Mission, vision, core values, and purpose statement — there’s a lot to unpack when you’re transforming your business into one driven by purpose, not just profit. Each of these statements will be one piece in your overall business strategy, along with your key products or services, financial goals, and the activities you will undertake to achieve them. We’ve already discussed how to identify your company’s purpose and draft a Purpose Statement. Today let’s dive into defining your company’s core values and how they work to inform all the other pieces of your business plan.

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.

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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Active Listening is the Secret Skill You Need to Grow Your Business

Low profit margins in construction have been an issue for decades, and even as we climb back toward normalcy following the shutdowns caused by the coronavirus, there are few signs if any that profit margins will increase with increased demand. In fact, most contractors seem to expect the opposite. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors Confidence Report, contractors expect sales to grow over the next six months. Over half of the contractors surveyed said they expected some level of growth. Ironically, only about 30% expected profit margins to increase, while 35% expect them to drop.

Why are construction profit margins so low, and continuing to shrink? And, perhaps more important, what can you as construction business owner, do to protect your margins?

Why Are Construction Profit Margins Low

There are several economic reasons for low construction profit margins. The highly-fragmented nature of construction naturally spreads money thin; potential profit margins cover several different trades all working on the same project. There has also been historical cost and labor inflations, eating up profit on every project. There are also higher material costs right now.

The rise of remote work options post-pandemic has had an impact on commercial construction. There is less demand for large, urban headquarters, less parking lots, and less development around these work hubs. The decline in projects across the industry resulted in fiercer competition, driving prices (and thus, potential profit) lower.

Finally, contractors have played a role in their own low margins. Contractors regularly bid on low-profit jobs, hoping that their performance will win them the next contract at a better margin.

Pause right there. Think that through. If you bid and win a job with a 15% gross margin, and the project requires 10% retainage, then you only have a 5% profit margin to operate the job. Yes, the real margin is 15% (and not 5%), BUT what good is that profit for your business right now if it is tied up in retainage and you won’t receive it till the entire project is over?

Will a 5% positive cash flow even be enough to support your team throughout the project so they actually can deliver their best performance?

Chances are the answer is NO. So, let’s focus on getting you the profit margin you actually need in order to perform.

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.

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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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https://mobilizationfunding.com/2021/02/26/how-cash-flow-impacts-performance-in-construction/

To transform your company into a purpose-driven business, you need to become a purpose-driven leader. A purpose-driven company aligns its business goals to an external goal or mission. Success and purpose live hand-in-hand for these businesses, which tend to experience faster growth, enjoy greater camaraderie, and deliver better customer experiences.

A company’s purpose has to be authentic to its leader, the person who will nurture and sustain that purpose as it disseminates throughout a team or organization. Defining your leadership purpose can also help you become a better leader. Purpose-driven leaders exhibit characteristics such as self-awareness, flexibility, confidence, and innovation.

This year, we are on a mission to help as many business leaders as possible transform their business into something MORE—a vehicle for personal fulfillment, community outreach, philanthropy, civic action, WHATEVER your purpose is.

It starts by finding your leadership purpose.

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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Core Values Drive Success in…

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.

Recommended Reading

Becoming a Purpose-Driven Leader for…

Andrew Ammons is the founder and president of ACR Roofing, an incredibly successful commercial roofing company located in Texas. Andrew shared a secret with us during this episode: He isn’t super passionate about roofing.

What he IS crazy passionate about is building processes that work and building up people to perform at their best and achieve their goals.

In this episode of The Real MF’ers, Andrew shares how that passion led him to start several successful businesses and create the One Tribe Weekly, a movement that is changing lives and the world one week at a time!

Full Transcript Below

Scott Peper  0:37

Everybody, welcome. Today, with me is a great friend of mine, somebody who I’m really excited to introduce you guys. Excellent roofing contractor, human being, father, and business owner, someone I’ve learned quite a bit from actually and really enjoyed working with and getting to know personally and professionally. Andrew Ammons is the president, owner, co founder, founder of ACR, Roofing and ACR Companies. So we’re going to talk a little bit on all those. But Andrew, welcome.

Andrew Ammons  1:04

Thank you. Thanks for having me on. It’s been a little bit in the making. First off, I appreciate not only you have me on here, but everything that you guys have done. It’s interesting. Almost immediately after me and you met, there was business to be done between us. And I don’t know that I knew at the time how helpful that was to our organization. And I know I’ve I’ve thanked you before, but I got to do it, you know, in front of all the millions of people that will see this.

Scott Peper  1:31

Well you’re very welcome. Number one, thank you. But more importantly, I’m glad that we were able to help you and the things, anything that we were able to do to push you forward faster to help yourself has been great. I’ve shared your story with many customers now just how you’ve saved money on those projects, how you utilize our loan program, as good or better than anybody I’ve ever seen. And I’m really interested in talking to you about that as well. But if you don’t mind, can you give everybody take take two or three minutes, just give us some give everybody an overview, just who you are, where you’re at what you do what the business is just so they can get a concept of the ins and outs of your life.

Andrew Ammons  2:12

Gotcha. I took a big gulp right before he said that, because I don’t know if I can do it in three minutes. Because I’m a little bit long winded, but I’ll I’ll do my best. So I think you covered my name. And I am stationed out in West Texas Actually, I’ve been in the contracting business. Gosh, ever since I can remember I grew up with a dad who was in the residential remodel and roofing business. So I kind of saw how that ran growing up had the blessing to see both of my parents go from, I guess what you’d say as a nine to five job into more of a owner operator or entrepreneurial situation. So I got to see both sides of that it always intrigued me to be able to have you know, full control of your future, right, the good and the bad, everything that came with it. So I get to watch that growing up. I am in the contracting space.

People ask me often, you know, what’s your passion? Or what do you enjoy doing? And the fact is, I’m not crazy passionate about contracting in general, I am crazy passionate about building processes, building people being able to put my mark on something and seeing that continue to operate. So just a little bit of history, say I started contracting business. First was landscaping, landscape maintenance in the residential markets, which is probably some of the lowest barriers to entry you could probably have in construction, right? You gotta have a trailer, couple mowers, not much to it. So I started there, kind of built out some processes and cut my teeth so to speak, in that world ran a landscape company for Gosh, almost a decade. A little bit crazy to think that I can say that. Because I still consider myself young, even though before we started recording, you make sure to call out the gray in my beard, which

Scott Peper  4:07

If I grew one out, I’d have that same problem.

Andrew Ammons  4:12

I don’t know if you can actually see it. But anyways, I did that for about 10 years. I enjoyed it eventually got burnt out, hit my head up against the same brick wall over and over again. I didn’t quit rather than doing that I brought on a partner who was a little bit more seasoned in the landscape world than myself. Let him come on again to operate it. And I’ve still maintain ownership and very high level involvement with that company very landscape companies. So once once I was kind of done with that I fell back into I guess you could say my roots where I saw you know my dad first move into the contracting world. But I went straight into the commercial roofing world rather than residential mostly because more opportunity there at least as I saw it, and the clientele. You know, it seems to be more about solving problems and a little bit more of a challenge. I enjoy that. And so jump right back into commercial roofing. And that’s where I am today.

Scott Peper  5:17

Awesome. Man, I was really curious of how you decided in the construction world pivoting from doing landscaping, or like you said, getting into residential landscaping and also in jumping into commercial roofing, you got different licenses got different skills, bidding, I mean, all that’s a big leap, I was curious of how that came about.

Andrew Ammons  5:36

There was a lot more of an evolution than I probably gave credit to because we started in residential. And eventually, and I’m not knocking residential whatsoever, it just isn’t quite frankly congruent with with me and how I deal and operate with people. So there was an evolution there, we were doing the residential work. And at some point, I started to build relationships with property management groups, and ownerships and, and really understood some of the unique challenges that they had. So we slowly and systematically started started moving out of the residential world is strictly in the commercial with the landscaping company. So I’d already started that again, and been around residential roofing my entire life. In fact, you know, my first job, so to speak, and Kane Harvey called a job that was residential roofing sales. So I knew the business. But because of the some of the relationships, we’ve begun to build with the landscaping company in that world that I was so intrigued by especially what I refer to as the multi stakeholder situation where, you know, you’ve got a, you’ve got a local property director, a property management group, and then somebody somewhere behind the veil that owns the actual asset. So I became very interested in how that worked. And that was a big driver for why we went straight in to the commercial space.

Scott Peper  7:00

Yeah, it’s awesome to hear you talk about why you wanted to get into this business and where your passions really lie in how you’ve used construction as a vehicle for you to be able to do that, you know, when you and I first met out in, gosh, almost a year ago, now, maybe a little longer out in Whistler, the first thing that attracted me to you is, I was like, I can’t believe you’re in construction. I mean, we’re amongst a group of 100 or so entrepreneurs. And most construction folks are not thinking about the why they’re, what they’re doing for business and why they want to help who they want to help and how their teams and employees first, they’re always thinking I grind it like you did. But the first thing they talk about typically is that grind and how they got to it. But you talked about your team, your, your your employees, the people you’ve developed your passion. And it wasn’t till five minutes of the conversation, you’re like, yeah, and by the way, I’m a roofing company, I was, I was waiting for you to tell me Oh, like software or some other b2b organization. And I asked me that, because I think it’s so important, why you do something is more important than what you do. And if you focus on why you do things, what you do becomes even better, and everyone recognize that. And I want the audience to hear your words how you took that part of your life and passion, and molded it into a construction company. Because I think it’s a really hard bridge when I talk to our customers or potential customers, how they mold those those passions and that desire to help not only into our project, but into their team and the organization inside of a construction environment.

