We grew the business—and stopped trying to carry everything ourselves.
Hustle got us this far. It wasn't going to get us where we wanted to go.
There were times when we didn't have enough money to make payroll. Somehow, we always figured it out. We grew by hustling.
But as the company got bigger, that became harder to hold together. Customer information lived in Robert's head. Operations ran on sticky notes and whiteboards. We were constantly scrambling to keep track of what was happening. We knew we needed more structure if we wanted to keep growing.
We started seeing how much time and information we were losing.
Armando was actually the one who found LeanScaper. Robert went to an event, came back convinced we needed to join, and we signed up for the Accelerator.
It changed the way we looked at the business. We started putting more structure around meetings, SOPs, job costing, huddles and scorecards. We started using Lean Boards so more of the team could see what was happening. LeanScaper AI became part of that too. Instead of chasing down answers, we can see what crews need, whether huddles were completed and where something needs attention.
We grew by $1.6 million, and the business no longer depends on us.
Revenue increased by $1.6 million in our first year.
In our first year with LeanScaper, we grew to $4.6 million—an increase of about $1.6 million. But we're also operating differently underneath that growth. We're looking more closely at the numbers, getting better at job costing and becoming more selective about the work we take on.
There was a time when we felt like we had to say yes because we needed the work. Now we're turning jobs down when they're not the right fit.
We can finally see what's happening across the company.
Before, Robert didn't always know what was happening in operations, and operations didn't always know what Robert was doing. Communication is a night-and-day difference now.
Through huddles, Lean Boards and the systems we've built, more information is visible to everyone instead of living in somebody's head. That means fewer things slip through the cracks—and fewer decisions have to come back to us.
Our sales team stopped chasing the wrong work.
We used to go look at jobs because somebody called. Now we start with a discovery call and figure out whether they're actually the kind of customer we want to work with. That one change is saving our sales team roughly 20–30 hours every month.
Instead of driving around looking at jobs we never should have visited, they can spend that time building relationships with the customers we actually want.
Robert can leave without everything coming back to him.
Back in the day, if Robert left town, his phone would blow up. Where's this? Where's that? What do we do here? On a recent trip, he was gone for a couple of days and got maybe one or two calls.
More people have the information they need now. Robert can disconnect, spend time with his family and work on the business instead of always being pulled back into it.
More people can carry the business now.
The company is growing, but more of the responsibility is being shared with the people around us. Our leadership team is stronger. Information is more visible. People can make decisions and keep things moving without everything coming back to Robert or Armando.
For Robert, there's a lot of peace of mind in realizing the business doesn't have to be him. And for both of us, one of the best parts of growing R.E. & Sons is watching other people grow with it. That's the kind of company we want to keep building.
