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Mastering Delegation: How to Build a Scalable Business Without Losing Control
47 Plays4 months ago
In this episode of The Better Contractor, host Brent Oberlink is joined by Aney Bailor where they tackle one of the biggest challenges for growing contractors: delegating effectively to scale your business. Inspired by a listener's question, Brent and Aney share actionable strategies for hiring the right people, onboarding with purpose, and developing systems and processes that set your company up for success. Discover why leadership training is essential for both you and your team, and how to build a company culture that thrives as you grow. Stuck in the one-crew stage or struggling to trust your team? This episode offers actionable advice to help you take your business to the next level.
#TheBetterContractor #BusinessGrowth #DelegationSuccess #LeadershipTraining #ContractorLife #ScalingYourBusiness #SmallBusinessTips #Entrepreneurship #BuildYourTeam #CompanyCulture
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Transcript
The Challenge of Delegation and Trust
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of The Better Contractor. Today we're going to answer a question from Jeff who messaged us on Instagram and his question is, how do I delegate and trust Cruz so that I can grow the company and add additional crews in the future. So basically having me some trouble delegating, having some trouble letting go of some of those rains.
Hiring for Growth: Beyond Skills
00:00:38
Speaker
So we're going to dive into four or five different things that we think will kind of help Jeff. And this is something all of you deal with. We've all dealt with it at some point is you started the company. It took off a little bit. And now you're at the point where if I continue to grow, I need to give some of that, that stuff up leadership and managing the day to day.
00:00:58
Speaker
And so doing that, it means you got to trust. You got to have people underneath you that you're going to need to delegate stuff too. So to kind of kick that off, um, we'll start kind of with the hiring. So that's kind of the first thing obviously you're going to do is you need to hire right. So you need to hire based upon the ability to learn and lead, I think not just skill alone. So if you hire the right person, uh, you kind of have the thing where you can.
00:01:25
Speaker
teach them. So if you hire the wrong person, or you only do it on skill, then you only have that one technical skill that they can do. But if you hire someone who's teachable and who can learn, then hopefully, and and they can lead, then hopefully you can teach them that skill, and then build them into that foreman or a crew lead that you want. but what What are your thoughts? um Well, I think that is true. And I think that one of the most important things is to hire slower, fire faster. Yeah. A lot of times, it's a seesaw of we need people or we have too many people. um And when you need people, sometimes you don't take the time to hire the right person. And yeah, I think a big issue in this industry too is a lot of people, a lot of business owners even do this. You started the business because you were good at something and that took off because you were good at it. And then at some point it took off enough where it's too much for you. So were you a business owner to begin with?
00:02:21
Speaker
Or were you someone who could, you know, cut trees, build houses, build lawns, landscape or whatever. You had that skill set. Um, so what do you think to that person who maybe had all those skills in place? Now they're trying to grow the company.
Recognizing Weaknesses and Hiring Support
00:02:34
Speaker
Now they're a business owner, not just an operator. Well, that is challenging because sometimes people who are very good at something. Doesn't automatically mean that they are going to be good at leading others or at running a business. And I think that that's why a lot of businesses end up failing. um You do have a significant amount of businesses at the five and 10 year mark that don't make it. And is that largely why? um I think that if you know, it's a weakness and you're recognizing it's a weakness that you have that that already has you ahead of a lot of other businesses, because some people don't pause long enough to do a temperature check to see
00:03:18
Speaker
if they're good in that area or not, or if that's the area that's lacking. And I can think of several contractors that we've worked around or been around where the owner is a great operator and we've watched them grow and all of a sudden you use them because they were so good. And then as they grew, they sent other people and you're like, wait a minute, I don't necessarily want to use this contractor anymore now. So that goes back to, you know, the hiring right. Well, another thing that we've seen too, is if you have somebody that knows they're weak in that area, they'll have this,
00:03:48
Speaker
friend or this partner that has been with them from the very beginning. And they'll lean on them too much in the areas that they're weak in. And then this person takes on this role assuming that they are as if they're part owner when they're not. And then that really leads later down the road to problems. yeah um Because the the owner didn't establish his authority that I am the owner and this is the way we're doing things. And because he had this sense that he was lacking in an area, he gave over too much control to somebody else. When the reality is, is that he has all the skills that he needs to leave. Because if you're honest, if you're hardworking, if you're willing to do the work yourself, you can get out there and lead and show others others how to do it. Yeah, that's true. And I think as far as like hiring right, as well, we're also need to look at,
00:04:38
Speaker
you know, if you are the owner, you know, that you, if you're weak in accounting, if you're weak in certain areas, some of your first hires, and it doesn't have to be a hire. It can actually just be a vendor, you know, someone you work with. So, an actual CPA firm to help you with that. We did that in the very beginning before we hired in-house. So, there's stuff like that. Know your weaknesses and hire those areas first. If you're awesome at sales and bidding and leading crews, then sub out the law work. Well, you got to do that anyway.
