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How Can You Protect that Big Investment in Your Home?

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The Best Way is to Have a Home Maintenance Plan

It’s hot here in Kansas right now and doesn’t look like it will be cooling down any time soon. They’re predicting 100+ degree weather for the next several days. That makes me sweat just thinking about it.

Having said that…I realize that we’re just a few weeks away from fall, and it will be freezing before you know it. As I was thinking about this, I realized that it won’t be long before I need to be getting ready for winter.

It’s time to get the Home Maintenance Plan out.

Home maintenance – Prevents breakdowns, saves money, and keeps your home in the best possible condition. This regularly scheduled review can expose conditions that might not otherwise be found. This reduces mental, physical, and financial stress and strain.

Seasons happen every year and are a natural part of life. Each of these seasons presents different weather conditions and temperatures which affect your home in varying ways. We often use calendars to schedule our lives. Combining the seasons and our calendars into a Home Maintenance Checklist breaks a big responsibility into small manageable scheduled tasks.

It’s easy for the busy activities of everyday life to consume us, and home maintenance gets overlooked. This is why I prepared a Home Maintenance Plan and Check List. It’s available for free at our Solution Building website. Just follow the links, fill out the form, and download it for free.

This includes plans for monthly, quarterly, annual, and seasonal maintenance including a seasonal check list.

MONTHLY MAINTENANCE – These tasks should be done every month. You might prefer to schedule one day to do them all or spread them out over the month doing one or two items periodically throughout.

Monthly Maintenance includes things like –

  • Cleaning garbage disposals
  • Cleaning range hood filters
  • Inspecting fire extinguishers
  • Cleaning washing machines

QUARTERLY MAINTENANCE – These quarterly tasks, like the monthly ones, can be scheduled for one day each quarter or disbursed throughout the quarter at monthly, weekly, or other intervals. The important thing is to schedule them and do them.

Quarterly Maintenance includes things like –

  • Changing HVAC filters
  • Testing smoke/carbon monoxide detectors
  • Testing GFCI receptacles
  • Checking water softener salt levels

ANNUAL MAINTENANCE (By Season) – Annual tasks are more seasonal than monthly or quarterly. There is still some flexibility that can be determined by your own preference or life schedule. Some of them are not specific to the season but have been placed as they have, to spread more evenly throughout the year.

Annual Fall Maintenance includes things like –

  • Service central heating systems
  • Cover or removing window air conditioners
  • Closing or covering foundation vents
  • Cleaning out gutters
  • Cleaning out basement window wells
  • Turning off and flushing outdoor water faucets
  • Chimneys cleaned and inspected
  • Checking entry door and window hardware

Even this small portion of the complete Home Maintenance list can seem overwhelming. But like any big project, if you break it down into individual tasks, spread them out, and schedule them, it’s doable, like eating an elephant one bite at a time.

It’s a lot better to routinely do maintenance than wait until something falls apart.

That’s why home maintenance can help you preserve and protect that big investment of your home.

Get your free Home Maintenance Plan and Check List here.

Big Projects Are Made Up of Thousands of Small Pieces

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How Can I Sort Through All of Them and Get Them in the Right Order?

Over the past several weeks we’ve discussed the importance of having a plan when it comes to building anything successfully. This goes for construction projects or businesses. Part of that discussion was focused on having a clear and implementable business operating plan.

We looked at how a standard operating procedure can help you achieve consistent results, reduce costs, increase productivity, and create a higher level of standards. We broke down the things that should be in an SOP. Then we discussed the process of determining the design of your SOP.

It became pretty evident that designing, building, and implementing an SOP is a pretty big project. It’s a lot like building a big construction project, if you don’t start, it will never get built.

The same thing is true for your business…if you don’t start, it will never get built.

I have found myself in several different situations over the past several weeks that have aligned with this whole big overwhelming idea of the SOP. It reminded me of a previous post about being too busy.

