にほんブログ村
Hello. I’m Yasui, the president of a one-person company mainly engaged in inspections of high-pressure gas facilities.
Last fiscal year was terrible.
This year, I made up my mind: raise the utilization rate, no matter what.
The term is about to end, and I truly believe that focusing on this made all the difference.
I ended up spending more than half of each month working on-site.
Our business only generates revenue when we’re out in the field. Sitting in the office working on a PC usually doesn’t produce sales.
Estimates, scheduling, staffing—
all necessary tasks, but they don’t generate revenue for that day.
If there’s no revenue, labor costs still occur, and operating expenses still pile up. That day becomes a loss.
If too many of those days stack up, the losses accumulate—in other words, debt grows.
My core business is steady but not highly profitable. It’s the slow-and-steady type. So utilization rate is critical.
Yet I used to spend about half of my weekdays on desk work or internal preparations. Not that I was doing nothing—but one full day of desk work for every day of work in the field simply isn’t necessary. In reality, I was consuming too much time on non-revenue-generating tasks.
At a 50% utilization rate, you’re barely keeping up with repayment of accumulated losses.
So I needed to raise it.
In hindsight, three things may have been particularly effective.
First: Sales.
Not visiting clients’ offices constantly, but simply reaching out—saying, “If there’s anything, please let me know.”
By phone, or in person when we meet. Letting them know, “My schedule is fairly open.”
It occurred to me that people might assume we’re too busy. And if they assume that, they won’t even contact us.
When I actually asked, that turned out to be true in some cases.
“If I call, they’ll probably say they’re too busy,” so the call never happens.
You have to break that assumption yourself.
Second: Fill the gaps.
There are roughly two ways jobs get scheduled.
One is when the client drives the schedule—factory operations, major maintenance shutdowns, etc. In those cases, dates are fixed in advance, and we adjust to them.
The other is when scheduling is negotiable.
In those cases, we present our available dates, and if both sides align, the order is confirmed.
If you have work that can fill those small gaps between fixed projects, your utilization rate increases dramatically—especially if you have many smaller jobs.
Third: Become convenient.
This doesn’t mean letting yourself be taken advantage of.
It doesn’t mean losing leverage.
The hint is simple: convenient things get used.
People use online shopping not only because of price, but because it’s convenient.
Likewise, clients use our services because they see value and convenience.
If we can be trusted to handle everything, execute thoroughly, and communicate well so clients feel at ease—that’s convenience.
By polishing those aspects, clients feel it’s easy to work with us.
With small adjustments, work started coming in more smoothly.
Deepening relationships was also a big factor.
Mutually supportive business relationships are incredibly strong—and incredibly important. I was reminded of that again.
In the end, I didn’t increase utilization on my own.
Our product is service.
Maybe what truly matters is making the effort to better understand what service really means.
Thank you for reading to the end.
See you next time.
Lastly, please click below ♪
Nihon Blog Village – Management Blog
Nihon Blog Village
