Heating not available - Who bears the costs?

On the other hand, the builder also pays 50% more for fuel for his family car (double is massively exaggerated), the 30€ tile from the contract signing now costs significantly more, in the previous apartment there is too little space, and heating costs have multiplied... Instead of struggling with the construction companies, one would actually prefer to already be sitting in the new house. Why should the builder now pay the price because things were ordered too late? The kitchen fitter only planned with devices that he is also certain to have at the delivery date. So it also works in project business if you want. The electrician, on the other hand, obviously only ordered the photovoltaic system in September even though he was already complaining about delivery problems during the shell construction inspection at the beginning of May. My understanding is very limited when the photovoltaic system is not there for the move-in.

Exactly. Everyone can imagine it for themselves: You are a master plumber, have your business, your employees. And suddenly the price of diesel per liter for 4 vans is almost double, material sometimes costs five times as much, a lot of things you can’t get at all... and constantly the client calls and talks about contractual penalties and says he won’t pay...

Where are you supposed to get it from if you don’t receive anything? Even "Hotboys" seem to be scarce nowadays.

You get that from the reserves you built up during the tough times before. Quite simple. A company that can no longer meet its liabilities without tricks is insolvent.
These companies have been artificially kept alive in recent years through cheap money and the suspension of the obligation to file for insolvency.
To my knowledge, this is called market correction when such companies go insolvent.

You get that from the reserves you have accumulated in the rusty times before. Quite simple. A company that can no longer meet its liabilities without tricks is insolvent. These companies have been artificially kept alive in recent years through cheap money and the suspension of the obligation to file for insolvency. To my knowledge, this is called market cleansing when such companies go insolvent.

Oh dear... so then easily 50% of all companies have been artificially kept alive, right? Bakers, medium-sized businesses, craftsmen... if they can't even survive 1-2 years of supply shortages and energy price explosions?

Let me guess, you work in IT, right? Close your laptop, walk two houses down and keep going? It doesn’t work that way in craftsmanship nor in the manufacturing medium-sized businesses ;)

If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. A batten or a boiler isn’t source code that you just quickly write when you need it.

PS: If I were a craftsman reading this thread... I would cash in my business, lay off my employees and then say "Do your crap alone then, if you think you can do it better" ;) Because the fat profits you’re all talking about here... the developers made those, not the craftsmen. Not the bosses, and certainly not the craftsmen themselves.

Far from correct with your guessing game about my profession.
As far as I know, reserves are part of sustainable business practices. Especially in crafts, there was massive gold rush sentiment in recent years. Certainly, this did not affect the employees, but rather the companies themselves. They were booked out for months and years in advance, at prices that were beyond good and evil. The reserves hopefully built up there can now be used to cover the increased costs without having to breach contracts with customers.
And again: if no reserves were built up in recent years and bankruptcy was only avoided by cheap loans, then those simply were not economically viable companies.
Sustainable business practices have massively fallen out of fashion, which is now taking its toll.
Of course, I also know about the dangers and fates behind bankruptcies, but the current politics massively drive a recession. Shifting the entrepreneurial cost risk onto the end customers, and in some cases in an extremely cheeky manner, in my opinion, only indicates that companies like these should indeed go bankrupt.
I place 100% trust in the hardworking German society, in which the next person will become self-employed and succeed on the market with a more successful business model.

If you don't get it, you don't get it. A roof batten or a boiler is not source code that you just quickly write when you need it.

You can tell you have little knowledge of software. Sometimes you quickly write a helper script, but software development is a bit more than just one-off code. You can of course slap something together quickly and sell a duct-tape solution, but that will get you a lot of rework. And good luck convincing an authority or a large insurance company to install a patch. Usually, the October patch is not installed before Easter. It's also not much fun working on such systems because you're always playing whack-a-mole. Clawing your way out of the hole again costs a lot of time and money. That's why it's better to invest a bit more time at the beginning, plan carefully and think ahead instead of implementing features on demand, and also write tests diligently. It does cost money, but you recoup that later because you discover most problems before they hit the customer. And the software also does what the customer wanted.

...

In this context, there is also the term "quick and dirty", ;-) I heard it for the first time there. Of course, you are still right.