If we want our people to perform at a high level, we must show others how to remove obstacles. We must give our people the latitude to make operational decisions. We must make the goal, not the path, the most important principle in our success.

Being busy in a successful operation is quite different from being busy due to days of screw-ups and fire drills. There still seem to be some wholesalers who are surprised and feel the need to celebrate when they can ship a standard stock order — complete, without errors and delivered as promised.

Jen Schmitt, newly named president of Schmitt ProfiTools Inc.

Make a New Year’s resolution to understand the amount of money you must charge for the services you provide to the public to recover the costs you incur providing those services. The right price also allows you to earn the profit you deserve for delivering excellence through those services. 

There is no getting around it; every once in a while, we all get in a rut. The main reason it happens is because of routine, with people moving through most of their days on autopilot.

Paula Bowe, vice president of Sales & Marketing at Josam Company

The training and coaching company has selected Ripley PR to elevate its brand among residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical service businesses.

An exclusive ACCA membership rate has been established so more ACCA members can help mitigate risk in their companies.

Last month, I shared tips for keeping your office team busy when the phones aren’t ringing. This month, let’s explore what to do with your field technicians when there aren’t any calls on the board. 

For the past 11 years, I’ve owned Blue Planet Plumbing, in Asheville, North Carolina, but I entered the plumbing trade at the early age of 17. It all started in 1992, on a hot summer night after clocking out at 2 a.m. after working a 17-hour shift at a popular chain restaurant for minimum wage pay of $4.25 an hour.