Here we are in the slowest time of the year for many – Winter. But it also makes for a great time to get ready for a new year. And if you are going to make it your best and biggest year yet:
Hire Better
…and this will become the most significant component to making this Your Year. Why?
Because, if there was ever a secret to scaling, this is certainly one of them – finding A-Player employees. Plus, assembling the right team keeps your company stable as you lay the proper foundation for continued growth.
Easier said than done, right? If you look at the very large companies in your town with a couple of hundred employees – how did they get there?
Marketing? Systems? Great Employees? Luck? Pig-Headed Determination?
Actually, all of them. But there’s an underlying ingredient that makes this possible – Great Employees—no question about it.
One of my mentors, Steve Jobs, said:
“I’ve learned over the years that, when you have really good people, you don’t have to baby them. By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things. The original Mac team taught me that A-plus players like to work together, and they don’t like it if you tolerate B-grade work.”
Credit: High Plains High Rise
When I look at my window cleaning company… I see a lot of truth in that statement. It took me years to understand the value of this. In fact, without a doubt, my core team of A-Players (not just me) has been absolutely instrumental in the growth and success on all fronts of my company. But there’s more to this story…
Window Washing Wealth (my coaching company) puts me in front of a lot of window cleaning business owners, and they tell me how hard it is to hire A-Players.
“I just can’t find any A-Players in my market,” they say; “maybe there are A-Players in other markets but not in mine.”
There are A-Players in every market…
The reality is: you SAY you want to hire them, but in reality, you don’t want to hire them. People think that hiring A-Players is the answer (and it’s a great approach), but very few people actually hire A-Players when faced with the opportunity.
The reason? There are 2…
Let me preface the two reasons by saying that if your goal is to create an exceptional organization of great employees, you have to get one thing right: Hiring. The good news is that most (if not all) of your competitors are getting it wrong.
Reason #1: A-Players Seem Hard To Manage
A-Players are highly motivated, highly driven, engaged, innovative, and effective, and they can push the boundaries. They can seem like rebels. They can seem unruly. They aren’t bad employees (in fact, they’re great employees), but they SEEM unmanageable to the untrained eye because they are natural leaders who need a VERY VERY strong leader to lead them.
And, simply put, many window cleaning business owners aren’t strong enough leaders to LEAD A-Players. The truth is: many find the strength of A-Players intimidating and even threatening, so they avoid hiring A-Players because of it.
Reason #2: A-Players Cost More
A-Players get more job offers, and if you are not paying them what they are worth, they may go somewhere else. So, expect to pay more for A-Players… but that’s okay because you’ll also get far more work from A-Players!
The amount you pay an A-Player may be high, but they’ll often produce much more per dollar of salary than your B or C-Player types.
(And don’t forget there are many reasons beyond pay that an employee might work for you. Pay is just one way you can attract better employees. Other reasons include great training, a great reputation in the community, a strong company culture, better career opportunities, etc.)
You say you want to hire A-Players…but do you really?
When sitting across from an A-Player in an interview, do you see someone who seems hard to manage and who costs more?
That’s what most window cleaning businesses owners see when they look at A-Players, so even though they want to hire them, they often don’t… and then say, “I can’t find any A-Players in my market” (which really means: “I can’t find an A-Player that I want to hire in my market”).
You can solve this very easily:
First
…make sure you have a company that attracts A-Players, including a pay structure and other attractive qualities that an A-Player would want. Extremely important!
Look at it this way. Assume you are interviewing me. I’m an A-Player. You may not know that, but your interview must talk to me as if I am one: Extremely professional, confident, with a strong company vision. This is what the A-Player wants to hear. What’s your ad say? How do you come across? Are you professional and have a flow to your interview style? Are you “dressed” to give the interview (I wear a sports jacket when I do interviews)? How does your office look, etc.? What perception do you and your company put off during this “event”?
I can tell you if you are looking to hire me, you better be on your game on all these fronts along with the ancillary benefits: pay, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc., or I’m gone.
In fact, if you are lucky and you do hire me, what’s your onboarding process? What’s the paper trail, how’s the training? It better be on point, or I’ll probably be gone in a few days. Again, I’m an A-Player, and I’m attracted to A-Player-type companies. If we hop in your truck to go wash windows, is it clean and organized because if it’s not, it becomes a representation of you and the rest of your company, and do I want to be a part of that?
Second
…you need to step up as a leader and become a very strong leader so that A-Players will step in line and work the way you need them to work. What does this mean? It means you have:
1. Policy
2. Structure
3. Organization
And You Enforce It.
If you follow my lead here in this article, I promise you it will change the game in your hiring just like it has for me and others. A-Players can turn around a company and help it grow in amazing ways.
And although hiring A-Players sounds good, the reason you’re struggling to hire them might actually have more to do with YOU than it does with them.
If you are struggling with any of this, call me: 704-451-0409. I can help you.
Are you in business and struggling to really grow? I will find your business another $100,000 to $250,000 without you spending an extra dime on advertising – as fast as you can make it. I just need 45 minutes. It’s just one of the many strategies I teach. Go to WindowCleaningBusinessCoach.com to learn more and get my 2 FREE business building reports.
Jim DuBois is founder Squeegee Pros, Inc. out of NC and WindowWashingWealth.com, a high-level, window cleaning business coaching company. Email [email protected] or call 704-451-0409 for more information.