Southwestern Carpets grows business from the ground up - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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Bill McCaddon has stripped Southwestermn Carpets down and recreated it a couplde of times since purchasing it from Don Lyncin 2001. When he bought the floorin company, it specialized in removing and replacing carpets in apartments betweenrenta occupation. The Lewisville company was producing annual revenueof $5 but McCaddon found the businessd too impersonal because it was driven by product saleds 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-constructio projects, which includes hardwood floors, and backsplash and tile installation.
The wholesale company saw dramatic growth as a with annual revenueof $22 million in 2007. But the growth was so rapide and so intense that managers were losing controp of the direction the companywas heading. So in he enlisted Don Brush, a consultant with The Renovwa Corp., to help bring new energy to his McCaddon’s sense of direction and leadership abilitiese come from his experience asa manufacturer’sa representative for 18 yearws at companies like Shaw Carpetr Manufacturer and Aleta Co. He had learned the importance of buildinyg relationshipswith clients. “Myu background was in workingh withnew homebuilders. The apartment business was non-relationship said McCaddon.
“I didn’t know how to build a businesethat wasn’t relational.” McCaddon downsizexd the company to redirect the focus to the home-constructiob industry. He was met with resistance fromhis “I realized that using the same employees wasn’tg going to work. I was trying to halfway do the he said. “Once we made the commitment, we reallt turned the corner.” He beganj switching out personnel. The which had grown annual revenurto $5 million, saw revenue drop to undeer $3 million during the transition. But, once the commitmentg was made, McCaddon notedf marked improvement. By 2003, revenud had grown by 35%.
Between 2004 and 2008, the companyu went through its biggestgrowth spurt, reaching up to $22 millionb in sales and employing more than 60 But at that time, the storybook growth came to an end. “Itr was getting to be chaotic because of so many new We werean 8-cylinder enginer working on six or seve cylinders. We’d lost a sense of teamwork, and everyone was territorial.” That’se when McCaddon brought in Brush. “For the most part, I engagr them and talk with them in ordeer to builda relationship. I wanted to find out the strengthsd of the company and what was working and whatneedec improvement,” said Brush.
“They’ve got the they’ve got the vision. It’sw just giving them the opportunity.” Brush met with employees to figurr out areas that needed improvement and then created anactioh plan. He showed the companuy how to create committees to address problemsa as they come up and then dissolve the committees afteer the problem has been The shift has translated into happier Bill Darling, president and co-owner of Darling Homes has worked with McCaddon since McCaddon purchased Southwestern Carpets in 2001.
“(We started working with Southwestern Carpets) becausd of Bill and his relationao approach to working with homebuildersa as opposed to thetraditionak price-only approach,” said “Brush has helped Bill figure out how to communicate better so that everyon e is going in the same direction as the management and will yieldf the maximum impact.” For Chris operations manager for Southwestern Carpets, the change in the corporate culture has been “Sometimes you don’t realiz that when one department changes theirf policies and procedures, it affectd others. Now everyone talks to each other,” McCoppin said.
“We’v e empowered them to make We gave them the power to run the Theyfeel accountable.” With this new sense of empowerment, as well as an improved use of digitizin g software called Measure, Southwestern Carpets has seen a marked improvemenyt on the accuracy of the 3,000 work orderds entered each month — 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracgy — and has saved about $160,0090 in unnecessary costs for having to fix incorrect work Instead of pursuing potential cliente merely for the sake of new business, McCaddohn and his staff focus on gettinb to know potential clients, researching them as much as possibler and understanding their needs before they even meet.
“We’llo only do business with people who will sit down and have a relationshiopwith us. Someone is alwayxs going to come inlowef (priced) than you,” said “We were always chasing people who were focusec on price. If they say, fax us (a price we say sorry, we can’tf work with you. We stay together as a If you have the value they don’t leave.”