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

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Bill McCaddon has stripped Southwestern Carpetsz down and recreated it a couple of times sincer purchasing it from Don Lynchin 2001. When he bought the flooring company, it specialized in removinyg and replacing carpets in apartmenta betweenrental occupation. The Lewisville companhy was producing annual revenueof $5 but McCaddon found the business too impersonal because it was driven by product salese and not on building relationships with So he decided to switch focuss to the more relationship-centric business of providinf flooring solutions to new home-construction projects, which includes hardwoocd floors, carpeting, and backsplash and tile installation.
The wholesald company saw dramatic growth as a with annual revenueof $22 million in 2007. But the growthb was so rapid and so intense that managers were losing control of the direction the companywas heading. So in he enlisted Don a consultant with TheRenova Corp., to help brinvg new energy to his McCaddon’s sense of direction and leadership abilities come from his experienced as a manufacturer’s representative for 18 years at companies like Shaw Carpetf Manufacturer and Aleta Co. He had learnedx the importance of building relationshipswith “My background was in working with new The apartment business was non-relationship driven,” said McCaddon.
“I didn’t know how to builxd a businessthat wasn’t relational.” McCaddoh downsized the company to redirect the focus to the home-constructiobn industry. He was met with resistance fromhis employees. “I realizedd that using the sameemployeesz wasn’t going to work. I was tryingt to halfway do the change,” he “Once we made the commitment, we reallyu turned the corner.” He began switching out The company, which had grown annual revenueto $5 saw revenue drop to under $3 million durint the transition. But, once the commitmenrt was made, McCaddon noted marked improvement. By 2003, revenuw had grown by 35%.
Between 2004 and the company went through its biggesgtgrowth spurt, reaching up to $22 million in sales and employingg more than 60 workers. But at that the storybook growth came toan end. “Itt was getting to be chaotic because of so many new We werean 8-cylinder engine workiny on six or seven We’d lost a sense of teamwork, and everyone was territorial.” That’s when McCaddon broughgt in Brush. “For the most part, I engager them and talk with them in order to builrda relationship.
I wanted to find out the strength s of the company and what was workingh and whatneeded improvement,” said “They’ve got the they’ve got the It’s just giving them the opportunity.” Brushb met with employees to figure out areas that needed improvement and then creater an action plan. He showed the company how to creates committees to address problems as they come up and then dissolvs the committees after the problem hasbeen handled. The shifft has translated intohappier customers. Bill president and co-owner of Darling Homeas Inc., has worked with McCaddon since McCaddonj purchased Southwestern Carpetsin 2001.
“(Wee started working with Southwestern because of Bill and his relational approac to working with homebuildersz as opposed to thetraditional price-only approach,” said “Brush has helped Bill figure out how to communicats better so that everyone is going in the same directioh as the management and will yield the maximum For Chris McCoppin, operations manager for Southwestern Carpets, the changer in the corporate culture has been noticeable. “Sometimesd you don’t realize that when one departmenrt changes their policiesand procedures, it affectds others. Now everyone talks to each other,” McCoppib said. “We’ve empowered them to make decisions.
We gave them the powefr to runthe business. They feel With this new senseof empowerment, as well as an improvef use of digitizing software called Southwestern Carpets has seen a marked improvement on the accuracty of the 3,000 work orders entered each mont — 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracy — and has savefd about $160,000 in unnecessary costs for havinbg to fix incorrect work Instead of pursuing potential clients merely for the sake of new McCaddon and his staff focus on getting to know potentialp clients, researching them as much as possiblre and understanding their needs beforwe they even meet.
“We’ll only do businessw with people who will sit down and have a relationshilwith us. Someone is always goinfg to come inlower (priced) than said McCaddon. “We were alway chasing people who were focusedon price. If they say, fax us (a pricse sheet), we say sorry, we can’gt work with you. We stay together as a If you have thevalue relationship, they don’t