The owners who burn out aren’t the lazy ones. They’re the ones who care so much they can’t let go of anything. Empowerment is the release valve. Your people make the call, you trust it, you debrief together, you correct as you go. It won’t be perfect. It’ll be scalable, and perfect never was
@officialchadpetermanTranscript
burnout is not caused by working too much. Burnout is caused by caring too much. As owners and leaders of companies, we want to be able to do it all. We want to be able to solve everybody's problems, we want to be there for everybody, and oftentimes we find ourselves coming up short. The key that I have learned in scaling a business is empowerment. We must empower the people around us to make decisions, trust what decisions they make, and then debrief on how that went and make corrections as we go. Everything is not going to be perfect. If you're a former technician, no technician on your team is probably going to do it as well as you do it. Get used to it. If they can do the job well and they're taking care of customers, then that is the only way you're ever going to be able to scale beyond yourself. If you feel like you're stuck, if you feel like you're carrying the weight of the entire company, one, you need to look at who you're surrounded by, and two, and most importantly, you need to look at the level of trust you have in your team.
Download Transcript
Related Videos

Here’s the fastest way to know if you’re making money or just staying busy: know your three numbers. 50% gross profit. 35% overhead. 15% profit. If you can’t say where you stand on each right now, that’s the first problem to fix.

If I could only track five numbers in my HVAC sales department, it would be: revenue per lead, close rate, average install revenue, discount rate, and revenue to budget. Most owners track none of them daily and then wonder why the month got away from them. Measure every day and the numbers stop surprising you.

If your tech left for $2 more an hour, money wasn't the problem. The problem is there was nothing else keeping them. Techs spend most days working on their own. If the money's right, it's the one-on-ones, the organizational support, the daily encouragement that keeps them here. A small raise can't outbid a place people actually want to work and feel supported.

This is where we build technicians from scratch. Zero experience walks in, and electricians, plumbers, and HVAC pros walk out. Everything in this lab is functional. They can tear it apart, we can plant faults, and they can fail safely here instead of in a customer’s home.