64. Scaling Without Management

Foreign. Welcome back to Leadership in a Nutshell. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. We're focused on the home service professional here in this podcast. And today we're getting together for episode 64, where we're going to talk about scaling without management growth. You better be careful, my friend. And this is near and dear to me, and it's very raw because I'm seeing a lot of this challenge in the home service space, right? So I wanted to take today's episode in this week to just kind of rattle your cage a little bit to some awareness and some reality and some mindfulness, if you will, of kind of what's taking place in shifts and focus and trades and trends and different things that we're seeing all over the U.S. canada and Australia. It's literally like the Wild west, right? And I don't know if I can say literally and like, at the same time. I could say it's literally the wild west, but I know that's actually true. I kind of live in the wild West. But nonetheless, we are seeing just unprecedented levels of scale and growth in the home service space. And we're seeing companies that, you know, are growing multi millions a year. We're seeing multimillion dollar acquisitions. We're seeing. It's almost like a bidding war in the real estate market that's been taking place in 2021 and in different places. I had seen a statistic that back in April, home sales something like 82 or 83% of homes that went on the market went into a bidding war. And that's just fascinating to me when only, you know, a short 13 years ago, we were. We started one of the most challenging recessions in, in the world. And here we are just slinging it around like, it's like going out of style again when it comes to capital and assets and all kinds of different things. And that's great. I'm an abundance. I love growth. It's one of the coolest and most exciting times in the history of us in home service that have been doing it for quite some time now. Let's be mindful, though, of what this means. Everything has effects, right? And so several episodes I talked ago, I talked about effects and side effects, and I was talking about pharmaceuticals and how they sell drugs. And there's gonna be effects and there's gonna be side effects, and they're only called side effects ifif it's not what they were selling you, right? And. And the same is true with business growth, and the same is true with the scaling that we're seeing, and I've recently talked to some contractors that what the industry would consider kind of exponential growth recently. And now they're going through some pain and some struggle because the business is growing faster than management capability. Let that land for a minute. I want you to think about that for a minute. Is the business growing faster than management capability? And if the answer is yes, that's okay. I just want you to be aware of it and realize, you know, last episode when I was talking about the focus of what you do matters. That's what it's about. Like, oh, man, this company's outscaling my management team. I've got to focus on growing managers because it can happen for a minute, right? There's a supply and demand aspect that we're experiencing right now where demand is way higher than supply. And we've got supply chain challenges, We've got all kinds of help challenges. There's all kinds of. There's just more demand than there is supply in a lot of capacities in the world at this moment. And so that being said, it doesn't always last. It will catch up. Supply will catch up with demand. The market will settle down, if you will. And sometimes companies quote right size themselves because they're not capable of either maintaining at the level that they scaled to or to go back to a level before of where their leadership actual ability is. And so what we're seeing with rollup acquisitions is there's sometimes, I won't say it's all the time, but there are times when there are acquisitions made and there are disconnects created amongst teams. And so teams are simply groups of people that are led by somebody that creates influence. And so when we take disjointed teams and disjointed leaders and pour them all into the same pot, we're going to have disjointed soup, right? And so we all get this. It's kind of Leadership 101. It's Business 101. But when the market is screaming as loud as it is, and when clients are screaming as loud as they are, and when it's never been as easy to operate and sell as it is right now, then it's like, just say yes, Just say yes. Just say yes. Right? Just like, you know, as we train our csr, just book the call, Just book the call. Now we're just booking the call. Now we're in the field going, just sell the call. Just sell the call. Then we're going, just install it. Just install it. Just install it right and so all of a sudden we're just like, we've had this massive AB ability to grow and some companies have scaled very quickly. And I've said this to clients at Blue Collar, but I also want to just say it to all of you out there, regardless of where you get your coaching and training. But in the last 18 months, everybody in the space's leadership capability has not doubled. Everybody has not become their record month capable leader. Right? And I don't mean that negatively, and I'm not trying to kick you in the gut or take away your incredible success that you're having right now, because I'm feeling like, you know, finally, hey, Wall Street's finally giving us a shake. They're finally paying attention. Guess what? They'll go away when it's not sexy anymore and tech comes back. Just be mindful of that. There's a why is there so much money in the trades? Because there's no money in tech right