654: The importance in writing things down...

I’ve heard a million excuses for why people don’t have the time to write things down, so why do we do it? Well, let’s dive in to that today. One of our Core Values here at BOP is Write it Down. Now, it has a ton of different applications. From Writing down our Vision to taking notes at team meetings, to documenting processes, and even to producing Coaching Notes from every meeting we have with clients. The list of ways we write things down is exhaustive. And yet, we get pushback all the time from clients and key leaders about whether or not it’s truly necessary. All I can say…it absolutely is. Don’t believe me, well two instances in the past week, not month, week, of when it's been worth it. A little back story from the first instance. I was working with a contractor who was frustrated about the cash in their business. We were looking at their Level Two Dashboard, and pause, this is the simple tool we use to, you guessed it, write down the weekly cash position of the business. In looking at it, his cash position was somewhere in the neighborhood of 450k.  “There’s just so much pressure and so much fluctuation with paying vendors and subs and still not feeling like we have the buffer we need.” So, what I did, was scroll back to the first week in January and just started laughing. “Hey, if you look back at January you only had 125k in cash in the bank to start the year. So that’s a 300 thousand dollar improvement in cash over the first 8 months of 2023. That’s a pretty impressive amount of progress!” And the business owner was blown away. He could see with his own two eyes the undeniable progress that, if he hadn’t recorded his numbers consistently, he would have still felt stuck and unsure of the growth of his business. But taking the time to write the numbers down and record them provided freedom from the chaos in a refreshing way as he entered the fall to where he knew his pricing was sound, and his operations were leading to predictable profitability for the foreseeable future. And he doubled back down on continuing to record and write it all down. The second story. I was working with an installer who was so frustrated about some employee issues. “My guys just don’t get it. We’re so busy and so working so hard that they constantly complain about how hot it is and how they don’t like what they’re doing and we just don’t feel like a team right now.” So, after listening to the conversation for 30 min or so, I scrolled back down through our coaching notes to look at what we were discussing this time a year ago. Sure enough, some of the same thoughts came up then, too. It was a seasonal discussion in August of every year as the summer just takes its toll. But, the good news is he saw that there would be an end to it. The other thing we noticed is that we had spent 2 to 3 coaching meetings talking about materials and pricing delays and revisiting his estimates to make sure he could hit his margins. It was a period in his business that was so exhausting as he never knew what was going to happen next. He looked at me after I finished and laughed, “Well I’m glad I’m not fighting those battles anymore!” Perspective! Hits you right between the eyes when you look back and often realize how far you’ve come and the battles you’re no longer fighting. When you can pull the plane up to 10,000 feet and survey the landscape with clarity. To give yourself some sanity in the midst of owning and running your business. So what do you need to commit to recording? Is it your cash position, so that you can know how your business is performing? Is it your vision for your business, so that you can know where you’re headed and make sure your team knows? Maybe it’s some systems and processes, to ensure your team is set up to thrive in their job roles and can be held accountable to a standard? Maybe it’s even just writing down your Core Values and your mission, so your team can know who you guys are trying to be as a business! It all matters and it all adds clarity in the midst of chaos. That’s the goal friends. But remember, it doesn’t start big…it starts small. Think of one thing to record each week and then build on that. And, as always, if you need tools or accountability for this…we’d love to help!  Thanks so much for listening, have a great day!