Here is an excerpt from that post –

This morning as I was posting in my journal, I started thinking about all of the things that I didn’t get done yesterday. Then I began to think about how many times I have posted this same thing over and over. It sure seems that I spend way too much time feeling overwhelmed and behind. I really want to get more done!

Then I thought about all of the times that I’ve had this conversation with other people. “How is your day going? Man, I am so far behind I don’t think I will ever get caught up. I sure wish there were more hours in the day.” I have heard these or similar comments more times than I can count.

Our lives can feel like a 20,000-piece jigsaw puzzle was dumped out in front of us with no picture of what it is supposed to look like when it’s done.

So how can we get all of these pieces to fit…or can we? This is the big question. It would be nice to know what the finished puzzle is supposed to look like. This puzzle can be tough and frustrating. I think it is especially difficult for those of us who are ‘recovering perfectionists’. We want all the pieces to fit just right. To know ahead of time exactly where each piece is supposed to go. This particular puzzle, called life, doesn’t work like that.

Here are some reasons we struggle with our puzzle and some ideas to help us get our pieces to fit.

  • We pick up too many pieces by over scheduling. There are so many pieces…Start with the corner pieces. Put in the most important pieces first.
  • The puzzle isn’t going together as fast as we want. Sometimes (most times) things just take longer…do as much planning and preparation as we can before we start, but don’t over plan. Spread the pieces out, find the edge pieces and get started.
  • With so many pieces in front of us we lose our focus. After we have put the edge pieces in place…remember that we can only put one piece in at a time. Concentrate on that one. If it doesn’t fit, then pick up a different piece and focus on it.

Life is a puzzle. What really makes this puzzle fun and exciting is that while we are putting our puzzle together other people are doing the same thing and their puzzle connects to ours.

Ideas are great, but if you don’t take action, nothing will get done.

Whatever the project is that you’re working on, find the first next piece, pick it up and put it in place, then repeat. This is the only way you will get the business of your dreams built.

What’s the Best Way to Navigate the Difficulties of Life?

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This Life Expedition is Made Easier with a Good Leader and a Good Plan

This past weekend our area was hit by a strong wind. I’m talking about a really, really strong wind. I’ve heard reports ranging from 80 to 100 miles per hour. I don’t know what the exact wind speed was, but what I do know is this…there was a lot of damage, a Ferris wheel blown over at the county fair, and a widespread electric outage for around to 24 hours in some areas.

The upside is that I haven’t heard of any serious injuries and witnessed neighbors helping neighbors.

Being without electricity for that amount of time brought to light how spoiled we are.

Don’t get me wrong…I love being spoiled with electricity and don’t want to go without it. But the disruption this caused to our everyday routines was evident. No electricity meant – no air conditioning, for those of us with well water…no running water, no charging of cell phones, thawing of food in freezers, etc.

This meant starting my day without my normal morning shower or coffee. ☹

I love routines and am much more productive when they are followed, but sometimes things happen that upset those routines. The question is how are we going to handle these disruptions?

Sometimes these routines can become so prominent that we become rigid and don’t look outside them. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees in Luke 14:1-6. Jesus was healing people on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees were stuck in their rules and laws. Jesus pointed out to them that if their son or ox fell in a well on the Sabbath, they would help them out.

When we get so set in our ways we don’t want to change. This leads to making excuses. In Luke 14:15-24, Jesus shares a story about people who were invited to a banquet but made up all kinds of excuses not to go.

It isn’t like they were being asked to do something that was hard or unpleasant…it was a banquet after all.

We are like the people in this story. We’ve been invited to an eternal banquet with Jesus, but we get caught up in our daily routines and make excuses for not accepting the invitation. We put it off.

When things like storms and power outages happen, we need to be clear about who we are and what things are the most important. We need to be flexibly rigid.

Life is an expedition and like any big undertaking there are going to be difficulties and hardships along the way.

The question is how are we going to handle them?

If we have a good Leader (Jesus) and a good plan (Bible) the adventure will be much better.

