Latest / Contractor Business Builder Podcast / 4 Steps to Turn Your Contracting Business Into a Well-Oiled Machine
Transcript
- 0:00You never feel like your construction business would just
- 0:02fall apart if you weren't there just one day.
- 0:05You've ever had this happen to you?
- 0:07Take a couple days off and everything's a mess.
- 0:09This system is for you. This is the quick, simple 4
- 0:11steps to getting finally organized and help your
- 0:15construction company become a well oiled machine.
- 0:18This is the easiest step by step process that I've found to
- 0:21create organization throughout your company.
- 0:23So First off, how's your energy? Hope you're feeling well and
- 0:26excited to learn this amazing system.
- 0:29It's called maps. There's four steps.
- 0:30As I mentioned, we're getting to you in a moment.
- 0:32So my big promise to you is you're gonna get a
- 0:34straightforward method to systemize and organize your
- 0:37construction company. Why am I sharing this with you
- 0:39today? I have 20 years of contracting
- 0:41experience, systemized dozens, probably over 100 general
- 0:45contracting companies by this time.
- 0:47And we are really our company rappers, all creators, all about
- 0:50leading a movement towards systems, leadership and
- 0:53generational wealth for contractors who have more than
- 0:56just staying busy. Just staying busy and making a
- 0:59little bit of money is not what it's all about.
- 1:01So building a business, getting organized and creating wealth
- 1:04that's gonna outlast you and and gonna give you that beautiful
- 1:07life that you're looking for. So I want you just to start with
- 1:10the end of mind. Imagine waking up stress free
- 1:13jobs, earning smooth, your team knows what to do and your phones
- 1:16quiet. You're leading an organized
- 1:18business and you finally have the time, money and freedom you
- 1:21got into this for in the 1st place.
- 1:24So this is where we're going and this is what this this system
- 1:26that I'm going to help you go by step by step is going to enable
- 1:29for you in your business. If you've ever tried to build
- 1:31systems or that your, your business organized and it just
- 1:34hasn't clicked or hasn't hasn't worked out, you're probably
- 1:38missing one of these steps or not approaching it from the
- 1:41right direction. So I see this all the time.
- 1:44And from the first step you're going to realize why this is not
- 1:48necessary. So the silent struggle, I called
- 1:51the contractor struggle stressed culture.
- 1:53You know, you're stressed, your team is stressed.
- 1:55Maybe money's tight. Projects are, you know, running
- 1:58over late projects, you're constantly firefighting, clients
- 2:01are frustrated, confusion on the job site, who's doing what?
- 2:05Why don't people know what they're doing?
- 2:06Why don't we keep after fixing other people's, you know, stuff
- 2:09that comes up, you have a high turnover of employees and, and
- 2:13you just, you get to a point where you get burnt out.
- 2:15So I'm sure you've had at least a number of these, if not all of
- 2:18these happened to you at some point and maybe you're there
- 2:20right now. So you're in the right place.
- 2:22We are going to solve and fix all of this.
- 2:25So this is an overview of the maps process that I'm sharing
- 2:28with you. The first one is maps.
- 2:29We're going to map out what does the business look like?
- 2:31What is the landscape aligned? So get your team in alignment
- 2:35before you start plugging and playing a bunch of systems and
- 2:38new processes. You gotta make sure everyone on
- 2:40the same page prioritize so you try to do everything at once.
- 2:43It's going to be an effective, it's going to take forever and
- 2:45it's going to be a, you know, hot pot Steven shit and mess at
- 2:49the end of the day and then systemize.
- 2:51So after all those other like pre construction to building
- 2:54your business. Now we build systems because we
- 2:57know everything is set up and where we're going.
- 3:00So there's two components for mapping your business.
- 3:02We want to know what do things look like?
- 3:05Where do we stand? So the first one is going to be
- 3:07an organization chart. And you may tell yourself, you
- 3:09know, I've only got a couple of people in business.
- 3:11Why do I need an organization chart?
- 3:12I'm, I'm the boss. I've got some workers, maybe you
- 3:16know, site manager or project manager, whatever.
