How to STOP Hurting Your Business!

Which is it, the economy or you that are hurting your business?

With the uncertainty about the economy, many are wondering what is wrong with their business. In many cases, the answer lies in your ability to come to terms with “how” you manage your business, not is “what” is happening to your business.

Typically, a business owner realizes that their business is in trouble. However, they fail to take corrective action. You should want more and care enough about your business that you will not allow, nor will you settle for mediocrity. I am going to reveal four common mindsets that will hurt your business if you fail to implement them properly.

Failure to build lasting relationships with your customers. Satisfied customers, people who have bought from you and who are happy with that experience, need to be cultivated. They need to know you appreciated their business, that you understand what is of interest to them, and that their powerful referrals are appreciated. People forget, don’t assume they don’t. Keep in touch. Make ‘special’ offers, and always ask for referrals.

Failure to prune your operation. Assuming everything is okay is a mistake! You will wake up some morning to huge problems. Take inventory, set standards, design standard operation procedures, and monitor performance. Don’t wait until it is too late. If something or someone isn’t meeting the standards and required performance levels, take action. By pruning, you get rid of the deadwood and help the good wood grow. It is a necessary action for developing a winning organization.

The dreaded “I-Do-It-All” Syndrome. Afraid to delegate? Scared stiff to give your employees responsibilities? Do you really think you’re the only one who can get it done correctly? It is time to check yourself in for a psyche test!

It’s not uncommon for business owners to ‘waste’ numerous hours doing the work that they hired employees to do for them. Ever wonder why? Usually it is because you failed because of the following:

·         Failed to have a workable system in place.

·         Failed to properly train the employee to the system.

·         Failed to properly communicate with the employee.

            You see. It is not always the employee. What you have is an organization problem of major proportions … YOU!

            You need to learn the art of “Leverage and Linkage,” that is the effective process of written systems, standard operating procedures, and employee training.

           

Failure to sharpen your own saw! Knowing you should be doing better, but failing to get the help and guidance to correct it, will never make it get better. You’ll still be dealing with all the stress, chaos, and frustrations of your business.

Improving yourself and your business is a constant and never-ending process. The sooner you come to terms with this fact of reality, the sooner you can start solving a lot of your major business headaches.

Perfection is something that is unattainable. It is the pursuit of perfection that produces winning advantages.

How to Avoid the I.R.S. Crippling Your Business

Business winds down, payments slow up and cash flow barely exists. To compensate, you delay paying Uncle Sam.

Before you know, the IRS is knocking on your door, assessing fines, fees and interest. You know you owe. You’ve checked that, but what do you do when you haven’t got the money?

Don’t panic! The IRS isn’t going to send a SWAT Team to kick down your door and drag you away. However, this also doesn’t mean you should ignore them. If you know what you will owe them before you file, go ahead and file your return as soon as possible. If you fail to file, it adds a 5% per month non-filing fee that increases by 5% up to 25% for each additional month you don’t file.

The IRS will accept a written request for extended payment time, up to 45 days, if you request it in writing. However, this is a temporary window, and you need to come up with a strategy, payment or something.

Let's talk about that. 

I am not a proponent of trying to deal with the IRS by yourself. I recommend having a CPA or tax attorney do it for you. The reason is simply. Go to a casino and the odds are always in the best interest of the house. The same applies here.

With that thought in mind, I suggest a CPA, Tax Attorney or a qualified tax resolution official. They have the expertise and knowledge to negotiate you a better deal than you can yourself, and possibly get a reduction in the amount you owe.

The important thing is to take action coupled with a strategy and professional help.

The Real Unemployment Rate

I’ve been watching the unemployment figures for quite some time now, and I can’t believe how the average American is being misled.

To be truthful, you have to be naive to believe the 7.7% rate. Yet, no one really challenges it. Allow me to take a shot at it.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the seasonally adjusted official unemployment rate for February fell to an alleged four-year national low. All America watched as the White House and drive-by media congratulated itself.

Meanwhile, the Republicans quickly pointed to the U6 rate that stood at 14.3%, as the real unemployment rate.

Unfortunately, I believe both are wrong. Allow me to explain.

The BLS looks at six categories, from U-1 to U-6. Typically, the government states the unemployment rate from U-3. This rate includes people who have been unemployed but have actively looked for work during the last month. Excluded from this rate, are people who work part-time (as defined by the government as someone who worked one hour or more).

The U-6 number contains data from the U-3 rate, including part-time workers and the unemployed who have unsuccessfully looked for work in the last month. Already, you can see a huge difference.

Unfortunately, Washington has found a way to skew the numbers by not counting a very important group of people in the calculation. The worker who is on disability. They have found a way to make them invisible, and the sad part is how the number in this category is increasing.

Why should they be counted? Because they are unemployed and unable to work. Simple. Yet, because they are part of the workforce, they are not counted. And, because they are getting disability insurance instead of unemployment insurance, they're not counted. Yet, they are still unable to work. By not counting them, they have become invisible, and thereby skewing the numbers in favor of the administration.

