What Business Are You Really In?

“I’m in the heating/plumbing/electrical/construction business.”   That’s what I’m normally told by contractors when I ask them what kind of work they do.  After chatting with them a bit, all of them soon discover that’s not the right answer.  They find that they’re in something much different.

I found myself in a similar conversation not long ago.  After this particular contractor told me he was in heating, I immediately followed up by asking him how many employees he had.  He proudly said, “I have nine field staff and four in the office.”  “That’s a large payroll you have,” I replied, to which he agreed.  We then discussed what those people were doing right now.  He was quite concerned when he realized he didn’t know!

Would you agree with this statement: You are only as good as your people?  It only makes sense.  You are as smart as your smartest, and as weak as your weakest employee.

What do we do about this dilemma?  Realizing that our real business is the development of our team is the first step.  We have to accomplish our work through them.  If we give them clear direction, they will be successful in their day.  If we are vague and respond only when things go wrong, then we are headed for trouble.

So what do you do?  The first is to consider training on a regular basis.  How often is “a regular basis”?  The answer is at least weekly; in fact, we have members that train daily!  A contractor once told me, “I have trained people, and then, they left me.” I immediately replied, “What if you don’t train and they stay?”

When asked, employees will put training at the top of their list of things they desire from their employers.  Training is an investment—not an expense.  Your training should be aimed at meeting your objectives.  Training can be planned—for example, your weekly training topics could be:

 

• Goal setting
• Customer satisfaction
• New opportunities
• Technical topics
• Completion of paperwork
• Customer service
• Warranty
• Programs you are offering your clients

What is your training budget for this year and next?  Without training you will never reach your goals!  So, as you can see—and the contractor I recently chatted with saw—you’re not in the heating/plumbing/electrical/construction business.  You really are in the PEOPLE business!