Connections - Fall 2015

ON THE COVER |

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5 TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR BUSY CONTRACTORS

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When things get crazy, it pays to manage your time. Use these five tips to get more done with less.

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THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH

Connections magazine talks to Michael Gerber, best-selling author of the E-Myth series. Check out what he has to say about his experience writing about the trade industries.

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TIME AND MATERIAL VS. UPFRONT PRICING There are two schools of thought on pricing service work: time and material pricing and upfront (or flat rate) pricing. Read about the pros and cons of both.

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BUILDING THE ULTIMATE MAN CAVE

If you’re working on building a bro bunker of your very own, here’s a little inspiration from some of the best man caves from employee owners and customers in DSG land.

PROFILES | HEADLINES

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HOME BREWED

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STRENGTHENING THE TRADES, ONE PROMISE AT A TIME

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See how electrician and owner of HIS Electric, Todd Zewick, brings his passion for unique beers home.

Read about how DSG is supporting the efforts of trade workers to overcome the labor shortage in the trade industries.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CONTRACTOR

DSG understands that a contractor’s day never really ends. See what we mean by joining us on an illustrated day-in-the-life journey.

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LIGHTING UP THE COURT

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THREE OF DSG’S OWN NAMED TO tED MAGAZINE’S “30 UNDER 35” LIST

Learn how GE’s LED high bay light fixtures helped the Cleveland Cavaliers find extra time on the practice floor.

Meet some of DSG’s rising stars in the electrical industry.

FIXTURES |

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Editorial Under Construction – Tom Rosendahl ..............................................................4

The Power Of We At DSG Delivery Drivers ............................................................................................5

Meet The DSG Team Phil Baumel – Plumbing Segment Manager.......................................................9

Job Site Changing The Way Safety Meetings Are Run................................................... 28 Improve Your Interviews ............................................................................... 32

Grow Your Business Making The Most Of Non-Billable Time ......................................................... 18 Super-Think Your Way To Problem Solving ..................................................... 21 Moving Forward By Looking Back ................................................................. 24 Websites 101 ............................................................................................... 38

News Wire DSG CEO Todd Kumm Recognized By NAED.................................................. 41 DSG Earns Top Spot At WIT & Company’s First Annual RISE Awards.............. 42 DSG Awards $8,000 In Scholarships To Area Youth ......................................... 43

Recommended Reading The Invisible Touch ..................................................................................... 35

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EDITORIAL |

Under Construction Most of us in the trade industries are builders it’s easy for us to get so caught up working in at heart. We spend our days in the business of our business that we fail to spend enough time making and repairing things, then oftentimes working on our business. we go home and build and repair even more

The magazine you are holding in your things in our spare time (woodworking, hands can help. Here at DSG, we’re classic cars, motorcycles, etc.). This committed to filling Connections issue of Connections highlights with articles, interviews and our shared passion for stories that give you helpful, creation by showing off useful, proven tactics for some interesting “man building your business. caves” (and even one This issue alone “mom cave”). These fun features information projects are proof that about improving time people who work with management for making things simply contractors, advice for cannot turn that instinct increasing profitability off. For them, the urge to when dealing with build reaches far past the upfront pricing, tips for construction industries they making the most out of Tom Rosendahl work in. employment interviews and DSG PRESIDENT

It’s odd then, that some much more. We know how skilled, experienced business owners forget to busy you are, so we pack every issue with helpful put some of that constructive energy into their articles that you can use to build your business own companies. They work hard building and from the inside out. And it doesn’t end with repairing on the job site, then faithfully put that Connections magazine. Everything we do – from same energy into the homemade fishing flies our people to our products – is focused on that they meticulously create in their basement helping you to succeed. workshop – but never think to apply those same

Your company should be running just as skills to improve the bookkeeping system that smoothly as that 67 GTO in your garage, and they cobbled together when they first opened we’re here to help. their shop a decade ago. As the old saying goes,

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CONNECTIONS | FALL 2015

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THE POWER OF WE AT DSG |

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A delivery is one of the most common types of transactions in American business. The post office brings us the mail, we receive packages from UPS and FedEx, and many restaurants will Danielle Leaks bring their food to our door. Whether at home or at work, we’ve come to expect some sort of delivery to be made to us almost every day. The key to fostering a strong business relationship, it would seem, is to use those daily deliveries to add value for customers, bringing critical intangibles like order accuracy and customer service to each exchange.

At DSG, all employee owners, including delivery drivers, strive for what the company calls The Power Of We. This company-wide initiative is about turning everyday transactions between DSG employee owners and customers into meaningful encounters.

For delivery drivers, this often involves making sure that products are delivered quickly, correctly and safely. “These are responsibilities that every delivery driver has,” says Danielle Leaks, a driver out of the Hopkins, Minnesota, branch who has been with Pipeline Supply (a division of DSG) for more than a decade. “But we try to do more than fulfill our basic responsibilities. We try to be a friend to our customers by asking how their day is going, joking around with them and seeing if there is anything else we can help them with after the products have been delivered.”

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Delivery Drivers In addition to being sociable, the DSG delivery team takes extra measures to make sure that the encounters they have with customers are indeed positive ones. For instance, each load is double checked to make sure nothing is missing and that the shipments are accurate.

Strong communication is also a strength of DSG’s delivery crew. “Any time I make a delivery, I call ahead to let the customer know that I’m on my way and should be arriving soon,” says Leaks.

“That way, they know when to expect me. If they’re not ready for me, I can wait and stay out of their way. If there’s been a change of plans, and I need to bring the product somewhere else, I provide an opportunity for them to let me know sooner so I don’t waste their time.”

In the industries that DSG serves, time is money, so a little extra can make a difference. At DSG, drivers aim to be as punctual as possible, arriving on time, or even – as Leaks puts it – “before time.”

“I believe that if you’re on time, you’re late,” says Leaks. “By arriving earlier than we’re scheduled to, we introduce flexibility that helps to provide the customer with more control over their time.

By giving customers more of our time, they can use less of theirs.”

Giving more – so customers have to do less: it’s an important part of The Power Of We at DSG, adding significance to the deliveries beyond the boxes that are left behind. On the road to customer success, The Power Of We is an important package that DSG drivers take with them on every load.

FALL 2015 | CONNECTIONS

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TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR BUSY CONTRACTORS When things get crazy, it pays to manage your time.

There is a vicious circle when it comes to being a contractor, especially a small- to medium-sized one: in order to grow, you need to bring in more jobs, but to bring in more jobs, you need to have more help. There is good news, however. The cycle has a loophole: good time management. When you and your team optimize your time, you become more efficient, allowing you to get more done with less.

Do that well enough, and you can grow your team when the time is right for your budget. Here are five steps to get you started.

1. SET GOALS

Keep them simple and write them down. Also, make sure to give them a deadline. This acts to focus your energy and keeps you accountable for your actions (or inaction). They can be as basic as answering all of your email by noon or as ambitious as implementing a new training program by January 1. Just make sure your goals are realistic (this doesn’t necessarily mean “easy,” but nothing is as disheartening as missing a deadline or giving up a project altogether). Use goals to track progress in bite-sized chunks rather than setting upon grandiose plans that only seem to get further out of reach as time goes on.

2. REDUCE INTERRUPTIONS

Smartphones can be pesky. If they’re not ringing, they’re busy telling you about emails or texts.

These mini miracles of science are constantly

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competing for our attention with your staff, your customers and even your family. It gets even worse if you happen to be a micro-manager (don’t look so innocent . . . you know who you are).

You will be surprised at how much you can get done if you set aside an hour (or whatever makes sense for you and your company) each day by delegating responsibilities to your team and going incommunicado. Research shows that humans get a lot accomplished when they focus on one thing at a time, and a little bit of interruption-free “me” time will prove it.

