10. Why Your Contractor Business Systems Are Holding You Back (And How to Grow)

Today, I want to get real with you guys.

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I want to talk about what's been going on with us lately.

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And the truth is, where you are today isn't going to get you where you want to go.

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So today, I share tips on things that you're going to have to change to take your business

to the next level.

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Hey, I'm Shay Toya.

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I've spent more than 10 years in construction.

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working behind the scenes in marketing, hiring, and I've seen how overwhelming it can be

to grow a business.

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That's how we've learned to build a sustainable business using clear systems, strong

communication, and intentional recruiting.

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If you're ready for better hiring, smarter remarketing, and a business that doesn't fall

apart when you step away, welcome to building better contractor businesses.

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Before we get started, I personally want to invite you.

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I personally

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want to invite you to join our Facebook group.

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This is where we are going to build on to real friendships, share real experiences and

lessons learned that we're possibly going on right now.

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It's all about helping build a better contract business.

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The link is in the show notes.

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So something I'm going to speak about today.

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is honestly something that is currently going on within our organization.

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This is something that all small businesses, small contractors, contractors who are

growing, who's possibly hit certain milestones, who have to take into consideration.

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And what I've realized is what got us to where we are today isn't going to get us to where

we wanna go.

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So what got us here

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what got us to the current business that we currently have is not at all going to get us

to where we wanna go.

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It's not going to take us to the next level.

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And that can be very, very hard because those habits, those habits that you've developed,

no matter how long you've been doing this, if it's been like myself, 12 years, if you've

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been doing this for a year, two years, three years, four years, and maybe what you've been

doing the last four years is going to get you

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of where you're at today.

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But if you want to grow a huge business, there are some things that we have to take into

consideration so we can do so.

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And the things that we've possibly found to work, possibly no longer works for where we

wanna go.

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So today, I'm going to be very, very honest with you guys.

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For a very long time, it was just me and Kevin, our CEO.

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Figuring things out.

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We figured out a lot.

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We were doing everything, handling things as they came.

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And even though we had an amazing team, there was still things that we were putting onto

our shoulders.

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And honestly, a lot of the things were just okay.

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Communication was not perfect.

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Expectations weren't always clear.

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And this is something that I've actually learned recently about the importance of

expectations when it comes to our team.

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But what got us to where we are today of having those same expectations, those same

standards, isn't going to get us to where we want to go.

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So now that we are growing, and it feels like we've been growing for a very, very long

time, for the last 12 years, trying to figure things out, building

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What we've learned throughout the last 12 years is that building relationships, if it's

journal contractors, if it's IT professionals, if it's electricians, so many trades as a

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low voltage contractor that we can connect with.

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But if we're wanting to take on bigger projects, we are realizing very, very fast that the

things that we were doing before isn't going to get us to the next level.

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and what we were doing before might've been okay.

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You know, when we only had two, three people, when we were okay with just taking on the

pieces that we can get.

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What I'm learning is that it's not okay for us to get to where we wanna go.

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So here's something that I have to be very, very honest about.

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We talk a lot.

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Lately, I've been talking a lot about having high standards, but...

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If I'm being completely real, having high standards and talking about having high

standards is a lot easier than actually expecting high standards from your team and

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holding our team accountable.

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And this is something that I've had to learn recently.

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I've had to learn on how to increase my expectations, increase my standards of our team.

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not allowing certain things to be okay during our weekly calls.

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If somebody says that they have not yet finished it of what we task, task, them out to do,

it's like I have to set a higher standard of why not?

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Like why is it not done and what is a disciplinary action for it not being done?

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And this of having high standards, yes, I can talk about it.

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I can say, hey, last call.

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was about the high standards of philosophies from the Disney.

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And yes, it's something that we can do, but just holding our team higher, more accountable

for their actions is going to allow us to really truly set high standards when it comes to

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our clientele.

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And having high level accountability, and this is honestly something that I've recently

learned, I am a people pleaser.

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So I really struggled with this, but I am

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I'm growing.

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So we would say what the standard is, but truth is, we did not always enforce it.

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And we never really provided, you we let things slide, avoid certain conversations, or

just handled it ourselves instead of addressing it.

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And that is what I'm learning is you don't actually have high standards if you're not

holding your people accountable to them.

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That to me is a big shift for myself.

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And to be completely honest with you, this is so, so hard for me.

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Very difficult, very difficult to have those hard conversations.

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As I said, I've always been a people pleaser.