- 3:19We don't need an org chart. The org chart is to give you a
- 3:22representation of the complete roles of your business as well
- 3:25as to know into the future, how are you going to grow or get
- 3:29organized? Because if you're planning your
- 3:31business just stay the same size forever and ever.
- 3:33You still need an org chart. But essentially every business,
- 3:36including yours, you're going to want to grow.
- 3:38You're going to want to bring people in place so that you can
- 3:40step out of the day today, so you can level yourself up as a
- 3:43leadership, as a leader. The work charge is going to show
- 3:45you leadership gaps. So as working with a client
- 3:48recently who we built out their work chart and became very clear
- 3:51that there was no real leadership in the administration
- 3:53team and the office team with inside their company.
- 3:56And just from that, like realizing that we could then
- 3:59assign someone and give accountability to someone else
- 4:02from a different department that was able to oversee the admin
- 4:05team, I'll provide direction, overall leadership, and just,
- 4:08you know, organize the company that much better.
- 4:10You'll find that in team gaps as well.
- 4:12And then opportunity opportunities will come up
- 4:14because you'll be able to see what the organization looks
- 4:16like. I'll be showing you an example
- 4:18of an org chart just a bit. You know exactly what this looks
- 4:20like. The second part to mapping your
- 4:22business is you need to document the roles, responsibilities, and
- 4:25tasks. All of these steps that are
- 4:27going to be showing you until like the final systemized stage.
- 4:30This is really not about getting super detailed and stuck in the
- 4:35minutia. This is getting the big picture
- 4:37in place so you know where to focus and where to get started.
- 4:40So 4 roles. We don't need this huge
- 4:43description. We just need to know what is a
- 4:45project manager responsibilities, making sure no
- 4:47budget clients are happy, schedules are on on pace and
- 4:52things are done at a certain quality, right?
- 4:53You don't need to like a huge document, just the basics of
- 4:57like what are responsible for and then what tasks they do on a
- 5:00daily slash weekly basis. And you're going to want your
- 5:03people to do this documentation for you.
- 5:05If you're doing a job yourself as the owner, then you will, you
- 5:08know, fill out this roles, responsibilities task, but for
- 5:11like a project manager, it's gone out.
- 5:13Office admin, even you know, your workers on site,
- 5:16potentially give them a document, tell them, just put
- 5:18this in. It doesn't have to be anything
- 5:21special. Not worried about grammar or her
- 5:23completeness. You just want to get whatever
- 5:26information you have onto a paper page document somewhere so
- 5:31that it can be utilized later. So this is an example of a
- 5:34construction company org chart. You're going to be at the top
- 5:37CEO, president, head honcho, ruler of the universe, whatever
- 5:42you want to call yourself. And then you're gonna have your
- 5:44VP vice presidents or directors of, you know, your different
- 5:47functions of the business. And if you're like, I don't have
- 5:50any managers right now or I've just has a project manager, you
- 5:54fill all those other gaps. So if you don't have a vice
- 5:58president of administration or a leader there, essentially that's
- 6:01going to be your role. Same with sales and marketing.
- 6:03So when you're starting a company, you're going to fill a
- 6:05lot of this chart and your job is to build out these roles so
- 6:10you can then delegate, like just put a system in place and
- 6:13delegate it to someone else so that you can then step out of
- 6:15this role. And the idea is you'll slowly
- 6:17work your way up, you know, this, this chain, if you will,
- 6:20to where you're, you're more at the top in the management and,
- 6:23you know, vice president, CEO roles and doing more of that on
- 6:26a daily, weekly basis than taking care of the, the lower,
- 6:30you know, runs of the ladder here, so to say.
- 6:32So that's what a, you know, org chart looks like, and that's how
- 6:35you would use it. So now you've got the train map,
- 6:37you've got, you know, you know what the organization looks like
- 6:40and you've got, there's a basic kind of roles description of all
- 6:44the different roles of the company.
- 6:45Now you're gonna align your people and your operation.
