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Two Weeks Notice

After five years of experience with an employee, receiving a 2-week notice is something I still don't get used to—even after decades of owning a Home Remodeling Company.

It's disappointing to lose someone you have invested time and energy into training. You've worked alongside them, depended on them and watched them become an important part of your company. So when they tell you they're leaving, it's natural to take it personally.

You start asking yourself: What did I do wrong? Could I have done something differently? Why can't I keep good people? Does this mean my company isn't headed in the right direction?

But over the years, I've learned that the reason someone gives for leaving may not tell the whole story. People leave companies for many different reasons—some having little to do with the owner, the company or the work itself.

Maybe it's time to take another look at how we, as business owners, respond to these situations and be a little less hard on ourselves. My job isn't to keep every employee forever. My job is to build a company that can continue to grow when people come and go.

That doesn't mean losing a good employee isn't disappointing. It is. But disappointment and hope can exist at the same time.

Every time someone leaves, there is also an opportunity: someone new may bring fresh energy and ideas, another employee may step forward and discover leadership abilities they didn't know they had, a position may evolve, or a company may become stronger because it is forced to adapt.

After more than four decades in the remodeling business, I've learned that adversity doesn't always mean something has gone wrong—sometimes it simply means something is changing. And sometimes, the good that comes from that change is something we couldn't see when we first received the two week notice.

So if you're a remodeling contractor or business owner who has recently lost a good employee, don't be too hard on yourself. Feel the disappointment. Learn what you can from it. Then look forward. Because our responsibility as owners isn't to make sure nobody ever leaves. It's to build something strong enough to keep moving forward when they do.

And who knows? The next chapter may turn out better than the one we thought we were losing.

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Don't Quit

9-1-1. We have an emergency. Another good home improvement company has disappeared.

Wait.

Before you close the doors, sell the trucks, or decide you've had enough—don't quit.

The home improvement industry needs good contractors. Your employees need good companies. Your customers need people they can trust. And sometimes the very challenges that make us question why we're still doing this are the challenges that force us to become better.

I've been in the remodeling business since 1982. In more than four decades, I've watched companies come and go. I've watched good times turn bad and bad times turn good again.

But the challenges never disappear. They simply change.

Today we face shortages of experience, craftsmen, rising wages, increasing material costs, economic uncertainty, demanding schedules, competition and customers who expect more than ever.

Those are real problems.
But problems and opportunities arrive together.

A shortage of good craftsmen makes developing and keeping good people more valuable. Higher costs force us to become more efficient. Competition forces us to become better. Difficult customers teach us to communicate. And adversity has a way of exposing weaknesses in our businesses that prosperity allowed us to ignore.

The question isn't whether this business will be difficult.

It will be.

The question is: Why are you still doing it?

For me, the answer has always come back to purpose.

My personal mission statement is simple:

“Make people's lives better through home improvement.”

That statement has carried me through some difficult days.

We aren't simply installing cabinets, replacing showers, laying floors or remodeling kitchens. We're improving the place where people raise their families, celebrate birthdays, recover from illnesses, welcome grandchildren and live their everyday lives.

We make their homes look better.
We make their homes function better.

And hopefully, we make their lives a little better.

That's meaningful work.

So when the business gets difficult—and it will—go back to your reason for doing it.

Ask yourself:

• Why did I start?
• Who depends on me?
• Whose life is better because my company exists?
• What am I building besides money?

Write the answers down. Keep them where you can see them. And on the really difficult days, read them twice.

After more than four decades and more than 12,000 remodeling projects, I still get satisfaction from walking away from a completed project knowing we did good work.

I still enjoy a customer's smile.

And yes, once in a while, I still get a hug.

Maybe that's the real lesson after all these years:

Don't judge your future by your most difficult day.

Adversity doesn't always mean you're headed in the wrong direction. Sometimes it is forcing you to change, improve and prepare for an opportunity you can't see yet.

So when the phone rings with another problem, an employee leaves, a job goes sideways, or you find yourself wondering whether all of this is still worth it—

Remember your purpose.
Solve the problem.
Learn from it.
Then get up tomorrow morning and go again.

DON'T QUIT.

— Mr. Tracey J. Bail
Remodeling Contractor since 1982
More than 12,000 Projects Completed

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