Every company has one of those people who just doesn’t want to leave stuff alone. I’ve been running my plumbing business for twenty years with nothing but success. Yeah, I’m not on social media, I don’t have a website and I don’t use professional job management software for tradesmen in Melbourne, but I’ve made a profit every year so I’m not fussed.
The problem is, some of my employees and apprentice plumbers are starting to say that I need to ‘get into the twenty-first century’ and that I need to ‘get up with the times’. I don’t have to do that. Why would I bother dealing with stuff that I don’t know how to do when all I need to do is fix toilets, pipes and drains.
I don’t have to organise jobs using technology. I just tell people where to be and when, and they turn up. I don’t think my employees should care about who they’re working with or any sort of job description beforehand. They just need to turn up, assess the situation and then get the job done.
But yeah, one of my goody-two-shoes ‘twenty-first century’ employees wants to ‘streamline the workflow’ or something like that. I don’t want to do that, obviously. I just want to get stuff done. But apparently, my employees will find other jobs unless I start using a plumbing job management system and planning their weeks for them in advance. God, just man up and work the way plumbers have always worked. It’s ridiculous.
Anyway, I’m going to go away and have a think about whether or not it’s worth getting this management software, or if hiring new apprentices and plumbers who are actually tough is the better way to go. I’ll keep you all updated, but I’m leaning towards cutting off the weak – it’s just how I do business, and I’ve done business successfully for longer than these kids have been alive.