Construction Industry Archives - Page 4 of 9

Cash flow management is essential to a construction contractor business. Every business shares a common need: Cash. It pays the bills, it keeps the lights on, it puts food on the table. Cash isn’t just king — it’s LIFE. Yet for many contractors, this critical aspect of their business is managed ineffectively or not at all.

We invited Suzanne Cox, CPA, CIT and shareholder at Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund, to share some of the cash flow management strategies she recommends to her clients. Step one, she says, is to understand where your cash comes from, and where it goes. “If you haven’t done a formal cash flow for your business previously,” says Cox, “it’s a great exercise to walk through.”

Catch the entire conversation with Suzanne here:

Creating an Organizational Cash Flow

While we recommend working with an accountant, preferably a CPA, your first business cash flow doesn’t have to be a complex document filled with formulas you don’t understand. Start simple: What are your sources of cash?

There are three major sources of cash—operations (company revenue), investments, and finance (loans, lines of credit, equity raise). Most of a typical contractor’s cash flow will come from operations, from the work you perform. When you bill your customers or submit a pay app and then get paid, that’s a primary source of cash. Consider if you have other sources as you prepare your cash flow statement.

Now that you have your sources of cash, list out all the uses of cash in your company. Payroll, materials, insurance, fuel, all count as uses of cash. Don’t forget the overhead expenses it takes to run your business—rent or mortgage, vehicle payments, utilities, supplies, marketing or advertising, etc.

Bonus: Knowing your true overhead is critical to smarter bids that secure a good profit margin on every job. Learn why in our article Margin vs Markup.

Cox says that cash flow statements aren’t just for your organization; you should complete one for each new project as well. She says, “It’s very important to not only project your sources and uses on a company wide basis, but also on a project wide basis.”

Cash Flow Tracking

We created our Project Cash Flow Tracker (get yours on our Resources page) because we knew it was important for contractors to see how project expenses marry up to the job schedule and exactly how much cash is needed each week. The same is true for your organization. The cash you have in your bank account isn’t necessarily the cash you have free to spend. You need to know when cash is needed, what it is needed for, how much is needed, and where it is going to come from.

Tracking cash flow across your entire organization can also help you break the habit of borrowing from one project’s cash flow to start a new one. Instead, you can estimate costs for a new project, analyze your current cash flow statement, and make an informed decision about how you’ll fund that next big job.

Creating a cash flow statement and tracking cash flow across projects and throughout the organization can be a real eye-opener, says Cox. It can reveal cash flow gaps in advance, as well as highlight some areas where you could conserve cash. “In construction, contractor owners are very focused on the work, they’re focused on getting the job done, they’re focused on doing a good job, they’re focused on not getting sued. There are all these priority items in your business that take precedent. Making sure you meet deadlines, and you don’t have liquidated damage charges, things like that. And so sometimes the operation of the business takes a backseat. Just the exercise of walking through a cash flow is beneficial. What do I need to make my business run? Where may I be overspending? You’re looking for things you don’t need to spend money on that maybe you are spending money on.”

Whether its rethinking terms with customers or suppliers or reducing overhead, you can’t improve your cash flow until you are keeping track of it.

Cash Flow Tips

How you manage your company’s cash flow can mitigate problems or compound them. Treat your company like a project, with a fixed budget and an approved list and schedule of expenses. (Actually, some of you may want to treat it better than a project budget.)

A good understanding of your company’s cash flow can reveal gaps in cash flow and help you spot solutions. Can you decrease your payment wait time? Should your next contract be negotiated as paid within a certain time, or based on milestones. Those kinds of decisions impact the project and your organizational cash flow.

Don’t be afraid to be honest with your general contractor, says Cox. “A lot of subcontractors feel like their hands are tied, and that they’re going to have to do whatever the GC wants. But if you explain to the GC, ‘I’ve got this situation, I need to get paid at these times’ and collaborate and come up with a mutual agreement that they want to use, they’re going to try to come up with a mutually convenient situation.”

Decreasing payment time can also be an incentive. Offer to pay suppliers upfront in exchange for a percentage discount. Similarly, see if your GC offers a discount to speed up your payment time. To make this strategy work, you need to already know what cash sources you have, what uses you expect, what you need, and what you can offer.

Cash Flow Management for Contractors

So, who does all this cash flow management? We recommend working with a CPA, but it is also important, depending on the size of your business, to have a good accounting team or person. Communication is key for cash flow management to work. If you are not getting the reports you need, work with your team member or CPA to get them.

Your accounting team and your project teams need to start talking, too. Weekly team meetings is probably one of the most important things that you can do, says Cox. “Include your project management team with your accounting team. Some of you might be thinking, Oh, my god there’s no way that’s happening. My accountants cannot be in this meeting with my project team.” A transparent and clear line of communication between accounting and project management is key for both parties to see how their decisions impact each other. “Whatever you need to do to make it work, make it work.” If an initial estimate had 100 square feet of tile, and now you need 400 square feet of that tile, your accounting team needs to know if the project manager is getting a change order for the extra 300, or if the company is eating that cost. Because if it was an estimate problem or your company is absorbing the cost for some reason, your cash flow just went down by 300 square feet of tile, and it is your accounting team’s job to budget for that.

“That’s my top tip,” says Cox, “go back and talk to your people and try to get them to talk to each other.”

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Building a Valuable Schedule of Values

Get granular. If you are installing the windows in a five-story apartment building, think about the time it takes to haul windows up to the second, third, fourth, and fifth floor. How many times does a crew member have to come back down? If you have the same labor rate and time for each floor then you are going to lose money on one or more of those floors. After all, it takes more time for your team to get up and down, wait on the elevator, deliver material, or even just run back to the truck from the higher floors.

Get specific. Make sure your ability to invoice isn’t contingent on another contractor’s performance. If your plumbing company is laying underground or foundational piping and the original Schedule of Values defines “complete” as “Capped & Sealed,” your invoice might very well be reliant on the concrete pour schedule. Align your Schedule of Values as close to your job schedule as possible, so you get paid for the actual work you did during that application period (i.e. month).

Get confident. Just like your bid, you need to be able to show your work when you submit a Schedule of Values and it needs to be easily verified as complete so you can get PAID. Leave as little room for subjective interpretation on the line items as possible. Be thinking, “To do a great job I need my money to be paid to me in order to maintain the quality work you expect of my company.”

Be Careful Where You Put Your Margin

Are you putting most of your project’s margin in material line items? It seems like an easy win, especially if you can negotiate good supplier terms.

Unless something goes wrong, like the cost of material goes up, or materials get cut from the job, or the General Contractor decides to buy the materials themselves.

Don’t leave your profit margin up to chance! If you put your profit margin in certain line items and remove it from others, then you need to make SURE the overall margin you intend to make is still there when you invoice.

It’s construction; a lot can go wrong, and at least one thing definitely will. You need to make sure that you are able to get some profit billed into every invoice it’s the life blood of your business.

Also, if you are putting your margin in certain line items, you better let your Project Manager know. They need to be aware of how that next materials order, or any Change Orders they receive, will affect the margin on the job.

How else do you spread your margin? You could add a percentage to every line item, or you could boldly list it in your bid. This is a power move. It says to the GC, “I know what my company is worth and what it takes to do the work we do.”

If that route feels a little too bold, take a look at your project’s Cash Flow Projection (you have one, right?) and spread your margin across line items so that your project cash flows itself faster and stays profitable throughout.

Download our Project Cash Flow Tracker Tool

Don’t forget the instructions!

Complete Your Schedule of Values with Cash in Mind

How would you do the job if money were no object? It’s not just a daydream; it’s the first question you should ask when creating your bid and your Construction Schedule of Values. If money was no issue would you run the schedule of the job differently and would it allow you to make more money by saving time and being more efficient?

