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What Should I Do First?

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Deciding What Your Big Rocks Are

Self-employed people, especially those in construction, struggle trying to keep up with all the things there are to do. I’ve experienced this from both sides. First, as a general contractor, struggling to get subs to show up when they said they would. Second, as the construction contractor, who didn’t accomplish what I said I would, when I said I would.

This practice of over-promising and under-delivering is all too common.

More times than not, over-promising and under-delivering is unintentional. We mean it when we say we’ll be there at a certain time. Then life happens and everything gets derailed.

I’ve been dealing with this problem quite a bit lately, when subs or suppliers don’t follow through at the time they said they would.

This has led to multiple conversations about prioritizing.

What makes one thing more important than another? What are the most important things to focus on today if I’m going to achieve my goals?

This reminded me of this post that I wrote back in January of 2021. It was about focusing on the most important things (the big rocks) first.

What are the big rocks that I need to put in the jar first?

I read about this time/priority analogy several years ago in Steven Covey’s book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In this book there’s a good analogy of managing our choices.

Here’s how this story goes:

One day this expert was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration I’m sure those students will never forget. After I share it with you, you’ll never forget it either.

As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered over-achievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone in the class said, “Yes.” Then he said, “Really?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

Then he smiled and asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time the class was onto him. “Probably not,” one of them answered. “Good!” he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted. Once again he said, “Good!” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!”

“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is:

If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”

Dr. Steven R. Covey, First Things First

I love this big rock example of prioritizing our actions.

Too often we approach time as though there’s no limit.

There are so many great things to choose from but there is a limited amount of time.

We all need to do better at managing our time and what our priorities are. If I’m going to be the most productive, I need “focused intensity” on the big rocks that will help me to achieve my goals. 

What are the big rocks in your life?

Growing in your faith? Spending more time with your family? Serving your customers better? Paying off debt? Taking better care of yourself physically and mentally? Helping with community projects?

Here are a couple of short videos of how putting the big rocks in first matters:

Time Management & the Jar of Life

Jar of Life

Your Construction Business Isn’t What You Expected

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Now What Are You Going to Do About It?

If you had known how hard it was going to be to own and operate your own construction business…you probably wouldn’t have done it.

It’s hard work, time-consuming, and risky.

The problem is that no one told you how hard it was going to be. Or, if they did, you didn’t believe them.

This isn’t to say that it’s not worth it…because it can be.

The problem is being faced with things like –

  • Finding the time to do the physical construction and the paperwork
  • Constantly feeling like your life is out of control
  • Construction projects behind schedule
  • Not having enough money to pay the bills
  • Construction projects going over budget
  • Disappointed and upset customers
  • Misunderstandings with customers and production teams

And not knowing what to do about these problems.

If you work in the construction industry, you’ve probably experienced some or all of these things.

So, what are you going to do?

Are you going to just keep plodding along, hoping that something is going to change? You know the definition of insanity is “Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.”

If you want different results, you’re going to have to do something different.

The question is…what are YOU going to do? Are you going to continue living in the current insanity or are you going to do something different? What you know about the crazy mess that you find yourself going through daily seems less scary than the unknown.

New and different is scary.

Deciding to do something different is the first and hardest step in a series of hard steps.

If you want to stay in business you need to take this hard step. You need to DO SOMETHING. Otherwise, you will eventually go out of business.

You need a change of perspective. Some new and different ways of doing things.

As scary as this is, it can be less scary than going out of business.

What you need is someone to help you with this. You need someone who has been there and done that to guide you through finding the solutions you need.

This doesn’t mean that it’s going to be simple or easy. Building a new building isn’t simple and easy.

When you started working in the construction industry you didn’t know what you know now. Building a business is the same way.

Someone taught, trained, and helped you to learn your construction trade. What you need now is someone to teach, train, and help you to learn how to build a construction company. This teaching, training, and help is available for you at Solution Building. We’ve been where you are and would love to help you with our forty plus years of experience. If you have questions about how we can help, you can set up a free, 30-minute construction company consultation.

