Editor’s Note: This is the ninth in our 2008 series of “Get Your Business to Work,” written by our regular columnist George Hedley.
Several years ago, I made a commitment to take charge of my company, put my priorities first, and focus on building a business that works for me. I committed to working smarter, getting organized, being in control, focusing on things that produce bottom-line profits, delegating as much as possible, spending more time with customers and getting home at a decent time! When Monday morning rolled around, I couldn't wait to get to the office. I arrived at work at 6 AM and made a list. I prioritized these tasks into the following categories:
- Must do
- Should do
- Nice to do
- Don't have to do
Guess what happened at 7:30 AM? I started getting calls, faxes and e-mails that demanded my time. People requested I attend meetings, customers had problems that needed immediate attention, project supervisors had subcontractor problems that needed my attention, one of our field crews was sitting around waiting for the concrete to be delivered and one of our trucks had broken down. So, I did what I always would do-I went out and tried to fix everyone else's problems for them.
When I finally got back to the office at 4 PM, I realized I had missed lunch, and my desk was piled with at least twenty-five new requests, notes, faxes, invoices, call slips and files requiring my immediate attention much for getting to my priorities! Then a good customer called and asked me to play golf with him at his country club the next morning. He wanted to introduce me to a banker and talk about his next project. How could I play golf? I didn't have enough time in the day. I had to fix everyone's problems and put out all those fires to keep jobs moving and the crews busy.
If you're like most business owners, this has happened to you. You have good intentions and want to change the way you operate, but can't make it happen. Consider these questions:
- What's on your "must do, should do, nice to do and shouldn't do" lists?
- What's your top priority and No. 1 focus?
- What will make your company successful?
Do You Have Your Act Together?
A balanced and "on-purpose" business is never built with good intentions. It happens when the business owner stays focused on what really matters. As you observe successful and profitable business owners who have their act together, answer these questions:
- What characteristics set them apart?
- What do you admire about them?
- What's their primary focus?
- How do they spend their time?
- Do they get to their priorities?
- What's their key to success?
- What do they do that you don't?
- What don't they do that you do?
Successful Business Owners Live Their Priorities!
When you observe successful business owners, you notice they live their priorities. I have a very successful business friend who owns a major construction company we compete against. His company is continually recognized as providing the best service and quality in our marketplace. Plus, he makes lots of money and seems to have lots of time for his family, friends and customers. He surrounds himself with a top management team. He makes customers his top business priority. I see him at the golf course weekly with a foursome of well-known business executives and customers. He hosts numerous annual customer fishing trips to Alaska and other outings. In addition, he takes several extended vacations with his friends to great golf resorts and spends weekends with his wife and children on a regular basis. He is truly living his priorities. And his personal and business bottom line are doing very well as a result.
Check Your Priority Scale!
When you put immediate business pressures first, you don't have time for the important things that make you the most money and give you the greatest returns.
Continually ask yourself:
- Is this a good use of my money, my time or my energy?
- Is this activity moving me toward achieving my targets and goals?
- Am I doing what I should or want to be doing?
- Am I living my priorities or someone else's?
It is meaningless to waste energy on doing things right while doing the wrong things. The more problems you fix for others, the less they do for you. Employees work for their boss. The boss doesn't work for employees. As soon as you realize the reason for having employees is to get them to do what you want them to do, allow you to grow your business, allow you to make more money and allow you to work on your top priorities, the sooner you'll start getting your business to work for you.
Only accomplishing your priorities will make your business successful. But if you never get to them, your business will continue to struggle, and you'll have to keep doing all the "important" work yourself. What are your priorities this week? What will make you the most money and give you the greatest return over the long haul? What activities will give you the greatest return-taking a loyal customer to a major league baseball game or sitting at your computer and ordering all the materials needed to keep your employees working today?
Why Is It So Difficult to Focus on Your Priorities?
Make a decision to start putting your priorities first. Set a date, do it and stick to it. When I first started my business our motto was: "Do a good job for the customer and the money will come." But I eventually realized when I always put customers first, I was putting myself last. How can you truly help your customers when your business is totally dependent on you, your employees can't make a decision without asking you for the answer and you have no personal life?
Several years ago I discovered and wrote out my life purpose statement. At that time it was:
"Help other people achieve their goals." It's awesome when you discover what turns you on in your personal and business life. It keeps you focused and becomes a beacon and map to guide you toward what really matters in your daily activities. For several years, I worked hard as a general contractor helping others by building buildings for them. But after fifteen years of building great projects, putting my customers first and taking care of employees, I realized I was getting worn out as my personal priorities were being neglected.
I was giving my all in the service of others as I built my company. I didn't realize that I also needed to get what I wanted along the way. I had to make a change in how I conducted my business and lived my life. I sat down and rewrote my life purpose statement. My new and improved life purpose statement fulfills my needs now:
"My life purpose is to help other people achieve their goals so I can achieve mine!"
