It is normal to have to work hard and put in the hours when starting out on your business ownership journey. What is often also normal, but unnecessary, is for the long hours to continue after years of business ownership. It almost becomes a habit. One becomes conditioned to long hours in the office at…
Having the right culture in your company is vital to its success. The culture that exists in a company can make or break it, so it is important to make sure the right culture is proactively developed. By not taking a proactive approach the culture will simply evolve in a random way by usually drifting…
Business Plan by Post-it Note Business plans are a good thing thing to do for your business, but the majority end up to be just a bunch of wishes and dreams because they lack the most important ingredient; ACTION. Here is something that costs 2 cents and will help you put your plan into action:…
In your salesperson role, your objective is to serve, not to sell. Whenever you go in to see a client or prospective client, and especially when you meet someone for the very first time, you have to go in wearing your problem-solving hat. Your objective is to help your prospective client find solutions to their…
This week I am borrowing a blog post from Grocorp.co in the US who produce an app to measure labour productivity on a construction project. Whether you use technology like this or pencil and paper, the principles are the same. What you can measure you can manage. What you can manage you can change (for the…
Research out of Stamford University earlier this year showed that productivity declines quickly after working for more than 50 hours per week and declines even faster after the 55 hour mark. I suspect that they just tested office workers in big companies, rather than owners of small businesses. Long hours seem to come with the…
This month I started another semi-group “coaching” program for 2015, called the Construction Business MasterClass, at my office in Albany. Participants are into the first “Your Foundations” diagnostic phase and already seeing the benefits of coming on-board. I knew from my experience that participants would receive tremendous value in the 3-way analysis that is conducted on…
It’s Monday morning and you don’t have enough cash on hand to make Thursday’s payroll – What options do you have? Cash flow crunches affect every business. Ideally, you can weather these crises by accessing a line of credit or revolving loan you’ve already set up with your bank, or tapping into cash reserves you’ve put…
Running a trade business (or any business for that matter) can be likened to running a 4 x 100m relay race. When everything runs smoothly and the baton is passed from hand-to-hand seamlessly, it is a pleasure to behold. Drop the baton at some critical stage and all the good work done to date is…
Unlikely that you spend as much time as me in the office, but if you do and find it hard to stay focused on the task at hand, try this technique. I call it 50:15 and it may help you become way more effective. Rather than trying to sit there for hours until the job…