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Q and A - Real Talk with Brent: Work Boundaries, Low Ballers, and Scaling Up
68 Plays22 days ago
Welcome back to The Better Contractor. In this episode, Brent tackles the hottest questions straight from our Facebook group. How do you separate work and personal relationships? How do you compete in a flooded market with lowball contractors? When is the right time to add a crew and what is the best way to do it? We also announce the winner of our free 10-seat giveaway for our training platform:Congratulations to Matthew Linnen! If you don’t have employee onboarding in place yet, now is the time. Our videos are short, to the point, and designed to help your team level up fast.
Join our new Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/532038256301032/
#ContractorSuccess #WorkLifeBalance #ScaleYourBusiness #WinningContracts #BusinessGrowth #TeamBuilding #BlueCollarBoss #TradeTalk #ContractorsOfInstagram #SmallBusinessTips
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Format
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of the Better Contractor. Today is a Q&A podcast, so hopefully you've been a part of our Facebook group. If not, you need to join But basically, went in and just asked some questions and said, hey, give me some feedback for a question and answer podcast.
00:00:13
Speaker
fro welcome back to another edit of the better contractor today is a q and a podcast so hopefully you have been ah part of our facebook group if not you need to join it but basically i went in and just asked some questions and said hey give me some feedback for a question and answer podcast And these three are three that we selected to answer on today's podcast. So hopefully these are things that help you guys as you guys are building your businesses.
00:00:39
Speaker
A lot of us are struggling with the same stuff. We may be in different contracting markets, but at the end of the day, most of us deal with the same stuff. Also, we're going to announce the winner of the 10 free seat giveaway.
00:00:52
Speaker
So we'll do that end the podcast. So stay tuned for that. Back to the Facebook group. If you guys
Giveaway Announcement
00:00:58
Speaker
are not part of that Facebook group yet, please do so. The Better Contractor has a private Facebook group, answer a few short questions, and we will let you on in if you are indeed a contractor.
00:01:08
Speaker
So please, please, please get involved there. Like I tell the new members, that is something that is super beneficial to all contractors. At the end of the day, there's, think we're 500 and some in there already, but at the end the day, someone in that group has been where you want to be, which means they've walked in the shoes you're getting ready to walk in.
00:01:29
Speaker
Ask them the questions. They will help you get through it because most likely they have already gotten through what you're experiencing right now or dealing with right now. That is hugely valuable for all you guys wanting to scale your business.
00:01:40
Speaker
So
Balancing Personal and Work Relationships
00:01:41
Speaker
let's get into it. Question number one, this is one I think we all deal with. How do you separate personal and work relationships with employees? That is something I've dealt with, is something all of you will deal with if you are a small company at all, or even larger companies where you are just more involved and engaged with your employees.
00:02:01
Speaker
This is something I think I am decently good at because I can wear two hats. So when I say two hats, I'm talking one that is completely personal and one that is completely work.
00:02:13
Speaker
And i will sometimes even say, hey, I am taking this hat off and I am putting this hat on. But the ability to see someone who you like personally, that mean that may mean that they are someone who aligns with your core values, your hobbies.
00:02:28
Speaker
You may go to the same church. You may grew up in the same town. You have things that made you friends before you knew each other at work or made you friends while you're at work. You got to know them personally and you like them personally. As long as the work item that you are at issue with is not something that is deep down a core issue in their personality or to themselves, like they were like lying, you know, actually being a bad person.
00:02:52
Speaker
Obviously that is different, but assuming it is a work like productivity, a work related issue only, you should be able to switch those hats back and forth. And what I would say is to pre-frame. So part of the pre-framing is saying, Hey, I'm switching this hat back to a strictly boss hat.
00:03:10
Speaker
And I will tell you when that boss hat is off, but we're going to talk work right now. I think that lets them know Personally, you still have that relationship, but also this is a serious moment. that We're going to reflect on some stuff at work.
00:03:23
Speaker
I think being direct and being honest is key with this as well. I don't think you want to beat around the bush. I think time and being direct is your friend here. I think it just cuts through the chase. It gets to the point um and it doesn't leave room for, well, I wonder if this person meant this.
