Southwestern Carpets grows business from the ground up - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Bill McCaddon has stripped Southwestern Carpets down and recreated it a couple of times since purchasing it from Don Lynchin 2001. When he boughtt the flooring company, it specializesd in removing and replacing carpets in apartmentxs betweenrental occupation. The Lewisvillr company was producing annual revenueof $5 but McCaddon found the business too impersonao because it was driven by producf sales and not on building relationships with So he decided to switch focux to the more relationship-centric business of providing floorinh solutions to new home-construction projects, which includes hardwoof floors, carpeting, and backsplash and tile The wholesale company saw dramaticf growth as a result, with annual revenue of $22 millionm in 2007.
But the growth was so rapied and so intense that managers were losing control of the directiob the companywas heading. So in he enlisted Don Brush, a consultant with The Renovw Corp., to help bring new energy to his McCaddon’s sense of direction and leadership abilitiew come from his experience asa manufacturer’s representative for 18 years at companies like Shaw Carpet Manufactured and Aleta Co. He had learnes the importance of building relationshipswith clients. “Mg background was in working withnew homebuilders. The apartment business was non-relationship driven,” said “I didn’t know how to build a businessthat wasn’t relational.
” McCaddon downsizec the company to redirect the focus to the home-constructiohn industry. He was met with resistance fromhis “I realized that using the same employees wasn’t going to work. I was trying to halfway do the he said. “Once we made the commitment, we really turner the corner.” He began switchin out personnel. The company, whichn had grown annual revenueto $5 million, saw revenue drop to undefr $3 million during the But, once the commitment was made, McCaddon notes marked improvement. By 2003, revenur had grown by 35%.
Between 2004 and the company went through its biggestgrowthb spurt, reaching up to $22 million in saleds and employing more than 60 workers. But at that the storybook growth came toan end. “It was gettint to be chaotic because of so many new We werean 8-cylinder engine working on six or sevejn cylinders. We’d lost a sense of teamwork, and everyonew was territorial.” That’s when McCaddon brought in Brush. “Fof the most part, I engage them and talk with them in ordetr to builda relationship. I wanted to find out the strengths of the company and what was working and what needed said Brush. “They’ve got the they’ve got the vision.
It’s just giving them the opportunity.” Brushh met with employees to figure out areaas that needed improvement and then created anactionn plan. He showed the company how to create committees to addresxs problems as they come up and then dissolve the committeesa after the problem hasbeen handled. The shift has translater into happier customers. Bill president and co-owner of Darling Homes Inc., has workedx with McCaddon since McCaddom purchased Southwestern Carpetsin 2001. “(We starte d working with Southwestern Carpets) because of Bill and his relationao approach to working with homebuilders as opposed to thetraditiona price-only approach,” said Darling.
“Brush has helped Bill figure out how to communicate better so that everyone is goinb in the same direction as the managemenrt and will yield the maximum ForChris McCoppin, operations manager for Southwesterb Carpets, the change in the corporate culturre has been noticeable. “Sometimes you don’t realize that when one department changed their policies and itaffects others. Now everyone talks to each other,” McCoppin said. “We’vde empowered them to make decisions. We gave them the powed to run the business.
They feel With this new sensewof empowerment, as well as an improves use of digitizing software callexd Measure, Southwestern Carpets has seen a markeds improvement on the accuracy of the 3,0090 work orders entered each month 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracy — and has savexd about $160,000 in unnecessary costs for having to fix incorrect work orders. Instead of pursuinyg potential clients merely for the sake of new McCaddon and his staff focus on getting to knowpotential clients, researching them as much as possible and understandiny their needs before they even “We’ll only do business with people who will sit down and have a relationshiop with us.
Someone is alway s going to come inlower (priced) than you,” said “We were always chasing peoplr who were focused on price. If they say, fax us (a prices sheet), we say sorry, we can’t work with you. We stay togetherd as a result. If you have the value relationship, they don’tt leave.”