What’s Your Next Big Thing?

Without new obstacles to attack, new ideas to implement or new opportunities to pursue, business becomes stale and boring. Doing the same thing for five, ten or twenty years gets old and creates rust. Using the same systems with the same strategies and the same people doing business the same way does not keep you sharp or make you grow.

When you don’t try anything new with your business, younger competitors, even ones without the years of experience you have, will enter your market and steal customers and market share with their ideas, innovation and passion. While the old-timers try to stay in control with micromanagement, outdated software, good-old-boy relationships, worn-out processes and long-time poor performers, most younger entrepreneurs focus on standards, financial ratios, technology, job-cost tracking, teamwork, green construction and simply enjoying their job.  

New construction business owners aren’t worried about protecting what they’ve got, and they aren’t afraid to venture into unknown territory, sell off equipment that isn’t profitable to own, invest in the latest software or show people the door if they don’t perform. This burning desire to succeed is what drives them to work harder, try new ideas and beat their competition. To compete today, you, too, must do something big that excites both your customers and your employees.

Twenty years ago or more, construction customers wanted to do business with contractors who were trusted, had lots of experience, worked hard and provided fair pricing. If you did a good job, you would get your share of work. Today, customers and competition are different. Now you need passion in addition to all of those qualities.

Resting on your past accomplishments and reputation isn’t enough today. People want to do business with those who do whatever it takes to win in the ever-demanding and changing game of construction business. The following practices, though perhaps once common, no longer work in the construction industry. Avoid these, and you’ll have a better opportunity to keep up with and surpass the competition:

• Honoring tenure over results
• Valuing craftsmanship over the ability to follow company systems and rules
• Letting someone else manage money nstead of knowing your numbers
• Keeping foremen in the dark rather than sharing job cost goals with them
• Keeping decisions out of others’ hands instead of empowering employees
• Hiding financial results from managers versus opening your books
• Buying all field equipment instead of renting to conserve capital
• Providing only lump sum bids rather than line-item cost breakdowns and project savings information
• Buying cheap software versus investing every year in technology to stay ahead of project requirements
• Winging your company goals and strategies versus updating a written strategic business plan every year
• Hiring low-price assistants versus highly qualified, experienced performers
• Staying in your comfort zone instead of hiring managers with expertise in emerging markets
• Waiting for the economy to turn around or for old customers to call versus having written sales and marketing plans and seeking new customers and project types

Where do you start?
I get emails weekly from business owners who need guidance making major shifts after wasting years trying to do things the old way. By this time, the owner is usually worn out and tired of making all the decisions for everyone, working too hard, not making enough money and tolerating poor performers. As a result, these owners have stopped enjoying going to work and, put simply, have lost their passion. Making matters worse, their employees and customers sense this, too, and don’t respond to the owner like they once did.   

The chance is yours
What have you been waiting for? What do you need to do to achieve big goals and do bigger things? To reignite your passion and your business to operate once again on a competitive level, ask yourself the following questions, and act on your answers:

• What big ideas have I been postponing?
• What new hires should I make?
• What people have overstayed their welcome and don’t produce the results I want?
• What equipment, software, tools, techniques or procedures need updating or eliminating?
• What new ideas, systems and standards need improvement, revamping or implementation?
• What changes to the organizational chart are needed so I can delegate and let go of responsibilities in order to focus on sales?
• What goals and objectives do I need to write, track and monitor on a weekly and monthly basis?  

Deciding what to do is tough. But, once you make these decisions and start in a new direction, incredible things happen. Do it now. Reinvigorate your company with passion and excitement. Go big!