3. IMPLEMENT SYSTEMS

If you do happen to be a micro-manager, you’ve likely created a business that can’t stay in business without you around. It’s a common problem, but the solution is fairly simple: show others how to do parts of your job. Spend some time thinking about

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how you like to perform a certain task, write down the steps, then use those steps to train somebody else to complete them. If you take your time and do this right, the time you spend developing your systems will pay off immeasurably as you discover that two or three or four things can get done at the same time if you aren’t the only one doing them. Better yet, with a system in place, your team can change, but the job gets done the same way (as long as your new employees follow the written system).

4. KEEP TRACK OF TIME

It’s strange, but one of the hardest parts of managing time is determining where all of your time is going. You can make an educated guess, of course, but it’s still a guess. You might be surprised at the little sidetracks that consume your day without you knowing it. If you track time for your techs, just adopt a similar system for you and the rest of the management team – and if you’re not tracking time in your company at all, start doing it today. You can’t figure out what jobs and tasks are a waste of time until you know how – exactly – your time is being spent.

5. PARTNER WITH YOUR SUPPLIER A common theme in time management, it would seem, is simply finding help. In this respect, a good supplier is a resource that shouldn’t be overlooked. At DSG, for example, we help customers out with everything from worksite delivery to inventory management. We help with the bidding process, we seek out innovative new products and we find solutions for problems that require outside-the-box thinking. Meanwhile, our customers are able to spend less time on those undertakings and more time on the challenges that require their unique knowledge and skills.

Best of all, DSG is flexible. Even if we’ve never done it, sold it or heard of it, we’re willing to find out what it takes to accomplish it. Just ask.

These five tips will probably not change your life, but they may very well improve your business. Try them out, even if you do it one at a time. The time you save could be more valuable than you know.

Sources: http://www.scribd.com/doc/10975732/Seven-TimeManagement-Tips-All-Busy-Contractors-Must-Learn#scribd, http://ecmweb.com/business-management/timing-everything

THE MAN BEHIND

THE MYTH

DSG Talks To Best-Selling Author Of The E-Myth Series Of Books, Michael E. Gerber Known as “the world’s number one smallbusiness guru,” Michael E. Gerber is the renowned New York Times best-selling author of “The E-Myth,” as well as nearly 20 other books concerning small business and entrepreneurship, including one specifically for contractors. He’s helped hundreds of thousands of businesses, and Connections magazine had the pleasure of speaking with him regarding his experience writing about the trade industries.

Many of Gerber’s philosophies involve changing the way that business owners think about their businesses. Oftentimes, trade industry professionals are so busy working in their business that they don’t work on their business – an approach that hinders companies from truly growing and evolving.

“A contractor’s work is a part of them, and their mindset has been developed based on that,” says Gerber.

“They need to open up to the possibility that the world is different than how they see

it and look at their business from above rather than at eye level. From there, they can organize it and design it with systems and processes.”

Contractors often share their frustrations with Gerber, and a common one involves their inability to get their employees to do exactly what they want them to do in exactly the way they want them to do it. According to Gerber, it’s all a function of perspective. “People often say ‘Yesterday was such a long day.’ It wasn’t any longer than the day before. It was the same amount of time as yesterday and the day before that. It’s all about how you view the world. You can’t fix customers, you can’t fix employees, you can’t fix people. You can, however, change the way you think about things. When you do that, you’ll change the way you do things.”

The key, says Gerber, is to look at everything as an opportunity rather than as a problem. Take the current labor shortage impacting the trade industries right now. “It’s an opportunity to share the power and the value of the trade industries,” he says. “If we change the way we think about this, it just might be the most significant opportunity ever.”

To learn more about Gerber’s work, visit www.michaelegerbercompanies.com. Here you can also sign up to hear a free monologue from his latest program: The Dreaming Room™, a 12-week process that is designed to “awaken the entrepreneur within.”

MEET THE DSG TEAM |

AN INTERVIEW WITH PHIL BAUMEL,

DSG PLUMBING SEGMENT MANAGER Phil joined DSG in 2014 and has served in the plumbing industry for more than 30 years. He works out of Hopkins, Minnesota.

Q – What was going through your mind when DSG

named you the plumbing segment manager?

A – I was happy, of course. I’m looking forward to

doing something different and to building

relationships with current and new customers, as

well as strengthening the relationships I have with

vendors on both a regional and national level.

Q – What’s your biggest strength when it comes to

helping DSG customers?

A – I would say that I bring a unique perspective to

the mix. I’ve worked for small and large

wholesalers, and I’ve seen a lot of different

situations and challenges. Because of that, I’m able

to provide a different outlook that others may not

have considered.

Q – You’ve been in the plumbing industry for a long

time, tell us how it’s changed over the years.

A – The design community in the plumbing industry

has changed dramatically. Take the colors of

fixtures – you used to see pink, avocado green and

harvest gold. Now you see various shades of white

and an explosion of finishes. It’s made installation

a bit more complicated and less repetitive,

requiring plumbers to be more versatile.

Q – You’ll be busy as the plumbing segment

manager. What’s something that you’re looking

forward to when you have some free time?

A – I like to golf and love watching baseball.

Q – Name an accomplishment that you’re

proud of.

A – I have wonderful relationships with my

two daughters.

Q – What’s one thing that your customers and

fellow employee owners would be surprised

to know about you?

A – One of my hobbies is gardening. I spend a lot

of free time outside in the flower garden.

Q – What’s your favorite place to grab a bite to

eat in Hopkins, Minnesota?

A – I don’t really have a favorite place to eat, but I do

have a bit of a unique favorite food. I love

anchovy pizza.

Q – If you could have one superpower, what

would it be?

A – I think I’d like to fly. It seems like it would be a

great way to get around.

TIME AND MATERIAL

UPFRONT PRICING

Which Is Right For You? Written by small-business expert and author, Michael Stone.

There are two schools of thought on pricing service work. Time and material (T&M) pricing or upfront (flat rate) pricing. They both have advantages and disadvantages.

Time and material pricing, as the name suggests, means you charge the customer for the actual hours and actual material costs incurred to do the work. Sometimes a rough estimate is given to the customer, but whatever the costs are, that’s what the customer is asked to pay. The final price of the project is known once the project is complete.

In time and material pricing, you’ll charge an hourly rate for labor. The hourly rate is established by considering the cost of labor plus the overhead and profit needs for the business. Materials are charged at either their cost or at their cost plus a markup. If there is a markup on the material cost, the labor rate can be lower because the markup on material helps recover some of the overhead and profit.

When working with a customer, time and material pricing is pretty straightforward. Once you explain how you will price the project and give them 10

CONNECTIONS | FALL 2015

a rough estimate of how long it will take and/or how much it will cost, you’re good to go. Complete the job, and it’s time to get paid.

Of course, it’s not always that easy. Techs need to keep a written record of the time spent on everything they do as it applies to that particular job.

This is a major complaint given by company owners about techs; they don’t keep a good paper trail of the job and end up guessing at the amount of time and/or materials used. Sometimes the tech wants to be nice to the customer and will throw in things that they forget to include in the final bill. This leads to jobs being undercharged.

THE RIGHT TIME FOR TIME & MATERIAL I’ve advocated for years that T&M should only be used on jobs that are $2,500 or lower. The reason is that your customer knows they will be charged for every hour on the job. If the job is large enough, it’s worth their time to be watching and questioning everything the tech is doing to make sure it’s productive. It’s called bird-dogging. “Why does he have to go out to his truck so much? How can he

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spend so much time in the bathroom?" If your tech wasn’t working efficiently enough in the eyes of the customer, you might end up with an argument when it’s time to collect payment. You also stand to lose future business and referrals from this customer.

When you can establish the total price for the work to be done upfront, you eliminate the customer bird-dogging your tech to be sure that no time is being wasted. This is where upfront pricing has a decided advantage over T&M.

THE LOWDOWN ON UPFRONT PRICING In upfront pricing, you estimate the cost involved in the project and quote a fixed price to the customer to do the work. Sometimes the price is determined by looking at a national average or at a rate book.

Sometimes it’s determined by the technician on the spot. If the job takes more time than expected, you might lose money on the project. If it takes less time, or fewer materials than estimated, you’ll come out ahead. Either way, the customer knows before the project begins exactly how much they will owe when the project is complete.

