FAST QuickTIP: You must build a ‘Very Best Company’ to attract (and keep) great employees.
I call it ‘The Ongoing War’ in business. Every day, you should be fighting/ clawing/ struggling and yes, COMPETING for the ‘Very Best People’ (VBP) to join your business team! Say WHAT, Steve?😲
A VBP (which can also stand for a ‘Very Best Person’) is a hardworking, honest, likable and totally reliable individual that you love working with!
BINGO: Thanks to these endearing qualities your VBP will also make tons of Customer Cheerleaders for your business!
NOTE: For a personality analysis comparing the (far too many) ‘Marginal Workers’ with the (too few) Very Best People in our industry click HERE.
IF you truly want to be successful as a cleaning and restoration contractor you MUST build a team of the VBP! (You’ll also delight in coming to work every day while becoming wealthy too!)
RESOURCE #1: Our 3-hour, online SFS: Hiring the Very Best! LIVE seminar will transform your employee recruiting systems.👍👍 Click HERE to review the class curriculum, see upcoming dates or to easily register online…
Meanwhile, let’s focus on WHY and (more importantly) HOW to…
RECRUIT the Very Best People!
But first STOP! Before you can even start recruiting your VBP team you must transform (or at the very least ‘remodel’) your company. Here’s why…
The ‘Very Best People’ are ‘fussy’! This means they’ll only choose a ‘Very Best Company’ for their career!
Sure, a VBP may accept your job offer as a temporary ‘placeholder’ in their career. But if you can’t meet (or even better exceed) the ten VBP career requirements profiled below they simply won’t stick around long term:
A Very Best Company (VBC) Profile
1. Develop a fantastic LOCAL image. (And reputation) Many VBP have deep roots locally and don’t want to move away. (Which is is great for you!) So is your business highly visible in your community? Do you have great local online reviews? (VBP will refuse to be associated with a marginal company.)
NOTE: The VBP absolutely WILL check you out online even before they apply for a job. This is just one more reason to obsess over getting five-star reviews!
2. What about your ‘curb appeal’? Does your company ‘look good’? It should- your marketing, trucks, shop, signage, uniforms and yes… (cough, cough) even your workers!
3. Can you offer a ‘Career Ladder’? Do you provide at (least eventually) the potential for growth and advancement? (This is a great reason to grow into a Critical Mass Business– so you can offer your employees the hope of advancing!)
VBP don’t want to be “chained to a dead-end wand” forever. (Can you blame them?) After all, think about you! How would you enjoy ONLY pushing a cleaning wand around for the next 30 to 40 years!
4. Convince VBP they’ll be “more than just a number”!💖 VBP want to “create their own job security” by excelling as a valued member of your team… with loyalty on BOTH sides!
Your VBP candidates won’t get this loyalty from a big corporation and they know it! So this gives you a huge advantage over ‘da big boys’! USE IT!
5. Provide a ‘shared vision’.👌 VBP need more than just a paycheck. They want to be part of a team working toward “something bigger than themselves”.
NOTE: My Shared Vision was “We Make the Cheerleader!” and yes, my Very Best People employees really “bought in”
6. Let them ‘earn more’.💲💲 You knew I’d get around to money! I think L.L Bean said it best: “I found if I paid my people 20% more than they could make elsewhere then I got 40% better employees.”
STOP being so cheap! Allow your Very Best People to make at least 20% more than they can with any other competing career opportunities! (One more reason to CHARGE MORE so you can PAY MORE!)
GURU alert: “‘Competing career opportunities’, Steve? This sounds suspiciously like ‘corporate double speak’ and not like the ‘Just a rug-sucker Steve’ we all know and love!” Point taken! OK, here’s the deal: With VBP you’re not just competing against (the pretty darn low bar of) our carpet cleaning industry. VBP have a whole buffet of career options ahead and the competition for their services will be fierce!
7. Develop a ‘Business Infrastructure’ of written systems and procedures. The VBP HATE ‘craziness’ in their life every day. (Which is where most cleaning and restoration contractors are.)
NOTE: In SFS Training you can receive a complete Business Infrastructure to build a Critical Mass Business that will smoothly run with you… or without you!
8) Add ’employee accountability’. Your VBP glory will glory in being held accountable.😀 Why? Because they (and your company) will shine! And they will be generously rewarded through ‘Positive Accountability’!
NOTE: CLICK HERE for one great way to add ’employee Accountability’! And finally…
9) Don’t lie! Quite aside from the moral and ethical issues involved VBP have an advanced ‘lie detector’ wired in to their psyche!
Sure, you can put a positive spin on things. After all, you ARE ‘selling’ this VBP on their future with your company! Just be sure you can deliver or… POOF and they’ll be gone!
10) Seriously, do you have the ‘fire in the belly’? It will take hard, sustained and at times agonizing effort to build a Very Best Company. And employing VBP will ‘hold your feet to the fire’ in this VBC effort. (They’ll hold you accountable!)
Of course, VBP will also ‘fan your entrepreneurial flames’ IF you have the… OK, you get the idea! (Are you starting to see a theme in this paragraph of mixed metaphors?)😁
Steve’s ‘Takeaway’: Have you read and pondered on every single one of the almost 900 words above? I thought not! So you impatient, ADD type entrepreneurs can get the Very Best Ideas (VBI’s) in just a few words below. Ready? Here goes:
TAKEAWAY: Would you work for you… long term? Seriously? If not, why would you expect a fellow VBP to do so? (Pondering time…) NOW I want you to git to work on the ten points in the VBC profile above! (You’ll also build a better, more exciting and MUCH more profitable business!)
RESOURCE #2: Building a Very Best Company will be so much easier with the turn-key ‘Business Infrastructure’ our SFS Training Options provide.👍👍 Click HERE for more information and upcoming classes. And hey…
Best wishes and please stay safe out there!
Steve