What’s 1 piece of advice you would give your younger self?

Thank-you to Jobber for posing this question to the Jobber Ambassador Group.

When it comes to starting up a business, I would have a 3 key pieces of advice to my younger self.

Budgeting – I would say to have a budget and monitor it regularly. For multiple seasons, I had operated and worked very hard but did not know how profitable the company was. By time you pay all your expenses, there isn’t much left over for profit. If you have a budget, you can closely monitor each week how the company is trending and if you need to make adjustments to expenses or the pricing of your services you can. The financial health of the company is one of the business owner’s main priorities.
Re-Investing – I would tell my younger self to invest profit earned from the business back into the business. I would tell myself to live lean as much as possible and not take much money out personally out of the account. In this way you can reinvest profits into wrapping your trucks, marketing campaigns, hiring an assistant, and upgrading your equipment. Growing a business takes more money than you think and leaving a healthy amount in the account for these initiatives is important.
Systematizing – I heard recently on an audio book that ‘System’ stands for:

Save

Your

Self

Time

Energy

Money

That is exactly what a system does in your business. Right now your business has thousands of systems. Many times the business owner assumes the responsibility of these systems. For example, re-ordering equipment, scheduling jobs, doing touch up requests, cleaning out the trucks, depositing cheques in the bank etc. etc. The list goes on, but the point is that your business needs to have written procedures for how every process in the business functions.

This is a concept I learned only 2 years ago. I have been systematizing a lot in the last 2 years and still have a long way to go. Your business is never fully systematized but I think the more systems that are developed and implemented the smoother and larger your business can become.

I would tell my younger self these 3 things and I hope you find some value in this article.