00:03:42
Speaker
If you were direct and honest, there is not for, for the what-ifs because you said everything that needed to be said. So pre-frame, let's go back to that for one second. If i value you as a person and I come to you and say, hey, we have this issue at work.
00:04:00
Speaker
I know you're better
Competing in a Flooded Contractor Market
00:04:01
Speaker
than that. Most likely this person is better than that or that you wouldn't still employ them. So I'm assuming that's the case. But say, hey, we had this issue at work. I know this is your dreams. These are your goals.
00:04:12
Speaker
And my job as your boss is to help you get there. So I'm putting my boss hat on and these things that you're doing right now are not going to get you to where you want to be. What can I do? What can we do together to help you work through those three items, two items, one item, and get you to where you want to be. And then talk through those items, make an action plan, and then actually tell them, Hey,
00:04:35
Speaker
We're going to meet it again on this in a week, two weeks, a month, whatever that needs to be given the circumstance. And then meet with them again and evaluate progress made or progress not made.
00:04:47
Speaker
If it's a non-negotiable, tell them this is a non-negotiable and say, hey there's not going to be any wiggle room for allowance after this. If this happens again, we will be talking termination.
00:04:58
Speaker
And then when you're all done, well, real quick, the pre-frame part, You're letting them know what to expect coming up. So if, if it is going to be a little bit of an emotional thing, I would acknowledge that upfront and say, what i'm getting ready to tell you, it's going to sting a little, but I'm doing it for your benefit. That is pre-framing.
00:05:17
Speaker
Then when you're all done with it, say, Hey, I'm assuming the work day's over here. I'm putting my friend hat back on now, shake their hand, give them a hug, whatever it is, and actually go back to being a friend.
00:05:30
Speaker
If you've spoken it and you've said everything everything it needs to be said, move on with it. Do not stay mad at them for the entire rest of the day, rest of the week, rest of the month. Actually move on from it and give them time to improve.
00:05:41
Speaker
If they do not improve, obviously you're gonna put boss hat back on and you're going to right back to it. But I think it is actually possible to be friends and also be a boss. I've done it many a times.
00:05:53
Speaker
I think it's also building respect. If you have respect from them and vice versa, I think this is possible to do. I think when you talk about culture, I believe having this relationship, the back and forth of personal and work, I think actually helps to benefit your culture.
00:06:10
Speaker
I think if it is a work relationship only, and that is it, it is very difficult to build culture within your organization. So I don't view it as a bad thing. I would actually embrace it. Just make
Adding and Integrating New Crews
00:06:20
Speaker
sure you do it the right way.
00:06:22
Speaker
Question number two, how to get around a flooded market of contractors that are low bidding, And it seems anyone with equipment or tools is now bidding a job by themselves, thus destroying profit.
00:06:36
Speaker
So I think all of us can probably resonate with this in some way, shape or form. LanderCorp, my main business is in the oil and gas. So it's more of a B2B type company.
00:06:48
Speaker
And I can say even with it, we experience some of this with certain customers. These customers may... say they want you know safety and they want quality and they want all these different things.
00:06:59
Speaker
And a lot of them do, and they do preach or practice what they preach. However, there are some that are simply based upon low price. So we deal with this as well. And what we've done with that is in our marketing and some of my communications out, we actually call out the issues.
00:07:16
Speaker
So we call out, hey, you may save 10% by going low bid. But that 10% now has caused all these other issues that you now are either liable for or have quality issues with, things that you now have to deal with.
00:07:33
Speaker
So in your marketing, and I wouldn't make it a theme if you're marketing, but I would highlight two things. Your expertise and your knowledge and what you're bringing to the table. And then second, when you get a chance once in while, I would call out what it means to be hiring a bad contractor that maybe doesn't have insurance.
00:07:52
Speaker
that maybe messes up the job, but you don't hear from them again, that doesn't answer their phones, that ah sends workers to your house or to your job site that do not know what they're doing and they mess things up royally.
00:08:04
Speaker
We see that all the time as contractors, we know it exists, but does the homeowner, does the client, do they know it exists? Call that out a little bit more in your marketing. Again, don't make it a theme. I think your theme and your marketing needs to be a little more positive. You need to be calling out what you do different.