- 6:47So typically you're gonna meet with anybody that's filled out
- 6:50one of those papers. Or maybe if you've got a couple
- 6:53people on a team, like you've got, you know, site manager and
- 6:55a project manager, you get them together with yourself and
- 6:58you're gonna ask them questions. You know what's confusing,
- 7:00what's frustrating about the work that you're doing?
- 7:02What are the issues? Is there overlapping tasks?
- 7:05Maybe I've seen this before. Like I, I should say I've seen
- 7:09this before. I've done this before, you know,
- 7:11as a project manager, you know, going to site, it's like, oh, we
- 7:14need to stand this wall or we need to get this framed out.
- 7:17We've got no one. And you got your project manager
- 7:19like swinging a hammer or your, you know, your site manager
- 7:22doing something that's like cleaning up at the at the end of
- 7:25the day, it happens every now and then if you don't have a lot
- 7:27of people, I understand, but you want to identify where those
- 7:30overlaps because you're paying someone to do a certain job.
- 7:34So if you're paying project manager wages, they shouldn't be
- 7:38swinging a hammer. They should be managing projects
- 7:40or finding people. I can swing hammers and do it
- 7:43better or organizing the people or whatever it may be, right?
- 7:46So that's just an example, but you're going to find where you
- 7:49know where there are things that are overlapping as far as task,
- 7:52who's accountable, who's responsible.
- 7:53So most people kind of see this as the same thing.
- 7:57You probably know the difference, but you've got to
- 7:59make sure that your people also know.
- 8:01So at the end of the day, a project manager is accountable,
- 8:05but the projects done on on time, on budget and clients are
- 8:09happy, right? As far as the responsibility of
- 8:12who is to do things, that is probably the site manager or
- 8:15Superintendent, you know, whatever you want to call it.
- 8:17But the actual, you know, site management, who's responsible
- 8:22for that, right? And then who's accountable.
- 8:23Good example of this would be like a weekly update.
- 8:26If you provide a weekly update to the client or to the
- 8:28management team, I would say the site manager is responsible for
- 8:31doing the weekly update because they're kind of closest to the
- 8:33site, but the project manager is accountable to actually that
- 8:39it's done and that it's correct and then providing that to the
- 8:43client. So what are the differences
- 8:45there? Communication.
- 8:46How does communication happen in this role?
- 8:48A good like litmus test for if you have a good process is if
- 8:53you have to do this 1000 times, is this how you would do it if
- 8:57you had 1000 projects? You know, would you want your
- 9:00guys still writing down their hours on paper?
- 9:03Would you want them communicating with clients in in
- 9:06a certain way, right. So that really that question
- 9:09will really hone in and define like what is the right kind of
- 9:13process overall and, and the right way to approach this and
- 9:17then brainstorm improvements. How can we improve this?
- 9:19How can we change things? What can we bring in?
- 9:21What can we eliminate? A good, good exercise is, you
- 9:26know, what should we keep doing that's working well?
- 9:28What should we stop doing that's not working?
- 9:30And what should we just kind of leave as is because it's not
- 9:33really harming anybody and we don't want to change it right
- 9:35now. So brainstorm what can be
- 9:37improved. Alright, so a little bit at
- 9:39trivia here just to, to break things up.
- 9:41So if you want to get our downloadable template for
- 9:44building systems in your business, check out the links in
- 9:47the description below. Click the link and go get signed
- 9:50up for the download. It is a spreadsheet that lists
- 9:53all the big functions of your business, similar to those roles
- 9:56on the org chart. And then it has all the
- 9:59different kind of systems, the main systems that you're going
- 10:02to need in place for those different functions, as well as
- 10:04a scorecard to say what are we prioritizing and what you know,
- 10:09where we at as far as like how good our systems are.
- 10:12So huge resource, really powerful resource, one that I
- 10:16use with my clients to keep track of where things are AT and
- 10:20the systems we're building and everything.
- 10:21So go click the link below and get signed up for that and, and
- 10:24you'll be well on your way to utilizing this process and, and
- 10:28having that in place. All right, so now a little bit
- 10:30of trivia. I've never gone to trivia night
- 10:32and had a couple of beers or whatever.
