Want to eliminate a lot of stress? Invoice and review A/R & A/P reports on a weekly basis with your team. Too often I speak with owners who have completed a lot of work but haven’t invoiced or collected on those projects and find themselves in a cash flow crunch.

If you review the following items weekly you will always have a clear understanding of where you sit financially. Waiting too long to invoice, or to follow-up on outstanding invoices can often result in the final payment never being collected, since many owners feel awkward trying to collect on a job that’s been completed for a long time. 

Weekly Accounts Payable/ Receivable Checklist:

• Create invoices for work completed in the last 7 days
• Create files for work to completed next week 
• Track incoming receipts per job 
• Follow up on outstanding invoices from the last couple of weeks
• Review incoming payables
• What needs to be paid this week
• What gets paid at the end of the month

Do you avoid...

Successful businesses don't happen by accident. Business growth requires strategic planning and a commitment to work on your business and not just in your business. There are 5 important reasons why your business isn't reaching its full potential, despite all your time, energy and hard work. 

Mistake #1 - NOT SHARING YOUR LEADERSHIP ROLE

Are you trying to do everything yourself? We encourage you to start by looking at your own leadership role in your business. Have you identified what kind of leader you are? Is your leadership style serving your team well so that your business can grow and operate without you?

Mistake #2 - NOT LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

Do you understand your customers?

You wouldn't have a business without your customers but at the end of the day, do you understand their behaviour? You have the power to create loyal ambassadors to your company by giving your customers a great experience and managing their expectations.

Mistake #3 - NOT INVESTING IN YOUR STAFF

A-Players. Every employer is asking for them, but what are you doing to attract them? 

There are certain things that A-players are looking for from prospective employers.

8 Things A-Players Want:

1. To work with other A-Players. Are you willing to make a position available if an A-Player applies for a job at your company?
2. Accountability. Does your company have accountability and measurement tools to make the company better? 
3. To know what the long term goals are for the company. Are you sure of your long term goals? Have you shared that with your staff?
4. To not be part of a stagnant company. Are you evolving and changing? 
5. The opportunity to grow within the company. What are you doing with your current staff to nurture them in their personal and professional lives?
6. To not hear phrases like "that's the way we have always done it."
7. Financial transparency. Business is a game, what are you doing to keep score with your team? 
8. Owners who are developing themselves. As a...

If you have been following us for a while, you know I listen to Andy Stanley’s podcast. If you don’t already follow his podcasts, I highly recommend them. 

Last year Andy interviewed Donald Miller and they chatted about effective communication and the role it plays with your team. “People will not move into confusion, but they will follow clarity.” How timely is that quote based on what’s happening right now?

My takeaways from this episode are the five questions to ask yourself when you’re planning your weekly meeting:

1. What do your teams need to know? Pick one point and build your meeting around that central idea.
2. Why do they need to know it? Answering why keeps them listening. Let them know what’s at stake.
3. What do they need to do? Be specific.
4. Why do they need to do it? Help them understand why they should do what you have suggested and what is at stake if they don’t follow through. 
5. How can you help them remember?

...

Spring is here which means things are typically happening at lightning speed. Although there are a lot of unknowns this year, keeping organized is not only a nice idea, it is crucial to you and your team's success. 

Here are a couple tips that will help ensure the important things are not slipping between the cracks:

• Create a written plan for the day. Preplan all of the repeat tasks that often fall through the cracks and use the rock, pebble, sand method to ensure the most important things are scheduled first. 
• Leverage a calendar. Leave some whitespace between tasks so that if something comes up, it doesn’t derail your entire day.
• Block out distractions.
• Delegate tasks you do not need to do.
• Track how you are spending your time.
• Eliminate unnecessary tasks.

I also encourage owners to pay attention to how much time they spend on the phone and with whom. Is it your management team or are you getting calls from staff and crew leaders regularly? 

If crew leaders...

Tailgate talks are one of the easiest ways to engage your staff and promote a culture of safety. They are specifically designed to be a quick review of safety protocols and techniques your staff have already been trained on as a reminder to keep safety in the forefront of their minds.  

Tailgate talks create the opportunity to connect with your entire staff once a week and enable you to not only touch on safety topics, but also to talk about changes in company policies, recognize individual or crew-based achievements, and acknowledge birthdays or other important events. 

Here are 5 tips for creating engaging tailgate talks: 

• Preplan your tailgate talks for the season so you don’t need to worry about what your next topic will be. Create a tailgate talks binder sorted by topics and dates relevant to the time of year (ie. In April, talk about blower safety ahead of spring clean-up) and decide in advance who will be speaking on each topic.
• Keep it short....