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I like to keep the peace.

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I hate, I hate drama.

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I don't like drama at all.

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But as a leader, I've had to learn to...

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actually hold people accountable, it is going to be uncomfortable.

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I do not like confrontation.

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Never ever have I ever liked it.

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I don't like it.

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Maybe when I was a little younger, maybe I did like it.

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But now as I got older, that is not me.

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I don't like it.

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So having those hard conversations have been very, very difficult.

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know, raising those expectations, holding people accountable,

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The truth is that does not come easy to me at all, but I am learning.

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As a leader, it's necessary.

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To take our business to the next level, it's necessary.

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And even something as simple as we are having our meeting, our leadership meeting on a

weekly basis, but if something is not completed, like, you know, there was a time where

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it'd be like, okay, so,

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and you know maybe they were like no it wasn't and I'm like okay well y'all work off

towards next week and then next week would come and then it still wasn't completed and

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that was me as a leader not setting high expectations or high standards high

accountability onto my team and as my job as a leader it is my job to hold that person

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accountable and not allow anything less

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And as I said, this is very, very difficult for me.

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And as a people pleaser, that is very, very hard.

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And what I'm seeing from everywhere right now, we are very, very close.

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I really believe we are very, very close on to building our business to the next level.

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And the way that we're going to do that is we're going to need to build more relationships

with

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our general contractors and something and also of course other subs that we work with as

well, IT electricians as well.

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But I am noticing something.

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I'm really noticing something.

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A lot of subcontractors are stuck.

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Not because they are not good at their trade.

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They're very, very good at their trade.

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But because they're stuck in their ways.

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They're stuck on taking certain projects.

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They're stuck.

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on doing the things that they want to do, not the things that their client is asking for

or the GCs are asking for.

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So what is currently, so is happening.

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So what happens?

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So what's happening is that, you know, lot of these subcontractors, contractors, you know,

they keep bidding on the same jobs, you know, because that is what's comfortable.

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They're competing on price.

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because they're not setting their standards high.

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And they're wondering why are they not growing?

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So when it comes to some tips on setting your standards high and to, for accountability to

your team and then taking your business to the next level, you have to be focused on

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growing.

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You have to actually want to grow your business.

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You have to grow first.

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And so that could mean differently for many different people.

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You know, that could mean, and for this, you know, for you to actually wanna grow and go

the direction that you wanna go, you're going to have to grow.

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That could mean thinking differently.

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That could mean leading differently, expecting more.

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I've recently learned this.

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As I said, I'm a people pleaser.

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So holding people accountable is awkward.

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Having those hard conversations is awkward.

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I recently just did one, awkward.

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You have to expect more.

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I recently did this, noticing there was a problem.

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I'm expecting, me and Kevin, we're expecting more out of our team.

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You can't run a bigger business with the same mindset that built a smaller one.

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For you to grow and to be the top business, for you to grow and

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grow a seven, eight figure business.

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You can't do the same things that you were doing when you were a two, three, four person

business.

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And what I'm learning is that once you hit 10 employees, it becomes a different business

and you have to do things differently as well.

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And so number two is, this is one of the things that I've really learned lately.

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And as a leader, what you allow becomes your standard.

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I can say we have high standards, but if I'm allowing our team to get away with certain

things, technically I do not have high standards.

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That is super, super big.

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What you tolerate becomes your standard.

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Me allowing our team to say that they're going to do something and don't do it the

following week, that is showing that

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I allow that to be a standard.

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If you allow, you start getting poor communication, missed details, things start slipping

through the cracks.

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This becomes your normal business and it starts becoming out of control, even if you do

not want it to.

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Number three, gosh, I feel like this is something that I've,

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recently struggled with.

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Number three is having the ability to have hard conversations.

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Very, very, very important.

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For us to set our standards higher, for us to grow our business to the next level, we must

have difficult conversations.

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For us to become better leaders, we must have difficult conversations.

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You know, sometimes you have to have a difficult conversation with your client.

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Sometimes you have to have a difficult conversation with

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Your staff.

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Hard conversations are a part of the job.

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If you avoid hard conversations, you are going to slow down your business.

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And this is something that I'm working towards right now.

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This is something that of me getting uncomfortable, making sure that I have those hard

conversations, making sure that I'm doing those yearly reviews, making sure that if there

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is an issue, I'm addressing it.

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Those are the hard conversations that we have to have the ability to do with our team

because no one else is gonna do it.

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No one else is going to step up if we do not step up.

