I read an article in a remodeling industry magazine called “Letting Go.” It was about the process of developing a business that worked without you. I immediately felt like that’s what was missing from my business. I realized that I’d developed a business that was completely about me. I was central to every significant function and without me—the business would not survive at all.
So I started looking for ways to develop systems for my business. After about two and half months, I felt like I wasn’t making progress and I started looking for professional help. I’d read The E-Myth Revisited years earlier and it’d always resonated with me, so after some research, I very quickly came to realize that I was looking for help building a business that could run without me.
I got a tremendous amount of benefit from coaching very quickly. Going through the process of clarifying my own personal objectives, creating a vision for the company, and learning about financial management made a big difference in my business right away.
In the beginning, a lot of the process was about breaking patterns that I’d been in for a long time and creating the vision for what my business could do—a vision that I wasn’t capable of seeing up to that point. I knew what I wanted from my business at some conceptual level, but through this process, I actually began to have a pathway for how to get there.
I really enjoyed working with my coach—even though it was demanding. I did a ton of work each week just to be ready for the next coaching session, but that kept me moving forward at a good speed which is what I really wanted. My coach was good at understanding and delivering the material that I needed to hear, but also good at calling me out if I wasn’t doing it the way I needed to or if there were issues we’d discussed that I hadn’t done anything about. I really enjoyed the coaching relationship.
One of the big changes to my business came from learning how to develop and train people. Learning how to give them clear objectives and going through the process of creating position contracts for everyone was huge. Getting clarity on what positions I needed, what I needed the people to do in those positions, and how they were to do it created standards for the company that are really helpful. I’ve gotten much more consistent results out of people than I ever did before.
I had to re-educate my staff based on the coaching. We still use the Transforming Frustrations process all the time. It’s a simple tool, but when people start to embrace it, it’s revolutionary.
We’ve probably had more growth than most people in our industry segment experiences right now, and most of that is directly related to the EMyth work I did, particularly in terms of sales and marketing. Developing our customer experience and our unique selling proposition has made all the difference. Our sales and marketing material have been completely retooled based on EMyth.
The business really is drastically different now, from the way we deal with clients to our sales and marketing programs—all the way through the business.
Coaching helped me successfully move from being a struggling technician and manager into the role of the owner and entrepreneur. We still struggle at different levels, but I feel like I have much, much more control over everything—but it’s a relaxed control.
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