Finding the Balance

Contractors use a variety of strategies to make sure they can carve out family time amid the heavy demands of owning a business

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Long hours come with the territory in the service contracting industry, especially when businesses offer 24-hour emergency service. As such, carving out time for family life is difficult, especially for smaller operations.

But smart contractors develop their own strategies for getting away from it all without losing customers. These include cross-training employees, relying on a network of friendly, trustworthy competitors, and emphasizing preventive, scheduled maintenance to minimize emergency calls. Contractors also strive to develop good rapport with customers so there’s some give-and-take when it comes to going away on a vacation.

Here, contractors reveal how they strike that delicate balance between work and family.

“I put in about 50 hours or more a week – long hours,” says Tim Wolff, business manager for Hyclean in Appleton, Wis. “Some days, I don’t come home until 9 or 10 at night. I have three kids, ages 7, 8 and 14. Family is a priority, so I make time for them.

“With cell phones, you’re never totally away from work. I find it hard to turn it off. I answer the phone while I’m away with my family, but I tell customers if I’m not available because I’m gone for the weekend.

“It helps that we try to plan vacations at the same time each year, like the Fourth of July week and the week of Christmas. We coordinate with our customers – sometimes their shutdown is our shutdown. We also have good rapport with competitors because they don’t have coverage all the time. It’s never been an issue with our customers because we have good rapport.

“About 10 years ago, we stopped advertising that we’re available 24/7, because you get that call from a third-shift factory worker who wants you to come out at 2 a.m. because his shower drain is clogged.

“We cross-train employees so I can take time off. Without them, I don’t know what I’d do. During busier months we have more help, but they’re not as highly trained. Throughout the years, I’ve had customers who didn’t understand that I’m not available when I’m out of town on vacation. Sometimes you have to fire the customer.

“Long term, my goal is to hire one or two more guys and get more into managing the business. It’s a young man’s job, and I’m not getting any younger.”

“It’s not easy to balance work and family life,” says Jim Plunkett, owner of Top Notch Plumbing in Denver, Colo. I have a wife who’s tolerant of the long hours, and I employ my son, so we have time together there. I’ve got a daughter who has her own career, but I’m trying to get her interested in working with me.

“We make time to take off and do some recreation – motorcycle riding, hiking or whitewater rafting. I don’t have an answering service for when I’m gone. I let the voice mail or answering machine take care of that, or I’m accessible by cell phone. I tell main customers ahead of time that I’ll be gone.

“I get cell phone calls from customers while I’m away, and I try to refer them to a friend. I have a little network of friendly competitors – guys with one-man shops who cover for each other. Sometimes I regret not having more time in the past to spend with my family. Sometimes you just have to say enough is enough. When there’s not enough hours in the day, you’ve got to stop and say this is enough.”

“Family life is very important in our company,” says Bill Peotter, owner of Speedy Clean Drain and Sewer Inc. in Appleton, Wis. “We have young children, and our employees do, too. We do two things: Try to work with our employees as family and make sure our hours fall into the category from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., plus we rotate shifts on weekends and evenings.

“We also emphasize preventive maintenance programs with a lot of our customers. By being proactive about their potential problems and understanding how their processes work, we’re able to limit emergency work. We still provide evening emergency work, but we’ve minimized it. There was a time when the business ran me instead of me running the business. That was a long learning curve.

“We try to train all our employees to handle every aspect of the business. We don’t have one guy that scrubs floors, so to speak, while the next guy sits in the office. We all do all the work. So if someone needs time off, someone else can step right in.

“I’m accustomed to 50 hours a week – it doesn’t bother me. The old saying about making hay when the sun shines still applies. If it’s winter and there are a lot of frozen lines, we’ll put in long hours for a few weeks because it has to be done.”



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