I started Patriot Chimney with two technicians

It turns out the hardest part about owning a business with two technicians is going to be the best thing for me as I grow as an SMB owner

Here's why in a quick thread:

They own the business too, but they don't know about some simple business things unless I teach them

You don't know what you don't know, I guess

And that's okay. Luckily I have some business experience but nothing that prepared me for Patriot Chimney

Sometimes I have to explain to them why it makes sense to pay $$ monthly for a CRM rather than an equal monthly payment on a vacuum

Or why sometimes billboards aren't a good idea for chimney companies

Or why we need to segment our jobs and schedule on certain days

I manage marketing, accounting, customer service, sales, strategy planning, routing, and more.

I just bunch it all together and call it administration

It's a lot and it definitely doesn't weigh out, but I'm in the trenches doing the work and learning along the way

When I notice something that needs to be done, I can't fix it immediately because I'm not the sole decision-maker

I have to talk to Matt & Billy about it

And I need to know enough about the problem/solution to explain it, and then I get to fix the problem once they agree

For Ex - if I say we need better tracking on our COGS to include material/job AND the time spent/job they push back thinking I'm trying to micromanage

Then I tell them all the benefits of tracking everything

Why we need to do it. Solutions to achieve what we need, etc.

That's also where I'm lucky

I'm not just learning WHAT needs to happen as I did in the past

In order to make the decision, I need to know WHY something needs to happen

And then I need to compile that info in a way that Matt & Billy will understand

It's hard and annoying because of the pushback I mentioned earlier.

If I learned anything from my time in sales is that when I get push back, that means I haven't explained it well enough

And if I didn't explain it well enough then I don't know it well enough

This is going to help me for many years to come as an SMB owner

It's hard and extremely annoying sometimes. But I'm thankful for it