Monroe Porter gets his point across with humor. He started off his session, “How to Survive and Prosper as a Hardscape Contractor,” by telling a joke he said explained that everything is all about perception. He said that’s an important part about running a business – how people see you. He then asked the group to randomly cheer and clap as loudly as possible, so the sessions on either side of the room would think they had picked the wrong session, because Porter’s was having more fun.
“Don’t assume people know that because you do a good job, you’re better than the competition,” he said.
Porter said that when it comes to mixing life and business, you have to remember they’re connected. While a screwed up personal life doesn’t always mean you’ll have a screwed up business, a screwed up business you will definitely lead you to a screwed up personal life.
“If you work all the time, don’t have any money and are always stressed out, life is going to suck,” he said.
Monroe said the first rule of contracting is make money to grow, don’t grow to make money.
“Growth is not your friend,” he said. “Whatever you’re not good at multiplies. It’s all about getting the right business structure. Fix the business first, then grow.”
Porter said there are four kinds of business cycles: wonder, blunder, thunder and plunder.
Wonder is when you’re just starting the business and you “wonder what the hell you’re doing.” In the beginning, your business does well because you have no marketing expense, everything is by referral and you did it all yourself. It’s good work at cheap prices.
Blunder is when you’ve grown a little, so now you’re barely making a living, but you don’t change anything to make it better. You’ve hired more employees, and according to Porter, most contractors go broke between four and eight employees.
Thunder is when you’re on the top. You know your costs, you know what you’re making and you’re making money. According to Porter, 5 percent of the market is in this category.
Plunder is when you start to unintentionally step away from the business. “Plunder is when you send your employees to this class and they learn to get into the business themselves because you’re not paying attention anymore,” Porter explained. Because your business doesn’t want to change, the younger employees with talent leave and start their own business that competes with yours.
“It’s true of everything,” Porter said. “It’s what life is about. A lot of times it’s easier to get to the top than stay at the top. Business is not forgiving.”