Advice to Overcome Common Obstacles Construction Business Owners Face

Construction leaders are masters of their trade, but at their core, they’re also entrepreneurs. Fortunately, as different as industries may be, there are several immutable laws of running a business – and that’s something Cody Rich knows all about.

A serial entrepreneur, Cody is the founder of the Backcountry Fuel Box and host of the Rich Outdoors Podcast. With two successful companies under his belt, Cody knows a thing or two about implementing and improving business processes and structure. Chatting with host Mike Merril, one of the biggest challenges they will talk about today is the unintentional roadblocks that owners can sometimes create for themselves. Cody shared what he feels are three common struggles owners are facing. If you own a construction business – or you want to – this is the episode for you.

Key Takeaways:

1. Build a line of credit with your employees. Giving your employees power over something is important if you ever want your business to run without you. Start by giving your employees a dollar amount they can spend to solve problems or create opportunities without having to get your approval. As they prove themselves, make sure to increase their “credit,” it can get to a point where your sharpest employees have unlimited credit.
2. Systems are what separate business owners from firefighters. Having established systems in place with the right people and technology releases the owner from having to spend their days running from situation to situation putting out fires. A leader should not be doing a job they hate, the right system means that the right person can do the hated job better than the leader ever could. If you are doing jobs you hate, your system is broken.
3. Don’t be the bottleneck to your business’s success. Your systems can always be improved. Cody points out the best way to find issues in a well oiled machine is to step out of the business. Start with a day, then a week then a month. It will reveal the holes in your system that you can improve. When you can leave for a month without issues, you have the healthiest of businesses.