moves closer to its goals.

Breaking down objectives into deliverable steps, like gaining new clients or introducing more efficient processes, makes progress measurable and achievable. With the right mindset and practical focus, small advancements made regularly will add up to real growth and long-term success.

Take Action

Review your daily routine: Identify which tasks are keeping your business running and which move it forward.

Set an advancement target: Aim to achieve at least one or two advancements each day.

Break down your goals: Define deliverables and milestones for new business opportunities or efficiency improvements, then track each step as tangible progress.

Make progress a habit: Schedule regular reviews to ensure you’re consistently converting plans and ideas into real advancements for your business.

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Found This Useful?

I hope you've found this guide on measuring progress in your construction business helpful. If you’d like to discuss how to implement these strategies in your company, please email me. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. If you would like to talk about your construction company's digital marketing strategy, feel free to reach out as well.

About the Author

John Wright started his career in the construction industry at Kennedy Builders Merchants in the 1980s. This marked the beginning of a 35-year journey in sales, marketing, and business development in construction.

In 2016, John transitioned into digital marketing as an it’seeze web design franchisee, before founding RBC Marketing in 2022. Today, he uses his strong knowledge of the construction industry along with marketing skills. He helps construction companies create a strong online presence. He also drives business growth through both digital and traditional marketing strategies.