I invented the "Training Room" in my business

Back in the 80’s when I started in home improvement NOBODY had a training room.  

A typical contractor would say “Training room?  What do I need that for?”  It’s seemed such a waste of space to most.

And the rest is history.

Today we have many training rooms including our “Invictus Theater” which holds 220 people!

Do you have a training room to train groups of your employees on a regular basis?

There's always room to get better.

When leaders go to a conference or seminar they don’t stand up and say “I am stuck, over my head, don’t know what my priorities are, and I feel overwhelmed – like I don’t know what I am doing.”  Why?  They don’t want others to know they are vulnerable and don’t want to be embarrassed.

Your employees do the same thing.  They lie and hide and fake like they know what they are doing so they don’t get embarrassed, fired, or laid off.  They aren’t going to say “Hey boss, I’m not doing great over here.  I don’t really know how to do my job really well.”  In other cases, they may THINK they are doing good, but they don’t know what is possible or what even better performance looks like, or what would be required to get it, so they stay silent.  It’s human nature.

This is why you have to train people whether they think they need it or not.  Always be looking for ways to engage them, to bring out their best, and to improve – even if things seem to be “ok”. 

I bet some of them do have ideas to get better, but you never asked for them – ask.  If they are good ideas implement them and train everyone else.

How to get 20% more equity-fast

The purpose of a business is to serve a customer and make a profit while doing it.

Let’s say you want a 10% profit.  That means each 1% of the revenue that is left over as profit is 10% of the total financial output of your company (available to shareholders if not reinvested in capital expenses, growth, paying down debt, inventory, receivables or new employees).

Offense is maximizing revenue with sales and marketing-related activities.  Defense is delivering your product or service efficiently and watching the expenses and managing the money well.

So, can you study your Income Statement (aka Profit and Loss Statement) and find where you can save (stop wasting) 2% of your revenue?  I mean if you want to make a 10% profit, then you are spending 90% of your income.  Can you find 2% savings in the 90%?

If you can, you have just increased the total financial output of your company by 20%.  It’s like having 20% more of the business that you already own!

Right?

Let’s say your goal is 10% profit and you feel short – say you only had 4% profit.  Now with the 2% savings you found and acted to make real, you have increased the total financial output of the company by 50%.

Right!

Fun!

Avoiding something?

Only the leader can do the leadership job.  If you are the leader and are not going to do the leadership job, then the best thing you can do is step aside so a new leader can take your place.

What have you been avoiding because you feel incapable, uncomfortable, foolish for not knowing, or uncertain?

Instead you come to work and do what you are good at – right?  But you aren’t good at “that” so you avoid it – right?  And your organization and team suffer as a result – right?

Stop avoiding solving your problems because you may not be good in that area.

Here’s a tip – you don’t have to be good in that area.  Put your pride and ego aside.  You just have to ask questions of the right people (inside and outside your organization) about the problem and the solution.  Can you ask questions?  Then you can do it.  

Today.

Ever read a book about sales?

A big increase in sales can solve a lot of problems.

Without sales, no business survives.

Without great sales, no business thrives.

So, how many of your people have read a book on sales lately?

Have YOU?

Get your priorities straight

In order to get your priorities straight, you need to know what they are.  You may think you know what they are, but you may be wrong.  If you are stuck or kinda stuck, or if your business is not making the progress it should, you do not know what your priorities should be.  You may be doing your best, but your business is a reflection of your thinking and you are not thinking well.

If a new and better and more experienced leader came and took over your business, after an evaluation and seeing things right, they probably would have a different priority list than you.

A great leader works on and gets his/her team working on the number ONE thing that will move the needle tomorrow.  Knowing what it is must be the first step.

Do you get sick this way?

For the past five years or so, when I get sick with flu-like symptoms, it’s what I now call “phantom sick”.  It happens when I am run down and sleep-deprived.  Often it happens in conjunction with significant physical activity – working out (or doing hard work TO work out) when I don’t get enough recovery time.  Jet lag messes up my sleep times and I go-go when I travel and don’t get enough sleep.

The result?  My body can suck up some of the “abuse”, but then it sends me a strong signal – “Slow down buddy boy!”.  And just to make sure I am listening, it gives me flu-like symptoms to make me feel sick.

When I get a good night’s sleep or two, the symptoms are gone.  I didn’t really have the flu, I was just worn out.

I have to listen to my body.  And knowing what I know, I have to schedule recovery time after trips, trips to different time zones, and hard physical work.

“Illness is the opposite of freedom.  It makes everything impossible.  You lose so many things when you are ill.” – Francoise Sagan

Anybody else get distress signals like this when they are wiped out?

How to help people get better

If you just tell them what they are doing wrong and what they should do differently, you will get resistance and no buy-in.

Instead, tell them what they are doing right and thank them.  Then tell them how they can do even better.  Your intention, rapport skills, caring, and tone of voice make all the difference.

If you are an expert at this, you will get almost no resistance and more buy-in.

Thesoe.com

Did you know I have a School of Entrepreneurship online?  It took me 35 years to learn the content through practice, and 3 1/2 years to write.  

It’s mostly for contractors, but there is so much in there for any business.  But if you are not a home service contractor, you can adopt most models to your business easily.  Check it out at thesoe.com.  You can sign up for a free trial. 

If you watch a short video, let’s say on average 12 minutes a day, it takes 3 1/2 years to get through it all.  There are written exercises to download, and I walk you through and discuss each one as you go.

In my industry, most business owners don’t have any training to run a business – they aren’t qualified when they start.  I wasn’t qualified when I started either.  Most stay that way.

At the same time, we work hard to earn/save money and send our kids to college on speculation that they will actually work in the field we are paying them to learn, while we don’t invest in ourselves in the field we are actually in.  It doesn’t make any sense.

(Those last two paragraphs were today’s Think Daily for Businesspeople.  Do not fail to educate yourself and learn to do what you are already doing, or should be doing really well from people that have done it.)

If you are NOT a home service contractor, I will extend a 50% discount to the Contractor Nation  School of Entrepreneurship if you sign up by April 1.  Please contact Bob Showers at [email protected].

Optimize for what you want

If you wanted your people to dislike each other and not want to help each other, so they build silos and fight you could –

Separate their workspaces, and limit the communication between them.

Tell one group the other criticized them and were not happy with what they were doing.

Play favorites and recognize who you like instead of everyone.

Makes rules for them to have to work together.

You see, what you do as the leader can create problems.

Did you ever see a company in distress, and they swap out the leader and soon enough there is harmony and much greater functionality and productivity?

What are your problems?  What do you want?  What behaviors and moves and changes and actions would cause the results you seek?

Cause and effect is always at work.  Make it work for your company.