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When times are good, most people don't plan for the lean times. Then, when slow times hit, those people don't know what do. They worry that there's no work, and they start laying off workers. When business picks up, those workers are gone—to another company, in business for themselves, or to another industry where they're up off their knees.
Those of us who have been in the industry for a long time know that slow times come and go. But there are plenty of things you can do to save money and drum up business during these times. Here are some of the things I've learned over the years that are helping my contracting business stay busy, even during this economic slowdown.
Schedule smart. Gas prices are hurting everybody these days. To cope with high gas prices, it's a no-brainer to cut out one-man vehicles. After that, for companies in a large market with lots of traffic, paying careful attention to how you schedule your jobs can save time and money. When I had multiple crews, we would schedule our work by zip codes. When morning traffic was bad, we'd send the crews to the zip codes closest to the shop. When everyone else was sitting in traffic, they were working, and as traffic cleared, they would drive to jobs farther out. It not only saves gas, it saves manhours. If you have a guy wasting three hours a day sitting in traffic, that's more than 60 hours a month you're paying him to sit in the truck.
Don't be a caravan. The more weight you have on your van or truck, the more gas you use, so don't be a caravan for unnecessary materials and equipment. Why are you carrying four 5s of glue when you know you'll only need one and maybe a backup? A lot of times I'll see guys open up the back of the truck and I'll say, "What are you doing with this air compressor on here?" They aren't installing until two days from now or next week, but the equipment's already in the truck. That weight adds up and wastes gas.
Put sitting inventory to work. If you've got wood flooring sitting around, that material is a debt. You've already paid for it and now it's costing you money to sit in your warehouse. Lots of times you'll have 125 feet left over from a job—what's wrong with making that material work for you? You can donate it to a non-profit organization for a tax-writeoff (see "Tax Break" in the October/ November 2008 issue), or donate it and the installation to a non-profit. What's two hours to lay 75 feet in a foyer? Most media outlets jump at covering stories like that. Or, you can approach a builder and tell him you'll donate the material to his model home if he'll pay your guys a few hours' labor to install it and display an easel with your company's information on it. Now you've got a salesman out there you don't have to pay for.
Watch over wastefulness. Back when I first started tracking our inventory on the computer, after only four months I realized our waste added up to thousands of dollars. If you've got guys leaving two cans of finish on the truck, before you know it that finish is three months old and no longer any good. Or, maybe they don't bother cleaning the glue off the trowel. Things like that add up to thousands of dollars a year.
Speak up. At least once a month I speak at a local group, whether it's the builders' association, remodelers' association, Realtors group, the local American Institute of Architects chapter or the local American Society of Interior Designers chapter. We tracked it for six months and found that one hour of my time guarantees at least one job from every group, not to mention the word-ofmouth business. It doesn't take someone who's been through years of public speaking to go, show a portfolio and just be personable. The first time I had to speak in front of a large group I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Now speaking for groups is like second nature to me. If you find speaking at a bigger function too intimidating, start off with smaller groups. I've even done talks about maintenance for the local womens' club. You don't need a fancy brochure, but make sure you have a nice portfolio to pass around. And, make sure you look professional. You may be a floor guy, but you don't have to look like one, with glue on your hands and stain under your fingernails. If you cleaned up enough that you think your employees would harass you, that's probably good.
Work the phones. It doesn't cost anything to make some phone calls. Take your customer list from the past six months to a year and make courtesy calls. We ask if they need any cleaning supplies or if we can do an assessment on whether their floors need a screen and recoat. We also remind them that we do free estimates.
Send printed pieces. When times are good, we print up a good supply of professional brochures. When times are lean, we've already got those brochures printed. Usually when I do a talk, those groups are more than happy to share their mailing lists with me, so I send brochures to those lists. If you don't have any brochures and don't want the expense, you can get a nice heavy paper stock, print a picture of your floor on it with some promotion (like "sitting inventory sale," "past customer sale," etc.), and send it out as a postcard. It's very low-cost for the card, printing and the postage, and it's an easy way to generate some business.
Blow your own horn. Free PR when business is slow is worth its weight in gold. If you do a job that's exceptional or unusual, the media don't mind you calling them. If you don't call, how do they know to write an article about it. Awhile back we installed a floor at a symphony show house for charity. The designer wanted something unusual, and we ended up mirroring the soffit in the ceiling onto the dining room floor with a faux marble technique that matched marble in the furniture. Our local magazine put it on the cover, the Sunday newspaper picked it up, and three other decorating magazines showed it; the media just went crazy over it.
Everybody has to work their way up to get established in the business, and during times like these, just staying in business may take a little bit more effort than you're used to. Hopefully these practices I've learned over the decades will help you succeed right now instead of just worrying and waiting for the market to turn around.