Rich Jordan | Strongpoint Profile picture
Sep 29, 2020 9 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Stats show that a majority of business partnerships fail.

It's important to get the partnership on the same page on the things that matter.

The following are my plumbing partnership's guiding principles:
First, Do No Harm.

This is currently a profitable operation that we must be careful not to de-rail. In the early weeks and months, observe and take notes. The time for implementation of change is not Day 1.
No Assholes.

We're a small team and have the ability to shape - for better or worse - the environment in which we are going to work. Differences of opinion will naturally occur, but they must be handled with maturity and with the understanding that we're all on the same team.
It's Not About Us.

Decisions must be made in the company's best interest. If the company is healthy, the partners will be well taken care of. The opposite is not necessarily true. Capital allocation decisions will be made with this in mind. We will not be vampires.
Build Lean Mass.

The focus of our growth and investment should be on our muscle: our call volume, the plumbers, and our capacity for more jobs. We will look to trim fat where possible, focused on the back-end of the business.
Some goals I had with these:

High-level.
Easy to remember ("bumper stickers").
Difficult to disagree with.
Impactful to decision-making.
My opinion:

Don't make your principles things like "Accountability, Integrity, Commitment."

What's that even mean? How will that influence decisions?

Maybe those are important to you. Work to re-phrase them.
My buddy (USMC Instructor) was about to make this mistake with his student platoon last year. He wanted them to take ownership of their training and education during the course.

His initial principle: "Accountability"
We changed it to: "Be an Owner"

Much more impactful.
h/t to two influences:

@BrentBeshore will recognize the 1st two principles. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

I was compelled to write these back in June after listening to @sweatystartup's podcast series on partnerships. Great episodes.

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More from @StrongpointRich

May 14, 2022
SMB integration tip:

At takeover, look out for the folks who are both key-men and serious problems.

Immediately set to work peeling back and eroding that key-man status.

You'll be glad you did. We were.
Too many business owners find themselves in this situation.

They end up feeling held hostage by the team member.

Other employees want the owner to take action, but they "can't."

We dealt with this recently. Here's how I approached it:
Day 1, the seller tells me, "Hey so-and-so really needs to go. You should do something about it."

Oh, and she holds multiple key roles with no defined processes in place. Great.

My 1st assumption was that this was a management failure. It was, in part, but not the whole story.
Read 9 tweets
Jan 24, 2021
Creating an adaptable learning organization is one of the most impactful things you can do for your business.

It's not just for the big orgs.

Here's what I'm thinking about with my plumbing company:
Excessive call-backs destroy our productivity and hurt our credibility.

We watch this metric closely to identify techs that need more "love." Any decent plumbing co does.

But there's more to be gained here.
We dig in on the cause - could be anything:
-Stress at home impacting focus
-Straight-up carelessness
-Lack of a specific skill
-Schedule pressure
-Improper equipment
Read 20 tweets
Jan 21, 2021
Time-Slot Dispatching sucks.

My plumbing business is ditching time slots.

Here's why & how:
Once the day gets rolling, time windows become hard to hit and nearly impossible to guarantee.

To compensate, many co's end up giving wide windows: 8-12, 1-5, etc.

This turns into a lose-lose situation. Everyone hates it.
Example: 8-12 window

-You arrive at 10am - middle of the slot. Nailed it! Nice!
-Nope - you're late. Your customer has been waiting for you for two hours!

Poor way to start the call.
Read 13 tweets
Jan 5, 2021
There's a big difference between Productive and Non-Productive costs.

Not understanding this difference will lead to stagnation in your business.
Productive costs:
- Advertising
- R&D
- Sales
- Production capacity
(increase bottom line, lead to more business)

Strive to outspend your competition in these areas. Be ruthlessly efficient elsewhere.
Your typical mom-and-pop SMB doesn't operate this way.

The good ones are hawks on keeping non-productive costs down, but they cut too deep - stunting growth.

You can spot these by their eye-poppingly high net margins.
Read 7 tweets
Dec 17, 2020
SMB Tip:

Fight to gain control of your business' online reviews.

Don't leave it up to probability.
Early on, I set an auto follow-up email containing a review link to be triggered days after an invoice was paid.

Slick, right?? Well, no.
I noticed that our (rare) negative reviews seemed to always be posted several days after performing the job (pos. reviews nearly all same-day). Hm.

No doubt triggered by this auto email hitting upset customers' inboxes soliciting their public feedback.

Clearly sub-optimal.
Read 7 tweets
Nov 30, 2020
Available cash & timely action wins the day.

Got a cold-call today from a small plumbing shop in my area looking to sell their 250 commercial service accounts.

We weren't his first call, but I had an offer to him within a few hours. He replied within 5 mins w/ a counter. Deal.
We're nearly 100% residential service, so this is a great bolt-on for us.

The service provided (backflow prevention testing) will have ~80% gross margin for us and is req'd by law to be performed annually at a minimum.
We'll also likely become the first call for these commercial accounts when they have an emergency, repair, or other plumbing requirement since we're already there every year servicing their system.

We become "their guy."
Read 6 tweets

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