00:05:07
Speaker
But sub that kind of stuff out, the finances and all that. And then do the sales in-house, do the sales still yourself, or maybe start training someone else to start doing sales with you so that your style and leadership that got you to where you are can further, so you know, looking at culture.
Delegation with Clear Responsibilities
00:05:22
Speaker
I think the question is, are you wanting to delegate truly in order to have a hands-off approach so that you can just have your day free?
00:05:37
Speaker
Or are you wanting to delegate to actually grow the company? Because if you're wanting to delegate to grow company, delegation has strings attached to it. That is a good point. There's two two reasons to delegate. One, to grow your company. One, for yourself to have more free time. Right. So if you are going to delegate and then just spend all of your time going and doing what you want, because now you're a business owner and you're a thought of a business owner. I want to hear this all the time. So what must be nice to own your own business, you have so much free time and And you get to do whatever you want. And if you're at this stage, that is probably not where you are yet. just right or where And the reality is is that you that's not true. yeah That your time is not your own. And there is something to do. And you are the one ultimately that has to take care of everything.
00:06:20
Speaker
um but like and I delegating, that was really hard in the very beginning. We didn't want to... It's harder for you than it is me. It's very hard for me. Because the reason that we're doing it is because we're doing it better than everybody else. So why would I want to relinquish control to somebody? If they could do it as good as me, then what if they start their own business? Yeah. So the mindset of, if I'm going to be delegating, is it going to be done the way that that I want it or it's good?
00:06:46
Speaker
but you have to find the right people that you trust. And then i will it took us a long time to get there. and a lot of people that Not dissing the earlier ones, but the team we have now has been a blessing, but it took a while to get there. It wasn't overnight at all, but we are never out of touch with what's going on. No, and you're not supposed to be right. So even if you delegate a department or anything at any point, you can jump into a conversation with any of our management team and and know exactly what's going on. You're never out of touch with it, even though you've delegated those roles.
The Importance of Onboarding and Training
00:07:20
Speaker
And the truth is, is that when you delegate, it frees up more time that if you are going to be growing your business, that time is now absorbed by the growth of the business and you just have a new set of duties and new roles. So you're never really freeing up more time.
00:07:34
Speaker
you're just creating new roles for yourself to take over. Yeah, which is part of the growth and you know the the bigger the company, the more headaches you have, the more problems you have to face, the the bigger the fires. So number one was hiring right. Number two, let's look at onboarding. So the reason I think onboarding is important is this is where you're setting your standard. So if you're not doing onboarding and training in the beginning,
00:07:58
Speaker
to me, you're you're setting your company up and your employees up to fail. And the reason that is, if I just hire whoever and just throw them right in the mix, they don't really know at that point what I expect, what she expects, what the company's culture is, you know, do we have certain methods and best practices that we use internally? There is no standard setting, no culture, no nothing if you do not do onboarding right off the bat. I think a lot of companies skip that because It could be one to five days worth of training that is not billable to a client, so they don't like doing it. But you need to look at the cost of turnover as well though. you know So if you're not doing that, your turnover's probably a little bit higher, and it is expensive to replace employees, and it is bad when you have an all-new workforce with no experience. Well, and this is a side note that doesn't really have anything to do with what we're talking about, but you need to have an employee
00:08:52
Speaker
manual Like that needs to be one of the first things you need to get an attorney and you need to have all of that stuff done Initially because that's your Bible you hire by it you fire by it that keeps you out of problems Down the road and I'm surprised how many companies do not have that that we've talked to because young baby companies are like well I can't afford that yet. Well, you hire your friends and family first, right? Well good contracts make good friends and keep them because if it's in the four corners of that document then that's what applies and you don't have to go through all of the emotional analysis. You go back to that and that's what you hire and fire by, even if they are related to you. And that would be part of the onboarding process. So you're going to have, that's going to be something that you review with employees, have them sign when you break them on. And I think the importance of it is to, you need to keep in mind,
00:09:42
Speaker
If it's in writing there and you sign it and they sign it, you actually do abide by that yourself. So if there's a disciplinary policy that you've written up, and then you terminate someone later, but you did not follow your own disciplinary policy, that's going to be a little bit of an open door for some challenge. Right. So know your own employee handbook. People say that they can't afford it upfront, but the reality is, is this a lot more costly later? Oh, it will be. If you don't spend that time. If you get sued more time, it'll be more costly.
