Good Morning All,
I hope this post is in the right place, if it isn't let me know. I will start with some back story for reference, then go into the actual goal of this post My name is David Brooks, I am 34 years old the owner of a local (75 +/- mile range) painting and contracting company, I initially entered the business world full of dreams with infinite stamina The vision of "Making all things new with integrity excellence and pride" has never faded how ever there have been a TON of bumps bruises and expensive lessons along the way, I have certainly paid my tuition to the school of hard knocks hopefully in full, through all of it my integrity in my decision making has never faltered and amazingly enough after each trial, we would experience a boom and go to the next level after a time of perseverance.
One of my major faults has been the lack of proper plans and goal setting (THANK YOU MJ for covering this elaborately is Fastlane millionaire and some in unscripted , I plan on using sumo in this process!) this has allowed me to have my focus distracted by shiny objects because I would get bored with the monotony of life, there was nothing new under the sun in the painting field to me, I am 3rd gen and continue in a state of learning but instead of having goals to stay faithful to I started a different branch of the company (distraction 1) we did well on our projects but after investing 60k into that branch between expensive equipment and startup costs and waisting a year of dividing my attention from my real money maker I have decided to close it, realizing it was alot more time and effort for alot less profit. Around the same time I purchased a 10 plex, I had the 10plex all of a few months then a nasty wind storm came through, every thing seemed fine, however months later I notice a tenants ceiling bowed badly, turns out it was a bad water leak, one by one I evicted folks till I had an empty building and after the lengthy eviction preocess months later I had discovered it to be roof leaks from the storm. Long story short insurance still has not paid and I spent 800k fully renovating the building, we have retained an attorney and the court date is 06/22/24. This was a paracitic drain to my successful painting and contracting op (and my personal wealth accrued) we went from being able to fully self finance 400k projects and wait months for payment to have net op account down to 5k (NOT good) and our company saving was cleaned out as well.
Heinsite in high places I now see the painting company should have remained my 100% focus, this is the danger of NOT having written goals, I know to some of you its not alot of money but it was really nice making 250-330k per year at 34, all of these distractions dwindled that account funding these ops and now it is like starting over, yes, I understand we are poised for a great case and insurance will have to pay with bad faith damages as well, however even if that is the case I dont want wealth to rely on a case. I have set out to utilize this as an opportunity to 100% refocus my current efforts to this company, I am hoping this brutal honesty can help some others avoid the same mistakes, and treasure the good oportunities they do have, dont get me wrong I have other goals, ideas, inventions that are planned and thought out, but this is a surefire opportuinty I already know how to grow. After listening to fast lane millonare, unscripted as well I set the goal of the following for my company:
1. Rebrand
a. The current name has my family name in it "Brooks Quality Painting and Contracting isn't exactly a sellable name IMO (open to opinion) I am thinking Alpha Premium Coatings with the goal of being established as industry experts (which we are).
2. No longer doing business trying to win at other peoples game.
a. We have always been a premium service priding on process, planning, and timely performance, I am no longer trying to win on price, I am focusing on the clients that need the service done properly, on time and professionally, and are willing to pay to get what they want, I am not going after low leverage clients any more, its a waist of time for how we opperate (and how we pay our people).
3. Systemizing as much as possible
a. The ONLY way any type of human resources op can be even semi-autonomous is by having a Rock solid company culture, a specified accountability system (checks and balances), and DETAILED processes so that results are consistent and repeatable every single time, part of this will be contual making of processes every project and reflecting on areas that could have been improved along with things that went well so it is continually getting better.
4. Setting Sumo Goals and following for the company to be SELLABLE within two years this iscludes processes, people, procedure, client lists, I believe its very atainable to get back to 1 mil plus this year and have a goal of 2 mil within 2 years. This should set up a great sale price for the company. My goal is to truly have a great machine that some one else will love for years to come, my passion for excellence will not and can not side line on this.
Some thoughts for this thread:
Objective: Be brutally Honest, I am asking for respect not just to my honesty but if others chime in, we are here to sharpen one another and everyone has to start somewhere
Goal: help younger folks avoid the same mistakes
Goal: help others in similar situations, hopefully, help them structure their company, utilizing the hive mind collective of this forum ( group effort)
Goal: help the contracting industry don't see alot of it here
I am really hoping this helps others and welcome any one to reply as things go on, even if your not in contracting alot of laws or rules in business are pretty universal, if you havea similar situation feel free to put it here after its said and done I hope this documented process helps other new comers along their journey. I apologize in advance I am not a writer per say so thoughts may be jumbled.
for me the first Items I am looking at are:
1. mentioned above potential name change to aplha premium coatings circular logo wolf silhoette for the logo some what greek ish letter appearance the branding goal is to be established as leaders of the pack or experts in our trade, on the residential end I see branding op (IF we go that route, currently primarily commercial) to give a cartoonized wolf or such as a igft to younger children? (Might be over thought)
2. Officially selling my equipment from the distraction company (that is already in the workings)
3. restablishing old accounts and developing new ones.
Thanks in advance, I am excited to see this process through with yall.
