Podcast 79: How To Stop The Profit Bleed In Your Business with Vicki Suiter

Vicki Suiter runs Suiter Business Builders, a consulting business for contractors that she started back in 1990. She helps contractors build better and more profitable businesses. Vicki and I are in a mastermind group together, and she’s here to discuss her new book, The Profit Bleed, which pinpoints the places where you are losing money in your business.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

Vicki’s background in banking, then as a corporate controller: when she was married to a painting contractor, she saw that there was a lot she could do to help contractors
Why she wrote the book when she saw contractors struggle to make a consistent profit
Top ways that contractors bleed profits: (you have to learn to hold on to your gross profit margin)
- Manage your labor risk
- Know your overhead cost
- Manage the production side

How to do a “two-week look ahead”
How to engage your team so they take ownership and become partners and not helpers
Why it comes down to about ten repeated and consistent things you can do to build a stronger business and have your employees have pride and confidence
How Millennials can help build your business and want to stick around for more than two years
How to develop systems and responsible team members so you, as an owner, can actually take a vacation
Statistics show the average roofing contractor is 42 years old!
The # 1 problem: finding and attracting people to the trades
What contractors can do to stop the profit bleed: know your numbers
“Hope is NOT a business strategy.”
“Leaders are willing to confront the brutal facts.”
The stress comes from what we don’t know and what we are concerned about
Changes in the industry in the last ten years: technology has changed, the buyer has changed, and there is much higher mistrust
Why contractors have to communicate better on the front end
The #1 thing contractors can do to increase profits: have a goal for your profit margin and know your real costs