00:10:10
Speaker
So onboarding, how important do you think that is? Onboarding? Well, I mean, it is much easier to, to give employees the tools that they need to create good work habits within your workplace than to have to break bad habits. Once you see that you did a bad job onboarding and they've picked up, if left to their own devices, people are going to try to figure out what you want from them. And if it ends up being the wrong thing or the bad thing.
00:10:38
Speaker
you have to now break bad habits. And if they've trained people out there, now you've got to break a lot of people's bad habits. Yeah. So onboarding and training are together in my mind. So what you're doing there is you're setting the culture of the company. Hopefully you're building some excitement for your guy, for your crews to be able to work for you that first week. So they go into the field a little bit energetic, but you're also doing some training. So, you know, if you're a tree care contractor, you know, how do you make those cuts? You know, if, how does the crew, like what's the procedure for leaving out in the morning?
00:11:07
Speaker
When they get back it in the evening, what are the best practices and procedures your company has in place? Otherwise, it's just going to be chaotic if you do not do that. That's not where it stops. So you know with the onboarding, I think you all need to have some kind of training program with your foreman. So once they're onboarding and trained, that's kind of general. Then they go to the field. And at that point, there's more in-depth training in person with your foreman, with the new employee being kind of like a mentor. Well, the training, I think, needs to start from assuming they know nothing.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, everybody you're not insulting their intelligence or or the knowledge base that they have But you need to assume that the last place that they worked didn't train them properly or at all and they may already have bad habits or unsafe practices that they're using so you need to everybody starts at you know, nothing and we're gonna train you from You know the ground up and that's why a lot of companies um Actually will prefer to hire people fresh out of college
00:12:08
Speaker
where they haven't done an internship or worked anywhere else because they don't want to have to retrain people um because those habits are very, very hard to break. Yeah. And a common buzzword right now too, I think is culture. So everybody talks about building culture. That doesn't happen just because people like you as the owner or they like, you know, necessarily the work you do. Culture starts during that first week. So you're setting the tone, you're setting kind of that, you know, who are we, that you your company?
