Speaker 1 (00:00):
<Silence> We have a great show for you today, especially for general contractors Baton Rouge. So, most of us are looking for that big fish, that big project that’s gonna open doors, that’s gonna build a reputation that’s gonna make us a household name. But I’ve found that it’s the smaller projects that really give you a good reputation. It’s the smaller jobs that lead into other opportunities. We’re gonna give you three reasons today why smaller jobs are the better avenue for building a reputation and building a business that’ll stand.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hey, welcome back to the K-Cup episode 23. Today we’re talking about the small job advantage, how minor projects can build major trust. So John, we’re we’re going to, like your introduction brought out. We’re gonna be talking about how, you know, you could build a reputation on doing small jobs. In fact, it’s much easier to build a reputation performance, small jobs, and performing them at a great level. And we’re gonna discuss, like you said in your intro, we’re gonna talk about three points that are gonna make the case for why these smaller jobs are really the way to build your reputation and, and build a good reputation that’s gonna bring you those bigger opportunities down the road. So the three points that we’re gonna talk about today the first point is gonna highlight how small jobs are really auditions. They’re not just transactions, and that’s how we should look at ’em, that they’re really auditions for maybe something much better. Hope you’re paying attention to this general contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And then 0.2, talk about excellence at scale, how we should treat every job like it was our biggest, no matter how small, if we take the job and we’re committing to it, then we need to do our best. And then point number three, the compound growth of trust and referrals, and how you’re not only building reputation, but what comes along with that reputation, if it’s a good one, is that people begin to trust you in your market and you start getting those, you know, highly valued referrals, which we know that’s really the best sales lead you can ever get is the referral. So let’s dive, go ahead and dive in. Let’s talk about these small jobs and how they really are the opportunity to build great reputations. So in that very first point, small jobs are auditions, not just transactions. That first point, there’s bringing out how every small job is really a low risk trial run for not just you, but for clients. So talk about that a little bit. And please, if you’re a general contractor Baton Rouge, please take this in.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah. So the client, you know, they can give you a smaller job. They’re not committing a lot of money to you. They can see how you perform. They, they don’t know the level of work that you, you know how good you are, what you do. Yeah. So they can commit a small job to you not having, you know, not having to pay you a fortune. They can see how you work and, and go from there. And, you know, the other side of it is, is it’s kind of a, a, a trial run for the contractor too. You know, specifically if you’re a newer contractor you know, if you go out there and you make a mistake it’s not gonna cost you nearly what it would cost if, if you made a mistake on a big job. Yeah. and it may be something simple. It may just be you, you, you know, you under figure labor by day and on a small job that’s don’t really hurt you. But on a larger job, if you, you know, underestimated labor for, you know, 30 days because you didn’t have the experience that you would’ve gained from doing some smaller jobs, you know, now that’s a lot more costly. So, so it’s really low risk, you know, for the contractor and for the client. This is great for general contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah. So, so mistakes scale with the project. Exactly. So that’s a great point that you brought out. So the other side of this is that wherever you work, wherever you’re performing work, there’s a marketplace, right? And by delivering consistent outcomes, how does that, how can that benefit you by taking these smaller projects where you have more control or more ability to hopefully deliver a great outcome? How does that affect you in your market, potentially?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, I think that, you know, the smaller jobs give you an opportunity to figure out how to do jobs, right? To figure out how to you know, how the pieces mesh together. Yeah. It gives you an opportunity to kind of systemize what you do. Yeah. the more repeatable you can, you can make your process, the better you’re going to be which is gonna, you know, in turn have higher results, which is going to build your name and brand and reputation in the market that you’re in. Yeah. So I think the smaller jobs, they give you an opportunity, one, to learn how to do the work and, and to learn how to systemize it and, and make, you know, put something together that really can help you perform at a high level. Yeah. And, and once you have that, the sky’s limit. So, there’s the pay-off general contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, that’s right. So you really don’t want to underestimate the value of you know, building that trust in your marketplace like that through these small projects. And and then another side of that is what, what might a client be thinking of by offering you a small project? What might really be going on there?
