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Part Time Owners
I don't know about your city but ours is plastered with signs on telephone poles that say "Work at home! Part Time! Earn $4000 to $5000 a month!" You read them as you idle at the stoplight thinking "Oh, yeah. What a ripoff! I feel sorry for those poor gullible folk who get drawn in by those signs."
But, fact is, you can do that and better in your remodeling business. You may already work at home, part time for you may be 30 hours (for some of you halftime may be 40 hours!) and you are likely to earn those dollars. Some remodelers on the forefront — these are real people — work 30 hours a week, travel 4 weeks a year and earn in the 6 figures. How do they do it and could there be some lessons and encouragement for you? Here's my analysis of just what it takes to make this revolutionary change:
* These owners have developed a winning financial formula for their company. They know how to make money without the owner doing the work of 2-3 people. There is no better time than right now in a bountiful economy to begin making money. All it takes, to greatly oversimplify, is to be sure (through careful planning) that you take in 10% more money than you spend. That is not your pay for working in the company that should be in overhead or job costs. That 10% is return on investment. It's there to fund the company in tough times, to pay off debt, to pay you more, to create security for employees, etc.
I hear thousands of remodelers crying out that they can't charge more than their competition. These remodelers do. They charge more because they are worth more because they deliver more. You, when you resist this notion, are the stumbling block. Only when the company earns adequate money for it's efforts can the owner stop working two or three functions and begin to build a team.
* These owners have made having more personal time a priority in their lives. Instead of just wishing, they made it happen. It never happens easily. If you are selling jobs at night, stop . If you are picking up materials for your field workers, stop . If you procrastinate over getting estimates out, stop.
If you want more personal time, you can have it. You just have to figure out the puzzle of what do you do now that should be done at all? What do you do now that others in your organization should and can do? Where can you streamline what you are doing? For instance, pre-qualify leads over the phone so you go to only the most likely buyers. Don't be a proposal writing machine for every homeowner you visit. Go back and talk with them on your ideas and see if they want to proceed. You can spend hours (and provide paperwork to be competitively bid) by obsessing on proposals.
Go away to a quiet place for a long weekend and just think about your personal priorities and create a plan for how you will achieve your goals. It may be downsizing. It may be growing. It may be hiring an estimator or an executive assistant. What will it take to give you the life you want?
* These part time owners have made themselves less important in their companies but only in the doing of the day-to-day work. They replaced themselves in production or in sales . They may still sell but take only the best former-client leads.
* However, they remain the visionary, the leader, the thinker, the planner, the trouble-shooter for the company. In fact, for working less in the day-to-day and less in general, these owners seem more creative in thinking about their companies. They are better leaders and seem to relish their entrepreneurial roles.
Recently a highly successful practitioner of the above principles handed me what he called "the job description for an absentee owner." There were lots of bottom line duties but also a few you might not have considered:
** Be the #1 servant to employees.
** Create unmatched opportunities for every employee.
** Hold employees accountable for seizing the opportunity presented.
** Ensure a corporate culture is created and maintained that establishes an environment of unmatched internal customer (employees) satisfaction, thereby ensuring unmatched external customer (clients and vendors) satisfaction.
Here's my challenge to you. How can you work less, do more and earn more than you ever thought possible? Because it is possible.
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Official Charity of 2008
Remodelers Advantage Inc.
535 Main Street, Suite 211
Laurel, MD 20707
ofc: 301-490-5620
fax: 301-498-6869
Info@RemodelersAdvantage.com