Andrew Ammons  8:38

Right? Well, I’m glad you bring that up. Because that goes back to the first thing we talked about on this call, like I would argue, and I may be wrong, but that you Scott are probably not just overly passionate about the funding side or, or the nitty gritty of what you do. You’re passionate about helping people. Right, you’re passionate about, okay, my client base or prospective client base are contractors who suffer a certain problem that is or a certain set of problems that are probably very common amongst all of us. And you found a way and a very specialized service that you can help us with. So you’re passionate about going in, how do I make that product better? And how do I help more people with my thing that I’ve put together, right? I mean, I would say that’s, that’s what gives you the drive and why we’re doing this podcast and everything. And it’s a it’s the same for me. I love telling people that in fact, during our One Tribe meetings on Monday, which I hope we get to talk about a little bit here in a second. I say that frequently. I’ll tell people like, Listen, I’m not passionate about roofing. You know, I don’t wake up every morning to say, Man, I can’t wait to put on the best damn single ply membrane you’ve ever seen in your life. Like that’s how could have given you I mean, yes, I enjoy the construction process, but to get to your question, I struggled with it for a long time as the answer. I went into contracting, and into what I do, I mean way back, probably like most people go into business or went into a job way to pay the bills, right. And I grew up with guys who accelerated either either some of them came from families who already has established businesses, or maybe just like any of us, you know, friends who accelerate faster, whether it be financially or success across different areas. And I, I really struggled with man, I feel like I’m talented to be doing something more of a professional career or something that’s a little bit more flashy requires me to dress a little bit nicer. And I, I really did, I was like, I’m sitting here doing construction. And I’ve got these buddies who are doing this, that the other half this buddy, Scott is a, you know, a slick financial guy, I got, no, I got all these people doing this. And I struggled with it. Eventually, I landed on and I talked with my team about this a lot. Like, if you’re chasing passion as what you do, rather than a part of what you do. And I think I’ve worded it better than but if you’re just looking at saying, you know, the same old dream of I’ve got to grow up meet a certain thing. And that’s what I’m passionate about, you’re never gonna find it, you’ve got to find something about what you do. So inside of what you do, that you enjoy that you wake up every single morning for and you’re excited for. It doesn’t matter if that’s being a firefighter, landscaper contractor, it doesn’t matter, you got to find that thing. And I guess I consider myself blessed to find that thing for me is to build out processes and systems and things that I can watch grow, wouldn’t matter what the industry was.

Scott Peper  11:44

I mean, you hit the nail on the head. And you’re right. And I appreciate you bringing that up and recognizing that because for me, and you’re right, and I care more about helping people. I mean, I have a sales background, a finance background, a lot of people think, oh, he must have graduated with a finance background, not as a sales guy, either. Yeah, I mean, I was more in sales. But you know what, what I liked about sales, I like talking to people. And when I talked to you by like hearing what their problems were. And I liked figuring out what the how to solve their problem. And if there was a product to solve their problem that I happen to sell great. But most of the time, the problems they had my product wasn’t solving. So I just would connect them with the the other sales rep that I knew that was selling that product or the company I just heard about, because I’d go to every single Hospital in the entire state. I knew what the other physicians that were like them that were selling, I happen to sell medical devices. So I’d say, oh, in that procedure, I saw Dr. Song, so do that. And what happened was I created so much value in the knowledge that I had from me traveling all over the place and sharing that just in communication. The people naturally when they did have the problem that my product was all they come to me instead of my competition. And right, what I realized going into this finance business, one, I better find somebody that has a lot of knowledge about finance, because I’m not the one that’s gonna program. But once I could see what the value was, I said, I don’t want to bring that what I want to find my father was in construction, I think I shared this with you. And to grow and scale, I knew the cashflow problem. So when I when the Prop, someone had the idea of this product, and we mold it into this, I said you know what we need to do we need to solve the problems of business owners have first which is they can’t make payroll, keeping them up at night, we don’t need to lend the money, we need to give them a solution to have an ongoing relief of stress. If our loan product can do that great. But what we also need to do is help them with all the other things, find the right insurance, find the right bonding, be part of a solution that can offer all the value out there to educate while they’re grinding these construction business, which have a lot of employees a lot of money back and forth. They’re constantly bidding, they don’t have time to educate themselves on all these other things that we can be that resource. If and when they do need money or a product will be there. That’s the part that I contributed to this business and what I thought you did so well with your construction business and what we talked about what our potential clients how to mold that over. And I watched you do it so well that I was really wanting to make sure that you shared that. Right like what I do want you to talk about which I think is part of what we’re going into now is how you implemented your One Tribe concept which really labeled everything you and I just talked about and for the audience.

I want you guys to pay attention to this part because this is really the key piece. Well all those words being entered just threw back around he put in he put a label on it called One Tribe and then he built that One Tribe brand inside of his own company. So they go ahead and talk about that because this is this is the this is the real importance.

Andrew Ammons  14:45

One Tribe in general?

Scott Peper  14:46

Yeah, how you doing your meetings, the concept how you implement it weekly.

Andrew Ammons  14:50

it well, first of all, it came just the same as it came as to how I recognize what my passion was. It came from me, from me going into an office and I just despised. And working with people that I hated. And having this is true, but I don’t know any better way to say it. Like, it came from such horrible company culture that quite frankly, the the type of fear driven person that I was in a previous life, I probably created that. But at some point I decided it’s time to break out of that mold. Like, we’ve got to build some unity here, we’ve got to, if I want to achieve this monstrous goal, it’s going to take a tribe, right? It’s going to take a it’s gonna take a family.

So long story short, all One Tribe is I sat back and I looked at it. And I saw how people in the administrative department were teaching or treating people in the sales department, the sales department was treating people in the field. And, you know, you hear that concept that people talk about team, you hear family? Well, to me, it was kind of like, your team’s not strong enough. Family, you don’t get to pick I don’t, I don’t want that right, a tribe infers a strong bond, a strong group of people who are collectively working towards one goal. And where the one came in, was just the simple concept that no matter what department you’re in, how old you are, what your pay ranges, what color you are, whatever it is, we are one tribe, we’re one group of people that are all here for the same exact reason. And that reason is we showed up here to make money. We want to be respected and have a decent time. But we want to walk out these doors every single day and feel like, Hey, I contributed something and I did something. And when people start to realize that no matter if you are aggravated in your HR department, because let’s say a salesman screwed up in a contract, or you’re upset with this person, for whatever reason, when you realize that your job, right is dependent upon that person. And we’re all human beings up here. And then we can drop our stuff at the door and just work together, which is not an easy thing to do. I believe that huge momentum would start to occur with our business. And I think that I think the One Tribe movement, honestly, Scott, I think the world needs it. I know that sounds crazy. But I set in front of my team last last couple of weeks, and almost got emotional about it. Because I I see so much hate, I see so much arguing and it’s like, the world needs to hear this.

Scott Peper  17:29

And you’re right, man, everybody needs to calm down and chill out a little bit. And if you focus on something other than yourself, you know, what, you probably won’t get so emotionally charged, and the world might actually be a better place. And I think that’s the difference maker right there.

Andrew Ammons  17:44

Right. And, you know, from a tactical standpoint, for you, if you’re a business owner, it was also something for my team to rally behind. You know, the second I came up with it, I trademarked it, it’s got the law next to it, you know, it’s something that I want them to know is ours, you can rally behind this doesn’t mean that every everything’s perfect. And we, you know, are always just congratulating everybody. And it’s rainbows and cupcakes, no. But it means at the end of the day that we stand for something more than just roofing or landscaping or whatever the thing is, and I think that that drives a lot of things in a business.

Scott Peper  18:21

And you know, it’s a great segment, because one of the other things you do really well. Well, you do you market your business. Well, you do it in a more unique way than most in the construction field. And I think you also and I know you do this, you take your One Tribe branding concept. And that’s one of the biggest parts of the marketing that you have for your entire roofing business. You need your customers down your One Tribe path just like you do your team and your employees and anyone else working with you. And you’ve marketed that way. Can you talk about your thought process and how you went about doing that and sharing some of the success that you had that you put together doing it?

Andrew Ammons  19:01

Here’s the fact man I believe in it, I feel so strongly about it. You know, that’s care about people taking care of people. It’s one of the things you know, when me and you first met, I picked up on immediately. And it’s not something that I’ve always been good at. But you’re very keen, you listen to people, right? You know, what their struggles? Are we going back to what you said about your products in general. So I think what I recognize really quickly is people like you who are successful in what you do, and people in the Arete Syndicate, which we’re both involved in, who are successful. There’s a deeper meaning behind what what they’re doing. And so when it comes to the marketing, and it comes to all that kind of stuff. Yes, we utilize that and we make certain that our customers know about it. But I think we’ve done a good job of and I think that you do and I wish more people would do is recognize that their prospect or their client at the other end of the table is another human being who needs help. Now, maybe they need help. With financing, maybe they need help with roofing. But they probably also struggle just with self doubt and all the other things that we struggle with too. So I think what I realized and we’re still seeing happen is, what if we tried to connect with people to their real struggles in life, and we shared a part of our weekly meeting where I typically talked to the team about stuff like that. What if we could help somebody better their relationship with their spouse? What if we could help them have less self doubt? When it came time for them to buy a roof? Who are they going to buy from? Somebody who who has the best warranty? Or somebody who helped them? I know I’m getting deep there, but do something have actual substance in their life?

Scott Peper  20:45

Yeah, you given value before you’ve ever asked for anything? And that’s, I mean, what better reward could you possibly give somebody? Right? And even if they never bought a roof mirror, and they don’t even need a roof? The friends might other people, right? You putting a positive ripple out there that, you know, is gonna reverberate.