- 10:34It's nice to to learn a couple random facts.
- 10:37This one not so random, though. This is from, I found this on
- 10:39Autodesk, But what percentage of construction professionals time
- 10:43is spent on non productive tasks?
- 10:45So it's gonna be yourself. You're definitely a pro and
- 10:47maybe doing the pro work, but professionals, you know, anybody
- 10:50kind of on the management side of your business, how much of
- 10:52the time is it is being, you know, non productive or non
- 10:55productive task? Do you think 2530 or 35 percent,
- 10:5835%. So nearly 14 hours per week is
- 11:04essentially wasted on non productive tasks.
- 11:07And that's where those overlapping of tasks are Just
- 11:10figuring out, you know, what is important and what's not for
- 11:13each role can save you tons of time, tons of money, and make
- 11:16you much more possible and efficient.
- 11:17And by getting all these systems in place that we're mentioning
- 11:20is going to get you well on your way to reducing this.
- 11:22Make sure you're not one of those companies that is wasting
- 11:24a lot of their their people's time.
- 11:26Alright, I'm making quick progress here at #3 is
- 11:29prioritize and plan. So maps we've mapped it out,
- 11:32we've lined the people. Now we've got, we know where
- 11:35things are at, but now we need to figure out where we're going
- 11:38to start. What are we going to prioritize?
- 11:39What are we going to plan? Everything may seem important,
- 11:43but we want to really get through the really most
- 11:46important thing so we can be very focused and your
- 11:48pinpointed. This is how I work with all my
- 11:50clients and how we get really rapid success.
- 11:52And the reason you want to do this is because you want to make
- 11:56sure you're working on the right thing first.
- 11:57You're staying focused on it so you can get it done because
- 12:00getting that first most important thing done makes the
- 12:03second thing easier. And the third one is like a like
- 12:05a domino effect and the system is just our rolling and your
- 12:08business just starts humming along.
- 12:10And once everyone's on the same page and they realize how things
- 12:13are working, you get experience with it.
- 12:14This can happen pretty quickly and make just a world of
- 12:17difference. But if you do it in the wrong
- 12:19order or try to do everything at once, it just becomes a mess
- 12:21and, and most people give up or, you know, just throw up their
- 12:24hands and like, we'll just go back to what we're doing before.
- 12:26So far as prioritizing, we've got this Eisenhower matrix here.
- 12:30If you've ever seen anything like this, you know, it's pretty
- 12:32common for a number of different things.
- 12:33But essentially you've got importance and urgency.
- 12:36What do you want to do to to prioritize is most to least
- 12:39important. So what's the most important
- 12:41part of the business that you want to systemize and what's the
- 12:44least important? List those out by rules of that
- 12:48org chart that we had. What is the most important?
- 12:50Where is the least important? It's not the most important
- 12:52necessity of the company like you think as a CEO, like I'm,
- 12:54you know, the most important, but what is what is the most
- 12:58important to where you want to go with your goals and where
- 13:01should we focus 1st? And then you want to also that
- 13:04same, you know, you've got that list now top to bottom, most
- 13:07important to least. Then you're going to make the
- 13:09same list with the same roles but with urgency.
- 13:13What is the most urgent to least urgent?
- 13:15So if you've got like 10 estimates waiting to get out to
- 13:19clients and you're running low on projects, that is high
- 13:24urgency. You need to be able to, you
- 13:26know, get a better estimating system and make sure that you're
- 13:31getting more projects in the pipeline and people aren't
- 13:33waiting too long, right? If you've got tons of projects
- 13:36and you you don't have enough people and you, you're trying to
- 13:39like hire a bunch of people, then you're hiring system, you
- 13:42know, would be high urgency. So you're just going to list
- 13:44those out and then you can have two lists, important and urgent
- 13:47and anything that correlates that you're going to add the two
- 13:50together. So if one is like a one on on
- 13:52one list and a three on another list, add it together.