Clarity of the Plan is Key to Knowing What to do and How to do it

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How an Operating System Can Help Your Construction Company Navigate the Business Fog

The past couple of weeks we’ve discussed how an operating system can help you build a successful business and a list of what should be included in a standard operating procedure. This week we’ll look at style and formatting ideas for putting together a plan for operating your company.

It takes thousands of pieces to construct a building. If these pieces aren’t put together in the right place and in the right order, the end project is not what was expected. It might even lead to the building collapsing.

This can be avoided with a clear plan and good communication.

The same is true for a business. There are thousands of pieces that need to be put together in the right place and in the right order if the company is going to survive and become successful.

You don’t want your business to collapse, do you?

A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is the current hot title for this document. I will agree that these three words do a pretty good job of summarizing what this is, but don’t want to get caught up in what it’s called. You can call it whatever you want.

Just like you can call it what you want, you can design it however you want. Here are some ideas that you might want to include in your operating system.

  • Determine the format – This can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
  • Gather the relevant stakeholders – When you start discussing the system you should include anyone who has a stake in the process.
  • Define the structure – Bigger companies will likely have a more formal structure and startups, or smaller companies may use a more informal process.
  • Determine the scope – Keep in mind that you should have a clearly defined scope. It may involve multiple areas and people but be sure to not lose focus on your goals.
  • Be consistent in style – This makes it easier for the person who’s going to be using it if it’s a clear consistent style throughout the whole document.
  • Include all steps of the process – Record all steps that are required to complete a certain process.
  • Choose the right metrics for measuring success – To understand if you’re achieving your target results, you need to determine what the key performance indicators are.
  • Test the process – To make sure that your system is good or to make any final edits and tweaks, ask some of the team who will be using it for their feedback.
  • Implement the process – Once you’ve completed the above steps, you’re ready to implement. Keep in mind that these procedures are dynamic and will change with time.
  • Plan for regular reviews and updates – Since the construction industry and your business processes are changing all the time, your standard operating procedures should too!

An SOP is not a document to be made and forgotten about. It’s a manual that people use daily. So…it must be reliable.

Revising your SOPs every 6 or 12 months is a must if you want to stay on top of any changes and keep on delivering the best possible results.

As the owner or operator of a construction company, your head probably feels like it’s going to explode with all the things you’re trying to keep track of and do. Wouldn’t it be great if you had some help doing some of those things?

The problem with this is…now you have to teach and train them, and either you or they are going to forget something. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an operating manual that they could refer to?

There could be. You just have to decide if you want to continue doing things the way we’ve always done it, hit and miss way. Or use the better, clear plan that can be implemented by a new hire or used by the most experienced team member.

If you would like to discuss this more set up a free 30-minute construction company consultation.

How Can I Prepare a Standard Operating System for My Company

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Why Building a Successful Construction Business Requires Having a Plan

Over the past few weeks, we’ve discussed how building your business is critical to the success of your business and the importance of keeping your business in balance. After more than forty years of construction experience, I tend to view most things from a “building perspective”. Today we’re going to compare once again building a business and a construction project.

One of the most important parts of the plan for building a good building has nothing to do with physical construction. It has to do with processes and systems.

I have written about how building and operating a business can be like standing in the shadow of an overwhelming mountain and not knowing how to get past it. When you find yourself facing a mountainous obstacle it helps to have a plan.

One of those mountains when running a construction company is being pulled in too many different directions. Trying to operate all the different pieces of a business can be a big mountain. Having a clear plan and being organized can help you manage your mountain.

In your business, you have a specific way of getting things done.

But things are constantly changing, employees come and go, customers come and go, and if your company is going to stay in business you need to keep delivering high-quality construction projects regardless of the obstacles. This chaos just makes the mountain bigger.

So how can you maintain steady consistency with your company’s end results?

In an online article Workflow Automation shares how having standard operating procedures (SOPs) can help your business eliminate confusion around processes that are performed daily. This will allow your employees to be more productive and minimize mistakes! These procedures help you break down even the most complex processes so even a novice can manage these tasks from start to finish.

