Take the Wheel & Get Aggressive

It’s time to get back to basics & reforecast.

Contributor: Brian Nolan, Managing Partner & NCG Senior Coach

The year started off great for most contractors, NCG clients were operating strong across the country… and then… Pandemic.  Most of us suddenly found ourselves living in the day to day, navigating cash flow issues, employee layoff decisions and applying for the PPP loan. We worked head down in survival mode. 

Three months later, it is NOW the time to get out of the day by day mindset. While it by no means feels normal as we operate with a great amount of uncertainty about what the future will bring, we need to get back to basics. It’s time to establish new goals and rally our team around them. It’s time to get aggressive, but a different kind of aggressive.  Get aggressive about planning, saving,  risk assessment, contingency planning, controlling overhead and hiring feet on the street to take advantage of the current high levels of demand.

Bring your management team together and recalibrate.

• Set clear financial goals for the second half of the year.  Determine the new monthly revenue and profit goals. Consider new incentives / bonuses based on the revised numbers.  This reforecasting of year end goals is extremely important.  It will help you make staffing decisions, become goal focused again and stay financially healthy.
• Please focus on setting reserve goals.  If you received the PPP money, you’re probably in good shape.  How about making a set reserve amount your #1 goal?  Shoot for having two months of overhead in reserves.
• The pandemic has given you a good chance to evaluate your team. Hopefully you didn’t invite back C players. Now, get aggressive about recruiting craftsmen. The unemployment subsidiary will be over next month and there should be employees available from industries that are slow to come back (e.g. restaurants).  Get aggressive with your training program to take advantage of these new types of employees.
• Establish new big rocks – those three (no more than four) main initiatives that improve your company and get you closer to your vision. A good focus for your rocks would be to select a few of your key job systems and make sure they are getting done. Re-train on them, they are critical to your brand.
• Be deliberate about culture.  Ensure your customers and employees feel safe working in this environment.  Don’t assume anything here, ask questions, listen and be present. 

If you don’t have a management team, pick one or two employees to do this practice with. Write down your new goals and make them visual. As a leader, your job is to cascade the information down so that your team understands the new goals, big rocks and culture message.  Time to attack again, but attack the elements in your business that will enable it to sustain more turbulence! 2020 is NOT over. 

All the best,

Brian Nolan