00:08:19
Speaker
So if I'm customer A, and I'm looking for a contractor, let's say, to do my roof. Well, obviously, that's a job that I want done well. I want to know they have insurance. If somebody falls off my roof, I don't want held liable for that any way, shape, or form.
00:08:36
Speaker
I want someone that knows what they're doing that's doing all the shingles, doing all the joints and everything correctly. If I'm hiring a lawn service contractor, I want one that's got actual, you know, hopefully U.S. citizen employees.
00:08:52
Speaker
I want one that's got decently new equipment. I want one that if they break a window on on my house, they tell me about it, number one, and number two, they pay for it or fix it with their insurance. I want to know they're insured.
00:09:03
Speaker
All those type of things should matter. I want, you know, company trucks to be wrapped, to be clean, to show up when they said they're going to show up, to actually respond to texts and cell phone or phone calls.
00:09:14
Speaker
So guys, highlight what makes you different. Highlight your expertise. Highlight your background. The person that asked this question, I do know them. I think their family business has been in business for like multiple decades.
00:09:26
Speaker
I know them. They do great work. Make sure your marketing is highlighting that exact work. Another thing you consider, could consider, is diversifying your services. So is there something related to what you're doing that may be a little bit more of a niche market, that maybe it takes a little bit more expertise or a little bit higher dollar equipment value to get into that market, and thus it removes some of these people who may just have one or two pieces of equipment, a little bit of skill, and are trying to compete against you?
00:09:56
Speaker
If there is, I would challenge you to maybe diversify into that market, try to differentiate yourself from them a little bit, Get into a market where there's a less competition and where you can charge a little bit more and be a little bit more successful in your bid rate.
00:10:10
Speaker
um Third, i would look at nearby markets. I know for the person asked this question, they're about 40, 50 miles from a more metro area. As much as it sucks to move equipment and mobilize it, I would consider it at least to a degree moving into a market that maybe has a lot more clientele to choose from.
00:10:29
Speaker
Maybe the competition is still pretty stringent, but instead of working with a area with, I don't know, let's say 20,000 people that are is within your area. Now, all of a sudden you you have 200,000 people. So you've 10 X your potential client base.
00:10:45
Speaker
Plus if that, if there's a higher earning zip code area, which most of us will have that somewhere nearby. You also are dealing with a clientele that may be more apt to spend money with you, or that may be like, you know what I have,
00:10:59
Speaker
The ability to pay 10% more. This dude seems a lot more legit than this dude. I'm paying the 10% to use the better contractor. So again, marketing. Diversify your services and consider nearby markets. A little bit of market research will go a long way here.
00:11:15
Speaker
Know the income.
Maintaining Standards and Auditing Crews
00:11:16
Speaker
Know the amount of people that live in the area and go into it. You know, in this situation here, it's 45 minutes from where this person lives. I would definitely, definitely, definitely consider that.
00:11:28
Speaker
Third question, how to know when to add a crew and how best to do so? So I'm going to overly simplify the first part of that question and say, know your numbers.
00:11:39
Speaker
It's all about your numbers. If you have the ability, but let's say you's say you've done a half million a year with one crew and you're starting to move to that $750,000 to a million dollar range in revenue or potential incoming revenue based upon the jobs you have scheduled, obviously it is now time to add that crew.
00:11:55
Speaker
So I would let the crew ad be strictly by and based upon your numbers. So to me, that is a number answer and it's that black and white. The better part of this question is how to do so.
00:12:09
Speaker
So we at Lander Corp blew up a lot the first few years and we were over 100% per year in growth and we added multiple crews per year and there was some issues back then, this is early 2000s, mid 2000s, 2007 through 12.
00:12:27
Speaker
um But one of the best things we did when we were able to do so was to take a lead foreman or a co-foreman from one crew and move them into a foreman position, if they're indeed good at it, move them into a foreman position and let them lead newer crew.
00:12:44
Speaker
Another thing you could do is if you have the ability to mix the new crew with an older crew, to get some culture and experience and stuff like that standards set with that existing crew, I would definitely, definitely recommend doing that. I think that's one of the best ways to ensure that you have consistency amongst your crews, that there's culture, that they know each other, that what is expected from crew A is now expected from crew B. So I would definitely consider doing that for at least maybe two or three weeks, depending upon what job, what field you're in.
