Generosity
The Three Things Every Owner Gets to Give
Generosity isn't just money, and it isn't a grand gesture you make on your best day. The three things you actually have to give as an owner, and why two of them cost almost nothing.
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Field notes on building a business on purpose
Short, practical reads for construction, trades and manufacturing owners. Drawn from the books, the job sites, and twenty-four years of getting it wrong before getting it right.
Purpose
Profit Is the Byproduct, Not the Point
The subtitle of the book is 'Why Profit Is the Byproduct.' People hear that as soft. It's the opposite. When money is the compass you end up misdirected. Build it right and the profit follows.
Pricing
You're Leaving Money on the Table and Calling It Being Reasonable
Most good owners deliver a ten and charge a six, then call it humility. Why the block on pricing was never the math, and how undercharging quietly keeps good businesses small.
Hiring
Stop Hiring the First Willing Person With a Pulse
Most owners hire in a panic: slammed, short-handed, so they take the first willing person with a pulse. Then they spend a year managing the fallout. A better way to hire the people your business deserves.
The Plan
Most Owners Are Driving Hard With No Address in the GPS
You're working sixty-hour weeks chasing growth, but if someone asked where the business is actually going, could you answer? Why bigger is not a destination, and how to set a real one.
Marketing
Don't Feed a Broken Machine
Owners come to me wanting more leads. Often the worst thing I could do is get them. If the machine those leads land in is broken, more marketing just wastes money faster. Fix the machine first.
Sales
Read the Person Across the Table
Most salespeople lose the deal by running their mouth. The one skill underneath every sale I ever closed was the opposite: shut up, read the person in front of you, and earn trust before you ask for the order.
The Plan
Bigger Is Just the Gas Pedal
Ask most owners what they're building toward and the answer is 'bigger.' But bigger is not a destination, it's a gas pedal. Why growth for its own sake makes you more tired, not more free.