Right now, contractors are in a period of historic growth. Many are seeing their companies grow by 30, 40, 50, even 60 percent. It’s been amazing to see how so many contractors are successfully navigating these unprecedented changes. Of course, seasons of change come with challenges. How can you build up your team to keep pace with the growth? And how can you take care of your existing team members when they start feeling burned out?
Pete Danielson joined us on TNFR Podcast to answer those questions and more. Pete is the Vice President of Market Development at Service Nation, the largest residential contracting group in the nation. He had some amazing tips to share about taking care of your team, so they can take care of your customers. Here are some of the highlights from our conversation.
Keep Your Team Engaged when Things Get Hectic
Some of the contractors that are having the best luck managing the tremendous growth we’ve been seeing are the ones who are really engaging their teams with deeper connections. Instead of maintaining a superficial boss/employee relationship with your team, work hard to keep the lines of communication open.
Be accessible and ask your team the tough questions, such as “How are you holding up? Are you reaching a breaking point? Are you feeling burned out?” Encourage your team to be open and honest with you by really listening to their answers. Then, prioritize your team’s needs. If you are getting more calls than your team can reasonably handle, pick and choose your customers. If you take good care of your team, they will take better care of your customers. Striking the balance between growing your business and growing and caring for your team isn’t always easy, but if you succeed, your business will thrive.
How to Grow Your Team
As contractors we are generally very focused on creating a positive experience for our customers, but we also need to think about the experience we create for our team. Again, communication is key. Listen to how your team is feeling and what they need and then try to fill those needs. Could you buy your team lunch and then make a small event out of it? Could you give your techs a few days off to recharge their batteries when they are feeling burned out? Gestures like these will go a long way towards making your team feel cared about and building loyalty.
Another element to building an environment where people want to come work for you is to share your vision with your team. Regular team meetings can be exciting if your team buys into your vision. How can you keep your team meetings from becoming a drag? Keep them brief, see if the team is on track to meet specific goals, and encourage your team to participate by sharing their challenges and any ideas they have to resolve them.
Keep your meetings focused. Don’t try to discuss every issue the business has all at once. Instead, have a brief meeting to discuss company decisions, a separate meeting another day for updates, and another separate meeting for problem solving. The more structured and to-the-point your meetings are, the more your team will stay engaged.
Take Advantage of Contractors’ Shows and Conferences
Another way to succeed at growing your business while keeping your team happy is to attend contractors’ shows and conferences. The largest residential contracting show out there, World Service Expo, is coming up this September. It will be an excellent opportunity to get to know fellow contractors who already have experience facing challenges you may be up against for the first time. Strike up conversations, share your challenges, listen to others’ experiences and take advantage of their knowledge to improve your own business.
In addition, keynote speakers and workshops can help you get inspired and come away with the tools you need to make major changes to your business for the better.
Another excellent conference to attend is TNFR’s own Business Uncensored conference, which will be held this October. At this conference, you’ll get tactical ways to advance your team and yourself so you can take your business to the next level. See the links below to register for both the World Service Expo and the Business Uncensored conference.
Show Notes:
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Historic growth for Contractors [1:18]
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Meet Pete Danielson [3:30]
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How to keep your team engaged during extreme growth [5:24]
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How to grow your team [11:38]
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Effective team meetings [13:56]
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Service World Expo [17:19]
