Building your business — support and resources are readily available

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RMBA president Darrell Trigg

By RMBA president Darrell Trigg

 

I recently had a session with my business coach and found it to be extremely rewarding.

The business coach helps to bring me back to focusing on the business, not just on working in it and putting out fires and igniting others!

Together with my monthly coaching sessions, I am also completing modules of the Elevate Education series located on the Registered Master Builders members web site.

There are more than 150 short videos specifically put together for builders that contain essential information to help run businesses more profitably.

The latest series to be loaded up is about helping employers become better coaches for their team. There are tricks, tips and valuable information to help employers work with their team to get the best results for them and the business.

Each video is between two to eight minutes in duration. When I watch them, I look for the good bits of information that would work in my business, pause the video, make notes and then carry on.

 

Many topics to choose from

The great thing about the Elevate Education series is that there are so many topics to choose from, you can just pick the ones which will help you with a current issue you have in your business — for example, managing cashflow, or understanding the breakdown of your labour rate.

Working on my business has always been important to me, but I keep getting sucked back into it, which can be distracting.

Making an appointment with yourself for a few hours a week seems to be working. If you have blocked the time out then you should honour that meeting.

I cannot stress the importance of working on your business enough. For too many, it seems to be the last thing on their mind with all of the pressure to deliver.

Stepping back temporarily can clear the mind and allow a focus on what will take the business forward in the way that business owners want.

I believe that the Elevate Education portal and the videos made just for frontline builders are one of the best benefits for Registered Master Builders.

Over the years I have used several forms of business learning, from dozens and dozens of books, to business coaching of sorts, to a multitude of online information from around the globe.

 

Targeted and specific

All of this has been helpful to some extent, but none is as targeted and specific to the small-to-medium construction business in New Zealand as the resources on the RMBA web site.

Recently I have employed another project manager to help manage our workload. Elevate Education and my business coach helped me with:

the process of understanding what was required in that person,

how to go about an effective induction for the new employee, and

receiving feedback from my coach with a “fresh eyes” report not long after the employee had started, asking them what they have seen in the business since they started, what would they keep, and what would they like to see go?

It all involves great questions and great feedback.

No matter where you are in your business journey, there is information out there to assist.

Elevate is free to Registered Master Builder members — it really is a comprehensive library of building business information, readily available for you and your business partner’s benefit.

I suppose my message is quite simple — in today’s business world there is no need for businesses to go through the “school of hard knocks”.

There is so much support available, and the cost of it is minimal compared to the cost of not seeking help when things are getting tough.

If you are a member I encourage you to log into the members section of the RMBA web site and click on the Elevate Education link.

If you are not a member and are looking to develop your business, I suggest you contact Registered Master Builders, either locally or through the web site, and learn more about Elevate and the many other benefits of being a Registered Master Builder.

And remember — the most important work we can do in a building business is not with a hammer or nail gun!

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