Knowing what business you are in

AndyG

Because some other guys are perverts
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Small business thread again-

Advertising pro Bill Fromm said you need to know what business you are in. He used the railroads as an example- because he felt they missed the idea of what business they were in- he said they felt that expanding the railroad track system would grow the industry and lost sight of the fact that building railroads was not the industry, transporting goods and people was and they are a fraction of their potential size today because they did not realize that, and adapt.

Here is how I made a similar mistake that went on 3-4 years and cost me a wad of money and time.

Wanting to be known as an extremely clean contractor, I purchased a small dump trailer for trash then a mid size one, then got a truck to tow it and a driver to do all the pick ups and dump runs. I was so proud. And stupid.

Here is what happened-

As the business grew the trailer was on the move constantly. Jobs were a wreck. Guys would not clean up, citing they had no place to put trash ‘til the trailer came. If it was handy it was likely full. Guys could not take garbage home and I certainly would not ask. We didn’t want it in the vans and trucks on top of tools.

We got flats every time we went to the dump. The kid driving the truck backed over every concrete planter in town. If it arrived at jobs full it angered clients that needed their job cleaned. The dump was a wreck when it rained. The dump trailer batteries would die. Once the bed was stuck in the up position- I had to drive through town that way.

The truck was 15,000.00 plus fuel and insurance, the insurance, wear and tear, lost time and drivers wages got us up to 75,000 plus a year and we weren’t even getting the job done.

Andy was now in the trash business. It was horrible. It was so stupid and it took me way way to long to catch on.

After a near bankruptcy I rethought it, made a deal to keep one at my shop and rent one occasionally on larger jobs. All the jobs started staying clean- the guys knew where a dumpster was at any time. The driver was free to deliver, help clean and chase parts and help the guys - in other words produce.

We saved about 60-65,000 annually, maybe a lot more- and the only energy to remove trash was a text.


Today I grin when I see a dump trailer being towed- unless you are a roofer that needs the mobility or can use it for mulch placement , etc, I see little reason to get into the trash business if you aren’t trying to.

The important part of this is to not get sidetracked into another business thinking it serves your clients if it doesn’t benefit you or them. Stick to your knitting.
 
It's a pity, of course, that you did it this way, but it will be a lesson for you for life and so you will be more experienced next time.

All education cost money.

The funny thing is we stayed so busy doing we didn’t stop to think of options- Generally the more you control the better you do in construction- But for me this was not a good option. Someone that does one particular task and needs to haul everything away will probably benefit from doing it with a dump trailer but for someone that has different trades generating waste at different times it was just I never ending game of catch up.
 
This is something that I fight very hard for in my business. I’ve seen it go wrong, the last place I worked was constantly distracted by the next shiny object and we were investing into things that only spread our limited resources thin. None of them turned into anything but a drain.

Now that I have more control in my own business, I fight, sometimes bitterly, to stay within our niche. Not that people shouldn’t expand their horizons, but it needs to be a well developed and well implemented plan, with a contingency clause. No sense throwing good money after bad, when that shit isn’t working
 
This is something that I fight very hard for in my business. I’ve seen it go wrong, the last place I worked was constantly distracted by the next shiny object and we were investing into things that only spread our limited resources thin.

Now that I have more control in my own business, I fight, sometimes bitterly, to stay within our niche. Not that people shouldn’t expand their horizons, but it needs to be a well developed and well implemented plan, with a contingency clause. No sense throwing good money after bad, when that shit isn’t working

Lack of focus is deadly. People try to do things sometimes that they don’t need to be doing it all- And not doing as well at what they need to be doing....Taking care of the customer they gave them that money they are wasting.


On one hand, no one has it all figured out- on the other hand, one of the best things someone can do is really to invest more into what is working and let the need or demand tell you when to otherwise. And a good way to start that is to start small- I should have rented a dump trailer a few times before I went out and bought one-

At the same time I didn’t have my shop location so that was the key to having a place to anchor a dumpster- In other words circumstances will change and you have to take advantage of what that brings.

I saw guys pulling dump trailer is all over town and it looked like a handy solution- And there were times that it was- And a lot of the jobs we were doing were so small they did not warrant a full size dumpster or we did not have the room- Getting the dumpster at my shop was a turning point.

But to be back on topic with what you said you really have to find that sweet spot where you shine and stay there.

We don’t do commercial work, We don’t work in churches, We don’t build new houses, We don’t do jobs where you’re putting a second floor on top of the first floor- We don’t do weird projects that we don’t know how to price- There’s no reason to go through a painful
learning curve when you already have - you can suck your profits dry experimenting.

I know a guy right now who is a good capable trades person and he will not settle down and focus- Between the get rich schemes Where he goes out of town and gets hung out to dry up by a bunch of developers that don’t know him and don’t want to know him and don’t care about him, To some idea about building little portable hospitals- Go down Oak Street Buddy and Remodel Mrs. Smith’s house- Then go to the next street- And once you build a clientele start fine-tuning your process and service to maximize your profits.

I’m also going to say something else that I believe with all my heart- When you serve the client well you will generally make a healthy profit. Money does not have to be the goal, but rather the result of doing the job well.
 
The difference was subtle- dump trailers work great - for guys that need mobility and work job specific, like roofers.

For guys that generate various amounts of waste at different points a trailer is a losing game of chase.
 
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