How To Have A Rockin 2013!
A new economy and a new marketplace are both here now, and they are what they are; for now. Old ways of doing business or just waiting for something good to happen for you in the New Year are strategies that are probably not going to help grow your business and or your profitability. Here’s my list of three things remodeling business owners can do to make sure 2013 will be the year they set their businesses on a new path towards success in a constantly evolving marketplace. Don’t miss the video treat at the end!
#1: Choose your niches: You can’t serve everyone or anyone
When you serve anyone and are willing to build anything your business misses an opportunity to really stand out. Lots of businesses already follow that model. If you follow it too you will be just another one in the crowd. Instead, by choosing specifically who you will work for and what work type or types you will concentrate on, you can then create and build a brand that attracts your targeted niche. Make sure the niche market you choose to serve can support the required margins your business needs to do so and make sure to consider the skills required to sell to that niche. Remember, the economy will be soft for at least several more years, so choose niches and work types that will be in demand in your market. As Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones sings: ““You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need”
#2: Identify how you’re unique
Don’t be different in the same ways other remodelers are different. Sounds stupid but why copy another business and call that being different. Besides, when you’re just like all the other companies the only differentiator in the eyes of the consumer might be price. Instead, be unique. Find ways to really stand out from the crowd in the way you do things and or the things you do. For example maybe you only hire female field staff to build your projects. Maybe you and your employees always wear company uniforms and name badges with your picture on it whenever you and or they show up for a sales call, service call or the first day at a new project. Or, maybe you will only install American made products (assume that is really possible these days!). As Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead once said: “You do not merely want to be the best of the best, you want to be considered the only one who does what you do”
#3: Build the right team
You can’t do it all on your own and still have a life. As the legendary Canadian Rock Band Bachman-Turner Overdrive sang: “I've been taking care of business, it's all mine. Taking care of business and working overtime”. If running your business requires too much time away from the things you actually work to have or enjoy, you need to change how you do business.
Building the right team requires some engineering. First, identify the organizational chart of job positions and the number of employees needed; today and at other predetermined milestones as your business grows and evolves. Then, find employees who complement your and current employees’ strengths and weaknesses. When filling job positions consider whether the assigned employees should be global or linear thinkers. If you want employees who think like owners, hire the right ones and then give them the same experiences an owner has so they can actually think like an owner thinks. If you want to use a lead carpenter system then hire true lead carpenters, but first make sure your other business systems are already in place and designed to support a true lead carpenter system.
I hope you enjoyed the “rockin” theme of this blog post.
What inspired this approach you might ask. I recently went on the Rock Legends Cruise II and had a blast. Here’s a video I shot on the cruise of the Lynyrd Skynyrd tune “Give Me Three Steps” performed by the Artimus Pyle Band. Artimus is one of two drummers who played for Lynyrd Skynyrd. What’s special about this recording is that Bob Burns, the other drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, is on stage and both Bob and Artimus are playing drums at the same time! I’m not sure that has ever happened before. I hope you enjoy this recording as much as I enjoyed it live! Artimus really pulled together the “right team” for this tune!
Artimus Pyle Band with Bob Burns and Artimus playing drums at the same time!
