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Your company offers a niche service to the oil and gas industry, and as you grow, you’re noticing more and more delays – on your end – when it comes to booking business.

There are two major requirements for growth and success as a company – profitable customers and happy customers.

Clients will talk about you, and if you want them to say the good things that will bring in new business, you’ll need to complete your projects on time and on budget. HVAC business software is invaluable to professionals in the HVAC, plumbing, or mechanical contractor construction fields. It's so invaluable because it provides you with the tools you need to manage your risk, time, cost, and scope – and keep your customers happy.

Some of the issues that often arise during a project include:

All projects, let alone management accounting projects, fail when they do not achieve the following keys to success:

• On time delivery
• On or under budget
• Include all aspects as promised

Project management surveys show that only a handful of projects ever accomplish all three. Most projects are implemented and fail one or more of these criteria, and shockingly a large number are completely canceled due to failures.  

“This is the foundation of success nine times out of ten – having confidence in yourself and applying yourself with all your might to your work.”

This and thousands more quotes are found in Dale Carnegie’s Scrapbook, which I was awarded while taking the Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage Course.

With the tremendous competition in the service industry, managers and business owners are constantly faced with the challenge of cutting costs without jeopardizing the quality of their work. To do so, it is necessary to have an accurate picture of a project’s financial standing, which requires accurate allocation of costs to the correct job.

Working in the service industry in Canada presents a number of challenges. 

Handling money, for example, can be challenging, because each province – and then each county within the provinces – may handle taxes and other fees differently. Invoicing and payroll are suddenly daunting tasks.

These are challenging times for businesses that provide contracting or other services to the Alberta oil industry. Overall, that sector is now – or will be – showing signs of a recession. Whether it’s a long-term recession or a short-lived one remains to be seen, however.

Fortunately, a number of contractors still have work in select specialties assigned to ongoing, long-term projects. The firms lucky enough to continue their services are doubtless drilling down into their internal operations to monitor expenses. The focus will, of course, be on the profitability of each project.

A recent game-changer in the oil sector is the declining price of oil, which puts a stranglehold on future growth for companies serving this sector.

The outlook is further darkened by Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s plan to cut hundreds of jobs at its oil sands operation in northern Alberta.