If you aren't moving toward achieving your business goals, how can you do the best for others? For example, if you work 80 or 100 hours every week getting everything done, doing the paperwork yourself, keeping your employees busy or doing their jobs for them and chasing money to pay the bills, your business will be a mess. If you aren't getting a great return on your time, how can you make a profit, build your business and reach your financial goals? If you have to make all the decisions for your employees or make every sale yourself, how will you ever have enough time to enjoy the benefits of business ownership? If you let other people (employees, customers, vendors, landlords, partners, etc.) control your calendar, how will you decide what you want to do every day? Successful business owners and managers do what they do best and hire great people to handle the rest.
To grow your business profitably, decide:
- What should your priorities be?
- Where can you get the biggest return on your time?
- What do you like to do?
- What turns you on and excites you?
- What do you want to do?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- What activity should you stop doing?
- What business activity are you best suited to do?
Most business owners are not good at managing people and they falsely think they're the only person capable of handling every business task required to keep their company going, including sales, operations, pricing, scheduling, finances and management. So, they continue to multitask poorly, simultaneously performing roles they shouldn't be doing. When I was building my business, I mistakenly thought I was a pretty good people manager, but I continually struggled to get employees to do what I wanted them to do. I was actually a horrible manager and had a tough time making employees accountable or responsible. I waited way too long before I fired anybody. Because I wasn't a gifted manager and have poor people skills, my business suffered and had lots of employee turnover. This caused my company to struggle as I tried to manage people by controlling them and using my tough style. One of my biggest mistakes was not hiring an excellent operations manager to handle the people and operations and let me stick to what I'm good at: leadership, estimating and business development.
What about you? What business activities and roles are you good at, and which ones should you not be doing? In order to build an organized and systemized company, you must to have an organizational map showing who's accountable and responsible for every part of the operation. You need a "Business Builder Organizational Chart" to clearly define the roles, responsibilities and requirements to run your company efficiently with room for growth. It defines every area of your business and identifies who's accountable. When your company is small, the owner will be responsible for most of the roles. As your business grows, the owner should let go and assign key people to assume roles and accountability. An organizational chart is a tool to lay out every role needed in your company and who is 100 percent responsible and accountable for each activity.
However large or small your company is, use the organizational chart as a template, take out a clean piece of paper, lay out your company organizational chart and identify the roles and tasks you need to build your business.
Next, make a list of every position and determine what each person is 100 percent accountable and responsible for using the "Business Builder Accountability and Responsibility Chart."
When most entrepreneurs start their companies, they take on every role in their organizational chart. As they grow, they hire employees to help them get the work done. But they don't really delegate any of the accountability or responsibility. These charts will help you decide what you need to do and what you need to let go of. Spend your time on what you do best and what gives your company the biggest return-sales, customer relationships, motivating employees, leading your management team and/or monitoring operational systems. As your business grows beyond your ability to be in charge of everything, decide what position you need to fill next. In anticipation of growth, don't hire cheap! Surround yourself with the best managers you can find, and pay top dollar. Hiring cheap will stunt your growth and force you to take back accountabilities and responsibilities you transferred to your key employees.
Make Tough Decisions!
Be bold. You know what you have to do, so do it now! In order to stay focused on what will make the biggest difference in your business, step back, analyze your current employees and their strengths and weaknesses. List the opportunities for improvement and the key success factors that will allow you to grow profitably.
Where do you need the most help today, and what should you do right now? Hire a key operations manager? Fire a non-performing employee? Hire a salesperson? Fire a relative? Eliminate a person who causes you grief? Stop accepting excuses from employees? Stop making all the decisions for your staff? Stop doing your employees' jobs?
Here's an e-mail I received from a plumbing and heating contractor from New Mexico who attended my presentation at a national plumbing association convention. He shared some things that work for him:
Fire the idiots! But more importantly, I found two top-notch working foremen and convinced them to come work for me. I had to offer them about a 50 percent wage premium over market wages. I had to raise my hourly billing rates significantly. And I now charge them out even higher on bid work. Guess what? Virtually no customers were lost, my percentage of excited customers soared and I was free to do what I do best: sell jobs! These foremen now run their jobs, ask me an occasional question (perhaps just to flatter me) and I give them free rein. After this experience I realized, ‘If I have to go to a job site for any reason other than boredom, curiosity or public relations, I don't have the right man on the job.'
Find the right people, give them the right tools and direction, set them free and never look back! The fastest way to get your company organized is to hire the best and give them the task of getting the work done. Great people do cost more money but take less time to manage than weaker ones. Plus, you'll never be able to get your business to grow beyond the capacity of your top people.
Put Your Priorities to Work!
Why haven't you hired experienced management professionals to help grow your business? I know you can't afford it, but when will you? Professionals will make you money. You can't continue to do it all yourself. So do it! Sell your car, truck or backhoe and lease a used one, then take the money and hire a professional to help you.
Don't just talk about it, get started! Continually ask yourself if what you're doing is a good use of your time, money, talent and energy. When you are moving toward your goals, improving your business and seeing progress, you will get excited about your future. What's your No. 1 priority? Go make it happen!
Construction Business Owner, September 2008