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah. It’s probably just the test. They wanna see how you perform. They wanna see what you can and can’t do. You know, I, we actually have a client that we’ve been working for, for about 17 years, and they gave me a little small project in the beginning. And obviously I was a small contractor, so to me it was, it was a great opportunity. I wanted to go do it. And, and I did. I did it at a very high level, and I did it like it was, you know, a huge project. And it ended up really paying off. And, and, you know, sometime down the road, my contact did say, look, you know, I kind of gave you that job. I just wanted to see how committed you were, you know, how, you know, what kind of work you were gonna do, and Yeah. But, but me taking it at such a serious level, like I did it, it paid off. And, and this client’s been a, a client for 17 years. I mean, we literally still work for him all the time. So so a great example of, of what we’re trying to talk about on today’s show, honestly.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Absolutely. So you just heard it’s straight from John’s mouth 0.1, small jobs are auditions, not just transactions. And, and you just gave a great example of how one turned out to be exactly that. And, and, and now because you did a great job for, you know, over a decade, you’ve been getting some great opportunities as a result. So, really cool. All right. So let’s move into the second point. It, it’s, we’re gonna talk about excellence at scale, how we should treat every job like it was your biggest job, right? We want to have the same you know, tenacity towards these little jobs as you would a big job. So what can we establish there and, and how can it affect us by how we go about these smaller jobs? Again, I hope this resonates with all of you especially general contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah. I mean, the way I think of, of it is like, you want to be impressive. Yeah. so whether you on a big job or a small job, like what do you have to do to, to leave an, an impression that’s just, wow, these guys did a great job. Yeah. and when you do a small job at that level mm-hmm <affirmative>. It, it, it always means more than it does on a bigger job. ’cause They’re like, man, if they’ll take this small job and they’ll do it at that level Yeah. Then we can certainly trust ’em on a job that’s gonna be a lot bigger. That’s a job that’s gonna be seen by everyone or, or whatever the case. Yeah. So I think if you go into it with that mentality, it’s gonna serve you very well.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
That’s right. So, you know, like it brings out here, you, this is your opportunity to establish a, a level of professionalism. And you know, as part of your reputation, you want someone to say, wow, you know, it wasn’t a big job, but they were super professional, they showed up, everything looked branded. It was clear that they had great communication with, you know, with, with their head office and, and in the field and all that with their subcontractors. And, you know, just, you know, all those little pieces that really go to adding up to a great reputation. And that’s the kind of thing that’s gonna set us apart. And so what, what might it reveal about a, a, you know, a, a contractor based on how they perform on a small job, say it’s a pretty insignificant job, isn’t gonna pay you a lot may actually take more, you know, effort to just take the job than it is to actually do the work. What does it reveal about you, about the way you perform on that job?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, it’s definitely gonna reveal, you know, your character, your, your reputation. Yeah. I mean, you, you basically, I mean, you’re only as good as your reputation, right? Yeah. I mean, without reputation, a lot of times you, you don’t even get those opportunities. Yeah. so it’s huge that you go in and, and do those kind of things, you know, to the utmost level you know, show, show your character. And, you know, everybody here is very high character, and we want to we want that to be seen in the work that we do. And, and we’ve seen that, we’ve seen that workforce. I mean, yeah, for sure. We’ve had plenty of calls to say, look, you know, you guys have a great reputation. We’ve asked around, you know, maybe it’s through some architects, engineers, or whoever mm-hmm <affirmative>. And they don’t even know us, but yet they’re giving us this opportunity based on a reputation. And all that started with just being high care.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah. So you kind of touched into, you know, kind of drifted into this third point. And it talks about, you know, the effect of doing, you know, exceeding all expectations all the time, or at least having that attitude when you go in and it talks about a ripple effect that takes place. Talk a little bit about that ripple effect and how you’ve seen that in your own company and in your business. Well,
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Like the client I alluded to earlier, we’ve been doing work for ’em for 17 years, so we exceeded their expectation on the first project that we ever worked on. It, you know, worked on ’em with Yeah. And we continue to do that project and project, project and project. So if you continue to exceed expectation, then that client is a, is as a career client. Yeah. They, they never go away. Yeah. So those jobs just keep coming. Yeah. And, and I think that’s the ripple effect you’re, you’re alluding to, but Yeah. You know, simply said, I think that if you exceed expectations, you know, you keep a client alike.