I make a point to not only work in my business, but also to work on my business as much as possible.  What’s the difference?

Working in your business is putting efforts towards the day to day operational tasks required to conduct business.  For me, this includes walking job-sites, making punch lists, supervising schedules to make sure we’re on track to meet deadlines, reviewing invoices, and placing orders.  I’m giving time and attention to specific projects and the repetitive tasks involved in keeping the business running.

Working on your business is focusing on the bigger picture of how the company operates as an organization.  In the case of Jeff Click Homes, when I work on the business, I’m putting thought and effort towards improving the experience that we provide for our clients, how effective our marketing is or isn’t, or ways we can refine and focus our efforts to embody what is important to us as an organization.

One important step in working on your business is to define your mission.  A mission statement is a brief statement of purpose; it’s what you seek to do as an organization.  Another important step is to identify and define core values.  Core values are the top five to ten qualities that you embody or strive to embody within your organization.

As stated in our company mission and values page, Progress is a core value we strive to embody.  We define progress as ”To always seek to improve and better all aspects of our organization before seeking growth.”

I often read about or hear other builders talk about wanting to become a “bigger” builder.  Maybe it’s to build in the largest number of neighborhoods over any other competitor.  It could be to pull the largest number of permits in the next year, or to become a national or multi-state builder.  That may be an appropriate ambition for other builders, but it’s not consistent with the mission or core values of Jeff Click Homes.

Part of embodying our core value of progress is to continually work on the business, specifically targeting components of how the company operates for the purpose of improving those aspects of how we do business.  Currently, we’re focusing on improving our internal processes, which include how we place orders, how we track job-site progress, and how we communicate with both our clients and our trades.  We’re also seeking ways we can improve several aspects of our homes, including energy efficiency, style enhancements, and additional options for clients to have in customizing the home we build for them.

These all translate into improvements that our clients will hopefully recognize and appreciate.  Making progress, as we define it, will help us to provide each client with a remarkable experience.  To us, this is far more important than becoming a “bigger builder.”

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