The ability to deliver and receive feedback in a constructive manner is an essential tool to help any business, and individual, prosper.

On its surface, restoration doesn’t seem synonymous with “soft.” It’s a hard industry that operates in physically and emotionally tough working environments. Restoring a property to pre-loss condition requires a particular set of hard (job-specific) skills and tools. But there is a soft side that, I’d like to argue, carries more weight.

With just a few simple tweaks, you can get your training on track and ensure your restoration business is ready for whatever storms come. Leighton Healey shares three ways you can improve staff training and see instant improvement in morale and efficiency.

I enjoy reading entry level job advertisements for the restoration industry. They remind me of a simpler way of living. Pack a lunch every night, wake up earlier than you want to, perform physical labor before 7 a.m., break for 15 minutes at lunch, and come home tired.

Managing a small business is a risky proposition. A gamble, in some aspects.

We all know how hard it is to find good employees. We’ve all heard it: “People don’t want to work.”; “Don’t hire anyone younger than 30.”; “Everyone has an entitlement mentality.” Blah, blah, blah. 

Should you physically beat up your customers? Of course not. If your employees are beating up customers in order to enforce company policy, clearly they haven't been taught the skills of effective decision making. 

Too many business leaders have been misled by the “accounting mentality” and think paying their people too much (whatever that means) results in uncompetitively high costs. Seriously?