The Most
Important Asset
of Your Business
By Gordon Van Wechel
Ask the typical business owner what is the most important or valuable asset in their company and you'll
typically get an answer related to their real estate, business equipment, or inventory. Some will think it's a
"trick question" and reply "my employees," assuming that is the politically correct thing to say.
Those are all good guesses, but wrong. The single most important asset of your business is a list of your past
customers with their contact information and your current warm prospect list.
Far too often I talk with contractors who cannot put their hands on a list of the customers over the past several
years, with their contact information and a brief summary of what work was done for them. If a fire destroyed
your office, a flood wiped out your inventory, some sort of virus monster destroyed your computers; I could
rebuild your business overnight with an accurate customer list.
I'm occasionally asked to help value a company. Maybe the owner is thinking of selling, or partners are
determining the value of their respective interests. I always ask to see the past customer and current prospect
lists first. Yes, I’m also interested in last years sales and the value of fixed assets, but if the business is going to
continue to grow then I believe the most important asset is your list.
If you don't currently have an up to date list of your clients for the past two or three years, make it a priority
to have someone on your team put it together. Implement a process to update the list monthly with current
customers. Then make sure that a copy of the list is stored in at least two places, one of them outside your
office. If tragedy strikes and you lose your physical "assets," with your lists you can be back in business
immediately.
8 Today’s Roofer / June 2015