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.

Finding The Time...

Once again I have neglected the company blog for an extended period of time. Not because of laziness, but more in finding the time to give proper attention to the written word. As the work day progresses, time fades away, before you know it exhaustion takes over and the last thing I want to do is type out something interesting and insightful.

These are of course excuses. I should be finding the time to get something down each and every day, whether it makes it to the blog or not. Something is changing with the company on a daily basis, so finding items to write about should not be something so difficult to find. 

The problem for me seems to be finding the best time to actually do the writing, not so much the content. I'm up at 5am to get ready so I can be at the shop by 7am to get the day going. As much as I would love to write in the morning, my body just hates those before dawn hours and my mind is usually flooded with what needs to be done at the fabrication shop.

Not the best recipe for quality writing. 

So you would think during the day or in the evening would be perfect. Unfortunately, the strain of the day keeps me away from the keys and all I want to do is relax. 

However, I do like writing the blog and will continue searching out the best time for writing and getting my thoughts down. Especially since the company is and will be changing for the better over the next few years.

As with anything in a small business, finding the time to do anything can be a challenge. All of us know there is only one way to run a successful company and that is to work your butt off day in and day out.

So I guess finding the time to blog will just have to go on my goals sheet as something I want to accomplish from week to week. I'm just gonna have to find the time.

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.

Business or Personal?

I have a couple blogs, one for myself (which I have not updated in a while) and the one you are currently reading.

Why?

When I originally set up the accounts I felt separation was warranted because why would I want people on the business side having to deal with anything from my personal life and vice versa. Plus, keeping personal and business life separate seems logical.

However, after looking at my accounts recently I realized that except for a few profanity ridden tirades in regards to my favorite sporting franchises, the majority of my comments pertain to business or something in the ballpark, minus some personal friend tweets. Then I thought, my life is this business, it's all I think about or do on a daily basis. I'm the K for goodness sake, so shouldn't this blog reflect what the K does day in and day out regarding business and how it affects myself or the family? I feel like I try to do just that, but maybe it's not interesting enough for a casual reader.

So should I consolidate everything onto this site? Make an effort to bring more personality of my own to the blog instead of trying to keep it as PC as possible? Do people only want to know about your business when they come to your company blog or are they looking for something real, warts and all? As a reader, I feel like as long as what I'm reading is interesting it doesn't really matter. Obviously the core of this blog is what goes on in and around our family business, the HVAC metal industry and our customers. But as humans, there is more to me and us as a family.

Yes, I am the only one who actually writes the blog, but does that mean I should only post things having to do with business, personal views and the metal industry or can I throw a little flavor in now and then? The goal is to find readers and ultimately customers who we retain as a growing business. And yes, ultimately I am going to post what I want, but asking the masses is always an option, which I choose to enact in this case.

So what do you think? Should I only post business related topics or should I open the borders up a bit?

Leave your answers in the comments section. Thanks for your help!

Squarespace the Magnificent

Hiatus?

If there is a such thing as web hiatus then I have been on it for the last few months, having really posted nothing to the web blog or much on the twitter. This is not because I have lost the passion for business or have become frustrated with social media. On the contrary, I have realized the power and I need to have it! 

Plus, with the addition of our new equipment business has picked up and the shop has been extremely busy, leaving little time to keep up with things. 

The bottom line was we needed a change after gaining data on what was going on with our current website.  Out with the old, in with the new.

Let me calm the drama

I loved the previous website, having built it with Wordpress over the course of a couple months before we invested heavily in the business. Along with the website came more focus on marketing, Google Adwords in particular for promoting the business online. I hired a fantastic company, Flourish Digital Strategy, to take care of the campaign and all things marketing. The relationship has been great and things online are really starting to pickup.

However, after seeing results I noticed some things about the website that seemed a bit overkill and could maybe be scaled back. I wanted to simplify the site, making it easier to navigate with clearer information for customers to digest and easily get in touch with us. 

The sad part being Wordpress is difficult for me to easily change without substantial time and with business growing, getting busy, my time is stretched. I needed something easy and powerful to get the new website up and running quickly. 

Enter Squarespace

Just let me say right off the bat, I have no affiliation with Squarespace what so ever.

The product is magnificent!

I transferred, built pages, you name it in half the time it would have taken with Wordpress. I have tried multiple "site builders" in the past and they all blow. This one literally blew me away!

I wouldn't even disrespect Squarespace by calling it a site builder at all. Its a website creation machine with all the bells and whistles you could need to get anything from a basic to intense website up in no time. The ability to quickly and easily make changes will help me immensely considering most of my time is spent fabricating custom sheet metal for many satisfied customers.

I would recommend the service for any small business who is looking to build a quality website.

Getting Back to Business

After spending the last month and a half getting our new CNC plasma table online, we can finally reap the benefits of our new mechanical employee. The process has been long, but educational with my excitement through the roof with what the future holds for the company. I never realized how much confusion comes with an investment like this one. I figured to be keeping up with most of the jobs I currently have, including the blog, twitter page, marketing, billing etc. with none of these things actually happening. My focus was always somewhere else with most days ending seemingly like nothing had been accomplished. However, things were happening all over the place and work was getting done even in the shadow of the minor problems that came with our new installation.

Now, with the dust settling, my father and I can focus on building the business around our new investment, making strides toward the next big purchase. Not to mention getting my act together in regards to keeping up with the financials, shipping, the blog, marketing and everything else related to running a successful business.

The last few months have been exciting and the next few years will be amazing. Time to get back to business!

Thank You to 'The Fabricator' For Featuring K & E Sheet Metal

I would like to thank Dan Davis and The Fabricator Magazine for asking us to contribute to one of their feature article's in this months issue titled "Developing Shop Employees For The Field". I was more than happy to give an interview to a publication that I have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy. My father and I were thrilled with how the article came out, with much appreciation given to Dan Davis and his team. When I first started in the business, working for my father, I was an installer for our residential and light commercial jobs. I learned a lot about how and what was needed to be fabricated for many different kinds of jobs. That was the simplest part of my job installing and working in peoples homes each day. The hardest part was dealing with customers from a business and personal point of view.

Every customer is different, especially when you are working in their home. Their first inclination is to be skeptical about the stranger in their house. Their second is to wonder if this person will ultimately rip them off. Most of these issues are expected to be taken care of during the quoting process, but this doesn't always put the customer at ease.

These kinds of problems are something I explained during my interview with Dan Davis, The Editor-in-Chief and writer of the article. There is definite psychology to working in a persons home; the hardest part for me as an installer.

My father and I work alone now due to economic conditions, but if we bring on new installers, these are the types of things I would pass along to help and develop new employees for our company.

You can read the article below and be sure to subscribe to The Fabricator Magazine. It's FREE:

Click the link to read the full article

Developing Shop Employees For The Field - The Fabricator