When the tech gives a total price beforehand, customers have the security of knowing what their final bill will be. Upfront pricing systems are very similar to a lump sum or fixed price contract in that you are talking about the job to be done and not how long it will take. Your focus is on solving the customer’s problem. That can make it easier to close the sale.

The goal for the tech is to charge a fair price, get the okay and get to work. A fair price means you’re able to cover your job cost and overhead expenses and make a fair profit while not overpricing the work to your customer. When presenting the upfront price to a home or building owner, the total service call cost should be given, not parts and labor. This allows the home or building owner to put their attention on the overall value of the repair or new installation and not focus on the price per hour.

With upfront pricing, it’s easy for the tech, at the end of the service call, to provide an invoice to the customer and take a check or a credit card Continued on page 12

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FALL 2015 | CONNECTIONS

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Continued from page 11

payment. This eliminates the need for the service tech to prepare a T&M ticket, send it to the office, prepare an invoice, mail it to the customer and then wait for the customer to pay it. Billing disputes will almost always be eliminated because the customer has the opportunity to clear up questions about the invoice with the tech while they are on the job site.

There are also downsides to upfront pricing.

You can’t throw a brand-new service tech out into the field without getting some jobs priced incorrectly. It takes experience to correctly diagnose the problem. If your technician prices jobs too low, you’ll end up losing money. If they price jobs too high, you might lose sales and/or referrals. In other words, with upfront pricing, there is no guarantee that you’ll make a profit on the job. It’s based on the premise that overall, you’ll make a profit on the jobs you do. Creating an upfront pricing system is not a one-time thing. Your job costing must be accurate, and you must continually update your pricing information.

THE DECIDING FACTOR The main reason that you are in business is to provide a service and make a profit doing it. Whichever method you choose, remember that you aren’t a bank, so don't try to finance someone else’s project. Do what you need to do to make sure you get paid so you can focus on your business, not on your accounts receivable.

MICHAEL STONE Michael Stone, author of “Markup & Profit: A Contractor’s Guide, Revisited,” “Profitable Sales, A Contractor’s Guide,” and the DVD class Profitable Estimating, has more than five decades of experience in the building and remodeling industry. Stone offers business management assistance to construction-related companies in the U.S. and Canada with books and training programs available on his website, as well as coaching and consulting services.

He can be found on the web at www.markupandprofit.com and can be reached by email at michael@markupandprofit.com or by phone at 1-888-944-0044.

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BUILDING THE ULTIMATE MAN CAVE To some people, a man cave is just a room. But for many, it’s a sanctuary to relax, a retreat to drink beer with friends, a spot to put up all the kitschy decor you’ve acquired over the years and a stadium to cheer on your favorite sports team. It’s a place to just be you. If you’re working on building a bro bunker of your own, here’s a little inspiration from some of the best man caves from employee owners and customers in DSG land.

“Shorty’s Basement” Tom Sundem, DSG Sioux Falls, SD Tom Sundem’s man cave is 28 years in the making. One step into “Shorty’s Basement,” and you’ll be greeted with Rolling Stones memorabilia from floor to ceiling, including a t-shirt signed by Keith Richards himself. You’ll also notice three bars, old Harley parts, a 1940s Coca-Cola cooler, a variety of neon beer signs and even some freeze-dried critters. This man cave is like a museum for all things manly.

“Darin’s Man Cave” Darin DeVries, DSG Aberdeen, SD Darin DeVries’ man cave is still a work in progress, but when it’s finished it might just be the most luxurious man cave ever. Featuring a heated indoor pool, hot tub, custom bar, 80" TV, fireplace, Bluetooth® surround sound, floor-to-ceiling windows and even a rock waterfall, this man sanctuary uses a combination of solar power, geothermal heating, gas boiler (NTI, available from DSG) and electric heat (Electro Industries, also available from DSG) – all designed by Darin himself.

“West Bar” BJ and Cheryl West, DSG Kalispell, MT BJ and Cheryl West transformed this cabin in their backyard into the perfect rustic man cave, complete with a pool table, custom burrow wood bar, dart board, saddle stool, lighted signs, armadillo basket and fridge stocked with PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon). There’s no shortage of elk horns in this place either. Take a closer look, and you’ll see some pieces from the World War II era and some antique telephone boxes as well.

“Jughead’s 19th Hole” Jay Adams, DSG La Crosse, WI This classic man cave has everything anybody would ever need to watch college football on Saturdays, including an L-shaped custom bar, two TVs, a movie theater popcorn machine, sliding glass door cooler, surround sound and a full bathroom. Make sure to grab a cold one from the Coors Light “Refresherator,” but don’t be surprised if you hear a “sexy” robotic voice after it dispenses your beer.

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Continued from page 15

“The Shamrock” Greg Jacobson, City of Elbow Lake, MN Since 2012, Greg Jacobson has been hanging out with friends and cheering on the NDSU Bison in his Irish pub-style man cave. Filled with Guinness beer signs, a granite bar, a hidden swinging door to the beer fridge, a wine-themed chandelier, as well as an abundance of authentic decor from Ireland, this place is packed with green personality. If you visit this man cave, don’t forget a dollar to add to the ceiling for good luck.

“The Mom Cave” Darin Rusch, DSG Bismarck, ND Built in October of 2014 for his wife, Shellie, this 8' x 6' “mom cave” is every woman’s dream shed, featuring wood paneling, unique furniture, in-wall Bluetooth® speakers and an antique fridge filled with coffee creamer and wine. Rusch’s mom cave provides access to a tree house loft for the couple’s four children (they have two adult children, as well) to enjoy and is adjacent to an 8' x 9' storage shed. Darin spends his time in his own man cave packed with tools in his garage.

HOME BREWED Todd Zewick is a master electrician and the owner of HIS Electric in Minot, North Dakota. While he spends his weekdays working with wires and fixtures, he spends much of his free time working with hops and barley. You see, Zewick loves beer, especially the ones he brews himself.

Zewick first learned to brew beer while he was in the military. During the 1980s, he was stationed in Fulda, Germany, and lived with a German family whose father showed him the basics to home brewing. Although Zewick couldn’t speak German, beer was a language he picked up quickly. “The key is patience. Take it slow, don’t hurry and watch the temperature,” he explains. “Brewing beer is actually fairly simple, and if I can do it, anyone can.”

Zewick brews most of his beer during the winter in his “man cave,” the garage. He typically spends 8 to 10 hours a week, and pumps out about 5 to 10 gallons every weekend. However, he has had as much as 60 gallons waiting to be bottled. “It usually takes a couple of weeks for the beer to be done, and certain brews take longer than others,” says Zewick. “For my Jack Daniels beer, I let the oak chips soak in the liquor for a month before I even get started, and the barleywine I make has to sit for nine to 12 months.”

Despite its name, barleywine is actually a type of beer, and it happens to be the strongest of Zewick’s concoctions at about 12.8 percent alcohol. Alcohol content, however, is secondary to the self-made brew master. “I drink beer because I love the taste,” he says, “and I love playing around with the ingredients. I tell people that you don’t

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Zewick, pictured above tasting a recent batch of lawnmower de saison, recently started growing his own hops to use in his brews.

have to necessarily stick to a recipe. If you want to try something new, you should. You never know how good something could be until you try.”

Among Zewick’s favorite brews are a Crown Royal maple beer, an extra orange Blue Moonstyle beer, a Jack Daniels-infused stout, a pumpkin autumn amber ale and a raspberry beer, to name a few. He’s even tried a bacon beer that uses real bacon flavoring. “I haven’t quite figured out the bacon beer yet,” he admits, “but I really want to get that one down.”

According to Zewick, you don’t have to use complex equipment to make a good beer. “I use simple, very basic equipment,” says Zewick, “and most of my ingredients – the barley, hops, malt and some of the flavorings – I simply order off of the Internet.”

