Teeco Solutions Oct 2017

Teeco Solutions Oct 2017

Offering the Best in Tent Washing & Drying Machines

www.TeecoSolutions.com

ORGANIZATION IS KEY

WHAT THE ARMED FORCES TAUGHT ME ABOUT BUSINESS

When you think of our armed services, the first things that come to your mind might be freedom, power, and sacrifice. Though I have never been in the service, many of my friends have served, and I have deep respect for those who make the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. Through my loved ones, I have learned more about the ways in which our armed forces function. Now when I think of the defining characteristics of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, I think of organization. One of the main aspects of any successful business is organization. I have worked with and alongside businesses that put very little emphasis on order and are satisfied with being cumbersome. However, slow, inefficient business practices hurt the bottom line. I’ve been in and around the tent rental business for 20 years now, and I have seen firsthand what organization reform can do for an unsuccessful business. I ensure my own success by striving for order at Teeco Solutions. When disaster strikes in our world, our troops mobilize and arrive where they are called in a matter of days. Think about how much effort it takes to organize thousands of troops and quickly get them to where they are needed. Having owned a tent rental company, I can sympathize with the stories our customers often share about days when they cannot even get a truck with two men down the street to make a delivery on time. Every business owner’s goal should be to operate like our armed services and strive for efficiency and order in all business transactions. The key to getting your employees on the same page and operating efficiently on a consistent basis is to make sure your employees understand your goals, mission, and vision. Every

business owner wants their company to grow. However, fast growth is the best way for your goals, mission, and vision to get lost in translation or miscommunicated. That is why it is so important to have leaders on your team who can communicate your goals to all employees, new and old. If you team is properly trained and your supervisors can effectively communicate your vision, there is little room for error. To win a war, a sergeant relays a strategy to a private. To ensure success, you have to communicate your vision to your team and lay out the exact steps it will take to attain your goals. Everyone must be clued in to your mission. Otherwise, your team will be standing around and waiting for you to tell them what to do next. If they understand the mission, they’ll know what to do. Once you have established expectations for every role in your company, they become easy to follow and pass on. People can change and roles can change, but if you have a reliable team who can communicate your goals, your bottom line will not suffer. If there is not a clear understanding of your company’s purpose, you won’t experience growth, and your bottom line will take a substantial hit. From my own perspective, when everyone is on the same page at Teeco Solutions, I can rely on my team, and I don’t have to micromanage every single aspect of the business. I know my team will get things done correctly and efficiently according to our mission and vision. The organization and efficiency of the armed services make a great model for your own business, and once you clearly communicate your mission to your employees, you will reap the benefits.

– Steve Arendt

Contact Us • [email protected] • 877-712-9172 • 1

Published by The Newsletter Pro • www.NewsletterPro.com

By the time the last flame of the Great Chicago Fire fizzled out on October 10, 1871, 300 people were dead, a third of Chicago’s population were homeless, and 4 square miles of city were destroyed. Reflecting on the disaster begs the question: Was it the most bizarre tragedy ever? By October, 1871, Chicago only had 1 inch of rain all year, which is far less than the annual average of 35 inches. While the exact cause is unclear, historians commonly accept that a cow belonging to a Mrs. O’Leary started the fire in a barn on DeKoven Street by kicking over a lantern. Firemen responded immediately, but a watchman sent them to the wrong place by mistake, giving the unusual Southwest winds time to send the fire roaring toward the heart of the city. Most of Chicago’s buildings were made of wood, and the newly developed tar on the rooftops was incredibly flammable.

As the fire grew, the firefighters hoped the Chicago River would be a natural firebreak, but the city’s riverside had recently gained more lumber and coal yards, causing the fire to jump the river. As the air over the city overheated, it came into contact with cooler air, and a spinning fire tornado developed. After the fire jumped the river, a burning piece of timber lodged on the roof of the city’s waterworks building, destroying it and halting the city’s water supply. By the time the fire died over a day later, 73 miles of roads and $4 billion (in 2017 dollars) of property were destroyed. All this came about because of a cow, a drought, a bad watchman, some short-lived building materials, and a literal fire tornado. Modern safeguards wouldn’t allow this to happen today, which is very fortunate. If the disaster happened the same way today, it wouldn’t displace 1,000 people; it would displace 1 million.

