How to improve your construction business Part 1.

 

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Disclaimer: This Podcast is for Construction Industry Business Owners who want to hear the truth no matter how much it might sting. If you’re looking for nicey, nicey leadership advice? Go watch a TED talk!

 

 

Only the Strong Survive.

Construction is a tough industry. For most of us, it’s a generational industry, trades, skills, work ethics passed down to us from family members or the people we looked up to when we were young.

However, it’s still a tough industry. Why? Because the chips are stacked against us as business owners. If you work for smaller contractors, you might be lucky and get paid in around 30ish days, but the likelihood of one of them going bust on you is high.

If you work for larger general contractors, there is less likelihood of them going bust on you, but there is more chance of you going bust on them as they sit on your hard-earned money for between 45-90 minimum!

Then there is the challenge of the modern workforce, which, unfortunately, in many cases, lacks the old school drive, pride, attention to detail, and reliability.

The modern trend towards speed over quality and the comfortability towards just throwing buildings up as fast as possible and getting shit done to an ‘its good enough to pass’ standard doesn’t help either.

Apologies for the depressing start to this post lol. But you know it’s true, and you know what they say ‘The truth will set you free.’

This post’s aim isn’t to depress you. It’s to help you. Help you improve your company through honesty-based experience. Twenty-six years of honesty-based construction industry experience, to be precise.

These are not mind-blowing or secrets we found buried in a tomb on an undiscovered island while being chased by natives with blow darts. No, they are simple and basic… that’s why they’re typically overlooked and why they work. Below is part one of this simple series; give it a go:

 

1. It’s not you, it’s me

No, it really is you. Yes, I know what I just wrote about the modern generation of employees, and all of the old-school skills, beliefs, and attitudes that we are missing.

However, that doesn’t change the way things are now, and you complaining about it won’t change, bugger all! In Construction, your Business is only ever going to be as good as your people.

Your clients and contacts might like and trust you, but you will only be able to scale your Business to the level that you can scale your people. So you need to figure out how to get the most out of them, and it starts with understanding them.

 

 

2. Commando, really

Understanding your people doesn’t mean knowing all of their freaky personal habits. It means understanding that their mindset and your mindset at miles apart; there is literally a grand canyon between how you think and how they think, and that’s a good thing.

Why is it a good thing? Because if they thought like you, they wouldn’t work for you! You want you people to get it, but only get enough of it to be a good employee, not too much of it so that you take my clients, or I end up working for you.

That’s the Yin Yang of running a business, regardless of the industry. However, it is made more difficult in Construction because most employees in North America have no construction education. They just fall into Construction these days. Apprenticeships are a dying breed.

The combination of these factors leaves business owners in Construction, pulling their hair out if they are fortunate enough to have any left!

Thankfully there is a way to bridge this gap, and it doesn’t require torture or blackmail.

The key to getting your people on board lies in you broadening their perspective, raising their awareness, and tapping into their basic needs, the same needs that you and I have.

Accomplishing this is the challenge, and the solution.

 

3. All aboard

Right now, your people think they do all of the work, and you just sit back and rake in the cheddar (I hope you do!).

They have no clue about the million plates your spinning or fires your putting out. Because as the quote above states “People believe what they perceive,” and right now, all they see is the sweat on their brow, not the fried egg you’ve got for a brain.

You might be thinking, ‘why do I have to convince them of anything? They should just do as they are told because it’s their job.’ Which is true, but our kids ‘should’ just do as they’re told because we’re their parents, but they don’t!

It would be easier and more popular to moan and do nothing about this reality, but that wouldn’t help you because it doesn’t work.

One of the biggest mountains we have to climb as successful business owners is Mount Ego. The rights and wrongs of life plus what’s fair and unfair don’t help.

Those things just keep you pissed off, stressed out, and prevent your company from growing. Long-term success and accomplishment are all that matter.

For your Business to change and grow, your perspective and mindset will have to change and grow first. That might seem like some yoga/budda bollacks, but it’s 100% true.

You are the most important person in your Business, and because of that fact, your Business will only evolve to the extent that you do… (Insert ‘Young Grasshopper’ line here).

 

 

Conclusion

That wraps up the first article in the ‘How to strengthen your Business in the construction industry’ series., and it is exactly what we will dive into in this week’s episode of the Construction MPa Podcast.

We will catch you in the next one, or on the flip flop!

Cheers

 

 

Program vs. Podcast?

The Construction MPa Program is an entirely different beast than the Construction MPa Podcast. However, it was ultimately built with the same end goal in mind, too:

A) Help small business owners strengthen their businesses themselves via a step-by-step process.

B) To provide a home for small business owners to openly discuss the challenges they face in a sales and bullshit-free environment.

If you want to know more about the Construction MPa Program, check out: Program Outline Page.

 

Business Owners Only.

 

“If you want to strengthen your business today. You need Construction MPa.”