When Zewick’s beer is ready to drink, he pours it into sanitized, recycled beer bottles and seals them with a capper machine. Then, he stores the bottles in a cool area under his stairs. It doesn’t sit there long, though. While Zewick, in fact, has never sold a beer, he’s always happy to share.

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GROW YOUR BUSINESS |

MAKING THE MOST OF NON-BILLABLE TIME The last issue of Connections magazine featured an article about the importance of billable time for contractors who charge by the hour. Indeed, for these kinds of businesses, billable time is tremendously important to maximize and record.

It is not, however, the entire basis for their success or failure. Non-billable time is important as well, and an organization that doesn’t find balance between the time spent working for customers and the time spent working on itself is destined for trouble.

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Every business has its “best ratio,” but many contractors find that a good target for employee productivity is about 60 to 70 percent billable, depending on their duties (for example, installers tend to be more billable than service techs). For managers, tracking and billing that time is critical, of course, but making the most of the 30 to 40 percent of time when the team is not billable is important as well.

Seldom is that non-billable time used to simply “screw around,” leaning on a shovel telling fishing

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stories. Employees who treat their job that way seldom last for long. For most workers, those hours are made up of smaller chunks spread across the week: employee meetings, time spent servicing a vehicle or picking up tools, breaks, time spent in training, a day off (assuming you pay for sick days and vacation – a good policy if you want to retain employees), etc.

The key is to put those non-billable hours to good use, and to make sure you are compensated for them. How can a busy manager accomplish these goals? Let’s take one at a time.

PUTTING NON-BILLABLE HOURS TO GOOD USE Non-billable hours have value, so make sure that they’re used properly. Make sure that your team utilizes breaks conscientiously. These “downtimes” are important for their health and morale, but they shouldn’t consistently stretch beyond their allotted time. In particular, watch out for the Monday morning “ramp-up” or the Friday afternoon “slide.”

Make sure your meetings are organized. It’s important to get your team together once in a while (once a week is usually plenty) to share company information, but meetings that lapse into gripe sessions aren’t

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very productive. Encourage one-on-one meetings to address employee concerns. Set up your group meetings in a comfortable place, keep the mood light and wrap it up on time.

Finally, encourage and facilitate training. This has the dual benefit of acting as a break from the daily grind and improving employee performance and/or safety at the same time. In short, make sure that non-billable time is making employees better, either by recharging their mental and physical batteries, or improving their skills. Either of those goals benefits the bottom line, because smart, long-term employees are almost always your best assets.

GET COMPENSATED FOR NON-BILLABLE TIME This almost seems like a typo, but it’s not. It’s just basic math.

The overall amount you bill needs to (at least) cover the amount you pay out to your team in salaries, right? If not, you go out of business. As a result, you need to make sure that your hourly rate is high enough to accomplish this. It’s actually easier than you might think.

Basically, you just need to add up how much you spend on an employee over the course of the entire year (their total salary plus benefits, taxes, etc. – don’t

forget to account for overhead and profit), then divide that by the number of billable hours you expect them to work (don’t confuse this with total hours worked – just use the hours you expect them to bill). This results in a number that should be that employee’s hourly rate – a rate that takes into account their non-billable time.

To get more in depth with this process, DSG customers can also access Budget Shaper, a free online tool that can help you to further refine your optimal hourly rate (along with a host of other helpful budgeting features). Just ask your DSG representative how to obtain access to Budget Shaper (or learn more at (www.dakotasupplygroup.com/ budgetshaper/).

As you can see, every hour that an employee works is valuable, whether it is billable or not. Make the most of all of them, and you’ll see your business prosper and your team thrive. You can learn much more about this process at one of DSG’s P4 Learning Lab events, held at several locations around DSG Country in the early part of each year.

Watch our website – and your inbox – for more information about P4 coming soon.

FALL 2015 | CONNECTIONS

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STRENGTHENING THE TRADES,

ONE PROMISE AT A TIME Research shows that the hardest segment of the workforce for employers to staff in the last five years or so hasn’t been doctors or teachers; it’s been trade professionals. Baby boomers are retiring, and a recent study showed that for every three skilled workers leaving the workforce, only one is taking their place!

This isn’t news, of course, but if there’s one thing that can be said about those that work in the trades, they don’t give up easily. In fact, many of them have built their companies from the ground up, starting off as one-person shops with just their tools and their pickups. They’re used to meeting problems head-on, and the shortage of trade workers is just another challenge to overcome on their journey toward success.

DSG’s focus is on supporting these efforts.

In 2013, DSG implemented a Customer Service Guarantee, and since then, it’s proven to be a valuable way for DSG to help its customers make the

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CONNECTIONS | FALL 2015

most of the team members that they already have in place. Firstly, DSG promises to provide 100% order accuracy. “Contractors don’t have time to reconcile bad orders or take product back,” says Todd Eber, VP – business analyst and intelligence manager at DSG. “Providing accurate orders is the key to helping workers stay on the job site and stay productive. We understand that missing just one part can throw off their game plan and potentially cost them hours of productivity. We’re trying to do everything we can to keep that from happening.”

DSG also promises a two-day stock credit, which means that any time a customer returns a stock item, DSG will issue a credit within two days. With labor shortages becoming an overwhelming issue at times, it’s important to keep other aspects of the business moving smoothly, and that includes cash flow.

Finally, DSG’s Customer Service Guarantee promises to keep its top 200 items in stock for each of the company’s most popular segments: electrical, plumbing and HVAC. “The last

thing an owner that’s short on workers needs is to be short on supplies too,” says Eber. “It’s our responsibility to make sure that they have the supplies they need to do their job.”

The promises made by DSG’s Customer Service Guarantee are three important things that DSG is doing to help trade professionals cope with the labor shortage, but that’s not all. DSG’s Education Connection Fund, for example, is attacking the labor shortage at the source, putting money straight back into the trades by providing scholarships to those pursuing these careers. In addition, DSG launched an on-going campaign in 2014 called Finding My Trade that involves DSG management and customers teaming up to make presentations to high schools. This initiative also spawned a website, appropriately found online at www.findingmytrade.com, that is packed with resources for young people wanting to know more.

If you have ideas about how DSG can help address the labor shortage for trade professionals, please send your suggestions to information@dsginc.biz.

WWW.DAKOTASUPPLYGROUP.COM

GROW YOUR BUSINESS |

SUPER-THINK YOUR WAY TO SOLVING PROBLEMS How a little brainstorming can get you “unstuck.”

We’ve all heard the old cliché that a problem is simply an opportunity in work clothes. But even when you change the way you view or think about a problem, there are times when you just get stuck spinning your wheels.

According to small-business consultant Ellen Rohr (who has facilitated several of the most recent DSG Power Tools Success Workshops), business owners (and anyone for that matter), can get “unstuck” trying to solve a problem with a process she calls super-thinking – a simple, yet powerful, brainstorming exercise.

Brainstorming was a word popularized by advertising executive Alex Osborn in the early 1950s in his book “Applied Imagination.” Today, it’s a term that many people use to identify a group idea session. According to Osborn, the key to a successful brainstorm is to refrain from criticizing any ideas (i.e., there are no bad ideas in a brainstorm) and to focus on coming up with as many ideas as you can rather than trying to come up with the best idea possible. With a greater number of ideas comes a greater chance that a quality idea will form.

Super-thinking takes on the traditional brainstorming approach, but focuses on the

importance of putting the ideas to paper. Here’s how it works: • First, you write down precisely what the problem is, making sure to fully clarify the issue or challenge. What is it that you really want to solve?

• Then, you write down what might be done about that problem, whether it’s a solution carried out by you or someone else.

According to Rohr, you should write down no fewer than 20 ideas. “The most important element is the 20 ideas,” says Rohr. “Not only is there a solution to your problem, you have lots of options.

The really creative ideas are going to be numbers 14 through 20.” Once you have your ideas down on paper, pick one to carry out and then immediately get to it.

Super-thinking and other types of brainstorming are great ways to shed new light on a problem. Next time you get stuck, try a little super-thinking to keep you moving forward.

