Around this time of year many of us spend time looking back at the past year.  We look at what we accomplished and what we didn’t accomplish, what we think worked and didn’t work.  As business owners these topics are always on our minds but especially at years end.  So to get the ball rolling on improving and staying always profitable, I’ll go first with my year end reflection.

Here in Baltimore we had a very prosperous 2014 with the bulk of our work coming from referrals.  As we all know referrals, are the best form of advertising.  Not only are they only possible from satisfied customers, but they also let me know that that customer feels I did a great job.  Sure customers don’t want to know every specific detail about past jobs, they really just want to be sure that your are capable of an exceptional job and that their job is in the best possible hands.  That idea is something that my team and I are going to keep building on and growing in 2015.  Our goal is to make sure that every job is spectacular and leaves the customer with a true “wow” feeling every time.  If we stay on task with this, referrals are guaranteed.

Referral generation is something I definitely have been doing well but there are some things I also need to work on.  Number one on this list, is my customer contract process.  I know we’ve all done it at some point.  You know, not being as specific as possible on our contracts before starting work.  Inevitably we leave some point or change order off because we think we can trust that particular customer and then WHAM, they refuse to pay the agreed upon amount or updated price.  This leaves the customer and us as the contractor with bad tastes in both of our mouths.

So in 2015 I plan to work on going the extra distance in writing every contract for every customer to make sure we are all “on the same page” when it comes to their project.  The few times this past year that I didn’t have every “I” dotted and “T” crossed, my contract process became a long drawn out experience for both the customer and I. Verbal agreements are unfortunately a thing of the past for many people.  If it’s not in writing, it probably doesn’t exist.  Having everything written out and agreed upon before any work starts solves problems before they even begin.

Another area I need to work on is personal relationship skills.  In my various coaching and business areas, I often speak to business owners who are having disagreements with other family members about running their business.  Unfortunately, many times these disagreements are more about family squabbles than real business problems.  Family and life can easily get in the way of effectively running a business and as much as we may try to avoid it, sometimes we have to look at our situation and decide how our business decisions will affect our personal lives.  These are things only we can answer.   No business coach will have as good a grasp on our mental stability or family situation as we will.  We have to make this decisions ourselves based on our own situations.

Being always profitable is a phrase that applies not just to the way we work but also to our personal life.   Our relationship with our family, our neighbors, and our customers truly is the most valuable commodity that we can have.  Let’s all work hard to continue improving our businesses and our lives.