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah. That’s, that’s crazy to think about. You know, you, you, when you, you talk about ripple effect, you, you imagine someone dropping a pebble in a pond and you know, the, the circles go out, you know, the ripple, but here you’re talking about a ripple that’s been going on for over a decade, you know? Right. That’s pretty powerful. So, so exceeding expectations can pay big dividends, and it’s definitely something that you want to strive to do. And it doesn’t mean you’re gonna be perfect all the time. It’s just, it’s about having that attitude and that you know, desire to want to do that Right. Every time you go out. So. Great. All right. Well, that wraps up 0.2. Let’s go ahead and get into that third point, the compound growth of trust in referrals. And so what about satisfied customers? What can they do for, you know, growing your business once, once you’ve built that reputation of exceeding expectations, being professional, doing a great job?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah. I mean, satisfied clients, you know, they become one of your biggest advocates, if you will, one of your biggest salesmen for sure. You know, we’ve alluded to a con, you know, a contact or two that we’ve done a bunch of work for, for many years. Well, we’ve, if we stop to count all the jobs that they’ve actually referred us to or referred to us, you know, <laugh> it’s, it’s a big amount. Yeah. They’ve, you know, we exceeded the expectation of working with them, so they gave our name to another facility manager or another company owner, somebody looking to expand Yeah. Or whatever. And, and that served us, that served us very well. So I think that it goes a long way and, and very important to you know, to keep that reputation to, to, you know, whatever you gotta do to keep, keep that level of, I’m losing my words here, Joe. Yeah. But you know, if, if, if you meet the expectation or exceeding the expectation, those people become your biggest salesman. Yeah. They absolutely. They’re constantly pushing your name to, to other people. They’re constantly, you know, throwing, throwing your name to architects. I mean, we’ve seen that a lot Absolutely. Where we work for a facility manager and all of a sudden an architects called and said, Hey, we got your name from so and so over at, whatever. So it’s, it’s, it’s important and it really pays off.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
It does, for sure. And, you know, that point about it having an exponential na nature of, of a good reputation and what we’re really trying to drive home, the point we’re trying to drive home is that rep building a reputation should be one of your, like, focus points when you first start building your company and building your business. Take those small jobs, try to do the best that you can, and know that each one of those jobs, no matter how little is really a, a building block to the foundation of your reputation. And when you approach the growth of your business from a reputation first standpoint, a lot of good things happen. Like you’re talking about it, it just multiplies. It’s a multiplier force multiplier where you just, you know, you send those ripples out and people tell someone else and they tell someone else. Yeah. And you start to get more and more referrals as the years go
Speaker 1 (13:56):
By. Well, when you create that good experience, people just naturally wanna share it, you
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Know? Yeah, they do. They really do. And and they really don’t care about, you know, the details even a lot of times of the, of the project that it was on. Like, it doesn’t matter how complex it was or, you know, anything like that, it was just, wow, I had a great time working with, you know, having John Kelly do this project for me. And, you know, this company was great and, and very professional and blah, blah, blah. So,
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And you know, we’ve been given a lot of opportunities to just, just based on reputation, people that don’t even know us, you know? That’s right. You know, we kind of heard of you through this or heard of you through that or whatever. Yeah. so, so reputation’s obviously very important, and it’s super important to, to growth.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Absolutely. So building that foundation then that, that supports the larger opportunities. That’s what we’re, you know, the point obviously of the whole gist of this episode is trying to get that across that, you know, that foundation of, of doing a great job with smaller projects when we get ’em, and, and knowing that they have value as part of building your reputation lead to larger opportunities. Share like maybe one you know, example of that real life example of a project where something started off really small and turned into a great opportunity for us because of, you know, reputation and how we exceeded expectations.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah. So the first project that kind of comes to mind, this is a number of years ago we had a call. They were having some problems at a, you know an apartment complex. And we went over, we, we were willing to, you know, throw a couple carpenters out there and, you know, working with a, an architect that the complex had hired in between a few of our carpenters, we were able to solve a problem that they had on, on one of their units. And it wasn’t a high paying job. We didn’t even know really what it was gonna pay, because we just kind of threw a few guys out there. I think we roughly gave ’em a budget and, and they said they were willing to pay so much an hour or whatever. But we, we worked with ’em and, and, you know, put forth a lot of effort to try to help ’em solve the problem.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And at the end of the day, we did. We came up with a, you know, an answer to the problem. And everybody was happy with it. The context was happy that the architect was happy. And it ended up turning to, to a really big job. They had a couple hundred units there. Yeah. And I was like, you know what, you guys came out, spent the time with us early on to help us, you know, figure this out. You know, we want y’all to fix all of ’em. Yeah. So it ended up turning to a really, you know, profitable job and just putting forth that little bit of effort in the beginning and, you know, again, maybe exceeding some expectation by being willing to do that. Yeah. and then just the commitment that we showed to it ended up landing us a pretty, you know, pretty decent project.