Sources: Super-thinking To The Rescue, Ellen Rohr, Plumbing & Mechanical; http://www.pmmag.com/articles/ 88342-super-thinking-tothe-rescue-br-ellen-rohr

GROW YOUR BUSINESS |

MOVING FORWARD

BY LOOKING BACK

Improved history and information tracking can help small-business owners improve their customers’ experiences and set themselves apart from their competitors.

In the last several years, big companies have been buzzing about “big data.” Big data is a broad term used to refer to large amounts of data that can be analyzed (by computers) to reveal patterns and trends, especially those relating to human behavior and interactions. Businesses transform this data into information that can be used to ultimately improve the customer experience – a selling point that is becoming more important to consumers.

According to Forbes, analyst firms forecast that by 2020, customer experience is expected to surpass product and pricing as the key business differentiator. In other words, consumers’ happiness with a company is increasingly based on their emotions rather than on their wallets.

What does this have to do with data? Many, if not all, business owners collect customer data in some way or another (invoices, for example), but the key is making sure it’s detailed, yet easy to organize and utilize. Analyzing data about customers can provide important insights into customers’ preferences. Business owners can then use that information to improve their services, their products and their interactions with customers, ultimately creating a better customer experience.

STARTING SMALL For small businesses, the goal shouldn’t be to collect massive amounts of information. Instead, they should start small, and one simple way to do

this is by retaining detailed customer history.

Managing detailed customer records on the services and products they’ve purchased can help to identify trends that can make it easier to make recommendations to customers and potentially lead to new jobs. For instance, let’s say you have a customer whose water heater needs to be replaced. You’ve kept good records on that customer’s purchasing history and notice that they’ve had you install several energy efficient products in their home over the last few years. You’ve now identified that this particular customer might be open to upgrading to a more energy efficient water heater model, despite it costing more. Without an easy-to-reference history of their interactions with your company, you would not have been able to identify them as a good prospect.

Netflix is an online movie service, and it utilizes customer information better than most. It collects and analyzes each customer’s viewing history and uses that information to suggest new programming to its subscribers – movies and shows that viewers may not have considered. Users of Netflix aren’t put off by this. Instead, they appreciate that the company uses information appropriately to give them well-thought-out options that they may not have otherwise considered. Netflix has used customer history to enhance the customer experience, and it has become a competitive advantage Continued on page 26

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FALL 2015 | CONNECTIONS

25

Continued from page 25

for them in retaining existing subscribers, as well as signing up new subscribers. Today, they have more than 69 million subscribers and are expected to add 5 million more before 2015 is over.

INCREASING EFFICIENCY Having easy access to detailed customer records can also help you to work more efficiently. Take, for example, when an electrician gets a call from a customer who tells them that their kitchen light is malfunctioning. Normally, the electrician would need to spend time checking out the light to see what the model, manufacturer and wattage was. Now, if that electrician carefully retained and filed that customer’s history, they could look up the fixture information at the office and make the service call more efficient for everyone involved. When you have convenient access to good information, you can make better and faster decisions, which leads to greater productivity.

When applied to commercial projects, the improvement to productivity can be significant.

DATA SOLUTIONS There are a number of software solutions that can help you to better retain, sort and utilize information regarding your customers.

Quickbooks, for instance (a popular program used for managing payroll, inventory, sales and other needs for small businesses), has a Reports function that allows users to view transaction history in a number of ways. DSG also offers its

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Customer Portal at no charge to its business partners (DSG customers can sign up by speaking to their DSG representative). This online tool lets you organize contact information for each customer, as well as view open, closed and archived work orders for each contact. Here you can log and view the job description, the parts used, the tech who served the customer and the total cost of the project.

Additionally, companies use customer relationship management (CRM) software to easily access and analyze their customer data and interactions. CRM software combines customer information and documents into a single database so businesses can easily manage it. Popular names in CRM software systems include Salesforce.com, Infusionsoft and ProsperWorks, to name just a few.

Having a better understanding of who your customers are and what they like puts you in a better position to meet their needs and exceed their expectations. While small-business owners don’t need to jump on the big data band wagon, collecting and organizing information to make a customer’s purchase history easier to utilize can make a world of difference.

Sources: 10 Questions to Ask When Collecting Customer Data, Entrepreneur, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/ 231513; Why Customer Data Will Make or Break Your Business, http://socialdraft. com/importance-of-customerdata- in-business/; Can Data and Analytics Help Create Lifelong Customers?, http://www.forbes.com/ sites/ forbesinsights/2014/10/17/can-data-and-analytics-help-createlifelong-customers/; Forget Big Data for Now. Start Small., http:// blog.perka.com/perkapost/forget-big-data-start-small; Netflix Tops 57 Million Subscribers In Q4 As U.S. Growth Slows, http://variety. com/2015/digital/news/netflix-tops-57-million-subscribers-in-q4-as-us-growthslows-1201409712/; ir.netflixs.com

WWW.DAKOTASUPPLYGROUP.COM

SHARE YOUR OWN OUTDOOR ADVENTURE www.dsgoutdoors.com

1

6

1. 39" northern caught streamer

2

3

fishing on Marias River by Kris Rausch, DSG Missoula.

2. Mike Pickens, inside sales at

DSG Helena, with elk antlers.

3. Jonas Steward, DSG Kalispell,

with his spring bear.

4. Gavin Graverson, City of Sioux

Falls, and Dusty Fluth, Fluth Properties, with tundra swans.

5. Joe and McCall Lynch from

WestAIR Heating with a nice walleye.

6. Marcus Schaffer of DSG 4

5

Missoula fishing in Belize.

JOB SITE |

CHANGING THE WAY

SAFETY MEETINGS ARE RUN

Safety meetings: they get a bad rap. They’re an important part of almost every business, yet few people hold them in high regard. The information discussed in these meetings is valuable, life-saving material, so why do both managers and employees dread them?

When businesses don’t conduct regular safety meetings, employees tend to get sloppy, take risks and consequently become involved in more accidents. According to OSHA, there were more than 4,500 fatal workplace injuries in 2014 (17 percent involving contractors), proving that there’s room for improvement when it comes to safety policies and procedures.

So how do owners and managers get employees on board with safety meetings? It’s important for a safety meeting to be lively, fun and engaging in order to be effective. The good news is that achieving these kinds of meetings doesn’t mean a lot of extra work. Here are few tips that owners and managers can use to get started.

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10 MOST FREQUENTLY CITED

OSHA standards that were violated in 2014: 1. FALL PROTECTION

START FRESH.

2. HAZARD COMMUNICATION STANDARD

Hold the meeting while workers are rested and refreshed. This is usually at the start of a shift or right after a break.

3. SCAFFOLDING (GENERAL REQUIREMENTS)

USE A CIRCULAR SETUP.

5. POWERED INDUSTRIAL TRUCKS

Use round tables or arrange chairs in a U shape so everyone can interact and see one another.

With this setup, no one can hide in the back row.

LIGHT IT UP.

Make sure that the room lighting is bright and the temperature of the room is cool and comfortable.

Rooms warm up with more people, and warmer temperatures tend to make people sleepy.

KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Don’t overload your crew with too much information. Pick a focused topic, such as one safety procedure, or review facts about a specific hazard.

KEEP IT SHORT.

Monthly meetings should only be about 30-45 minutes. If you hold weekly meetings, shoot for about 20 minutes. Your meeting should never run longer than an hour.

ADD SOME SIZZLE.

Add a game or a contest with prizes to the mix.

Videos are also a great way to get away from the traditional “I speak, you listen” format.

4. RESPIRATORY PROTECTION

6. CONTROL OF HAZARDOUS ENERGY

(LOCKOUT/TAGOUT)

7. LADDERS 8. ELECTRICAL (WIRING METHODS, COMPONENTS AND EQUIPMENT)

9. MACHINERY AND MACHINE GUARDING 10. ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS DESIGN (GENERAL REQUIREMENTS)

ACT IT OUT.

Role-playing the use of a new machine or an important safety procedure gets your employees out of their seats and moving around. When they are actively involved, the information has a greater impact.

