One of the less appealing aspects of running a business is firing employees. Not only can the confrontation be risky, but there is also the chance the employee will pursue a wrongful-termination lawsuit. However, the right steps can ensure you can not only let the employee go with professionalism and respect, but also protect your…
I have been working with contractors throughout the trades for more than 27 years, and I have watched a lot of once-profitable companies go out of business. The process of going out of business is gradual, often taking three to four years, and most don’t even realize they are in trouble until it’s too late….
If you are a contractor, your world turned upside down in 2008 and 2009. The housing bubble burst; new construction dried up; unemployment went to 10 percent; and consumers stopped spending money. Unless you sold your business for millions before this happened, your company was affected. Most everyone has heard the definition of insanity: doing…
Two major factors cause companies to go out of business: The first is improper labor pricing. Let’s assume you know your costs of doing business and what to do as costs change. Proper labor pricing is critical, and you must change your labor rate as costs change. Understanding what to charge per hour is only…
Nonbillable time is the single highest cost of doing business in your service department. On average, the typical service tech only bills out about half their time each day. How is this possible? Let’s look at some numbers: VacationLet’s assume the tech gets two weeks of paid vacation a year. Vacation totals 80 hours a…
The landline is dying. Lack of mobility pushes many service industries, including pool professionals, to rely heavily on mobile devices to communicate with staff and customers. The downside? Everyone has your cell-phone number, and you can’t transfer or forward calls like your office setup. That’s where cloud-based phone services are coming into play, offering businesses…
The job requirement of a pool service technician isn’t just to clean leaves out of the pool. If there’s a job that a general contractor can do, you can be sure that most pool service technicians can do it, too. However, that expanded list of job requirements means pool service technicians need an expanded insurance…