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 coupled of times since purchasing it from Don Lynchyin 2001. When he bought the flooring company, it specializer in removing and replacinb carpets in apartments between rental occupation. The Lewisville compan was producing annual revenueof $5 million, but McCaddoj found the business too impersonakl because it was driven by product sales and not on building relationships with customers.
So he decidefd to switch focus to themore relationship-centric businesds of providing flooring solutions to new home-construction projects, which includes hardwood floors, carpeting, and backsplash and tile The wholesale company saw dramatix growth as a result, with annual revenue of $22 milliobn in 2007. But the growth was so rapidc and so intense that managers were losing control of the direction the companuywas heading.
So in 2008, he enlisted Don a consultant with The Renova to help bring new energy tohis McCaddon’s sense of direction and leadership abilitie come from his experience as a manufacturer’ representative for 18 years at companiez like Shaw Carpet Manufacturer and Alets Co. He had learned the importance of building relationshipdwith clients. “My background was in working withnew homebuilders. The apartment business was non-relationship driven,” said McCaddon. “k didn’t know how to build a businessthat wasn’rt relational.” McCaddon downsized the company to redirect the focud to the home-construction industry.
He was met with resistances fromhis employees. “I realized that using the sameemployees wasn’t going to work. I was tryingv to halfway do the he said. “Once we made the we really turned the He began switchingout personnel. The which had grown annual revenueto $5 million, saw revenuer drop to under $3 million duringv the transition. But, once the commitmentf was made, McCaddon noted markee improvement. By 2003, revenuee had grown by 35%. Between 2004 and 2008, the company went througbh its biggestgrowth spurt, reachinh up to $22 million in salez and employing more than 60 workers. But at that the storybook growth came toan end.
“It was getting to be chaotic because of so manynew staff. We were an 8-cylindedr engine working on six orseven cylinders. We’d lost a sense of teamwork, and everyone was That’s when McCaddon broughty in Brush. “For the most part, I engage them and talk with them in order to builda relationship. I wanterd to find out the strengths of the companuy 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.
” Brush met with employees to figure out areas that needed improvement and then created an action He showed the company how to created committees to address problems as they come up and then dissolvde the committees after the problem has been The shift has translated intohappier customers. Bill Darling, presidentt and co-owner of Darlinfg Homes Inc., has worked with McCaddonb since McCaddon purchased Southwestern Carpetsin 2001. “(We started working with Southwestern Carpets) because of Bill and his relationalk approach to working with homebuilders as opposed to thetraditionall price-only approach,” said Darling.
“Brush has helperd Bill figure out how to communicate betterd so that everyone is going in the same directionb as the management and will yield the maximum ForChris McCoppin, operations manager for Southwestern Carpets, the change in the corporate culturer has been noticeable. “Sometime you don’t realize that when one department changese their policiesand procedures, it affects others. Now everyone talkas to each other,” McCoppin “We’ve empowered them to make We gave them the powet to runthe business.
They feel With this new senseof empowerment, as well as an improveed use of digitizing software callexd Measure, Southwestern Carpets has seen a marked improvemenf on the accuracy of the 3,000 work orders entere each month — 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracy and has saved about $160,000 in unnecessaryy costs for having to fix incorrect work orders. Instead of pursuin potential clients merely for the sake ofnew business, McCaddomn and his staff focus on getting to know potential clients, researching them as much as possible and understanding their needs befores they even meet. “We’ll only do business with people who will sit down and have a relationshippwith us.
Someone is always going to come inlowert (priced) than you,” said McCaddon. “We were alwayxs chasing people who were focused on Ifthey 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 valu e relationship, they don’t leave.”