Keep Your Business Balanced and Supported

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An Out-Of-Balance Business is Like a Short-Legged Table

Have you ever felt like your business and/or your life were out-of-balance? This is a common situation with self-employed companies. It’s like a three-legged table with one short leg…kind of wobbly.  

I know I’ve felt this way and sometimes still do. You’ve probably heard the saying feast or famine. This saying is used quite often in the building industry.  

Balance time and money

It refers to the common problem of having too much to do. Or 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 an out-of-balance business. It’s wobbly like a table with one short leg.  

Most of us that are self-employed started out by learning our trade as an apprentice, 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.  

After years of struggling and learning things the hard way—paying the expensive tuition to the school of hard knocks—I’m still not close to graduating yet. 

This became apparent this past week. I realized that I was not maintaining balance in the business. I was letting things distract me and not being intentional about what I was doing. 

One of the things that I implemented years ago was having a different focus for each day of the week. I had been neglecting this. So, I was intentional this week to focus on the specific focus for that day. It was a productive week. 

Keeping the business balanced and supported is an ongoing process. 

I was reminded that my business is like a three-legged table.  When all the legs are the same length, it helps provide a level, sturdy platform for my company to sit on.  

When any one or two of them are short, the table starts leaning. If it leans too far the company will slide off.  

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

The three legs of the table are: 

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

2 – Production – Organizing, scheduling and maintaining projects or products. 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. 

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.  

When any one of these legs get short, it can really cause the whole table to lean. 

The tabletop is the big picture: planning and organizing. It’s what connects the three separate legs. It’s easy to give too much attention to one or two legs and forget the other.  

Getting so focused on the production of a project that we forget to follow-up with a new customer. Or working so hard on preparing proposals that we forget to invoice. Or even working so diligently on tracking expenses that we don’t leave enough time to work on the construction project.  

There is no perfect answer to keep the table from ever leaning.  

The most important thing is to realize that it can happen and to continually work to keep the table balanced.  

Updated from a previous post 4/30/16 

What Should Be Done First?

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It’s Amazing How Clear Things Become With Limited Time

There are so many things trying to get on the “to do” list and each one is competing for the top position. Deciding which one should get the number one spot is tough. There are so many important things that we need or want to do.

The past few weeks have been crazy trying to keep up. You might have gathered that from last week’s post about the runaway train.

It’s easy to say that we have limited time, but it’s hard to schedule that way.

Several years ago, I had a computer with a battery that was not lasting as long as it had when it was new. One day while working out of the office, without the power cord, I had 2-3 things that I needed to get done before the computer shut down.

This limited time forced me to sort and prioritize.

How do we decide what to say yes to?

Emergency situations often require triage. This is the process of prioritizing patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition and the resources available. In these situations, victims are divided into three categories:

  • Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive.
  • Those who are unlikely to live, regardless of what care they receive.
  • Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome.

These choices aren’t easy and often require a quick “gut decision”. A pre-determined system, training, and experience aid in the process. This provides for the greatest number of survivors.

Another life and death choice is deciding who gets a transplant when there are a limited number of organ donations available. Take for example a set of twins who both need a liver transplant, and their father has only one to give.

Which little girl gets it?

The early thoughts of a father would be to give half to each. The problem with this is that half would help neither. The final decision will be determined by which one needs it most or which one is most likely to survive.

Most of the choices that we make in business aren’t this critical…or are they? Decisions we make can mean life or death for our business.

In medical life or death situations, there is a system and plan in place beforehand. This same type of system should be implemented in our business. We should predetermine how we are going to choose the most important thing for the life of our business. This is where things get hard.

What should be the highest priority? Should it be production or proposals, record keeping or customer service, marketing or staff? We’re faced with tough decisions in business every day.

What makes one thing more important than another?

