A lot of new business owners think that the construction process goes a little like this: Find a space, get an architect to design your restaurant (or store, or office), get a contractor to build it, then open up shop. The organization chart most people would draw looks a lot like this:
While this seems like more than enough of a task in itself, unfortunately there are a lot more people involved in the construction of a new location. The architects will need engineers to design the plumbing, mechanical, and electrical systems. The general contractor leaves some elements up to you (such as kitchen equipment, mill work, IT, and signage) because of how specific the needs of each brand (and each store) can be. A permit expediter, an expert on the ins-and-outs of the permit process, will lower the risk of stopping a project before it even gets started. As you can imagine, this list goes on. In reality, the organization chart typically looks something like this:
While it may seem a little daunting, in a perfect world, this could be manageable for a scrappy, do-it-yourself type entrepreneur, but we know better than to expect anything to go perfectly. Between hidden field conditions that make work much more difficult and expensive to permit delays to mistakes in contract drawings, there are plenty of things that can go wrong with any given project. In those cases, having someone with expertise looking out for your best interest can be invaluable, not just to save you the time and headache of spending hours arguing with whoever may or may not be at fault, but who also can reason with vendors on their level to make sure you’re not getting gouged.
To oversimplify things, think of it like bringing your mechanic buddy to the shop with you, except instead of having him check to see if you really need that new fuel pump they’re charging you $90 for, you might need someone to evaluate the $15,000 change order for the commercial water heater you weren’t expecting to have to replace.
Of course technical expertise isn’t the only reason a construction manager is valuable to have on board. By organizing your vendors, tracking timelines, ensuring that the team we put together is working together and operating efficiently, we’ll be freeing up your time to focus on the other parts of your business. My recommendation to any new business owner embarking a project would be to get a construction manager. Be it BCM or another company, having someone with no other interests other than to look out for you is well worth the investment.
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