So, what exactly is a standard operating procedure?

A standard operating procedure is a set of detailed step-by-step instructions that describe how to carry out any given process. Companies that are serious about process management use SOPs to manage their day-to-day activities.

Having Standard Operating Procedures allow you to:

  • Achieve consistent results. With standard operating procedures, you complete your processes in the same way and achieve the right results every time.
  • Reduce costs and increase productivity. When everyone does the same task in different ways, eventually your organization will run into inefficiencies that cost you time and money. With SOPs you can streamline the process and increase productivity.
  • Create a consistently higher level of standards. SOPs are very useful when it comes to getting everyone on the same page and provides a standard way of getting things done.

Organizational paperwork is critical to having a business that operates smoothly and successfully. Having an organizational plan can answer a lot of questions before they’re ever asked.

This whole operational procedures thing sounds like a great idea, but also sounds like a lot of paperwork.

And the problem is…most construction people don’t like paperwork.

In a future post we will dig deeper into what is included in an operating procedure and how to prepare and implement one in your business.

Having an operational procedure is an important part of the Blueprint for Building a Better Business and is one of the tools that we plan to include in the Business Building Toolbox.

Portions of this are from a previous post on 10/27/18

How a Business Plan Can Help You Keep Your Business from Crashing

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It’s Hard to Keep Your Business in Balance Without a Plan

Most of us who are self-employed spend way too much time feeling like our businesses are out of control. We started our businesses with grand ideas and dreams. Then one day we woke up and wondered what in the world we were thinking.

Last week I wrote about needing a plan for building your business and how many businesses fail because they don’t have one. We compared a plan for building a business to a blueprint for building a building.

I recently finished reading the E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. This book does a great job of pointing out the misconceptions around starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business.

Michael walks you through the steps in the life of a business, from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective.

Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.

As I read through the book I was reminded and encouraged to review and improve our business and the operating procedures. If we don’t have a plan and aren’t intentional about implementing it, we are doomed to failure.

Business is like a three-legged table. If one leg is short, it gets kind of wobbly.

I know I have felt this way about my business and sometimes still do. This is why after reading the book I was reminded that I have not been giving each of the leg’s equal attention.

You have probably heard the saying ‘feast or famine’. This is used quite often in the building industry. It refers to the common problem of having way too many projects to do. Or not having enough and worrying about how you are going to pay the bills if you don’t get some work soon.

Sometimes this is caused by situations beyond our control. The economy, the weather, or some other external force. More often than not it is due to an ‘out of balance business’…like a table with a short leg.

As in Gerber’s book, we usually start a business knowing the trade but not having any experience in operating a business. We know what we know and don’t know what we don’t.

We started out by learning our trade as an apprentice, while working for someone else. I know this is how I got started. The problem with this is that while I learned how to build a building, I wasn’t taught how to build a company.

Like a three-legged table, when all the legs are the same length, it provides a level sturdy platform for my company to sit on. When any one or two of them is short the table starts leaning and begins to tip over. If it tips too far the company will slide off.

It’s never good when a company crashes onto the floor.

The three table legs of a construction company are:

1 – Sales/Marketing – Searching for and finding customers that you can help by providing your service and/or product through word of mouth, advertising, and awareness. Meeting with potential customers, determining what they want/need, and preparing estimates, proposals, and contracts.

2 – Production/Operations – Organizing, scheduling, and maintaining the projects. Determining who the right people are to perform specific tasks. Knowing the parts that are needed and making sure they fit. Maintaining communication between all parties involved. Ordering, delivery, storing and returning of building materials. Facility and equipment maintenance and repairs.

3 – Administration/Finance – The preparation of documents needed to communicate, track, and record all aspects of the business. The filling out and filing of income, expense, banking, and tax papers. This leg is one of the easiest for ‘tradespeople’ to neglect and can cause the table to lean quickly.

The top of the table – This is the big picture planning and organizing of the company. It’s what connects the three separate legs. It’s one of the hardest parts for the tradesman to understand and the most important. If there is no attention or work done on this part, you may just as well throw the legs in the fire and go to work for someone else.

