Masonry Magazine January 2008 Page. 59
COACH GARY SAYS:
You can't get to where you need to be if you're not willing to go there!
Years past, it might not have been as important. You might not have been as concerned as you should have over your materials waste or your re-work costs, and you figured to make it up on volume. Well, volume is about to go down for a lot of companies, so let's realize it, plan for it, and do something about it.
It all boils down to this: If our mythical, million-dollar company can pick up an additional $200 to $250 per week, in other words, just convert some otherwise "free" work into some revenue, it will make up the profit shortfall.
How, again, do we pick up this money? We do this by only giving our clients what they asked us to give them in the contracts that everyone agreed to before the job began. And, we do this now, realizing that when we give away work for free, we are reaching into our own wallets.
That's money coming out of a wallet that is already missing $10,000.
This realization of weakened profits should keep us from being overly generous with our company's money. This is the year when we learn to say, when we're asked to do more free work, "It's not ours!" It's also the year when we gain the ability to resist being such nice guys all the time.
There is a way to do this, a way that is based upon the specifications of most projects, and it begins by recognizing a change to the scope of work and doing something about it. You're assuring you do get paid for it, if and when you perform it.
Here's how: You let your client know that the work is not included in your contract. You no longer have the attitude that it's too big of a hassle or too much trouble. After all, to many of us, this means survival. You normally start this process with a Request for Information.
This is the year to become QB1 your team needs. Be the leader. Make the required changes. Start asking the right questions. Decide that you want your $10,000 back, and know you can't do that without a game plan to implement these strategies.
Begin here: Go to the FullContact-Blog.com Web site and get the free (for Masonry readers), five-part mini-course, "How to Stop Working for Free." It's a great place to start, and the price is right!
Finally, may we and our industry not only survive 2008, but also have a successful and prosperous new season. IMAS
Gary Micheloni is a working project manager, speaker, author and consultant. Got a question? Go to the Blog and ask him, or email coachgary@fullcontactPM.com.
Copyright 2008 Gary Micheloni
COACH GARY'S CORNER:
Are you ready for 2008? Ready make up that lost profit? Get Coach's free report, "How to Stop Working for Free. Go to the new Web site at www.FullContactBlog.com, and participate there with Coach. Check out the free audio updates and other info that will help your projects. Also you can get Coach Gary's book "Get Paid for a Changel
Put the Right People and Systems in Place
MASONRY NEWS CONTRACTOR TIP
Companies that are winning the game of business are those that have the right people and systems in place. In fact, it boils down to this: A company owner's No. 1 priority should be to find the right people for his team, and then develop the right systems for those people to manage.
Last year at this time, I was on a plane flying home from a golf trip in Tampa, Fla, with 27 friends. Many were business owners or managers of companies. During our time spent together that week, it became obvious my friends were taking many more phone calls from their offices than I was. It's amazing to watch people who have companies doing a portion of the sales my companies do. They appear to have many more problems than I do. The difference had to be that my friends didn't have the right people in place people they could trust to call the shots. Or, if they did have the right people, they had not developed systems for these people to manage.
One day earlier in the week, while playing golf with my friend Bob, I noticed he was stressed to a virtual breaking point. He had been on the phone all day between golf shots trying to manage his two convenience stores from the golf course in Tampa, instead of letting the people he hired run them on-site in Ohio. At one point, he was so aggravated that he had his head down on the steering wheel of the golf cart ready to just throw the towel in on everything he had going on in life. Thinking I perhaps could comfort him, I asked him what was wrong. He told me about the lady who never showed up for work, a manager who was planning to quit, and another manager who robbed him blind.
I asked him why he didn't just go out and find a good manager to manage each store instead of trying to manage them. He replied that he just couldn't find a good one. He was too stressed out for me to go into detail, so I didn't. All the while, I was thinking, "Here this guy is doing less than 20 percent of the total volume of sales I am, yet he is 10 times as stressed over it." Bob should rethink his people and systems management. If he had that part managed, he would not have all these problems today. Bob has two convenience stores, and I only have one. But I also have three other corporations that are much larger and complex than the stores. Yet Bob took more problem calls during this one round of golf than I will take in a week from all four companies combined.
Are you having trouble with a part of your business? Check to assure you have the right person handling that part of the business. If you do not, your problems will continue in that area of your company. Once you have that right person, assure you have a system developed clearly for him to follow, so he knows what you expect from his area of responsibility. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, never stood at each cash register showing each cashier how to check out the customers. He developed systems that each cashier followed time and time again.
If you want your business to be successful, find the right people and develop the right systems for those people to use. If you can do that, unlike Bob, your next vacation can be stress free, the way vacations were meant to be
Damian Lang is a mason contractor in Southeast Ohio who has four companies that do combined sales of $18 million. He is also the author of the book "Rewarding and Challenging Employees for Profits in Masonry." To order a copy of his book or to attend one of his seminars held specifically for mason contractors, call Linda Hart at Lang Masonry, 800-417-9272.
Provided by Damian Lang, President of Lang Masonry Contractors, Inc., and EZ Great Corp.
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