We thought the next person that walked through the door would magically make it all work. That was never the case. 

We also managed our company, which was a tough NYC union shop by the way, via memos.

I remember many late nights at the office with my brother Richie, after we’d run around town fixing people’s mistakes, composing memos in all caps and bold, which we’d hand out to the techs the next day. Did this work? No!

I will say that I have two daughters and I never missed a dance recital. I was the Dad with the big video camera who arrived just in time, recorded the video, and then rushed back to work. I thought that was enough (I showed up right?) until my wife told me what one of my daughters said, which was “I wish my Dad was around more” and that just broke my heart.

I was there in person but my mind was thinking about the next job.

Know that the company was making good money but it just got to a point where I knew if I didn’t figure out a way to get control of the business I’d be a rich dead guy. And that wasn’t my goal. And I don’t think it’s yours either.

During this time, I was encouraged to read The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, and it changed my life. In it Gerber says, “If you’re always working in your business and never on your business, nothing is going to change.”

It’s a simple concept but man, was it hard. You know exactly what I’m saying. Like you, I had 70 people pulling me in 70 directions, something I now recognize as “fire fighting.” I realized I needed to spend time in fire prevention if I was ever going to see my way out of the situation.

So you know what I did?

I was tempted to go into my office, close the door and write all the policies and procedures it took to run my company.

I thought I would come out with the finished product under my arms and present them to the staff like the 10 commandments.

Luckily, my great friend and industry titan Dan Hollohan intervened before I got too far down the pike. He said, “Al, that will never work.” I said, “OK, if you’re so smart, what would you do?” And he said, “Let’s get everyone together in a meeting…” I hired him to help us write the first version of our operating manuals and the rest is history.

Because of those manuals, the business began to run so smoothly, it really could run without me. So I gave my brothers and Dad three years notice and sold my share of the business to my brothers and retired from contracting—at age 48.

That’s a long way of saying, I have been where you are and I know exactly what you’re going through. And I have the added benefit of not only having helped my own company get control but also hundreds of other contractors across North America. Contractors like Jim Criniti, Keith Pinkerton, Todd Iocco and Tommy Mello, who were mentioned above.