3 Things to do in your business this summer to make it your best summer yet

For most contractors, the summer is one of the busiest seasons. Like many contractors, you probably make subtle (or drastic) changes to your business to accommodate the busyness: vacations are cancelled or scheduled for quieter times; you avoid making big plans and changes; you put many other projects on hold just to make sure you can keep up with the work. Many contractors even choose to delay growing their business or building new things into their business, opting instead for a “just try to keep my head above water” approach.

However, just because it’s a VERY busy season doesn’t mean you can’t also grow your business. In fact, I’d argue that this is the perfect time to grow your business. After all, if your business were a boat, wouldn’t you want to know that your boat is seaworthy during a storm, not just during calm weather? It’s the same with your business, growing your business during the busy times can often amplify the growth during the quiet times.

3 ways to grow your business this summer

#1. Build systems: I define systems as the predictable and pre-built sequence of steps that someone follows to reach a predictable outcome. When you have a system, everything runs smoother and faster, while also creating more predictable results. Doesn’t that sound exactly like what you want to happen during your busiest season?!?

The simplest way to build systems right now is to start by identifying the top results you want and then creating a checklist of the things that need to be done (and in what order) for those results to occur. Here are a few results you probably want this summer, and they’re a great starting point to build systems:

·       Get your people out the door sooner (what needs to be in place to get people out to jobs earlier in the morning?)

·       Get your people finishing jobs more accurately (what needs to happen to make sure your team has all the equipment and supplies the first time, and does the job correctly the first time?)

·       Get your people from one job to the next more quickly (what needs to happen to make sure your team moves quickly from one job to the next?)

By building systems, you may actually find that the summer isn’t as busy as it once was!

#2. Empower your team. The busy season is a great time to empower your team to become leaders. It’s easy to think that the slow times are the better times to train your team to lead their fellow employees but it’s really the busy season when everyone is scrambling to get the job done that you can give small but substantial leadership tasks to your team.

By empowering your team, you may find that you (personally) are less stressed and overwhelmed by trying to keep everyone moving forward.

Don’t burden each member with a lot of new management responsibilities but you’ll raise the bar across your whole team by asking team members to step up and lead during this most critical time. And, chances are, you may have new team members who are jumping into the fray right now anyway who would benefit from shadowing the more experienced employees.

By empowering your team, you may find that you (personally) are less stressed and overwhelmed by trying to keep everyone moving forward.

#3. Presell the slower season. Again, it’s easy to maintain a “keep your head above water” approach and only deal with the present. After all, it’s the present that’s keeping you busy and who has time to do anything about the future? Well, if you can pre-sell products and services for your slower season, you’ll drive revenue in the summer months plus you’ll ensure that those quieter times are already filled.

Start by choosing a few services that you can pre-sell — perhaps an inspection of some kind or a pre-winter check-up (it all depends on the type of work you do and when your slow season is). Ideally, the products and services your team pre-sells should be connected to the services they’re already performing for the customer.

By pre-selling the slower season, you can create more revenue now while you also make the rest of the year more predictable for your business.

Summary

The summer. For many contractors it’s a time when you put everything else on hold and you take the “just try to keep my head above water” approach. However, by building systems, empowering your team, and pre-selling your slower season, you can actually turn your busy season into one of your most successful seasons this year!

Mike Agugliaro is a Business Warrior on a mission to change the lives and businesses of service business owners. Mike and his business partner started and grew a struggling home service company into a multi-million dollar empire before selling the company in 2017. Today Mike is an author, speaker, and mentor; and he's the co-founder of CEO Warrior, a high level coaching and training organization for home service businesses. Learn more about Mike and CEO Warrior at www.CEOWARRIOR.com.