Under Bill Clinton, welfare changed as we know it. Its intent was to push people off the welfare rolls and into jobs. He also pushed individual states to assume a much larger share of the cost of welfare. However, like all big social programs, it worked against what it was suppose to do.

Let me explain.

Each person on welfare cost the individual state. This added burden to the state financially, while it removed it from the federal government.

The states found a way around this added burden. Each person on welfare cost the state, but if you moved the person to disability, the entire financial costs moved to the Federal government. Why? Because Social Security disability insurance is fully funded by the federal government.

That means neither the U-3 or U-6 number can be fully trusted.. They’re bogus numbers.

In February the number of Americans as ‘not in the workforce’ was 89,304,000, a record high. The economic trend monitoring site InvestmentWatch concluded that the actual American unemployment is around 30%!

I’ll be the first to say that it is not possible to be exact in calculating the number since the population is not a certainty at 310,000,000. It could be more or less. Not enough data is available. However, the 7.6% rate is as bogus as it can be, and the 14.3% is only halfway to being true. My 'gut' says around 25%.

It is possible to be informed enough to realize when something smells fishy. That we can do. Look around you, a 7.6% unemployment is unrealistic. If you don't think so, you must be blind. Too many are suffering, without work or unable to find work. The average income per family has dropped.  And, we’re not even taking into consideration the college graduates who are graduating. Add them to the mix. 

People, this not a recovery, at best, it is a reversion.

It’s time to cultivate a healthy skepticism of what our government is telling us. It’s time to stop listening to the rhetoric; it’s time to get informed. The federal government will be releasing its unemployment rate for the month of March. Unfortunately, stay tune, Washington has more BS to fling at you at that time..

How the Top Ten Most Successful Contractors Market Their Services!

According to the Small Business Administration, more than 50% of businesses fail within the first five years. Unfortunately, the numbers are even more dismal for contractors, many of whom rely on limited marketing acumen to build a business based on their skills. A carpenter or lawn care specialist, after all, has spent their career developing a thorough knowledge of their field, not learning the ins and outs of running a business. That said, many successful contractors have built million dollar businesses out of their passion. What do these contractors have in common? Here are some of the ways the most successful general contractors, builders, and remodeling contractors got to the top of the pyramid.

Market Research
This is a step so many general contractors skip, to their own peril. Thorough market research means studying your target demographic, the current state of your field, and the economy to focus your advertising in an effective manner. Roofing contractors, plumbing contractors, and air conditioning contractors can all benefit from increased market research.

Targeted Campaigns
An ad in a local car magazine may draw a lot of eyeballs, but what good is that exposure if no one cares? Too often, builders, remodeling contractors, and construction companies focus their efforts on reaching as many people as possible. This is a good way to eat through a marketing budget, but it isn’t a good way to attract business. The best companies in the game know that targeted campaigns are the key to success.

Studying the Competition
Ask any successful business owners where they got their ideas and, if you catch them in a rare moment of honesty, they’re likely to tell you that they got most of them from the competition. Don’t waste time trying to reinvent the wheel. The most successful roofing contractors in the business are there for a reason. The plumbing contractors who have more business than they know what to do with didn’t become successful by accident. Study what the top air conditioning contractors in your area are doing with their marketing campaigns. Chances are you will find a lot of ideas simply by taking notes on your competition.

What Your Struggling Business is Dying to Tell You

A Word of Caution: If you think your business revolves around you. This article may offend you.

When the bottom fell out of the construction industry in 2007, I wrote an article that stated we would see an immediate colon cleansing of many construction businesses. This was not a difficult statement to make since I understood one major thing. Contractors have great construction skills, but possess poor business skills.

Let me explain.

At one time or another, we all fail to perform as well as we can. Once we taste success, more money, better lifestyle, or growth, we get complacent. In fact, we sometimes get downright egotistically stupid. Especially, in a robust economy when getting work is no problem because there is such an abundance of it. We actually believe we created the success for ourselves; no one else had anything to do with it.

Then, we fall deep into a trap. And I mean deep. We start to believe our business revolves around us. At that point, we’ve set ourselves up for a major reality check, and the nature of business is always willing to oblige us.

However, that is not how it works.

Business is all about raising the bar, constantly, driving your business to new heights. Owning a business means you must subscribe to the process of constant and never-ending improvement. If you do not, you will get left behind.

Since all change is incremental, you can dramatically improve your managerial skill set, including your perspective, approach and style, at anytime you desire. All you need to do is come to terms with the reality of your present limits, and be willing to expand your restrictive envelop.

Now, here’s the flip side of the coin:

If you refuse to deal with this, refuse to see the early-warning signals that are blasting their caution at you, you are effectively sabotaging your own business. Doesn’t make sense does it? Unfortunately, it is true, it is exactly what happens, and you need to realize this.

However, for our understanding, let’s focus on the early-warning signals. The one’s that give you a precept of what is coming at you full sped.

Here’s what happens.

Just as you think you’ve reached the pinnacle of success, you get complacent. You effectively take your hands off the steering wheel of your company vehicle. Blinded by overly enthusiastic pats on your own back, you become contented.  Because the first signs are modest dips in sales and/or profits that barely register on your Richter scale, it hardly resembles an on-coming train wreck. You chalk it off to a temporary blip or a harmless hiccup.