00:12:37
Speaker
um What's it like to work here? What makes us unique? What makes us cool? How are we different in our competition? So that all starts in that very first week. You know, don't overhype yourself if it's not true, but more than likely if you're growing and you're going somewhere, there's probably something cool about your company or you wouldn't be growing. So build that excitement around that. If you don't have core values, develop those as part of this onboarding process and talk about those. That should be how you're you're you're making decisions as a company. um But again, it all starts number two. That worry that and new employee packet that you hand out really is important and I i think that this is why it's if you're not a publicly traded company that has a really long history um and people respect it and they know I can get a job there and I can retire there. It is scary for people to put their full trust just in their entire life working with you and is this company going to be here? If most if companies fail in 10 years, is this company going to be here in 10 years? And am I going to have to start over getting a retirement somewhere else? So when you put enough thought into that packet to say, I'm planning on being here for a while, I've put thought into what I think will give this longevity. And here's my plan. You're handing that employee your plan, your plan to
00:13:55
Speaker
have this company to grow this company and to be there when they retire. And that's something that also is hand in hand with trust. And it's going to take time for that employee to start trusting you ah as the owner. But eventually, yeah you know,
00:14:11
Speaker
that will happen. Yeah, I think a good point there too is to maybe talk about your vision for the future too during the onboarding. So if that employee is like, Hey, this is my new home that they can kind of see, Hey, I think I have a home here for a while. Like I'm wanting to advance. And it sounds like there'll be advancements opportunities for me at this company as well. And I think that that the nature of things right now is almost there's no permanency to anything. People are just kind of doing this thing for a little bit, doing this thing ah little bit They're bouncing around everywhere. So with that thought,
00:14:46
Speaker
um do the employees come into this with the mindset that maybe that's what you're doing too? Oh, well, you're going to cut down trees for a while. You're going to mow grass for a while. Or you're landscaping. But then you're going to go do something else. Does that make me the employee obsolete? Do you need a whole new group of employees? Or are you going to fizzle out and go do something else? So letting them in on the long-term plan. that I'm planning on being here until I retire. And then there is a plan for something.
00:15:12
Speaker
take oh and the company to continue. This isn't something that we're taking lightly. We're actually growing a company that we plan on. Yeah, that's true. And I got to do a plug. So, a better contractor. We do onboarding and training videos, so check them out if you don't have them.
Implementing Systems for Expansion
00:15:29
Speaker
Number three, systems and processes. To me, this is a huge one. If you look at franchise models, I've said this before on a podcast, the reason franchises work is because of their systems and processes.
00:15:41
Speaker
that doesn't just apply to franchises, it also applies to every single business. So if you are in that one crew stage, right now you probably don't have a tons of systems and processes because you're daily involved. But as soon as you make that jump to crew two, three, four, you have to have systems and processes in place or you are going to fail. You're going to have crew one, your original guys is going to show up. They're going to deliver as you want it because you train them.
00:16:06
Speaker
The crews after that, if you do not have systems and processes in place, are going to look, show up differently, perform differently than crew one, because you do not have that in place. So systems and processes, meaning software, you know, you're onboarding we've talked about. um To me, it even goes down to like the marketing on trucks, you know, are your other trucks also of the same color logos, everything that your first truck is. So having that replicatable model from your crew one,
00:16:35
Speaker
to your future cruise that you're adding? Well, and that's even like the placement of the equipment on the truck. Like everything needs to be the same so that it becomes a rope behavior. They reach for the chainsaw. They have the chainsaw in the same place. There's no chaos. Anything that you can do to avoid chaos because chaos is going to happen anyway. yeah But if at the end of the work week things go back to an order, then you find you will lose less equipment. It will be misplaced or stolen as easily because there is this process in place to keep track of it. yeah Little things like that, that ultimately saves your company money yeah as well. yeah Process is kind of meaning best practices. so And then systems, I'm viewing that more as like a software. So most of you guys listening are contractors, so you're probably not sitting in an office where your people are not. So it needs to be some kind of app-based software. That's where you're going to enter your time. You're going to enter your project details every single day.
00:17:36
Speaker
production rate should be in there, material charges. All of that stuff should be in there where you can sit at your desk at your office and pull every single project detail, photo reports, expense reports, pull all of that off of that software. That stuff has to be in place.
00:17:53
Speaker
a way to dispatch your crews. I would look at, you know, equipment tracking of, you know, like a fuel card for your trucks, all those different things so that it's uniform across the board, your reports could be pulled easily, and that you could dispatch a crew. They know exactly what equipment they need just by looking at the software, your app. They they know what project they're going to. They know where all their hours are based. That type of stuff is critical as you move from that one crew.
