Draft a Winning Playbook!

by Jonathan McGaha | 2 January 2017 12:00 am

We played a lot of touch football when I was 10 years old. Eight boys would gather at our local park and choose teams. There wasn’t a playbook nor did the teams practice. Before each down, the quarterback gathered the team in a huddle and called plays based on what he thought would surprise the opponent. Players were loosely told what position to play, who would run which way, who’s job it was to block and where they were to go. Not a very good strategy for a winning outcome.

Think about your company. Is your business strategy better than a neighborhood pickup football game? Do you huddle up before every decision? Do you tell your players what to do before every project? Do they know what to do based on written systems and strategies from your company playbook? A professional football team is a good model to copy for small business owners. Professional teams have written strategies and playbooks with detailed plays designed to work in every situation they encounter. Do you?

Draft your Winning BIZ Playbook

A professional team must cover all its bases to put a winning team on the field plus make as much money as possible. Where should you start to draft a winning game plan?

1. Determine your Overall Company Vision

I often ask business owners why they’re in business. They answer: ‘to make money building projects.’ You’re not in business to build. You’re in business to maximize your time, energy, people and money so you can get the biggest return possible on your investment. Sit down with your key managers and determine why you’re in business and what’s the purpose for owning your company? This exercise will get you focused on the reasons you go to work every day and what you want to accomplish.

A construction company is often limited in net profit margin potential as business is very competitive and cyclical with thin margins. Construction companies can also create excellent opportunities to build wealth versus building for others. When you build for your own account, it allows for passive income and equity growth. What’s your reason to be in business?

2. Hire Top Managers

When a professional sports team is not winning they fire the head coach and most of the coaching staff. To build a winning team, you must surround yourself with the best managers possible. Excellent managers require high pay to keep them.

When you hire cheap and you fill the gaps, you are not selling or doing what your top priorities are. And guess what else? You don’t make any money and your business doesn’t grow. Make a list of the top five positions you need filled with the best possible people you can find at whatever it costs-sales, estimating, operations, field management and finance. Next, decide which position will benefit your company the most. Get started by hiring at least one top professional to help your company grow. Then look to the future and do it again and again until your company is growing and maximizing the bottom line.

3. List your Player Responsibilities

Professional sports teams realize that to win games, it’s about the players on the field. Most smaller construction business owners don’t spend a lot of time managing or training employees, and working to help them become the best they can.

To solve this problem, make a list of all positions and functions you need to operate your company. Next, list out what results each position is accountable for and what they do on a regular basis. Then look at who you have assigned to each position. You’ll find that several positions are filled with yourself or the wrong people. On a professional sports team this almost never happens. The manager of player personnel is always looking to fill each position with the best players possible, even if it means trading away a player for another. And guess what else? The bad players who don’t achieve the expected results are benched or cut from the team quickly. How are you as the manager of player personnel?

4. Design your Offensive Playbook

To win more games, score more points than your opponents. In business, what plays will guarantee you win, finish projects on-time and under budget, plus provide excellent service and provide superior quality? What kind of preparation and checklists do you use to ensure your offensive plays work?

Think about where you can lose the most money the fastest. For example, a foreman proceeds to install extra work without a signed change order. Or a project manager runs a meeting without a standard agenda and forgets to review some urgent approvals in a timely manner. Where have you lost money? Make a list of the plays you need to write out and make them standards.

5. Design your Defensive Strategy

Without a good defense, you can’t win many games. Defensive business strategies ensure you don’t get sued or need to hire an attorney to collect your money. Use a checklist on your construction contracts to list out how many days notice is required for approvals, changes, notices, changes, etc. Also have a contract checklist to make sure you don’t miss a clause you won’t want to agree to. Also implement a collection policy to follow, which includes how you invoice, what to do when not paid and how to file a lien. What system do you follow when you want to protect your rights or things aren’t going your way?

6. Implement a Training Program

In construction, most companies don’t train or practice very often, if at all. They just hire people and throw them into the game and hope for great results. Proper training takes a concentrated effort and a priority to implement a comprehensive training plan with exercises and drills to improve people’s skills.

To start a simple and effective company-wide training program, make a list of the top five things each position must do well for success. For example, a project manager must be able to organize, manage and lead meetings. A bookkeeper must be sure a subcontractor’s invoice is correct, and any change orders have been fully executed prior to payment and funded by the customer. Estimators must be sure they have read the project specifications to ensure they have included the correct insurance requirements in their bids. While all of these seem simple, each of them will cost you cash if they are not done properly.

Make training a priority by implementing a weekly 20-minute training session for each department or crew. Pick one or two areas to review with the teams. Then have them practice doing the task on their own with input and coaching. Remember: no train, no gain!

7. Develop an Equipment Inventory Management System

Equipment is a valuable part of your team’s success. In your business, employees rely on trucks, skill saws, backhoes, generators, extension cords and screw guns to get their jobs done. With outdated, broken or missing tools and equipment, it’s impossible to get the job done efficiently. Start by making a complete list of all your tools and equipment. Next, write out the condition, maintenance schedule and rental value of each. Then assign someone to be in charge of managing the process for you. The ultimate goal is to keep your crews working efficiently so you can make as much money as possible.

8. Initiate Business Development Plays

The key to success in any business is customers. What is your sales system to sell the most tickets and fill all your seats to the top? Do you regularly contact your repeat and loyal customers and thank them for their business? Do you have an ongoing program to reach out to potential customers and lure them into buying from you? Professional sports teams have an entire department focused on selling tickets and taking care of their fans. Without a fan appreciation and customer contact program, your company will not reach its bottom-line potential.

9. Track your Financial Plays

Without a prominent scoreboard, sports are irrelevant. In your business, score is of utmost importance. What numbers will you keep score of? I suggest every week you spend time reading your business sports page and get to know your numbers: sales, gross profit, net profit, job costs, employee costs, equipment costs, receivables, payables, bid-hit ratio and markup trends. Without a clear knowledge of your financial score, you can’t judge how well your team is playing the game.

Play Business like a Sport

Business is more fun when you manage like a professional sports team owner or head coach. Every day ask yourself what decisions you need to make and how would a coach go about making the right decision. In order to win, you’ve got to be working on all nine cylinders described above. Without any of these chapters in your playbook, you will eventually lose more games than you will win.

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George Hedley is a professional construction BIZCOACH and popular industry speaker who helps contractors increase profits, grow and get their companies to work. To learn more, visit www.hardhatpresentations.com[1].

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/articles/draft-a-winning-playbook/

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