- 13:55That would be a four. And then you know, whatever is
- 13:59the the lowest number is essentially going to more than
- 14:02likely be the thing you want to start with.
- 14:04But that should give you a really good indication of what
- 14:07is the most important and urgent of of everything to do first.
- 14:12Anything that is important but not urgent, you want to schedule
- 14:16out. So you're going to again,
- 14:17you're, you're going to like, this is just getting what we're
- 14:20going to start on 1st, but you want make a list of things.
- 14:22You've got an implementation plan of how things are going to
- 14:24go down. Anything that is like very
- 14:26urgent, but it's not that important.
- 14:28You want to just kind of delegate that or leave it as is.
- 14:31Maybe you'll get to it someday. Anything that's not important,
- 14:34urgent, just delay it in indefinitely.
- 14:37Eventually you may build it out, but it's, it's just not
- 14:40something that needs to be thought about at this point.
- 14:42And then once you've identified that, so let's say you've got
- 14:45estimating now, what are the components and tasks that you're
- 14:47going to need in your estimating?
- 14:49So is it, you know, software and tech?
- 14:51Do you need new software? Do you need better technology?
- 14:53Do you need another person to come into there?
- 14:56What are the, you know, the steps inside there?
- 14:59Do you need cost codes? Do you need templates for
- 15:02estimating pricing databases? You know what what's all going
- 15:07into it? You're not building out the
- 15:08process yet, just what resources and things are going to need to
- 15:12kind of go into place for that thing that you're you're
- 15:15building a system for All right now my favorite step here is a
- 15:19systemized step. So we're all about systems.
- 15:21This will we help our clients with building out amazing
- 15:23systems. You can do this yourself.
- 15:26I would suggest you don't. It takes a lot of time and most
- 15:29people just don't know how to do it effectively.
- 15:32If you want help building out systems you want kind of like
- 15:34and for you and already prepared SOP's and training videos and
- 15:38all that stuff. We've done this repeatedly with
- 15:40many, many clients. So check out the links in the
- 15:42description below. There is links there to go to,
- 15:45you know our website or get some free resources.
- 15:47I highly suggest you reach out to us if you want help with
- 15:50building systems quicker, more efficiently, with a lot less
- 15:53frustration. But now that we've done all that
- 15:56kind of like preconstruction work to building your business
- 15:58and systems and organization, now we can kind of get into the
- 16:02meat and potatoes of it, which is systemized.
- 16:04So a great quote by Michael Gerber, who is the author of the
- 16:08Emeth Fantastic book that shows sort of the same process of
- 16:13building out systems in a business and a business that's
- 16:15not solely dependent reliant on the business owner.
- 16:19But what he said was systems permit ordinary people to
- 16:21achieve extraordinary results. Predictably, systems are not the
- 16:26end all be all business. You know, you you need good
- 16:29people and but a system to get good people and good people
- 16:33utilizing good systems make extraordinary results.
- 16:37So systems so integrally important to a good running
- 16:41business and enabling your people to be great and get great
- 16:45results. So the kind of the process for
- 16:48systemizing a function, if it's, you know, something like
- 16:51estimating software and resource setup.
- 16:52So you're going to need to set up the software or if it's like
- 16:55some sort of resources that you need set up if you're doing
- 16:57stuff on site like you know what what is the actual system could
- 17:01be tech, could be physical, you know, set up or whatever.
- 17:04After that you want to ask yourself, what can we automate?
- 17:08There's no use building an operating procedure or some
- 17:11large, you know, documented system if you can find some
- 17:15technology that can just automate this or even maybe like
- 17:17a third party where your team doesn't have to handle it or
- 17:22parts of it and get automated. Do that first so that you're not
- 17:25wasting your time when you build out the actual operating
- 17:27procedure. Once it's automated, then you
- 17:29want to create a workflow. And I'll show you what a
- 17:31workflow looks like in in, you know, just a moment here.
- 17:34Workflow is the big steps. What does this look like from
- 17:37the 10,000 foot view? What are the main 510 steps?
- 17:41And then how is it charted? What documents, how are things
- 17:45linked, What decisions need to be made?