It’s not just a matter of WHAT your profit margin is but WHEN you make it. If your margin is too thin or locked up in retainage, you’re impairing your team’s ability to perform at their peak and limiting your company’s ability to grow, or worse you may even be putting your company in jeopardy by limiting the free cash flow to the overall business needs.

What would the project’s cash flow need to look like to increase efficiency in the project? What would it take for you to start the job with materials on hand and a full-size crew? What would two weeks of saved labor costs do to your bottom dollar?

It can make a REAL difference. Take the 5 minutes and watch this video to see what we mean.

You can do this, too. All it takes is asking the right questions.

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Be Early to Bid.

The first tip is to simply get a head-start on your competition. Keep an eye on bid platforms like BidClerk and ConstructConnect.

Rushing to throw together a bid just to be FIRST is a good idea poorly executed. Before you start watching bid platforms, optimize your bid strategy and polish your bid template so when opportunity strikes you are ready to grab it. A good bid template should include categories for all things that matter on a specific job and include the correct way to allocate overhead and profit. It should follow a specific and repeatable process to produce an outcome you can rely on.

Bidding first doesn’t mean you bid on everything. We’ll talk more about that in a moment.

Do the Homework.

First, the legwork. The more information you have before submit your bid, the smarter your bid will be. Study those drawings, specs, and plans. Make sure you see any potential problem areas and account for them in your bid. If something is designed in a way it can’t be built or will be very problematic make sure you make note of it in your bid. As part of your construction bidding process, make time to identify the decision-makers. If you are new to the GC, introduce yourself and your company. People want to do business with people they know and trust; building a relationship with the GC will help your company’s growth whether you win this particular bid or not. Include for the GC a list of references, jobs completed, and pictures of what you have done. This goes a long way and the attention to detail you show in your bid will be a great indicator of what they can expect from you if awarded the job.

Show Your Value in Your Bid.

If we only gave one construction bidding tip it would be this: BE CONFIDENT!

Confidence means highlighting your company’s expertise. You want to prove to the general contractor that your team, under your leadership, is by far the best answer to their need. Showcase your history and reputation too, and any special differentiators that a GC will care about. For example, REAL MF’er and Alphapex owner Charles Covey is proud that the Texas-based waterproofing company was the first large subcontractor in the United States to train 100% of its field staff with OSHA 30 certification. That’s a huge differentiator for general contractors and he definitely highlights that on his bid.

Showing your value also means showing WHY your bid numbers are what they are. Don’t be afraid to list out in a letter or even just simple bullet points what that GC / Project Mgr. can expect from you and your team if awarded.

Bid on Performance, Not Price.

When contractors are ready to grow their business, many decide to lower their bid price in order to win more bids. Unless your profit margin is so exceptionally large that it is unreasonable, don’t sacrifice your margin for bid wins. The GC cares about the price of your bid only once they KNOW you can perform. Performance and trust are the key for the GC and a smart bid focuses on performance way more than the price.

Far more common is that your profit margin is barely enough to support the project, let alone fuel any potential growth. Cutting margin to win a project is undercutting your chances for success on the project and crushing any chance for growth. Don’t forget – it’s about growing your business not winning one job!

Your first action item for smarter bids, then, is to know what your profit margin needs to be. Next, figure out your win rate. If you win 10% of the jobs you bid at a profit margin of 20%, don’t lower your margin. Bid MORE jobs at the same margin!

The additional jobs you win should fuel your growth strategy.

This strategy relies on confidence, as we mentioned earlier. You need to confidently and clearly show WHY your costs are what they are and how your team’s special blend of skills, experience, and culture are worth your bid price.

Bid More, but Don’t Bid on Everything.

Bidding on jobs with problematic schedules, very little room for profit, or that are being handled by a GC with a reputation for late payments, can actually cripple your growth plans. Don’t take on busy work that has your team spinning its wheels. Taking too much risk for one job is not worth ruining your business or setting it back a year.

This is where the first two tips come in handy. With a solid bid template and bid strategy in place, you can use bidding platforms to see the projects first and produce solid, performance-driven bids faster than the competition.

Better Construction Bidding is Part of Your Growth Strategy

Construction bidding isn’t just about winning; it’s about what that win means for your company. When it comes to growth, that means bidding more and bidding smarter so that you can continue to perform the excellent work you’ve built your reputation on AND power the growth goals you set for your company.

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Start New Projects the Right Way

One of the biggest challenges commercial construction subcontractors face is the cost of starting new work. Thirty days before you submit your first pay app, your company will have to pay for labor, materials, supplies, equipment, bonding, insurance, and other costs. If you are paid on time, you still wouldn’t recoup any of those expenses for another thirty days. Knowing the issue with slow payments in construction, it is safe to assume you will wait even longer than that.

The upfront cost of new work requires you and your team to make some hard decisions about labor, materials, and other expenses. There is a better way — project cash flow management.

Download Our Free Cash Flow Tracker

Don’t forget the instructions.

Manage the cash sources and uses of each project just like you would your overall business. Estimate the project’s capital cycle as part of your bidding process to determine exactly how much cash you will need on hand to start a project with the optimal amount of workers, materials, and so on.

Estimating project cash flow can also help you make a better decision about HOW you will finance the start-up costs. If you are not using free capital (cash on hand not reserved for other expenses), you can research your best financial solution. Whether you choose a bank line of credit or a commercial loan product like ours, you can build the cost of financing into your bid.

And whatever you choose to finance new work, PLEASE read this before choosing a Merchant Cash Advance.

Avoid Delays with Good Cash Flow Management

The majority of delays in construction are due to cash flow. Can’t fund payroll? That’s a cash flow problem. Not enough funds to rent the Big Crane? Cash flow problem. Hurricane rips through town and destroys the site? Okay, that one is not a cash flow problem.

Forecasting your project’s weekly cash flow will help you spot the “danger zones” — the weeks cash is tight, your nervous about making payroll, and/or you spend the week chasing down people that owe you money. Spotting those danger zones in advance allows you to proactively manage them before they are a problem and gives you the chance to come up with solutions in a much more controlled and less urgent manner. There are lots of proactive solutions: explore your financing options, negotiate different terms with your suppliers, or discuss the schedule with your General Contractor.

That’s right — talk to your General Contractor. About money. Seriously. Listen, your GC wants you to do your best work so they have a successful project. You share a common goal. Bring an issue to them proactively, with an idea of how to solve it, and they are more likely to thank you than judge you. Bring them the same problem when it is in the middle of the job and it’s a different story.

And if they give you grief, send them our way.

Do More Work and Do it Better

Cash flow management allows you to make strategic decisions regarding your company. Where do you want to be in a year? Data will not only show you if you need to make changes in the company, such as reducing overhead, but also which types of jobs are most profitable for your company and should be on your target list for growth.

With good project cash flow management, you’ll also know you can take on those new projects, how much cash you’ll need to do them right, and how you will finance those expenses. And that may be the greatest benefit of cash flow management — the confidence that your company is secure, successful, and growing.

Ready to change the way your team performs? Answer 3 questions to start your application today!

What are Core Values?

Core values are not a “soft skill” marketing exercise. They are the essential principles of your organization; they are the beliefs that you will use to guide ALL company decisions. Your values should dictate the behavior of your team and leadership. Think of your corporate core values like the values you keep at home and instill in your children. In fact, your company’s values need to start with YOUR values. You are the head of this “family,” and it is up to YOU — your actions, decisions, and even the words you use to communicate — to lead through example.

Think about the values you instill at home. If you say to your kids, “We tell the truth in this house, always,” then honesty might be one of your core values. If you believe in the “pay it forward” philosophy at home, you can extend that altruism and generosity into your company’s culture.

You need to decide what you, ultimately, stand for, and what you will NOT stand for. Those are your core values. They should grow to become the values of your company.

