To develop and formalize your company’s vision, Whitten said, first write:- A company mission statement — this is a concise description of your company’s purpose or role
- A philosophy or values statement — these are the principles that support that mission
- A business plan with strategies ― this is how you will accomplish that mission
Only about 20%-25% of your business plan should contain financials. The rest is your vision. “It’s what causes those numbers to be good, bad or mediocre,” Whitten said. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to communicate the company’s organizational vision to everyone in your company. In addition, you will have better buy-in if you ask for your employees’ input while developing each of the vision’s three components. Set Benchmarks Benchmarks are the basis for conducting business to meet your goals. “Your decisions are only as good as the information you receive,” Whitten said. “You can track starts, but unless you know how your cycle time is, you never can predict closings.” Useful benchmarks include: - Profitability (gross and net)
- Sales, starts and closings
- Cycle time (in days)
- Job cost variance percentage
- Customer satisfaction ratio
- Customer referral ratio (customers who would recommend you to someone else)
- Advertising budget and traffic per unit ratio
Setting company benchmarks requires coordination among departments, so make sure each department in your company has: - A department description
- A budget
- Benchmarks of success
- A separate section within the company’s business plan
- A reporting system to provide feedback
Here’s how you can use benchmarks and management by objective to work towards your company’s vision: - Develop quantitative performance measurements.
- Compare your actual results to the benchmarks. (This should be reflected in the business plan.)
- Concentrate on exceptions to the objectives when reviewing those results and developing an improvement action plan.
- Produce reports that indicate whether or not the action plan is working.
- If the action plan isn’t working, revise it. You may also need to revise the business plan’s goals and objectives.
Document Your Processes and Procedures “Documented procedures are a roadmap for doing more,” Whitten said. In addition to boosting productivity, written production procedures will help you maintain quality control and can help you make more money on each house. According to Whitten, implementing a written purchase order system with job cost variance control is the key to cost control and profitability. Record your back- and front-office processes and procedures, too. Because work done in the office is closely tied to work done on your job sites (and vice versa), it’s vital to maintain the same level of quality control throughout your operations. This helps support your organizational vision. You can take your written procedures and flowcharts and develop them into separate manuals for home owners and the various departments within your company. These manuals then become training tools for your staff. Home owner manuals do double duty as customer service tools that can save your company lots of time and effort. “Home owners ask the majority of the questions your company receives,” Whitten said. “Tell them you’ll still hold their hand and will respond to their questions, but the home owner manual will answer 75% of their questions.” Hire Smart As a business owner, you already know that you can’t swing a hammer, sell homes and handle customer service — and do everything well. That’s why you hire skilled employees who support your company’s vision and will work towards its goals. Hiring smart helps minimize turnover. It also increases productivity, which enhances organizational efficiencies and increases employee satisfaction. Whitten is a proponent of using behavioral job models— which measure the personality traits of an ideal candidate — to get a good fit between a candidate and a job. “You usually don’t want someone with an accountant’s personality to be a salesperson,” he said. “Likewise, someone with an outgoing personality may not function well in your accounting department.” Checking job candidates’ references and credit histories costs a few hundred dollars maximum but is invaluable for bringing the right people aboard. Unfortunately, many contractors don’t take the time to do this and instead rely on word-of-mouth from the person who referred a job candidate to them. “If you’re going to offer someone $50,000 to be a superintendent and you don’t check his driving and credit record, you don’t know who you’re hiring,” said Whitten. Don’t take that risk in your business. Useful Resources The following resources can help you increase your organization’s efficiency, productivity, and profits: | 