00:18:22
Speaker
on these systems and processes will allow you to basically step out of the day to day and focus on that big picture. So kind of the goal behind it, but then obviously being a replicatable model. Well, and where you did the plug earlier for better contractor, that platform came about because we have gotten really good from being in business as long as we have at this. And the thing that we've seen with some of are mentees that have businesses, is this is the thing that they're lacking. That they are so gun-hoed to start a business. They get out there, they start doing the work. And then you find that, oh my goodness, well, you don't have an employee handbook. You don't have PPE and safety protocols in place. You are unprotected in a lot of areas that is eventually going to hurt you. And because you didn't take the time to onboard. Well, we've
00:19:19
Speaker
had years and years of setting this up and finding what works. So that's why this platform exists. Believe me, believe me, we made some of those mistakes in the very beginning as well because we grew incredibly fast, especially the first five years. So there was no growing pains. So I speak, we speak to this from experience. And we're going to make more. And then when we do, but the goal is, is that you don't have to make the mistakes that we did if you listen to what we're saying about what to avoid. Yeah. Um, and some people have to learn the hard way. They literally have to do it themselves and they have to make the mistakes and they have to end up in a pickle in order to to figure things out. But, um, some people actually like to get good advice and take it to heart and apply it and they can save themselves some frustration and pain by, I think that's the beauty nowadays too of, so we started the business in 07, 2007. And back then it was a little bit pre-podcast.
00:20:13
Speaker
Online mentorship was not nearly the thing that it is today. There wasn't all this information quite as readily available. We had to search for it a little bit more. So I look at it now and I'm like, man, these guys and don't have an easy, but there's so much more information. If I'm having an issue, I can find someone that's more than willing to offer free advice or paid advice. and Well, I mean, look at this podcast. Like we give advice all the time. Right. But that was hard to get back. then That was one thing that the gentleman said,
00:20:42
Speaker
was that there's a lot of content, there's a large amount of content out there, and you can't apply at all. So how do you, well, yeah, there is a lot. There's a lot of content, but a large amount of it's terrible content. Small amount of it is everything. There's a bunch of it from people that really haven't done much, which is frustrating. And there is a lot of people out here that are like, I have an X amount of money business that I've grown. And then they show a lifestyle that hasn't come from that business.
00:21:12
Speaker
They're the money that they've made is from getting on the social media platform they um their money from the and the influencer portion of it. And they're telling you, and it's, you know, the hashtag, take a selfie, fake a life. There is a lot of that out there. People are making it look like what they're doing is providing their lifestyle when the influencing there's other streams of of income and that's false advertisement for them being able to have the knowledge to actually build the business.
00:21:42
Speaker
to tell you how to build a business to give you the same lifestyle that they're they are living. um But there's a sliver of very exceptional content out there. And I think that you need to have a bullshit meter that is is tuned up. And you know, whenever you're listening to something and you're like, that person's full of love it, move on. Yeah, they may have all the bells and whistles and it may sound good and it may give you all amped up. But if there is not tangible, actionable content,
00:22:11
Speaker
that you can apply to your business, then you have wasted your time. Yeah, I recently went through and deleted a lot of and or people I follow on Instagram, because I'm tired of the purely motivational space, where it's just motivate, motivate, motivate day after day after day, because I want more of the real content, like the nuggets of wisdom, something I can actually take and apply that's actually tangible. So I've kind of went through on my list and got rid of, not all, but a lot of the ones that are just more like out there, like Here's my fancy car. Here's all this. Get out there and execute your day. But I actually want the substance. Like give me five bullet points. Tell me what I can do to actually improve. To me, and to me, the other the other one's going to die away at some point. I could be wrong. But I think people want more. But the other thing is, is that you cannot sit around and you cannot talk about all of this with your buddy. Hey, yeah, these and I'm having this employee and yap about
00:23:05
Speaker
This is what we're going to do. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. At some point you have to stop yapping and you have to start implementing and you sitting down at your desk for an extended amount of time and put pen to paper about this is what I want my company to look like. These are my core values. This is what's going to be in the handbook. You're going to have to actually put some time into creating these documents and it's going to be tedious. And that's the thing. Tedious work just takes time.
