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

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Bill McCaddon has stripped Southwesterb Carpets down and recreated it a coupler of times since purchasing it from Don Lynchin 2001. When he bought the flooring company, it specialized in removing and replacing carpetws in apartments betweenrental occupation. The Lewisvillee company was producing annual revenueof $5 million, but McCaddon found the business too impersonal because it was drivenm by product sales and not on building relationships with So he decided to switch focus to the more relationship-centricc business of providing flooring solutions to new home-construction which includes hardwood floors, carpeting, and backsplash and tile installation.
The wholesalw company saw dramatic growth asa result, with annuall revenue of $22 million in 2007. But the growt h was so rapid and so intense that managerd were losing control of the direction the company was Soin 2008, he enlisted Don Brush, a consultan t with The Renova Corp., to help bring new energyg to his company. McCaddon’s sense of directio and leadership abilities come from his experience asa manufacturer’s representatived for 18 years at companies like Shaw Carpegt Manufacturer and Aleta Co. He had learned the importancee of building relationshipswith clients. “My backgrouncd was in working withnew homebuilders.
The apartmengt business was non-relationship driven,” said McCaddon. “I didn’t know how to build a businesxsthat wasn’t relational.” McCaddon downsized the company to redirect the focuw to the home-construction industry. He was met with resistance fromhis “I realized that using the same employees wasn’yt going to work. I was trying to halfway do the he said. “Once we made the we really turnedthe corner.” He beganb switching out personnel. The company, whic h had grown annual revenueto $5 million, saw revenue drop to undef $3 million during the But, once the commitment was made, McCaddon noteed marked improvement.
By 2003, revenue had grown by 35%. Betweebn 2004 and 2008, the company went through its biggest growth spurt, reaching up to $22 million in salesx and employing more than 60 workers. But at that time, the storybool growth came to an end. “It was gettinfg to be chaotic because of so manynew staff. We were an 8-cylinderf engine working on six orsevej cylinders. We’d lost a sense of teamwork, and everyonw was territorial.” That’s when McCaddon brought in “For the most part, I engage them and talk with them in ordefr to builda relationship. I wanted to find out the strengthas of the company and what was working and whatneeded improvement,” said Brush.
“They’ve got the they’ve got the vision. It’s just givinb them the opportunity.” Brush met with employees to figure out areass that needed improvement and then created an action He showed the company how to creatde committees to address problems as they come up and then dissolvse the committees after the problem hasbeen handled. The shiftf has translated intohappier customers. Bill president and co-owner of Darlinfg Homes Inc., has workex with McCaddon since McCaddon purchased Southwestern Carpetsin 2001.
“(Wes started working with Southwestern because of Bill and his relationap approach to working with homebuilderes as opposed to thetraditional price-only said Darling. “Brush has helpedc Bill figure out how to communicater better so that everyonde is going in the same direction as the management and will yielr themaximum impact.” For Chris operations manager for Southwestern the change in the corporate culturde has been noticeable. “Sometimes you don’t realizew that when one department changes their policiesand procedures, it affectsd others. Now everyone talks to each other,” McCoppihn said. “We’ve empowered them to make decisions.
We gave them the poweer to runthe business. They feel accountable.” With this new sense of as well as an improved use of digitizing softwarecalled Measure, Southwestern Carpets has seen a markee improvement on the accuracy of the 3,000 work orders entered each monthy — 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracy and has saved about $160,000p in unnecessary costs for having to fix incorrecft work orders. Instead of pursuing potentia clients merely for the sake of new McCaddon and his staff focus on getting to know potential clients, researching them as much as possible and understanding their needse before they even meet.
“We’ll only do businessa with people who will sit down and have a relationshippwith us. Someone is always going to come inlowerr (priced) than you,” said McCaddon. “Wd were always chasing people who were focused on Ifthey say, fax us (a price sheet), we say sorry, we can’t work with you. We stay togethed as a result. If you have the valuse relationship, they don’t leave.
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