One more thing about core values — you need team buy-in. Which means, they need to look at the core values you’ve laid out and say, “Yes, this sounds like how we operate” or “Yes, this is something I want to stand for and be a part of.” If your core values aren’t true to you, or if they don’t extend to how you manage your team and your business, your team won’t believe in them and they will become empty, meaningless marketing jargon.

Take a deep breath, this part may be difficult. It is possible, even likely, that not every member of your current team will embrace your core values. If you start a business with strong values from the beginning, you can hire a team directly aligned with those values. When you are introducing core values to an existing team, however, you need to be ready for the fact that not everyone will accept them. Some may choose to leave, or you may need to help them find a position with another company that is a better fit for them.

Core Values in Your Business Plan

Your core values are just that — the CORE of your company’s identity. They need to be the foundation of your business strategy, so it makes sense to include them in your business plan. Ideally, right at the beginning.

Don’t confuse your mission statement or vision statement with core values. Your mission statement is a statement of what your company already does. Your vision statement is a big, aspirational goal for your company. Core values dictate what your company will do, and what it won’t do, to achieve your mission and your vision.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few tips for writing corporate value statements:

Keep them short. Too many core values become confusing and hard to remember in moments of conflict or stress (when you need them most). Keep your list between three and five.
Keep them simple. If you need 300 words to explain a value, go back to the drawing board. Core values are convictions shared by you and the entire team. They should be easy to grasp and remember. Think in bullet points, not paragraphs.
Keep them specific. Your core values should be more than one generic word. Spell out exactly what the value means to your organization, in clear, simple language.

As you construct the rest of your business plan, keep your values at the front of your mind. If one of your core values is “We give, serve, and love our community” then you should consider baking into your business plan a community outreach model. If one of your values is “We believe work and fun in equal measure delivers great results” then you should keep in mind culture initiatives as you build out your company’s practices and operations.

Manufacturing Workers Elbow Bump

The Benefit of Corporate Values

Your corporate values will make or break your reputation. People will want to work with you, and FOR you, if they know your values are more than lip-service. In construction and manufacturing especially, business success is built through strong relationships.

It is easy to look around and think, “Values don’t matter. PRICE matters.” Don’t be fooled by this short-term thinking. If you engage in unethical practices to win business, or sacrifice quality to cut costs, your TRUE values will show themselves, your reputation will be built on those actions, and your customers will soon be looking for new partners.

Ethics matter. Values matter. Relationships matter. What you say matters. A low-price is only attractive until you see what it gets you.

You build your reputation by setting an expectation and living up to it. Share your core values with prospective clients and new team members so they know what to expect from your company. Then, do the work to meet those expectations. Let’s say you are a manufacturing company and “Accountability” and “Honesty” are two of your corporate values. Your customers should expect that your team owns every project from start to finish, and that they communicate transparently regarding price, schedule, changes, or challenges. Do that successfully, and you will build a reputation for being a manufacturing partner customers can count on and trust.

Herb Keller, the CEO of Southwest Airlines, explained the relationship between core values and business success like this, “We always felt that people should be treated right as a matter of morality. Then, incidentally, that turned out to be good business too. … We said we want to really take care of these people, we want to honor them and we love them as individuals. Now that induces the kind of reciprocal trust and diligent effort that made us successful. But the motivation was not strategy, it was core values.”

Your core values should be a public promise to everyone impacted by your company — customers, employees, partners, vendors, community, and so on. Live up to that promise and your company will reap the rewards of business done right.

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Tips to Increase Construction Profit Margins

Know Your Actual Profit Margin

Let’s start with the basics: you need a system to accurately calculate your expected profit margins before you can start to improve them. You also need to know which types of jobs resulted in high profit margins, and which nibbled away your profit to crumbs.

One of the key data points in estimating profit margin is overhead, which leads us to Tip #2.

Adjust for Actual Overhead in the Bid

This is probably one of the simplest tips to increase your profit margin. Contractors who guess at their overhead costs are operating at a disadvantage right from the start. A 2019 study from the Journal of Building Engineering revealed that 44% of the 2700 projects examined actually experienced a loss after adjusting for overhead. This is just not acceptable and should not happen. Overhead costs (insurance, rent, utilities, staff salaries, etc…)are all real costs just like labor and materials – they should never be left out or a “best guess.”

Hire a CPA or Controller or BOTH

Do you know your company’s Gross Profit, Operating Profit, Pre-tax Profit, and Net Profit? Do you have a breakdown of historical job costs and margins? Do you currently run an AR Aging Report to know which customers you absolutely have to track down and get their accounts squared? Do you have a daily cash report that shows you precisely how much cash you have and what it needs to be used for? A CPA can help with ALL of that.

In construction, you should also have a CPA that knows construction – there are plenty of them out there and using one that knows your industry, works with customers already in the space, and how to help you manage through it is critical.

Bid More, Bid Smarter

While working jobs just to have revenue coming in at the expense of profitability is a bad idea, if you want to consistently earn a certain profit margin on every job you are going to have bid more jobs. Utilizing a service like ConstructConnect can give you access to more jobs in your area, as well as estimating tools and streamlined bidding dashboards.

Bidding more jobs has an additional cost associated, and a service like ConstructConnect can also help you lower your cost to bid, which can also help increase your profit margin.

Work from a Place of Abundance

This is a mindset shift, not a tactical strategy. Earlier in this article, we asked if a 5% profit margin was enough to support your team throughout a project. Our CEO calls this “working from a place of scarcity.” When you work from a place of scarcity, you feel stress. Your team feels stress. The GC probably feels your stress, too. You can’t truly do you best work, because you are operating at a disadvantage.

Here’s the shift: Operate from a place of abundance. Know the baseline profit margin you MUST earn in order to complete a project the RIGHT way. Then, bid on more of those jobs. Don’t be afraid to have a higher price than competitors. You may not win them all, and that is okay. You will be focused on performance, not price, and the results will show in your work. And over time as you execute those jobs and finish them those same results will show up in your bank account and your stress level!

Make Performance Your One KPI

Nothing should matter as much as performance. To create greater accountability within your team, link financial incentives to project goals. Empower your team leaders to own the performance on the entire PROJECT, spotting potential efficiencies as well future issues in advance, and bringing them to the GC. Not only will the project go more smoothly, but you will be creating a legacy of trust, accountability, and great work. That reputation alone will bring you more business than any other single thing you do.

Know Your Financing Options

Most subcontractors struggle to cover the upfront costs associated with new work. Before you jump on a Merchant Cash Advance or take out a personal loan, research all of your available options for financing. This research should take place BEFORE you win the contract, so you can absorb the cost of financing into your bid and preserve your profit margin. Not all money is the same and not all costs are the same – structure of the loan, the amount, how you use it and what you can use it on all matter!

Construction profit margins are notoriously low compared to other industries, and experts suggest they are going to drop lower before they get better. Savvy contractors will weather the downturn by knowing what they absolutely have to make on each job in order to survive, and then ensuring they get it every time.

Go get paid.

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Growth is great, but growth without cash flow to support it can actually be a killing blow to your business. Sacrificing profitability for growth is like digging a grave and thinking you are building a castle. You’re not, and eventually you’re going to get buried.

You need a cash flow plan that covers your present needs and your growth goals.

Growth can be a killer

Uncontrolled growth is one of the top reasons contractor businesses fail. In the race to win more bids and execute on those contracts, well-intentioned business owners push their company over a cash flow cliff. Growth is critical to long-term success, but if you are bidding too low on projects just to win them and “grow,” you are doing more harm than help to your company.

Taking on projects in a new geographic region or that involve work your team is unfamiliar with is exciting. It is also a potential profitability nightmare. Without the cash to cover the costs of setting up your operation somewhere new (including potentially increased supplier costs and transportation or even lodging for labor), you could find yourself working at a loss.

Profitability and growth have to go hand-in-hand. That means building out cash flow plans for every project to ensure each job will eventually sustain itself and close out with a profit for you.

