Yes that’s the greatest link to blogging and success in a contracting business. If you don’t believe me, then just look up the “benefits of writing” and you’ll see.

Good writing habits make for better verbal skills and confidence. Why should that matter? Think of it like this, if your delivery is bad during estimates then maybe that’s why your are missing out on jobs. It’s not always about price. What if you overlooked critical details in explaining the extra steps you take when installing a window? You have thus failed to justify your price.

Writing brings mental clarity. Good writing has to be concise. We’re only so lucky to have digital writing at hand these days. People are always talking about “the greats” like Thoreau, Shakespeare, etc… When they wrote they didn’t have delete. Ball up the paper and start over. Avoiding the overflowing trash can required really concise writing and real mental acuity. That seems to be a lost art given the ever increasing electronic noise around us daily coupled with autocorrect. It numbs our senses without fail.

The next time you’re out spending 2-3 hours sucking down beer and wine at a networking event with peers and you say that you don’t have time to blog then you’re missing out. To differentiate yourself as a contractor or any kind of service professional, then the answer isn’t more time on Facebook or networking. It’s in your delivery and conversion rate from lead to customer that the biggest stride in a business is made.

I have a strategy that I want to share when I find myself wanting to put off the important things in life and sit around being lazy:

1) Get coffee into your brain (if you don’t like coffee then try Yerba Mate)- I don’t encourage sugary or even artificially sweetened energy drinks because they will yo-yo your mood in a matter of hours.Coffee and Mate are great for getting your neurons firing, lifting your mood, have a more prolonged effect. In addition, as long as you don’t use sweeteners in your coffee you don’t have to worry about a strong glycemic crash. At the same time, try to eat a high protein/low carbohydrate meal.

2) Listen to or watch something cool briefly- After I sit down with the coffee if I’m having a slow morning, I throw on a really kickass mountain bike movie and watch it for a little bit. The scenes get me inspired visually and I know that if I want to once again return to endurance mountain bike racing (a big goal in the next two years) that I can do that right now by going to the gym. It’s an investment in my future and watching an inspiring movie makes the motivation stick. I left out reading, because it gets my brain into too much of an analytical mood and then I find myself starting to philosophize and reason out why it’s okay to skip another day.

3) Do something physical FIRST- It’s so easy to get a phone call while you’re re-setting your motivation and say “yes I’ll be there for an estimate”. Do that AFTER you work out. Healthy bodies create healthy attitudes, which fosters success. If you wait until after a sales call to do your workout  you never know what combination of things will make you put it off another day, digging the hole of motivation even deeper.

I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV, but if you use Google the phrase “effect of exercise on mood”, you’ll see why I wrote this. Marketing and website tactics are only about 20% of what drives a business. The real motor to any business is the salesperson behind that marketing and if you are lethargic and groggy in your communication during estimates, then nothing else really matters. If you’re off today, then try my approach tomorrow morning and let me know what happens.

Social Media/iPhone- It’s so amazing how technology has made convenience into a distraction. I mean seriously I feel like if I’m not holding my phone and checking email or Facebook, that I need to be watching TV. This habit is pretty bad because I was forgetting to write up estimates but sure did know what all my friends were doing. My fix: I deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone and it won’t return. No more dinging noises or any of that. It’s time for me to do better things with life.

Too many websites and blogs: I’ve written about this before with finding a very limited number of websites to use for information in order to manage time. Time to slap my own hand for disobeying because I was reading way too much and simply getting overwhelmed and confused. My fix: I’m subscribing to only three RSS feeds and going to allow only those updates to come to my Google reader.

Eating the wrong stuff and justifying it by going to the gym: Halloween just happened and guess who snags a small candy bar from the kids every now and then. I know, I know but they have plenty so I don’t feel like the grinch. The cycle just starts from there. Sugar and Oregon winters are a bad combination for your mood. Couple that with using “I went to the gym” as an excuse and you’re on a collision course for slipping. My fix: I’m giving myself a 52 day challenge to lose 15 lbs, which requires stepping up the game. Why 52 days, because I’m not going to wait until January 1st to begin what I could be doing now. When that day comes around I’ll already be that much further ahead of the pack. Instead of an arbitrary date, I’m using the strength of a new behavior coupled with a publicly acknowledged goal (keep me in check guys) to get ahead.