I can’t answer this question for you. Are you tired of struggling with this dilemma? Having the right business BUILDing tools and training can help you be better prepared for business “triage”.

If you would like to give your business a better chance of survival, schedule a free 30-minute coaching call.

This is a revision of a previous post on Nov. 3, 2019.

There’s Not Enough Help for Construction

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What Does This Mean for the Construction Industry?

As part of my morning routine, I listen to Albert Mohler’s podcast: The Briefing. This past Friday’s episode started out talking about the falling birth rate and the effect this will have on the world.

We’ve heard how extreme this situation is in some countries like South Korea, China, and Japan. Dr. Mohler pointed out that this is not just happening in these countries, but around the world.

This is a problem because ultimately, if we continue down this path, there’s not a future for civilization if you’re not having babies.

A falling birthrate means you’re not going to have enough workers.

Not enough help

You’re going to have more aging people leaving the workplace than younger people joining it.

Just look at what’s happening in Japan, where they are using robots to take care of people in nursing homes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a robot taking care of one of my family members.

The Communist Party of China enforced a one-child-only policy to prevent a future threat where they had too many babies. It turns out, the threat is too few.

They’ve ended up with an imbalance of males to females because of the preference for male babies. Now, there are millions of Chinese men who aren’t able to marry anyone because there aren’t enough women.

That’s a shortage in the tens of millions.

This got me to thinking about how the struggle of finding good, qualified help in the construction industry.

This is not a new problem but seems to be a growing one.

I think this is due to more than just the decreasing population. I think it’s a combination of a society that has gotten spoiled and untrained.

A lot of young people see life as something owed to them. They’ve not had to learn to work. Then, you have those of us who’ve been doing construction for a long time. We’ve been too focused on our work and never bothered to share our experiences and knowledge.

It doesn’t matter if the shrinking number of qualified people is due to a shrinking or an untrained work force.

What matters is getting the ones that are out there, trained.

That’s why I’m working to find ways to coach and consult people in the construction industry that need some mentoring and guidance.

The Next Step in My Business Journey

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Doing the Things Only I Can Do

Over the past several weeks we’ve talked about having too much to do and not enough time to do it. Of how I need to delegate more of my business, but how hard delegating is for me. The only way that I can help more people is by sharing the load.

business planning

This issue has been brought to the surface after reading the book The Highest Calling by Lawrence Janesky. This book resonated with me because I see how construction businesses struggle with the business side of things. After reading this book it confirmed what I already knew…

Businesses need help building their business.

For several years, I’ve been working on ways to help construction companies with business building tools and processes. The problem is this takes time and energy away from construction projects.

So, then I shift my focus back to construction proposals and keeping those projects moving forward. And then the problem is I don’t have time to work on coaching and consulting to help people in the construction industry.

This past week is a good example of the construction part of the business not leaving any time for coaching and consulting.

It started out with Monday being a holiday. This means we started out the busy week with one day less to get everything done. There are ten different projects in varying stages. Some are almost finished, some are halfway done, and some haven’t been started.

To add to this list, I need to be doing proposals so that we will have work to do in the future.

I spent the majority of my time this week doing things that someone else could have…SHOULD HAVE…done.

If I keep doing what I’ve always done, I’ll keep getting what I’ve always got. Something has got to change. It’s up to me to do something different if I want to get past this mountain. The mountain will be easier to move, if I’m not the only one with a shovel.

One of the shovels that I’m working on giving to someone else is production coordination.

What exactly is production coordination?

It’s just what it sounds like. It’s the organizing and overseeing of the production and operation of multiple construction projects to maintain production schedules, complete projects within budget and achieve the quality of workmanship expected.

That sounds easy enough, right?

Trust me. To organize and oversee the production of multiple projects is a lot.

