Overview: On this Fight Club 4 Business episode, Kate Cinnamo, of Explore the Trades, and Martha Woodward, of Quality Driven Software, discuss the negative stigma associated with going into trade school and/or taking a job in the service industry.

Is career advancement even possible in the home service industry? There better be room for advancement, or you'll never attract and retain the best people.

If advancement is not possible at your company, you're severely limiting yourself on who you will attract to apply at your company.  When prospective applicants look at your job ad, they need to see at the very least:  "Will I fit in there?  "Can I see myself being happy there?" and they need to feel HOPE.  Hope for something more.

F.H. Furr, in Manassas, VA, for example, has over 400 positions and has their sights set to grow to 1500+ positions. The sky is the limit when you join their company. And if you don't fit for the position your chosen for, perhaps you're a...

Boy, I hear this all the time, especially these days when it is so, so hard to find people.

But, if you step back and think about it, does one have anything to do with the other?  Meaning, If you have a "bad apple" would you keep it because the store is out of "fresh apples"?  No, you'd never do that.  But yet it happens all the time inside of companies.

Now listen, it's not as easy as finding more apples at the store, I get it.  But what I want you to remember, is that rot spreads!

Staying on the bad fruit discussion, what happens when fruit is starting to rot?  You start getting fruit flies, and bacteria and fungus forms...we won't get into a whole science lesson.  But, the saying is true "One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel."  And it's true for company culture as well.

So what do you do when you cannot afford to lose anyone?  Well, I'm going to tell you that you cannot afford to keep everyone in this scenario.  So what can you do...

Have you ever found yourself so frustrated with your employee and you find yourself wondering if it is time to let them go?  Well, most likely the answer is "of course you have".

Recently I was talking to a member of the Culture First group, and he found himself in that very situation.  He had a newer employee and he found himself frustrated with that employee because he had exceed the number of allowed absences by 2 or 3 absences.  

It's worth sharing how he got there because it is such a common story.  He said he wanted to be a flexible boss and show some compassion and understanding.  But in the same breath, he was exasperated and felt like he was being taken advantage of.  

Well, he was being taken advantage of, but he actually invited the employee to abuse the attendance policy the minute he kept the employee after he had used all of the allowed absences.

Ignoring the policies is not ideal, but it happens.  However, when you allow...

Years ago, I figured out that I needed data around employee performance, so my decisions were objective, not subjective.

We ran customer satisfaction reports manually for a couple of years, but that meant that the management team saw the reports, but employees didn’t always see their numbers.  We never withheld the numbers deliberately, but you know what happens.  You get busy, and you start putting things on the back burner.  So when the office was busy, they didn’t always get the data compiled. 

That's actually how Quality Driven Software (QDS) was "born".  I needed a way for all the data to be compiled in reports and most importantly, for the employees to be able to log in and see their own scores.  You see, when the scores are handed down in printed reports, it feels "fishy" to the employees.  However, I never, ever thought that until I heard it from one of my employees.

I’ll never forget talking to an employee at an employee...

If you know me, you know I love a little research and "self-help".  And since you might be setting your own 2021 goals right now, I thought I'd share my research with you.

I think most of us know that the practice of writing our goals down, makes us 30% more likely to achieve our goals.  However, even if you write your goals down, there's a high probability that you won't accomplish your goals.  In fact, studies show, only 8% of the goals are ever met.

My purpose for researching what is the science behind reaching goals is the fact that I don't want to fall in the 92% of people who set goals but didn't reach them.

I was listening to a podcast, and the guest on the podcast recommended a book called "Tiny Habits" by BJ Fogg.  https://www.tinyhabits.com/book for more information.

In order to change behavior, you have to make new behavior a habit.  A habit is performing a certain behavior over and over until it is part of your daily routine.  And,...

How often do you hold yourself (or your management team) accountable?  

Maybe you haven't thought of it this way, but you really are accountable to your employees, just as they are accountable to you.

When you/management makes repeated scheduling errors, payroll errors, leave vital notes off the job description, that is just like saying "you don't matter" to your employees.

Think about it from a parent/child relationship.  I'll give you a personal example.  When my kids were growing up, I was terrible about picking them up on time.  It wasn't anything I did on purpose, but I did show up 5-10 minutes late more than I'd like to admit.

I really never knew how detrimental that was at the time.  (I mean, they survived, but it made a mark.)  It wasn't until years later when they were grown and I'd hear them talk about how I was always late, that I realized the subliminal message I was sending to my kids.  My choosing to get a little more work done,...

Hey there!

So, I had a funny comment on an ad I'm running for the next LevelUP course.  I lead the ad by asking "Don't you wish your employees cared as much as you do? 

The guy commented "I hate to burst your bubble, but your employees will never care about your business as much as the owner does" 

He is absolutely right, and that is why I use the word "WISH".  We can absolutely wish that they cared as much, but in reality, he is right, they never will care as much as you do.  And honestly, they shouldn't.  It's not a business that they've invested the heart and soul in like we have.

But, they should absolutely care.  Now that seems like a no-brainer, but if you really think about it, do your employees care about the future of your company?

If the answer is "no", then your employees will never work in a self-directed, self-motivated way.  They will constantly require management putting a thumb on them to ensure they are delivering quality...