Jody Shilan, Editor

One of the biggest mistakes I see contractors make once their business begins to grow is to start looking for that perfect "Right Hand Man". The "go to" guy. The guy who is going to be at your command and solve all of your problems. Essentially a clone of yourself.

Someone who will perform all of your responsibilities as well as you (if not better), freeing you up to focus on more important things like selling work, managing the finances or staying on top of quality control. If only you could find him everything would be perfect. Well I have some good news and some bad news.

First the bad news. Like the mythical unicorn, the quest for the perfect right hand man is a fable. Folklore created by your competition to keep you distracted from the plain and simple truth that you will never find this "perfect employee" unless you do one simple thing. --

That's right my friend. Your right hand man is you! The best thing about this fact is that you've known him for many, many years, through thick and thin and you certainly know he has the best interests of you and your company. But even more importantly, he's standing right in front of you.

Hooray? Now before you start getting depressed as though I just told you there's no such thing as Santa Clause or thinking to yourself, "OK Jody I get it and I'm with you, but truthfully how the hell does this help me?

Well this is in fact very good news. It's actually great news. Now instead of being distracted and wasting your time looking for a right hand man what you should be focused on is looking for a "left hand man".

What do I mean by this?

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