  • Project Coordination
    • Productivity Monitoring and Control
      • Coordinate schedules
      • Coordinate materials
      • Coordinate tools
    • Quality Control and Documentation
      • Periodic site visits and verify that quality is being achieved and maintained
      • Document with pictures and reports
    • Communicate with teams
      • Regularly review, follow-up and verify schedules
      • Determine materials and tools that are needed
    • Project Troubleshooting
      • Listen to customer concerns and document them
      • Communicate concerns with management
  • Planning and Control of Material and Tools
    • Coordinate gathering and delivery of materials and tools
    • Coordinate moving the balance of material to shop or return to supplier
    • Coordinate collection of tools from projects and/or production teams
  • Customer Service
    • Communicate schedules with customers and subcontractors
    • Assure that site organization is maintained
    • Coordinate and document finalization of punch list

So, where do I go from here?

I’m just one person and I can only do so much. If I’m going to build the business that God has called me to do…I’m going to need more help.

This means that I must be intentional and take action. Otherwise, I’m going to be limited to the number of people that I can help. That’s why this past week, I started the process of adding a PRODUCTION COORDINATOR to the team.

Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted as to how it’s going.

Connections Can Help You BUILD Your Business

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And You Never Know Where Those Connections Will Come From

The first couple of years as a self-employed construction contractor were a lot different than Gene expected. He’s beginning to wonder if owning his own business is worth it. It certainly isn’t what he expected.

All the headaches and problems that he’s encountered are causing him to have second thoughts about his construction job and going into business.

Working long days doing construction and late nights doing paperwork feels like being stuck in a rut. With help not showing up and Gene having to do more work, the rut just gets deeper.

Add to this the truck transmission going out. Having to borrow money to fix it. The disagreement with the customer that cost Gene $1,000 and the bottom of the rut has now turned to mud.

Then, the bottom of the rut falls out when Gene finds out he owes more than $17,000 in income tax and he doesn’t have the money to pay it.

At the end of the day, Gene could make more and work less flipping burgers.

It’s been a rough couple of years for Gene, but this isn’t to say that everything has been bad.

At the end of the day, it’s rewarding to look at what he’s built. There are customers whose lives have been improved by the construction projects he’s done for them. The freedom of having control is nice. Not to mention that Gene did have a profitable year…otherwise he wouldn’t have owed the income tax.

As another week winds down, Gene decided to do something that is nearly unheard of…he’s going to take a day off work.

Some of Gene’s friends have been pestering him to come hang out with them like he used to.

One of these friends, Dave, has a lifted 4×4 truck project that he’s been working on. Some of these guys have been hanging out on Saturdays and helping.

This past week, Gene ran into Dave at the lumber yard. They got started talking about the project and how it was going. Once again, Dave threw out the invitation to join them.

“I know how much you love working on truck projects,” Dave says, “We’re going to be dropping the motor in Saturday and could use some extra hands. You know you’d have fun…not mention how cool it is to hear a new motor fire up that first time with open headers.”

So, after Gene gets done on Friday, he calls Dave, “Hey, are you still planning to put that motor in your truck tomorrow?”

“That’s the plan,” Dave responds.

“Would it still be okay if I came over and helped?” asks Gene.

“Sure, we plan to start at 9:00. Bring the coffee and donuts,” he says with a laugh.

The next morning Gene shows up at Dave’s shop with a dozen fresh donuts and a thermos of hot coffee.

A couple of guys are already there. When Gene comes in with the donuts and coffee, they all act like they’re fainting.

After some jousting and poking fun at Gene for not coming around for so long, they dig into the donuts. As they catch up, a couple of others show up and join in on the ribbing of Gene.

After the tormenting slows down a little, Dave asked Gene, “So, why have you been avoiding us?”

His question catches Gene off guard, and he replies, “I haven’t been avoiding you.

I’ve just been trying to run my business. It’s a lot more work than I expected.”

As they began working on the truck and getting ready to drop the motor in, there was a lot of discussion about the construction industry and what it takes to run a business.

