CBS Reviews: No Longer Doing Everything Ourselves

Situation

The clients’ business was started over 50 years ago, “by my parents as a swimming pool construction company.  It was a family owned and operated company, where everything was handled by my father.  In 2000, my youngest brother, Keith, and I, bought the entity from my parents and we continued on the path of doing it all, ourselves.

By this time, the need for service, after installation, had become apparent and the original company had been split into two companies, construction and service/retail.  After taking control, we hired a manager for the service company. 

We thought that everything was going fine until mid-way 2013, when we realized that the service company was losing money, while the construction company was growing faster than we could handle.”

Process

When the Corporate Business Solutions consultant “came into the office, he immediately saw the problem and he started implementing procedures and metrics to turn the service company around.

He gave my service manager an assortment of tools to manage his people.  Took some responsibility from him, such as A/R and inventory, and distributed it to other employees.  He had me change from one accounting program to another with a POS built-in that produced better reports.  These reports are easier to obtain and we have a clearer idea of what is going on.

The construction company had excellent margins, but was spinning its wheels since my brother and I were still trying to accomplish everything ourselves.  Our consultant showed us that managers in the field, with added responsibilities, would take a lot of the stress off and enable us to run the company rather than the company running us.”

Additionally, “he also showed us procedures that he initiated that would make the company more suited to our exit, as we’re approaching retirement.”

Result

“The service company went from the verge of closing down, to profitability, in the time that our consultant was here.”

In regards to the construction company, it’s a work in progress, as the client shared that they are still looking for construction managers to fully implement the changes. 

“The processes that he left us with will be a challenge as we must let go of control, which has been a long time in the making, but with the growth, this changing of attitude will come.”  Thomas, President