Our teams hear it all the time, “I want to grow my company, I just can’t get to that next level!”
Look, we’re not business coaches, but we do know a lot about how businesses in the trades can take the next steps in their financial success, and the answer is simple: make more time and you’ll make more money.
See, every company under the sun operates with the same amount of time available to them in each day, and the ones that are really raking it in are the ones that make the most of every second of the day.
Here’s a hard fact, though – most smaller companies don’t want to acknowledge that, even as the skilled men and women who operate them waste time each day.
It’s even worse if you are called on to work remotely!
Sitting in traffic, forgetting about a tool or critical supply you have to have to finish the job and then having to leave the site in the middle of the day to go and get it, PLUS that drive home each day.
It’s hard to stomach anyone telling you you’re not using your time effectively when you’ve been gone from home for fifteen hours on a big job that’s going to keep you busy all week.
But maybe, just maybe, they’re right.
Think about it like this: You’ve won the bid on a job with a gross profit to you of $5,000. The actual job – the true work to be done – is only about 30 hours. That comes out to $166/hour.
That’s a pretty good deal, IF you can keep those hours manageable.
But what about all that windshield time?
What about all the runs to the warehouse?
The parts store?
Pretty soon, a job that could have been done in three long days has ballooned into a job that’s going to take all week, and now, when you factor in the extra time of not having the right tools and not being able to finish in a timely fashion, you’ve lost two good days that could have been spent on another site.
Or handling the administrative side of your business.
Or having fun with your family and friends.
When you added in all that extra time you’ve had to spend, the hours have nearly doubled and guess what?
You took a pay cut.
Now, this example isn’t about telling you how to run your business, but it is about telling you that having all the tools and supplies you need – when you need them – is a critical way to give yourself a raise without charging one penny more for your services.
In other words, becoming more efficient in the work to be done.
For example, think of a mobile mechanic. He (or she) has to have enough experience to know what tools are actually necessary to handle the majority of the work to be done in the field.
Recently, in fact, our team upfitted a van (yes, a van… not a truck) for true mobile use in agriculture, handling all the maintenance concerns you might encounter on today’s farm equipment. This is a classic case of “less is more,” because the goal is simple: take care of all the regular maintenance this equipment needs without losing any time in transport. You can’t run a fifteen ton combine to the quick-lube for an oil change. That half-million-dollar asset needs to be earning money!
At the same time, our mobile mechanic needs to be able to haul everything with them to the job, and things like onboard air, power inverter, ample workspace and plenty of storage means that when they get to the job, they’ll have the tools and the supplies they need right there. Just as importantly, having all the tools necessary means that not only can a mobile mechanic handle the regular maintenance, they have all the supplies necessary to handle those pesky “surprises” that always crop up – the frayed wires from a rodent, the bad solenoid and even the regulator that always needs to be smacked to work properly.
It all fits in the van in its own special place, ready to make our mechanic money – and save them time.
If you’re trying to grow your company and recognize that time is far too valuable to waste, then give the Expertec team a call at 1-888-435-6466 or reach out to us right here. Upfitting a van or truck to handle the real work you do might be the fastest way to put more money in your pocket and give you more time in every week.
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