3 Mistakes I Made and You Can Learn From as a Small Business Owner

Have you made mistakes as a small business owner? I know we have and in the early days I'm not sure we even recognized what those mistakes actually were. Over the last few years however and after seeing our business from new perspectives, my father and I have started to recognize and learn from those previous mistakes.

Here are three of our biggest.

Not Paying Attention to The Numbers

When I started working for the company all I cared about was getting to the end of the day. That same feeling you have as a teenager, sitting in class, staring at the clock waiting for the bell to ring. Wrapping my head around being a small business owner, profits and losses of the business and daily invoicing duties were the furthest thing from my mind.

Then the 2007-2008 economic crisis came and the learning process became a necessity rather than a choice. Learning what money was coming in and what cash was going out became my top priority, finding where the money was coming from and where it was going. Basically the lifeblood of the company and I was neglecting what was most important to our company.

If you don't know your numbers as a small business owner, you don't know your company.

Obviously, this seems like first day kind of stuff. Meaning, you should be concentrating on this from the get go. However, my father and I were never businessmen, we are tradesman and the numbers took a backseat. 

We have since learned from our mistakes and I have taken hold of dealing with numbers on a daily basis. Because of these changes we have turned a corner and been doing very well as a result.

Not Embracing New Technology

We have always been scared by big investment, putting large sums of money on the line to grow the business. The conservatism in the family is more of a curse then a benefit when it comes to building a company for success. 

But you can't run a sheet metal fabrication company without embracing some newer technologies along the way to make the job move quick and easy. We needed to learn from our mistakes of not taking a chance earlier in the business. We needed a change for the better and embracing new and proven technologies in our industry was something we needed to do.

So, after dealing with our numbers issues, we took the plunge and purchased more technological equipment to make our fabrication job easier. By easier I mean:

• Work is getting done twice as fast thanks to our new CNC plasma machine
• Money is being saved everyday because we are able to get more out of a sheet of metal, our most used commodity
• Health savings: Our main form of fabrication was cutting by hand. It wouldn't have been long before complications set in.
• Business has increased as a result

Everyone will tell you change is a good thing, but until you see the benefits for yourself, especially as a small business owner, it's tough to believe. We made the technological changes we needed to and are benefiting. Now we are looking for the next machine or employee to help us in the future.

Not Focusing on The Business

We all go through so much in our lives, neglecting friends or family along the way. But when you're a small business owner the last thing you want to do is not make it a priority. The business is your livelihood, the asset keeping you from working for other people. You have the benefit of making a living, supporting your family on your own watch, no one else's. 

Before making the changes I laid out previously, I was not focusing on our company. My thoughts were always somewhere else, leaving the business to suffer. My focus was lacking and it showed, rubbing off on my father and others around us. I gave off the impression we didn't care as a company, that other things in our life were more important.

Don't get me wrong, family comes first, so I am not suggesting you place business at the top. However, I was giving get rich quick schemes, girl troubles and other non-necessary situations priority above what needed the most attention at the time. Our company.

Conclusion

Learning from this mistake has been the hardest of all, but the most rewarding. Strangely, putting my energies into what I'm good at has made much of those other issues in my life fall into place. My focus and organization are better than ever and the business is succeeding because of it.

Small business owners will always make mistakes when it comes to their company. My father and I have made plenty and we will make more. The trick is making sure you recognize and learn from your mistakes before they can ruin the business completely.

Know The Tendencies of Your Customers

Many of our customers have done business with us for years and we appreciate every order they place here at the shop. Part of the reason they come back, besides stellar work, is the fact that I do my best to learn the tendencies and little idiosyncrasies of each. This does not mean I am at everybody's beck and call 24/7, but I do make an effort to give each and every customer the best service possible. 

Everyone is different, so doing the little things is a big part of why we keep clients coming back year after year. Obviously, it's difficult to learn the tendencies of newer customers, so I would have to say this is more of a retaining tactic than anything.  

Here are a few things I do to learn the tendencies of my customers.

Learning Their Ordering Style

All of our customers have learned the fabrication trade in all kinds of places, from all kinds of people. Some have been unionized, others have taught themselves and many have learned from installers on the job. This means we all posses a varied language when it comes to ordering custom sheet metal fittings. Naturally, I do my best to get them on my page, but with change comes complication, so keeping with their dialect can make things go a bit easier.

Learning different styles of how people see things in their mind has helped me become a better fabricator in the end, along with keeping a good diary of notes for each customer with specific needs. All of these things help to make sure orders are correct because mistakes slow up the job and ultimately lose the shop money.

When They Like to Pick Up Finished Orders

We don't deliver here at the shop so our customers are forced to pick their orders up and all of them work their day differently.  Some like to grab things early in the morning, some late in the day. In order to keep up good relations I will leave an order outside the door for someone who may arrive before I get in for the day or after I have left. This keeps from forcing people to live on my schedule, especially the clients we have good standing accounts with. Leaving an order out would not be something I'd do for a newer customer unless they paid me first.

My father and I have done this for years and it has been helpful to many of our clients over that time. We do a lot of work for HVAC service techs whose schedule is all over the place so providing this service can help to bring future good will and business.

Specific Customization to Customer Orders

We aren't a custom sheet metal shop for nothing. The main goal of our shop is to give each customer the quality, custom work they need to get the job done right. However, there are many small things needed for each and every customer who comes through the door. Some may like a 1/2" flange on their plenums and others may not. Different kinds of connections for different kinds of trunk duct and fittings is something we try to provide for everyone. We aren't a standardized fabrication shop so making sure you know what the customer wants is key to making sure they come back in the future.  

Learning the different tendencies of each customer may seem daunting at first but will payoff in the end. You want to give everyone the best experience possible whether your running a fancy boutique or a sheet metal fabrication shop like us.

Your product should speak for itself, but it doesn't hurt to make sure the person buying that product feels special as well.