My son, Max, is a pretty savvy businessman. He knows what it takes to be successful: A dream, powerful intention and a solid, yet flexible, plan. Max has embraced the opportunity to work for a terrific company in Colorado. (Shout out to Shamrock Sales, Inc.!) And he is happy to report in on a good business when he discovers one. Recently, Max visited one of his customer’s shops and called me to brag on them. Turns out they were customers of mine, too. Max told me about their recruiting, hiring and training systems. He shared that they hold themselves and others to high standards and commit to delivering superior service. Cool! So, I wrote an email saying, “Good on ya!”
The owner, Tim Parker, emailed right back. Wow. He made my day.
If you have the opportunity, hire a vet. If you are a vet, you are well served to start your own business. It takes discipline and procedures, coupled with a powerful mission and clear intention, to create a successful business. You have what it takes.
I love how Tim signed off. Here’s the email. Thanks, Tim!! I’m super proud of you. Thank you for the lovely words. And, thank you for your service, here and across the globe.
Xo$, Ellen
PS…If you are a vet, contact me and I’ll happily send you a free copy of The Weekend Biz Plan. Thank you!! xo$
Hi Ellen,
First of all I would like to thank you for you kind words, secondly I want to say WOW! I can’t believe I’m getting an email from Ellen Rohr complementing my business, AWESOME!!
Max is definitely his Mother’s son and is a credit to both you and “Hot Rod” I know we’re going to have a great future working together.
I am originally from England and immigrated to this great country fourteen years ago with the dream of starting my own business. Having been in the Plumbing and Heating trade for many years in England (I was an indentured Plumbing Apprentice at 15-1/2 years old) and having spent 11 years serving my country as a Royal Marines Commando in various conflicts around the world, I thought I was ready. Boy was I wrong.
I was a bit overwhelmed to say the least and I gradually realized that I would need to start educating myself in the different aspects of business as well as working in the field if I was going to survive, needless to say it was a slow process.
Eventually things started to click and I realized that I would need to systemize my business, to be honest that was easy for my military mind, after all the military invented systems, the Roman Legions, the Persians and the Ottoman Empire were all systemized and although this is an ongoing process I now have many systems in place and all our team members have their own operations and systems manuals.
I was also reading a lot of articles and emails from the various contractor organizations that we belong to (QSC, PHCC and Service Roundtable) about how my books should be set up, especially my chart of accounts, other contractors were kind enough to share their accounts with me and I gradually got our accounting program sorted out and reflecting departments separately instead of all being lumped in together and open to misinterpretation, but I still didn’t really understand what I was looking at, I decided that more education was necessary, I ordered some accounting books from the internet and read them, I learnt the basics from these books but never felt they connected with me or our industry, so I went back to the internet and got real specific about an accounting book that was tailored to our industry, up popped this book called Where Did the Money Go? Apparently it was written by a switched on lady who understood our industry. I ordered it, read it, and someone turned the light on. I finally got it.
I now insist that all my Managers and Office staff read your book. So, thank you Ellen for taking the time to write a book to educate people like me. Your book takes pride of place on my bookshelf next to Michael Gerber’s E-Myth and Ron Smiths HVAC Spells Wealth. I consider you to be an industry Icon up there with Frank Blau and Ron Smith and each month I wait in anticipation for both yours and Frank’s articles in the Shubee newsletter. Thanks again for your great work in educating contractors and for making people like me realize what we are worth as an industry and what we need to charge to make a profit.
Sincerely,
Tim Parker (Owner)
Meadow Mountain Plumbing & Heating Service, Inc.
“Once a Marine, Always a Marine”
