Over the years, I have met many shop owners and leaders in our industry around the world and I want to bring their struggles and successes to the masses. I truly believe that if everyone knows how to succeed, then the bar will raise and the industry will be better from it.
Read MoreWhen we start a business our only concern is getting enough work to sustain and live another day. Sometimes this burden can drive a business owner to make irrational decisions like pricing cheap.
On the surface it sounds great to get that new shiny contract and add more revenue to the business. In reality if you discount you are crafting a bigger anchor.
Read MoreThere is nothing more frustrating than selling more work and not being able to produce it. If your monthly sales can no longer match your current throughput then you have a dilemma. Increase capacity, or ultimately lose the ground you just made by getting extra sales.
1 step forward 2 steps back.
Read MoreAt some point, every cabinet shop owner has faced the problem of running behind schedule. So we work all nighters, weekends, and do whatever it takes to make it happen….only to ultimately find ourselves stuck back in the Vicious Sales Cycle.
Many shop owners try to apply lean manufacturing concepts to fix this problem. I did the same, but the results came up short.
Read MoreIf you are anything like me the question, “What is my business worth?”, crosses your mind periodically. Speaking for myself, I know that this is my retirement, my savings, 401k and everything else. So it is logical to ask the question.
However, I have found that asking the question is much easier than finding the answer.
Read MoreI have been in the cabinet and component industry for 15 years and the majority of those years I have been either learning about outsourcing or implementing better systems in my operation to make our standardized processes more efficient. I’ve done this because I know that it’s key to making it in the cabinet industry and because I have a hunger to get better every day.
During these 15 years I have tried every construction method for cabinets under the sun; from staples, confirmat, dowels, blind dado and screws.
Read MoreHave you ever noticed in your business that sales activity and cash seem to be mutually exclusive?
In other words, when you are hitting the streets and drumming up new work, your cash is at a low point. Then, when you hit some of that work and start production you start to get cash, but your sales activity is low.
As a business owner wearing several hats, it can oftentimes be difficult to navigate these times of feast or famine. More importantly, it is hard to understand why it is happening.
Read MoreSome call it the “Concierge Service.” We call it the “Experience Package.”
When customers are making a major purchase like new cabinets, it is an emotional purchase. Emotional purchases need a different kind of customer service. They need the Experience Package.
What do I mean when I say the “Experience Package”? Think Disney World.
Read MoreLogically speaking, finish out should be the easiest and fastest stage of a project because you are dealing with finished products that are simply being installed.
If only that were the case.
Read MoreThe first time that I remember ordering online was in college. I had heard about Ebay and how you could buy things people were selling. I was skeptical so I bought something for very cheap. I remember it to be something for my stereo.
Back then I don’t think that the internet was well suited or ready for selling anything much other than stock products sold from a picture, and I certainly never imagined it having a place in the cabinet industry.
Read MoreWhile it may be true that some employees don’t care, have you ever stopped as an owner or leader to ask, “What would this employee's approach to a situation be if he had all the knowledge he would need to do, not only his job, but any job in the shop?”
When I asked myself this question, I realized that equipping my team by standardizing systems could change everything.
Read MoreSomething was wrong.
I was literally going crazy about 3 or 4 years ago when I decided I needed a change.
I could never seem to move forward in the cabinet business for the constant moving backwards. One step forward, two steps back.
Read MoreAbout 10 years ago I realized that, for a small to medium cabinet shop, outsourcing cabinet doors was the only reasonable way to go.
Beyond the normal problems of quality control, training, turnover, and capacity was the enormous amount of equipment needed to build doors.
Read MoreIn 2006-2007, I thought we had it all figured out. I thought there was nothing that could stop our company and the sky was the limit.
We were “making it!”
Just as we were riding high, and even before the recession hit us, we got hit in the face with something else: The consequences of everything that we had done wrong up to that point.
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