I love that expression. It’s one of those ‘What the heck are you doing?” moments that we all have from time to time. You keep trying something and it’s not working and then all of a sudden you wake up and you realize why (hopefully)! My father was an ardent carpenter and as a kid I would follow him round and help whenever I could. He passed that passion of working with wood down to me and to this day, I love planning and building stuff….ah the smell of sawdust in the morning! He was extremely meticulous and careful in everything that he did- he did everything with precision. Some of his anecdotes as I would hand him a hammer I remember well, and even though they were related to wood and his projects, I think we can learn a lot from them as they resonate for all businesses.

Measure twice, cut once. This is an old one but one he adhered to all the time. Before you do anything plan it out beforehand. Yes sometimes spontaneity works for single events but if there are multiple links in a project they all have to connect properly. Managing business projects, writing proposals, planning anything that has other dependencies needs to be a cohesive effort, so plan more effectively and you will save time in the long run, AND you will have a better end result.

Always know where your second hand is (applies to power tools!) If you are working with any power tool especially a saw, always remember where the second hand unless you want to lose it, kind of like always let your left hand know what the right hand is doing! Get to know as many aspects of your business as you can. You don’t need to be the expert at everything, just knowledgeable enough to be able to make a valid judgement, understand the people who are experts in that discipline and know enough to put forth an opinion. If you don’t know where that second hand is in your company and you get careless and forget it, it can be costly and painful.

Always use the same tape measure on a job. Believe it or not different tape measures vary by as much as an eighth of an inch if not more. Being precise in how you do things will insure a better result. Being sloppy and saying it’s close enough for government work (now there’s a story?) will give you a less than satisfactory result. So when you’ve measured the wood for cutting, do you cut on the line or leave the line intact. It depends on how you measured but as long as you are precise and consistent it should work out okay! Your business will be better as a result!

Pay attention to the small details. It may sound obvious but how many people cut corners to save a few dollars only later realizing that if they had taken the time and not taken the cheapest or most expedient route, they would have been far better off. Typically bad things happen when there is a lack of attention to detail.

For the want of a nail the shoe was lost;

For the want of a shoe the horse was lost;

For the want of a horse the rider was lost;

For want of a horse the battle was lost;

For the failure in battle the kingdom was lost—

All for the want of a horse shoe nail. 

Last but not least is the opening statement. How many times have we kept on doing things and it wasn’t until we got to the third or fourth iteration that we realized that what we were doing was not only wrong but was never going to get better and give us the result we were looking for. Sometimes you have to suck it up and say okay I need to start again and probably with a new perspective. So make sure as a business owner that you take the time to evaluate what you are doing on a regular basis to make sure you are on the right track. As a friend of mine said “If you can’t find 10 minutes a day to meditate, find an hour!”

Basic stuff but you would be amazed at how few people in business really follow my fathers’ simple carpentry rules! 

John Myers is an independent business consultant with Carroll Consulting LLC, the "sales mechanic" for business owners. If you would like to learn more about how I might be able to help you grow your business, please contact me via LinkedIn and if you like this post please click on the follow button above.