I’m registered to an online blogging school called Traffic School and so far it’s been okay, but sort of repetitive until the most recent lesson. I finally heard a popular blogger say something besides “have great content”. Everett Bogue talked about using exercise and being healthy as a primary key to having a sharp mind in order to write good content. Now that’s a killer insight that’s outside of the normal advice of “just go get on Facebook” and it will be okay.

I’m going to add a final thought to avoiding falling into the volcano of distractions. Keep the right sources of inspiration around: good music, books, magazines, movies and anything else that steers you back in the right direction. Go back to the good stuff that you loved at your best moments of success. The pitfalls of distraction are necessary to teach you a lesson sometimes. I’m going to use the time and mental sharpness I will regain to rethink and adapt to the marketplace so that we keep our momentum despite a slight dip in the market.

Do you need to de-tune?

I’m done with all of that. I’m still going to inform, but I’m also dedicating a category to what my daily life is like while juggling my contracting business, marketing business, and keeping the family at the top of the priority list. Everything that got me here is a story and all parts of it built and continue to build my character.

I’m grateful for the experiences in my life that I’ve had. I’ve grown up in the south and left after college. One of the best experiences I had was that my father and I rode horses since I was age five. He had a quarter horse and I had a black and white pony that just wouldn’t quit. Thinking back, I feel like I learned about being competitive and strong from that pony because we were connected to each other until I grew so tall that my feet were about the drag the ground. I remember that my dad had to punch extra holes in the saddle so the stirrups would go longer than they were originally made.

I spent the better part of at least one day a week in my childhood on the weekends riding horses alongside the adults in the 80′s. I’m grateful for a few things; they weren’t easy on me when I wanted to whine and they listened to all the chattering that came out of my mouth all day long. Even though I was around eight years old, a few of the guys in the group, one in particular, would play pranks on me that ultimately tested my riding skills and improved them. The guys would run up and smack my pony on the butt when we were walking and he would take off and a race would begin. On other occasions they would take the bridle off my pony and run off so I had no control of him while he took off in chase. Like I said, my pony was competitive and sometimes it meant holding on during unplanned racing.

The funny part about all of this is that some people these days would have reported my parents to social services for letting me be around that kind of crazy behavior. In the long run, it’s the glue that made me tough. Sometimes I would fall off but I learned to cry it off and keep riding. People spend thousands of dollars on riding lessons and still never pick up on the balance and positioning that you learn when you are riding with no reins at a full gallop. The races would end and even though I had been scared crazy I felt a little tougher inside and earned respect from the adults. I also learned how to take a joke and get over myself.

The crowd of riders we rode with were a big part of my life and they were humble fun loving people. That’s always been the crowd for me and whenever I’m around people whose lives are built on status and seriousness I sort of feel sorry because they likely missed out on that balance of humility that makes us genuine. My life and business have always felt more in tune as I’ve chosen to build a network of friends and customers that were of a like mind instead of opening the door to everyone who seemed like they would be a financial benefit to me first. I’m glad I had a great childhood with great parents who gave me the best experiences in being real since day one.

If you’re wondering what I mean, I’m simply talking about the trusted people on the web who provide you information throughout the week or counsel you in your business. The internet has led to a proliferation of web/social media “experts”, so screening your resources is essential. Here’s a quick checklist for judging value:

1. Has this person ever owned a successful business? I’m often surprised by the number of people running marketing businesses that you could start just by reading a few books and blogs that make no mention of owning a business. The experiences of owning a successful business give you a “rubber meets the road” level of accountability when you dish out advice.
2. Is their content original? Content publishing with the ease of WordPress and other blogging platforms has led to a lot of “re-purposing” (i.e. plagiarism) within the blogosphere. I would venture to guess that Twitter would be the easiest platform for content fishing if you were looking to steal.
3. Are they offering advice or just populating a blog?  A blog from an expert is generally written to make you think and learn in order to improve something in your life or business. Frequent posts that do not yield actionable ideas for you do nothing but clutter your day with time loss. Quality over quantity is a social media rule that is often forgotten.