Andrew Ammons  21:03

But one of our one of our joint mentors or say mentors, and Andy told us both, I think he told us this at Whistler. He said, some of the best people that he has ever hired, were actually friends of people he didn’t hire. Right? And because he treated those people so well in the interview process, and actually gave them some level of value. But that person left and said, Hey, listen, man, they didn’t have a spot for me. But what they have with fits you perfectly, you got to go work for this person, it’s it’s the Rule of Reciprocity, it’s the same as you set me up with the bonding company that we work with. Now, you are responsible for that long before you ever made $1.

Scott Peper  21:39

For me, that was the problem that you had. And you know, it’s a great segue, because I was going to ask you about something, there’s another compliment on it gives you that, that this turning into complimenting you, but

Andrew Ammons  21:50

A little reverse, and I’ll just give you yours.

Scott Peper  21:53

This may sound a little self serving, but what I want people to hear, one of the things I’m really passionate about is aside from what we’ve talked about, and how to help them and how to deliver resources, is using our loan product when it is applicable in the best possible way gain those efficiencies grow. And you know, you did that as well as anyone give a little story background for everybody. Andrew came to us, he had a great contract working billing, putting the roof on a VA government facility. And he needed bond for it. So I told him, Hey, look, I know exactly where to get this bond, here’s the deal, this guy can work this up for you. And he did. And it’s part of getting the bond he needed. He also realized going into the winter, whether he could accelerate this project. So he said, Scott, what would a loan look like? So I explained the loan product? Well, we built our cash flow model out, Andrew saw it in a cash flow, and made like five tweaks to it. And ultimately, the outcome is Andrew saved more money by borrowing our money in the project cost, which is astonishing to me, but it showed them what you did and how you did that. Because that’s the key to using our product it is.

Andrew Ammons  22:57

So I think that it’s one of those things that your heart is to help people grow their business rather than necessarily. Not that you wouldn’t bail somebody out of a position where they’re, you know, in a corner somewhere. I think that’s I think that’s powerful to note, because I know that you talk frequently about people not wanting to tell their general contractor, they have a financing partner, and all that kind of stuff. And listen, I’ve I’ve got a whole nother opinion about that. And my opinion is that I agree with you. But the way that we did that, and the way that will accelerate the job, not only did it save us money, and and we were able to actually accelerate the job with more crews, more material landed in advance, as well as a an additional supervisor that we wouldn’t have had on site had we not been able to make those arrangements. And you know what, let’s not just over let’s not just step over those things, because being able to stage materials earlier that we might have held on because of cash flow decision making, having multiple crews out there, because the cash going out the door was not so much an issue anymore. I mean, those are huge things, right, our time is money, the faster I can get that job done, it was about a one I think is a 1.6 or $7 million contract, the faster I can get that done, the less impact it has on overhead company resources, all that I’m in and out and get my money on the way. So that was huge. The tool that you gave me up front laying out the cash flow projection is being able to see that and really think it through. I pride myself on on being a very analytical logic driven person. But I don’t know if I would have taken the time to have thought that project out the way I did. Had you not sent me that tool as the starting point for us to explore if that was an option.

But I don’t want to I don’t want to also overstep before we before we close this out the value of sleeping at night. And it’s not that money solves problems and it’s not that your tool is to just give somebody might have to worry about anymore. But not worrying about cash flow because you’re covered with an army out there is a very good feeling for an owner or operator. And it allows them to focus on which what I did. And this is the truth. I’ve told you this before. But during that time, I was building our estimating department that went from zero dollars in what I refer to as retail or new construction bid to now we’re at $38 million year to date in bids out the door. From a estimating part, it’s got nothing to do with me, I did that while that VA job was going because truthfully, y’all solution gave me the ability to focus where I needed to as a business owner.

Scott Peper  25:44

You didn’t have to run around all week chasing down receivables. And

Andrew Ammons  25:48

Or watch, are you guys timing this shit? Just right?

Scott Peper  25:51

Yeah, no, did I like I said, you put that together then watching you finish the job. In 75% of the time, that was a lot, which

Andrew Ammons 25:59

by the way for like two months Didn’t we are to

Scott Peper  26:02

You finish in eight weeks. It was set up for 13. I mean, you save five weeks worth of labor? I mean, how many crews? How big was your crew on that job?

Andrew Ammons  26:09

I think we had up to 28 at one point in time spread out.

Scott Peper 26:13

Yeah. I mean, what’s the payroll on 28? People?

Andrew Ammons  26:17

I don’t know. I get too many numbers in my head.

Scott Peper  26:18

10s of thousands of dollars. I’m sharing file ship. times 10s of thousands is a real number. Yeah. The business?

Andrew Ammons  26:25

Yeah, it’s um, so I think the answer you’re probably looking for it in less words, is my story. Or the way that I would think to maximize it is to put it into place, even if you don’t think you need it. And run the job. quick, fast and efficient, allow it to run faster for you, and you make more money in the long run.

Scott Peper  26:47

Another thing that might be a good time Yes. If we ever come up with a brochure, maybe that’s the tagline that’s on the brochure. That’s it. And I really appreciate you going through all this again, I know you’re a busy guy and taking the time out to do it to help share your story with everybody means a lot to me and I really appreciate it I know it’s gonna add some value to folks that get a chance to listen to us.

Andrew Ammons  27:07

I hope it does.

Scott Peper  27:09

Everyone I hope you guys enjoyed this today. I hope you and your stories Andrew puts out a lot of great content on LinkedIn feel free to reach out and connect with them it’s got a great Instagram story as well.

Andrew Ammons  27:20

It one tribe weekly.com to any you guys and it’s got no self gain there you see what I’m doing. It may help you lead your guys and your team as well. That one tribe weekly.

Scott Peper  27:31

Thanks everyone. I hope you guys all have a great day. Better evening and enjoy the rest of your week. Take care

 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Cash flow management is a critical component in the success of any business, and it is especially critical in industries like construction where a lot of cash or credit is needed, start-up costs are high, profit margins are thin, and getting paid can be a real hassle. The complex cash flow ecosystems that construction and manufacturing companies survive in make effective cash flow management absolutely critical. The good news is that there are technology solutions that can streamline your cash flow management.

Why Cash Flow Management is So Complex in Construction

Making money in construction is contingent on many factors, some of them completely beyond your control. Your work is dependent upon the performance of other trades. Project schedules shift due to weather, design changes, and resource shortages (which are typically a cash flow problem in reality).

The complex payment hierarchy means you pay out large amounts upfront and are paid slowly and over time. This makes managing cash in the business more difficult. Sure, there is money in the bank account, but what money is that for?  Is that payroll for this week, but for what job? Can I use some of that money to buy materials for the new job starting or is that the money I need to pay for the materials I already used for this project?

As you know, these are real questions and the real answers are not easy to determine if you are operating only out of your checking account and don’t have any reports or cash reports to make decisions off of!  You can make this easier and it is easier to do when you have the right cash flow reports and cash management tools.  With these tools you will be able to:

• Know what bills to pay with each chunk of cash you have come into the business
• What to do with the cash that is in the business right now
• What money needs to be allocated to the new job and what money needs to stay on the current job
• Know if it is the right time to buy the next piece of equipment
• Know when you can take some money out of the business for an owner distribution

Complex isn’t impossible, though. There are a number of tools and technology solutions that can help streamline and improve your cash flow management. Let’s start with something really simple: an Excel spreadsheet.

Plan Project Cash Flow in Phases

Many contractors determine project costs as a lump sum, but that is not how those costs are incurred. Similarly, contractors will estimate profit as a lump sum, but that is not how you make your money. To accurately plan the cash flow on a project, you need to not only see how much money you will be spending and earning, but WHEN those amounts become relevant in relation to the project.

Our Cash Flow Tracker tool was created to do exactly that.

Download Our Cash Flow Tracker Tool
(Don’t forget to get the instructions, too)

When you can see your project cash flow broken down on a weekly basis, you can make smarter, more strategic decisions regarding labor, supplies, equipment, and financing.

Bonus Tip: If you want more integration between field and office, use a construction management tool or save your Excel worksheet on a cloud-based document sharing platform like Google Drive or Microsoft Teams.

Let Data Inform Your Bids and Estimates

Doing a bid the right way takes time. A bid is more than just a number and specs — it is the story of how a job should be done, how much it will cost, and why you are the best contractor for the job. Show General Contractors your experience and expertise by building estimates from real historical data, easily pulled from your construction management software.

Power-up your chance of winning by showing REAL historical numbers to back up your estimates.

Integrate Your Teams with Construction Management Software

Construction is an industry of constant change. Changes happen in the office and on the site. Changes to the construction schedule that aren’t properly communicated can result in equipment rentals or material orders happening out of sync with the project’s actual schedule. Each of these cost the business hard-earned money.

Bottom line: Your entire team needs to know what changed, when it changed, and how it impacts the rest of the project — and the rest of your other projects!

Construction Management Software tears down the communication silos between departments. It creates a shared source of truth for every project, increasing transparency and efficiency, and cutting down on email chains, phone calls, and trips to the field.

There are plenty of industry specific tools, but you can also look for a trusted, industry-agnostic solutions like Monday.com or Airtable.

Automate Your Accounts Payable

You will always need a controller, bookkeeper, and/or CPA. However, when it comes to Accounts Payable, manual entry is inefficient, often relies on the knowledge of a single person, and results in errors and manual rework to correct.

