Making sense of your financial statements.

The New Flat Rate moved to a new location in Dalton, Ga., that houses modernized office space and a training center for technicians and contractors.

Can’t drive it, wear it or show it off to my friends, but…

The key phrase here is “financial gain.”

Go on. Flip over the calendar. Look at that! You’ve made it to 2014. Some of you are celebrating this past year with a bottle of bubbly, a victory lap around the shop and a hearty pat on the back (and maybe year-end bonuses) for your team. Others of you may still be saying: “Whew! Thank goodness that year is over. This year will be different. I know we can succeed.

Many times as owners we get in the way of our own success by continuing to do only those things that we already know how to do. Doing what you know and actually knowing what to do can result in two different outcomes. 

Imagine this …One day, John rolls out of bed, steps out onto his front porch to fetch the paper and while staring into the clear blue sky, thinks to himself “Yep, today’s the day. The weather is perfect and I’ve got some free time — I think I’ll fly a plane.”

 In the Chapman household, we do our best to eat a healthy, sensible diet the majority of the time. One of the ways we accomplish this is by scrutinizing the ingredient labels on all the food we purchase (thanks to my wife, Christy). As I’ve come to learn, one ingredient we do our best to avoid is high-fructose corn syrup.

 Recently I released one of my online technician training videos about how technicians can actually turn good communication skills into sales and profit for the company. Communication is a topic that gets talked about in a broad scope in our industry, but is seldom broken down into how critically important effective communication is to our overall success.