Owning a business is like running a marathon. You have to put in the miles week in and week out before the big race. Planning ahead is a must to make it to the finish line. But many people don’t, and they end up getting injured at mile 12, unable to continue.
Owning a business is like running a marathon. You have to put in the miles week in and week out before the big race. Planning ahead is a must to make it to the finish line. But many people don’t, and they end up getting injured at mile 12, unable to continue.
Don’t let your business fail to finish the race. In the day-to-day of a busy office, it can be difficult to think ahead. When you’re putting out fires constantly and reacting to issues, it feels like you don’t have time to look to the future. But it’s critical to be proactive about potential problems, allowing you to create solutions that you’ll thank yourself for later.
At Start Elevator, we work with our clients to plan for potential concerns and finish the race with their elevator systems through capital planning.
Just like running miles on a training plan prepares you for a successful race, then capital planning is the tool you need to ensure a successful business. Capital planners outline potential expenditures for the future. It’s a forecast that explains costs your company may need down the line. For example, it accounts for rising costs such as inflation, which rose by 3.4% in 2023.
Let’s think about elevators. Many elevators are made from aging equipment. With rapidly changing technology, this equipment becomes obsolete and needs to be replaced. A capital plan carves out a road map over a couple of years that
A good plan shows how the costs change over time, allowing businesses to save and prepare for the best scenario to complete the necessary work. If you spend wisely using a capital plan, you can avoid costly mistakes in the future.
Elevators are the heart of your building. A NYC skyscraper or tall apartment building can quickly become chaotic without the basic functions of the elevator–no resident should have to climb 20 flights of stairs with their groceries. Businesses would grind to a halt without the ability to access them. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of Start Elevator’s capital planning, to ensure your building’s elevators remain in optimum working order.
It’s no surprise that every piece of elevator equipment has a finite lifespan. It can take time for older elevator equipment to be repaired, often because it’s no longer in production. When an elevator breaks, these delays can take weeks or months to resolve.
A good capital plan allows for a timeframe that fully addresses your building’s needs. You can choose to improve your elevators in August when most people are on vacation, rather than during a busy season for your building, should a piece of machinery need attention.
The bottom line is one of the most important factors for every business. With a capital plan, you see how the cost of labor, materials, and more increase yearly. Even though it’s an estimate, this gives your business a sense of the optimal time to complete the work. This means that you won’t lose revenue because your elevator breaks down during your industry’s busy season.
Proactive decisions save money. It trickles down to all areas of cost. When you plan an elevator improvement, you won’t be taken by surprise, and you will have the funds allocated for it. A capital plan allows you to spend on maintenance when you have a surplus, not when you’re struggling.
Just as marathon runners’ training plans vary from beginner to elite, every capital plan is different. It could be as detailed as a Gantt chart, or as simple as a few paragraphs on a single sheet of paper. However detailed your plan is, it should follow these four steps:
Start Elevator uses capital plans to help their clients save money and see all the options on the table.
At Start Elevator, our team creates capital plans for our clients to ensure they can forecast service needs and plan spending in a way that works best for their budget. To learn more about our elevator services and how we can plan for your needs, contact us today.
