When Tamara and I tell folks what we do for a living, they generally picture us walking around in tool belts all day. For us, as the owners of Myers Constructs, Inc., this has not been the case for more than a decade. In reality, it’s our crews who wear the tool belts now.
Tamara and I are busy every day managing the company. We work in the office selling projects, planning projects, and, like most other small business owners, working to keep cash flowing through the company. We spend a lot of time in front of computers with spreadsheets and CAD programs. We also spend a lot of time talking to customers about their projects.
Our days typically start at around 7:30 a.m. with e-mails, phone calls and job site visits. We schedule most sales calls between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., at the latest, so we can get home. I usually knock off around 6 or 7 at night, after doing more e-mails, blog posts, and marketing from home. Tam is usually busy in the office until that time with a spreadsheet or contract she is preparing. I often work weekends from home learning about business management, or doing marketing and planning.
In addition to each of us working 60-70 hours a week to keep the business rolling, Tam and I attend Wharton Small Business Strategic Business Planning classes every Wednesday from 6:30 until 9:00 p.m. Yesterday after class, as we walked to our cars, Tam told me about a prospect whom she’d met earlier that day. She asked him why he’d called us about his project and why he had decided to not use another contractor who had looked at it.
He said his reasoning was like this: He had heard about us for some time. He’d been to our website to check us out. There, he got the feeling that we really cared – that we had experience and knew what we were talking about. He understood that we were not going to try to sell him something that wasn’t going to make him happy; instead, he believed that we were going to find the thing or process that fit his needs — in this case, some specialty windows.
After a tough week and a long day working at being a better small business, what could be more validating for me to hear?