It’s easy to give too much attention to one or two legs and forget the other parts. To get so focused on the production of a project and forget to follow up with a new customer. To get so into preparing proposals that we forget to invoice. To work so diligently on tracking expenses that we don’t leave enough time for working on the project.

There is no perfect solution to keep the table from ever leaning. The most important thing is to BE AWARE that it can happen, UNDERSTAND the problem, gather INFORMATION and get INSTRUCTIONS about the tools needed to keep the business from crashing and LEARN how to use these tools in your business.

Keep your business from crashing by intentionally working to keep the table balanced.

Portions from a previous post on 4/30/16

Having a Plan for Building Something isn’t Any Good if You Don’t Use it

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The Bible is a Blueprint for Building Our Best Life

We live in a world of idea bombardment, and it’s hard to sort through it all to know what is real. We see things on the news, social media, the internet, and TV programs. We hear things from our family, friends, neighbors, and community. So many different opinions.

The world thrives on conflict.

How can we determine what is real and what’s not, what’s right and what’s wrong? This is a subjective question that can be hard to answer. Who do you believe and why?

Just like building a structure can be done in a variety of different ways…so can your life. Ultimately some things work, and some things don’t. A house without a roof is going to get wet inside when it rains. A house without a foundation is not going to stay standing when the ground erodes.

A house built on a solid foundation will weather the storm.

Back to the question of how can we know how to build our best lives? Just like building a good building, we need a plan…a blueprint. Just like how a building project doesn’t go well when the blueprint is ignored, so it is with our lives and ignoring the Bible.

The Bible is our blueprint for building our best life.

Using a blueprint requires some work. Just because you have a blueprint in your office doesn’t mean it’s going to help you if you don’t get it out and use it. This doesn’t mean that unrolling it and flipping through the pages is enough…it’s not. You need to study it, learn it, and implement it or the building will not turn out well.

The same is true for life. If we don’t get the Bible off the shelf and study it, learn it, and implement it, our lives won’t turn out well.

A good builder doesn’t just look at the blueprint once and then put it away. There are questions and problems that come up constantly throughout the project. He uses it every day until the project is finished. The more he studies it, the more he knows about what is expected.

We should use the Bible in the same way. We should study it daily so that we know what is expected.

Another problem that can happen with blueprints is when a builder doesn’t fully understand or misinterprets the blueprint. Just looking at the foundation plan doesn’t tell us about the roof. Just looking at one page of the print will lead to mistakes in the construction as well as subcontractors being led to do the wrong things. This is why it’s important to ask questions and discuss it with the architect and other builders.

This happens with the Bible as well. We can’t just pick and choose a verse here or there and not know the whole plan.

You need to take the whole Bible into account so that you don’t make a mistake when building or lead others to.

Blueprints let us see what the architect expects from the builder. He shares all the different aspects of a building and how they should fit together. A builder who has built buildings before can begin to think he knows how to build and doesn’t need a blueprint. Inevitably this is when mistakes happen and can be very costly.

God is the architect of our lives and when we begin to think we know more than Him problems are sure to happen.

A builder must decide if he’s going to trust the architect’s plans or not. He can ignore them and build the building however he wants. The problem is…the building doesn’t belong to him, and if it’s built wrong, he won’t get paid.

The same is true for us. We have free will, and we can live our lives however we want.

The problem is, in the end, the payment we receive will be what we earned.

Use the Bible as your life blueprint. Get it off the shelf, study it, learn it, ask questions, and build your best life.

This past Sunday, Jim Miller shared the message to “Just Tell Them the Truth”. Here is a list of Scriptures that he used throughout his message.

