I Could Do Better

I came back in from the Thanksgiving holiday feeling pretty good about myself. I took full advantage of the time off and traveled to go see my parents in North Alabama, where I laid around, ate way too much, and then watched my favorite football team pull off a huge upset win over our rival. Paradise. I considered it all time well spent, and life was good. Until something changed my mind…

On Monday, our owner, Taylor Blackwell, and I were catching up and sharing what we had done over the break. His few days of “vacation” were much different than mine. Over his Thanksgiving holidays, he traveled down to Santa Rosa Beach, FL, where he and several of his family members competed in a 10K marathon… So, while I was bellied up to the table with my stretchy pants on, he was running 6.2 miles as fast as he could, finishing in the top 25% of several hundred runners.

Taylor is basically old enough to be my dad, and he’s currently in better shape than I’ve ever been at any point in my life. Hearing him tell his story made me drop my head, making me stare right at my belly that was now about 3 pounds heavier after the last week. I’m not writing this to shame anyone (except maybe myself a little), and there’s nothing wrong with relaxing and enjoying traditional family time over the holidays. We aren’t all fitness junkies, and I have little interest in running unless I’m being chased, but I think we’d all agree that we could do a little better. And I’m not just talking about health.

The problem is, many times we feel like we’re “doing just fine” until the moment someone else comes along and reminds us what our lives could look like if we did even a little bit better. Sometimes little changes or small alterations in your lifestyle can produce huge results in your health, mood, relationships and in your business. Sometimes comparison is unfair and can even be dangerous because we’re all different, but where would we be if we didn’t challenge and drive each other to be better?

So, let’s get past the fitness comparisons, where I’m admittedly no expert, and move on to an area where I am. 2020 could be a huge year for you to change and improve your business. But will it happen? This really comes down to two questions you must ask yourself.

The first is simply, “Do I think I need to do better?” Remember the first part of my story, when I was happy as a lark and squeezing into my slightly tighter pants before finding out that other people actually run marathons on Thanksgiving? You know, instead of losing self-control in pans of dressing? Have you ever spoken with someone else in your trade and had your eyes opened by how they do things? You spend WHAT on marketing each year? You follow up how many times? Your customers hear from you how often? You have how many homeowners enrolled in service agreements?

The more you talk with others, the more likely you are to run across some true go-getters in this industry and catch a glimpse of what could be. Some are investing the time, money and resources needed to truly control their markets, and they have the discipline to keep it up. But while the ones with an all-out “running marathons on Thanksgiving”-type drive might be few and far between, I speak with contractors every single day who are finding small ways to outwork their competition. And that pays dividends too. You’d be shocked at how much a 1-2% increase in marketing spend, if handled right, could change your business and your personal standard of living.

It’s within reach, but it’s your decision as to whether you truly want to do better or not. You might ask, why would someone not want to get better? Well, there are different reasons for this, and they’re not all wrong. I know several contractors who are running at capacity with the trucks and employees they have, they’re bringing home the salary they want and they’re just flat out content. In some situations, growth means hiring more employees, maybe buying new equipment and additional headaches. There is a reason the term “growing pains” is a thing, and some contractors simply don’t want to deal with it.

But let me warn you of this… if you’re happy with what you’ve got, there is someone out there that is working hard to come and take it.

Einstein called people insane who tried the same thing over and over and expected the results to be different. If you’ve fallen into a holding pattern and are doing the same thing year in and year out, don’t expect growth. And I’ll even add to Einstein’s quote and tweak it for the business world. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, don’t expect the results to be the same… expect them to consistently get worse.

The writing is on the wall. So, ask yourself, “Do I think I need to do better?” But even if you said yes, buckle up because the battle is far from over.

The next question is where true changes occur. “Am I willing to do better?” Seeing the things we should be doing and identifying the better choice in most situations is not hard at all. I mean, we know we should be more on top of things, taking better care of ourselves, showing more love to our customers, etc., right? So, the difference is this. When you’re inspired and you see examples that investing in your business works or feel pressure from a competitor and know changes need to be made, do you DO them? Do you get to work or do you take on an attitude of, “That’d be nice if…” and forget all about it in a few days?

How many times have you gone to a seminar and come back with a notebook full of ideas that could change everything for you, but that notebook was never opened again after you got home? It’s stacked safely in a corner with 5 other notebooks full of good ideas collecting dust. Successful people aren’t just dreamers, they’re implementers, even if it’s just one small change at a time.

Let’s be real. No one ever said growing a business was easy. There will be long hours, sacrifices, investments that make you uncomfortable and times where it hurts. But keeping the status quo rarely leads to you sitting on a beach with a drink in your hand.

Taylor runs every morning, keeps a very strict diet and trains endlessly for the marathons he runs. I’m going to start small and make a commitment to walk every day and push away from the table a little quicker. It may not sound like much, but I bet by this time next year I’ll be glad he inspired me to make a change.

Sometimes we need to know where we stand in order to know if we’re behind and need to kick it up a notch. Do you know what’s going on in your industry? If you‘re in the HVAC field, Hudson,Ink has just released our State of the Industry Report: 2019 Trends for HVAC Companies. Click the link to get your copy before they’re gone!