Thank God it's Monday!

As Yoder Concrete Construction, LLC moves through its 19th year in business, we continue to look at who we are as a business and how we can improve what we do. In each business meeting we have this year, it seems our biggest need right now is on improving our business procedures and the business we are in called "serving people." Yes, we place concrete, and do a great job of it, but if we didn't have people as customers and as employees, we wouldn't be in business. We appreciate each and every person with which we come in contact. Do they know that?

The struggle is how to show that appreciation. It is too easy to push forward to the next bid, the next project, paying that stack of invoices... How often do we all get caught up in running our business without stopping to say "Thank you! You are appreciated!" I think business owners as a whole do a better job at thanking their customers for their business, whether it is through a thank you card or just verbalizing the words after a sale, but do we do a good job at thanking out employees for the work that they do?

This past winter I started reading a book entitled, Thank God It's Monday, by Roxanne Emmerich. It was recommended to me by Kip at Peachtree Books & Company in Bellefontaine, OH. The book cover touts "How to create a workplace you and your customers love." It is an easy read, but as business started picking up, I put the book aside and moved on to more important things...What?! More important things?...What is more important that our employees and our customers? I have pulled this book back out and started reading again.

We want to make Yoder Concrete Construction, LLC, a place where people enjoy coming to work, and yes, even on Mondays. How do we do it? That is what I am seeking. With the economy being down and our employment level being down from what it was a few years ago, now is the time to review and make changes without upsetting too many apple carts. But that is also part of the problem. If you don't make changes, you will always be the same. We don't want to be the same. We want to improve.

Do you have any time weathered suggestions on how you show appreciation to customer and especially employees that are truly appreciated? What has your employer done for you that made you feel appreciated on an ongoing basis? I'd love to hear from you.