“Janet” Janet was in the building supply store checking in on things when she heard her name called. They were a major supplier, therefore a major part of her business. She wanted to make sure they knew who she was and that they were happy with her. She looked around to see who was calling her.
He looked vaguely familiar. He was a fit looking 50ish guy who was dressed casually, but well. Then it came to her. He had been at the yacht club a few times when they were working there. Mostly through the day. Did that mean he was retired?
“Hi Janet, my name is Roger Taklon. I saw your truck out front and I thought I’d catch you here because I’ve been meaning to talk to you. Do you have a minute?” Janet nodded.
“We didn’t get to meet when you were doing our roof. I’m on the yacht club building committee and we were all very impressed with your work and your business.
“Thank you. We enjoyed that job. It’s fun to do interesting roofs and we don’t often get to work with cedar. In fact the crews put little designs in out of the way spots.”
“Yes, I saw those when I went up to have a look.”
“Gee, I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. It’s the sign of craftspeople who care. It shows they want to sign their work. We were impressed with the quality of your work even in places where it doesn’t show.”
“We are the careful roofers.”
“That you are.” He said with a chuckle. He continued, “It looks to me like you have some choices to make.”
Janet wasn’t sure where he was coming from and why he was talking this way. Then it hit her. This was Roger Taklon. THAT Roger Taklon. CEO of Taklon Industries, a conglomerate he grew from the ground up and that made him a kajillionaire.
Before Janet could go all the way to becoming a tongue-tied, babbling idiot, he smiled warmly at her. “I faced a similar crossroads way back with my first business. It was an auto repair shop. We really focused on making women feel comfortable so we were growing like crazy. I made plenty of mistakes, but I eventually realized that I had to grow myself and a team to make it work. I had to eat a whole bunch of humble pie and when I did, that’s when the magic happened.”
“The way I see it, you can scale very slowly by passively waiting to find good people. Finding good people is your challenge isn’t it?”
“Yes, and taking on friends of friends is the best way, but it is very slow.”
“You can decide to double down on a specific niche, own it and charge a premium. This is a good strategy to build a comfortable business. You will make lots of money and not have to stretch yourself and your leadership skills. You could become the cedar shake roofers and work only on large expensive jobs. I would be happy to pass your name along and give you a glowing reference.”
“Wow, thank you. I guess I hadn’t thought of that way of growing.”
Roger continued, “Finally, you can do what I did. Scale aggressively. First you have to solve the crew problem, then figure out a sales system.”
“I thought I could figure it out as I grew. Isn’t that how entrepreneurs go? Flying by the seat of our pants?”
“I thought the same thing, but that only took me so far until I hit a plateau. In order to break through, I had to prepare myself and my business for growth before I could get that growth.”
“Look, this is not something you can do on your own. To use an analogy from your business, if you want to scale, it’s not about climbing the ladder you’ve got, you have to get a bigger ladder. In other words, what got you here, won’t get you there. You need the help of someone who can guide you, push you and give you the help you need. Here is the card of someone I know who helped me a lot and she still does. She is expensive and worth every penny. I have agreed to pay her for 1 session with you.” Janet looked at him with surprise.
“Meet with her, she will probe deep into you and your business and give you some suggestions. If you like her and she agrees, you can decide to work with her.”
“Thank you. I don’t know what to say.”
“Janet, it is my pleasure to give a helping hand to smart, ambitious business owners who are going about their business the right way. I like how you treat your team and I like how you work hard to delight your customers. I also like how you have given back to your community right from the beginning.” Clearly he had been looking into her because Janet didn’t advertise her involvement with Habitat for Humanity and her other community work.
“Thank you, Roger. I will”
“I’m glad to hear that. Accepting help is the first big lesson most entrepreneurs have to learn. None, not a single business owner grows to any size on their own. The myth of the lone entrepreneur braving the wilds of business is just that. A myth. I knew you were smart. Good Luck and let me know how you make out. Here’s my card with my direct line.” With that he walked off.
He just happened to be driving by and stopped in huh? Janet thought to herself. I think Roger Taklon’s life is much more deliberate than that. I will stay in touch and find out later how this happened. But now she had a phone call to make.