00:13:16
Speaker
The more professional, the more highly skilled industry you're in. Obviously, that may need to be longer. You may to split that crew up amongst a few crews if you have that ability. But you're basically mixing that new crew into an existing crew.
00:13:29
Speaker
And then I would audit them. So once you've placed that new crew, well, let me go back one step. I wouldn't necessarily take that new crew and say, hey, here's my old crew number A or letter A, and here's the new one is B.
00:13:42
Speaker
And this is old and this is new. I would consider intermixing. So if you have a crew size of four and you have a new crew size of four, take two off of this crew, put with two new people, take two new people and put on your crew A. That's what I would do. So it's a little bit mixed. so um And then I would audit your crews. A lot of companies do not do audits.
00:14:02
Speaker
I think the owner or if you have a project lead or someone like that, they can get out there and actually spend time with your crews. Make sure they're following your safety. Make sure, you know, they're leaving the job site as clean as you expect, performing the work and the standards you you are setting, doing the best, you know, practices and stuff that you set for your company.
00:14:23
Speaker
Make sure your crews are doing that, especially if they are newer, because what you want to do is hopefully offset and end a bad practice before they get too set in their ways. The other thing to consider here, if you are hiring someone from another company,
00:14:38
Speaker
They may come with experience, but they may also come with bad habits. So the other reason you want to audit and be on site some is to make sure that those bad habits end when they start with your company.
00:14:51
Speaker
um So to for me, the audits are a big, big deal at Lander Corp. We actually have a safety department. We have a full-time safety guy and he goes out and he tries to audit each crew at least once a month.
00:15:04
Speaker
And then we have several project managers that hopefully on the road a fair amount and are spending some time with these crews as well. They're not doing necessarily a safety audit like our safety team does, but they're out there looking at productivity, looking at how the job sites left, how the foreman is leading the crew.
00:15:19
Speaker
All that stuff is important so that when you send a crew out to whatever job sites you have, so if you send crew one, two, one, two, three, four, or five, the customer doesn't know what crew showed up because nothing really changed in the job site. The last thing you want is like you send crew one,
00:15:34
Speaker
and then a crew of three's got to fill in for them for a week and the customer's like, this is a completely different experience dealing with crew three than crew one. They should be dealing with whatever your company name is and that should be the same across all the crews.
00:15:46
Speaker
So how you add these crews is important. But as far as when, look at your numbers, they will not lie to you. So guys,
Engagement and Feedback for Future Sessions
00:15:54
Speaker
really hope this Q&A was helpful. If you've not already joined the Facebook group, do so.
00:16:00
Speaker
got a question, feel free to just post it and ask it. Otherwise, I'll get on there once a while. I'd like to start doing a Q&A podcast once a month, once every six weeks, something like that. um So I will probably post in there asking for some feedback. So definitely do it there.
00:16:14
Speaker
Also, as I said at the very beginning, we had our 10 free seat giveaway. And the winner of that is Matthew Lennon. Matthew, if you're listening, we will give you a call or shoot you a text here shortly with some login information and kind of run through what the employee training and onboarding looks like from the Better Contractor.
00:16:32
Speaker
For those of you listening who do not have employee training or onboarding in place, our system is super simple to use. The
Giveaway Winner and Training Program Promotion
00:16:40
Speaker
videos are short. They're engaging. The one thing I disliked about other ah training programs in the past is they're long.
00:16:47
Speaker
Most people don't watch them. They put them on the background. they go do other stuff because they're 45 minutes to an hour long. They cover a lot of pertinent information, but if nobody listens to it, it doesn't really matter. So ours are short to the point, little bit more fun, little bit more engaging. ah Earlier in the podcast, I mentioned uniformity amongst crews.
00:17:05
Speaker
This is one of the ways to do it. So have onboarding, have training in place. You can also use it to help people move up the ladder as they get a certification with equipment. Once they watch our Foreman Leadership videos, they obviously can then move on up that ladder.
00:17:19
Speaker
So they've watched the video. You give them a raise and you give them a promotion. It's a beautiful way to do it. If you're interested, that definitely hit us up. Otherwise, guys, please join that Facebook group. If you like the podcast, share it.
00:17:31
Speaker
We hope to see you next time. Thanks, guys.