Lack of communication transparency between field and office teams means reporting and invoicing is always reactive rather than proactive. Likewise the field is often at least a day behind on new information affecting the project’s cash flow. An automated, cloud-based AP system that is integrated with your construction management system means everyone has the information they need when they need it. If something changes in on-site, the Project Manager and the office team will know about it on the same day. Similarly, if something changes on the project’s cash flow or finances, your office staff and Project Manager know about it at the same time. This increases communication and proactive problem-solving.

Why Cash Flow Management is So Important

Cash is the make-or-break when it comes to construction. You need to be able to pay for supplies, materials, equipment, and labor to keep jobs moving, and cover your overhead costs to keep the lights on, AND you need enough money to invest in your company’s growth. And if you’re lucky, enough free cash flow left over to make a profit for yourself.

Long-term cash flow shortages can ruin a business. If you can’t complete the work and have to leave a job, your reputation suffers. If you can’t pay suppliers on-time, you are less likely to get better terms which inhibits your potential to perform. If you are feeling a cash flow crunch, you are more likely to fall victim to shady funding solutions like merchant cash advances.

Here’s the upside: Effective cash flow management ensures you have the funds to do the amazing work you’ve built your business on. Access to cash is the only way to grow — you need to be able to jump on an opportunity when it happens. The free cash flow created from performing your work enables you to grow your business, build up your balance sheet, and it empowers you to fulfill your company’s broader purpose. Charity, education, whatever it is — you need cash to do it.

When you can see where your cash flow pain points are, you can proactively work to resolve them. When you can accurately estimate, track, and forecast your cash flow, you can take the reins of your future and start really planning for growth.

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Recommended Reading

https://mobilizationfunding.com/2021/01/14/cash-flow-can-make-or-break-your-growth-strategy/

The construction industry has the 2nd highest rate of suicide in the U.S. Globally, the numbers aren’t much better. Construction is a tough job when it comes to mental health, for a lot of reasons: time spent away from family, seasonal wage fluctuations, physical injuries, substance abuse, and a “suck it up” culture that can silence any cries for help.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way.

In this special episode of Built for Growth, Randy Thompson from LivingWorks joins us to share a message of hope for the entire industry. To shift the culture of the industry, all it takes is business owners and leaders (like YOU!) to start talking about the importance of mental health and suicide prevention.

Full Transcript Below

Scott Peper  0:32

Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us today, I’m really excited about our guests, a special guest, Randy Thompson from LivingWorks. He is the Vice President and business development leader, he is going to spend some time with us today talking about the impacts of mental health awareness, what organizations can do you as individual leaders and how you can help your organization’s and the people that are not only important and close to you personally, but also your team and your friends at work and colleagues. Randy, welcome. And thank you very much for joining us, I really appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Randy Thompson  1:07

God, it’s my pleasure. Anytime we can talk about mental health and suicide prevention, I’m quite eager to participate. So it is my pleasure to be here. My role here with LivingWorks. For those of you who might not know the organization is we are a suicide prevention training company, been in the suicide prevention business for over 37 years, have developed workshops that are globally delivered. So across the world, to help people keep people safe from suicide.

My background is in mental health actually, as a social worker. I’ve worked mostly primarily with organizations around mental health support, so building mental health and wellness programs for organizations. So it’s it’s a topic that’s very near and dear to me, I have shifted over into suicide prevention, as I always felt there was a bit of a gap there when it came to mental health support most organizations and out there, and I think we should really focus on prevention and early intervention. But there’s a piece around suicide prevention that I think needs to be a part of that regular stream of support within organizations. And we focus, of course, on one industry in particular. And that is a construction industry, which we know well Scott has been impacted by suicide more than any other. So happy to talk about that today and the impact of suicide. And I think what organizations can do to kind of shift the culture a little bit around making mental health and suicide prevention, okay to talk about, and know that these, these cultures haven’t been built in a day. And it’s going to take some time to shift it. But as we look at some of the statistics, I think we have a need, and we certainly there is a need out there for us to take a stand. So I’m just excited to be here with you today and have this conversation, then hopefully we’re able to help some folks.

Scott Peper  3:07

I think we will in fact, I know we will. Really one of the things I wanted to talk a little bit about first or hoping you could touch on is how did this become such a topic of passion for you, you’re very well written, you speak all over about this, you’re brought in expert leader and you can tell that it’s a lot more to you than just your job.

Randy Thompson  3:29

Yeah, absolutely. And speaking of mental health, been in the business industry for over 30 years, and I’ve always just had whatever reason to need to help. I used to think it was because I was really poor at math. So I should probably get into the people helping business, but also realize that it is a passion of mine. And suicide in particular is important to me, I lost a brother in a very close friend of mine to suicide A number of years ago. And that really impacted me in a very significant way. Very personal way. In not in a way where I felt like, you know, I probably should have saved him when we can talk a little bit about, you know, how folks who have lived with suicide can manage themselves, but just more around, there’s got to be something we can do about this because suicide is not as rare as people think. And when I started looking into this statistics around suicide, what I realized there is a whole there’s a significant need there for support and I couldn’t find it anywhere I spent my education and social work and very little time did we spend around suicide prevention. So even those who you think are trained in helping people with suicide and dealing with their suicidal ideation and suicidal activities are not necessarily trained to deal specifically with that issue. So that became an issue for me and and LivingWorks just came calling one day. Well, I was I was working with Family Services at the time. And in the employee assistance program. And, and this opportunity came my way I wasn’t looking for it. But it was certainly one that I felt deserve some time. And after we had a number of discussions, I felt like this was the right path for me at this point in my career. And I felt like I could do something about it that I could maybe move the needle a little, because where there is passion, there’s action. And that’s really what drove me into suicide prevention. And I’ve been here now for almost two years. And I’m seeing I’m seeing progress. And I’m seeing opportunities here to help folks and make a difference. And it starts small. And and it builds out into into your communities. And we can talk a little bit Scott about what that could look like.

Scott Peper  5:55

So diving straight into construction, as you know, our audience is a big construction audience, we focus a lot on construction as well. We try continuously to provide value in any possible way we can to the construction leadership teams, our clients, people we know people, we don’t know, anyone out there. And because construction and you mentioned is the number one industry that is prone or more prone to suicide. Can you touch on why that is? And what are some things I’m hoping we can pull from this are some things that are really, leaders in this industry not only can do for themselves, cuz I’m sure some of the leadership is the people that are actually having some of these problems, but also noticing that amongst their teams to help create an environment that’s safe for them to speak up when they’re there.

Randy Thompson  6:41

Absolutely. Yeah. And there are a number of reasons why the construction industry have the numbers that they do. And I certainly look at statistics, and look to read. And I think the latest report is constructions identified as number two, the number two industry but the number one industry is mining and extraction. And we’re, as far as I’m concerned, to me, those are two such similar industries that we can’t ignore the fact that they’re so related, and to me, both need the attention around suicide prevention. So I kind of I kind of cluster that mining and extraction in with construction, very similar industries. When you look at the, the the complexity of those industries, you can understand why there’s they’re at risk for suicide. They have challenging job types, within that industry, anywhere from general labor, then to skilled tradesmen, you’ve got management, you’ve got such a wide variety of different types. And there’s over 11 and a half million construction workers in the US alone. So the numbers itself are quite large. When you think about the working conditions that a typical construction worker has to work with, you can find that challenging as well, just from a weather perspective, when you look at injuries, and chronic back pain, and that type of thing within that industry is quite prevalent. And often when you can’t work, you don’t get paid. So you’re looking at financial issues that are that can be that can drive mental health within that industry. Seasonal and temporary work is very common in the construction industry. So you don’t know from one project to the next if you’re actually going to be able to work and bring you know, bring home the finances. There’s a lot of cases of isolation where fathers are away from their families for a period of time away from their support network. So really reliant on the folks that they actually work with once to complete that project so that separation from family can cause issues. And despite the fact that we hear from other sectors, when it comes to the construction industry, mental health cases are the least reported reason for people to be off. So these folks, these workers are coming in saying that they’re either not feeling well, or they have back pain, or they have other physical conditions. They’re not actually relaying the fact that they’re having mental health problems for fear of bullying, for fear of perhaps losing their job from some type of retribution, that they can be easily replaced. So even though they’re reporting absences, they’re not reporting the right ones. They’re reporting other issues that they might be dealing with. But really, at the end of the day, the focus should be on their mental health. So we’re not they’re not always getting the right help they need. So there’s a huge number of factors that can impact an individual’s mental health, particularly in the construction industry, that can drive to suicidal ideation and suicidal activity. Because for whatever reason, they just can’t get past the issues that they’re trying to cope with.

Scott Peper  9:56

So interesting. You bring those points up, you know, I want this to be very actionable for the leaders that are listening to this. So sure, if we’re speaking directly to the construction leadership team or owners of the business, and they get nothing else from this video, what is one thing they can do to help make this better? Doesn’t have to solve the problem. We don’t have to think too often. In any problem. We all try to go A to Z too fast. But they just make one step, you know?

Randy Thompson  10:25

Yes, absolutely. And it’s not an easy one. And there’s many organizations that often just refute the fact that they may have mental health issues, drug and alcohol issues within the organization. There’s a number of reasons for that. But when you think about it, I always tell organizations these because they come in and say, Well, what can we do? Right? Like you’ve got all these wellness programs and EAP s, and there’s so much out there? Where do I start is often the question I get, and I always tell them start small. You know, this culture that has been built for so long, didn’t happen overnight. And it’s really a culture shift.

