“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” –Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook)
When I look back at what it took to start my roofing business, it almost feels like that was another life. Or like I was another person back then.
I took chances and made decisions as though there were no consequences.
I didn’t worry about what would happen if it didn’t work out. I never spent time mulling it over. I just reacted.
And it’s a good thing that I did, because that’s exactly what was required to get me to where I am today.
Any hesitation or reluctance to push forward would have resulted in a less desirable outcome. If not outright failure, prolonged discomfort for sure.
Now I find myself in a different place. Not having to react. I have the luxury of time. Nothing is so pressing that I have to make a decision about it today.
And while that may feel good, it is actually a false sense of security. Even though there are no barbarians at the gate, the danger is real.
I have to guard against getting so comfortable that inaction becomes the enemy.
I believe that you are either growing or dying. There’s no such thing as maintaining a business, because there’s always someone in your market willing to take the risks necessary to grow and acquire your customers.
I’ve learned that every new level of success comes at the expense of where you are now. You can’t become who you want to be without deciding who you are now isn’t good enough… and really meaning it!
So when your back is against the wall, (like it was when I started my business) you’ll do whatever you have to do, instinctively.
But when it’s not, you have to convince yourself that what you have isn’t good enough, and keep pushing forward.
To that end, let’s look at some of the characteristics that made us entrepreneur material in the first place. And what we just might need to rekindle to keep us that way.
1. You Can Execute on Your Ideas
The roofing business you currently operate started out as an idea. And without proper execution, you would be working for someone else right now, dealing with an entirely different set of problems, so congrats for making it this far. Most let their fear take over, but something told you that your idea mattered and drove you to make it a reality. If you have trouble executing along the way, my advice would be to find someone who has already climbed the mountain and follow their lead. Trust me… it’s a whole lot better than trial and error and spending another year stuck.
2. You Genuinely Care About What You Do
This is a given for most owners, at least in the beginning, because of the sheer determination required to move a business past the idea phase. The problem occurs when you run into challenges that seem to have no answers and your passion becomes a source of frustration that affects not just you, but those around you. That’s usually about the time that your dedication to roofing begins to waver. Not to say that you can’t get it back, but wouldn’t it be easier to focus on your customers if you had a handle on every facet of your business? If you can figure it out… then do it. If you can’t, find someone who has.
3. You Are Able to Get Over Failures
No one gets it right every time. As a new entrepreneur, we expect to stumble. That makes it easier to chalk it up to a learning experience and move on. But later, when we have years of experience under our belt, we take mistakes personally. When we take a risk and it doesn’t go exactly as planned, we don’t see it as a temporary setback on the path to ultimate success. Instead, we associate every risk with failure until we eventually grind any and all progress to a halt. Think like a new business owner and expect to get it wrong occasionally. That way you can find out what doesn’t work quickly… and move on to what does.
4. You Are a Passionate Life-Long Learner
This is a big one. When you stop learning, you stop growing. And when you stop growing, you die. But it’s not enough to just learn for the sake of learning. You have to learn exactly what you need to know, when you need to learn it. Otherwise, you’re out of sequence. What good does it do you to level up your management skills when you’re still a one man show? How important is it to develop detailed hiring practices when you can’t even keep your first crew busy? These examples may be extreme, but we are often guilty of working on projects that don’t matter, so that we can hide from the difficult ones that do. If you’ve already learned how to solve the tough problems and just haven’t, then stop procrastinating. If you haven’t… get some help.
5. You Can Handle Risk
Now for the grand finale. A lot of roofers think their success lies in the quality of their craftsmanship. And in the beginning, that’s technically true. But when you graduate from skilled labor to ownership, your role changes entirely. Now you’re responsible for things that you never had to worry about before. You probably feel like a temp service one day and a finance company the next. People are counting on you to keep the jobs coming in and everyone wants to be paid before you get yours. Responsibility and risk. These are your new stock-in-trade and you’re not a business owner without them. And your customers still demand a quality roof, of course, but that’s only after you’ve sold the job, arranged the labor, and taken on all the other risks and responsibilities. So, the moral of the story is that labor builds roofs by managing quality… just as ownership builds a business by managing (not avoiding) risk. Embrace your role.
To your success!
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If you’re ready to take a deep dive into the psychology of growing your business at will…
Check out my Master-Class for Roofing Owners and Marketers HERE!