Can you Leave Your Jobsite in Your Crew’s Hands?

Can you leave your jobsite in your crew’s hands?

Meaning you leave to take care of other things, and work keeps right on getting done.

Even better if on-the-jobsite decisions can get made and problems can be overcome, without you having to get involved.

I’m continuing my series on hurdles that contractors must overcome to truly grow and switch from working in the business to working on the business.

I spoke on 4 of these hurdles at our annual Contractor Summit event, and now I’m sharing them here in the blog.

Last week’s article was focused on overcoming the hurdle of someone other than the owner answering the business phone and email.

Today is all about overcoming the hurdle of work continuing on the jobsite, even if you aren’t there.

It’s a big one.

Others achieve it very quickly, within their first year or two of doing business.

How?

Well… it’s only going to happen if you make the intentional decision to make it happen.

Growth never happens by accident.

Why is being able to have someone else run your jobsite a hurdle to overcome?

What if I intend to stay small, and not grow beyond a handful of team members?

Valid question.

Even for small teams, it’s important to develop your #2 team member. Your right-hand person.

The person that can handle keeping the work going even if you aren’t there.

As long as you do not have such a person, the business owns you, you don’t own the business.

Or said another way, you own your own job.

And when you are living under this scenario, everything else suffers.

When do you do your admin work and invoicing? At night.

When do you do your sales calls and estimates? Evenings and weekends.

When do you eat dinner with your family? It’s tough.

The leverage you gain when the job can keep going without you there is exponential.

Suddenly you can focus on keeping the pipeline full of work.

No more struggling between getting the current job done, and selling next month’s work.

Suddenly you can invoice your customers promptly and on time, a massive help to cashflow.

(it’s crazy how often contractors don’t bill on time. My electrician took 2 years to bill me for $7k worth of work.)

Suddenly you’ll see the spark come on in your team’s eyes as they step up to fill the shoes you leave empty when you’re gone.

So many of you have diamond in the rough crew leaders working for you that are just lying dormant, because when you are on site you “suck all the oxygen out of the room.”

I’ve been guilty of this exact thing.

When I was starting SynkedUP, I knew that I had to replace myself on the Tussey Landscaping crew.

My cousin Ben was working for me on my crew for 3 years already.

Totally capable, talented dude.

But as long as I was there, he would not take the lead.

It wasn’t until I left the jobsite, that he not only stepped up, but stepped up in a big way.

Today he’s doing projects and leading things on the job site even better than I did.

It’s possible.

Uncomfortable?

100% yes!

But possible. And liberating once you just bite the bullet and do it.

Just remember, normalcy is a gift.

If you refuse to proactively think about these things and build people up to take responsibilities that only you can do today…

One day you won’t have the option to ignore it.

You’ll be forced to.

A good friend of mine and his wife – battling with cancer.

He had just started focusing on building his team, just before this bombshell was dropped into their lives.

And that focus he had put into that before this happened, is saving his business today while they are off battling this unforeseen battle.

He was forced to be much less present at his business.

And his team is picking up.

Do you think his business is doing worse through this calamity?

No.

It’s actually doing better than ever.

That’s the power of investing into the people around you.

Go get em.

Make it happen.

Do it while you can choose to make it happen on your terms.

Don’t wait until you no longer have a choice.

All my best

Weston Zimmerman

SynkedUP founder & CEO