I hope this post is in the right place, if it isn't let me know. I will start with some back story for reference, then go into the actual goal of this post My name is David Brooks, I am 34 years old the owner of a local (75 +/- mile range) painting and contracting company, I initially entered the business world full of dreams with infinite stamina The vision of "Making all things new with integrity excellence and pride" has never faded how ever there have been a TON of bumps bruises and expensive lessons along the way, I have certainly paid my tuition to the school of hard knocks hopefully in full, through all of it my integrity in my decision making has never faltered and amazingly enough after each trial, we would experience a boom and go to the next level after a time of perseverance.
One of my major faults has been the lack of proper plans and goal setting (THANK YOU MJ for covering this elaborately is Fastlane millionaire and some in unscripted , I plan on using sumo in this process!) this has allowed me to have my focus distracted by shiny objects because I would get bored with the monotony of life, there was nothing new under the sun in the painting field to me, I am 3rd gen and continue in a state of learning but instead of having goals to stay faithful to I started a different branch of the company (distraction 1) we did well on our projects but after investing 60k into that branch between expensive equipment and startup costs and waisting a year of dividing my attention from my real money maker I have decided to close it, realizing it was alot more time and effort for alot less profit. Around the same time I purchased a 10 plex, I had the 10plex all of a few months then a nasty wind storm came through, every thing seemed fine, however months later I notice a tenants ceiling bowed badly, turns out it was a bad water leak, one by one I evicted folks till I had an empty building and after the lengthy eviction preocess months later I had discovered it to be roof leaks from the storm. Long story short insurance still has not paid and I spent 800k fully renovating the building, we have retained an attorney and the court date is 06/22/24. This was a paracitic drain to my successful painting and contracting op (and my personal wealth accrued) we went from being able to fully self finance 400k projects and wait months for payment to have net op account down to 5k (NOT good) and our company saving was cleaned out as well.
Heinsite in high places I now see the painting company should have remained my 100% focus, this is the danger of NOT having written goals, I know to some of you its not alot of money but it was really nice making 250-330k per year at 34, all of these distractions dwindled that account funding these ops and now it is like starting over, yes, I understand we are poised for a great case and insurance will have to pay with bad faith damages as well, however even if that is the case I dont want wealth to rely on a case. I have set out to utilize this as an opportunity to 100% refocus my current efforts to this company, I am hoping this brutal honesty can help some others avoid the same mistakes, and treasure the good oportunities they do have, dont get me wrong I have other goals, ideas, inventions that are planned and thought out, but this is a surefire opportuinty I already know how to grow. After listening to fast lane millonare, unscripted as well I set the goal of the following for my company:
1. Rebrand
a. The current name has my family name in it "Brooks Quality Painting and Contracting isn't exactly a sellable name IMO (open to opinion) I am thinking Alpha Premium Coatings with the goal of being established as industry experts (which we are).
2. No longer doing business trying to win at other peoples game.
a. We have always been a premium service priding on process, planning, and timely performance, I am no longer trying to win on price, I am focusing on the clients that need the service done properly, on time and professionally, and are willing to pay to get what they want, I am not going after low leverage clients any more, its a waist of time for how we opperate (and how we pay our people).
3. Systemizing as much as possible
a. The ONLY way any type of human resources op can be even semi-autonomous is by having a Rock solid company culture, a specified accountability system (checks and balances), and DETAILED processes so that results are consistent and repeatable every single time, part of this will be contual making of processes every project and reflecting on areas that could have been improved along with things that went well so it is continually getting better.
4. Setting Sumo Goals and following for the company to be SELLABLE within two years this iscludes processes, people, procedure, client lists, I believe its very atainable to get back to 1 mil plus this year and have a goal of 2 mil within 2 years. This should set up a great sale price for the company. My goal is to truly have a great machine that some one else will love for years to come, my passion for excellence will not and can not side line on this.
Some thoughts for this thread:
Objective: Be brutally Honest, I am asking for respect not just to my honesty but if others chime in, we are here to sharpen one another and everyone has to start somewhere
Goal: help younger folks avoid the same mistakes
Goal: help others in similar situations, hopefully, help them structure their company, utilizing the hive mind collective of this forum ( group effort)
Goal: help the contracting industry don't see alot of it here
I am really hoping this helps others and welcome any one to reply as things go on, even if your not in contracting alot of laws or rules in business are pretty universal, if you havea similar situation feel free to put it here after its said and done I hope this documented process helps other new comers along their journey. I apologize in advance I am not a writer per say so thoughts may be jumbled.
for me the first Items I am looking at are:
1. mentioned above potential name change to aplha premium coatings circular logo wolf silhoette for the logo some what greek ish letter appearance the branding goal is to be established as leaders of the pack or experts in our trade, on the residential end I see branding op (IF we go that route, currently primarily commercial) to give a cartoonized wolf or such as a igft to younger children? (Might be over thought)
2. Officially selling my equipment from the distraction company (that is already in the workings)
3. restablishing old accounts and developing new ones.
Thanks in advance, I am excited to see this process through with yall.
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