ASK FOR INPUT.

Spend part of the meeting brainstorming and sharing ideas for preventing accidents or minimizing common hazards. People feel more engaged when they’re able to contribute.

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Continued from page 29

CHANGE IT AROUND.

Employees get bored with meetings that are redundant or repetitive. Change the format and location frequently to create a sense of something new.

USE A GUEST SPEAKER.

Bring in an OSHA rep or have an employee run the meeting. You could also find a webinar to watch.

SCHEDULE IT OUT.

Sit down and make a schedule of topics for the entire year. It takes less time to plan 12 topics at once than it does to pick 12 topics separately each month.

Changing how we think about and conduct safety meetings can make a big difference, and the payoff is a safer, more productive place to work.

Sources: Occupational Safety & Health Administration, https://www.osha.gov; How To Conduct A Safety Meeting, http://meetingtomorrow.com/ content-library/how-to-conduct-a-safety-meeting; 10 Ways To Make Your Safety Talks, Training And Meetings More Engaging, https://blog. safetysmart.com/2014/05/10-ways-make-safety-talks-trainingmeetings- engaging/; Supervisors Safety Update: Effective Safety Meetings, http:// www.sbic.com/resourcelibrary/ 2011/05/supervisors%E2%80%99-safety-update-effective-safety-meetings/; Expert Insight: Safety Meetings, http:// www.blr.com/safetytips/safety-meetings

EASIER SAFETY MEETINGS START HERE Conducting required OSHA safety meetings is a lot easier with the Safety Meeting App. It’s an easy-to-use online tool that makes conducting regularly scheduled safety meetings simple and helps to reduce accidents, damaging lawsuits and OSHA fines. Users simply choose a safety topic, follow the outline and record who was present. Plus:

SAFETY MEETING

• Archive your meeting within the Safety Meeting app cloud for instant retrieval in case of an OSHA audit.

• Track incidents and accidents, as well as record disciplinary actions with digital signatures in order to help you prepare your OSHA 300 logs.

• Utilize more than 950 safety meeting topics, with a variety that everyone can appreciate.

• Save time by accessing your safety meeting materials and records almost anywhere on your smartphone, tablet or computer.

To get started, contact a DSG representative to get set up for a free 30-day trial with full access. Or, visit www.thesafetymeetingapp.com.

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DALE

Big Foot Scares Campers

Mermaid Confuses Sailors

AL’S PLUMBING

Contractor

Vampire

Increases Profits After Attending P4

Wears Ridiculous Cape

Which One Is Real?

P4 IS THE REAL DEAL

Contractors who attend P4 Learning Lab tell us that they improve their profits.

8 out of 10 electricians, plumbers and HVAC/R contractors who attended a DSG P4 Learning Lab event in 2015 told us that they valued the information provided about recognizing, recording and maximizing billable time. In fact, we hear story after story of contractors who have used the tools provided at P4 to turn their companies into profit powerhouses.

More billable, more profitable, more able. Talk to your DSG representative to register today or learn more at

www.dakotasupplygroup.com/p4

February 15-16

Minneapolis, MN February 18-19

Fargo, ND February 29 March 1

Helena, MT

JOB SITE |

IMPROVE YOUR INTERVIEWS Make the most of your time with applicants.

There is a shortage of trade workers. That’s a fact, but it doesn’t mean we should settle for hiring anybody that comes along. Bad employees can be hard on productivity, toxic to your team and tough to get rid of. Depending on your circumstances, it might be more profitable to be a person short rather than fully staffed with a bad apple.

The single best time to address this issue is during the application and interview process.

Most business owners dread the thought of hiring employees because it takes away time they could

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be spending on tasks that they regard as more productive. In truth, this is backward. As stated above, all of your hard work could be for naught if you have hastily selected a worker who is poisoning your team and slowing down your projects.

Good interviewing pays off in the long run, period. Here are some tips for making the process easier (thanks to www.forconstructionpros.com and www.bizfilings.com).

WWW.DAKOTASUPPLYGROUP.COM

Work to establish rapport: Be friendly, offer a firm handshake and let the applicant know what to expect. For example, you might say “Today I’d like to accomplish three things in the time we have . . . ”

Gather information using open-ended questions: Confirm the information on the application/résumé (some statistics show that nearly 30 percent of information on résumés is misrepresented). Use open-ended questions (start with how, what, when, etc., and avoid anything that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no”).

“I advise people to follow the 80/20 rule,” says Melissa Lunak, director of human resources at DSG. “The applicant should be talking 80 percent of the time and the interviewer only 20 percent. The goal should be to learn as much as you can about the applicant.”

Don’t forget to tell them about your company and the nature of the position.

This includes:

• Expectations • Skills you want • Working conditions • Compensation and benefits (although some interviewers don’t discuss pay until a job offer is made) There’s nothing wrong with a little “selling” here if you think that the candidate has potential. Even if they don’t take the job, they may spread the good word about your company.

Compare and rate candidates: Get this information recorded as soon as possible – don’t trust your memory to recall the interview at a later time. Also, be sure to check at least one reference, especially an old employer. Even if you don’t get anything out of them, try to get them to respond to this question: “Is (employee name) eligible to be rehired by your company?” This one answer can tell you a lot.

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Continued from page 33

OFF-LIMITS TOPICS AND ON-POINT QUESTIONS Anyone who has ever dabbled (willingly or unwillingly) in human resources knows that there are many topics that are off limits in job interviews.

This isn’t an all-inclusive list, but basically you need to stay away from discussing anything pertaining to: • Race • Religion • Age • Ethnic background • Gender • Marital status • National origin Thankfully, these off-limit topics can actually have a positive effect on your interviewing approach. By keeping in mind the subjects that you need to avoid, you can focus your energy on the kinds of questions that are most important. Specifically, a good interviewer really wants

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CONNECTIONS | FALL 2015

the applicant to explain as much as possible on their own. Ask the candidate to describe their duties at their current or prior place of employment. Ask which duties the applicant liked or disliked – and why. Always ask why the applicant wants to leave their current employment.

Ask the candidate how they would handle certain situations.

For example, “How would you react to a customer or coworker who is confrontational?” or “What would you do if you thought it was too cold to work outside?” Answers to these questions tell you a little about how the applicant responds to adversity.

“One of my favorite questions to ask is, ‘What type of people annoy you?’” says Lunak. “By listening closely to how the applicant answers these kinds of questions, you may find that they are telling you (in their own

words) that they don’t get along well with others, dislike customer interaction, resent supervision and/or generally may not be a good fit for your crew.”

STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT Finally, be completely honest.

Just as you don’t want to be unhappy with a new hire, you don’t want them to be unhappy working for you. Even the best worker can become disgruntled if they feel that you haven’t been forthcoming with them.

If you are a business owner or a manager, interviewing/hiring just might be the most important task on your long list of duties.

Work on it, improve at it and stick with it – you’ll find that the time spent up front pays off in the end.

Sources: http://www.bizfilings.com/ toolkit/sbg/office-hr/hiring-workers/jobinterview-dos-and-donts.aspx; http://www. forconstructionpros.com/article/10753039/ the-art-of-conducting-a-job-interview

WWW.DAKOTASUPPLYGROUP.COM

recommended

READING

Reviews of great books for small-business owners

“The Invisible Touch: The Four Keys to Modern Marketing”

by Harry Beckwith Don’t let the subhead on this book fool you. It’s not just about marketing. Instead, it uses marketing as a starting point for a group of essays about everything from customer satisfaction to proper pricing to long-lasting business relationships.

This may seem like a pretty diverse set of topics, but the book doesn’t lack focus. Beckwith ties his short, easy-to-digest chapters together with an overarching theme of improving the experience you offer to your customers. In the book’s introduction, he writes: Your customers buy more than the simple delivery of some basic service; they buy the entire experience. If people sought only basic services, Caribou’s double cappuccinos would cost less than Taco Bell’s burritos, because the raw ingredients cost less.

Consumers buy more than things.

They purchase connections.