While they were talking, Dave brought up his boss who is the owner and operator of a large, successful construction company. Then Dave stopped what he was doing and looked at Gene, “Maybe I could set up a meeting with you and John. I bet he could help you understand how to BUILD a better business.”

Maybe this is just what Gene needs.

This unexpected opportunity might just be the connection that Gene needs to turn things around in his business.

We never know where connections will come from or where they will lead.

I want to share some real-life examples of some of the connections I’ve experienced in my business.

The first example is my amazing virtual assistant (VA), Emily.

Back in 2010 or so, my wife and I were struggling financially. We were tired of things the way they were.

We found out about Dave Ramsey, and I began listening to his radio program. Dave shared various books and people that he followed. Among them were people like Michael Hyatt. Then, from Michael I learned about Andy Andrews and Donald Miller. Then, I found out about Ray Edwards and began to follow his blog posts and podcasts.

Then in 2020, I had the opportunity to join a mastermind that Ray Edwards was starting.

This led to my meeting Becky Warner. Then through a 90 Day Launch course, I met Vickie Adair who is now in the current mastermind that I’m in.

As I was looking for a virtual assistant, Vickie told me that her daughter Katie was looking for a job as a VA. It worked out that Katie became my VA.

Then Katie had another job opportunity that was more hours. She connected me with Dori. Dori became my next VA.

Then Dori became pregnant with her second child. She felt that two small children and working was going to be too much. She connected me with Emily…my current VA.

I could never have imagined that listening to Dave Ramsey’s radio program would have connected me with Emily…but here we are.

The second example is a construction related connection.

The electrician that I’ve been using for years made a career change, which means I need to find a new electrician for a couple of residential projects.

I reached out to a couple of electricians that I have used in the past or knew. One—Mitch—called me back. He told me he was no longer doing residential projects. He gave me the name of Integrity Electric.

We’re planning to look at these jobs tomorrow.

This connection goes a lot further than it first appears. Mitch used to work for Galen. I knew Galen from high school and later when we were both on the local Trades Board.

Before Galen had his own business, he worked for Finn’s Electric. I also knew the owners of Finn’s Electric because we went to the same church.

Had I not had these connections, I wouldn’t have the wonderful VA that I now have or the opportunity to keep these construction projects moving forward.

My point of all this is that we are connected, and these connections can help us BUILD a better business.

I wonder if Gene will be intentional and take advantage of the connection that Dave is offering him?

Construction Customers Can Be Hard Work

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As a Contractor What Did you Expect?

As someone who has been in construction for more than forty years, I’ve worked for my share of hard customers. This does not mean that they are bad customers. On the contrary, more often than not the opposite is true. They are the best customers because they have a high standard and expect high quality.

There are, however, those customers that are difficult. Ones that perceive the process of a construction project to be more of a battle that they need to win.

These aren’t the kind of customers that I’m referring to when I’m talking about customers being hard work.

Most of the time the problem is with the “professionals” doing the construction. For whatever reason, they expect construction projects to be simple, that everything will go just as planned.

This isn’t the way life is. Why would we expect construction projects to be any different?

As construction contractors, if we’re doing our job well…it should be hard work.

Hard work isn’t bad. Actually, I think the opposite is true. I think if we’re doing our job well as contractors…we will be working hard.

So, what is it that makes a customer hard work?

I think the number one reason is the contractor and customer approach construction projects from different perspectives. The customer sees their dream project in its completed and finished beauty. They have little or no idea of the processes and struggles that it takes to get the project there.

The contractor, on the other hand, knows that there will be bumps and detours along the way.

The problems arise when there is a breakdown in communication.

Often the contractor isn’t hearing what it is that the customer wants. Or he’s more interested in making money than fulfilling the customer’s dream.

As contractors, even when we have a clear idea of what the customer wants, sometimes isn’t obvious to the customer until they see it.

When faced with these situations we can say, “This is what they said they wanted. It’s what they agreed to in the scope of work that they signed.” This answer is the easy way out for the contractor.