now. There's too much instability in other industries. Our industry makes sense now. So they'll come here and get their quote unquote little return that they can get right now. And then be mindful it may go away now that it doesn't matter. I'm not mad at them, I'm not mad at the system, I'm not mad at the situation. I'm just a realist and I pay attention to what takes place. You know, one of the things I talk about is that history doesn't repeat itself. Human behavior repeats itself over the course of time, right? So any of us that have been around since the early 90s have seen multiple roll ups, multiple acquisition time. This happens to be another one. It doesn't mean that people aren't doing it better than they've ever done it. And some people are doing it as bad as it's ever been done. I don't care if you're selling, I don't care if you're buying. I don't care what you're doing. What I care about is that you're mindful of how you're going about what you're doing. Because remember, at the end of the day, it's always who before how, but after why. And so what we know is there's an easy how. Right now. We answer the phone, we go out, we create options, we offer some pricings and client or pricing and clients are saying yes, the how is being executed very effectively. Software has come in and streamlined the flow of information and the ability to track and have information on our technicians and Sales and clients and systems and everything has gotten easier. And I'm not saying like, oh, it was hard back when I had to go through the snow up. It's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the reality of things are amazing right now. Let's capitalize. But at the end of the day, the company is a reflection of the leadership team. The company is a reflection of the training. The company is a reflection of the coaching. The company is a reflection of the communication, right? And so at the end of the day, I want you to be super mindful and super clear that as your management grows, so the company goes, right? So we always talk about focus and last week I talked about attention. But I want you to be very, very clear and very, very mindful that this is a very important thing to be clear about right now is that there's obviously massive opportunity. There's a huge, incredible time right now. But if you're not growing your management, it's not going to be sustainable for you. We will see companies that are growing very, very quickly, we right size, they will slow down their growth, they will scale back their growth, they will shrink in revenue because management doesn't have the capability. When management doesn't have capability. And I'm not saying they're bad. I'm saying that either they haven't been trained or they have too much being put on their plate. They don't have the time capacity to grow. They don't have the time capability to coach and train and influence and stay in contact and connection with, with their frontline team. And this is the relationship business, right? So as we continue to learn and grow and understand what's going on and realizing that at the end of the day, no matter how much technology we have, human behavior is driving the change in the results in this space. Now we get to have an awesome opportunity. So I love the scale that you're experiencing. I love nothing more than seeing all of the record months that people are having and all of the money that's being printed in the home service space. Can I get a hey, it's about time. Time. Can I get a hell yeah? Can I get an amen, brother? Right, it's. We've been putting in this time kicking and scratching for 2, 3, 10% net. Now we're flowing money like crazy. We got phenomenal gross margins. All these incredible things are happening. And I just want you to be mindful that we're seeing companies hit the wall, if you will, because they're not growing. Management at the rates that the market is scaling. And so, again, I'm not saying like, hey, stop the presses and stop going out and executing. I love the scale. Stay on top of it. Keep on doing what you're doing. But be mindful that it's kind of like the chicken or the egg. It's like, am I happy because I'm rich, or am I rich because I'm happy? Oh, let's see those old adages. Am I in a good relationship because I am loved? Or am I in a good relationship because I love? Right? Or whatever the case might be. Am I focused on growing my business and therefore it's growing, or, you know, focus on growing my leadership and therefore my business is growing? Or is my business growing because the market's taking place and now my leadership has to kind of keep up and roll with it? So just something, you know, top of mind today. I just kind of wanted to have an informal conversation with you because we're seeing more and more of it, and I don't believe it's going to end anytime soon. I believe that, you know, some of the companies that get it are very focused on their managers. They're getting them good coaching, they're getting them good training. They're staying in contact with them. They're leading from the top and throughout. This is about humans. This is about connection. This is about coaching people. This is about training people. This is about holding people accountable. And it takes humans to do that. Technology only goes so far. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. This is episode 64, scaling without management Growth. You better be careful, my friend. Get them trained up, get them coached up. Rock and roll. And enjoy this growth. Give us a like, give us a rating. Give us a review. Share this episode with somebody, I'm forever grateful. Until we talk. Make it a better than fantastic week, my friend. We'll see you, Sam.