Without new things to attack, new ideas to implement or new challenges to pursue, business gets stale and boring. Nothing new equals nothing new. Doing the same thing for five, 10 or 20 years in a row gets old and creates lots of rust. The same systems with the same strategies and the same people doing business the same way does not keep you at the top of the class, growing or making more money.
Younger competitors, without years of experience and only a few hard-knocks, enter your market and steal customers and market share with their creative ideas, innovation, passion and unique approaches to running their companies. While the old timers try to stay in control with micromanagement, little or no delegation, outdated software, good old-boy relationships, worn-out processes, long-time poor performers and little or no procedures, these younger entrepreneurs care about standards, net profit versus volume, using technology, job cost tracking, collaboration, teamwork, green construction, participative management, life balance and having fun.
What are you excited about?
New construction business owners have unlimited passion and stand for BIG things. They also want to get BIG and do BIG things with their companies. In other words, they aren’t afraid or worried about protecting what they’ve got, venturing into unknown territories, keeping their crews busy, selling off equipment that isn’t profitable to own, risking investing in the latest software, making people accountable or showing them the door if they don’t perform and trusting new hires to run projects without constant supervision. This burning desire to succeed is what drives them to work harder, try new ideas and beat their competition. To compete today, grow sales, attract new customers, become the best in your market and build an innovative, cutting-edge business, you must also have something BIG that excites both your customers and employees.
Twenty years ago or more, construction customers wanted to do business with contractors they trusted, had lots of experience, worked hard, provided fair pricing and had integrity. If you did a good job, you’d get your share of work. Today, customers and competition are different. Now, you still need to have all those traits and characteristics PLUS you have to have passion, excitement, energy, a desire to become the top company in your market, a willingness to stay ahead of your competition, a willingness to work 24/7 to meet your customers’ goals and a commitment to be the innovative industry leader.
What’s your plan to go BIG?
Resting on your past accomplishments and reputation isn’t enough today and won’t work like it used to. People want to do business with people who do whatever it takes to win the ever-demanding and changing game of construction business. The old rules don’t apply anymore, including honoring employee tenure versus results; craftsmanship versus following company systems and rules; letting someone else take care of the money versus knowing your numbers; keeping foremen in the dark versus sharing job cost goals them; not letting employees make important decisions versus letting go and empowering people; hiding financial results from managers versus opening your books; buying field equipment versus renting to conserve capital; only providing lump sum bids versus showing customers line item cost breakdowns and sharing final project savings with them; buying cheap and easy software versus investing money every year in technology to stay ahead of project requirements; winging your company goals and strategies versus updating a written strategic business plan every year; hiring low-priced assistants versus high-priced, fully qualified and experienced proven performers who don’t need training and can help your company grow with little direction; not going after work you don’t have experience in versus hiring a manager to start a new division in a new market; or waiting for the economy to turn around or old customers to call versus having a written sales and marketing plan that attacks new customers and project types.
Where do you start?
I get emails weekly from business owners who finally decide to do something and make major shifts and changes to their companies and need help deciding what to do first. People don’t change until they either have to or want to change. Usually the decision to change your business is the result of years of knowing what you’re doing doesn’t work. The owner is usually worn out and tired of making all of the decisions for everyone, working too hard, not making enough money, tolerating poor performers and has stopped enjoying going to work every day. In other words, they have lost their passion and excitement of building a business that delivers what they want. Their employees and customers can sense it and don’t respond to the owner like they used to.
The chance to go BIG is yours!
What have you been waiting for? What do you need to do to achieve BIG goals and do BIGGER things? What BIG ideas have you been postponing or delaying until something happens? What new hires should you make? What people have overstayed their welcome and don’t work well on your team anymore or produce the results you want?
What equipment, software, tools, techniques or procedures need updating or eliminating? What new ideas, systems and standards need work, revamping, improvement or implementation? What changes to your organizational chart are needed so you can delegate and let go of most accountabilities and responsibilities and refocus your efforts on sales or making more money? What written goals and objectives do you need to write, track and monitor on a weekly and monthly basis?
What BIG things do you need to do to make your company exciting to customers and employees? Deciding what to do is tough. But once you make the important decision and start in a new direction, incredible things happen. Any decision is better than no decision. Any plan is better than a perfect plan never executed. Positive change is positive. No change is negative. Do it! Don’t wait! Re-excite and re-invigorate your company with passion and excitement. Go BIG!
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George Hedley is a licensed professional business coach, popular professional speaker and author of “Get Your Business to Work!” available at his online bookstore. To learn more, visit www.hardhatpresentations.com or email gh@hardhatpresentations.com.
