Faced with a huge business problem? Reductionism works!

Been a real chore to write lately, actually impossible, and the cause happened literally overnight. One day I'm fine, the next I wake with tremendous pain, can barely walk, and been in-'n-out of the hospital for what the docs call Osteoarthritis, a fancy way of saying my effin' back caved. So, now I have a new “job” — taking care of my ol’ bod, managing pain, and keeping from getting depressed. Appears like the years I spent getting bashed around on the streets, plus the couple-three years I rode the rodeo as a wannabe cowboy, plus all the years liftin' and crawlin' around as a subcontractor are catching up with me. I've got a lower back that x-rays and MRIs show looks a bit like hamburger.

Okay, what's this got to do with my continuing efforts to help folks get over the seemingly insurmountable humps they face with their businesses? Well, it all boils down to reducing a big problem into a series of manageable steps. Facing either some kind of spinal injections or back surgery is way too big a problem for me to handle. On the other hand, doing some stretching each day, riding my mountain bike at least three to five times a week, cuttin' out coffee, and improving my diet (again) are all small steps that I can handle. And guess what? My back symptoms are already receding after just a short time implementing these small steps.

We must learn to manage systems, and then let the systems manage our business.

—Ed O'Connell

I've always been a reductionist. I don't have the ability to “grow a business.” That’s too big and unfocused a goal for me. I do have the ability to follow directions, focus on one small step, slowly put them small steps together, and watch in stunned amazement as those small steps eventually added up to ... growing a business. I've learned, from others who had the patience with my particular form of dyslexia, to build a business from the ground up, not from the top down.

So take a hard look at your company. What's going on? Not enough calls, not enough cash flow, not enough time? Your company can look like my back did — hamburger. When you look at where you are versus where you want to go, it can look like there’s a chasm that’s too big to cross in between.

What's your first step? What should it be? Important questions because each of us has different challenges. Low call volume, no good help, can't keep good help, not enough cash, and family members working in your company who are dragging you down are just a few of the problems I've encountered while helping others. Despite the different problems the answer is always the same — systems and procedures.

We must learn to manage systems, and then let the systems manage our business.

Here are a few examples. See if you can relate.

Problem: Not enough cash.

Solution: Go flat rate. Enough said.

Problem: I can't keep employees.

Solution: Have a written plan that lays out what to expect. Mine was a three-year plan that explicitly showed an employee what he could expect, what the earning possibilities were, what the growth possibilities were, and what was required of them to earn these possibilities.

Problem: My tech(s) don't do what I tell them to do.

Solution: Have checklists for every job they do. Yes, every single job! You will be astounded at how well a tech performs if he has a checklist to follow, and you are now managing a system rather than an employee. If you want examples of job checklists, just let me know and I'll send 'em to you free of charge.

Problem: My phone won't ring.

Solution: Ask for a referral on a client's Facebook page and offer them perks if they do it. Eighty percent or more of a home's purchasing power flows through women, there are millions of women on Facebook, and 30% of those women check their Facebook page before they get out of bed in the morning! Imagine if you became some woman's hero because you stopped a flood, or got her heat turned back on, or helped make her family more safe and comfortable ... endless possibilities.

Take the first step. Want to know what your first step should be? Get a coach or mentor, and then listen. I have to listen (again) to a new set of advisors, and they're 30, even 40, years younger than me. They're called doctors.

Best,

Ol’ Ed

Ed O'Connell is the founder emeritus of O'Connell Plumbing Inc. He is the subcontracting business coach for smaller contractors and a Service Round Table Coach. He can be reached in Auburn, California, at home/office: 530/878-5273 or at [email protected].