Beckwith’s book offers valuable insights into how you can

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maintain, manage and improve these “connections” you have with your customers. In one chapter, entitled “The Fallacy Of The Decision-Making Process,” the author discusses how important preconceived notions can be in the sales process. He encourages us to concentrate as much on the decisions our customers have already made as the decisions they have not.

For example, just as you go shopping for a new car with a lot of ideas already in place (“I can’t afford a BMW” or “I would never buy a mini-van”), your customers may have already decided that you are the fastest or the slowest or the best at a certain kind of work, or even “too expensive.”

This means that it’s critical to your sales process to ask questions that will help you understand what your customers have already decided, so you can either work to reinforce their opinions or work to change them.

These short bursts of wisdom

are what set this book apart.

Beckwith’s humorous style and flair for the dramatic result in chapters with titles like “Labrador Retrievers versus Customers” and “The Curse of the Bad Client.” He is very down-to-earth, and it’s clear that he has worked with businesses in a wide variety of industries.

The “Invisible Touch” is 232 pages but is a very quick read, perfect for a little lunch reading on the job site or knocking off a chapter or two before bed. It is available at most bookstores.

If you are looking for a fun way to get some advice from a respected business expert about how to strengthen your company’s brand with your customers, this book is an excellent addition to your library.

Excerpt from THE INVISIBLE TOUCH by Harry Beckwith.

Copyright (c) 2000 by Harry Beckwith. Used with permission

by Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.

FALL 2015 | CONNECTIONS

35

GE Lighting

lighting up the court

Cleveland Cavaliers score extra practice time with new GE LED lights Learn how GE’s LED high bay light fixtures help the team find extra time on the practice floor THE SITUATION For the Cleveland Cavaliers, every minute on the basketball court counts. It has to when the goal is to deliver your city its first professional sports championship in 50 years—and that commitment starts on the practice floor. So when old lighting left the team in the dark, it turned to hometown partner GE for a game-changing assist.

Power outages caused by weather are inevitable in Independence, Ohio, where Cleveland Clinic Courts—the official player development facility for the Cavaliers—was built in 2007. For coaches and assistants focused on execution and efficiency, however, the real frustration was waiting to resume activities until lighting was restored. Typically, it would take about 10 minutes for the metal halide fixtures above the practice court to return to full brightness.

THE SOLUTION

O P E R AT I N G I M P A C T

• Nearly $14,000 in annual savings • Instant-on lighting, eliminating warm-up time

GE and manufacturer representative Myriad Energy turned to Albeo™ high bay LED lighting fixtures that require no warm-up time, so if the power blinks, the Cavaliers won’t have to wait for the lights to come back on. The fixtures also are backup-generator capable, so many can be powered in an emergency situation.

“I was walking across the court with our general manager not long ago when, low and behold, we lost power! The only lights that came back up were the LEDs, and he looked at me and said, ‘DP, we’ve got to get this done. It’s a no-brainer.’”

- David Painter, Senior Manager of the Cavaliers practice facilities

More than 70 Albeo fixtures now hang in Cleveland Clinic Courts. Each is rated for a 100,000-hour career spanning at least two decades with zero scheduled maintenance. Together, the LED lights will average about $14,000 per year in saved energy and HVAC expenses.

Discover durable and energy-efficient lights for your facility at gelighting.com.

M A I N T E N A N C E I M PAC T

The Albeo fixtures will deliver reduced maintenance for the next 20 years.

Make the smart switch from

HID to LED The GE LED replacement for 400 Watt HID lamps is the key to improved energy usage and lamp life in warehouse, retail and commercial applications.

2.5x

50% less energy usage

longer life

with similar light output— 20,000 vs. 23,500 lumens

The GE LED has a 50,000-hour rated life vs. HID (20,000 hours)

Easy to install Screws into existing fixture—no tools, wiring or costly upgrade required

Instant on/ brightness

Flexible use— universal burn position

Fits ANSI profile ED37

5-year limited warranty

For more information, contact your GE sales representative or go to gelighting.com/ThinkLED.

GROW YOUR BUSINESS |

WEBSITES 101

Not only does a successful contractor need to be online, they need to do it the right way. Here’s how. Let’s say you’re a new homeowner. In the United States, that means you’re about 30 years old. You have a job, you may have a young family and you may even own your own business. At 30 years old, the Internet is older than you are; the Blackberry smartphone was introduced when you were in high school; you likely don’t subscribe to any magazines, and you don’t remember the last time you touched a phone book. When you need to find a local business, you use the Internet – just like more than 90 percent of consumers

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(according to a 2010 survey by BIA Kelsey).

In other words, if you are a typical new homeowner or young business owner, the web is the first place you go to find everything – including an electrician, a plumber or an HVAC contractor.

More than many other industries, tradespeople have been conservative in adopting the Internet as a primary source for connecting to new customers. Perhaps this is because contractors have traditionally counted on word-of-mouth advertising as their main source of promotion.

Even this is changing, however, as online reviews and referral sites gain popularity (even in smaller

WWW.DAKOTASUPPLYGROUP.COM

communities). Experts agree that in today’s competitive marketplace, a website is a necessity, and a good website can offer a powerful advantage.

Don’t panic if your company’s website is seven years old or if you don’t have one at all. Modern web development has come a long way in making it easier than ever to make a positive impression online. Best of all, you can maintain a solid web presence without breaking the bank. If you have a website or still need one, here are six tips for getting your website right.

1. Consider your customers Do you mainly work on commercial jobs or do you focus on residential? Do your profits come from installs or from service calls? Think about your customers, then think a little bit about how they use the Internet. What kinds of information will they expect to find on your website? The more questions you can successfully answer through your website, the further along the sales process can be when you finally meet a prospective customer. Don’t forget about your current customers, either! If there is paperwork or correspondence that is done repeatedly, why not use the web to make those tasks easier for everybody involved?

2. Find a partner Nowadays, a good website is an interesting balance of technical nerd voodoo and DIY elbow grease.

Start by finding a web company that can help you to lay the foundation for your site. Depending on your needs (or how unique you want it to look), this can mean a huge provider that allows

you to use a simple template or a custom code contractor that can build a site that fits your needs more accurately. Either way, you’ll want to make sure that the CMS (which stands for content management system) is easy to learn and use. That way, you can add or subtract content – text, contact information, photos and even forms – without relying on somebody else. The most popular CMS today is called WordPress, but there are many to choose from.

3. Respect the net Think of your website in the same way you do your service vehicles. If they are sloppy and old-fashioned, people might perceive your business as sloppy and oldfashioned. In fact, in a vast majority of instances, your website is the first impression your company makes.

Successful contractors understand how important this perceived reality can be so they keep the vehicles that bear their name – and their websites – looking attractive and up-to-date. This is why a good, easy-to-use CMS (see #2) is so important. It makes this job a lot easier.

4. Get responsive The title for this section could also read “think mobile.” A responsive website is simply one that adapts itself to accommodate users who visit your site via a smartphone or a tablet. It may seem amazing, but more users view the Internet today with their mobile device than they do with a desktop or a laptop computer. No wonder it’s so important for your site to be responsive. Make sure to ask about this when you first meet or contact your web development partner. Mobile usage is only going to become more prominent, and you want your site to be inviting and easy to use.

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5. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, then make maintenance somebody’s job Effective websites are living, breathing things.

They need to be maintained periodically and cared for or they fall into disrepair and make you look bad. Don’t promise things on your site that you can’t accomplish. For example, if you create a “News” page, you must keep it current. There’s nothing like a three-year-old news story to say “we don’t follow through” to your customers.

Build your site with this in mind – then assign its upkeep to a team member. Things get done more consistently and carefully when they are somebody’s job.

6. Remember to recruit A website can be a powerful factor in recruiting new employees. After all, the first place a prospective hire will go to find out more about your company is almost always your website. If you don’t have one, or if it looks out-of-date, it might give that potential crew member a

bad impression, especially if that person is a tech-savvy millennial. Make sure that your site communicates the benefits of working for you beyond wages and insurance, and make it easy for people to fill out an application, whether it’s via an online form or a downloadable PDF. Now that you have some idea of what you should do to make your business look good online, you may be asking “Where do I begin?”