- 17:47So this is a really good visual representation where you're
- 17:51going to lose a lot of people if you just give them a document
- 17:53like here's the operating procedure, go read through it
- 17:56right? It'll help and they should get
- 17:58it. But it doesn't really click
- 17:59unless you have a visual representation.
- 18:01So that's why I do the workflow next.
- 18:02Then you build the SOP. Now you got the workflow.
- 18:05Now you can build an SOP from that workflow.
- 18:08And then after the SOP is documented and dialed in, then
- 18:11you can create a training video, just do a zoom, you know, the
- 18:14screen share or something like that.
- 18:16If it's computer based, if it's site based, usually you can just
- 18:19find videos online. So if you're training your guys
- 18:23as far as like how to frame a wall, you don't need to, you
- 18:26know, create a bunch of internal training, you know, framing
- 18:29videos for your guys. There's probably ones on YouTube
- 18:32or wherever that you just find one that's like, yeah, that's
- 18:35good information. It's a training resource.
- 18:37It's not the end all be all. And I think that's another thing
- 18:40to remember is all these systems are continually getting
- 18:42improved, not the end all be all.
- 18:44There's still gonna be on site training and, you know,
- 18:46feedback. And it's gonna take them a
- 18:48little while till they get things.
- 18:49But if you can get them to like a 8090% proficiency before they
- 18:54step on site or before they start, you know, doing the
- 18:57process, their training is just going to be so much more
- 18:59quicker. And they're going to do it in
- 19:00the right way, which is the main, you know, reason to get
- 19:03this in place. So this is what a new lead, like
- 19:06a new lead workflow, just as an example.
- 19:08But essentially where the workflow you go to starting,
- 19:10it's going to go to the next step.
- 19:11So call, you know, lead comes in, we're gonna call the lead.
- 19:15Someone's gonna call them to be receptionist could be you,
- 19:17whoever you can ask them the qualifying questions.
- 19:20So were they located? What's their, their budget?
- 19:23You know, when are they thinking of buildings, all that kind of
- 19:26stuff to realize, is this a qualified lead?
- 19:28Do you even provide the service for them?
- 19:30Can you help them or not? And then those ones in purple on
- 19:34the top those that's like the actual SOP document.
- 19:37And then also like a form that either they can fill out or
- 19:39your, you know, admin person can fill out whoever's fielding that
- 19:42that call and those will have links as well.
- 19:46So that anybody who sees this workflow, they can then link to
- 19:50those other documents. So it's not only represents like
- 19:52how everything works for this process, but also like links to
- 19:56all the resources someone could need for the, you know, the
- 19:59video, the SOP, the forms, whatever kind of stuff they may
- 20:04need to actually utilize this process.
- 20:07And then typically you're going to have some sort of decisions
- 20:09depending what the process is. So qualified, yes, schedule them
- 20:14for, you know, home visit or you know, builders meeting,
- 20:17whatever. If they're not qualified, send
- 20:19them a little bit of a e-mail, tell them like, unfortunately,
- 20:23you know, we can't help you. Whatever, whatever your process
- 20:25is right. So I think you get it.
- 20:27This is this is like a a workflow that you want to put in
- 20:30place before the SOP and the training video.
- 20:32All right, so now with this maps press process, you've got a
- 20:35straightforward method to systemize and organize your
- 20:38construction company. You identify the roles, the
- 20:41tasks, any gaps in your organization, fix the confusion
- 20:46and miscommunication, and then build complete trainable
- 20:50systems. Trainable is the key thing.
- 20:52It's, it's good to have a system that you can operate or someone
- 20:54can operate, but you need like a system for training the systems.
- 20:59And that's that's where the magic happens.
- 21:00And that's where you know, a self running, self managing
- 21:03business really takes off. So now that you know this whole
- 21:07process, you're going to want to go check out this next video
- 21:09over here on how to actually implement the systems and get
- 21:13your people utilizing the systems.
- 21:15And after you build the system to make sure that it's being
- 21:18you're getting the results and it's getting used inside your
- 21:22your company.