Al Writes

Al Levi Says Systems and Training are Keys to Success | Toolbox for the Trades

By Al Levi | September 11, 2020

What are the keys to contracting business success?

Al Levi helped kick off season 2 of Toolbox for the Trades in Episode 11 by ServiceTitan, Al Levi shares the keys to success – systems and trainings. Without these two, a contracting business can’t succeed.

Listen to episode 11 of Toolbox for the Trades here!

Boosting Your Team Efficiency with the Power of Operating Manuals | The Home Service Expert

By Al Levi | September 11, 2020

Looking for ways to boost your team’s efficiency?

In this Facebook Live episode of The Home Service Expert, episode 146, host Tommy Mello and Al Levi talk about how operating manuals can transform your business and boost your team’s efficiency. Operating manuals can literally save an entrepreneur from being a hostage to his business.

Tommy and Al also hosted a Facebook Live Q&A session to answer listeners’ questions.

Listen to episode 146 of The Home Service Expert Podcast (audio version) here!

Watch episode 146 of The Home Service Expert Podcast (Facebook Live) here!

Watch the follow up Q&A session here!

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth

By Al Levi | September 7, 2020

What happens when your company has too many leaders all going in too many different directions?

Chaos!

Yes, like the old adage says, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

To expand on this, in a kitchen, there can only be one head chef. They run things and the others on the team help produce the outcome desired. You can’t expect good results if everyone is free to jump into the process.

Pardon the pun: That would be a recipe for disaster.

Here’s how and why this dynamic of “Too Many Chefs” reveals itself to me as I go about my work as a consultant at a new company…

Buying Your Way to Growth

By Al Levi | August 4, 2020

When I talk to contractors, many ask the same question, and that is, “How do I grow my company the right way?”

To me, there are only two answers:

1) Master Organic Marketing

2) Master Acquisition

Mastering Organic Marketing means you are so good at the right messaging delivered using the right marketing vehicles that you create more demand for the work you can do in a given day which means you need to grow your team to support this ability.

Great Organic Marketers have figured out on their own or with good marketing outsources how to make their phone ring “off the hook” which has allowed the owner to hang up their tool belt and begin to focus on what it takes to run a successful business.

Mastering Acquisition means you’ve learned how to buy someone else’s company and acquire their customers and good will and sometimes their assets like trucks and inventory or even their building.

Great Acquisition Players know that Acquisition can and often does happen in many ways and in many forms.

My focus here is on Acquisition as the best way to… Buying Your Way to Growth.

Gratitude: Your Most Powerful Tool

By Al Levi | July 7, 2020

At my company, we used to show people our gratitude by keeping them employed. You know, giving them a paycheck. Heck, what else were we expected to do… am I right?

The answer of course was, no… I was dead wrong!

There are plenty of surveys that ask employees to rank what’s most important to them when it comes to their job. And if you’re like I was, you might say it’s all about the money. But, time and again, the surveys show that employees don’t value their paycheck as number or 1 or even in the top 5.

Always in the top 5 is being appreciated by those who they work with and to whom they report.

My belief is people don’t go to work for a paycheck. They go to work so the paychecks doesn’t stop. And although they can’t spend “appreciation” at the grocery store, there’s a lot more at play with your team than just getting paid.

I came to learn that employees want and crave appreciation and gratitude for what they do. Good to know. The bad news is, it wasn’t something I was comfortable with doing and neither were my brothers, who were my partners, along with my dad.

5 Reasons You Can’t Run Your Business from the Beach Forever

By Al Levi | June 2, 2020

A few years back I worked with a phenomenal contractor, Mark Paup of Golden Rule Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, in Des Moines Iowa.

Mark had grown his business into a systematic and money making company. And as I like to do with former clients, I called him up just to see how things were going.

He asked me a question, “Al, do you ever just get to sit on the beach, and it all runs without you forever?”

I replied with the answer he knew I would, and that was, “No…”

And after the briefest of pauses, I continued with, “You absolutely don’t have to be so heavily involved in the day-to-day running of the business like you were when we first started. And you are actually encouraged to take time away from the business because you deserve it based on all the hard work you’ve done with me. It’s actually good for your team for you to let them run things without you.

“That said, you’re the face of this business, and you must keep a finger on the pulse of it to keep it headed in the leadership direction we created during Leadership Power! if you’re to reach the near-term goals set and the long-term goals still ahead.”

Equipping Your Business to Emerge from the Coronavirus Pandemic Stronger | The Site Shed

By Al Levi | May 5, 2020

Do you feel like all hope is lost for your business amid the Coronavirus pandemic?

On episode TSS 244 of The Site Shed podcast, Al Levi and Ellen Rohr share practical advice for struggling business owners with host Matt Jones. A lot can be done to emerge stronger after this crisis. The discuss refining business objectives, the role of communication to get your business’s message across, seizing and spotting the right opportunities that this crisis presents, and more.

Listen to episode TSS 244 of The Site Shed podcast here.

Your Employees Need to Know the “Why” because It’s More than Just the Money

By Al Levi | May 5, 2020

The purpose, or what I call the “Why” for what your employees do at work, is becoming more important to them than just collecting a paycheck.

I know this to be so because I witnessed this when I was a contractor and now as a consultant to contractors. This long-time trend has become the norm. And I think it’s not just a good thing… I think it’s a great thing.

This may seem scary to you. Or, you may be in disbelief that this could be true. A quick review of articles and blogs online will validate what I’m saying here.

And if you’re an owner or manager who is over 50 years of age, you probably grew up in the trades with being told, “This is what I want done”. There was no discussion. You were just expected to do it because your boss told you to.

But having worked with consulting clients over the last few years, all I see are Millennials and now even some of the Generation Z arriving at work. This movement is in full swing, so doing things because “I told you so” is long gone. In general, they’re not going to engage their heart and soul into anything at work until they know the “Why” they’re doing something.

The Impact of COVID-19 | The Sharpest Tool Podcast

By Al Levi | April 16, 2020

Has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your trade business?

On this special edition of The Sharpest Tool Podcast, Al Levi and Ellen Rohr join host Josh Smith to discuss how coronavirus is impacting the trades. They have good advice to offer business owners during tough times. Listen in and hear what they have to say.

Listen to the special edition of The Sharpest Tool podcast here.

Personality Profiling – Tendencies vs. Absolute Truths

By Al Levi | April 14, 2020

As part of Staffing Power, I advise my clients to make sure that Personality Profiling be a part of the hiring process.

To be clear, I don’t like the term “Personality Profiling” because it feels, to me, manipulative. Profiling is just a very bad word unto itself. That’s why I prefer the term Motivational Mapping.

Motivational Mapping is seeking to know how the new hire interacts in the world or at least how they view things. That promotes better communication because if you know the words they want to hear they’re more likely to be more motivated.

This switch of terms to Motivational Mapping isn’t meant to be a game of semantics. It’s more about recognizing that the term fits better because it’s about the things that motivate us. That’s different because we’re all wired differently. All of which I think is a really a good thing as we don’t want to live in a world of clones.

That said, we all have tendencies. And recognizing those tendencies early on will help set up the potential new hires to better succeed at your company. It can also reveal if a new hire is a good fit for your company. That’s why you want to pay attention to what the Motivational Mapping is revealing.