Being a business owner myself, I understand the need to focus on what’s happening today, right now, right this very second. Which is why we all sometimes need to be shaken, not stirred, out of our complacency and for you, to start thinking about your construction marketing plan for 2011 and beyond.
Which is what I want to do for you today
The title of this post is meant to get you to think about the last couple of years and how you got to where you (and your company) are today. The decisions you made a few years ago are the determining factors to your business TODAY. If you take a good hard look, the work you are doing, the clients you are doing it for and the shape of your business are the result of your decisions from last year or the year before. Sure the economy sucks, but people still need their toilets plunged or their walls painted, the question is, are you getting your fair share?
Which is why I want you to start thinking about the future
No matter what they tell you on the evening news, the economy is NOT going to always be in the shitter. We are going to recover, and you need to be making plans for that recovery right now. Understand, I am not telling you to go out and put that full-page ad back in the YP. I am simply saying you need to take some time to think about how you are going to market your contracting services next spring, next summer, or two summers from now, and start planning backwards until you get to this very moment in time. Why?
Because just like a car, your business will go where your eyes are looking
So if you are just staring at what is happening today like a deer trapped in the headlights, then you are far from prepared for what happens when this market turns around. Get your shit together and understand that the sky, for the most part, is done falling. Snap out of it and remember you have a business to run, not just for today or tomorrow, but next for year and five years from now!
The point is it’s time to be optimistic again! Tell me what you’re doing to prepare your construction company for the next upturn. And I don’t care if that upturn is 5 months or 5 years from now, you didn’t go into business to be a short-term player did you?
