Managing the Changes
Trying to balance work, family, spiritual, and other goals is hard work. To make it more manageable, consultant and regular contributor to this publication Clay Nelson says, “You have to really, really want what you want, and you have to be able to write it all down” — what he calls “specific measurable results by when.” Because, he says, “if you don’t have a plan, you won’t know when you get there. You have to be present enough to know where you want to be along the way in order to see if you’re making it or not.”
Nelson suggests asking and answering the following questions to help prepare for upcoming milestones.
- Do I have a written plan? If not, why not?
- Am I being a control monster? Does everything have to go through me?
- Do I know how to communicate what I want?
- What tracking devices do I have in place to make sure I’m going to get what I want?
- Do I have a written marketing plan? Do I understand that I have an image in the community and know what it is? What percentage of the market do I own and how do I keep it there or increase it?
Asking these questions is a good start, but as Case stresses, there’s no reason to “invent the business in isolation. There are no excuses for that because there are resources. Belonging to an association and making good friends, reading trade magazines, good books, and maybe having a mentor — at least someone who’s successful and a couple of steps ahead of [you] — in the business helps.
“Ask yourself, ‘Do I want to be like this company that’s bigger than I am?’ That’s a huge step, rather than walking into the middle of it and finding out it’s not for you.”
Route Markers Within each of the principles of change is a set of milestones that are often general but also may be specific to individuals. For example, most people will need to replace themselves in the field, while one person might set a 40-hour work week as a goal. Below are some common goals.
Be a professional
- Remember that an attitude shift goes along with the trappings.
- Move from employee to self-employed; go from home office to commercial space; join an association or peer network, work with a mentor and/or consultant.
Recognize you wear too many hats- Begin to hire qualified people — and train them in company culture — to replace you in the field and the office. This frees you to work on the business and not in it.
- Hire a carpenter/helper; a receptionist or bookkeeper; middle management field position, for example, a lead carpenter, supervisor, or foreman; a production manager; a salesperson.
Work on the business, not in the business- Treat the business as a separate entity from yourself.
- Move toward best practices and systems; create a marketing plan, a business plan, and an exit strategy.
Create new growth areas- As you look more objectively at the business, you will be able to see what the company does well and reliably and what the company does poorly. Then you can make informed decisions on where to focus your energy for the future.
- Move to design/build; get a showroom; become a distributor of products.