Building A System For Your Estimating Process

I’m going to be using the metaphor of the fishing test in the context of building a system for your estimating process.

“Does your business pass the fishing test?” 

Ever had anyone ask you that question? 😅

What do you mean by “fishing test”?

I just got back from a business event put on by Aquascape for water feature contractors in Chicago called “Pondomonium”.

Greg Wittstock, the owner and CEO of Aquascape is a great friend and mentor of mine.

His keynote talk is what inspired me to write about this topic today.

He unexpectedly spent a chunk of the summer in Argentina …looking for treatment for his wife’s rare disease.

And back at home, thankfully, his business kept running without him.

Let me tell you a story that outlines what the fishing test is.

(You may have heard it before, it’s not original with me.)

There was a contractor that was doing well, we’ll call him John.

He had nice equipment and trucks, leads were coming in and he was selling work.

Their quality was getting better and better out on the jobsite.

They were profitable.

Customers were happy and leaving 5-star reviews.

Life was good!

One night John was at dinner with a mentor of his.

While John was sharing his gratitude of what he’d built up over the years, his mentor leaned in and said “That’s fantastic! But does your business pass the fishing test?”

“The fishing test?” asked John.

“Yes, can you take 2 weeks and go fishing whenever you wish, and the business still makes money while you’re gone?” his mentor explained.

“Well… no, not really.” John said. “I need to be there to answer the phones, get estimates out to clients, and do the billing. Plus, I need to check in with my crew every day to help with planning on getting the jobs done.

“Without me there…” he trailed off. “…things would crawl to a stop in a few days….”

John’s mentor nodded. He’d been there and done that himself. “I know you want to keep on growing the business and make more money for yourself, your family, and your team. But if you can’t pass the fishing test, and take a couple weeks off from your business, then you don’t really own a business. You own a job.”

Ouch.

John was quiet for a minute.

“You know… you’re right.” he murmured as he reflected on what his mentor had just told him.

John was still wearing too many hats in the business.

You get the moral of the story…

Does your business pass the fishing test?

We are not promised tomorrow.

Normalcy is a gift.

One of the simplest and fastest tracks to pass the fishing test is to relentlessly, constantly, be building and documenting systems and processes in your business.

Finding good people is hard, but once you do find them, you will have a much better time onboarding and keeping them if you have clear systems and processes in place.

Not to mention get hours of your time back.

A common blocker to contractors passing the fishing test is building a system for your estimating process.

In the early days the owner is the only person that can carry out a consultation and generate an accurate, correctly priced estimate.

The “how to” of building an accurate estimate is all captured in their head, an accumulation of years and years of experience.

The good news is, building a system for your estimating process is one of the easiest things to create, …. with the right tools.

That’s what SynkedUP is built for.

Turning your estimating process into something so simple that your office admin can do it may sound like a daunting task.

But we do it all the time for SynkedUP customers.

In fact, Jeremy Morales, a long time SynkedUP user from New York even has his 13-year-old son estimating big ticket jobs for him!

It can be done. It’s easier and more in reach than you may think.

Our awesome and hard-working customer success team is there with you every step of the way as you build your own estimating templates, production rates, and processes out in your SynkedUP account.

If you’re curious… and you’d love to do “brain surgery” on your head and get all your estimating genius out into a repeatable process that anyone can use to generate profitable estimates…

Then let’s talk.

Book a call here.

And get one step closer to passing the fishing test. 😉🎣

Cheers!

Weston Zimmerman

SynkedUP CEO and co-founder