00:23:34
Speaker
but there is no other way around it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. The work's super tedious and there's a lot to do before you just go jumping into just taking off with, Hey, we're going to add two crews tomorrow. You know, actually one of our mentees who's a contractor had actually asked a similar question. When did you just decide to add your second crew and your third crew? You know, so ours was kind of a,
00:23:56
Speaker
Well, like I said, we grew so fast. So it's just like, well, we have way too much work for one crew. We have to add a second crew. So it wasn't really even an option. It's either turned down the work or add a second crew in a third crew. So for us, it was more of just like, uh, well, we're going to take this by the horns and let's run with it. Um, I wouldn't overthink it though. Some people overthink it too much. The lesson learned for us was have the systems and processes in place though. So that's why that bullet points here.
00:24:23
Speaker
So number three with systems and processes, number four, invest in leadership training for yourself and also your team.
Leadership Training for Growth
00:24:31
Speaker
A lot of people want to only invest, or well, some people, not a lot. Some will invest in leadership training for their team, but not themselves. So they think, well, I'm the boss and the CEO. I don't need it. And that's not true. Well, and then they have this of false thought that because I'm the boss, that automatically makes me a leader. It makes you a manager, not a leader. Yes. And it could just make you an asshole too. Or that as well. you know But um there are different types of leadership. And one is leading from the front, showing people how to do it. And the other leading from behind, do it because I said so. yeah um And the second one doesn't work so well. yeah People need to fully invest.
00:25:07
Speaker
and they need to invest in somebody that they feel like there's a reason behind why you're having them do X, Y, Z. Yeah. I think the best leadership model is probably the one that leads on the front, um, does what they say they're going to do. And it's someone that everyone knows if they say it, they're going to do it. They're going to do it. Well, if you say you're going to respond to someone, respond to someone, if you're going to meet with a crew, like a certain time, do it. So I think the ones that like, you know, I'll deal with that later.
00:25:36
Speaker
But then the employee knows you never dealt with it. To me, that just immediately you you lose respect and ground. um And then don't ever ask people to do something you wouldn't do yourself. But me I think the main point with this one, for me anyway, was not promoting just because of a skill alone. We've been guilty of that. Everybody in this industry has been guilty of that at some point. But you need to promote because of their ability to lead and because of their knowledge. um you know You could put people in leadership training. We have some at the better contractor.
00:26:04
Speaker
There's a lot of other ones out there, but you should be doing something like from us and then add into that your personal. So it was like a very general overview and then dive into it one-on-one or with someone at your office, because that's where your culture is going to come into play. You know, that's where your unique leadership ability, whatever you style you like, who your company is, the culture.
00:26:27
Speaker
then you need to do that type in person. But you have to, you can't just promote a foreman. Just say, Hey, been with us 10 years. You know how to run all this equipment. You know how to do this and that. So you're replacing so-and-so who just quit. Well, and what makes an excellent leader is the ability to set aside your emotional entanglement with every employee. You have people that work with you for years and years and years. You're going to get attached to them and you're going to feel terrible if they're wanting something really badly.
00:26:57
Speaker
but you know deep down in your gut that they are the wrong person for the job. You're not doing the company or that person a service by promoting them because it is going to be detrimental to the company and at the risk of losing contracts or jobs because you made an emotional decision to promote. Unfortunately, the part of leadership that stinks is sometimes you have to make hard decisions that that hurt you and hurt them. Made us seemingly.
00:27:26
Speaker
hurt you. again But it's really, you're making the tough, you're making the decision for the best of the company. Yeah. So as you promote, also provide them training on leadership, but hire the person who's actually a leader. um I don't think the leadership training stops then. I think you need to have ongoing training, at least annually. been Um, and I think it needs to be like a monthly leadership meeting, something like that, to where you're, you're forming your, your people who are leaders in your company get together with you as the owner or your group of management, whatever. So that you're constantly the the voice in their head of this is our culture. This is how we treat people. This is how we earn respect. This is where we're going. You need to be that person that's setting that standard in that tone. And don't be afraid to demote. I mean, the the issue with tenure.
