Do it in December

After a busy year digging in the ground, it’s time to fine-tune your business for greater profitability.

I can hear the collective sigh from installers in most parts of the country right about now. By all accounts, it was a busier year in 2013, and you have a hard-earned rest coming your way if you’re in frozen ground country.

As busy as many of you were last summer and fall, you probably let some important initiatives slide while tending to customers’ installing needs. Now is the time you can get back on track and whip your small business into shape after going full bore for several months.

Here are a few areas where you can retrench and move forward in your effort to build revenue and operate more efficiently:

Create a new marketing campaign.

When the bottom dropped out of construction a few years ago, you pledged to reinvent your approach to advertising and promoting your business. Maybe you didn’t get around to it before you got busy again. Set a marketing budget based on the new economy and look for creative and effective ways to use it. Maybe you drop the phone book ads and turn to social media. Maybe the weekly newspaper gives way to targeted direct mail marketing? Could it be time to consult with a professional business marketer?

Reassess staffing needs.

You may have established a pattern of more work emerging over the past few summers. Did you have to cut back on staff during the slowdown? If you were working sunup to sundown last summer, and routinely pulling weekend duty, it could be time to think about hiring a few extra hands. Consider if you could keep an entire new crew busy next summer. Maybe an office person would be able to get the paperwork in order and perform some new customer outreach programs. So much has happened in the past five years, it’s a good time to take stock in staffing.

Make office upgrades during slow times.

If you’re like many small-business owners, you didn’t make a whole lot of office purchases since 2008. You could be getting by with computers that lack sufficient memory (RAM), no longer have reliable hard drive space for your records and a fading computer monitor screen. At the same time, smartphones, tablets and cloud computing have revolutionized how small businesses save and access critical data. It’s likely you don’t even need a bulky desktop computer anymore, and that you might benefit by putting the latest office technology in the hands of everyone on your team.

Schedule maintenance on equipment.

You worked your machines hard last summer dealing with a pent-up demand for your services. It could be that you have aging equipment already, which makes it doubly important to keep machines in tip-top shape. Carefully go over your mini-excavators, skid-steers and other equipment, refresh lubricants, examine wear items and remove all the accumulated grime from time in the field. And take a critical look at a replacement schedule for each machine. With lingering low borrowing rates, maybe it’s time to buy something new.

Perform a supply inventory.

All summer long you grabbed parts and components off the shelves in your shop and maybe ignored the need to order new inventory. Make sure you replenish supplies now, before you run short on an important and timely job next spring. Don’t let something as simple as an inadequate supply of pipe, risers and lids or drainfield media hold you up down
the road. Place those orders now to get your warehouse in order well before next season.

Celebrate the holidays with your crew.

Stop and smell the roses this month. You and your crew worked hard all year and the company ledger is in better shape now than it has been in quite a while. It’s time to celebrate successes of the past year and make it clear you feel it’s important for your staff to spend quality time with their families over the holidays. Throw a party and give out year-end bonuses if you can afford to. You wouldn’t be where you are without your crew, so show them extra love and respect this time of year.

Make plans for the Pumper & Cleaner Expo.

It’s almost here – the biggest show in the world of environmental services. The Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International is just a few months away, Feb. 24-27 in Indianapolis. This is your opportunity to see all the latest equipment and technologies from industry manufacturers, as well as take part in Education Day training and the networking that can be vital to your professional advancement. If you’ve attended in the past, I look forward to meeting you at the Indiana Convention Center. If you’ve never attended, please give it some serious consideration. For more information, go to www.pumpershow.com.



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