Three Things to Remember

It made me think of what’s important in the restoration and maintenance game. So, here are my three basics: “Water flows downhill, payday is on Friday, and don’t buy whatever is being sold.”
Water rolling downhill affects us in a number of ways. First, in restoration, we need to work wet in someone’s home or business. This requires that we successfully maintain a “Wetness Protection Program” (aka “WPP”) to protect the customer’s surroundings.
The thing to remember is that although water flows downhill, you have to contend with machines flinging water at speeds of 175rpm up to the 3000 + rpm range. If not properly prepared, you can find yourself in a pickle.
You have to expect that, even with plastic up the walls and splash guards around your tools, you will fling some slurry. This factor is so important that, when we’re training sales staff and technicians for our new locations, we actually spend a full day going over taping and our WPP.
As nerdy and over protective as that may seem – did you know that there are at least seven types of tape that our techs carry on their trucks, and several ways to use each one? Not to mention different types of tarps, plastics and blankets that all come into protecting the customer’s assets. Another thing to consider is how to properly use each one to keep water out and not remove wallpaper, paint or varnish in the process.
How about payday being on Friday? It sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? Well, one thing I drive into my managers, estimators and office staff is that money doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. (An odd concept, I know, although Wall Street just found out about it last year.)
It’s one thing to estimate the job, but did they map out a payment schedule? Do the customers know when they are paying? Have they paid a deposit (committed up-front, committed down the road)? Are the payment terms conducive to carrying the risk (as in carrying the cost of labor and tooling until final payment comes in), or have we secured outside risk management?
If these details aren’t worked out and then translated to management and office staff in advance, it could put a cramp into payday actually being this Friday, or next Friday, or ….
What about management’s responsibility to payday? To ensure they get their salt at the end of the week, managers of jobs need to ensure that contracts are fulfilled and techs perform to their obligations (if not more) – and not damage the customer’s property, resulting in slowed and/or stopped payments in the process. These are the details that keep the wheels of business greased and ensure a happy Friday for everyone (me included).
And finally, the office staff’s part in the Friday equation. When dealing with certain government and commercial customers, invoices need to be processed and approved in a specific manner and/or time frame before payment. One government sector we did business for only accepted invoices once a month; if there were any errors, they would reject the bills, resulting in having to wait another month to submit. (if only we could all do business like the governments do).
With this client, our paperwork was spot-on, but unfortunately the general contractor on the job wasn’t quite so diligent. Because our invoice went with theirs, we were delayed (Note to self: We now specify up front that this isn’t our problem). The lesson here is ask where the flow of cash is going and how it gets there before you do the work.
As far as not buying what’s being sold – well, let’s look at a certain stone in my craw: the economy.
At two separate conventions recently in – where else – Las Vegas (can you sense that we need a change of venue?), I was ready to vomit at the number of people ready to give up their businesses because of the economy. Here is my advice and please quote me: GET OVER IT!
Think of the Tour de France; it’s a cycling event that sure would be easy to win if it were all downhill. However, the Tour has 21 sections, and only 10 are on flat terrain.
That means competitors have a whole lot of uphill ahead if they want to win. Instead of whining and giving up, they all fight the weather and the steep grades so they can have a chance at winning.
If they all gave up when they reached the tough sections, it wouldn’t be a race, would it? And remember that race was won by an American seven years in a row, even while he battled testicular cancer.
My point here is that while the rest of the world is griping about the economy and saying that the sky is falling, there are eventual winners who realize that there were uphill battles back in the late 1920s and all of the 1930s, the ‘70s (remember OPEC?) the early ‘80s, parts of the ‘90s and even earlier in this decade.
After each hard ride up the slope, there was downhill racing where the good times rolled (so to speak). Fight through the pain, drink your water, take your vitamins, and keep pedaling. Otherwise you’ll be licked by others who have the determination to keep on going.
Another issue being sold is the whole “granite’ll kill you” notion. We’re talking about the makup of the Earth’s crust here; if it was going to kill us, it’d go molten again and melt us, not zap us in daily doses. I could go on, but that is another story on the riverbank, my friends.
Until next time, keep your stick on the ice, and make sure you get to the top of the hill – it’s smooth sailing after that.
Tom McNall is founder and owner of Great Northern Stone Care, a Huron Park, Ontario-based stone-cleaning and -restoration company servicing all of southern Ontario. Tom offers corporate and private consultations, serves as a trainer for the Marble Institute of America, and is also on the organization’s board of directors. He can be reached at stone_rx@earthlink.net.

This article first appeared in the March 2009 print edition of Stone Business. ©2009 Western Business Media Inc.