As we continue to test our 40 Strategy assessment with current clients and prospects, we recognize it provides different value to different people.

The 40 Strategy assessment can be an eye-opener.

Working with Adam Ghiglia CEO, and accounting manager Austin Cracraft, of Valley Pacific Construction company, we went through the assessment. 

This is a third generation company that has been doing construction in their region for multiple years.

If you’re a veteran of the industry, recognize that there are often a lot of ups and a lot of downs with factors sometimes out of your control.

My goal, regardless of economic conditions, is to help each company feel that they are in control of where the outcomes can be.

When we completed the assessment for this client, it was an eye-opener and a little bit challenging to see the facts, a common problem. Going through these different parts, they were curious, “What do we have to work on now, because we’re obviously not really good at many of these different areas?”

In this particular case, I made it clear we have to focus on our “in the business” activities. We have to make sure that we are focused on creating a recurring, consistent pipeline of sales. Important to make sure we’re effectively delivering our jobs profitability, to make sure that we’re managing our operating expenses so we generate solid profit.

According to Forbes, it’s not an either/or situation, “working in” and “working on” your business. By having systems and processes in place, you can step away from the day-to-day details and focus on the long-term. This could include delegating tasks, outsourcing, or using software solutions that automate low-level tasks. 

After completing those respective activities, we got them focused on the most important “on the business” activities, which were highlighted.

Just because we are doing an assessment doesn’t mean we need to move forward with solving all the world's problems, or in this particular case, 40 of their problems now. What we didn’t do now is focus on getting things done in business activities and working on today. In the future we’re going to be able to tackle these larger parts to ultimately continued, increase the value of their business.

Adam said, “It’s a pretty cool tool. It makes you rethink things. That really made me pause in a few different areas and think about things that we need to focus on and areas that we're really not well covered in. And the ones in which we've been doing a good job. It's helpful to see that there's values attached to them, showing you what they do for your business.”

Austin said, “It gives you a good sense of the larger picture when we're kind of in the day to day trying to figure stuff out. It will be cool to do this another year and a half, once we're in a different place, to compare it over time.”