And most organizations are doing something, whether it’s in the EAP, or most organizations are trying something to help their employees, but really focused on the right things. So before you decide to get into any type of wellness programs, really think about what are you trying to achieve? Like? What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to build a culture of mental health? Do you want to build a culture of wellness within the organization? What are some of the objectives that you want to achieve? before you even start? best thing you can do is build is like building a committee to get that thing going, right? Build an action plan around some of the objectives that you’ve talked about, and put a committee together to start investigating one, what you’re already doing to what’s working and what isn’t. Three, do a needs assessment around it. solicit your staff, your employees, ask them what’s working, what isn’t? What do they need, but study recent studies, when they asked about you know, if you got anything right up to raises more money, vacation time, what’s the one thing that you would look for in your employer, and for the most part, like I don’t have the numbers in front of me, SCOTUS, about 70% of those that were surveyed said, mental health support in the organization, I want my employer to be able to provide support for me and my family, so I can be safe focused at work. It wasn’t about more money, more paid more vacation time, it was about taking care of me and my family.

Scott Peper  12:34

You know, I watched I have watched a podcast of someone I watch off and they had a guest on and I can’t recall the guests name offhand. We know that a similar question was asked, and the response was, and I’m curious to get your opinion on this, if there was one thing they could do, it would be to hold a meeting with your entire team, bring everybody together. And just tell them all that this is a safe place for mental health, to talk about that.

Any problems you may have, you can always come into the door and talk about it. But they said, you know, just having that one meeting with everyone. And tell everybody you know what mental health is important to me, as your leader, I have had issues where I’m not as happy as I could be, or I’m not before. And I need you all to know that if you ever do feel that way, you can always come talk to me, there’s no judgement at all. It’s not going to be a place that we’re ever going to tolerate type that type of judgment. No one’s brought the issue up, but it’s here. And I want you guys to know. And they said that you can fully expect Not a single word to be mentioned that meaning and no one to say anything, and that’s okay. But the fact that you had that meaning and you offered up anybody to talk and they know will make a huge impact. And I’m just curious if you would agree with that, or anything you would add?

Randy Thompson  13:52

Absolutely. One of the first steps in talking about shifting that culture. And that’s probably why you don’t get much feedback from a comment like that, because kind of catches people off guard. But but the number one, number one, I think the key to a successful wellness program or successful culture shift is really getting that buy in from the top. That they have to hear from leadership that this is important to us. Your mental health is just as important to us as your physical health. You do a lot of training with you know, protective equipment in gear to keep you physically healthy. We are now focused on your mental health. And it’s important to us and from here on in, expect to hear a lot more from us. We’re going to look to engage you in this process. It’s not going to be us telling you what to do. We want you to be a part of it. It’s super important to have your input. And we can build a small committee around this and agree on some objectives and then come up with some recommendations on what do we need to do to make this environment safe for you to talk about mental health safety to talk about suicide prevention, but more importantly, that we have the right resources available to you. And a way that you can access it in a confidential manner in a way that doesn’t put your position or your role at risk, and one that will help you get back to full productivity. And that Scott is such a critical component and a great way to start off that kind of culture shift.

And then as you work together, as that committee does work together, really look at what are the driving issues within your organization? What mental are their mental health issues specifically, that drives that organization? Take a look at your drug costs. Take a look at your HR systems in terms of absence data. Take a look at what you’re seeing. Are your managers trained at identifying someone who might need help? And what are they looking for? There are many ways that you can build around that to start creating before you even start creating programs is really creating what is the need here? And are we engaging the right people in this process to help build these programs. And I’m not talking about a full I mean, you got some organization talking about their wellness program. That didn’t happen overnight. They started with something small. They started with like a nutrition program, because they’re looking at drug data and their cholesterol was through the roof. So they started small, and that to me is the right thing to do. And they just kept building on and they kept and they kept reviewing is this program working? Is it successful? Right, they keep going back to that review. And if it is, and it’s the right thing to do. And let’s build on that because we’ve we’ve had some success. So there is a structure and a strategy to it. But I always tell organizations doesn’t have to be difficult. Start small, engage your people identify what your risk factors are, it’s not hard data is there for you get the right people to work on it, you’ve got HR systems, if you do, if not, you, there’s HR support available out there as well. But you’ve got most of the data to help you get started. So start small, bring in some people you know, who’ve got the experience to help kind of get you going. But eventually you will own it, because you need to. And then you’ll be able to kind of build on that as you go. And before you know it, you have a much more engaged workforce, mental health and suicide prevention will not be such a taboo, there won’t be such stigma attached to it, people will be talking about it freely at the phone, like they talked about Sunday’s football game. And that’s really what you want to build is that type of safety, that type of culture.

Scott Peper  17:30

You say safety, and you mentioned so many times, it really should be part of a safety program that’s already probably in place. Why not, in safety is so key on a job site on a worksite, to your insurance to your people, to your team, to their family. Maybe incorporating that into your safety program, is probably a great way to do it. And I guess I’m talking directly to our audience right now. Make it part of your safety program. And then it doesn’t have to be as in your face, or new, so to speak. It’s just part of a program that’s already there. I would strongly recommend having that meaning, based on what Randy just said, what I heard before, I think just a hearing from the top that it’s okay, and it’s a topic that’s on your mind is going to have a lot bigger impact than than one might think.

Randy Thompson  18:20

Oh, absolutely, you’d be amazed. And it’s just it’s it’s like, we’re now on notice that this is okay. And that. And they it’s exciting to hear something like that right. And, and something that they’re going to participate in and engage in, they’re going to be a part of it. And you can do that where there’s joint committees as well, where there’s a union, where there’s unions involved, I’m a big fan of of bringing in joint committees and having them work together. And there’s talk about mental health and suicide prevention. What a great cause for both those organizations, both those departments to work together. So there’s great there’s great opportunity there.

We’re actually working with some of the larger construction organizations and I met I didn’t mention earlier I’m I’m a proud Board of Trustee member with the Construction Industry Alliance for suicide prevention. And LivingWorks we just developed kind of a one-hour lunch and learn we call it as an it’s kind of like an introduction to suicide prevention, for building awareness around suicide prevention. So it’s kind of at that beginning phase for organizations who really have very little and and the message is, let’s look at embedding this as part of your onboarding process. Let’s make this a part of the person’s first or second day as much as you as you onboard around health and safety introductions. Let’s make suicide prevention and mental health part of that, that onboarding process so that that new employee gets the sense right off the bat that you know what mental health is important to this organization, just as it is, is our physical health. So we’re trying to push the needle a little bit in that direction and make it you know, make it right at the very forefront of a person’s career or within that organization. So that so that it just becomes part of their culture.

Scott Peper  20:13

What is a program, a good program or even a startup cost? Is there? Is there a cost to it? Is it really part of what cost structure is already there? It’s just creating awareness and around it?

Randy Thompson  20:25

Well, that’s a great question. And often that’s what prevents businesses from actually jumping into the site because they feel like, I don’t understand the cost. Is there a cost? Where do I start, there’s a lot of things organizations can do at no cost. And it’s just around the messaging that you can have around your sites around mental health.

There’s organizations like say,  where there’s resources available, your employee assistance program comes at a cost, which is quite minimal, when you look into it. So it, there is a certain cost to most programs. But what’s important, Scott is what is the return on investment you should expect in those programs. When you look at a health and wellness program, looking at a smoking cessation program, etc, 97% of organizations today have any EAP, and within many of those EAPS are these types of programs. And folks that are that have the background and expertise to help them develop these types of structured programs, so that the cost can be quite minimal. But it is a targeted program that should have an ROI attached to it. And at the end of the day, these are issues that are driving costs within the organization already. So take a look at that in terms of what is this? What does this issue actually costing us? And then what can we do to mitigate it, so that at the end of the day, we’re not only achieving of return on investment, are actually engaging our staff, our employees, and they’re seeing us as an organization that cares about them. So there are varying degrees of cost Scott, I’m not gonna lie. But that doesn’t have to cost anything to start shifting culture. It’s just in the messaging. It’s just an how you might be training your staff and your, your managers and supervisors. And being able to identify, some of them might need help, and just having a conversation. So they start small, you don’t have to get into these huge programs start small and build from there.

Scott Peper  22:29

So one of the things I I’ve heard from others is, you know, my company is not that big, yet, I don’t need a wellness program, or I only have, you know, three people in the office and two of them are in and out. What is the right size organization is one too small is one too large to have a wellness program and talk about mental health.

Randy Thompson  22:49

Yeah, it’s a you’re never too small, to be honest. And then that’s very real. I’ve worked with organizations with 10 employees, what I always think about is, the smaller you are, the bigger the impact is going to be. Because in most cases, farther, organizations don’t have the resources available to them to be able to support someone in need. And that person while not being treated, their their loss of productivity is hugely impacting the organization. So often, in many cases, it’s more important for them to have the support and resources that that are available to their staff, that they can help resolve them and get them back to work and get them back to being productive. large organizations can withstand a bit more because of their size and because of their resources. But to me, I always near and dear to my heart is that that National Small Business division, because they’re the ones that are that are mostly impacted by mental health. And they’re the ones that need the support the most. So I would say that it’s just as just as important for smaller organizations to think about mental health as it is for large ones.

Scott Peper  24:00

I personally think even if you were in a very, very large organization, your best method for being able to really communicate this and make an impact is to break it into small groups anyway. So if you are a small business, doing it earlier, and often is even better, because then you’re going to create that culture that as you grow and scale and organize your business, it’s going to be part of the normal internal guidance that new employees, new team members, new leaders come into the organization with and can notice and accept and feel right away. So I think I would agree with you. I think the smaller the better. And if you’re too big, if you’re already big, I think you need to figure out how to make it small, have one big conversation but figure out how to get into small groups as fast as possible.