Why cash flow management is critical to growth

Cash flow is also in that list of construction contracting business killers. Cash flow in construction is complex—with high costs around new work, protracted payment schedules, and a constant cross-stream of money in and money out as pay apps are approved and vendors are paid. A lot of contractors compound the issue by running all of their cash through one checking account and not implementing a defined, 13-week cash budget. You have to know where your sources are coming from, and what expenses or uses of cash are expected each week. Otherwise, it is nearly impossible to know how much free cash flow (funds not earmarked for another expense) you have on hand at any one time. And if you don’t know how much you have, it is even harder to know how much you will need in the future.

If you don’t already have an accountant, hire a CPA before you launch a growth phase.

You need a cash flow plan for your business’ regular operations, for every project, and as part of your growth strategy. It’s the only way you will be able to see where you are now, where you want to go, and how to get there.

Building a cash flow plan for growth

Uncontrolled growth and poor cash flow are a result of inadequate planning. To achieve the growth goals you set out, you need a strategy that includes a financial plan that covers the cost of the growth.

Leverage all of your options when building your financial plan for growth. Is there overhead that can be reduced? Can you negotiate better terms with suppliers? Every dollar you can save is a dollar you don’t have to cover in your growth plan, making it that much easier to reach your goal.

One key mistake many contractors make is the desire to self-fund their growth. This is an important lesson successful business owners learn early — funding your growth by borrowing capital isn’t “bad debt,” it’s a smart investment.

Finally, analyze which types of jobs are best for your profitability. Target the GCs who offer those types of projects. Find your sweet spot and dig at it until you strike gold.

Growth can’t be avoided—in business you are either growing or dying. Grow with a cash flow plan that supports you, your team, and your clients, and you can grow with confidence. You can also live with a lot less stress too – growing your business does not have to be so stressful you can’t sleep or hurts you mentally.

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Finding Your Leadership Purpose

When pressed to define their purpose, many executives and business leaders will say something akin to, “To ensure my team’s success” or “To best activate strategies that result in achieving our planned objectives and goals.”

Those are NOT your purpose. They are important aspects of the role, but they are not WHY you get up in the morning and go to work. This is especially true if you are the owner of a small business. You didn’t decide one day, “I’m going to start a textile manufacturing company so I can achieve planned objectives.”

You also didn’t start your business just to make money. You did it for something BIGGER than that. To feed your family, to make your parents proud, to stay out of trouble, to offer a better product to customers or a better work environment for your employees. Start here. WHY you started your business is a great place to mine for leadership purpose. If you fell into your business on accident or by circumstance then why did you stay in it?

Now, what about that “Why” energized you enough to go through the challenges of starting and running a small business? What fed your fire, kept you going when times got tough? Was it offering a job to people who deserved a second chance? Was it watching your kids’ college fund steadily growing? Or was it opportunities to clean up and beautify neighborhoods in your small town?

These exercises will help you get to the heart of your purpose as a business leader.

Create a Purpose-Driven Leader Statement

There is an undeniable psychological impact to writing something down. When you know your leadership purpose, give it the weight it deserves by writing it down. Don’t smother your leadership purpose in business-speak. This isn’t a company Mission Statement; this is your Leadership Manifesto.

According to Harvard Business Review, Dolf van den Brink, the CEO of Heineken USA, declared his purpose statement as: To be the wuxia master who saves the kingdom.

He’s a big kung fu movie fan. He is also a fan of taking action in high-risk situations. This kind of dramatic purpose statement feeds your energy to do the hard work your role requires, whether that is the risk-taking action hero or the wise, diplomatic team-builder.

After you have written your purpose statement, describe how that purpose will help your company succeed. Set goals that utilize your purpose and move your company forward. Having a roadmap will help you harness the power of your purpose and transform it into meaningful action.

Now you know your value as a purpose-driven leader in your organization. The next step is to expand that purpose into an Organizational Purpose Statement. More on that soon!

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Construction has a major skilled labor problem. Working with registered apprenticeships or creating a private apprenticeship program can help your company fill your talent pipeline with skilled workers ready to go to work for YOU!

In this episode of Built for Growth, Kyesha Robinson and Natasha Sherwood share how building apprenticeships, mentoring, and education into your company’s business plan can dramatically increase your team’s productivity, improve morale, and help your company reach its goals for growth.

Full Transcript Below

Scott Peper 0:34
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome. I’m so glad to bring you guys our newest episode of built for growth. I have two great guests here with me today. First is Keisha Robinson. She is the managing officer of the Workforce Innovation at Pinellas Technical College. And Natasha Sherwood, Executive Director for independent electrical contractors of Florida on the West Coast chapter. Both of you welcome. It’s great to see you guys.

Natasha Sherwood 1:00
Thank you.

Kyesha Robinson 1:01
Well, thank you. So happy to be here. A really important topic and I’m so grateful that one of our partners, Miss Sherwood was able to be here and represent every day.

Scott Peper 1:10
I think for the audience and the people that are here would be great if you guys can maybe take two or three minutes and just explain a little bit about each of your organization. Who you are how you got into it maybe a little bit about this, the specifics of the organization act and things that are happening now. And of course, how you guys know each other too. And then we start diving in some of the topics. Sure, I’ll let you guys arm wrestle over who goes first, but don’t make me pick.

Natasha Sherwood 1:33
Why don’t you go first because then you can go in and we’ll talk about our partnership for the end.

Kyesha Robinson 1:38
Yes. Again, my name is Kyesha Robinson and I am the managing Officer of Workforce Innovation. pretty long title. But the work that we do in this department is marketing and advertising. And then intentional recruitment of individuals who are interested in or may not even know about the opportunities that await for them in technical and tradition of vocational trade. There are two campuses that this department serves with Pinellas Technical College. One is in Clearwater, the other is in St. Petersburg. At this point, we have over 50 different career technical education programs that we serve, that we offer to the community, as well as a host of apprenticeship opportunities that we have with our employer partners. And we also enter into strategic partnerships with different components in different parts of the community and business industry as needed. So again, very happy to be here and look forward to being a part of the discussion. And having Miss Sherwood, one of our partners with IEC to talk more about our relationship as well.

Natasha Sherwood 2:43
My name is Natasha Sherwood and I’m the executive director, as he said of IEC. Yeah, we don’t do the whole long name either. It’s way too long. And so I

Scott Peper 2:52
I already butchered that one.

Natasha Sherwood 2:54
Yeah, it’s okay. I do too, and is an association. It’s a national organization. And we are the Florida West Coast chapter. And we are pretty much the entire state from Tallahassee across the Jacksonville down. I’m except for about five counties on the east coast. I’m in South East Florida. And but we do things for all of our contractors. So they’re all independent contractors across the state. But the largest portion that we do is our apprenticeship program, and PTC is one of our largest partners. So we have over 400 apprentices each year across the state from all the way in Tallahassee, Tallahassee Community College, HCC and Reach Tech in, Travis tech and Polk marchman. Tech in Pasco. And right down the street at Pinellas Technical College, and clear water, we have almost 150 students and right there in Clearwater, and it’s a four year program that I want the greatest part. So if I get into it, if the students don’t pay anything to tuition, it’s done all through their partners, and their contractors. So PTC helps fund this amazing for your education for them and their contractor employer. And these students graduate in four years, and with making more than most of us make, and skills that are as we’ve all learned, essential, the new word 2020, we all know what essential is now, and they go on to make some really great careers for themselves. And so it’s been a really neat, I’ve only been here about a year and it is one of my new found passions. I was a principal before. So this is just a continuing and passion of mine is that education for students. And like he said in areas that sometimes students don’t realize is an option.

