Subcontractors losing 10-16% margins typically blame on-site problems, but analysis of 400 firms and $30 billion in work shows the real culprit is poor contract and variation handling. A contracts department integrated into operations can recover about 10% margin without hiring more people.
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Construction subcontractors, if you're losing 10 to 16% of margin on every job, you're not alone, but you are bleeding cash and it is fixable. Most subcontractors chalk up margin loss just how the job went. But when we zoom out across 400 subcontractors and over $30 billion of projects, the biggest profit leaks don't come from mistakes on site. They come from how contracts are handled before and during the job. Here's the kicker. Most of that risk, that cash flow pressure, these surprise costs, they are avoidable. You're not losing margin because the work wasn't good. You're losing it because notices go in variations aren't watertight, or the contract was risky from the very beginning. Our average client adds 10% margin just by fixing this. No in-house hire, no more midnight paperwork, just a plug-in contracts department that protects your margin from start to finish. There's a free video that breaks down exactly how this works. If you're a subcontractor in Australia, New Zealand, or the UK and Ireland and margin matters, click below and go watch it now.