Rebuilding Your Construction Business On Purpose in 2013
Most remodeling and construction business owners didn’t start with a plan for where their business would end up; they just ended up where their businesses took them. As they did business the employees and subs who worked for them, the clients who bought from them and the project types they bought are often the factors that eventually defined the business and therefore defined who their target customer type and job types are today. If you’re not happy with where your business ended up, and you had to downsize during the recession, your current position might just provide an opportunity to rethink how you move forward before the economy and your business picks up. Here’s a path to consider if you want a different business going forward. Reflect back on and take advantage of lessons learned in the past as you map out your plan.
First establish goals for your business.
Make sure the goals support both your professional and personal ambitions. If you want to work to live, rather than live to work, now is your opportunity to make the change happen.
Your goals must be measurable
Next, establish metrics by which you will measure whether your business is on the right track and is achieving those goals. In your metrics include ways to measure things like financial health, quality of service, quality of work, company culture, when you will be ready for the next stage of growth and the related employee growth or advancement that needs to be achieved.
Decide who you will need for employees
Now that you have a clear idea of your goals and have defined objective ways to measure whether you’re achieving them or not, you can develop organizational charts for each stage of growth as well as job descriptions and candidate profiles for the people you will need to hire and advance. Rather than let who you hire define your business and the job descriptions for those people, you will this time be able to proactively define, seek out and better qualify the right employees for each job position you will need to fill as the business grows.
Here are a few examples.
If you want to use a lead carpenter system, hire field staff with both trade and management skills. If you can’t find real lead carpenters with management skills (because in reality very few exist) find good carpenters with the cognitive abilities and desire to learn and use those skills. Then, train them yourself or find someone else to properly train them. Your lead carpenter job description will help define the training you will need to provide. If you want managers who will lead employees rather than supervise them, make sure you include that consideration in the employee profiles you will use to complement your job descriptions and hiring decisions.
Putting the pieces together
If you hire the wrong managers you will be compromising your ability to hire and keep the right employees to do the work. If you have to compromise on who you hire to do the work they will not be able to live up to your metrics or you will have to lower the standards by which you measure their performance. If you drop the bar on your metrics you will either have to accept that you will never achieve your business and personal goals, or you will have to drop the bar on those too.
One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things but expect different results. If you want 2013 to be the year you changed the direction and performance of your business, you would probably be insane not to consider the path described above.
Thinking about figuring all this out on your own?
If you and your business have the ability, the time and the money to learn all this stuff on your own check out this list of Five Great Books for Remodeling Business Owners.
Rather work one-on-one with a coach to help you?
Contact Shawn to find out how he helps remodelers and other construction related businesses all over the country achieve the business and personal results they desire. If you're not earning and keeping enough money for your retirement yet he can help you change things.
Sequential learners learn best when information is presented to them in logical step by step order. By presenting information to them in the order tasks should be completed, they can see how one step prepares for the next and or how subsequent steps are dependent on the previous step. These employees are typically successful at repetitive activities, even activities that require a high level of skill. Examples could include install crown moldings or estimating projects that can be done using a unit cost method. However sequential learners might not make for good lead carpenters at a business where every project is different and or projects are highly detailed. A sequential learner lead carpenter may be challenged if the business does not provide adequate project specifications and facilitated planning opportunities before the project begins. Also, a sequential learner might not have success selling Design/Build projects to prospects who are global learners.
On the other hand global learners can take in random bits of information about a project or task and can quickly connect the dots between that information to assess a situation or assemble a solution on their own by quickly understanding the connections between those bits of information. These employees can be very successful at job positions like handyman repairs, troubleshooting roof leaks and or gathering information from Design/Build clients who know why they want to do a project but might not know yet how to get started or what needs to be considered. Also consider these employees might quickly become bored with repetitive activities or duties.
Installing windows these days requires building science knowledge and an understanding of installation options regarding the methods and products that can be used. A lead carpenter who is a global learner can be real good at understanding the science considerations and specifying appropriate installation details. With those project specific details in hand a sequential learner carpenter can then be instructed by that lead carpenter, right at the jobsite, on how to install all the windows. While the carpenter installs the windows the lead carpenter can be making the materials list for the next phase of the job so the materials will be ready for the carpenter when the carpenter is done installing the windows. Unlike a production manager driven production system, because a lead carpenter driven system is being used, the global learner who specified the installation method is at the job site to oversee and if needed trouble shoot the efforts of the carpenter. With a production manager driven system, after being instructed, the sequential learner carpenter might be on his own without anyone overseeing his or her activities to be sure the windows are being installed correctly. 
They may be challenged if no longer the one in control of the design process, the construction methods and the client.
Will they refer you to their own clients?
An experienced Management Team that has created and follows a strategic and sustainable business plan, implements industry best practices and continuously identifies and mentors strong leadership within the team in each department.
A 
A Design System that properly identifies and documents the information needed by the client as well as the Design/Builder's project team and serves as a communication tool to make sure the design and final project serve the client's purposes within the agreed budget and timeline
A 
Many contractors have asked me what volume of sales they should achieve before they implement the Lead Carpenter System. Like many other business decisions, it depends upon the reason you want to do it, but it also depends upon the company and the current condition of that company’s business systems. Without that information, answering the question based on assumptions could lead to disaster. Unless you and your company are properly prepared, failure of the Lead Carpenter System might be blamed on the system itself, rather than the business systems that are required to support it. The key is to adjust your business systems to support a true Lead Carpenter System, not adjust the lead Carpenter System to work within your existing business systems.
Get Your Support Systems Ready