Scott Peper 4:22
Really cool. You know, I’m coming from the other side of it talking to actual clients of ours that own their own subcontracting companies, many electrical companies, but even all the other trades. And one of their biggest problems is they do not these skilled labor, they just have a real issue finding not only labor, but good labor, and even sometimes as one of my clients is Scott at this point. Yes, I love good labor, but I just need labor. And if someone’s not trained or educated, at least if they are willing and able and capable, I will train them or we’ll find some training for him. How do you guys feel the role of apprenticeship programs like this has either evolved or changed or will need to change to meet today’s kind of need and world or is it similar?

Natasha Sherwood 5:06
I think it definitely will. Um, it’s definitely grown just in the time I’ve been here. But prior to that I was working with a local chamber on the lack of skilled labor, specifically in the Tampa Bay metro area and how low it was. And it’s just an amplified by here we are constantly one of the services we offer our members is trying to find them people to hire. And as you mentioned, they’d love to find a journeyman electrician, that is a unicorn, what they would rather find what they’re happy to find is someone that’s willing to work and learn and just yesterday, and I had a gentleman who’s right I helped him with a resume who was a former yoga studio owner, and he wanted to get into something that was essential. He had a family and something he could do work with and say we have a guy with a business degree who owned a yoga studio going into the electrical industry because it’s consistent and but we also have kids right out of high school. And so the apprentice program I think in general will grow. And I think, obviously, our governor has put a really high priority on it with the pathways to career grant. And and also, I think what you’ll start seeing is these pre apprenticeship programs growing and trying to really work with students in high schools to be able to provide this as an option. And I think that’s one of the biggest things we see is that really, our students being presented the option of career and technical education, and that a four year college degree, not only is it not necessary, it’s not the right path for everyone. And not just kids that come times used to think that career technical education was if you couldn’t get into college, but I think what I saw as a high school principal as well as now, it could be for the valedictorian who loves doing hands on and really wants to go into an industry where you can make $100,000 a year with zero debt, you know, so I think that we will continue to see it grow because of finances because of 2020. And because of that lack of skilled labor is so huge, we’ve just lost a whole era of that skilled labor of that has retired and we have more electricians retire every day than we can replace.

Scott Peper 6:42
Kyesha, are you seeing similar issues from on your end? In your the specific apprenticeship program? Have you seen enrollment or bigger changes? Is there anything that’s gone on in the actual facility that’s been helpful or harmful?

Kyesha Robinson 6:57
Absolutely. And Miss Sherwood made a number of wonderful points that we all are experiencing and observing here in technical education as well. So we do know that we have an ageing workforce, and individuals within those faithful employees for all those years are entering or nearing retirement. And that graph that gap, there is an ever increasing, there’s a decrease in employment in some sectors of industry. Not only does that mean that the labor capital is leaving, but that institutional knowledge is being lost along with it. So we’ll talk about that unicorn. We also know that there are some younger generations that are more likely and more readily transition from one opportunity to the next in favor of a host of conditions that best suit their personal needs. And so individuals are not always maintaining long relationships with some employers, because they take advantage of the opportunity to find what best suits what works for them. And so this can make it very difficult for industries to acquire and maintain relationships with employees. And with all of that changing happening, our industries are continuing to expand and grow, there is no decrease in demand for electricians, for example, or in building construction. So these are the types of situations that make it critical for all companies to really consider having some kind of apprenticeship program. apprenticeships are a tool that employers can use to take advantage of assets that they already have. And then to attract some that they need. Having an apprenticeship program demonstrates to others that you have a culture that believes in investing in its own personnel. And I think it apprenticeships support sustainability and growth. So by having these apprenticeship programs, you are able to attract these new employees that have some wonderful entry level skills to get themselves in the door. And then you can provide some additional years of training that will make them best suited to meet whatever your needs are to make their to broaden their abilities and to improve their skills and make them more useful in in your industry. So I think that as companies notice more shifts, more trends and changes in technologies that affect their industry, they’ll be even more willing to adopt a apprenticeship relationship between themselves and some post secondary institution that’s most convenient for them. And I think it helps companies when they have apprenticeships, because instead of looking externally, they can look down their own channels and into their own departments to identify apprenticeship graduates at some point, who are more than ready to fill some of their workforce needs.

Scott Peper 9:22
So if you know I’m thinking about it from a business owner, looking what we talked about, kind of like one of our clients, they have this issue and they need, they need new labor and they say, you know what, I love this apprenticeship program, but what do I do? How do I start glad to start it myself? So I find someone to partner with like you guys. And you know, here in Florida, it’s great for all of our local customers, they can go right to you, but we see clients all over the country. So if I was a business owner and talking to you guys, how do I start an apprenticeship program? Is that a large investment on my part? Is it better just a you know there’s registered apprenticeship programs And unregistered. Is that does that matter? Should I just partner with one of you guys and say, Hey, here it is, and I have a budget for and please you train my folks or help me train people. How does that work?

Kyesha Robinson 10:06
Well, I’d say we welcome both me Sure, we will welcome anyone that wants to partner with us to develop an apprenticeship on their own. So contacting your local Technical College, or your local trade or professional organization Association, would probably be a great first step for anyone who’s interested in establishing an apprenticeship with their company or organization. I mean, there’s no need to recreate the wheel, when there’s something that you can join and be a part of that already exists, or has a model or template that can be adjusted to fit whatever your needs of our training or apprenticeship may actually be. So I would recommend that a person kind of start there with their local Technical College trees or associate professional or trade association, the they’re also the Department of Education, you know, this is a institution that every state has. So for us is the Florida Department of Education. And if you want more information, maybe you don’t even know where to start with your local organizations, maybe just reach out to that state level. Everyone has a website, ours is FL do E. And by going to that website, I know that they will definitely have information on apprenticeships, and how to be a part of one that is registered by going through that channel.

Natasha Sherwood 11:22
And yeah, it’s very similar. So obviously, if you’re an electrician in Florida, we’d love to love to help you out. But we also are national organization. So apprenticeships across the country are differently. And so the Department of Labor nationally kind of oversees apprenticeships, but each state has plenty of their own rules. So I know Oregon is way different than Texas is way different than Florida is even different than Georgia. And so individual states are going to have a few different rules. In some places it falls under Doa Department of Education like it does for us. Some places, it’s Department of Labor, some place has workforce. So I would say that either starting with those technical colleges or community colleges in the area, that’s usually where the programs already exist, Oregon going to your department of labor, education, and is a great place to start. And I would say there are some benefits if you’re going to, you know, a technical college or to an association that already has one because a lot of the and just to like minutiae, the details are already set up the accreditation, the certifications of it, the guidelines. And but that being said, one of our one of our members is does electrical work, but also does all kinds of other stuff. They’re a general contractor, and similar. They do welding and so they came to me and they said, Do you all do welding? I’m like, No, we do electrical, but let me call and actually called PTC. And I called one of the members of our PTC, do you have a welding program? They said, Absolutely, we have a welding program, here’s the person’s name for welding program. So um, I mean, I would just reach out to the resources that you have. And last week, I had a major home national home builder in my office saying we don’t have enough, my subs don’t have enough people. So I can’t get my houses built because they can’t get the drywall up and the concrete and I said, Okay, I don’t do drywall on concrete. But let’s find out who does. So together, we reached out and we reached out to PTC into HCC, we reached out to some associations that even we’re a member of. So I build in some other places to find those resources. And I think what we found is that everybody’s willing to help each other because my, my electricians can’t get done. If the walls aren’t done, the walls can’t get done. If my electricians don’t get done. They can’t get it done. If the, you know, the framing is not put up. So everybody realizes that it is a group project, you know, it’s it is the group project from high school, if everybody doesn’t do their job, you don’t get the grade you wanted. And so it has become and I don’t know if the whole 2020 COVID. We’re all back at home zooming. But I will tell you, it’s been interesting. And maybe it’s the growth but we have worked really well crossing kind of borders. And so mptc organized a lot of it, but sometimes it’s been ACC or the Home Builders group, sit down in a room and figure out how do we help because there just aren’t enough bodies that we can find right now. So the best way is with how to service them and work together. And if electricity is not right for someone, but they really do like a trade. I can call up one of my contacts at one of my locations and say okay, let’s get them in somewhere. They love this program. And so we kind of grown up but then we’re right now we’re trying to grow down like we’re working with high schools and middle schools where they’re starting to see those ideas because if you wait to their senior year it’s not necessarily been a something that’s been proposed to them or they’ve considered so um, I’d say though this step going back to your question apprenticeships is really do reach out to your I think probably your first step easiest is those local community colleges or technical colleges or your association. So whether it’s home builders or you know, general contractors, ABC IEC, there’s a different letter combination for everybody.

