Five pros talk resources that made big impacts on business operations

Like other business professionals, paint pros turn to certain business resources help them grow and become more profitable. Those resources may include software, a consultant, a perspective-shifting book, or some combination of all three. Here, five pros share which business tools have helped them either right the ship, correct a specific problem, or steadily build on previous success.

 

NICOLE CLINE: Estes Construction, EstesConstruction.com

Cline is the director of business development for Estes Construction, an IA-based commercial general contractor with roughly 150 employees. She uses skills and motivation assessment tools to help herself, company leaders, field crews and office teams run efficiently and be productive.

“Assessments can bring additional self-awareness,” she said. “The person taking the assessment can learn what they are good at, what they’re drawn to, and where their blind spots are.”

StrengthsFinder (now CliftonStrengths), from Gallup, is one tool she has found beneficial. It finds an employee’s greatest talents within four specific domains: relationship building, executing, influencing, strategic thinking. The goal is to use those strengths to maximize job performance and teamwork or meet other goals. Pat Lencioni’s Working Genius is another tool that identifies key competencies to help an employer best position an employee for success, she said.

Cline also used Enneagram* assessments a few years ago and revisits the results periodically with team members. An Enneagram categorizes people by nine motivation types (see below).

But Cline cautions against using assessments to limit perspectives about a person. Results should also not pave the way for a lack of accountability, excuses for poor performance, or even overuse of strengths.

“Those are important things to understand, especially if you’re new to assessments,” she said. “You have to work with what’s helpful and disregard other stuff.”

 

ROCKY CHERRY: Cherry Coatings, CherryCoatings.com

The chief growth officer of Cherry Coatings, a TX-based commercial and residential painting company, says one of the best things he did to improve his business was to invest in himself. About five years ago, he made the decision to read more and work with a life coach to improve his leadership skills.

Cherry has read his share of tactical books, such as Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman, which uncovers secrets to running the key components of your business, and Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It … and Why the Rest Don’t by Verne Harnish, which uses Rockefeller habit mastery to propel company growth. However, he has found the greatest benefit in books that helped him improve his empathy.

“I feel where we miss out sometimes is on the emotional intelligence side of things. When you understand yourself better, then you can grow,” he said. “I was a performance-driven machine. That programmed me to be successful, but prioritizing performance also hindered me as a leader.” Books that helped him discover the value of empathy in business include:

■ Leading with a Limp: Take Full Advantage of Your Most Powerful Weakness by Dan B. Allender

■ Power vs Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior by David R. Hawkins

■ Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

■ How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

With the help of a coach, Cherry now empowers employees to make decisions and encourages them to invest in themselves. As a result, Cherry Painting now embraces ‘a culture of learning,’ which has helped revenues to double in the past three years.

“I think sometimes it’s scary to look inside and face some fears holding us back from being our better selves,” he added. “But for me, now, I love that people come to work because they feel a purpose, feel part of a team, feel togetherness. There’s something special about doing something because you love it and enjoy it—and you want to come back every day.”

 

KAYLAN BARRY: Paint Denver, PaintDenver.com

Barry serves as a fractional COO for Paint Denver, in Colorado. Like many others in the industry, hiring is a challenge for her company. To solve that, Barry uses HireBus, whose primary feature is an aptitude test to screen candidates for competencies associated with the job description. High scores land applicants further down a hiring funnel to assure companies only interview strong candidates. The program also works with employers to craft job listings that resonate with the company’s vision and potential recruits’ motivations.

“HireBus sees your job post as a marketing piece,” Barry said. “They make sure the people we attract align with company values and the ad speaks to someone’s sense of purpose.”

Thus far, Paint Denver has hired a sales associate and office manager, and is looking to fill three more positions.

“It saves so much time before you get to that first round of interviews; you already know they are a natural fit for that type of job,” she added. “For me, the main thing is the science behind the aptitude test. This is an investment in making sure you’re getting the right people much faster.”

 

PHIL VANDERLAAN & KATE PAULL: PMV Custom Finishes, PMVCustomFinishes.com

VanderLaan is the owner of MI-based PMV Custom Finishes. A few years ago, he felt he was “wearing a lot of hats and lacking a clear structure” in his company. At the same time, PMV faced a stubborn revenue plateau.

Knowing he needed help, VanderLaan met with paint business consultant Scott Lollar, owner of Consulting 4 Contractors. In addition to his work with Lollar, VanderLaan also met David Sullivan, an Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) implementer. These two resources have proven to be a game-changing combination. Implementing EOS has been VanderLaan’s primary focus since 2022, and he works with Lollar more specifically on sales and revenue-building efforts.

EOS looks at a business through six key components: Vision, Data, Process, Traction, Issues and People. Problems are identified, goals are set, and quarterly check-ins with an implementer keep everyone accountable. VanderLaan’s EOS process began with an off-site discovery meeting with company officials and the EOS implementer (Sullivan, in this case) to “take a 20,000-foot look at the company,” VanderLaan said.

This helped to establish PMV’s vision and growth goals, both of which serve as a final check before making major decisions, such as hiring or adding service lines. There were several realizations for VanderLaan as he began working with EOS. First, he figured out that he was hiring on emotion instead of seeing if a person aligned with the company’s vision. In addition, he was in a visionary role but too involved in operations. Meanwhile, Paull, the company’s operations manager, had ‘integrator’ capabilities and knew how to implement VanderLaan’s ideas, but she too was involved in other areas of the company.

To help them fully utilize their strengths, Sullivan, with the help of the EOS model, guided them through hiring two production managers. VanderLaan also chose to shed unprofitable work, and let go of employees who did not fit the company vision.

“For me, the most valuable thing about EOS is finding and building a leadership seat and then finding a person to fit in that seat,” VanderLaan said. “We got clear on what type of people would be good for certain positions and we began to hire on culture.”

Before implementing EOS, gross profit was 36% on $2.8 million in revenue. Since then, revenues have eclipsed $3 million with a 42.5% profit.

“We have a much clearer understanding of what the organization is, fundamentally,” Paull added. “That speaks to the strengths of EOS … getting that clarity about who you are, then aligning yourself with the right employees and customers.”