letting go now.

I posted awhile back…… about letting go. Well the time has come to do just that.

We have had an amazing increase in our work backlog over the summer. It actually started over the winter, but this last summer and continuing now has been something I have not seen too often in my career.

When I worked alone, it did not take much to all of a sudden have a backlog of 3-4 months. Well now with three of us plus some possible help from temporary sub-contractors, we are looking into December already. ...

I am at the point of spending most of my time now administrating, training, material acquisition, customer relations... and maybe when all that is taken care of, swinging a hammer. The letting go I am talking about is letting go of having to be on the job eight hours a day. It is going to be a hard transition, but as I see into our future a very necessary one.

I know myself enough that I will never be the contractor who signs the job and then disappears from the customer. I will always be around. I’m too interested in the day-to-day progress of each of our jobs to not be there. I will however bend to the need of letting the crew take up my slack on the job. I know and they are seeing it more all the time, if I am not making sure the work continues to come in, they may find themselves one day with nothing to do.

It will be a stretching time for all involved. Adam, who is in his 6th year with us already, will be taking on more responsibility with jobsite duties and working with customers and sub-contractors. Our new apprentice Tyler will have many things thrown at him as he is learning. The process of "doing" will teach him. The Artist will be stretching too. She not only will continue managing all I do and the social media/marketing we are putting out there, but will start wearing one of the hats I have always worn poorly. That is my office work. Billing, filing, and so on. I have a dream of one day seeing the top of my desk again and with her help I get to see the grain soon.

These are just some of the steps I will be taking in letting go of the need to do it all myself. It will be a challenging time, but I trust a good time for all.

They say, “Change is good”. I will trust them! (Does anyone know who “they” are? Let me know if you do!  I would actually like to talk to them sometime. Hahahaha)

~The ever-changing Carpenter.

Photo source: Pinterest-search "Letting Go". Artist unknown.