Scott Peper 14:08
I think this may seem like a silly question, but is there a difference between a registered apprenticeship program and a non-registered one.

Natasha Sherwood 14:14
And there are some differences in it and it’s different in each state. And I know there are some different unregistered ones, which is more of a training and for ours is registered because it leads to the journeyman certificate. And based on the hours in the apprenticeship program, if you were just an electrician you entered, you didn’t go through an apprentice program, you have to do 12,000 documented hours of on the job training. So it’s 12,000 hours that are documented through your before you can take the journeyman license exam as an apprentice because all of our everything’s gone through and certified. We’ve got all of our courses in kind of guidelines set through the prime education, the students only have to have 8000 hours. So they finish our course we certified they’ve gone through our course, they do 8000 hours and we document their oj when they turn it in, we document it and keep it. So give or take that saving you 4000 hours, which is two or so years of labor where you can get your journeyman license. So in the state of Florida, you know, those are those specifics. But I also know someone who runs a great crane, you know, training individuals to be crane operators, which again, you don’t think of it like that doesn’t cross your mind, like in kindergarten, what great, what do I want to be I want to be a crane operator when I grow up. But they make great money. I told them, I do have a first grader and I told him he should be an electrician or crane operator. Because he gets math and he likes messing up things with his hands. And there’s isn’t a registered one because there’s not a registered one with the state yet they are moving that way. But we need them. They’re still hiring them. There’s just not a registration for it yet. So those are some of the main differences. I and those are, it’s all I know Mayan probably knows a little bit more than I do from a larger standpoint on that.

Kyesha Robinson 15:31
I would have to agree with what your observations were about registered apprenticeships, because that is the direction that PTC has chosen to go in, especially because we are associated with the Pinellas County school system. So we definitely offer registered apprenticeships to individuals, we pride ourselves on making sure that whatever persons in their programs, which is something that translate translates to industry, it is in alignment with industry standards, so that whatever certification or license they walk away with is something that’s nationally recognized to it when possible when applicable. And so all of our apprenticeships would be registered.

Natasha Sherwood 16:10
I think we’ll see more apprentice programs pop up, that’ll take that time to get in because I do I know, PTC is even working on some innovative apprenticeship programs for teachers. So where you don’t come in through the, you know, not the same typical four year education six year education college that we’ve seen for so long. And I know they’re being innovative. And I mean, California has like apprenticeship programs for like lawyers and stuff. I mean, like coming into new ways where we will learn, and we will learn in a more practical mindset. You know, I went to college for way too many years. I’m not doing anything that has to do with anything in my degree. And I think we will more Yeah, you know, like, I mean, my mom will probably hate this if she sees this. And but I think we will see more of that as people start to realize what they want to do. And there may be different paths. I mean, as a technical world evolves, and skilled labor becomes more important. I think we’ll see apprenticeships rise.

Scott Peper 16:54
Yeah, well, it’s funny how conversations got Evan flow, because I’ve had hearing him here as you guys talk, I’m hearing things I’ve been having conversations before I’m hearing from clients, I’m hearing from referral partners of ours or other folks that are working in and around the construction industry, even general contractor clients and equipment rental companies that are selling into this this space. And they talk a lot about apprenticeship programs and mentorship programs. And I need to start a mentorship programs like work with the younger businesses, not by age, but just by maybe experience I can help graduate these people that are really, really good, but they’re that they do the size jobs and I want to give them a job that’s five times the size. What do you guys are what is your experience or opinions between mentorship and apprenticeship programs? And how are they different and when do they need to overlap and I guess

Natasha Sherwood 17:31
You’re talking about students that are employees that go from a smaller job to a large job, we have an apprentice who’s a fourth year apprentice, he’s and you know, a year ago is an apprentice now he’s doing a huge hospital site and his hospital, just the site he was on just won a national award. So because he’s been mentored and because they’ve moved through those steps, and I think that’s part of that, and what part of what we do as a continuing education part of it. So it’s that mentorship becomes a personal aspect of it that maybe isn’t written down so much. It’s just more part of the culture. I also see the mentor ship company to company. So some of our larger, more established companies, I have seen them invite in contractors that are smaller or newer, or go out and tell them and share best practices. And so there’s that mentorship aspect that I think is important. And again, we’re seeing trades, start to share that and even internally, so like our companies sometimes bid against each other on large jobs or even small jobs. But there’s still trying to help each other best practices because as they better the industry as a whole. And as they mentor other corporations to follow those cultures. I think the industry as a whole begins to be able to hire and it goes into the workforce is the better the industry is the better reputation it has, the more everybody can find better employees, you know, and let’s be honest part of it is so that mom and dad when the kids in high school and who says I want to go into skilled labor doesn’t go once. College and you know, you’re like, Okay, great. $30 an hour in four years and zero debt. Sounds good to me because I have a senior going to college and it’s expensive, you know, and I’m like, Sure you don’t wanna be an electrician, you know, you’re a female, you’d be like right up there and like no time flat. So I’m in the mentorship is a large portion of that.

Scott Peper 18:55
Um, it’s funny because we have a, we have a two we have two series. This is our built for growth series, which really brings in different topics. And then we sort of have what we call a little pun on our names. You can see my my head, the mF, or as we call them, real mF ers and obviously, it’s upon on mobilization funding, but they come on and there are clients and there are other folks that are in the construction world. The two folks in particular came in they’ve talked about apprenticeship and mentorship. One gentleman named Charles Covey, he talks about this unicorn in his business, and he does waterproofing, and he’s like there is no, there’s really not a lot of good apprenticeship programs. So he has to focus a ton on training and build that in within. He says I one of the things he does is he has an apprenticeship program training, but then he immediately puts them with a mentor or someone that’s at a senior level and experience on the job together. And what they do is they kind of unfold and move together. And I said, Well, that’s interesting. Do you have enough of those? He goes, Well, no, I have essentially one unicorn who knows everything about everything, no matter what every problem, all that we’re trying to extract as much information out of that person’s brain before they leave or before they retire. And he’s like, they just don’t have this education level anymore. So he’s had to build this whole thing around these unicorns and he talked about that. Is there anybody? Do you feel it’s the same in the electrical world or other trades? And how do you guys kind of utilize your programs of find that carnal knowledge?

