The business podcast for contractors

If you’re ambitious and always looking for an opportunity, you might have thought about building a software product to ‘fill a gap’ in your business.

You hear this story on podcasts or youtube videos… maybe from a friend. Some contractors out there got frustrated with a lack of software in their business and decided to do something about it.

They decided to build it themselves.

And then became a bazillionaire.

But is it really that easy?

To find out, we invited Tanner Mullen of Dripjobs to share the realities of building a software company while still running a painting business.

If you’d like to learn more about the SaaS building process, managing multiple companies, and how to sell your software, listen to this episode.

Highlights from this episode:

• How to train your team to manage the client so you free up your time for other things
• How to manage your calendar when you’re running 2 businesses and a family
• The process of designing a CRM with programmers when nothing else seems to fit your business model
• Tactics that work to gain the sales advantage when pitching a SAS product from a successful salesman turned contractor
• What a ‘Unique Mechanism’ is, and why most contractors are not using it to their advantage
• What Tanner wishes he knew when he started both of his businesses

Cyber security is something for tech companies, banks and nerds to worry about right?

Yeah, in 2010 maybe, but not anymore.

There has been a STEEP rise in the number of attacks on small businesses the last few years and contractors are a prime target for hackers.

Why?

Because in the trades we work with big chunks of cash AND most of us haven’t made the time to put cyber security as a top priority.

To a hacker, we’re the prime target.

To learn more about why you might be vulnerable, what hackers are after, and how to protect yourself click the links below.

Highlights from this episode:

• What is going on high level that is leading to an increase in cyber security breaches in the contracting community
• The assets of value that hackers are looking for in a typical contracting company and how to protect them
• The most common threats and attacks you’ll be targeted for as a contractor
• What it costs you to buy security vs pay for damages
• The 4 stupid things most business owners do that leave themselves open to hacking
• How to tell if a software has legitimate security measures in place
  

We did a Project Management Roundtable a couple of months ago with some of our highest-performing members in the construction space.

It was so popular and well-received that we decided to release it as a Contractor Evolution episode.

As you no doubt have experienced, most (but not all) Project Managers in construction and trades are professional firefighters.

This is a problem.

Underequipped PMs burn themselves out and eventually hurt morale, but more importantly, mismanaged jobs can make or break our year-end P&Ls.

Our live roundtable featured Greg Hasler of Hasler Homes and Iain Kent of Eagleview Construction, where we discussed their evolution story from chaotic to dialled-in. They dove into the systems that have made the biggest difference, the personality profile of a rockstar PM, as well as where you might find one.

Episode highlights:

• 3 PM ‘Red Flags’ that will tell you things can be improved on
• What makes a great PM (from the perspective of highly effective contractors)
• How to hold PMs accountable for the results they were hired to achieve in your business (including which KPIs you should be tracking)
• The number of jobs should your PM’s be able to manage at one time
• The PM qualifications you should look for and where to send PMs to learn proper PM systems for your business
• The best way to keep your field crews (and your subs) engaged with the PM systems and actually filling out daily logs (spoiler – yes, it is possible)

The Discount Code for 10% off Gembadocs is BTA10. Download the app or visit https://gembadocs.com to start your FREE 30-DAY TRIAL!

Also, get Tom’s book for free in multiple formats at https://improvementstartswithi.com/

If you don’t have clear SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) for all the things you do in your business you’re in trouble.

Here’s why:

• You won’t be able to scale
• You can’t take a vacation
• You can’t promote anyone on your team
• It takes FOREVER to train new staff
• You field a million questions everyday that suck your time
• You’ll never be able to take a step back from operations
• …the list goes on

Not having clear SOP’s is why your business is a mess.

BUT if you don’t have them, it’s not your fault.

Because no one told you where to start, how to create them, how to have your SOP’s evolve with the business or WHO IN THE HELL would be creating all of these things?

However, now all of your obstacles are irrelevant. Someone has figured out how to get around all those challenges and more.

His name is Tom Hughes and he’s going to open your mind to the possibility of SOPs that are highly effective and practically create themselves.

To learn Tom’s brilliant approach to these age old challenges, listen to this week’s episode.

Episode Highlights:

• The reason why you can’t predictably grow a business without SOP’s
• How much value SOPs will give to the sale price of the business and peace of mind to the owner
• The 3 keys most owners miss when implementing SOPs that lead to a giant waste of time and money
• How to foster ownership and buy-in from the team by implementing bottom-up rather than top down SOP creation
• How to put SOPs at the point of use to make sure they actually get used instead of collecting dust
• Lastly, how to make the update process easy so that your SOPs grow with your business instead of falling out of date

Do you have a leadership team? Do you let them lead?

I’m sure you’ve probably heard that you need to hire a leadership team who will allow you to take a step back from the grind.

But rarely do you hear HOW to nurture that leadership team to a point where you feel comfortable letting them take over.

In this episode of Contractor Evolution, I meet with Dan Young of Kingdom Roofing Systems of Marion Indiana.

In just 3 short years (2018 to 2021) Dan grew Kingdom from 3 million in revenue to over 16 million.

Contributing massively to this explosive growth is his Executive Leadership team, which over the years, he has assembled and trained with care and purpose.

I wanted to have Dan on to talk about where he found these people and nurtured underappreciated talent into truly exceptional leaders.

If you’ve been wondering what it actually takes to build a leadership team that will allow you to step back, listen to the full episode.

Episode Highlights:

• How the leadership team is organised in this 16M contracting company
• How to recruit a high-end leadership team from outside your industry and the attributes you should watch for in the people you interact with daily
• One way to nurture under-appreciated talent as opposed to expecting you’ll have all the skills you’ll need in everyone you bring in
• How your role as a leader evolves as you go from 3M to 16M (hint – it’s both easier and harder)
• Striking the balance in a ‘family vibe company’ when you’re running corporate systems
• The value of hiring women in the trades and what they bring to the organization that the men typically don’t

You ever heard that quote about the bumblebee flying? The one that goes, “Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that so it flies anyway.”

I feel like Tommy Mello didn’t get the memo that a garage door company traditionally caps around 10 Million.

When he was growing his company, Tommy looked around for inspiring models he could replicate and didn’t find much from the other garage door companies in the market. So instead of accepting industry norms, he looked elsewhere.

And now he’s sailing past 200 Million in revenue and says it’s just the beginning.

Listen to the full episode to learn about the 5 game changers that Tommy attributes to his unusual growth.

Episode Highlights:

• What Tommy & A1 Garage Doors needed to do to go from 800k to 200M
• Where to start when you know you need to dial in your finances but can’t afford a CFO
• How to find and work with an integrator if you’re the visionary
• The way a 200M contractor thinks and spends their time vs the way a 1M contractor thinks and spends their time
• When, during your growth, you need to start finding advisors, which ones will really move the needle for you, and how to filter out the crappy ones
• What advice Tommy would have given himself in the early years of his business that would have saved him a pile of headaches