Mike Andes warns business owners not to coast through the final 60 days of the year. The slow season is actually the best time to hire, implement new systems, reorganize QuickBooks, and prep for spring. Owners who check out now will fall behind those who stay aggressive.
Hey, everyone, it's Mike here, and I want to make a quick message. I'm on the way to the office right now, but today is November 1st. And the reason I'm making this message is because for so many people in their business, November and December and even the first half of January is literally trashed because of three days. And in their mind right now, it's like, okay, we end. We're reaching the end of the season. I can start to slow down. I don't really need to focus on my business anymore because, you know, I don't need to focus on it very much because I have Thanksgiving, then I have Christmas, and then I have New Year's. And literally, because three days, three days in the next two and a half months, they will just be on their heels, they'll be on the defensive, they won't stay offensive, they will not stay trying to get more jobs, staying hungry, trying to grow the business. And in their mind, they literally have checked out really, for the next four months, four or five months until next spring rush. And I would encourage you just realize that we are. We still have 60 days, 60 days in the year, which is like 17% of the year we still have left. And yet for some people, they've literally checked out for the remainder of the year. It's like, oh, yeah, year is pretty much up. And, you know, in their mind, it's like, okay, Thanksgiving, that's pretty much all of November. Family coming in first week, and then the people. And we're gonna go travel the week after that to other family. Christmas, you know what we gotta be, you know, guys, do the shopping thing, get some family in, do Christmas in the end of December and then New Year's, right? So, like, New Year's, we're gonna have some fun. We'll go out and things. And so maybe like, I'll check back business in, like, middle of January, and somehow that's accepted when really, that's almost a quarter of a year by the time you talk about mid January. So I just want to make this quick video, a little bit of a rant slash on the way to work message to you all. And as it's November 1, you got 60 days left till the end of the year. And if you're wanting to make changes in your business, this is the time to do it. You might have a week or two where you have family over. That's an awesome time. If you give all your crew off, it's an awesome time to take three, four hours, listen to a book. It's a great time to make changes on your website, make changes in your business. If you haven't been changed software programs, this is the time to do it. If you need to implement something like pay for performance or open book management or understanding your numbers and start running some math in Excel on your business, this is the time to do it. I'm not against spending time with family, trust me, I get it. However, do not check out for the next two or three months, or even worse, four or five months next spring rush. Realize that you can always make changes in your business. And when things slow down is actually the perfect time to start implementing more of the systems in your business. Because those things take time. It takes time to switch software. It takes time to really take a really good look at your numbers or understanding them or organizing expenses inside of QuickBooks. These are things that you gotta do. And even though it's slower, you want to stay aggressive. This is, I'm going to the shop right now, the local shop. I go there Mondays and Thursday mornings for about 10, 15 minutes. And we are literally hiring people right now. We are putting ads out to hire more people, in part due to the fact that I just want to stay aggressive, as well as the fact that next spring rush, guess what? The reason why there's this rush for hires and everyone's going to be like, oh, it's so hard to find people. Like, surprise, surprise, it's going to happen again. Next year's going to be extremely hard to find people. But the thing is, why wake up to that reality when everybody else is trying to hire people, when right now everyone's on there sleeping on their laurels, sitting back and being like, oh, we got vacation coming up, we got holidays coming up. I'm going to lay off my team, think aggressively and start thinking about, okay, well, if everyone else is laying people off, if everyone else is going on vacation, if everyone is sitting back on the defense, that's the time to get offensive. That's the time to hire people. Because now you have the best skill, you have the best talent, you have the best employees out there looking for work right now for potentially part time during the winter. But more importantly, if you're a great company that can pay more on P4P or have a great culture, you might keep them next spring. So I'd be on the offensive right now. Don't be thinking this is the time to relax. I've got the next two months where I basically just got holidays. Don't let two or three days of holidays ruin 25% of the year. Stay on the offensive, stay aggressive. That's the mindset that's going to unlock next spring rush and be the difference between you growing 40, 50 next year because you're wanting to get one employee versus doubling or tripling your business because you get some great employees in the winter. You start really looking for good truck deals now, like the truck deal situation. Used trucks are going to be expensive, right? Probably going to get better next summer into next fall. But don't do not be caught with your caught with, you know, just standing back and like, oh, everything's fine. Because guess what? It's be hard to find good trucks next spring. Hard to find good equipment. So you should be thinking about it now when everyone else is not. That's when you should be doing it. Hope that was helpful. Happy November 1st.