AND INCREASE PROFITS

Every entrepreneur shares the fear of losing their best people. Hiring the right employees is difficult and expensive. Replacing a valuable team member is even harder. Limiting turnover won’t just benefit your company culture and productivity; it will help raise your company’s bottom line. For all these reasons, you should consistently seek out ways to keep your employees happy, motivated, and committed. Obviously, competitive pay and benefits are a must when it comes to retaining your top talent. You could be the best boss in the world, but if you’re not willing to pay the market average in your area, your employees will go somewhere that does. That said, there are many other motivators that you can offer that won’t raise costs to an unsustainable extent. LEAD, ACKNOWLEDGE, INSPIRE “The best way to motivate is to lead by example and encourage creativity,” says Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Company. If you’re a passionate, engaged boss, your staff will recognize your effort. Challenging your team to innovate and giving them credit for their ideas will make them feel supported and acknowledged. If an employee wants to help improve your business, empower them to take charge. When a team member feels like they contribute, they are much more likely to be satisfied with their work.

A JOYFUL WORKPLACE The environment you create is another huge factor in limiting the churn of employees. If employees love coming to work every day, they will be hesitant to leave. Finding a great atmosphere is hard, and employees won’t sacrifice it for the unknown. How do you go about creating this type of workplace? Well, dreary and anonymous is the wrong way to go. Employees should feel like they can bring their personality to the job and not be worried about looking over their shoulder constantly. Ted Mathas, head of insurance giant New York Life, notes, “When I was appointed CEO, my biggest concern was, would this [job] allow me to truly say what I think? I needed to be myself to do a good job. Everybody does.” If you acknowledge wins and create an enticing, inclusive company culture, you’ll notice the mood of your staff lift. Nobody wants to work at a place that makes them dread the sound of their alarm in the morning. Don’t be afraid to ask employees what they need. It’s better to find out before their exit interview — when it’s already too late.

2

Dr. James Levins of the National Institutes of Health made headlines when he announced, after 15 years of research, that “sitting is the new smoking.” Dr. Levine determined sitting for prolonged hours leads to obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes, and can increase the likelihood of developing certain forms of cancer. To many people, the answer was clear: Just stand up! Standing desks have become all the rage as office workers everywhere switch from sitting in one place all day to standing in one place all day. And the benefits have been … almost imperceptible. While you do burn more calories standing than you do sitting, the fact remains you’re still not moving. Keeping your body in the same position for hours is what leads to all of those health risks Dr. Levins warns about, whether you sit or stand. It would be more accurate to say sedentary is the new smoking. Now, don’t think you can erase the damage from being sedentary at work by hitting the gym when you clock out. Research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that, among individuals who spend most of their day in a sedentary position, those who engaged in regular physical activity were only 30 percent less likely to die from sedentary- related health problems than those who didn’t exercise at all. So, what are we supposed to do? Seventy percent of Americans have jobs that require them to remain confined to a desk. If switching to a career that keeps you up and moving all day isn’t a possibility, how can we cure our sedentary problems? The answer isn’t standing; it’s moving. Human beings are meant to be up and moving around! That’s why staying still all day hurts us so much. A desk job doesn’t have to destroy your health. If you need to send an IM or a brief email, walk over and deliver the message in person instead. Take phone calls while walking around or, better yet, conduct meetings while on a walk outside. Even periodic desk exercises can be beneficial.

