Insane Hydraulics
Bold and audacious blog about fluid power
I have zero formal education in regard to what I do for a living, which is industrial oil hydraulics, subdivided into hands-on, projects and sales. My curriculum vitae would never be considered for a position that requires some kind of a degree and all "big" job titles are out of my reach, but I don't mind this at all! I still can not believe that I got so incredibly lucky that someone with a well-established business trusted me with an entire branch office to be responsible for (to be honest - it's more of a garage than a full-blown office, and it's only two people, but it is still on the company's website, so it totally counts) especially given my schooling-free background and my ADHD (or whatever it is called these days) which makes me the most unorganized person of Portugal (and probably the whole Iberian Peninsula, too).
The technical part of this business took a while to learn, mostly from nuggets of knowledge I would pluck from here and there and my own (numerous) blunders - but when you bang your head against a wall for long enough, the bricks eventually crack and fall and suddenly you begin to see what's on the other side and realize that a lot of folks around you still have pretty thick walls of their own right in front of them and no desire for a headache (at which point you start a blog with the most ridiculous, non-politically-correct and search-engine-hostile domain name of "insanehydraulics" simply because of how much all of this is driving you insane).
Anyhow, what I am trying to say is that I somehow managed to work up through the ranks to the point where I was entrusted with dealing directly with clients, and aside from taking care of their hydraulics, it became my responsibility to take care of their quotes and bills, and to make sure the company profits from whatever we choose to do - and I must say that just like with the technical part, the business part of... well... this business, took quite a lot of "head knocking" as well!
So, in this post, I want to share a couple of "business revelations" that I learned the hard way:
This includes a) paying on time/at all and b) keeping promises.
I was raised in a traditional family with conservative views. I was taught to pay what I owe, always keep my word, and never ask for favors. Hell, I was even taught to give up my seat to anyone who needs it more than I do and open doors to ladies (am I even allowed to say this anymore?), and so I was utterly shocked by how companies can owe other companies huge sums of money in incredibly overdue bills and still demand more product or service with a "straight face." Everything inside of me screams when I even think about owing someone money and not paying it back on time, but in business, it seems to be a common practice.
And, of course, when I entered the sales with my naive ideas, I got had many times! I suppose this is bound to happen to every fishling entering shark-filled waters. All I can say in my defense is that I (almost) never got fooled twice by the same guy - but there's always that first time, and it always hurts! This can't harm established companies with sizable turnovers, but I can totally see how a couple of such bad actors can kill a startup.
I've seen folks pay straight several times in a row and then take a bunch of stuff with promises to wire the money "later that day" to never be seen again. I've seen people send their employees to pick up goods without giving them any means to pay for the stuff they're picking up but with indications that "it's super urgent, and a whole bunch of baby dolphins will starve to death if the said part is not handed over immediately!" I've seen companies place super-urgent orders for expensive pumps and then never collect them because "...Funny thing, man! It turned out that it wasn't the pump after all! Who could have known the excavator was in economy mode, right?!! I mean - you can always return it, can you not?.." I've seen companies demand you keep an exclusive stock of expensive consumables and then consign it to oblivion, like "...Oh... Those filters? No, man, we don't use them no more. How many have you got? Sixty? That's bad, man! I surely hope you find someone who still uses this crap!.. "
I could probably spend another couple of hours listing things that I've seen and that are best described by the word "scam" - but that's not the point. The point is - you must be prepared for people to take advantage of you in any way that you allow them to. We are primates, and opportunism is in our DNA, so you can't beat nature.
This is another one that took me a while to get used to. And once again, it stems from traditional education that teaches us that people are supposed to be responsible.
Say you make a stellar service call and forget to bill it because you're too busy (this is a polite way of saying unorganized). The company that you so diligently and professionally provided service to now owes you - but if you think that they will call and remind you to send them a bill, you are so wrong! Nobody does the right thing in business because nobody has time for it! So, if somebody owes you money - you have to remind them about it over and over until they pay you or until you categorize them as someone you'll never do business with again unless they pay upfront.
If your product or service is top notch but you charge a very modest price for it because you are too shy to ask people for money (I struggled a lot with this one, I really did) - your client will pay what you asked (and probably think that you're a sucker). If your product sucks and you ask too much for it - your client will still pay what you asked. So, never be afraid to raise your prices and charge top dollar for top service. The next one, actually, comes directly from this one:
There's a well-known mechanical service company nearby that has been working with us for a couple of decades now, and when our branch opened - I had numerous clients complain to me about how prohibitively high their prices were:
"...I asked them for a quote to adapt this system to one of my trucks, and you wouldn't believe how much they are charging! A fortune! For what? Installing a PTO and a pump? And an oil tank? And a DCV? And a remote control? And a bunch of them hoses and fittings? Rip-offs they are, I tell you! I could do this myself in a weekend if I wanted to! I just... don't want to!.."
Of course, feeling like the company would immediately go bankrupt if I didn't take on each and every service that popped up I would accept them all, and naturally would offer a courtesy discount as soon as a client would "hint" at it. Nothing good came out of this - I ended up super overworked, and sales numbers didn't go up like at all! And you know what's really funny? The other company - the one that had everyone complaining about their high prices - never lacked work, and actually expanded like crazy over these years! Never forget - if you have the fame of being expensive, only the folks with money show up!
