Benefits of Reclaimed Wood?

There are several reasons why you may be intrigued with using reclaimed flooring for your home, office, or retail outlet.

• A floor made from antique wood has a unique beauty and defining character that cannot be found in newly sawn timber.
• Recycling wood is an environmentally responsible alternative to cutting down trees.
• Reclaimed wood has been transformed by nature and time into something unique that links us to our past.
• Every one of the reclaimed floors installed and finished by Madera Floors has a story to tell- that you can retell time and time again.
• Only the most stable timbers were used to build the original structures, supporting them for sometimes hundreds of years; so, you can be confident of the wood’s continued stability in the next phase of its life as a floor.
• Some wood, such as the American Chestnut, can only be found through reclaimed resources

I’d say that after four years of having employees in various numbers, I’ve learned you cannot make anyone care about quality by threatening them or forcing them. It’s not my style to be abrasive, but during the first year or two that I had employees I realized I was bad at hiring people who were a good fit for the business. I was worse at realizing that I should let them go once I realized that they weren’t a good fit. Now that I have had some really good employees for a while, I have a team that has a real interest in doing quality work.

I have but one secret that I’ve found to be essential for keeping harmony in quality with employees: a mutual respect between the owner and employees. Everyone who works at Modern Tech Floors has a very good skill set, and they’ve done lots of installations, sanding, and coating. The trick to having earned their respect is that they know that I also have an equivalent skill set, and I can and will jump in to help them through a job at any time. I call this “street credibility” (as they would say in the world of hip-hop). You think I’m joking, but honestly I’ve seen people jump into this business, purchase or start a wood floor company, and think that they can wing it. Generally speaking, most business owners who learn to become a perpetual student of the craft will make it after such a purchase. The rest always struggle to earn enough respect to deliver the best quality with employees.

Being complacent with your knowledge, not sharing your knowledge, and not learning from your employees is a big mistake. It leads to stagnation and only companies that are progressing in skills and service are going to make it through the next few years. Learning from your employees is important as well. Whether it is a skill in flooring or things I can do to improve the way I run the business and treat the employees, I keep my ear to the ground.

The single biggest piece advice of I’ve ever heard and yet the toughest pill to swallow is: “If something in your business isn’t working right, it’s probably you and not the people around you.” Think about it: If I hire people with the right attitude, then it’s my job to help them learn to become better, not yell at them for trying and failing because they haven’t learned a skill. If they don’t have the right attitude, then I made a bad hire. It sounds contradictory, but introspection is the hardest habit for a business owner and it’s the best way to earn and maintain respect from your team if you care about your business.