The most valuable asset you have in your business is your time, which you can used to develop new strategies to succeed and become more efficient in operations. Be selective if you are listening to or hiring someone for advice for your business or marketing. Time wasted in your business is time lost with your family and friends.

The past week has been a real pain in the ass because we’ve been working on one of the most difficult floors I’ve ever done. The floor was a tinted sealer over a dark stain. Honestly the finish has to be applied 100% perfectly. There is no room at all for lap lines, heavy areas, etc… because it will show. We finally got the floor right on the third attempt. We learned a number of technical details about the finish along the way.

The very first time we applied finish on the upstairs it looked great. The downstairs turned into a total trainwreck when we applied the sealer. It was so frustrating that I even walked across the wet floor and left footprints. The project manager at the time for the remodeling company saw the footprints while we were at lunch. He called another project manager who was the epitome of an asshole. I don’t use profanity much while writing but I need to paint the picture of the perfectly manicured, yet rugged looking know-it-all project manager for a medium sized construction company. The snowball rolled downhill and we were on the phone with three different “bosses” explaining why we weren’t perfect and how we would fix the problem.

During attempt number two I decided to use a different application method and have more helpers present while I coated. That turned out even worse for a number of reasons. I mostly believe that I was so high-strung because of the dealings with several overbearing project managers that I couldn’t even think straight. After that attempt went sideways, I was fully prepared to throw in the towel if they were tired of us working on the project. Fortunately, Rick (our actual project manager who is really cool) returned from vacation and listened to things and gave us the window we needed in order to succeed.

After two failed attempts and having to refinish the same floor three times I was pretty well burned out and in need of a reason to believe I would succeed. I am the type who likes to get through the tough times and go take a quick vacation for a day or two with the family to blow off steam and refresh my brain. You see, the boys have just started riding bikes with no training wheels and the adventures are just waiting. After spending about six nights awake thinking about the floor and even dreaming about the floor I had developed what was a logical plan for success.

The confidence to pull off my plan couldn’t just come from being tired of the floor. Instead I reasoned it out that if I pulled off this floor I wouldn’t be in for a storm of problems and could go on vacation with my wife and two boys. That was enough for me to change what I SHOULD do into what I MUST do. We went in at 8:30am and coated half of the floor and stopped and took a break to regroup. After about 45 minutes, we restarted and pulled off the other side (which ended up being even harder) and I was so relieved. I was as good as on vacation..

When you’re ever doubting where you are headed and thinking about rough times I encourage to find a reason to succeed other than your own ego. Your dreams and success will definitely become a reality if you involve other people in the vision. I use my family as my own fuel to succeed when times are tough. I think about the two boys Dustin and Caleb. To them daddy can accomplish anything and that’s enough for me. Let the rest of the world wallow in the language of a “tough economy” and while they’re distracted go succeed for someone in your life you love instead of just your own ego.

Then you don’t get it. Let’s fix that!

This thought seems to be stuck in contractor’s heads these days. The thoughts in your head fully affect your actions and your confidence. Having the thought in your head “I really need to get this job” is a product of insufficient workload and phone calls.

What happens when the work and the phone calls are slow to non-existent? Most likely:

1. The busy factor-You bid projects with the primary thought of getting work to stay busy. Staying busy is bullshit and I mean that. I could stay busy collecting cans while I live under a bridge. That doesn’t cut it when you have a family. The only fix when times are tougher is to be a better business owner.
2. Rushing estimates- When your primary sub-conscious thought is keeping the hopper full of work instead of keeping a healthy profit margin you’re on a slippery slope. It’s not wrong to think this way because our primary instinct as human beings is to survive, not to drive around with big bank accounts and Hummers. What’s wrong is to be so worried about getting work that you forget to display your knowledge during an estimate by asking about all of the details that matter.
3. Working in the field- Working on your own jobs is a poor leveraging of your own time and talents if you are an entrepreneur or business owner. If good help in the trades (except plumbing and electrical) is averaging around $18/hour then you’re literally paying yourself $36K per year when you’re working on your own jobs. If you can replace yourself for $18/hour and earn three fold more jobs by doing marketing and sales for your company, then you just raised your net salary to $108K. I don’t recommend paying yourself that much right away, but you get my analogy.

