Finding the Balance
It seems that, in today’s world, time for a family life is becoming more of a rarity. This is especially true in our wild and wonderful business of stone.
We all work ourselves to no end trying to make that deadline or put out that fire. So when do the kids come in? What about that spouse of yours? Are they willing to stand by while you work yourself to death and become married to your job?
There has to be some balance between work and home. Your children will love you no matter what, but will always desire your presence. They love to play with their parents, and that’s important in their overall development.
Then, of course, the spouse likes a little attention from time to time as well. I’m no expert at success; in fact, I’m divorced, partly because of my affair with my job. Maybe I have a little insight earned the hard way.
It’s especially taxing to try and keep up with the Joneses in shop tech, while taking care of a family. We all need to spend the time to study advances in technology, especially in today’s market.
With times getting tight in a slow market, we need to concentrate on reducing total overhead. Part of that overhead can be reduced with new ways of processing stone. The technology available these days is changing the way of countertop production, reducing cost by speeding up fabrication time and minimizing employee costs.
I’m sure many of you visited StonExpo last month in Las Vegas for just those reasons mentioned above – you want to increase capacity while reducing costs. Hopefully, you’ll be able to spend more time at home after the new equipment is in place. Well, not without some initial investment in time to set processes and procedures, not to mention the learning curve involved with going digital.
Yes, I said the “D” word. Digital integration is the wave of the present, no longer the future. The more digitized your shop is, the more you can get done in less time. Even the digitally challenged can adjust to the new world. You still need to remember those rugrats, though.
Another way to get some time with the family is to hire the right people for the job. You’ll need to find a new breed of employee with different skills than previously needed in stone fabrication. These employees will be more-computer-literate and have less hands-on skill.
It takes another breed altogether to lead a shop, managing all the production and countless headaches involved in this business. This is especially true when your shop is producing an average of 1,800 ft(2) weekly, with an average of 200 sinks and faucets to control.
Which brings me to my next suggestion: inventory and production control. I’m sure many of you have looked at job-tracking software of one sort or another. Well, it is time to go ahead and take the plunge. Buy the software.
Job-tracking technology makes life at work a lot easier to control, and keeps your head from exploding when you’re trying to find that sticky note that you wrote to remember something. Trust me on this one; I’m the world’s worst sticky-note finder. Switching to a software-based tracking system is one of the best things you can buy in this business.
Again, you’ve got to get the right people for the job. Software and CNC machines are only as good as the data that is entered and the people doing the entering.
When you find good employees, take very good care of them. If you treat them right, they can be dependable and trustworthy. We all know from experience that hiring and retaining the right employees is a job in itself, but it can be done.
The right person for the job could be right around the corner, or a phone call away. Getting the employees to run the shop the way you want it run will save you a lot of grief from the spouse, and your babies will get to actually see you, instead of you seeing them in their sleep after a long day.
Take some pointers from our friend, Aaron Crowley. Control your business without it controlling you. Set some standards and enforce them. Make those standards and processes the gospel in your shop.
Each employee has accountability as well as a set of guidelines that they must follow. With a simple piece of paper, you just handed off about half of the every-two-minute questions you get all day long. You really should be able to leave for a day without the shop going haywire while you’re gone, and actually stay on schedule without a lot of problems for you to deal with when you get back.
For example, you went to Las Vegas for StonExpo. How many phone calls did you get while trying to see the show? How many of them were truly ignorant and a waste of time? How much damage control did you have to try and do while a thousand miles away?
And, lastly, how many employees did you consider firing when you got back to a complete disaster at the shop?
Well, stop it. Fix it. Get home to the spouse before you come back to an empty house. Learn to leave work at work.
Go home, put down the magazine, stay off the Internet tonight, and kiss your family. Maybe even play some games.
Until next month – Donny Taylor.
Donny Taylor is a fabricator in Florida and a member of the Stone Fabricators Alliance. To ask him a question, log on to www.stoneadvice.com, or send an email to donnystoned@hotmail.com.