Or we can put in the hard work and find a solution.

We’re currently working on a hundred-year-old tongue and groove wood floor that had never been finished. The customer liked the way the floor looked as it is. The plan was to sand it down and put a low sheen clear finish on it.

The problem arose when the clear finish brought out a red tint that was unexpected. Now what are we going to do?

Some contractors would tell the customer that it looks good, and they’ll get used to it. And wouldn’t that be the easy way to handle it?

The other option would be to listen to the customer. Make solving this issue as important to you as if it were your own project and you didn’t like the way it looked.

We’re going to sand it down again and work on different options. This might mean applying a stain to cover the red tint of the wood. Or maybe we’ll apply an oil finish to it. Or…maybe we’ll just leave it unfinished.

Ultimately…we’re going to work hard because this customer is worth it.

We’ll keep you up to date on how the project’s going and what we do with the floor in future posts.

Life Happens…The Question Is: What Are You Going To Do About It?

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Flexible Rigidity Is a Good Plan

Today (7/26/24) was one of those days. You know the ones. You have it all planned and then…everything gets turned upside down.


Here’s how my day was planned:


Recurring 9:00 daily virtual meeting with my assistant, Emily. Writing this week’s solution. Follow up on construction projects. Friday’s week ending deposits. Pay some bills. Weekly review meeting. Shopping before going home. Family coming over for a movie marathon.


As I was on my way to the office I got a call from a sub-contractor. He had some questions. I told him I could meet him at the job site. I called Emily and we moved the meeting back.


While meeting with the sub, he said he was going to go to another of my projects after he finished this one. He hadn’t seen it yet and I needed to get him the material.


I called Emily again…we rescheduled again.


I met the sub. Went over the scope of the project. Went to the shop to look for material needed. Didn’t have what we needed. Went to the lumber yard and got what we needed. Delivered it to the sub.


Emily called and needed to run some errands…we rescheduled again.


Got to the office. Made out the deposit. Went to the bank and made the deposit. Stopped and fueled the pickup. Went to the rental property and put out a “rooms for rent” sign.


I was running behind and it was time to meet…we rescheduled again.


We combined our two meetings into one. I still needed to pay some bills and hadn’t even started writing. I still need to get to the store and get home for our movie marathon…and I haven’t even started the blog post yet.


So…to save some time, I’m going to use a previous post about flexible rigidity.

Here’s the previous post that is fitting after the day I’ve had:

I am an organizer and planner by nature. I like having a clear direction. A system in place to expedite those wonderfully crafted plans. Knowing what I’m going to do today.


But then…’life happens.’


You know what I mean. You’re going along, following those well-organized plans and then out of nowhere…something comes along and messes the whole thing up.


Just because I’m a planner doesn’t mean that I can’t be flexible, because I can. Sometimes maybe too much. It has always been pretty easy for me to make adjustments when something unexpected happens.


The problem with this is, getting derailed by distractions makes it hard to stay on task. Then of course that plan, that wonderfully crafted plan, is all messed up. For years I have worked to be better at balancing the plan and flexibility.


You may be on the other side and have the gift of doing. The ability to make a decision and move on it. You find it frustrating when the unexpected happens and you struggle to deal with it.


Knowing what character, personality and gifts you have is critical to being prepared in your own way to handle the unexpected.


I first wrote about this topic of being flexibly rigid back in 2016. It’s interesting that the instigation for that post was a brake line leaking on my truck. Now I’m writing about this again today, six years later.


Today’s situation involves brake lines and a whole lot more.


As I was turning into the church this past Sunday morning, I was rear ended. The accident knocked the rear axle out of the truck as well as causing some damage to the truck bed.


First and foremost, I’m grateful that neither I or the other driver were hurt…the vehicles didn’t fare so well.


Looking at the blessings is a great way to put things into perspective.