Randy Thompson  24:46

100% I’m a big fan of pilot projects in a very structured manner. And large organizations. If you’re going to throw this program out to everyone, it becomes so unwieldy. Tough to manage tough to monitor. You’re absolutely right together. Start small small focus group, test it out, reevaluate, see what’s working, see what isn’t make the changes you need in those small groups. And then once you’ve got it right, then it’s time to kind of scale it out to other other departments, again, keeping it small, just kind of building from there, and start off with everyone, all on the same page. It’s tough to manage. So two great points. And one that I often recommend to organizations start small, doesn’t have to be daunting, right? You know, just to talk yourself out of it.

Scott Peper  25:34

So where can someone watching this, go get some information, access to information, free information, ways to educate themselves learn? Is there a book you recommend? Is there a website they can go to? Obviously, your organization is key is is there? What’s part of what’s on your website? Is there others? Where did they go, I want this to be an again, an actionable part of this series that we’re doing is I really want people to be able to watch it be moved, but know where to go next

Randy Thompson  26:00

Absolutely. And there, there are a number of resources available, both online and through text, believe it or not, often recommend organizations, particularly around mental health, I know I talked a bit about please systems programs. And that is kind of my background. But I believe that many of them are underutilized. And they often know more about the organization than then than anyone else, particularly around mental health. So I would definitely want to leverage your EAP a lot more. When it comes to suicide prevention. Of course, the CISSP is a great resource for any any construction company, particularly within the US. And you can access support through CHP through their website, which is prevent construction suicide.com. So that’s the cisp website, there is a challenge out there to all construction industries stand up. Or we’re asking construction companies to take a pledge to stand up to suicide prevention. And there is actually free training, or training that are available at a rebate through the CIASP for these construction organizations. So that makes it affordable for everyone. And it’s just like I talked about earlier about creating awareness, there’s a 90 minute online training called start that we developed at living works and launched about a year ago, where people can learn, you know how to support someone who might be in need of some suicide prevention, support, how to identify someone who may be in need, and be able to approach them have a conversation, and be able to link them to someone who might have a little deeper awareness, a little deeper expertise in suicide prevention. But it’s a great place to start, right? Because we’re all built and everything we do is built for helpers. So this is an opportunity if you want to be a helper to actually access that type of support. Our own website, of course, LivingWorks.net has a number of resources available for folks who want to be a helper. Mate’s Construction is a very famous, very well developed organization out of the out of Australia, where they developed a program where the employees themselves own it, essentially, they run it, they manage it. mates provides the resources that are necessary in the training that are necessary for these individuals. But Mates Construction is really a kind of self-owned suicide prevention program that’s showing great success. You can find them at mates.org.au. And again, just lots of research and data available for folks that are looking for. As we near November. We also are nearing Movember, which is a site that’s geared more towards men, and getting support for mental health for men. So that’s coming up in a few weeks, and we’re excited to be working with Movember as well as part of their suicide prevention initiatives. So Movember.com is another resource for men where 93% of this of the construction industry is male dominated. So I think that’s a good one. Then there’s national support. So the Suicide Prevention Lifeline so always available 24-7 to people through suicidepreventionlifeline.org or the one 800 number one 800 suicide there’s so sorry, Scott. There’s lots.

Scott Peper  29:39

That’s great to know, you know what, in the fact that there’s that many resources out there, I should tell everybody something, you know, we’ll we’ll put up what information we can on our resources page. We’ll make sure that there’s obviously links here associated to this video where everyone can access your information they can find easily find you find your website, your organization, and Get information that way too.

Randy Thompson 30:01

Yeah, absolutely. You can even text 741741. And you’ll get some and someone will respond. Some people see younger people even want to use different modalities to get support, you don’t have to make a call, or you don’t have to serve a website, you can actually get text based support as well.

Scott Peper  30:18

Randy, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this for our group for me, for us, our organization and all of our listeners and customers and potential customers out there. I really think it’s an important topic. It’s something that we certainly are important to us here. And I know it’s important everyone else and is anything man, if we could just have impacted even one person today, then it’s certainly worth our time.

Randy Thompson  30:41

Yeah, absolutely. And I and I know it’s a lot of information at one time. And I’m happy to answer any questions or people want to contact me via email, if I could share that is to have a conversation around the world why start or you know what’s available, I’m more than happy to respond.

Scott Peper  31:00

We’ll include your email. And if you want your phone number as well, please feel free to reach out to Randy. Randy, you’re very gracious with your time. And I really appreciate you sharing your email and number and be willing to talk to folks. That means a lot to us. Thank you.

Randy Thompson  31:13

Absolutely. We’ll get more into that. Just kind of putting it out there today. And he said if we helped a few people great. But by all means, feel free to reach out. It’s not easy to do. But once you do, you’ll be glad you did.

Scott Peper  31:27

And we’ll leave it at that. I don’t think I could finish in a better way. Thank you everyone for joining us. Randy, thank you very much for joining us today and sharing your insights and thoughts.

Randy Thompson  31:37

I can’t thank you enough. I appreciate it.

Scott Peper  31:39

Folks. If you do nothing else, have that meeting. Let people know that you care and let people know what’s on your mind. Have a great day and a great week and keep it going. Thank you very much everyone. Take care

 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Delta Construction Partners is the largest  and most specialized construction recruiting agency. They focus on finding, hiring, and onboarding superintendents, project managers, estimators, designers, and engineers. More than finding a resume that matches a role, Bob and his team built Delta Construction Partners to do something different: to hire the “difference maker” for your organization. Bob built his company based on a core purpose of making life easier for his clients and making work fun for his team.

Full Transcript Below

Scott Peper  0:38

Everybody, welcome to our latest episode of The Real mFers, I’m super excited today to introduce you guys to someone who I’ve become fast friends with or refer to each other as brothers from another mother even. But this is Bob Magnan. He is the CEO and president of delta construction partners. I’m excited specifically to hear from Bob day too, because he’s bringing a whole different spin to the construction world, from the other side, how to find good talent and retain good talent, he runs an amazing business himself, one that I admire and respect just seeing him in the brief time that we’ve known each other. And I’m really excited to bring what he offers and what he’s built to you guys and you guys to hear what he does in his business and how he can help you too. Bob, welcome. Thank you for joining us.

Bob Magnan  1:22

Yeah, thanks for having me, Scott. It’s an honor. Appreciate. appreciate you having me on your show here.

Scott Peper  1:29

Do you mind I’m just for the audience kind of taken maybe a couple minutes, just walk them through high level who you are, where you from? How you started Delta what delta is,

Bob Magnan  1:40

Yeah, sure thing. I started started Delta in 2007. You know, it was perfect timing, you know, the worst construction recession in the history of the world, it’s probably not the most perfect time to start a, you know, construction recruiting business. But somehow we endured, even though my timing wasn’t the best. The first couple years were tough, you know, sat in a small office by myself, and, you know, really just tried to develop a niche and an expertise in the electrical sector. And so our first clients were electrical subcontractors, all over the country, that basically a commercial work, and we went with that niche for the first 10,15, you know, 10,13 years of our company. And in that time, we proved to be the nation’s largest, most specialized, you know, focus, permanent placement recruiting agency that really focused on you know, finding, and hiring, onboarding superintendents, project managers, estimators, designers, engineers, any of the basic management positions, what we did not focus on are the installation position. So the guys that are actually doing all the hard work on the job site. So that’s, that’s kind of the quick, the quick overall summary of where we’re, where we started today from starting, you know, in a small office 200 square feet by myself, you know, we now have about 35, great teams members, and it’s a very high energy passionate, you know, collaborative team culture, and we have a lot of fun every day.

Scott Peper  3:30

Yeah. So if I were to sum it up, you if I’m, if I’m the owner of a electrical contracting company, and I’m growing, and I’m looking for a leadership, talent, and management in engineering, or estimating or those real, more, anything outside of the labor position between me as the owner and the labor force, you I could come to you and you could help me find and retain and hire that talent.

Bob Magnan  3:55

Yes, that’s exactly what we do. And most subcontractors, you know, they’re they’re experts at what they do. And that, you know, the subcontract the business model is a very difficult business model. There’s a lot of moving pieces. So traditionally, most electrical contractors don’t have time to set up, you know, an in house recruiting department, to go find those individuals and qualify them and onboard them that are real difference makers. And that’s what most of our clients are looking for, at least from us, they’re looking for somebody that could add a lot of value to their company, take their company to the next level. And those people are very difficult to find on job boards, you know, like indeed or zip recruiter or monster. Those individuals that are usually listing their resumes. On those job boards are people that are out of work, or usually their employment stability is barely happy. So our clients call us in because we we have the relationships. We have approximately 75,000 electrical construction, and now mechanical construction as well as general construction professionals in our database that we have relationships with. And we’re able to go out and help them on board, you know, them for the great clients that we work for.

Scott Peper  5:18

So, you know, one thing I really want the audience to understand and hear and I don’t know, if I really want them to take this away from what you just said is I have a background in medical, medical device history, I’ve worked in and around, you know, multiple hundred million dollar medical device companies that I was an employee of one point a salesperson, a manager and in different leadership roles. And we always in that business, oh, literally, for almost every position, whether it was sales or marketing, we would always use outside recruiting agencies, and it was part of our budget, and we spent, I mean, they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, hiring and finding talent. And the reason being is it’s so expensive to make a mistake, and train and educate and bring somebody on board to find out that they’re not a good fit culturally, or tantalize. So what I thought was so cool, when I met you, Bob, is that you’re bringing that huge resource to a, to a subcontracting business, that usually is only out there for what is otherwise hundreds of millions of hundred million dollar companies or even billion dollar companies. But for you to have that expertise, and bring that type of value to a smaller, five 610 million, 2 million $1 million dollar business or more is just a really important resource that I don’t think enough people know is out there, or if they do, I don’t think they really understand the value that it brings, and the amount of savings and cost savings it can bring to their business by not making mistakes.

