Years ago I wrote an article about my move from Colorado to Oregon and the stress of things when you go through tough times. I've since read it again and would say that nothing has really changed in my feelings for the wood flooring industry.
My feelings for science are good, but not great like they are for wood flooring. The science industry is judged more on accomplishments and degrees sometimes. It's not so bad when you are in a relaxed setting, but when you make science a corporate industry, then things can get REALLY disenchanting. There was one golden nugget in my science days-my thesis advisor, Ed Stellwag, who taught me a lot about the dangers of being a minimalist (doing just enough to get by). I would like to talk more about that today.
No matter where you go today, a lot of contractors are talking about what price they can get per square foot. This number is generally based off what they HEAR about pricing instead of what they are worth. What you are worth is based off the way you conduct yourself during an estimate and how you provide a solution to the right customer. Don't worry, the wrong customer doesn't care if you do cartwheels and make balloon animals, they want cheap. Find more of the right and get rid of the wrong ones. How do you do that?
Stop being a minimalist. Whether it is you or your employees, the following are good examples of minimalism:
- Leaving dust rings from the buffer in the driveway at the end of the job because you're too tired from staining to use the hose for two minutes to rinse away the dust.
- Bad sanding. This could open up into an encyclopedia, but let me just say that it's always worth to evaluate every floor with a very harsh eye. It will make you better to get a little neurotic in search of quality.
- Wrecking interior trim and casings. Put some felt on the edger as a spacer if you have to, because it's easier to hand-scrape around the base for one hour than pay a painter to repaint the molding.
- Using "cure time" as an excuse. If your sanding or finish coat look bad, then just step up and fix things. I don't care how long you let a floor sit or how much you recoat a floor, sometimes you can't polish a turd. Using "cure time" to get a final check or hold a position of power is being a minimalist. Remember that even if you get a final payment, you're being judged long afterwards on your craftsmanship.
