By Joel Berkley

“Work hard on your job and yes, you can make a living, but work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune.”

My goal is to challenge your thinking and to assist you in implementing the above statement. The next series of articles are written for the HVAC business owners that are serious about making improvements in their business.  There are a lot of owners who talk about what they need to do but the real expert actually does something about it. After saying that; enter at your own risk.

Have you ever said the following?

• Why don’t my employees do what I tell them to do
• Why can’t I find good employees
• My stupid competition, they are lowering their price again

Being the owner can be the toughest job in the world because the buck always stops with you. It doesn’t matter if it’s directly or indirectly, everything is your fault.  You are in control of all (every part) of your business even if you are “pretending” that you are not.

True Event

A friend who’s name is Mike owns a Marina. One day I ran into him at our favorite watering-hole when he started ranting and raving regarding the people that work for him. He said: Why can’t I just get my employees to do what I say? Why can’t they use better judgement? Are they are just stupid? Should I fire all of them? After he cooled down, I gave him a few specifics on whom he should fire. Fire the person who hired them, then fire the person who trained them? Ouch, tough-love statements/questions are just that but are so needed.

Look into the mirror; you are in control of everything that has happened or is happening in your company. Stop the blame game, look at your management abilities and ask yourself; what can I do better.

About the Author

Joel Berkley, at HVAC Consultant Inc. is a Kentucky Certified CEU Provider and Trainer. Joel is a 40+-year veteran of the HVAC industry including owning and operating his own HVAC company. His talent is assisting contractors with implementing profitable changes including refocusing a company’s strategies in order to solve immediate problems, while setting in place policies and programs that will increase profits. Joel can be reached at 502-533-4171.