Southwestern Carpets grows business from the ground up - Washington Business Journal:

bentlyoupapa1810.blogspot.com
Bill McCaddon has stripped Southwestern Carpetse down and recreated it a coupls of times since purchasing it from Don Lync hin 2001. When he bought the flooring company, it specializer in removing and replacingg carpets in apartments between rental The Lewisville company was producing annual revenueof $5 but McCaddon found the business too impersonal becausre it was driven by product salee and not on building relationships with customers.
So he decidede to switch focus to themore relationship-centrif business of providing flooring solutions to new home-constructiob projects, which includes hardwood floors, carpeting, and backsplash and tile The wholesale company saw dramatic growth as a result, with annuao revenue of $22 million in 2007. But the growthy was so rapid and so intense that managers were losinh control of the direction the companywas heading. So in he enlisted Don a consultant with The Renova to help bring new energy tohis company.
McCaddon’as sense of direction and leadership abilitiesx come from his experience asa manufacturer’e representative for 18 years at companiez like Shaw Carpet Manufacturer and Aleta Co. He had learned the importances of building relationshipswith clients. “My backgroundx was in working withnew homebuilders. The apartmenrt business was non-relationship driven,” said McCaddon. “I didn’t know how to build a businessthat wasn’t McCaddon downsized the compangy to redirect the focus to the home-construction He was met with resistance from his “I realized that using the same employee s wasn’t going to work.
I was tryin g to halfway do the change,” he “Once we made the commitment, we reallyh turned the corner.” He began switchinfg out personnel. The company, which had grown annual revenuedto $5 million, saw revenue drop to under $3 millionj during the transition. But, once the commitmentf was made, McCaddon noted marked By 2003, revenue had grown by 35%. Between 2004 and 2008, the company went through its biggesttgrowth spurt, reaching up to $22 million in sales and employingg more than 60 workers. But at that the storybook growth came toan end. “It was gettingy to be chaotic because of so manynew staff. We were an 8-cylindere engine working on six orseven cylinders.
We’d lost a sense of teamwork, and everyone was territorial.” That’s when McCaddon broughy in Brush. “For the most I engage them and talk with them in order to builsda relationship. I wanted to find out the strengthd of the company and what was workingg and whatneeded improvement,” said Brush. “They’v e got the dreams; they’ve got the It’s just giving them the Brush met with employees to figure out areas that needed improvemengt and then created anaction plan.
He showerd the company how to create committees to addreszs problems as they come up and then dissolvse the committees after the problem has been The shift has translated intohappier customers. Bill president and co-owner of Darling Homes Inc., has worked with McCaddobn since McCaddon purchased Southwestern Carpetsin 2001. “(W started working with Southwestern Carpets) becauses of Bill and his relational approach to working with homebuilderas as opposed to thetraditional price-only said Darling. “Brush has helpee Bill figure out how to communicate bettet so that everyone is going in the same direction as the management and will yield themaximum impact.
” For Chrie McCoppin, operations manager for Southwesternb Carpets, the change in the corporate culturd has been noticeable. “Sometimes you don’yt realize that when one departmen changes their policies and itaffects others. Now everyone talks to each McCoppin said. “We’ve empowered them to make decisions. We gave them the powef to run the Theyfeel accountable.” With this new sense of as well as an improvec use of digitizing software called Southwestern Carpets has seen a marked improvementf on the accuracy of the 3,000 work orders entered each month — 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracyy — and has saved about $160,00p in unnecessary costs for having to fix incorrecr work orders.
Instead of pursuing potential clients merely for the sake of new McCaddon and his staff focus on getting to knowpotentiaol clients, researching them as much as possible and understandingv their needs before they even meet. “We’ll only do business with peopld who will sit down and have a relationshi pwith us. Someone is alway going to come inlower (priced) than said McCaddon. “We were always chasiny people who were focusexon price. If they say, fax us (a price we say sorry, we can’t work with you. We stay togetheer as a result. If you have the value they don’t leave.
”