Ironically, you may want to start offline. Ask around to those you do business with. If they have an effective website, ask them who helped them to create it (and how they maintain it).

Don’t restrict yourself to contractors, either.

Ask your other partners, including your DSG representative (DSG has relationships with several online resources). It’s easier than you think, and now is a good time to get started.

Stake out your space today and put your best foot forward on the web.

TALK THE TALK

Here are some of the terms that you need to know to speak the language of the Internet.

Web Hosting: A website is really just a computer

Domain Name: This is what a user types in

program that others can access. This program is stored on a powerful computer called a server.

This is called “hosting a website,” and it costs money, though it has become increasingly affordable in the last few years.

to a browser to get to your site. For example, www.dakotasupplygroup.com is DSG’s domain name. Domain names can be “rented” through companies like Network Solutions and GoDaddy.

Web Browser: The software programs that

images) that you click on to change pages on your website. Navigation should be as easy to use as possible.

people use to visit your website are called web browsers. Examples include Microsoft Explorer (replaced by “Edge” in Windows 10), Google Chrome and Apple Safari.

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Navigation: These are the links (words or

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NEWS WIRE |

Three Of DSG’s Own Named

To tED Magazine’s “30 Under 35” List

Ryan Baloun

Each year, tED magazine, the official publication of the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), acknowledges the rising stars in the electrical industry as part of its “30 under 35” program. 2015 was no exception, and three DSG employee owners – Ryan Baloun (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Megan Howard (La Crosse, Wisconsin) and Jesse Streed (Alexandria, Minnesota) – were named to the list of the top 30 young professionals who have the means to drive the electrical industry forward.

The competition is open to electrical professionals 34 years or younger who are recognized for traits such as dedication, innovation, leadership and people skills, commitment to training, personal integrity and work-life balance. You can read more about this year’s winners in the July issue of tED magazine at www.tedmag.com.

Megan Howard

Jesse Streed

DSG CEO Todd Kumm Recognized By NAED In May 2015, the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) honored DSG CEO Todd Kumm with its Distributor Distinguished Service Award – one of the most highly regarded awards in the electrical industry. This acknowledgement is presented to those who exhibit outstanding leadership and contribute significantly to the industry’s advancement. “I’m surprised, humbled and very appreciative of this honor,” says Kumm.

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“I feel that I’ve gotten far more from the industry and from NAED than I have given over the years.”

Kumm has worked with DSG since 1991, becoming CEO in 2007. He also serves on DSG’s Todd Kumm board of directors. He was an instrumental part of transitioning the company to employee ownership in 1996, and in 2014, DSG was named the national ESOP Of The Year.

Kumm primarily works out of DSG’s corporate headquarters in Fargo, North Dakota.

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NEWS WIRE |

DSG Earns Top Spot At

WIT & Company’s First Annual RISE Awards There’s big news in DSG’s efforts to address the shortage of tradespeople in the United States. On September 10, 2015, WIT & Co., the nation’s premier plumbing and HVAC buying group, recognized DSG with the Grand Prize award at its first-ever RISE competition. DSG was recognized for its Finding My Trade campaign, which aims to address the labor shortage in the trade industries by showing younger generations the many advantages of working in these fields.

This company-wide initiative included everything from high school presentations to a popular new website, www.findingmytrade.com, aimed at high school students who are exploring career options.

“The idea of working with customers to

educate a younger generation about opportunities in the plumbing, HVAC and electrical trades is very unique,” says Charlie Moorhead, executive vice president of WIT & Co., “and it goes far beyond the usual promotional and marketing efforts that we normally see.”

President Tom Rosendahl accepted the award at WIT & Co.’s Fall Networking Meeting in Washington, D.C. “While it always feels good to win awards,” Rosendahl says, “I’m especially grateful for the opportunity to raise awareness regarding this important challenge facing the trade industries. Sharing ways to support the trades with our fellow industry professionals helps to ensure a bright future for everyone.”

DSG’s findingmytrade.com website focuses on the positive attributes of a career in the trade industries, including why these careers are in such demand and how rewarding they can be (both financially and personally). Here, students can also use the site to apply for a DSG Education Connection Fund scholarship and explore trade schools in their area. The Finding My Trade school presentation is also available on the website.

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Education

DSG Awards $8,000 In Scholarships To Local Youth

In an effort to support the trade industries it serves, DSG’s Education Connection Fund has awarded $1,000 scholarships to eight young individuals who are furthering their education in the trade industries: • • • • • • • •

Christian McGaffey of Brandon, Minnesota Dillon McKinnon of La Crescent, Minnesota Jacob Kadrie of Dilworth, Minnesota Chad Davidson of Thief River Falls, Minnesota Isaac Magnussen of Roseau, Minnesota Steven Eberhardt of Aneta, North Dakota Bryton Ciesynski of Gwinner, North Dakota Aaron Burckhard of Minot, North Dakota

CONNECTION Fund

The DSG Education Connection Fund was created in 2009 to help young people who wish to become electricians, plumbers, utility workers, HVAC/R technicians or other tradespeople. It was a direct response to the impending lack of workers in the trade industries at the time, which DSG recognizes is now a present-day challenge.

Fund “The imminent labor shortage in the trade industries is no longer imminent – it’s upon us,” says DSG President Tom Rosendahl. “We need to work together as an industry to help today’s youth become tomorrow’s tradespeople.”

Since its inception, the DSG Education Connection Fund has awarded more than $35,000 in scholarships to area youth. More information can be found about the DSG Education Connection Fund online at www.findingmytrade.com.

Education

CONNECTION

Teach Your Kids A Little About Your Job, And Your Job Will Seem Anything But Little If you are a DSG customer, sign your children or grandchildren up for the DSG Kids Club today. Members learn about the trade industries through fun games and contests. Plus, each DSG Kids Club member gets a t-shirt for joining and a birthday gift each year – all free. To join, contact your DSG representative or go online to www.dsgkidsclub.com.

Kids Club members must be between the ages of 5-12 and related to a DSG customer or employee owner.

www.dsgkidsclub.com

North Dakota:

Bismarck (800) 363-7112 Bismarck Waterworks (855) 337-9258 Dickinson (855) 245-2098 Fargo (800) 437-4702 Fargo Waterworks (800) 342-4676 Grand Forks (800) 633-2211 Minot (800) 472-2145 Williston (800) 637-0170

P.O. Box 13573 Grand Forks, ND 58208-3573

South Dakota:

Aberdeen (800) 660-5532 Mitchell (800) 660-5534 Pierre (800) 660-5537 Rapid City (800) 660-5538 Sioux Falls (800) 540-8215 Sioux Falls Waterworks (800) 660-5531

Minnesota:

Alexandria (800) 345-0094 Austin (800) 521-6747 Bemidji (866) 506-0280 Burnsville (800) 325-0514 Grand Rapids (877) 327-1454 Ham Lake (763) 784-4478 Hopkins (800) 328-3976 Monticello (888) 295-9355 Oakdale (651) 777-1044 Rochester (800) 562-1784 St. Paul (800) 652-9784 Winona (800) 237-0470

Wisconsin:

La Crosse (800) 279-2726 Madison (877) 252-8739 New Berlin (800) 783-5835 Plover (800) 472-1661 Rice Lake (800) 962-2759

Montana:

Billings (844) 753-9120 Bozeman (800) 416-0005 Helena (800) 697-0005 Kalispell (800) 949-0005 Missoula (888) 865-0005

Minot Williston Grand Forks Dickinson

Kalispell Missoula

Helena Bozeman

Bismarck Billings

FARGO

Aberdeen Rapid City

Pierre Mitchell Sioux Falls

Bemidji Grand Rapids Alexandria Twin Cities

Rice Lake

Plover Winona La Crosse Rochester Madison Austin New Berlin

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Burnsville Ham Lake Hopkins Monticello Oakdale St. Paul