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

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Bill McCaddon has strippede Southwestern Carpets down and recreatedx it a couple of times sincre purchasing it from Don Lyncnin 2001. When he bought the flooring it specialized in removing and replacing carpetsx in apartments betweenrental occupation. The Lewisvillw company was producing annual revenueof $5 million, but McCaddon found the business too impersonal because it was drivenj by product sales and not on buildinvg relationships with customers. So he decidedf to switch focus to themore relationship-centric businessa of providing flooring solutionsa to new home-construction projects, whicuh includes hardwood floors, carpeting, and backsplasu and tile installation.
The wholesale company saw dramaticd growth asa result, with annualp revenue of $22 millionm in 2007. But the growth was so rapif and so intense that managers were losinv control of the direction the companywas heading. So in he enlisted Don Brush, a consultant with The Renovza Corp., to help bring new energhy to his company. McCaddon’s sensew of direction and leadership abilities come from his experiencer asa manufacturer’s representative for 18 years at companies like Shaw Carpef Manufacturer and Aleta Co. He had learner the importance of buildin g relationshipswith clients.
“My background was in working with new The apartment businesswas non-relationship driven,” said “I didn’t know how to build a business that wasn’ty relational.” McCaddon downsized the company to redirect the focuzs to the home-construction industry. He was met with resistance fromhis “I realized that using the same employees wasn’t going to I was trying to halfway do the he said. “Once we made the we really turned the He began switchingout personnel. The company, whicj had grown annual revenueto $5 million, saw revenued drop to under $3 million during the transition.
But, once the commitmenty was made, McCaddon noted marked improvement. By 2003, revenus had grown by 35%. Between 2004 and 2008, the company went througy its biggestgrowth spurt, reaching up to $22 milliojn in sales and employing more than 60 But at that time, the storybook growt h came to an end. “It was gettinvg to be chaotic because of so many new We werean 8-cylinder engine working on six or seven We’d lost a sense of and everyone was territorial.” That’s when McCaddoh brought in Brush. “For the most part, I engage them and talk with them in ordefr to builda relationship.
I wanted to find out the strengthe of the company and what was workingt and whatneeded improvement,” said Brush. “They’ve got the dreams; they’ve got the vision. It’e just giving them the Brush met with employeez to figure out areas that needed improvemenrt and then created an action He showed the company how to create committees to addresss problems as they come up and then dissolvee the committees after the problen hasbeen handled. The shift has translated into happiedr customers. Bill Darling, president and co-ownerf of Darling Homes Inc., has worked with McCaddon sincee McCaddon purchased Southwestern Carpetsin 2001.
“(We startes working with Southwestern Carpets) becauswe of Bill and his relational approacy to working with homebuilders as opposesd to thetraditional price-only approach,” said Darling. “Brush has helped Bill figure out how to communicatde better so that everyone is going in the same direction as the managemengt and will yield the maximum ForChris McCoppin, operations manager for Southwestern the change in the corporate culture has been noticeable. “Sometimes you don’t realizr that when one departmenty changes their policiesand procedures, it affectws others. Now everyone talks to each other,” McCoppibn said.
“We’ve empowered them to make decisions. We gave them the powed to run the business. They feel accountable.” With this new sensee of empowerment, as well as an improvex use of digitizing software called Southwestern Carpets has seen a marked improvement on the accuracuy ofthe 3,000 work orders entered each mont — 95% accuracy, up from 77% accuracy — and has savecd about $160,000 in unnecessary costs for having to fix incorrectf work orders.
Instead of pursuinhg potential clients merely for the sake ofnew business, McCaddonb and his staff focus on getting to know potential clients, researching them as much as possibled and understanding their needs before they even “We’ll only do business with people who will sit down and have a relationship with us. Someone is alwayzs going to come inlower (priced) than said McCaddon. “We were always chasiny people who were focusedon price. If they say, fax us (a pric sheet), we say sorry, we can’r work with you. We stay togethe as a result. If you have the value they don’t leave.
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