I’ve had this truck for twenty-two years and have put 523,000 miles on it, toward my goal of a million miles. People who know me, know that I like my truck…but ultimately, it’s just a truck.


Now, let’s look at how flexible rigidity works.


I need to start with considering my options –

  • Is the truck repairable?
  • If so, what’s it going to take to repair it?
  • If so, is repairing it worth the cost?
  • Is the insurance going to total the truck?
  • How much is insurance going to pay?

After I get the answers to these questions and others. I will weigh the options, ask God for His thoughts and make a decision.

He is the Master Planner and it is important for our plans to align with His.

We need to determine what our priorities are before the scheduling fiascos happen. Figure out who we are and what we want, so we are ready when the unexpected happens.

This doesn’t mean that everything will go perfectly, but as we search for clarity and work through each schedule disruption…

We will get a little closer to being who we were designed to be.

Being flexibly rigid is the balance of staying on task while handling things when life happens.

Now What Am I Going To Do?

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The Bottom of the Rut is Gone

It’s been a tough few weeks. With the truck transmission needing to be replaced and the customer shorting Gene $1000 dollars for the garage windows, Gene has felt like he’s stuck in the bottom of a muddy rut.

Even with all the problems, Gene has had a lot of work to do for his first year of self-employment.

Some of the projects have been very profitable.

Having a lot of construction projects is rewarding. It’s also one of the reasons he’s struggling to get proposals done and keep up with the paperwork.

To add to the busy, it’s time to get the tax paperwork gathered up. Gene needs to get it to the accountant so income taxes can be prepared. One more thing on the to do list that needs done. He’ll work on that next week after he gets this project that they’re working on finished.

After a couple weeks of late nights, Gene has the tax paperwork ready to take to the accountant. Another thing checked off the list.

On Monday, Gene starts the crew removing the kitchen countertops and cabinets for the current project. Once things are underway, Gene takes the paperwork to his accountant.

They look through the paperwork. As the accountant goes through the stack of papers he asks Gene a few questions.

There are a couple of things that he still needs.

Gene tells the accountant that he’ll get those to him later this week. The accountant says he will let Gene know if he needs anything else or has questions.

A few weeks later, Gene gets a call from his accountant that his income taxes are ready to be picked up. Gene looks at his calendar trying to find time to squeeze in a meeting. With all the construction going on, it’s hard to find time.

The thing is…April 15th is only a week away, so they schedule a meeting for next week.

—

Today’s the meeting with the accountant. After lunch, Gene drives to the accountant’s office to pick up the tax papers.

With this being Gene’s first year paying self-employment income tax, the accountant wants to go through the return with him. They sit down at the table in the conference room and the accountant begins explaining the different pages.

As they are going through the pages, Gene is beginning to feel a little nervous as he sees the numbers. Then the accountant gives Gene the return to sign and…

A voucher with $17,376 typed in the “Amount You Owe”.

Gene sits there quietly for a minute as he processes this number.

He looks up at the accountant with a distraught look on his face, “I don’t have that kind of money. I can’t afford this! How am I going to pay it?”

“You could borrow the money,” suggests the accountant.

“I already borrowed all I could to replace the truck transmission. Are there any other options?”

The accountant tells Gene that there is an option to set up payments with the IRS. Of course, there will be interest and penalties paying it off this way.

This would be better than pretending not to owe it.

Gene takes the paperwork and pays the accountant. It looks like Gene now has a new project to undertake.

After researching all the options, Gene contacts the IRS.

The process of setting up payments with the IRS was a nightmare and took weeks to get done. Now Gene has a monthly payment of $350 for the next 60 months. That’s five years and $21,000.

This is not how Gene pictured the first year of his dream business.

Now the bottom of the rut is not just deeper and muddy…it’s gone. Gene feels stuck. Like he’s got his hands and feet pressed against the sides of the rut without any way out.

Gene asks himself, “Why am I doing this? I could make more money and work less hours if I went back to work for someone else…”