Why Most Construction SMEs Are Stuck in Survival Mode
Running a successful SME in construction often means navigating a labyrinth of legacy processes, administrative burdens, and constant firefighting. Most SMEs are operating in survival mode, drowning in complexity while lacking the fundamental systems needed for sustainable success. While the path out of survival mode exists, but it requires challenging everything most construction business owners think they know about growth. It starts with understanding why traditional approaches fail and recognizing that solutions aren’t found in more complexity, but in better structure.
Brendan Mullan, former senior surveyor and commercial director turned SME construction consultant tackle what he calls the "massive untapped sector" of SME construction businesses. With decades of hands-on experience across every department of construction operations, Brendan witnessed firsthand the repetitive issues plaguing the industry. His story and practical methods serve as a wake-up call and a blueprint for owners determined to steer their businesses toward sustainable growth.
Why Most Construction Consultants Create More Problems Than They Solve
The consulting space in construction is saturated with people who've never managed a site handover or dealt with the cash flow realities of construction operations. This creates a fundamental disconnection between theoretical business advice and the practical challenges of coordinating subcontractors, managing weather delays, and navigating complex client requirements. Generic business frameworks that work in retail or technology often create administrative burdens rather than operational improvements when applied to construction.
"I see business owners, especially in construction, that they're engaged with these consultants that have no actual construction experience," Brendan points out. "Unfortunately, I see them create more confusion and overwhelm." The result is construction businesses implementing elaborate systems that look impressive on paper but crumble under the pressure of real project demands. What separates effective guidance from expensive confusion is battle-tested experience, having climbed through every department of a construction business and successfully navigated the industry's unique challenges provides insights that can't be learned from textbooks or borrowed from other industries.
When Digital Solutions Amplify Dysfunction
Construction SMEs face challenges juggling legacy paperwork systems while trying to implement digital technologies without proper foundational structure. The rapid digital technology adoption has added layers of complexity rather than simplification for many businesses. Companies implement expensive software solutions on top of broken processes, essentially digitizing dysfunction rather than creating streamlined operations.
The typical SME construction business operates with multiple disconnected systems: separate project management platforms, accounting software, communication tools, and paper-based processes running parallel to digital ones. Each system requires training, maintenance, and integration — resources that SME businesses often lack. "There's a reason why sales and marketing is the fifth and last step of my steps that I take them through," Brendan explains. "It's the last thing that we do." This approach challenges the common belief that more leads solve business problems, when in reality, bringing more work into a poorly structured business often accelerates decline rather than growth. The solution isn't more technology but a better structure before technology, ensuring that digital tools amplify efficient processes rather than sophisticated chaos.
Where Leadership and Accountability Break Down
The construction industry's "people problem" extends far beyond recruitment difficulties. It's rooted in fundamental failures in how businesses attract, develop, and retain talent. Most construction SMEs operate with non-existent induction processes and ad hoc development programs that fail both their teams and their bottom line. The typical scenario involves brief interviews followed by basic health and safety training, company equipment, and immediate project assignment, with no structured onboarding, clear performance expectations, or development pathways.
"What do we all look for? All we really look for is to know what is expected of us and then feedback on how we're doing in terms of that expectation," Brendan states. This simple truth reveals why construction businesses struggle with team performance despite having capable people. Without clear role definitions, performance metrics, and regular feedback systems, even talented professionals struggle to succeed. The solution involves creating what Brendan calls "performance contracts", clear agreements about role expectations and success metrics that help identify whether someone is genuinely underperforming or simply lacks clarity about their responsibilities.
Building Systems That Scale
The difference between construction businesses that scale successfully and those that plateau lies in their approach to systems development. Reactive businesses add complexity as they grow, creating layers of workarounds that become unsustainable. Proactive businesses build scalable systems that become more efficient with growth, focusing on critical control points rather than trying to systematize every activity.
One of the most overlooked aspects is the handover process from estimating to project delivery. "Because they haven't done that simple process, had a meeting with the internal cycles, your QSs, your health and safety department, your buyers, your purchasing department, and your QSs, because they don't do that... They end up 12 weeks into a job and they're already firefighting," Brendan points out. Here's a simpler way to say it: for general contractors handling 10-15 projects a year, holding a pre-start meeting for each one can stop months of firefighting down the line. Effective systems create predictability through consistent processes, regular performance reviews, and real-time financial visibility, enabling business owners to focus on strategy rather than firefighting.
Why Operational Excellence Beats Marketing Excellence
Many construction SMEs reach a plateau where they're comfortable but not growing, with steady work and reasonable profits but operating at capacity without systems to scale beyond current limits. Breaking through requires what Brendan describes as "being uncomfortable in a comfortable position," recognizing that current systems that achieved present success won't necessarily support the next level of growth. The paradox is that businesses must invest time and resources in systems development when already stretched operationally, requiring discipline to work on the business rather than just in it.
While many construction businesses focus on marketing differentiation, sustainable competitive advantage comes from operational excellence. Clients remember contractors who deliver on time, on budget, and with minimal hassle more than clever advertising campaigns. In the construction industry, winning work rarely depends on superior marketing because of the focus on competitive tendering. Before investing in lead generation, successful construction businesses establish financial visibility through management accounting practices, which many SMEs lack. They understand true profitability by project type, client, and service offering, making marketing efforts strategic rather than expensive guesswork.
The Bottom Line
Summing up, construction SMEs don’t need more complexity; rather, they need better structure. The businesses that thrive will master the fundamentals: clear financial visibility, structured people development, systematic process improvement, and operational excellence. These aren’t revolutionary concepts, but their systematic implementation represents a revolution in an industry that has been comfortable with dysfunction for too long.
The path forward requires an honest assessment of current capabilities and a commitment to building sustainable systems that support growth rather than constrain it. For construction business owners ready to move beyond survival mode, the opportunity has never been clearer or more urgent.
This article draws insights from the featured episode: Transforming Construction with Starcoz Consulting on the I'm The Gaffer podcast. Stay tuned as we explore the challenges and opportunities in construction—where success is crafted with expertise, innovation, and dedication.