Kyesha Robinson 20:08
Right. And I know that mentoring is for some companies in closer reach, easier to achieve than the investment that apprenticeships may require whether they are registered or not. But it’s something mentoring is something that everyone can implement if they are willing to commit the time to think about what mentoring would look like or is needed for their employees. And mentoring and cross departmental training or even a shadowing can better help people to understand. And I mean, employees that are understand the entire ecosystem, that is their company, which is all about eliminating the fact that there are some situations where there’s a few people who have quite a bit of institutional knowledge that just hadn’t been written down or hasn’t been shared. So mentoring and cross training can help to also expose some areas of opportunity within the company and how things can be done a little bit differently or better. When everyone again, understands the full ecosystem and understands what happens in their department, as well as what’s happening. And others. I mean, you’re certainly reducing risk by not having this small collective of individuals who are your only go to persons or certain tests, or when certain vendors need to be called upon or contacts that are needed. So I think also that having these mentoring relationships can give individuals the opportunity to invest in their the proliferation of their organization and program, because all the information can be in your head, it has to be shared, it needs to be written down in a way the systematic and organized and procedural. So not only is an investment in your employees, but it’s also an investment in yourself for in an abstract, you know, kind of way you don’t want for an emergent situation to arise. And that’s when you decide, well, maybe we should have had more than one unicorn in a company or any organization. And I think it also it helps employees to know that they’re dealing with a organization that sees value in them. And while there may or may not be an opportunity for them to move into a new position right away, they are seeing that they’re being invested in and so no matter what’s happening with that company, they’re more likely to soldier on to remain encouraged, remain supportive of the brand or that company so that they can continue to be an asset and then they are there when needed to perhaps step into some greater opportunities. They’ve had the opportunity to present themselves as wanting to know more and wanting to do more. So you don’t feel like as an a business owner, that you have to look outside of what you already have. You already have a good candidate pool that started to develop, if you’re willing to take a little bit more time and to impart some knowledge onto some new people,

Scott Peper 22:56
Hire and hire and fire based on your core values, and you’ll teach and train all the skills. And what I’m hearing you guys say that so resonates with me well is that this is really a, it’s a, not only is it a recruitment tool, but really keeps your people happy and whole and with you. And in a world where there’s not a lot of labor, doesn’t mean you’re entitled to have your own your labor that you do have, it means the people that do things, the best they’re going to get, they’re never going to have a labor issue, because they’re going to have all the best people. And people can be a lot of options in a small labor market is the employers really need to make sure their game is, is on point because one, that’s how you should run your business anyway. But number two, you’re going to lose people, they’re going to pick up a lot of options, and people are going to recruit, they’re going to go and more important, they’re going to stay where they’re taking care of and it’s they’re treated the best. And it’s not all about money. It’s a lot about education, it’s about values about what they stand for. It’s their their are they aligned with the thoughts and vision as I feel like it’s very transparent. And what I’m hearing you guys say is these two programs both have meant apprenticeship and mentorship. They tie into that really well. But in different places early on, apprenticeship may be really important. But mentorship is like the second wave of your education. But it’s also something to aspire to be. When you get to an organization I Well, you know, I want to be a mentor to the next wave. And it’s that progression is really, really valuable, I think.

Natasha Sherwood 24:06
Absolutely. I mean, and we have an apprentice of the year competition every year. So they take an academic test and then top 10 get to do a hands on test. And then the winner actually goes to a national competition and and I got to spend time with our young man this year But um, he said, we were sitting and chatting. He’s like, you know, you know, sure what I want to teach, do you think I could teach I’m like you were signed up the teacher, I made your class. He’s like, I just learned so much I remember. And he you know, I remember this instructor, I remember the very first class I went in, and everything he taught me, I know, I can do that for someone else. And I was like, spot on and you’re hired, he’s like, for real, like, for real, right? Like, right now you’re hired. And this is a kid who never missed four years never missed a class inner miss one of his apprentice class top in his class every year and finish wire off number one, so really could do anything will move up and his company quickly does not need the extra money for being an instructor but I definitely think that they realize that that culture and that those steps make a difference. And I do like the way you said it like apprenticeships kind of the first investment that the company makes into the student. And then the mentorships, kind of the secondary investment. And then the return is when they mentor someone else, it’s kind of the repayment of that investment. And so it makes like a nice, you know, good circle going. And I do think that’s how you keep you know, I have one company that I rarely see, lose, they don’t ever lose employees, they may have to let an employee go, but I have not ceased employees leading them ever. And I know the culture of that company, is why they don’t leave, they play well, they pay well. But they don’t pay the highest of all of mine. In dollars and cents they pay well in a culture that is conducive to growing.

Scott Peper 25:35
It’s so interesting to hear how you’re climbing clients are similar and saying and you’re seeing the same things that I’m seeing, but from a totally different side in the same exact business and industry because I try to tell folks all the time that your problems are not alone, like everybody has them. It’s just you know, they’re parts of business, but you can do things about it. And this is a great tool. I feel like people in construction leaders in construction, whether they own the company or they’re in management or they’re aspiring leaders that are in a introductory role but want to develop into that they can stand in these roles and anybody can be an apprentice in anybody. I mean anybody can be a mentor to anyone about whatever it is they know that someone does and helpful. Um there’s one last time I got this is a good segue to is just continuing education. You know, depending on the trade, there’s some continuing education One that is needed and sort of mandated. How does do these apprenticeship programs and also mentorship kind of get credits towards continuing education? Or is that all separate classes in the trades? How does that how do they go together if they go together at all?

Natasha Sherwood 26:29
For electrical, it is separate until it’s after the fact. And there are requirements from the state, it’s 11. It depends on which is which part of the electrical industry, but for the basic part, it’s 11. And then there’s some specific requirements, just like so if you’re an educator, he had to get certain CPUs, these are specific, and there’s some business ones, technical ones. And then if you’re in the fire alarm, then there’s specific fire alarm if you’re, you know, an H back, and so forth. So there are certain ones and we provide to the association, we do those monthly. So every month, we provide free ones for our members, and we do them. And so it’s everything from legal aspects of running a business, like you said, so some of them are business related to tool safety, and OSHA, all of those. So those are all specific ones that are required. And there are a certain amount that they have to get every two years is the cycle. And but then in addition, those are kind of the required ones. And those are important, don’t get me wrong. But I think the bigger part we offer ones that aren’t necessarily required by state, they still get the EU credit, but it’s the ones to make their business better. So whether it’s a code, change seminar, electrical code, I’m sure it changes for everything else, like every three years, let’s just change the code. And so kind of go over what those code changes are, or they have to be certified, whether it’s fire alarm safety. And they do that. So we offer those as journeyman prep classes. So for maybe students who didn’t, or electricians who didn’t go through the apprentice program, have those 12,000 hours and want to apply for you know what to take the test for the journeyman Pratt, we’ll do that kind of see. And we’ll also do a training just on leadership. So it kind of ties into that mentorship program. So now you’ve been electrician, you’ve got you know, done the apprentice program. You’ve got your journeyman license, you kind of started moving up, do you see yourself as a foreman? So the first class would be what is foreman? What does that include? Like? Do you know if it’s raining? Yeah, you send people home, even your best friend, because that’s what a foreman has to do? And then what is the supervisor look like? And then what is, you know, further leadership into estimating? I mean, what is estimating? So how do you go from electrician into estimating? How do you go into all the other aspects. I mean, as you kind of said, construction, any contractor is a business besides being the trade. So there’s HR, there’s, you know, education and training and public relations and estimating and finance. And so we offer a little bit of all of that, and they again, making your company better is investing in the education of those employees. And I think when they feel valued, and I think the education part makes them, you know, feel valued. So whether it’s bringing them to a legal aspects of electricity to or it is a fire alarm, safety years, a journeyman or leadership prep. And so those are the ones so some of them are required, and some of them are to actually grow the individual and the industry.

Kyesha Robinson 28:40
Yeah, at Pinellas Technical College, we do offer continuing education courses, as well. And similarly, they are separate from apprenticeship experiences, as well as from our full time courses. And we like to refer to these types of courses as our last lifelong learning experiences. So if we want to support a vibrant workforce that is able to adapt to change, and truly recognizes the value in ongoing education, or even seeks to continue to be a part of and support advances in their own technologies in their respective industries, we really have to all continue to be lifelong learners. And that’s where that concept comes from. I don’t know that you can really have a lot of innovation and creativity or even remain relevant on an ongoing basis if you don’t invest in so far in yourself, or continuing education or in your employees for the same. So I think that investing in continuing education can help businesses to remain relevant and in step with various changes that are happening in their industry. Just thinking about electricity, we know we’ve come a very long wave, Edison, you know, and there’s still more to come. So the appetite of consumers and customers businesses, for you know, environmentally conscientious is also going to continue to change the way and to create a need for ongoing education as new technologies, and new ways of delivering services is happening. So we do offer that those continuing education are those lifelong learning courses, and we encourage people to take them whether it’s an obligation to maintain your certification credential or your license or not. It’s just something that’s good to have if you want to remain a well-rounded and informed employee.