Bob Magnan  6:43

I mean, I mean, you’re hitting the nail right on the head, are our clients expect, expect us to make their lives easier? Right? There, they’re very complicated, you know, from six o’clock in the morning till seven, eight o’clock at night, most of our clients, their hair’s on fire all day long, dealing with General, you know, general contractors or, or owners and, and the various, you know, the labor issues they have all day long design issues, material issues getting paid. I mean, it’s a very complex business model. So, you know, our kind of motto is, you know, we’re going to make your life easier, Mr. subcontractor. And it’s very important to us that, that we succeed in that area. So when an owner of a company gives us an assignment, we understand exactly what they’re looking for. I had the great fortune of working for maybe one of the, you know, top electrical minds in the last, you know, 50 years in our, in our country, maybe even on the planet. And his name was Mitch Permuy. And Mitch founded Power Design, in 1989. And, you know, grew it from the first set of plans on his kitchen table, to now the company is in the $850 million a year revenue range, and growing to probably 1.21 point 3 billion within the next two years. So, you know, it would be like Scott, you had, you know, chance to work for Steve Jobs. Right? Yeah. You know, just being around that energy and that creativity, and that, you know, that brain for a couple of years, you’re going to, you’re going to gain a lot of experience, so and knowledge. And so I had a really good fortune of starting off. For two years working for Power Design, working for directly with Mitch, I kind of shadowed him for three, four hours, you know, every day for two years, and that insight and experience was his, or, you know, millions to me, because I had a chance firsthand to see how a real leader of electrical contractor thinks, right, and how they, you know, how they react to certain situations. So, when I look at a resume now, I see things that I would never be able to see if I hadn’t had that experience. And that gives us and our firm a huge competitive advantage. So it’s proven on a daily basis to help us add a lot of value to our clients lives as well.

Scott Peper  9:22

Yeah, you could have been in the recruiting business and worked with all the medical device recruiters and separated yourself from the others and been just as successful but you chose electrical contracting. And because you have a background in it, you understand it from an owners perspective, you were trained by one of the hot, highly educated, successful company electrical contractors that grew from smaller to 100 and 50 million. And I don’t think you’ve shared this yet, but I happen to know that your dad was a master electrician in the Navy as well.

Bob Magnan  9:52

You know, I always wanted to kind of keep that, you know, the fact that family you know, tie to, you know, to the electrical business going and my dad being a master electrician in the Navy, it just felt like the right thing to do from maybe a DNA standpoint, I was, you know, very proud of my dad. And so that was a feel good type of relationship to what my new career was going to be all about. But besides that is probably, you know, as important.

Maybe more important was the fact that when I worked at Power Design, I had a chance to interact and on a daily basis, you know, talk to project managers and superintendents and interact with them. And I just thought these guys were the salt of the earth kind of guys. And, you know, I had some prior experiences in the brokerage business. And, you know, the difference in personalities and integrity levels is, is significant. So, I just love working with the construction guys, great family, guys, I love performing for my clients. And it was just a lot of fun. And it’s still fun today, it’s not a it’s not a job at all. And every day I come to work in just passionate about being the best construction recruiting firm on the planet. And that’s, that’s our vision.

Scott Peper 11:21

You know, one of the things that I personally focus a lot on in our business, and I think is super important, really is the key separator between success and failure is the culture that you have within your organization. And being passionate about that and speaking about that a lot as much as I can, not only to my own organization, but just in the community and where I’ve learned, one of the things that I was drawn immediately to you just upon walking into meeting you, but walking into your office and meeting your team and your group, is the culture you’ve created there is very clear and evident, and it’s permeated throughout everybody. Can you please talk a little bit about that? Because that’s, that’s not an accident. And you clearly it’s something you worked on and focus on, and you guys live and breathe every day? How did you learn that? Why did you implement it? And what what have you seen beneficial from that? And how do you relate that over to your business,

Bob Magnan  12:12

It was all those those classes I took in college. No, it had nothing to do with my college. Education. Actually, I don’t remember go to classes, I played a lot of baseball in college, but very little class time. So I became a fan of Stephen Covey and the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and went through a couple seminars, couple certifications around the certifications to become a, you know, become covey teacher, and the whole nine yards and what I what I really picked up from that experience was that you know, you can, you can, as a business owner, you can go out and buy anyone’s labor, their hands, you know, their backs, dig a ditch, whatever it is, you can go buy that, right. What you can’t buy is their heart, their passion, right. And that’s where the real magic comes from. When you have team members that are all very passionate about your company’s cause, they understand what that cause is, they have a clear vision of your vision. And then they understand the exact role that they play, and the responsibility they have in taking your company to that special place. It just becomes magical. And so that’s one of the requirements to work at our company. You know, if you’re not passionate about helping people, if you’re not passionate about helping our clients, if you’re not super passionate about being part of a team, that is going to be the best team on the planet, at what we do. It’s not a good word, it’s not a good fit for you, you know, it’s probably a place that’s not going to work out for you in terms of employment, you know, I would encourage you to seek employment elsewhere. Because on a daily basis, we have a passion about getting better, both personally and professionally. So we’re always challenging each other. And it’s, it’s, it’s seamless. I mean, it’s that my my team members challenged me on a daily basis. Bob, did you do your meditation this morning? Bob, did you get your run in the morning? You know, did you get your 20 minutes sweating this morning? You know, Bob, did you do anything for somebody else today? So we have these, you know, the criteria that we think make up what it’s, you know, what it takes to really be a highly effective professional and personal development type of character on a daily basis and, and we stick to it, and it’s a lot of fun.

Scott Peper  14:43

I really appreciate you share that story. How do you relate your culture and what you’ve done in your business? How do you carry that over into the recruiting side when you’re working on behalf of one of your customers?

Bob Magnan  14:54

We share a lot of the things that we do with our with our customers, such as You know, we kind of have a saying around our office, you know, you know, catch people doing things, right. And thank them, you know, give them a pat on the back versus a lot of companies, you know, you that we’ve all worked for that manager that, you know, hey, you know, you did this wrong or, you know, you should have done this way. And I understand there’s, there’s a need for that every now and then. But we, we, we like the culture of catching people doing things right and thank them. So to take off on that, that thinking and that thought, every Friday, we have a we have a lunch meeting which we buy lunch for everybody. And usually their night, you know, we have a nice lunch and, and we go over the week’s goals and how we did and plan for the next week. But we also have what we call is a silver box and silver boxes in our office and all during the week and the silver box. We have team members that put anonymous little statements in there about other team members. And on Friday, we pass the box around, everybody picks two slips of paper out of the box and read them. And it would say something to the effect of you know, if I’m reading one of those slips of paper, it would say, Scott, thank you so much for you know, all your hard work this week, coming in early, staying late. You were You’re a real difference maker, and everyone in the team appreciates it. And, and they’re all you don’t know who it came from. So So that’s kind of cool. Because you try to figure that part out, you know, I wonder who said that nice thing about me. But it’s just nice to get that kind of recognition. And we make it a habit. You know, every Friday, we go through that silver box. And I looked at before I came up here, there must be 100 anonymous, you know, thank yous and in the box are ready for this Friday. And it’s what Wednesday at, you know, 11 o’clock in the morning. So that shows me that my team is engaged, that they take that very seriously. And it’s important to them. It’s an important part of our culture.

Scott Peper 17:04

See, personally, I talked to construction contractors all the time. And I always talk to them about our business, because I want them to feel and understand that just because construction has certain connotations to it, or it’s harder work that that the business Business is business in, and your people are your people and all of these concepts, actually the ones that are the most important to whether your success, or is Matt, the way you want it to or not, is all these principles that we talked about. So even though your business is construction, recruiting, and you would hire someone would hire you to help find them the next best Superintendent they have for their job, what they’re going to get from you aside from a superintendent is awesome beliefs on how to make themselves more successful internally. And those are the additional value points that I think are so key. Getting to what you actually talked about there that when you and your actual business. One thing I’ve heard a lot of subcontractors say to me as Oh, I can’t imagine using recruiters when I brought brought you up or just a thought of a recruiter, they’ll say something like, Oh, those are too expensive. It’s too expensive to hire recruiter. And I was like, well, what’s expensive? And the answer I’ll get is up, they want X amount of thousands of dollar fee. And I said, Well, how much does it cost you? If you hire somebody and they don’t work out? They’re like, well, I just hire somebody else. And you know, I’m not equipped as well as you are to answer that question. But I’m sure that dialogue is something you’ve probably had before. And I think we’d be remiss not to touch on that here today. So if I were to ask you, why is your fee valuable? And why should the people just run to you to pay it? I know what I would say, and why I would do it. But what what do you what would you want a contractor to hear? Hear now. So while they’re watching this, so they say, you know what, he’s right, I need to just do this and say myself?

