[Bill Schwab]

I have been dangling this thread in my head for a few days, thinking of all the wonderful things I learned this year. The biggest problem was where the heck do ya start? So, here are a few things that really stuck out over all the stuff we gleaned this year.

Since we are only in our third year in busines here, the new area still poses some challenges.

Among the top of my list from this forum, was, from Paul, that SRW walls use thier weight to help hold the slope they are installed on. After having been to many SRW forums, either I missed that tidbit, or, the talk went right into the crux of the topic at hand and did not discuss the basics of an SRW.

Second, from this forum, was again, Paul, and Pelican, that slump in concrete was how wet, or dry the load is. I've poured alot this year, and heard the term, and thought it mean't something totally different. Our Keystone walls, for example, are cast with a zero slump. Sidewalks and drives are poured usually at a three slump.
Technology has it's place. We are gradually getting into lazer grading instrumentation. Pauls experience was invaluable reading old posts and moving slowly before dropping big bucks.

JW's plant of the week is a true learning experience, even though I don't post much, I kind of play the game in my head.

From equipment seminars, it was learning about the capabilities of the rubber tracked loaders fairly new to our markets. Since properties are getting smaller, the equipment needs to get smaller.

From life, I learned that people are, for the most part, good with good intentions, but, there are tell tale signs of when someone is not befitting of your operations. I also learned more about various cultures, and personality types, what they are most likely to buy or not buy in the markets we operate. I have no problem identifying who is most likely to take time and not buy services vs invest in our company by choosing our services.

With my time at a premium, this is crucial to optimize sales and operations time. For example, there are three basic speech patterns types all people have. They can have one, or all of each type, in a range of percentages. Kinesthetic speech types are more outgoing, friendly, more apt to purchase what we have to sell. Visual types are very precise, anal, typically price shoppers who, may buy, but less likely that others. Visuals are also those who, will without fail, be breathing down your neck the whole length of the job. People who work out of home, or older people can fall right into this catagory without too much effort.
Audial speech types are usually do it yourself people, (thrifty)who, think nothing of taking mass quantities of your time (if you let them) and either do a job themselves, or, find a guy at the street corner after gleaning every bit of knowledge they can from you.
People from different cultures, foreign born, are most likely to ask 100% or more questions before commiting to a sale, if they commit at all. Bottom line pricing is also a trait. Depending on area of origin, they may continue calling and asking away, without ever having a commitment to our company.

Identifying this type of behavior early on is essential to optimizing our time. I learned that, when I push for a commitment to go any farther, (I'm talking dollars and cents commitment here) those types of people will move on. If I can sense this type of behavior by the questions asked on the phone interview, asking for a small fee ($250.00 or sometimes less depending on the nature of the work interview) for our time, will end much wasted time before it happens. It also presents a commitment before the job starts. 99% of the time, if someone pays a consultaion fee, knowing that it will be taken off the cost of the work that will commence, the job is usually ours to loose. If we do loose it, our time was compensated for.

I also learned that on any given day, we are one step out of bancruptcy, and one job away from financial freedom.

There are a few people who, if you allow them to, will cheat others. I learned if this happens that it is 99% thier fault, and 1& our fault. It is our fault for letting it happen. At any one time, we as business owners have the right to stop the job, and ask for payment to date. We had this occur in January and have played catch up all year. I'm proud to say, after this Christmas, that will be behind us.

I learned, that it is far better to make truck payments, than have trucks paid off, and have your head under the hood often. It took a while to get to this position, having a love for mechanical things, and, the finances just were not there. Once they were, and we got out of the truck repair business, the landscape business took off and flew.

How many have you helped along the way, and from that help, has it come back to you 10 fold? For us, I can't emphisize this enough. When you give, you gain. For us, the more time we got off the target of me, or ours, and got into more of a servanthood leadership, the whole world unfolded before us.

I will remember a few other things after I send this post I'm sure. So, how about your list? We all have our core knowledge, but, what did you learn this year that really stands out, or enhanced your core knowledge?