Remember that the rules of earning a sale or new business are flexible especially in the face of the internet. Twenty years ago business success literally was a factor of advertising budget and the bigger the budget the more print ads and television ads you could run. The playing field has leveled my friend. How is that possible? Blogging, Youtube, Facebook, etc… Heck even writing an article about the importance of detailed planning on remodeling for local papers and magazines will get you exposure.

I’m going share a secret about why I wrote this post. When you worry about “If I don’t get it” then it literally stifles your creativity and drive. Do you really want to run a dam good business instead of a so-so business? Then relax and take tomorrow off and go draw up your future in a notebook. After that I want to hear about it from e-mail or phone. Otherwise you just wasted time reading my post and you might as well keep walking in circles trying to figure it all out for yourself.

Let’s start a movement of proud, well paid artisans instead of just being order takers because the media says how bad the economy is. That’s just a distractor for the weak minded sheep of the world.

Not checking references- When I hired my first employee he had what appeared to be a great resume and when we talked on the phone and met in person seemed like a really reliable and honest person. It became apparent to me within a month that he had inflated his skillset a lot when I saw his skills in action. I also believe that he needed glasses, but that’s another issue. I never called his references and I just took his word because I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Becoming their friend- The boundary must be established right away that you’re not the drinking buddy of your employee. After firing my first employee, the second guy I hired became my casual beer drinking buddy after the job was done. This was a big mistake because he started to assume that we were “cool” and started to take advantage of the company vehicle policy and working hours. Be someone who your employees admire because of your skills and attitude not their friend or drinking buddy.

Hiring your employees former co-workers- About a year ago one of my employees knew I was looking to fill a spot and recommended his co-worker. He swore to how appreciative this guy would be to work at our company and he would fit right into our business. I hired him from a steady job (that he didn’t like) and put him to work. Right off the bat I could tell that the guy wasn’t a fit and I wanted to fire him the first week for performance. Because I had taken him from a steady job, I felt guilty letting him go. Things got a little better in his performance, but never his attitude. I eventually let him go and regret not trusting my intuition the first week I hired him. Firing people is not easy, but the relief afterwards ALWAYS is worth more than the stress from having the talk.

Here are a few quick tips to add to your search:

• Let your job description work for you. When posting an ad I recommend asking detailed questions that the person has to answer when applying.
• No references=equals the delete button-No explanation needed
• Misspellings and poor grammar- People who do not have the energy to proofread their resume or an e-mail when applying for a job WILL ultimately be sloppy in workmanship.
• Attitude is everything-Make sure that applicants have a good one that matches your style. Team players are a key. Avoid instigators and people who think they know it all.
• Don’t hire on price alone- A lot of my friends hire guys at $15/hour and complain about babysitting their quality. Why not hire a guy at $20/hour who requires very little of your time? That’s only $40 more per day before workers comp, etc… That’s a drop in the bucket if you value your time at $65/hour or greater.

 I figure it has taken me a year to get the right employee for the ones I have because of trial and error, so don’t get discouraged if it takes a while to find great help. Maybe this will help you shrink that timeframe for your hiring.

In the contracting world the source of leads has greatly transferred from traditional advertising to internet generated leads. Managing the internet and all of the leads can become quite overwhelming. Generally the best way is to install the tracking code provided for free by Google into the code of your website. The information it provides is amazing in certain regards.

I have friends who really get jazzed in talking about time on page, landing pages, and optimizing for key phrases. I think these data are important to understand in many ways but I treat the information like a dowsing rod and let intuition take priority. So what does my intution tell me?

How many times does the phone ring every week for new jobs? How many e-mails do I get for estimates? These are tangible numbers brought about from a real conversion of human impulse to use my services based on the information within my website. If you have tons of website traffic and no phone calls, then you really should evaluate the appeal and content of your website.  Focus on creating great content and definitely verify your efforts using Google, but don’t loose sight of the number one goal, making a profit.