The staff meeting — or “stiff meeting” as it is sometimes known in many companies — can become a colossal waste of time. Many consider staff meetings a practical alternative to work; as a place to think about this weekend’s fishing trip or to refine their doodling skills. All because there is too little thought invested in…
Imagine you are flying over the Pacific Ocean and the captain comes on the PA system. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that all our instruments are out. I have no idea where we are headed, how much fuel we have or what height we…
One of my Facebook followers in the South Island had this video on his Facebook page. Thought it was definitely worth sharing!! Anything else tradies never say?
Do you understand your responsibilities and liabilities as a company director? Are you aware of the potential jail time if found guilty of (seriously) breaching those duties? There are some 600,000 limited companies in New Zealand, all of which have at least one director ultimately responsible for the conduct of the company. Not many I…
I was interested to read the recent BRANZ report on small construction firms in NZ. A lot of interesting stuff in there. One statistic I found particularly interesting was a possible source of easy additional profit for construction company owners. That statistic is the number of hours that owners and employees waste each week. Just looking…
What makes a company great? Jim Collins, author of the book “Good to Great“, sums it up by saying that great companies “first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.”…
The Christchurch Press reported yesterday that despite construction being very busy, small to mid sized businesses in the industry are still going bust. See the article here: http://tinyurl.com/my2y4oc Should you be worried? Probably. If not worried, you should at least be aware that things are not all glittering out there and you should look at…
Details matter. Maybe they don’t matter to you, but chances are they matter to your clients, or your prospective clients. And frankly, that’s more important than what your opinion is. Will they notice that typo on page 3 of your proposal? Will they notice you turn up 10 minutes late for the appointment without calling…
The use of an “education based” marketing and sales process can be way more effective than the traditional quotation/negotiation process. This is especially true when your customer is in the residential market and so more emotionally involved with the outcome. By “education based” marketing I mean giving away useful information and advice in the earliest…
To move from where you are in business now to a better place requires change. Change in mindset, change in the way you do things and maybe even change in the mix of people you have working for you. Change is a necessary (and good) thing and something I deal with as part of what…