  • Matthew 6:33
  • 2 Corinthians 11:2-3
  • Ephesians 4: 14-15
  • Colossians 2:8
  • 2 Timothy 4:1-4
  • Hebrews 2:1
  • Revelation 2:4-5
  • Revelation 3:3
  • Romans 3:23
  • Romans 6:23
  • Romans 5:8
  • Romans 10:13
  • Romans 10:9
  • Romans 12:1-2

How to Build A “Rainy Day” Fund for Your Business

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One of the Tools You Should Have in Your Business BUILDing Toolbox

Last week I wrote about the importance of having savings, both individually and in business, and the high percentage of people who don’t. The tendency to spend everything you have is a problem when the unexpected happens. I’m not saying that after you pay the bills every dollar should be saved.

What I’m talking about is having money ready for big, planned purchases or unexpected emergencies.

This way you can use your own money and don’t have to pay someone else to use theirs.

Last week I told you about the tool I use for this in my business, the Savings Transfer Sheet. This spreadsheet is easy to use and makes the process simple. What it doesn’t do is force you to save. If only there was just a way to hook peoples’ deposit tickets up to electricity so that they would get a shock when depositing money without saving.

The biggest problem with saving money is…not having a plan to do so. It can be overwhelming trying to figure out how much should be saved when depositing your revenue. One of the things that makes it hard is not having consistent amounts of income. If every week you deposited the same exact amount, you could decide once and always put aside a set amount for savings.

It’s rare in business that every job or every customer pays you the same amount every time you do business with them. There are some businesses like lawn mowing, hair cutting, pet boarding, etc. that a preset recurring price has been established, even so the number of recurrences each day or week is going to vary.

The purpose of this spreadsheet is to provide a simple accurate way to know how much to save every time.

As with most things, the most difficult part is the initial set up. This part requires some research, thought and time. Trust me…the time and effort will be worth it in the end.

  • First – Look back through your financial records of the last several years. The more research you do the more accurate your understanding will be of your financial history. Even if you’ve only been in business for a short time, it will be a good place to start. This will let you see areas of unexpected expenses as well as dollar amounts.
  • Second – Determine what things or areas that need to be saved for. Some examples of what these could be are:
  • Repairing and/or replacing equipment
  • Additional equipment or upgrades
  • Repairing or replacing vehicles
  • Large building repairs or maintenance items (HVAC, new roof, etc.)
  • Building or facility upgrades, expansions, or purchases
  • Taxes (income, property, sales, etc.)
  • Irregular payments (bi-monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.)
  • Retained earnings (money for emergencies…because they are going to happen)
  • Third – Take the dollar amounts for each area that you have determined to be above or outside your normal operating costs. Figure out the percentage of your net revenue each one is. This gives you a place to start when setting up the “Savings Transfer Sheet” for the first time.

Building a “Rainy Day” savings is critical to the survival of your business.

It’s a cornerstone in the foundation of your business allowing it to weather the storms of life.

Next week we will dig deeper into the “Savings Transfer Sheet” and see how the information we’ve gathered fits into it.

Why It’s Critical to Save Money in Business and How to Do It

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Setting Up a “Rainy Day Fund” for Your Business Can Help Keep It Afloat

We’ve just passed a painful time of the year…INCOME TAX SEASON. This can be stressful but doesn’t have to be if you’re prepared.

It’s common for people to spend everything they earn and not save anything for future investments or emergencies. For the most part, as a society here in America we have become comfortable.

We have forgotten how important it is to save money.

There have been times throughout history when things weren’t good financially, i.e. the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Enough time has passed, that for most people it’s become a distant memory. If you have ever talked with someone who went through the depression or a similar experience, saving money became more than something that needed to be done…it was the difference between life and death.

As reported in Zippia 42% of Americans have less than $1000 in savings and 10% don’t have any. Businesses aren’t doing any better, and it’s every bit as important.

Part of a good business financial plan includes saving money for those irregular and unexpected expenses.

Just like in our personal lives, in business we get busy with the process of daily living. We work hard at the normal operation of the business and neglect to intentionally plan for those “rainy days”. Things like equipment maintenance and repairs, building maintenance and repairs, quarterly and annual taxes, irregular payments, etc.

