Profitability is vulnerable to a whole host of variables

None of which you will ever learn from a seminar or book

In the services business, there is no other single factor that impacts profitability more than being efficient. We have our teams working hard in the field but do we really know what is happening? Do we? Should we trust everything we hear from our teams at face value? Should we not feel skeptical about how long projects take to complete?

Did everything really go fine?

The events of the last six months brought me to develop a maxim solidifying my experience as a systems thinker, which I call Pauhl’s Law.

Everything is more difficult than it needs to be.

And often, we —the designers, technicians, engineers, and other affiliated business owners are responsible.

Before sending our teams out to perform the daily grind, we must be proactive. We are required to anticipate problems that may occur. We need to keep our minds sharp on the ability to identify potential problems and squash them dead in their tracks.

After all, we are professionals and technicians; we’ve performed the same tasks countless times — what could possibly go wrong tomorrow?

Right?

Unfortunately, we are faced with ongoing challenges because too many variables exist to go without incident.

From poor product choices to make-shift plans, to last-minute change orders, and changing schedules — regardless, we have the wherewithal to conquer any challenge.

But do we need to?

Perhaps we are confronted with problems associated with products from our environment and nothing else, or maybe it’s how we use the products.

As professionals, if we lower our expectations of the products we use, we are not likely to encounter many pitfalls. In fact, some people say they never have problems, at all. Perhaps you might agree with a blind eye, but comments like that ought to be swiftly dismissed.

Being ready to push through and overcome the occasional minor inconvenience is an integral part of the technicians’ experience that we wouldn’t trade for anything. We’re out there because we like “doing.” It poses constant challenges through real-life experiences and increasing knowledge.

Products must perform in real-life scenarios.

In order to be profitable through efficiency, we must hunt down the best means possible for our teams to accomplish our project goals and meet the bid we submit to our clients. We need to seek out products that allow our teams to undertake any job easily.

The service business is a hands-on business. If we treat our business like a business, rather than a devoted hobby — we will likely never become aware of the impact efficiency has on profitability. Period. End of discussion.

Are you waiting for your employees to enlighten you?

Brian Havanas walks the walk and teaches how to simplify the complexity of job-site variables with actionable, easy steps. You can find out more about his work on ProBoards and discover his thought process behind building systems.