Unknown Speaker 30:30
I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s actually one of our core values of mobilization funding is to be a lifetime learner. You know, you got to continually be educating yourself, you know, things change, people change, you become more valuable to yourself Most importantly, but you as you’re more important, you’re more valuable to yourself, you’re more valuable to everybody. And that’s the most important thing to, to stay in the game and not get passed by, or let yourself pass your own self by.

Kyesha Robinson 30:44
Well said.

Scott Peper 30:46
You guys have been awesome. I really appreciate you guys going through this, this has been really great, much more surprising topics and conversation than I thought we’d get into. I like the topics, of course, but I really like we’re winning. And I’m just shocked at how much it ties into all the conversations I have every single day, in just anecdotal ways. And I really feel like if we get this video off, everyone watched it, see, they’re gonna be able to really understand it and have some good tactical action steps of where they can go and where to go next and how to do it. That’s the most important thing that we’re trying to help.

Natasha Sherwood 31:16
I think that’s one of the biggest parts is and I always joke that I mean, I’ve lived in Tampa my entire life. And I consider it a little, you know, small, big town. But still, what resources I didn’t know, were out there. And you know, what resources, I come across contractors all the time, just like this home builder, large. I mean, if I told you the name, I won’t, because they’ll kill me, large, large builds tons of homes in our area, you know, didn’t know what options are out there for like apprenticeship-wise and getting people trained. And so houses are behind. And I think sometimes people just to say, hey, I need some help. What are you doing? And that hasn’t necessarily, I think been, you know, a strong point in construction in general is because it’s been competitive. And I think right now it’s everybody realizes somebody can help them out a little bit. So if anybody ever needs any, I’m more than happy to reach out. And sometimes it’s to PTC and sometimes it’s ABC, and they all seem to be letters. And to find out, you know, where does someone go? And I don’t know the answer. And same thing I found PTC if they don’t know the answer, they’re more than willing to help find the right one or Hey, you want to start a new email to the head of a PTC, you want to start a new pre apprenticeship program next year? Yeah, sure. Okay, let’s write a grant. So it’s all good. And I think that’s the neat thing I found in this industry is it is a is evolving into a help each other out type situation.

Kyesha Robinson 32:31
So yeah, enough, can’t be said about collaboration. Gone are the days of operating in silos. I hear something that we don’t do, just like she shared. We’ll partner with whomever to get the job done. And then maybe later on down the road, there’s a way for us to adopt some new programs or technologies ourselves, but there’s no way that we can continue to serve industries, and not have these types of open dialogues and build relationships. We just have to do it.

Scott Peper 32:55
So I’m going to make sure that the audience and everyone knows they can see your guy’s email address that question right here below on your name. And I think which in myself as well. And I’m more than happy to speak to anyone anytime they want to reach out and talk. And I know you guys have been very gracious with your time too. And hopefully people will take us up on that.

Natasha Sherwood 33:16
Absolutely.

Kyesha Robinson 33:15
Thank you for allowing us to share on your platform. This has been great.

Scott Peper 33:20
Well, everybody. I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much. Natasha, thank you so much, Keisha. And please let us know how we can help and enjoy the rest of your afternoon and day. Thank you very much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Are you ready for your business to do more? To become a true leader for your team? To build camaraderie and loyalty and drive success through your team’s aligned efforts? If you answered Yes, you are ready to transform your business into a purpose-driven company.

If you answered No, keep reading. Purpose-driven companies tend to grow faster, attract and retain better talent, and exceed customer expectations more often than their counterparts.

That sounds good, right? Because it is!

What is a Purpose-Driven Company?

A purpose-driven company aligns its success to a greater mission or goal. This alignment starts with a clearly articulated Purpose Statement that everyone in the company understands. Your Purpose Statement is WHY your company exists, beyond the obvious goal of being profitable. For example, our Purpose Statement at Mobilization Funding is, “To help the people we come in contact with.”

A Purpose Statement is more than a feel-good moment in your company handbook. It should guide your business strategy and inform your team’s actions.

That’s a lot of heavy lifting for one sentence. To shoulder the weight effectively, your Purpose Statement must be crystal-clear. Your team should be able to recite it from memory. It also needs to resonate powerfully with everyone in the company, starting with YOU and all the way down to your newest employee.

Creating your Purpose Statement isn’t easy, and the deep-dive, soul-searching it requires of you as the business owner could be a blog in and of itself (and will be). Here is a hint to get your started – your purpose statement needs to come from what is really in your heart. It must be about serving your customers and your team FIRST. If it is all about what you want it will not be nearly effective enough or something your team or customers will embrace and follow.

For now, let’s talk about WHY you should align your company’s efforts around a shared purpose.

Becoming purpose-driven is a journey. Don’t go it alone. Subscribe to our CEO’s newsletter for tips and insights from his own purpose-driven journey.

Why Become a Purpose-Driven Company?

According to a Deloitte Insights Report, “Purpose-driven companies witness higher market share gains and grow on average three times faster than their competitors, all the while achieving higher employee and customer satisfaction.”

Mic drop.

Attitudes about brands are shifting. More and more customers want to know WHO they are doing business with, and this trend is not restricted to B2C industries. Whether you sell directly to consumers or business-to-business, your clients and customers want to know who you are and what you stand for.

Having a stated company purpose tends to increase team morale, collaboration, and productivity. Once your entire team is marching to the beat of your purpose, it becomes easier to identify, attract and retain new employees who also believe in your purpose. It also makes everyone’s job clear and easier because the purpose is understood. It guides each and every person’s decisions.

Loyalty, from both customers and workforce is, a forceful growth agent. Happy customers who align with your purpose become vocal brand evangelists, and a team joined around a common goal is willing to push harder to achieve it. Your purpose is a powerful differentiator for new business as well, and when you get the big job you’ve been dreaming of, you know you have the team to get it done.

Examples of Purpose-Driven Companies

What does a purpose-driven company look like? Well, we are one, for starters. Here are a few slightly more famous purpose-driven companies:

CVS. Remember in 2014 when CVS stopped selling tobacco products? That revolutionary and controversial decision was guided by their stated company purpose, “helping people on their path to better health.”

The decision wasn’t made lightly, and it wasn’t made in a silo. Leaders from almost every department discussed the potential ramifications. In the end, CVS took a $2 billion loss in annual cigarette sales in order to live its purpose.

It paid off. The company ultimately ended up with a 10 percent revenue increase.

TOMS Shoes. This shoe-maker combines purpose with profit. For every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS donated one pair to a child in a developing country. TOMS has since shifted from this one-for-one model, but continues to directly aligns sales with its purpose. For every $3 the company makes, it donates $1.

IBM “Smart Cities.” The tech giant’s purpose to advance innovation led to the creation of the Smarter Cities Challenge, which has helped over 100 cities so far solve complex environmental, infrastructural or social challenges. It also drove revenue for IBM, as part of the Smarter Planet campaign, which generated over $7 billion in revenue.

2021: Your Year of Purpose

We are launching a campaign this year to help as many construction, manufacturing and other businesses as possible make the transformation to be purpose-driven companies. Why? It’s part of our purpose — to help those we come in contact with. We know the fulfillment and pride that comes from being purpose-driven. We want you to feel it, too!

Join us in making 2021 your Year of Purpose. Subscribe to our newsletter and we will walk through this journey together.

You are going to dig deep to find and define the true purpose in your work. You will scrap those meaningless core values created in a boardroom and replace them with values true to YOU. You will carve a path for your team to follow. You will LEAD them toward your vision for the company.

We can’t wait to see what you become.

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Why Become a Purpose-Driven Company?

Examples of Purpose-Driven Companies

2021: Your Year of Purpose

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