I remember seeing business owners pull up in brand-new BMWs or Audis and thinking to myself - "Now this fellow surely made it!" That was, of course, before I started dealing with them firsthand, and you know what? Guys with the latest and biggest trucks are often the ones who end up going bankrupt and owing the most! Do you know what I look at now? I look at employees' apparel, EPIs, and production equipment - i.e. the company's image and stuff that makes money - machinery, and tools - if this stuff looks premium and well taken care of, then you are most likely dealing with something solid. Don't get me wrong - I love expensive toys - they just do not impress me anymore.
I used to think that nailing that one "fat" client was the holy grail of business - you get one, and then you are set for life! Well... It's complicated. Biggest companies are often monopolies in a way and thus are the worst to deal with because of their inherent over-complicated bureaucracy and the absence of any leverage from your side - you can't really threaten them with much because usually, these big boys have suppliers lining up just to put a foot in their door and not many things can be called a truly unique product - so your spot will be taken as soon as you even think about going. So yes - if you choose to work with large clients - be prepared for dealing with a lot of crap that does not make sense. In my opinion - this is not for small companies or start-ups who can't wait for 90 days for a payment and then another 90 days because there was a 0.01€ discrepancy between the approved quote and your bill due to the way their managing software rounds numbers. Big boys play best with other big boys.
You wouldn't believe how many times I sourced and then re-sold expensive components just by using the web browser and email. People actually pay twice as much for stuff that one can source online just because they don't have time for it - this is a fact. This is capitalism in a nutshell - you provide a service, and you get paid for it - there's no shame in helping a client meet with a product they are after for a price. But when you are providing an hourly-billed service - that's a whole other kettle of fish for a single-tech operation such as ours. As it turns out - when you work the work, you do not sell! So, the days when I thought I would outwork everyone just by putting in insane hours are long gone now. When you see that you can make as much profit from a single sale as from a week of cleaning sh#t in a mine, you realize that, probably, devoting most of your effort to "doing the manly and respectable hard work" is not the best of choices - that is - when you have to present numbers at the end of every month, because the only thing a business needs are, really, the numbers.
You have to be a good tech if you want to be efficient at troubleshooting and fixing hydraulic equipment, but you don't really need to be an all-knowing hydraulic guru if you want to earn money within a hydraulic business. I thought that knowing all the ins and outs of this (beautiful) technology was imperative for success, but the more I worked in this field, the more I saw that the best performers (by "best performers" I mean guys that earn the most money) are actually pretty mediocre as technicians. They all are, however, great communicators - and if you want to place a bet on this industry and win, you need soft skills just as much as hard skills, probably even more. For a record - I suck at communicating, but I am doing my best to improve every day.
Or at least that's the word that comes to mind whenever I get to visit an enterprise with a hundred-plus employees. And when it comes to a thousand-plus employees... even "astronomical" does not cut it! It is quite possible that it is just me - because when I see an object in disuse, my mind rushes to think about thousands of ways it could still be useful (and profitable), and when I come across "tradition-based" maintenance practices applied to all sorts of hydraulic equipment - I want to curl up into a ball and cry... There's no way to fix this, so I learned to live with it. Consider this a wealth distribution - when money is wasted, it still ends up in somebody's pocket sooner or later.
I used to say "yes" to everything and ended up burnt out and with a completely unbalanced lifestyle. This road leads nowhere, believe me! It took me a long time to realize that when you reach 100% of your "productive capacity" accepting more work will not bring more profit no matter how much you strive to optimize your processes - it will only lengthen the waiting line for your clients, and, quite obviously, bring more stress to your life. So, knowing when to say "no" to new orders and even prospective clients is a necessary skill. Now, an obvious question would be - but why don't you increase your productive capacity then or, maybe, unload your workload to third parties? This is a totally valid and logical question, but sometimes it is just not possible.
I would say that about once a month I hear about this or that "huge project" that is bound to make all participating parties millionaires, or a new potential client with "extremely deep pockets". I used to get so excited when I heard these beautiful fairy tales of wealth and prosperity.
"...Soon there will be a gold mine right next to here! They have already been core-drilling for samples!.."
"...A new multi-million container terminal is being built and they will require hydraulic stuff like 24/7!..."
"...The new international airport project has finally been approved, and you know what it means for us, right? Money money money!.."
"...The mine has just approved the installation of dozens of power packs that you designed, dude! Can you imagine how much we could make if all the mines in the world did that?!!!..."
"...Our company has hundreds of ____ (insert a random piece of hydraulic equipment here), so you must realize what an important client we may become for your company! All we need is your biggest discount and your longest line of credit, and, of course, your undivided attention!..."
You get the picture, right? Do you know how many of the hundreds (if not thousands) of such "projects" have been concertized? So far - about... zero. So, when I hear about the "next big thing," I just say: "Aha... Yeah... I'll keep an eye on that," and then get back to whatever I was doing.
I just realized that, just as always, I ended up ranting "till I couldn't no more, "so I'll stop, at least for now, but I can't promise that I will not get back to this topic in the future!