00:28:15
Speaker
when people and establishments use that is that it breeds laziness. Well, I've worked here for X amount of years and now I've been awarded tenure and I can do whatever I want. You can't fire me. Then it becomes very hard to keep that person motivated whenever they feel like they're, I have arrived and there's nothing I can do that's going to make me don't, if they're not performing at a hundred percent or more,
00:28:45
Speaker
then put them back into a position where they did excel in. You see it all the time, not just in the industry you're talking about, but even in this space, you'll see it sometimes where you've promoted and promoted and someone's at a decent level of pay for their position. But because they've been there for a while, there's a complacency. And if you're that person, you're listening, that complacency is going to either end your job or pause you right where you're at. So if you had a future ambitions to continue to move up that ladder, if you're being complacent just because you've done this for a while,
00:29:15
Speaker
you're you're shooting yourself in the foot and you know and like I would never pick a leader to move up the ladder if they're complacent where they are but it just it does show laziness. I almost need to do the like what is the Freaky Friday movie where they switch the mom and the daughter switch places do a week where the employees switch places with the owner like what would it be like if that owner showed up at like 60% every Like I'm, I'm not going to put a hundred percent in like how fast would your job disappear? And just know what it's like that. Hey, it's exhausting for an owner to show up at a hundred percent every day because they have a company that's their income, but it's your income too. And they're showing up at a hundred percent. So you're the employee, why aren't you showing up at a hundred percent? But you're, you know, anyway. Yeah. No, I like that. So number four, invest in your leadership.
00:30:09
Speaker
training for yourself, for your team, and then keep that going.
Delegation as a Growth Strategy
00:30:12
Speaker
So number five, stop being afraid to delegate. I hear this so much from people that are at this level, and I even hear it from sometimes from crew foremen who think that delegating is like this mean thing, like you're like you're a bad boss if you delegate jobs. That's your job.
00:30:33
Speaker
There is a respectful and good way to do it. There's a bad way to do it. If you're just doing it because you said so, obviously yeah, that's gonna make people mad. If you're doing it as a good leader, people are going to expect it because they know that's what you're there for. So you gotta stop being afraid to delegate. It's only gonna hold you back as an owner. It's holding your whole entire company back. You're not providing future advancement opportunities for people that work for you because you're not gonna grow if you're afraid to delegate. And to me, you know,
00:31:02
Speaker
That inability to delegate is probably I think the one of the number one things if you see companies that like especially contractors where they're good at what they do. If you talk to one of them and they're still like 10 years in 20 years in, it's them in a group of four. That inability to delegate is why they never made it past that point and some don't want to make it past that point. If that's you, that's fine.
00:31:26
Speaker
I'm assuming you got into business for more than that. And if you did, you have to get over not wanting to delegate. I think, um, ah ah there it could be with a very, very small percentage of companies. I'm hoping, um, the reason that they don't want to delegate is because they don't want anybody else in their books. They don't want to have oversight. They don't want people to know where they're cutting corners. They don't want people to know where they're not being a hundred percent true.
00:31:51
Speaker
Yeah. And if that is the case, then you need some oversight. So you need to delegate so that you have somebody watching and keeping you honest. Well, I think some of it is too, especially in contracting where you got maybe you started the business in your 20s.
Planning for Future Leadership
00:32:04
Speaker
In your 20s, you're able to do the work. In your 30s, you're able to do the work. In your 40s, you're able to do the work. In the 50s, you're like, I'm kind of feeling sore today.
00:32:14
Speaker
If anything, if nothing else, I would at least try to build your company to the size where you hit 50, you don't have to exit because you're unable to actually do the work anymore. But if you don't do any of these steps prior to then or ask some crews or whatever, you're going to be that dude that has to sell his company or is not able to continue doing this because they're close to retirement. So how beautiful would it be to do this when you can?
00:32:38
Speaker
And then when you get to be that age, like, man, I just don't feel like doing, you know, roofing or whatever it is today, you can actually be more of a leader and a boss and go visit job sites, make sure things are going well, actually you run your company, not actually perform the work itself. And I think for Jeff, you need to sit down and create yourself a checklist. You do give yourself deadlines on it. And you need to hold yourself accountable for getting this stuff going. If this is question that you're seriously asking and what you're seriously wanting to do, then three weeks from the time that you listen to this podcast, you need to have some follow-up questions because you have completed your checklist and you're ready to move on to the next thing. But you need to actually apply this. Stop thinking about it. Don't procrastinate. Apply it, do it, and move on. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. I think that's good. And a lot of people listen to these podcasts. I can think of several people that listen to podcasts all the time. And their whole failure with it is they don't actually implement anything.
