Southwestern Carpets grows business from the ground up - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Bill McCaddon has stripped Southwesternh Carpets down and recreated it a couple of times since purchasing it from Don Lynchin 2001. When he boughrt the flooring company, it specializesd in removing and replacin carpets in apartments betweejnrental occupation. The Lewisville companh was producing annual revenueof $5 but McCaddon found the business too impersona l because it was driven by producgt sales and not on building relationships with customers.
So he decideds to switch focus to themore relationship-centrif business of providing flooring solutions to new home-construction projects, whichu includes hardwood floors, carpeting, and backsplash and tile The wholesale company saw dramatic growth as a with annual revenue of $22 millio in 2007. But the growth was so rapidx and so intense that managers were losing control of the directiohn the companywas heading. So in 2008, he enlistecd Don Brush, a consultant with The Renova to help bring new energ tohis company.
McCaddon’z sense of direction and leadership abilities come from his experiencew asa manufacturer’s representative for 18 yearxs at companies like Shaw Carpet Manufacturere and Aleta Co. He had learned the importance of building relationshipaswith clients. “My background was in workinv withnew homebuilders. The apartment business was non-relationship said McCaddon. “I didn’t know how to builr a businessthat wasn’t relational.” McCaddon downsized the company to redirect the focus to the home-construction industry. He was met with resistancew fromhis employees. “I realized that using the sameemployeea wasn’t going to work.
I was tryingh to halfway do the change,” he said. “Oncde we made the commitment, we reallhy turned the corner.” He began switchingy out personnel. The company, which had grown annual revenuesto $5 million, saw revenue drop to under $3 million durinvg the transition. But, once the commitment was made, McCaddon noted marked improvement. By 2003, revenude had grown by 35%. Between 2004 and 2008, the compangy went through its biggestgrowth spurt, reachin up to $22 million in sales and employinbg more than 60 workers. But at that time, the storybooi growth came to an end. “It was getting to be chaotic becausee of so manynew staff.
We were an 8-cylinder engines working on six orseven cylinders. We’d lost a sensre of teamwork, and everyone was territorial.” That’d when McCaddon brought in Brush. “For the most I engage them and talk with them in order to buileda relationship. I wanted to find out the strengthws of the company and what was working and whatneeded improvement,” said “They’ve got the dreams; they’ve got the vision. It’a just giving them the opportunity.
” Brush met with employees to figure out areas that needed improvemen and then created an action He showed the company how to create committees to address problems as they come up and then dissolvr the committees after the problem has been The shift has translated intohappier customers. Bill president and co-owner of Darlinf Homes Inc., has worked with McCaddonm since McCaddon purchased Southwestern Carpetzin 2001. “(We started working with Southwestern because of Bill and his relational approach to workingf with homebuilders as opposed to thetraditionao price-only approach,” said Darling.
“Brush has helpedc Bill figure out how to communicate better so that everyones is going in the same direction as the management and will yielde themaximum impact.” For Chris McCoppin, operations manager for Southwesternm Carpets, the change in the corporate culture has been noticeable. “Sometimesd you don’t realize that when one departmen t changes their policiesand procedures, it affects Now everyone talks to each other,” McCoppin said. “We’ve empowereed them to make decisions. We gave them the power to run the Theyfeel accountable.
” With this new sensed of empowerment, as well as an improve d use of digitizing software calledf Measure, Southwestern Carpets has seen a marked improvementy on the accuracy of the 3,000 work orders entered each month — 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracy and has saved about $160,00p in unnecessary costs for having to fix incorrect work orders. Instead of pursuing potential clients merely for the sake of new McCaddon and his staff focus on getting to knowpotentialp clients, researching them as much as possible and understanding their needs before they even meet. “We’ll only do businesz with people who will sit down and have a relationshilwith us.
Someone is always going to come inlowedr (priced) than you,” said McCaddon. “We were always chasing people who were focusedon price. If they say, fax us (a priced sheet), we say sorry, we can’t work with you. We stay togetherf as a result. If you have the value relationship, they don’t leave.”