Using the “3-R’s” to motivate your techs… and yourself!
Home Service Biz Owners: Boost field tech motivation! Learn to Recognize, Reward, and Relax for a fun, productive residential service business.
KickStart: Bring fun back to your business when you learn to 1) Recognize, 2) Reward, and 3) Relax!
I’ll admit it. I was too driven, too focused and yes, far too obsessed in my pursuit of the so-called “business success”. 😢
After all, most of our Home Front Success business resources (and all of my stories)🙄 are based on A) my bone-headed blunders, B) my desperate efforts to recover, and C) the steps I took to NEVER let a given mistake happen in my company again!
Now sure, as my KickStart title promises I’m going to share some technician motivation ideas with you fine folks. (When do I not?)😁
But first, let’s start with YOU as the owner or manager of a cleaning or restoration business.
Far too late in my career I realized I had put myself “down in the trenches” in full-time fighting mode. I finally remembered that…
Being in business is supposed to be FUN!
True confessions time? For far too long being the owner of a residential services business was not remotely enjoyable for me. Yes, being “too driven, too focused and yes, too obsessed” led me to become a “Business Nazi”. 😮
Sure, to even survive, much less prosper, in business today you (and your employees) need a “sense of urgency”. But I took it too far.
“But HEY! That’s enough talking about me! Let’s talk about you! What do you think about me?” HEADS UP: This is my lame attempt to introduce some humor here! 😁
So, what about your "FUN" in business? Deep down inside, you know the answer! (Remember, the first step to recovery is recognizing you have a problem!) 😯
Eventually, I came to realize I desperately needed the “3-R’s” for my own benefit (fun), for my family’s happiness and to build a happy and fulfilled team (family) of loyal, dedicated employees!
Yep, I had personally neglected to 1) Recognize, 2) Reward, and 3) Relax! (Both with myself and my employees.) As I’ve told 1,000’s of my students over the last 30 years…
“The fish rots from the head down!” True in business, true in your family and yes- true in your own life.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Even as I slide slowly into a semi-retirement Sioux, my dear wife of over 50 years now, will tell you I STILL struggle with all three of the “3-R’s” above!
So, let’s get “down in the trenches” (there’s that phrase again!) with the 3-R’s and what they mean to a cleaning or restoration business entrepreneur (that would be YOU!) personally.
Then after we get YOU tuned up in my next KickStart I’ll diss on using the 3-R’s to build a great team of quality, long-term employees…
1. RECOGNIZE your achievements. Sure, to even have the vision, much less succeed, as a start-up residential services entrepreneur you needed some chutzpah along with a driving desire to “succeed”.
But when is “enough” enough? When do you give yourself some kudos 👍 to recognize what you have accomplished? How do all of us hard-driving owners and managers find (and stay in) that small "happy contented place" between complacent arrogance (bad) and paranoid, relentless, driving ambition? (Even worse.)
As I confess above, this is still a process and a struggle for me! But, almost 2,000 years ago someone much smarter than me shared the road back from this frantic, driving, unfulfilled obsession with success…
“For we have brought nothing into the world, and neither can we carry anything out. So, having food and clothing, we will be content with these things.” 1 Timothy 6:7,8
And there you have it, the soothing peace of finding "contentment" with your business. (And your life.)
2. REWARD your accomplishments. Being thrifty, even frugal, is definitely a protection in the materialistic, instant gratification society we live in. For example, Sioux and I have never used credit cards to fund consumer goods, daily expenses, vacations, etc. Heck, I only recently allowed myself to order cheese on my hamburger! (And then my ‘Soup Nazi” cardiologist told me, “No more hamburgers for you, Steve”!) 😯
Again, I beg you to ask yourself, “when is “enough” … enough?” So, after you “recognize” an accomplishment (whether big or small) then give yourself permission to spend the money (or the time) to enjoy the reward. And obviously, include your family in these rewards.
True Life Story: A “recognized goal” may be something small. In an earlier life, I got sucked into being part owner of a struggling computer systems house. The problem? I HATED and DESPISED selling computers! (To start with I was, and still am, technologically illiterate!) 😡
To motivate myself selling something I hated every time I closed a system sale I bought myself a new fishing rod or a new shotgun! (By the time we thankfully sold the company I had dozens of new fishing rods and firearms!) 😎
3. RELAX! Obviously, laziness is a dead end for any business start up and even more so in residential services. However, THIS “relaxing” should start much sooner than your far-in-the-future retirement!
It has become an over-used cliché, but seriously, when WAS the last time you “stopped to smell the roses”? 🌹🌹🌹 Carving out small moments, hours, or days to slow down to 1) Recognize and 2) Reward your accomplishments will only be of value if you can… 3) RELAX!
Speaking of “relaxing” it is 5:07 PM on a Friday afternoon as I write this with a very full weekend ahead! (Including Sioux’s and my 50th anniversary party!) 🎉🎊🎈🎁✨
So, I’m going to 1) Recognize Sioux for putting up with me all these years, 2) Reward her generously, and most importantly, 3) RELAX! I suggest you do the same with YOUR loved ones! 💖
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