00:33:32
Speaker
So like, i we I think we did a pretty good job in our podcast of giving very specific things, especially the shorter podcasts like this one and others. Like we have five bullet points. Do those five bullet points. If you don't have them wrote down, watch the podcast again. Do those five bullet points. See if you see an improvement.
00:33:49
Speaker
If you don't hit us with more detailed questions. so We do offer consulting, which is more, you know, detailed. This is a, you know, overall kind of a generic question. So a little bit more of a generic response, not knowing all the intricate details of his company. But I think the main takeaways for me would be the systems and processes, hiring right, onboarding and picking the right people. So I think if you do those things to me,
00:34:17
Speaker
If those things are being done, I do not see why your company cannot grow past pass one crew. I don't. So this is the processes. That makes sure the next crew is doing things the way you need them done. There's documentation. There's a method. There's procedures. There's photos. There's billing reports. That's huge. If you have that, that's half the battle. If you hire right and fire quick, that's another part of the battle. The onboarding, the training. To me, if you do those things and leadership training included in that,
00:34:46
Speaker
Do you see a reason why that can't work for most people? I mean, generically speaking, um, to me, if that doesn't work, that you've probably hired the wrong people. Maybe and this is, I'm not picking on you, Jeff. I'm just, this is just in general. If that doesn't work, then maybe you are not actually a leader or you don't have any business doing the boss portion of this. You need to just be on a crew working. And if that's the case, you've started the company. Don't be afraid to hire a general manager.
00:35:12
Speaker
You know, people do do that because they do enjoy doing the work and that is what they excel at. So be the general foreman or whatever you want to call it, but hire people in your weak areas though. So if this paperwork, office side, whatever is not your thing and you've got a spouse that is, then get them involved in the business and let them implement this. If you don't have the spouse and they're not that person, find a general manager that can help you with this.
00:35:38
Speaker
It's not that hard, but it does take time. It's not gonna be something that happens overnight. um Most of the stuff is a year long process or more. Relinquishing control over the areas that you are not amazing at does not mean that you have failed or that you're terrible at it. It means that you are intelligent and smart and that you are determined to make it work. And you've seen the areas that you aren't strong in and you have found someone that is. That's just smart.
00:36:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Business is hard. Business is hard. Yeah. um But it's even harder when you don't have a good team around you. And it's even harder whenever you're in this hamster wheel of never growing because you are getting in your own way. Yeah.
Culture and Team Building
00:36:22
Speaker
Yeah. So any last minute takeaways for you? I kind of mentioned the systems and processes being my, my main thing here. Yeah. I mean, that's really, that's the biggest, I think. Yeah.
00:36:32
Speaker
And then hiring, right? Obviously we all know there's a labor market issue right now being between finding people at all. And then when you do find people, find and qualify people, but they do exist. Um, that'll be actually, it's a point for a future podcast, but making money on your projects is one of our future podcasts. Right. but Don't be afraid to increase your bids because. Yeah. You need to increase your bids so you can actually pay to find these people. But don't keep toxic people in your company.
00:37:00
Speaker
Because I think that that is the number one way that you can... Well, we've talked a lot of... Oh, culture was one of the other points on here. You have to develop a culture too as you grow. Because if you don't, someone else will build your culture for you. It may not be what you want. But that goes back to that. If you have that rotten egg, that bad person that you know they're no good, gosh, you got to ditch them. They're going to destroy it. Make sure that you're not the toxic person. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it is. Yeah.
00:37:27
Speaker
Anything
Conclusion and Listener Thanks
00:37:28
Speaker
else? no and Well guys, hope you enjoyed this podcast. Jeff, any further questions, hit us up on Instagram again. But if you guys enjoyed this podcast, please do share it. This is a free podcast. So we don't charge. We don't have any advertisers. We just want to grow our audience. So please do share it. Thank you for all the subscribe, especially on YouTube. We are, gosh, we're way up there now. So increasing a lot every week. So thank you guys. Love you. and See you next time.