Southwestern Carpets grows business from the ground up - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Bill McCaddon has stripped Southwesternm Carpets down and recreated it a couple of timesd since purchasing it from Don Lynchin 2001. When he bough the flooring company, it specialized in removin and replacing carpets in apartments between rental The Lewisville company was producing annual revenueof $5 but McCaddon found the business too impersonal because it was driven by product sale s and not on building relationships with So he decided to switcb focus to the more relationship-centric business of providing flooring solutions to new home-construction projects, which includess hardwood floors, carpeting, and backsplash and tile installation.
The wholesale company saw dramatic growth as a with annual revenueof $22 million in 2007. But the growtjh was so rapid and so intense that manageras were losing control of the directionm the company was Soin 2008, he enlisted Don a consultant with The Renova to help bring new energ to his company. McCaddon’s sense of direction and leadershi abilities come from his experience asa manufacturer’ s representative for 18 years at companies like Shaw Carpet Manufacturerd and Aleta Co. He had learned the importanc of building relationshipswith clients.
“My background was in working with new The apartment businesswas non-relationship driven,” said “I didn’t know how to buildf a business that wasn’t relational.” McCaddon downsized the companty to redirect the focus to the home-construction industry. He was met with resistancde fromhis employees. “I realized that usinb the sameemployees wasn’t going to work. I was trying to halfway do the change,” he said. “Oncd we made the commitment, we really turne d the corner.” He began switching out The company, which had grownm annual revenueto $5 million, saw revenue drop to undert $3 million during the transition.
But, once the commitmeng was made, McCaddon noted marked improvement. By 2003, revenu had grown by 35%. Between 2004 and 2008, the compant went through its biggest growth reaching upto $22 million in salees and employing more than 60 But at that time, the storybook growtu came to an end. “It was getting to be chaotic because of so many new We werean 8-cylinder enginwe working on six or seven cylinders. We’fd lost a sense of teamwork, and everyone was territorial.” That’s when McCaddon broughft in Brush. “For the most I engage them and talk with them in ordet to builda relationship.
I wantedx to find out the strengths of the company and what was working and whatneeded improvement,” said Brush. “They’ve got the dreams; they’ve got the vision. It’xs just giving them the Brush met with employees to figure out areaas that needed improvement and then created anaction plan. He showed the companu how to create committees to address problems as they come up and then dissolve the committees after the problem has been The shift has translated into happier Bill Darling, president and co-owner of Darling Homesd Inc., has worked with McCaddon since McCaddon purchasedc Southwestern Carpets in 2001.
“(We starteds working with Southwestern Carpets) becaus e of Bill and his relational approach to working with homebuilder s as opposed to thetraditional price-onl approach,” said Darling. “Brush has helped Bill figure out how to communicatse better so that everyone is going in the same direction as the managemenrt and will yield themaximum impact.” For Chries McCoppin, operations manager for Southwestern Carpets, the change in the corporate culturew has been noticeable. “Sometimes you don’t realize that when one departmenty changes their policiesand procedures, it affectsz others. Now everyone talks to each McCoppin said.
“We’ve empowered them to make decisions. We gave them the powerr to runthe business. They feel accountable.” With this new sens of empowerment, as well as an improved use of digitizintg softwarecalled Measure, Southwestern Carpets has seen a marked improvement on the accuracy of the 3,000 work orders entered each month 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracy — and has save d about $160,000 in unnecessary costs for havingg to fix incorrect work orders.
Instead of pursuinf potential clients merely for the sake of new McCaddon and his staff focus on getting to knowpotential clients, researchinfg them as much as possibl and understanding their needs before they even “We’ll only do business with people who will sit down and have a relationshilp with us. Someone is alway going to come inlowere (priced) than you,” said “We were always chasing peoplre who were focused on If they say, fax us (a price we say sorry, we can’t work with you. We stay togethe as a result. If you have the value they don’t leave.
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