Construction Projects: How [Not] to Waste Money as an Owner
In my capacity as an Architect, I interact with many different types of clients, but they all have one thing in common: they want to spend money effectively, efficiently, and intelligently.
There are lots of strategies and systems to help owners do that during a construction project, but here are 5 big ones:
Be decisive
Stick with your decisions
Listen to the experts you’ve hired [and make sure you’re hiring ones worth listening to]
Know your own priorities and the priorities of the project
Better, cheaper, faster: pick 2
If you can do these, your projects will go *a lot* more smoothly, and you’ll have less headaches!
"Things cost what they cost, you just get to decide when you want to pay for them."
- a GC who’s been there, done that
1. Be decisive.
In my experience, just about every owner thinks of themselves as decisive. And they’re probably not wrong - of all the decisions we have to make in life, most people are pretty decisive about at least some of them! But no one is decisive about everything, or if they are, it’s a skill they’ve had to develop. Most owners aren’t “professional clients,” meaning the don’t do projects all the time. Homeowners, new developers, developers moving into a different building type/asset class, business owners fitting out their commercial spaces - there is a *ton* to absorb and learn, and claiming you can be decisive and quick on everything is setting you and your team up for frustration. Decision fatigue is real. Build in time to learn, absorb, and remain fresh and focused. There are *a lot* of decisions to be made.
The items in the rest of this list will really help you do that!
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