How to be a success in the crazy business of remodeling is often regarded as a mystery. The challenge is a business owner's inclination is to "do" something, take some kind of action, often when they don't know exactly what to do and when to do it.
Here are a few simple and effective tips on how to have your company make money and have the entire company feel successful.
Get Angry
When something happens in the course of your company doing business which causes the company to lose money, get productively angry. All too often, I see remodeling companies accepting losing money as business as usual. Only by deciding you are completely fed up with that occurring can you start making the small needed improvements that spring from things going awry.
The School of Hard Knocks is a place where you learn real life lessons. The money you lose when doing so is tuition. Tired of taking the same courses over and over again? Then take responsibility for not repeating the same learning opportunities.
Get your entire company on board in this practice. Look for mistakes and figure out, together, why they happened and what can be done to prevent them from occurring again. The company becomes a team by doing this work together.
Get Ready First, Then Start
When work is hard to come by, the company gets projects started as soon as a sale is made. The finish and fitting decisions haven't been made yet, but the company tells itself it can figure out those details.
Our company used to work like that. Talk about stress. One job sat for several weeks because the client could not decide on the paint color for the cabinets. Who paid for the toilet rental and other general conditions costs while the job sat? We did. But we were able to start the job ASAP. Kind of stupid and shortsighted business management, don't you think?
As our company matured, it became more and more apparent that the success of a project was directly tied to how completely all the planning and specifying was done before the project started. I came to believe that most of the money made doing a remodeling project was made before the production staff showed up at the client's home.
It takes discipline to slow down and get it all figured out. But don't most good things come after delaying immediate gratification?
By the Book
Okay, so you did actually take the time to figure out what the job is before giving it to production. But what exactly did you give production?
The job book is what determines how successful production will be. Sales is responsible for giving production a coherent, well-organized collection of information that is essential for getting the project done right the first time.
It must be in a format that everyone in the company understands and owns. That is a good reason to periodically examine the format as a company. Everyone gets to provide suggestions on how to make the job book easier to use and more helpful.
Sales must make sure that all relevant data is in the job book and all irrelevant data is not. Money is lost when production needs to call sales for answers to questions that should not need to be asked. And production's faith in the job book diminishes each time inaccurate information is depended on for decision making.
Keep It Simple
So, no magic bullets here. Just simple principles we tend to forget. As a company, as a team, keep these points in mind and you all will be more successful in remodeling.
