Our special guest for this week’s podcast is Tom Howard of Lee’s Air Conditioning Company, a $15 million operation in Sacramento, California. In this week’s podcast, we give you the opportunity to listen to his understanding of budget strategies and the benefits of Lean Management principles. Learn all about the importance of budgeting, what seasonality and trends are, as well as how to cut time and costs with help from employees. You also get insights on implementing all of these in your own company.
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Here’s what we discussed:
00:37 Last week’s episode recap
01:05 Our collaborative Facebook group where you can connect with 1500+ trades business owners on the topics of marketing, sales, and operations
01:51 Who Tom Howard is and what he’s up to
- The businesses he runs (Lee’s Air Conditioning and Dustin Pest Control)
- How he got into trades and eventually bought Lee’s
08:50 The catalysts for his company’s growth
- Why budgeting is incredibly important to earning money
- How launching ServiceTitan changed how Lee’s conducted business
11:59 Getting into budgeting
- Setting a goal for profit and trying to hit that goal
16:07 Why you need to look at things on a monthly basis
- Critical key points you shouldn’t miss for seasonal businesses
- How to gauge and establish seasonality and trends
- Different approaches of marketing during highs and lows in business
27:08 Efficiency and keeping revenue per employee up
- Lean Management and the Toyota Way
- Cutting down a 54 minute long process to 9 minutes
- The benefits of putting the whole company through lean management and financial training
- How moving a dumpster saved 20,000 dollars a year
36:29 The advantages of getting other parties to follow your process
- Kaizen and continuous improvement
- Helping other parties so they can better help you
- Figuring out how to get people to stop stealing out of bins
42:16 How to get started in Lean Management
- Incentivizing employees to get on board with lean management
- Training and teaching your employees to think like you
47:49 How to get as many human resources as you need
- The importance of incentives, training, culture and comfort
- Be proactive and hire employees before you need them
If you’re a trades business owner looking to improve worker efficiency and cut down on wasted money and time, then these actionable insights are definitely for you. Try them and watch your business flourish.