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And this is something I'm working towards.

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As leaders, we must have the ability to get uncomfortable, see an issue and address it

early before it becomes a bigger issue.

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And I've learned this, hiring the wrong staff, allowing certain things to happen more

longer than it should have.

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As soon as you see an issue, addressing it right away, that way it doesn't become a bigger

issue.

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And as leaders, we must be clear about our expectations.

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We must be clear about the things that we expect from our team, the things that we expect

them to do on a daily basis, and actually hold people accountable.

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Not just say it, because saying is one thing, but if you say something and you do not hold

them accountable, that is your standard.

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But you must follow through.

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even when it's hard.

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And for me, this is very, very hard.

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And even when you don't want to.

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Number four, sometimes you are the bottleneck.

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Sometimes the thing that's holding your business back is you, your habits, your comfort

zone.

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You're not willing to take on that project that's more difficult because you're scared.

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As leaders, we must push ourselves.

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We must get out of our comfort zones to take our business to the next level.

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Do the things that aren't, isn't always the most comfortable.

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Don't always do the things that you're used to.

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And working with subs, we hear it all the time.

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Oh, I'm not used to taking that project on.

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the project is too big.

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Like these are things that they're saying because they're uncomfortable and it's scary.

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So if you want to grow your business, you,

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have to get out of your own way.

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So number five is bigger jobs require higher standards.

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If you want better clients, better opportunities, you have to operate at a higher level.

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And recently, learned as a team, Kevin and I have learned the importance of this.

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Kevin, last week or two weeks ago, he'd asked one of the JCs that we work with,

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side by side, and he asked him, what is it that you, like what is it, how is it that you

decide to work with one subcontractor out of the other subcontractor?

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And he mentioned a lot of stuff.

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But one of the things that he did mention was the proposal.

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And so we recently invested some time into our template for our proposal.

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But before that, our proposal was ugly.

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And as my marketing side of things and as my branding side of things, I knew this was

ugly, very ugly.

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And so that was one of the things that he talked about was the importance of having a

pretty proposal, showing our proposal of not just putting some text on some paper and be

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like, this is our number, here we go.

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Like actually having a pretty proposal, that was one of the things he talked about.

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And so with that being said, you have to operate at a higher level.

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General contractors are looking for clear communication.

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Do you communicate clearly?

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Do you let them know what's going on?

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I used to be in sales.

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I used to do door-to-door sales.

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And when I did door-to-door sales, one of the things I learned is customers don't mind

negatives, but they hate surprises.

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So that for that being said, having clear communication, are you

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Organized?

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Are you reliable?

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Do they have to continue asking you for certain things?

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Is your billing an issue?

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And if you are not showing up to have high standards, when it comes to your proposal, when

it comes to the way that your team looks, last week I talked about the importance of

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making sure your team is groomed in hygiene and all, even though we are in construction,

we can still

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look the part.

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Even, know, Kevin's on more on the estimating side right now.

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And just some portions of him looking the part as he's going to job sites and meeting

with, you know, potential customers or clients.

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So that's is very important as well.

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And if that's not you, and when you're messing with the bigger contractors and the

contractors who's looking for a certain ability of their projects, their main concern is

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what I've learned recently is

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They wanna know, can you handle the project?

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They wanna know if they give you a job, are you gonna be like, I can't do it?

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Like, if they don't know you and you show up with your proposal looking a certain way and

you show up that your numbers don't look good and you don't know your numbers and when you

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talk to them, you're unorganized, like they're going to believe that that's the way that

you're going to treat the project as well.

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So I want to ask this, and I want you to ask yourself this, what am I still allowing in my

business that I shouldn't?

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be okay with anymore.

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Where do I personally need to raise my standard?

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And what conversation have I been avoiding?

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That is your next step in your business.

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Growth isn't just about more work.

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It's about becoming a better leader.

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That's where the next level requires.

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And I will be very honest, we are still working through this ourselves, but that's...

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what this podcast is all about.

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Real experiences, real lessons, and growing together.

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And as always, let's keep building a better contractor business.

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If you believe that this episode brought you real clarity, be sure to share it with

another contractor who also needs it.

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And if you want to keep this conversation going, be sure to join our community of

contractors inside Building Better Contractor Businesses Facebook group.

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This is a community where we talk through the real problems

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that you are having in your business.

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The link will be found in our show notes.

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And remember, we are not just completing projects.

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We are building better contractor businesses.

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I will see you next time.