Busting Through the Ceiling This Year

Every business goes through some ups, downs, and growing pains along the way, but even a successful business will come against a mighty force at some point in its history. This powerful force has slowed the progress of ambitious businesses and crushed many under its weight. It’s called the ceiling.

It’s the end of another calendar year. You’re reviewing your year-end revenue and profit margin and for the third straight year, you haven’t generated anymore sales or additional profit. You’ve hit the dreaded ceiling.

Many business owners, especially contractors who are already stretched thin, stagnate at this point. They lose their momentum, and slowly their company begins to backslide. However, with the right mixture of determination and planning, you can break through the ceiling and attain a higher level of success.

How do you bust through this ceiling and take the business to the next level? It’s time to take the 10 necessary steps to do so:

1. Change your thinking.
Go into your bedroom or bathroom and look at yourself in a mirror. Look into your eyes and do some soul-searching. Ask yourself: Are you willing to change the way you conduct business—even though you may be comfortable in your ways—for the good of your business and your family? If so, be resolute in taking the necessary steps to improve.

2. Outline your goals for the next year.
Decide what is most important for your company to improve in the next year. Do you want to increase revenues by 15 percent? Do you want to improve your profit margin by 5 percent? Would you like to increase your club memberships by 1,000? Write down three or four large goals that you would like to accomplish next year and what your next step(s) will be to obtain them.

3. Present your goals to your team.
It’s time that you call a meeting and share your concerns. Your company has hit a ceiling, and you know that everyone—including yourself—is capable of busting through it with the right effort. Using an erasable board or an easel with paper, write down your goals. Then ask your team to help you decide how these goals can be reached.

The remainder of your meeting will be a brainstorming session. Write down every single suggestion—there are no bad ideas. Ask your team to think about how they could be more efficient in the field, on the phone, or in the office. Encourage them to be vocal about any idea(s) they might have. By participating in this process, whether your employees know it or not, they are gaining ownership of these goals—and the company.

4. Create motivation.
At the end of your brainstorming session, sit down with any managers or key employees and evaluate every recommendation. Write down four or five realistic actions that can be done to accomplish each goal. (Please note: you will want action items for all segments of your team—call-takers, dispatchers, technicians, salespeople, etc.)

Next, you will need to generate a compensation plan that will be awarded for attaining every goal. It could be a new profit-sharing plan, bonuses, or additional time off. Maybe you’ll promise to take your entire team on a trip. Once you have a set compensation in mind, present it to your team. Listen to their feedback. Be willing to make some tweaks. Remember, the goal is to get them excited about change!

5. Monitor progress.
If you don’t have them already, position Scoreboards in visible areas of your office. Update them regularly with everyone’s individual progress. Have a companywide Scoreboard showing the team working toward larger yearlong goals. Your team must know how they’re fairing to continue to stay motivated.

6. Help them succeed.
Evaluate invoices to determine why certain techs may struggle or listen to CCRs with low-booking percentages. Then train on those issues. Have regular video-recorded role-play sessions, and have your team review themselves. Make it a point to do weekly ride-alongs, too. Get in the field and see how you can help your team improve. Seek new motivational videos and play them during trainings. Be willing to reimburse team members that invest money in motivational CDs or DVDs for themselves.

7. Congratulate along the way.
Send congratulatory texts out across the company when someone has a big-ticket invoice or sale. Have monthly team meetings—bring in food and present companywide progress. Congratulate individuals hitting their specific goals. For those who surpass their goals, award them with something unexpected. You want to keep people focused and motivated throughout the year. Be positive in everything you do!

8. Always be assessing your team.
If you stay true to the steps, after several months you will begin to see who is onboard with your goals and who isn’t. Ask yourself: is this person creating negativity in your company and holding others back? Can you provide additional training or one-on-one support to motivate this person? If your instincts tell you that this person is a bad influence, it’s time to start seeking a replacement—once one is found, make the change.

9. Stay true to your word.
By the end of next year—if you’ve been working with your team along the way and they’ve offered the same effort—you will reach many of your goals, if not all of them, and will have broken through the ceiling. Have a year-end party celebrating individual and companywide successes. Hand out compensation or awards that you promised in your team meeting. It’s important that you thank your team for their hard work and compensate them as you said you would.

10. Don’t settle.
After your first year, don’t allow yourself to slide back into old habits. Keep that ceiling-busting attitude. Create new goals, encourage your team to think of new ways to reach them, and outline a new compensation plan.