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah. And, and, and I gotta throw my 2 cents in on that. ’cause I got, this is one of those projects I got to actually go see. And and the damage to, you know, the facades of these units was, was pretty major. And it not only was difficult from a, you know, like a builder’s perspective or as, as a carpenter, you know, you know, repairing the damage that was there. ’cause It affected a lot of different aspects of the facade of the, of the units, but it was also kind of dangerous, right? They had to get under these heavy facades and, and, you know, use jacks and stuff to, you know, make it safe to work and Right. It really was you know, very tactical type of
Speaker 1 (17:38):
It really wasn’t a real easy project.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Not at all. And I, and I’m, I, I wouldn’t be surprised if we weren’t the first people that they talked to about it, but we were the ones that said, yeah, we’ll do it. We raised our hand and said, you know, I’ll do it. And but like you said, it turned into something really great. It turned out to be a very nice project for us. And, and we were happy to do it, and it solved their problem. And and not only that, but if you think about the tenants, I mean, there was a severe safety issue that was kind of right, you know, posed there by the damage that had happened. And so we not only helped this client, but we helped their tenants be a lot safer and, and be able to enjoy their homes again. So it was, in that way, it was kind of a rewarding project.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And like you said, we just went over there thinking we were gonna fix, you know, a little bit of rotten wood somewhere. It turned into this major project. So, just one example, we’ve had more than one, you know, over the years. Yeah. Obviously. But that’s just one fine example of how you get a call. Didn’t sound like a lot, sound like more trouble than worth, but because we showed up and we had a great attitude and we were professional, turned into a great project. So anyways, that’s, that’s gonna wrap up. This is a short, sweet episode. John. any closing thoughts about reputation and taking these small jobs and, and doing a good job with them?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Well, I mean, actually on this last point that you made, you know, about building a foundation that supports larger opportunities, and you referenced that job, my mind was kind of going a different direction before I understood what you were looking for. But, you know, these smaller jobs, they do build a foundation for larger opportunities. And I mean, we’ve shared a bunch of reasons why, but once you can do a smaller job, you have all the tools, you have the systems, you have the knowledge, you have all the things you need for those larger opportunities. Yes. And, and I thought that’s the direction you were going with that last point.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
That’s a great direction
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Too. I just figured I would, I would mention it. So I, I think that smaller jobs are the foundations for, for larger opportunities. Absolutely. And, and, you know, solid foundation for, for your business as
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Well. Yeah. No, yeah. I mean, you took it and just showed another facet of the value of some of these small projects. ’cause Not only are you building your reputation, but you’re building your processes, your skillset, you know, you’re just getting your stuff together. Right, exactly. And learning your craft. So yeah, thanks for bringing that out. ’cause That really is a, a great, I wouldn’t even call it a byproduct. I’d call that a major value, right. Of taking on those small projects that really work in the kinks out. So. All right. Well that’s gonna wrap up this episode, episode 23, about the, the small job advantage. Hope you found some value in what we were able to bring out about, you know, don’t dismiss these small projects. These small projects are, are really little gold nuggets that get, you know, pass your way.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
And a smart business person’s gonna take that and, and see the value in it and put it to work. Again, just reviewing our three points. Small jobs are, are really auditions and they’re not just transactions. You want to make sure that you have excellence at scale, so you wanna make sure that you treat every job like it was your biggest job. And then of course, when you do that over a period of time, exceed expectations, it just compounds, sends those ripples out and good things happen. So anyways, hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for tuning into the K Cup. Please subscribe which we’d love to get some more subscribers so that we get pushed out to more viewers. The more subscribers you get, the more the algorithm pushes it out. So we want to you know, obviously want to build a community around this podcast and around the industry here in our market. And anyways, we appreciate you tuning in. Hope you continue to listen to us here at the K Cup. And that’s it. Any, any closing thoughts, John? Anything else? No.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
You know what? A, a guy told me one time, it takes a bunch of crumbs to make a cake <laugh>. I think that applies in this situation here.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Okay. Well, from these two crumbs we’re about to say, have a great rest of your week. Cut.