Your Legacy May Surprise You —

At age 63 I had the fortunate opportunity to retire from my Operations job of 35 years and start a job I love: helping owners sell their business. For over 40 years after college, I was General Manager of a service business. This included over 1,000 people who worked with me in some capacity.

Daily thoughts included managing people, making budget, growing the business, hiring, terminating, warning reports, random drug test, vehicle safety, employee reviews, pay adjustments, customer complaints, buying equipment, new Industry regulations, buying a nearby business…the list is endless.

I still reside in a nearby community and have a chance to see former employees at random times. I am no longer their boss—just an old guy with a tan in shorts. They often tell me how I am remembered: almost like a living eulogy.

The one thing they share with me (what they don’t share is probably best left unshared) is how I knew everyone’s name and how I often took time to say hello and use their name. I saw our business grow from 75 employees to nearly 300. I did 40 acquisitions, I started before email, the internet, and routing software and I navigated a pandemic. AND this is how I am remembered.

I learned the value of using names in a Dale Carnegie class at age 23. I was more interested in meeting the girl sitting next to me than finishing the class.  I have a BS and an MBA, I have a 6 Sigma belt of some color, I have read over 100 business books…and this is how I am remembered.

People remember how you treat them—pretty simple.

 

Bob Williamson

Pest & Lawn Director, Cetane Associates

August 2023

PCO in the Know | Blog #3

Allowing is Approving —

A key to being a successful and effective manager is to have “difficult conversations” with staff.  When these are continually avoided a manager is no longer effective and many things fall under the adage “Whatever you allow, you approve.” These conversations are better termed as “necessary” to destigmatize them.

Here is a simple example of how this works. During the Covid time, we all had to manage on a day-to-day basis as we had no idea what was next. One area which I let slide was the office dress code; this morphed into soccer pants and t-shirts for some of my office staff. After we eased back into normal—working in the office space—the dress code stayed at this level of casual weekend wear.

I met with each office person individually and let them know we needed to get back on track toward more professional attire. This required brief conversations where I acknowledged the chain of events and asked for cooperation. I held most of these discussions outside my office, even some standing in the parking lot or in the warehouse. Had I chosen to use the dreaded group email or covered collectively in a meeting, it would likely not have gone as well.

This is an easy example of how to have necessary conversations and be effective as a leader.  The 3 steps to a necessary conversation are simple:

• State unemotionally what you perceive as the behavior you want to change
• Have the employee’s perception of how they see it
• Agree on what is the next step

Some easy Don’ts and Do’s

Don’t agendize (not fair)

Don’t persecute (demoralizing)

Don’t homilize (redundant and annoying)

Don’t get personal

Do thank the employee for their cooperation and their contribution to the team.

This all falls under management 101 and will help make you an effective and respected leader.

 

Bob Williamson

Pest & Lawn Director, Cetane Associates

August 2023

PCO in the Know | Blog #2

When and How to Say NO —

Most entrepreneurs start their businesses by saying YES to every opportunity that comes their way. They know how expensive advertising is to generate leads and how important it is to be in front of customers as much as possible. They also understand the importance of sustaining themselves and supporting their investment. Eventually, they either create enough income to survive or fail.

As PCOs start to grow their businesses and gain efficiencies required to attain net income after they pay themselves, they need to assess all the time they took on work that they should no longer be doing, This self-examination could uncover a service offered or an account they took that their competition was happy to give up.

I have a client who was selling a gutter product designed to keep gutters from ever clogging—ever! They bought ladders, trained staff, and advertised to get leads. This business grew but not without the normal number of issues that any new product or service can bring. After three years of offering this life-changing product, they consistently spend about a third of every staff meeting on the innovative gutter product. It now represents less than 3% of their total sales and zero income. They carry about $10k of inventory. Their company (like most) also deals with staff shortages.

After some brief intervention and review of the numbers they stopped the gutter offering and wrote off the inventory. The pest control operations benefitted from the immediate labor infusion. The customers were notified and all warranties were honored. Customer response was crickets.

With all the issues PCOs deal with—labor being the biggest—they need to focus on what they do best, do it well, and steadfastly watch their margins. Sometimes saying NO to a new sale may be the best sales you don’t make.

Bob Williamson

Pest & Lawn Director, Cetane Associates

June 2023