Can Your Small Composites Business Operate Without You?

It’s nice to feel needed, but a small business that depends too heavily on its owner’s day-to-day involvement can actually inhibit growth. “What happens is that small business folks don’t really have a business. It’s more like a 24-hour-a-day job,” says Douglas Caudle, president of Piedmont Fiberglass, Taylorsville, N.C.

Caudle says that owners who get too involved in every aspect of the business—from production to sales to operations—don’t have the time or energy to plan for the future. He’ll share ways to go from working in a business to working on a business during his educational session “Can Your Small Composites Business Operate Without You?” at C+P 2009.

The two most important things an owner can do are hire the right people and create a process-based operations plan. “Evaluate your staff. Look for folks that can run with the ball,” Caudle says. Piedmont underwent its own two-year process of finding the right people and documenting its processes. “Our company was a one-person operation. One person handled everything from sales to ordering toilet paper to production and shipping.”

Now the company has plant managers and supervisors in the production department and a dealer liaison to handle sales. It also has its processes written down so that when people change, the system remains in place. “A critical part is having these systems written out, including how we ship things and package things. It’s taking the person out of it and operating according to the system.”

Caudle’s session takes place Thursday, January 15 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, click here.