Bob Magnan  18:54

Well, the generally accepted, you know, facts about what it costs to replace an employee is somewhere around 75% of the person’s first year salary. So if we’re, if you hire a guy $100,000, or he only last six months, it’s going to cost you approximately $75,000 to replace that person. And so what what makes up that 75 grand costs are, you know, the amount of time that your team has to put into training that person, you know, you’re talking about, you know, 50 to 100 hours for this, you know, for the normal person just to be trained on systems, processes, culture, the whole nine yards of software. So, so that’s, that’s a big piece of it. In some instances, it could be a lot more. So there’s a there’s a hard cost to replacing somebody that you just can’t get around. And then, you know, most companies don’t take into consideration that. You know, they may be Great contractors, and they may have their area of specialty terms of construction, but it’s very difficult to do that and to be an effective recruiting operation as well. So most subcontractors at water to people in house, maybe somebody in HR, they’re not proactively out there building relationships, they’re actually just taking resumes in and hoping they’re going to find somebody that works out. Usually, their process of reviewing the resumes, doing background checks, bringing the person in for an interview, is is not that efficient and effective. So, so they’re making a lot of mistakes and Madden, and, you know, we eliminate all that noise, and all those processes. And again, our job because, you know, because our fees are expensive to a lot of clients, as far as how they look at it. Like, for 25, or 35 $40,000, whatever the fee may be, we eliminate, you know, the recruitment, the, the contractor having to go through any of that process, we make our prime contractors lives easier, we only deliver, you know, the best of the best the best candidates, because ultimately, our job is to help that company, go to the next level. And there’s not very many businesses that can take their company from A to B, without having difference makers, right. And those are one out of 100, you know, you know, employees that are out there in the pool, and it’s our job to find that person. So I think we had a lot of value. And I think our track record speaks for itself, you know, we’re entering our 14th year of business, we’re still growing at about 15% a year, and we’ve actually doubled in size in the last six months. So if I seem a little frazzled right now, it’s because we got a lot of action going on right now. So we’re moving into an almost 10,000 square foot office in less than four weeks. So a lot of exciting things happening at Delta. And we’re helping more clients now than ever.

Scott Peper  22:09

That’s awesome. You know, one thing I want to share with everybody that I wasn’t planning on, but it’s so relevant, I’ve made personally, so many mistakes, even here at mobilisation funding, especially here, whether it’s bringing in the wrong people having the wrong people on the team keeping them around too long, I can personally attest to you that the costs of making mistakes and hiring or keeping folks that aren’t a good fit, not implementing your culture, or just keeping people around, has caused me personally, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even some, even some personal relationships. I think it’s also cost me opportunity costs of success are especially early on and nearly failure in many cases. Matter of fact, better luck. without some lock, I probably would have failed not had the business because I didn’t have the right people around me and I kept the wrong people around me too long. And if I could have shorten that gap going back if if nobody takes anything else from this, if I could shrink the gap between where I am now and where we started by literally paying, what would it what would be about less than 1% of the cost of the money that I probably lost, to buy Bob, to find me the right talent where I could have stayed on top of a situation that wouldn’t have become a problem because I didn’t have to do all the things I was doing. Or I didn’t get intellectually lazy in my hiring process and just check for a pulse and say, Oh, you sound good. Let’s do it. And we’re in a great spot. Today, we have a great business, we have a great group. But what we’re going to be in three years from now, I probably might even be right now here right now, if I had this advice, or watched what you’ve told me, and I took it to heart and implement it. One of the things I really want you to talk about, we when COVID hit like yourself, we decided that mobilization funding our team that we were going to, we were going to define ourselves in the most looking back at COVID. And say this is one of the greatest times of our company’s history. And what we did, when that happened, doubling down on what we were going to do, how we were going to help people integrating the business really challenging ourselves has made a huge difference for us. And we like yourself are in a great stretch right now and growing. And I think we’re helping people better and doing things even better. And I know you are too. Why don’t you talk with just from a business perspective as an owner, what you did when COVID came about how you used your your human talent, your team and where you guys are now what tell them what you did, because I think it’s pretty impressive.

Bob Magnan  24:36

Sure that you know, very specifically when COVID hat COVID first came out number one, as you pointed out earlier, we got lucky because construction was considered you know, exempt from you know, any shutdowns Basically, there were some sites that were shut down projects but you know, we were able to stay in business, which a lot of companies did not have that good fortune, whether you’re, you know, hair salons or whatever. So we got lucky in that sense. And we’re very grateful for that. But, you know, I went through probably about a week of being really angry at our government, you know, being pissed off and, you know, throwing a pity party for myself, Why me? You know, March was a march was the best month into 2020 in the history of my company, and then COVID happen. I’m just like, you know, this isn’t funny God, you know, this is bad timing, you know, I don’t appreciate your sense of humor right now. So I did go through about a week or so of not probably responding in the most positive way. And then whether it was my wife, or some divine intervention, or my team members, I saw it a different way. And I said, you know, let’s get aggressive, let’s get proactive. We’re going to go out, and we’re going to find 15 new clients, that’s our plan. And so we expand it. And, and, and sped up the process of opening up a few new divisions. So we have a general construction division. Now that’s really kicking butt. We have a mechanical manufacturing division that we’ve picked up 16 new clients in the last two months, we have an engineering division, that we picked up about 20 new clients in the past three months, and we’re opening up probably the biggest division of all, it’s going to be a renewable energy division. So we did all that, within the last six months, hired account managers, for each division, each division is making two or three placements 75,000 $100,000 in revenue a month right now. And so it’s messy, because we’re still in systems and processes and integration stages. But we’re sticking to our core values, which basically is, you know, continuously make our clients lives easier, right, as long as we provide the best of the best of the best candidates, to our clients or businesses like yourself, those leaders, those difference makers, make your life easier. Right. And, and that’s really where, you know, we get all of our repeat business from, there’s really nowhere else our clients can go to get the level of service and the quality of the candidates that we deliver. So that’s what we try to stay focused on, you know, always delivering the best candidate possible for for that search.

Scott Peper  27:35

A couple quick questions for you, before we wrap up that I was really interested in getting your kind of lightning round opinion on so to speak. The first or what is there one or two things that you when you talk into an initial customer of yours or client of yours that you that you say, you know, what, there’s one or two three things here, that really I can tell determine success or failure and in a client for their business?

Bob Magnan  27:58

You know, I love working with clients that are pushing themselves, whether you know, no matter what area of their lives, it may be, or their business, right? So they’re, they’re always committed to, you know, building the best project and adding the most value to their clients lives. And, you know, of course, there’s the fundamental, you know, we want to be around people that like to have fun. People that in clients have a high level of honesty and integrity companies that you know, want to hire you that are looking for a partner, and not just a recruiting company to make a placement. So we, you know, we go way beyond just making placements for our clients, we just we love working for clients that are really looking to become the best of the best at what they do.

Scott Peper  28:46

Is there any size company, whether it’s in revenue, or maybe employee size that you find are have a higher chance of success than others?

Bob Magnan  28:54

Well, we’ve helped a lot of companies, you know, go from, from 10 million to 100 million over the last 10 years. And so that was always fun to it’s always fun to work with smaller companies, because in the case of the company I just mentioned, we helped them find a general manager when they were very small. And that General Manager turned out to be a superstar. And he helped them grow a couple new divisions, and they’re in Chicago right now. They’re the largest merit shop electrical contractor in Chicago, and they’re probably gonna do 125 100 30 million this year. So that was a lot of fun to know that, you know, the one or two key employees that we help them find 10 years ago, are still there. And they built a tremendous company.

Scott Peper  29:39

What What about the companies that are a couple million dollars? Do you see that you can benefit them in the same exact way?

Bob Magnan  29:45

Going from one or two to 10? Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, our fees is a little more challenging for you know, a very small electrical contractor or, you know, any subcontractor or any company, you know, if you’re doing a couple million dollars in revenue So I’m always offering, you know, flexible terms and in fees to make it right, to make it the right fit for that company. And sometimes it’s a lot more fun working for a smaller company where you find a one person, and it helps them double the size of their company in two or three years. So I get a lot of joy, I get a lot of, you know, satisfaction. from doing that. We’ve, we help a lot of companies that do a billion dollars a year in revenue, you know, so anywhere from a couple million to, you know, there’s a few mechanical electrical contractors that do four or $5 billion a year in revenue.

Scott Peper  30:40

You’ve shared a lot of insight and things that I can tell are important to you and I think are really valuable. Is there anything that you wish you heard early in your career, that you go back and tell yourself right now that, you know,

 

Bob Magnan 30:51

Yeah, just whether you’re a mechanical, electrical general contractor, you know, the key, one of the key, you know, fundamental places, you know, things that you want to have a place is just surround yourself with the best possible people. If you’re the if, you know, if you’re the smartest guy in the room, you know, that’s probably not necessarily a good thing. So I like to surround myself with a lot of very smart people. And I wish I would have done that earlier in my career. I think my ego got in the way a lot and, and that cost me a lot of time and money.

Scott Peper  31:29

I hope you guys all heard that. Ego gets in the way. And as soon as you can park it speaking for myself personally, as well, as soon as you can park that ego is when you really see the success doors open up, for sure.

Bob Magnan  31:42

Well, I say stay humble and grateful for for what I have and appreciate of all the things I’ve got, you know, things go go pretty well. And I think more clear,

Scott Peper  31:53

no, I had another question for you. But I’m not going to ask it because there’s nothing more important than what you just said. And that’s the best way to end it here. But I really, truly thank you and your whole team, because I know it takes a lot to get us get this together. And I really thank you for taking the time to share your insights, your wisdom and your guidance. And I hope everybody got a lot out of this. I certainly did myself, I just appreciate you all taking the time to listen to us today. Bob, thank you very much for your time, your insights, sharing your team, thank you for what you’ve done for me. And thank you for what you’ve done for the folks that I’ve referred to you already. I’ve got nothing but positive feedback for them. And I’m grateful for that. Thank you.

Bob Magnan  32:30

Yeah, thank you very much for having me on, Scott. I really appreciate it and we got a big game six with the lightning. Probably tomorrow night. So go Tampa Bay Lightning. And I’ll see you around soon, Scott. Thanks again.

Scott Peper  32:46

That’s right. Go lightning. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day.

 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai