Benchmarks of Growth - Part 1 of 6
The DYOJO Podcast, Episode 55
Guest: Lisa Lavender, Berks Fire Water Restorations (Reading, PA)
At the beginning of 2020 I set out to interview a broad swath of people in a position of leadership to compile their insights on various benchmarks of growth. Our motto for The DYOJO Podcast is, “Helping you shorten your DANG learning curve,” and the best way to achieve this is to learn from the trials and errors of your fellow entrepreneurs. Lisa is the perfect person to kick of the discussion for this series as she has built her two companies, Berks Fire Water Restorations and Restoration Technical Institute, from the ground up. The key takeaway from our conversation with Lisa was this sage advice, “More is not always more when it comes to growth.”
In her experience, the years between starting Berks Fire and Water Restorations in Reading, Pennsylvania and achieving their first 3 to 4 million dollars were a bit of a blur. She believes that most companies have a culture and shared values, the important thing is being “deliptional”, which is a combination of deliberate and intentional. There comes a point when those in a position of leadership realize it is important to document your processes, articulate your culture clearly, and ensure that everyone is on the same page in order for you to carry that momentum into the next benchmarks for growth.
Lisa shared a funny story when this reality hit her. One day, she walked into the warehouse and remembers all of the people gathered from her team and the clipboards specifically. Their prior standard operating procedure (SOP) included everyone haggling for resources to ensure their projects were attended to and she realized, “This is a hot mess, we can’t grow this way.” As she point out, as you grow the risks are greater:
* Growing too fast and losing grasp of your culture, lagging in your processes, and overleveraging your finances
* Greater vulnerability to major declines in revenue stream when you have a larger infrastructure to support
For her team, these benchmarks of growth have been wake up calls, “When you have more people, equipment, projects, etc, you have to be better at everything.” Those of her team members who have been there since the beginning understand that there is a great cost difference between ten people standing around due to inefficiencies versus seventy employees being impacted by lags in communication and lapses in production. Lisa encourages leadership teams to think through key factors such as:
*Document your culture and processes as early as possible
*Know your break even point for where you are as where as where you want to be
* Develop a plan to build the optimum volume for your vision
* Understand that more is not always more when it comes to growth
* Be clear about your best practices and always discuss the key things each department needs to do in order achieve your goals
Evolving as a leader is critical to leading your team through the various market challenges and growing pains. Once you have identified and documented your shared values, be sure that you do not compromise on these key items. Lisa is a firm believer in the power of empowering open and constructive feedback from throughout the organization. If you want your team to be open and passionate about embracing challenges and improving their performance, you have to be doing the same by example.
If you would like to hear more of Lisa’s story and her perspectives:
Read her monthly column in Restoration and Remediation Magazine, Restoring Success
Read her chapter in Be Intentional: Culture
Watch/listen her appearance on The DYOJO Podcast, Episode 36
