It isn’t as instantaneous as he imagined

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Rish

I’ve recently had YET ANOTHER conversation with a contractor wanting to grow his business. Great! He’s come to the right place.

Sadly, he had just invested quite heavily in what could be a fabulous marketing tool for his business, but here’s the challenge:

What’s required of him to get his ROI out of the new marketing software tool?

He’s convinced it’s simple to learn, he can do it himself and his business will flourish … and quickly.

Now he’s looking at investing in “the biggest challenge” (himself) through my services because he already sees that this new software tool …

isn’t as instantaneous as he imagined (and hoped) it would be;
not only requires knowledge on his part but it also requires TIME to acquire that knowledge;
requires an operator … taking him off the tools (and since he’s not yet using it he doesn’t even know what he doesn’t know about what all is required from the operator and as I recommend he hire this position out he starts quivering).

He’s seeing that this new tool that’s supposed to be the latest & greatest cool tool to GROW HIS BUSINESS is just sitting there.

Are you considering making an investment to grow your business?

If so … Great!

Haven’t yet done it? EVEN BETTER!

Here’s the thing: All of these cool tools (see the list below) can help you grow your business, but without the proper business STRUCTURE they’re more apt to cause you TONS of grief and are apt to be written off to a waste of time and money.

On the other hand … a heating contractor started working with me more than a year-and-a-half ago. They made so many fast & simple changes almost instantly, like …

hiring a full-time experienced administrator;
taking a couple of guys off the tools and putting them into organizational roles (yes, increasing their overhead);
getting completely off the tools themselves, which meant

…

hiring numerous new employees for the field;
and after almost a full year of working with me they invested heavily in an accounting, estimating & project-management software program.

It still required an investment of months of time to get this program up and running, and I helped them ensure that they continued to invest in the program to ensure it delivered on its promise.

In fact, their sales dipped considerably as a result of the focus and time investment they made during this period (to be expected) and now …

their accounting, estimating & management software is repaying its investment; and
their business sales are growing and will continue to grow faster & more easily for many years to come.

If you want to grow your business, it does require investing. Just be sure you’re making the investments in the correct order.

First, invest in business structure – which includes everything from

your leadership through their team quality;
the quality of customers you allow into your business;
effective use of time on prioritizing & organizing activities and especially repeated tasks;
getting your prices right and ensuring you’re bringing in enough sales every month to deliver profit every month;
having a FUN environment in the business, out in the community and especially in your family;
utilizing every simple-yet-effective no-cost-to-low-cost marketing tactic before investing in big-ticket items;
getting away from it all to FUN places at least 4x/year – including Mom and Dad get-aways without children. Yes, this is essential in building strong business structure.

Once you’ve got your business structure in place (and it may take a full year. It often does), THEN go ahead and invest in the tools. Now you’re in a much better place to ensure those tools are used … properly, by well-educated tool-operators; and used consistently & persistently.

Too frequently I’ve heard of contractors grabbing one after another of the next cool tool that’s going to make everything better in their business … only to, yet again, write that investment off as a complete waste of money. Have you ever gotten less-than-desirable results with …

tablets for your guys in the field so they can keep everything up-to-date as they advance on a project, they can see the plans by opening an app, they can communicate easily … yet they get left in their trucks and then lost at home?
CRM software – that turned out to be more than you could ever learn to use (probably simply because you’d invested so much in the software you begrudged the thought of investing in training and hiring someone to use the software)?
Fancy-dancy accounting software that barely gets used to 20% of its potential where you dragged your heels for too long thinking you could learn it without making a large training investment?
Advertising campaigns … because you were convinced people would be banging down your door the more money you invested?
Vehicle-tracking software that was going to STOP your guys from driving willy-nilly all over town, yet without good business structure you learned … that’s the way things are done around here?
Hiring a SalesPerson to do the sales because you don’t like doing them yourself?

If you want to grow your business … it requires an investment in YOU – the original builder of the business and the on-going renovator of the business.

If you want to grow your business … STOP investing in cool tools & gadgets. INVEST in YOURSELF. The best investment anyone can make is in himself.

Let’s talk – click here.

M. Lynne Jacob
Business Performance Coach
MLJinternational.com
613-484-3861

Grow your Business by 20x in just 5 years? Sure! And …
WITHOUT working harder, longer hours. (Get FREE training on 3 simple steps to increase your PROFIT immediately at MLJinternational.com)
Specializing in the construction industry since 2004.