When I started doing construction work I learned the skill of building from some of the best craftsmen. Later when I went into business for myself, I thought I knew everything that I needed to be successful. The problem is that while they taught me how to build a solid, well-built structure, I was never taught how to build a business.

Early on in my business career I learned one of those business building lessons the hard way…the importance of saving money.

I was working hard to keep construction moving forward. The material figured and ordered and suppliers paid. Subcontractors and employees organized, having what they needed and paid. Things were going well, and there was even some money left over. So naturally, I spent it.  Then it happened…the accountant showed me how good my year was by telling me how much I owed in taxes.

How was I going to pay them? I didn’t have that kind of money. What was I going to do? I was going to have to make payments. Just so you know, tuition to the “School of Hard Knocks” is expensive.

That’s why over the last 40 years of learning lessons the hard way I designed and developed a system to help me build a successful business. One of those systems was a way to separate and save money that would be needed later.

The question then was how am I going to do it?

Several years ago, my wife and I found out about Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace Program. It’s a program that teaches you to, “Live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else.” The very first lesson he teaches is “Super Saving”. It’s a common-sense approach to saving money and the reasons it is important to do so. This was great for my personal finances but wasn’t an exact fit for the business.

So, using the basic principles of Dave’s plan for personal savings, I began working on a way to do the same thing in my business. The Savings Transfer Sheet is the tool I came up with and is one of the tools in the Business BUILDing Toolbox.

The “Savings Transfer Sheet” is a simple spreadsheet that with a few simple entries will give you the dollar amount that needs to be separated from gross revenue and saved. That money can then be put into a separate checking account, savings account, or turned into cash and put in a safe.

This keeps saved money from accidentally being spent on the wrong thing.

After talking with a lot of different business owners I realized that every business could use a “tool” like this. That’s why we’re currently working on putting business tools in the Business BUILDing Toolbox that will make the Savings Account Transfer tool available to construction companies.

You can find out more about the Savings Account Transfer sheet or other tools in the Business BUILDing Toolbox by setting up a free 30 minute construction company consultation.

It’s That Time of the Year Again and I Don’t Mean Football Season

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The Importance of Having a Plan and Executing it

It’s September. Labor Day has come and gone. And the 2021 football season is underway.

It’s hard to believe that Fall is less than a couple of weeks away, with temperatures in the nineties.

You don’t think football teams just show up to the first game of the season without plans, preparation and follow through expecting to win, do you?

Your home maintenance should be approached the same way.

You need to have plans, preparation and follow through to get your home in the best shape and prepared for the season…just like football teams. When football players haven’t done their best to be prepared their more likely to be injured. The same is true for your home.

In June of 2019 I wrote about how to make home maintenance manageable. It is a plan complete with monthly, quarterly and seasonal actions to be taken to keep your home in the game.

Fall maintenance is about cleaning up grass and leaves that have collected and preparing for cold weather.

It’s hard to think cold weather, but it will be here sooner than you think.

The current warm weather makes it hard to think Fall maintenance, but there is enough that needs done it’s not too early to get started.

The Fall maintenance list includes:

  • Servicing central heating systems
  • Covering or removing window air conditioners
  • Closing foundation vents
  • Cleaning out gutters
  • Cleaning out basement window wells
  • Flushing and turning off outdoor water faucets
  • Cleaning and inspecting chimneys
  • Checking entry doors and windows

There are also quarterly maintenance actions to be done:

  • Changing HVAC filters
  • Testing smoke/carbon monoxide detectors
  • Testing GFCI receptacles
  • Checking water softeners and adding salt if needed

Don’t forget the monthly maintenance:

  • Cleaning garbage disposal
  • Cleaning range hood filters
  • Inspecting fire extinguishers
  • Cleaning clothes washer
  • Cleaning dishwasher

Just like football teams prepare for the upcoming seasons…

You should prepare your home for its upcoming season.

Having a plan and being prepared is important to a winning season. If you would like your own winning plan, get a free Home Maintenance Plan and Seasonal Checklist by going to the bottom of the Solution Building home page and download it.