3 Major Ways You Are Hurting Your Field Service Business

“A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.” – James Collins

As a business owner, the growth of your company is usually always top of mind. Even as a solopreneur, the thought of easily finding more work and winning more clients is a dreamy one you’d most likely love to make a reality. But what if your good intentions were actually hurting your business, rather than boosting it like you originally intended? We’re exploring 3 major ways you could be hurting your field service business…

1. Underutilizing your employees and/or micromanaging them

In order for your business to grow and thrive, you have to recruit and place the right people in the right positions within your organization. Even if you’re just hiring your first employee, this is an important decision no matter the size of your business. Many leaders at smaller companies make the well-intentioned mistake of keeping their hand in every cookie jar possible, rather than delegating tasks early on. This is why hiring trustworthy people and showing your appreciation for their hard work is so important. When you find the right employees and make them feel safe and trusted at work, they are more likely to get the job done faster and at higher quality than if they’re feeling unappreciated, underutilized or micromanaged.

2. Making hard decisions based on cost

Being cheap always costs you something in the long run. There are ways to keep a healthy bottom line without skimping on some of the most important investments that could really grow your business in the long run. A few common money-saving mistakes include:

• Hiring inexperienced employees for mid-level or senior roles because you can pay them less
• Not putting the proper systems or technology in place because they’re “too expensive”
• Overworking the employees you do have to avoid hiring new ones

Invest in a few scalable solutions early on so that you don’t have to put out fires once you do start to grow and take on more jobs. A good mobile field-service management software will help you not only save money in the long run, but allow you to compete in today’s competitive market. If you’ve made any of the mistakes we outlined above, start making an effort and coming up with a plan to correct them today. Waiting or putting it off will only make things worse as time goes on.

3. Not thinking about marketing from day one

Many entrepreneurs spend so much time thinking about their product or service that they forget about marketing or discount it as something they can’t afford early on. If done properly, marketing for your business is the best thing you can do and can provide worthwhile returns. Whether you hire someone in house, or choose to outsource, make sure you outline the results you want so there is no confusion or guessing involved for your marketing team. Will your strategy be content-driven? What is your budget for advertising? How will you tackle social media? What publications do your clients like and can you afford to advertise there? Will you invest in digital marketing or will you incorporate print and other traditional marketing methods? These are all important questions to ask and should be a made a priority from day one.

Have you made any of these common mistakes? How did you go about correcting them? Let us know in the comments!

Last Updated By: Rochelle Sanchirico

Last modified: April 6, 2018