Once you’ve identified the key systems that make your business money, it’s now time to extract them.

But here’s where many business owners get tripped up... they try to create all the systems themselves! And once they’ve been created, then they feel an overwhelming pressure to perform all of the systems themselves. 

As a business owner, you’ll never be free from the day to day operations if you’re always deciding to involve yourself in them.

This is a pivotal decision point where businesses can either remain in the stationary stage and continue to decline, or start systemising the right way so they can move to the scalable and saleable stages.

I had a breakthrough moment with a client this week who has been working hard on breaking free from doing things the way he’s always been doing them. 

His words to me (in a troubled tone) were, “It's almost like I don’t care anymore.” 

On the surface that sounds...

I HATE MEETINGS

I like my time. And I mean I like it ALOT

As I’ve aged (gotten older), I have probably learned to value it more than money. Yes. For sure I have. 

With time I can spend with family, listen to music, watch a movie, or create something for work.

Money really doesn’t help me with those things.
 

This topic is going to cause some chair shifting and weird looks.
But I bet many will go back to their team and take a look at how this might help.
 

I hate meetings (mostly). Not all are created equal.
Like most, I want them to be specific, inclusive, and results oriented.

Meetings that should be emails, get a really nasty snarl from me.

My mind brought up this topic mostly around what I call WIP meetings.
Work In Progress. 

Generally, these are the meetings where all PM’s, office, owners, The Pope, Johnny Depp, and Mr. Rogers all gather crackers, coffee, Diet Coke, and their cell phones (silenced by being placed face down on the table) in...

We turned this one over to the APA. 

Guess where it went from there?! 

Here is the scenario.
Comment at the end and let us know what you think! 

1. Invoice for complete (agreed upon) services. 
2. Packout from fire.
3. Liberty Mutual.
4. QuickBooks invoice sent to insured.
5. Liberty RECREATED the invoice, with contractor logo and all, with lowered unit rates.

Can you imagine the STONES?

Of Course their reasoning is inaccurate, but that's beside the point.

We posted a letter on Facebook and tagged the company that the adjuster was referring to.
We thought we’d share it here… but we’d love to hear your perspective.
Be sure to drop us a comment below. 

“Greetings Liberty Mutual Insurance, I'd like to extend my knowledge base and services to you and your organization.

I will actually do this once at NO FEE, as I think the overall Net Gain will help and impact endless parties.

From a factual standpoint, I'd like to clear up...

Let's be honest, safety isn't always something we think of when we get that call for an emergency service lead. 
Sure, on some level, it's always there. 

But being that far back in our minds is not a recipe for success. Safety is a MINDSET. 

After over 20 years in this industry working across the US and in 11 other countries, I would like to think I have seen it all. But that would be reckless and exactly where people start to see cracks. 

I say cracks because that's exactly how you should look at your culture. NO ONE ever has a 100% safe environment. 

So we have these small (or large) tears where the accidents always occur. 
These small cracks are quite harmless when we are smaller and have a tiny team. Then you are likely on almost all jobs and spot things very quickly. 

It's when you build a large structure, more weight, more conditions on a foundation, that the weakness starts to become more exposed, and sometimes in an alarming or devastating...

For those NOT involved in the same industry as me, much of this will make zero sense. But read anyway because you likely have insurance of some sort.

Let me start by saying there are scores and scores of really good people in the insurance industry. They are advocates for those the policy of insurance swore to protect. So save me the triggered responses.

I'll also announce that because SO MANY make their living from insurance proceeds, i won't be anyone they choose to stand next to at a party (although they secretly agree and tell me so).

Insurance as we know it, is a valuable and almost required necessity. Most Americans would not financially recover without it.

But there has been a system being built over a long period of time that is sinister and harmful.

Insurance makes money by collecting premiums and paying less in claims. Duh, right?

That's a great business model and many many people have been and still are among the planets richest people. Again, cheers. I love capitalism as...

Later this month, I will be traveling to do my 250th (ish) Onsite Business Assessment for the restoration industry and I thought this might be a useful time to capture what this has taught me and what it has often created for the restorers I worked with. Not all have the same results, but most are on the voyage. 

First, we should ask WHY I WAS HIRED. Well, that would take dozens of pages…..but I can summarize one major thing. 

Organization. 

An owner or set of managers know they work hard, have acquired all the technical skills, built a good company and brand…..but they just aren’t launching or where they WANT TO BE. 

That’s fair.
It means there is a dream.
Fantastic start. 

If you were to ask me: “Klark, what is THE largest thing you see missing or holding a company back in the restoration industry?”

The #1 is pretty clear and #2 is very closely related. 

It is:
A strong leadership team
and
an operational...

Nashville taught me something amazing. 

Challenge tradition.

Challenge norms.

NOTHING is sacred in business... or at the table that I sit at to eat!

Did you know that there is such a thing as tacos made with waffles?
#MINDBLOWN

 I met up with 2 childhood friends recently in Nashville.

Jeff the piano man and I met for lunch (at a bougie waffle joint).

Do you like breakfast for lunch or dinner?

Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon. Mmmm. Any time of the day is good with me!

Last time I was there we had Nashville's famous hot chicken. Call me sheltered, but I’d never heard of it. 

Dennis told me that hot was really hot. He warned me. 

I got medium. 

It's a good thing. That was a painful meal. 

I cannot fathom what EXTRA hot would have been like. 

Thats insanity!

I used to tell my mom after football… It hurts so good. Because I enjoyed playing football, it was worth the pain.

That medium Nashville Chicken hurt so good. 

I was going to go...

DON'T LOOK DOWN

This is Part 3 of a series taken from the our new E-Course "show notes"
 45 Days to build a STRONG restoration company. 

Profit is your FUEL

Let's talk about my favorite topic. 

PROFIT 

I have a sign in my office that says:

Gross revenue is vanity

Net Profit is Sanity

Cash is KING. 

It’s true!

Profit is your everything and I stand on mountain tops screaming that if you are not truly profitable you put a terrible strain on the engines, your wings and sometimes force the plane to land (to use the metaphor of your business being like an airplane).

The number 1 reason a business fails is CASH FLOW. Cash Flow, as we have discussed all along in this section is affected by a combination of many things.

 

Your marketing gets your product/ service noticed and entices people to buy from you.
Your sales effort to ensure that you are selling enough of a service to meet the financial needs of your company.

Then your control of the...

While I have not been able to confirm this story to be true, the moral of the story is a good one. So I want to share it with you.

This was shared online and I happened to come across it while digesting turkey and stuffing leftover from Thanksgiving.

One day Albert Einstein wrote on the board:

9 x 1 = 9

9 x 2 = 18

9 x 3 = 27

9 x 4 = 36

9 x 5 = 45

9 x 6 = 54

9 x 7 = 63

9 x 8 = 72

9 x 9 = 81

9 x 10 = 91

The chaos started suddenly in the hall because Einstein made a mistake. This was Einstein! How could this genius get such a simple equation wrong?

Correct answer 9 × 10 =. And all his students ridiculed him.

Einstein waited for everyone to be silent and had a powerful lesson that no one soon forgot:

"Despite the fact that I analyzed nine problems correctly, no one congratulated me. But when I made one mistake, everyone started laughing. This means that even if a person is successful, society will notice his slightest mistake. And they'll like that.

So don't let criticism...