Then, things persist. They don’t get better too soon. At that point, it’s easy to blame the economy, heck, everyone does. You might even blame it on the competition or some other factor beyond your control. And it is always blamed on something beyond your control.

Meanwhile, your business continues down its slippery slope as a week turns into a month, and the months quickly into years. And before you know it, because you failed to acknowledge you needed help, that you were at your limit of existing managerial skills, the slippery slope turns into disaster-ville.

If your company is a little bigger, it sometimes can postpone the inevitable a little longer. Unless, of course, if your overburdened with debt. If you’re fortunate to have a larger financial cushion however, you can delay the doomsday scenario that is careening out-of-control at you. However, don’t take solace in this since it is only a disguise of the fact that the business is spiraling downward, the victim of your ego.

This takes us back to the initial reason why you even started your business in the first place. It was because you wanted either financial freedom or freedom of lifestyle. As your business approaches the bottom, it hardly seems to be a worthy mission statement any longer, doesn’t it. Instead of creating that vision or dream, you created a job for yourself. You put in the long, hard hours, tons of risk, and very little money for your efforts. The only problem is, you’re feeding on yourself and the pickings are getting mighty slim.

You can change this around, if you want. Let me explain.

I know from talking and working with so many business owners, this is the most difficult undertaking that they have to face. The realization that they need help, advice or an easy to follow step, right now . . .  not later, that will put them on the right track. I’ve seen many reach out and then find some lame excuse for not doing it. Some are so wrapped up in their day-to-day chaos that they created themselves, they can’t find the time. For others, they’re afraid to make the investment. However, the nature of business isn’t very kind. The inevitable is only being pushed temporarily out of your mind, but not out of your reality.

Let’s strain this through a coffee filter (of sorts).

If you really serious about owning a successful construction business (and like I pointed out, not creating a job for yourself), you have to come to terms with the obvious fact that you must improve your business skills, in other words, fire yourself from your hourly worker job, and hire yourself as the manager of your business. And that, brings us to the next important question you need to answer:

“Would you hire yourself with your present limited business management skills, to run your business, turn it around, or make it successful, or seek someone better qualified?”

I rather expect you wouldn’t hire yourself; you would seek the better qualified person.

A business-model innovation is required for your business.

You have to face the facts. Either your skills are not what they should be, or your business model doesn’t work anymore. This blunt claim won’t be far from wrong. It is one or the other. Let’s face it, even if the model worked before, today isn’t yesterday anymore.

Every business is forced to change its business model to meet the ever changing times. It’s impossible to survive by not doing it.

That also means you must change or improve your present managerial skills, so you can overcome your hurdles, attack your goblins, and slay your dragons … because every day you play Mr. Rogers, they’re winning and you’re losing!

Think of it as your early-warning system that has flipped to a Code Red!

Building a successful construction business is complex, and there are always factors that lie beyond your control. Without some outside help, you’ve stacked the deck against yourself. You’ve set yourself up for imminent failure.

Another mistake a lot of business owners make is this. They make EVERYTHING overly complex. It’s as if they are fascinated with complexity.

This leads us to the next crucial element.

It’s a big one. It’s easy to avoid, yet everyone falls prey to its crushing grasp.

The scene falls out like this …

Instead of mastering the managerial skills one-by-one, perfecting them, implementing them, monitoring them, and perfecting them, they grab anything that appears to them to make their problem disappear quickly.

They grab some useless ‘thing’ that they heard about, read, or was told, maybe even messing it up with some other method under the sun, like applying a Band Aid on a deep cut that needs stitches, and thinking they’ve solved their problems.

When you apply Band Aids on every problem in your business, you end up fixing nothing at all.

And it doesn’t matter how great your construction skills are, or how much cheaper you’re willing to work, or how many hours either, you’ve spread yourself too thin and you can’t manage or build a successful business on a foundation that is structural unsound to begin with.

Your Double Edged Sword

To be successful in business, there are certain rules and knowledge that must be known, perfected and skillfully applied. However, you must be willing to invest the time to know them and master them if you’re serious about making your business a success.

The top edge of the sword is realizing that something is wrong and being willing to face it and understand it. You need to open your eyes and come to terms with what is working, and what isn’t. It is one thing to be a hands-on manager, another to be able to put your finger on the problem.

But that is only half the equation.

The second edge is being able to find out what works. Until you’re willing to accept you don’t know, you can’t even be able to start finding out what does work. Until you can, you’ll keep spiraling downward while scratching your head wondering why.

The good news is, once you get it – When you really understand it, your results will improve immediately.

Sounds easy enough, right? So will you sabotage your success, or face your obstacles head-on?

Look, self-doubt is natural – but when it prevents you from achieving the success you deserve it’s downright unnatural . . . it’s a major problem!

So there you have it. If your business could tell you, this is what it would say. Are you listening?

Are you going to do something about it, or let it do something to you? The choice is yours.

>>>Use this for change and improvement<<<

 

If you found this blog to be worthwhile, please pass it along to your other contractor friends.