Milwaukee vs DeWalt Tools, which one?
We’re Lock Nerds Locksmith, a Buffalo, NY-based company that’s always relied on Milwaukee tools. But we’re curious—what tools do other pros trust? We're looking for honest pros and cons between Milwaukee and DeWalt to see if it's time for us to reconsider our setup.Hiring Slow - Would You Hire Someone that Didn't Look in to Your Company?
I'm a part of breakthrough academy and they really recommend hiring slow, so being really picky about who you hire. With that, comes creating a lot of barriers that the candidate essentially needs to "fight through" to get to that next stage and ultimately be hired. I do some of these things now but I had one thing pop up on a few interviews and I was wondering if ya'll think I'm being too hard headed when it comes to this. Keep in mind these candidates applied where they had to submit pictures of their work - then they filled out a lengthy survey about job skills and abilities. The first interview, the first question is "Did you look in to our company at all?" - most the time I'm being told no. LOL For me that's crazy but it also makes me want to just hang up the phone. Why should I care about you if you don't care about the thing you're going to commit most of your day toward? My job postings are pretty long and descriptive but would you automatically disqualify someone why hasn't even been to your website?Do You Train Your Team to Think or Just Work?
Every Monday, we hold a short training session with our team. We train on communication. leadership. & mindset. The reason being most tradespeople aren’t struggling because they can’t do the work. They’re struggling because they were never taught how to: Speak with clarity Handle conflict Lead a crew Represent the business professionally These tend to be the issues I see bottling up, either from our exit interviews or customer feed back or when things are misunderstood. Thats why I'm curious: Do you train soft skills with your crew?Best ways to track material costs?
Tracking material costs in the electrical contracting industry is critical because supply prices (wire, conduit, breakers, panels, etc.) fluctuate frequently due to market demand, copper prices, and supply chain changes. A strong system protects profit margins, improves estimating accuracy, and helps maintain consistent pricing for customers. How does your company keep track?Remodelers - Do you have a price book?
One issue I keep having with my sales system is spending so much time on quotes because all my jobs are so different. I'd love to be able to produce a quote within 10 minutes, while I'm still onsite. Then I could meet objections on the spot and try and get the sale then and there. For those of you that have varying projects, do you have price books? What strategies do you have to price things out when you technically repair so many things? Or Should I not worry about it? hahaHow can I re-build my business from ground zero?
Hi my name is Jeremy Lesser, I am the Business Owner/CEO of a small residential painting and home improvements business. I have been in business since 2022. After about a year or so of being in business, I about called it quits and started doing Maintenance Engineering. Well having my own business doing what I love to do the most which is drywall and painting, has been a dream of mine since I first started doing drywall and painting 15+ years ago. I want my business to succeed. I have a perpetual LLC. for my business, so I would like to build my business back and Lord willing watch it grow this time. I have more patience and knowledge in it. How can I build my business with zero income and zero revenue? I have been applying for grants. Please help! Thank you and God Bless. ~Jeremy Lesser~Promoting from within - is someone who is primarily money driven, a good candidate for management?
So here's the situation - I've hired two different operations managers and had to let them go for various reasons. The reason I was seeking outside the company was for a fresh outlook and a new way of doing things. Although I think there were things I could have done in the hiring process to sniff these bad candidates out, I'm now feeling like I should be promoting from within with someone already familiar with our systems and company culture. The obvious choice would seem to be the guy who's been here the longest. He's the site super on all our bigger jobs and everyone recognizes him as the most senior person, the person they call if they have a technical related question. I offered him the position (which is a healthy base salary plus incentive bonuses for gross profit, customer satisfaction, and clearly outlined administrative task goals) and he's very hung up on the money. Objectively, it's more money overall than he earned last year plus the bonuses but the weekly base is lower than if he worked in the field that week. He earned roughly $82k in the field (working roughly 80% of the available hours we COULD have worked him, because of slow weeks), this is a base of $88k with incentive bonuses that should definitely take this north of a size figure position. People should obviously care about the money they earn but he's basically super worried about the guarantee of money instead of the opportunity to earn a lot more with the bonuses. I tried encouraging him that this is something he can do but he keeps going back to the guaranteed money. I definitely want this position on performance pay so a high flat salary is off the table. My concern is he will be a few weeks in, working harder than he did before, getting paid less in the immediate term, and will not be giving it his all. He doesn't view this as a good offer. Question is - if someone isn't excited at an opportunity like this, should I take the offer off the table? Or is there a different way I could be thinking about this?
