L&L had the chance to sit in on two days of columnist Jim Huston’s brainstorming session in Jackson Hole, Wy. Forty contractors from 19 companies participated in the 2 ½ day workshop where topics ranged from hiring methods, to marketing strategies, to choosing the right clients. Below is a round-up of topics discussed and what contractors had to say about them. Ed. note. Due to this being a private brainstorming session, L&L did not identify or quote contractors.
Employees. Finding quality employees wasn’t the only problem when it comes to hiring. Finding any employees was a common issue among those in attendance. In addition, once you’ve found some keepers, contractors struggled to create ways to make the job enticing to stay. Solutions suggested:
• Pay to send them to training workshops. They come back pumped up because they feel they’ve bettered themselves and are especially proud of the certifications they received. The actual paper certificate is something your workers can be proud of and it gives them confidence that they can do their job the right way.
• Pay tuition for employees. If your employees are interested in going to school, or back to school, pay the bill. This can help to show that you value growth as a company, and you may also be able to write it off when tax time comes. If state law allows, you may be able to write into the payment agreement that the employee has to stay at the company a certain amount of time before leaving. You can also write into the agreement the employee must maintain a certain grade point average.
• Transportation reimbursement. Make the ride into work a little more enjoyable by paying for mileage if they drive in, or take care of their bus or train fare if they use public transportation.
Incentive programs. A little extra money for employees can go a long way. And the financial incentive doesn’t have to be for extra work or a job done especially well. It can be for tasks they should be accomplishing, but maybe they have prioritized some as high as you have. If you are seeing crews slip at some practices you feel are important, like cleaning out their trucks, add those to a list (check with employee that they are able to accomplish the tasks, first.) If a crew can check off those items every day for a certain amount of time, reward them with a bonus.
You can also implement a safety bonus — if no accidents are reported for a month, give out a cash bonus or cater lunch.
Vetting clients. A long heard complaint from contractors is the time it takes to travel to a lead, and then meet with that lead, only to find out the customer isn’t close to fitting the criteria of an ideal customer. Instead of meeting the potential customer in person, take the time to vet them on the phone. Tell them what your minimum budget is, and if they balk at that, there’s a good chance they won’t be a fit. One contractor said he was only getting 30-40 percent of the leads he was visiting in person, and now is up to 95 percent by questioning them more in depth on the phone.
Marketing. Many ideas were tossed around – all with varying degrees of success. Post cards were a hit for one contractor, while a client tagging a company in a Facebook photo resulted in six figures worth of work. Those were anomalies, but the point was you have to try different methods to find out what works in your area. A number of contractors used money from their marketing budget to repaint their trucks one color with a logo, and found success using those as marketing tools. Huston said one of his clients painted a trailer like a billboard and had an employee just drive around town to be seen.
Online presence. While most in attendance said an online presence was necessary, which avenues to take were debated. Yelp was not a popular website due to the amount of negative comments it has. One contractor experienced a potential client create a Yelp account for the contractor’s company, just to post a negative remark. The person was never a client, but the contractor put in a bid to work on the person’s property. They felt it was too expensive and went to Yelp to express their dismay. The lesson was you have to take control of your online presence, which includes creating your own Yelp account before someone else does.
One other site discussed was Houzz. A few contractors got leads from the site, and one contractor was able to get nine positive reviews from clients. The contractor simply asked clients who were happy with a job to post a review. She emailed the clients and explained how to post the review, which lead to more job opportunities.
Overall, contractors were experiencing the same pains and successes L&L has heard recently. Business was good, but finding employees is difficult. None in attendance complained of business being down, but some would like it to be more successful in certain service areas. Huston also went over the amount each position should be paid and generate in revenue. To find out more about those wages, check out Huston’s Benchmarking Your Business in the November L&L.