TEECO’S TIPS Little Gestures Go a Long Way

During the busy season, you and the people who work for you are required to work quickly, putting in intense, long hours for several consecutive days at a time. As the owner of a company, you obviously have an extra incentive to keep up this demanding pace. Your workers, however, do not share that incentive. After four or five days, morale begins to droop. Consider the following: • Try to avoid sporadic bursts of intense labor. Do your best to make sure the workflow at the jobsite stays as consistent as possible. This sense of consistency provides a sense of belonging and purpose to your employees.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you sit or stand. Make sure to move around at least once an hour to avoid serious damage to your health.

• Make sure your crew has a large, fresh container of ice water each day. They will notice the effort.

• And finally, a well-placed and sincere thank-you goes a long way. Praise and recognize the effort of each individual. Occasionally, you might want to provide lunch for the crews at the jobsite. These are little things that will make a big difference to your employees!

3

SPECIAL PARTNERSHIP

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT? A load of tents can be washed in as little as 20 minutes. It could take up to 90 minutes to get the dirtiest tops in your inventory back to white. When the machine arrives, you will simply plug it in and attach two hoses. Most companies are up and running within one hour of delivery. The hot water heater is included — AND enough soap to wash 15,000 square feet of tops. Most tent rental companies are faced with a myriad of costs to keep tent tops clean. Throughout the year, you must pay people to scrub them. After a rainy weekend, it always costs a little more to get everything clean in time for the next weekend. And, returning to a customer’s site to clean a top is never a pleasant cost to incur. The cost of not having a washing machine is easily more than $9,500 a year.

GUARANTEES • 5 YEAR PARTS AND WORKMANSHIP: YOU WILL NOT PAY FOR PARTS FOR 5 YEARS. • 3 YEAR TRADE-UP: IF YOU GROW, WE WILL APPLY YOU WHAT YOU PAID FOR YOUR MACHINE TOWARD THE COST OF A LARGER TEECO TENT WASHER. • 90 DAYS MONEY BACK: IF YOU ARE NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH YOUR PURCHASE, RETURN IT FOR YOUR MONEY BACK. Done with irate calls? Dirty tents? Having no inventory in the busy season? Do what over 250 companies across the world have done and partner with someone who can help take some of the pain out of growing your company. Get started now! This offer is only good for the first 5 machines ordered by November 30th, 2017. Visit www.tentcleaningmachine.com to find out more.

Deep down you know the irate caller will probably not be a repeat customer because you’ve seen it happen before. And it gets worse: It’s a proven fact that, on average, an unhappy customer will tell 10 of their friends about their bad experience. Maybe you send someone out to clean the tent and make the customer happy but the sting of the phone call — and the potential fallout — lingers. Secretly, you know this will not be the last time a customer complains about a dirty tent top. Most tent rental business owners have had this feeling at one time or another. In 1997 we started a tent rental company, and within two years we were faced with the same reality. Then one day we made a vow to never offer a customer a dirty tent again. Since that day over 250 tent rental companies across the world have used the tent washing machines we developed to eliminate the hassles of dirty tents in their business. The key to success is to never let a dirty top leave your building. You may be a bit skeptical that this can be accomplished, but we know this is possible. Most companies who own a

mighty mini tent washing machine report a cost of $9,500 per year to purchase. MIGHTY MINI OWNER SINCE 2010

Read more about our special partnership offer on the other side.

—STEVE TRAUBE, TRAUBE TENTS AND STRUCTURES

www.TeecoSolutions.com Toll Free 877-712-9172 [email protected]

538 Leffingwell Ave, Unit C St. Louis, MO 63122

PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411

FOLLOW US!

Offering the best in tent washing & drying machines

PAGE 1 Organization Is Key

PAGE 2 Is the Great Chicago Fire History’s Most Bizarre Tragedy? How to Keep Employees Happy and Increase Profits PAGE 3 Teeco Tips: Little Gestures Go A long Way How to Fight the Negative Physical Effects of Your Desk Job PAGE 4 America’s Spookiest Locations

Halloween is, without question, America’s spookiest holiday. Traveling haunted house experiences crop up all over the country beginning in October, but they can’t hold a candle to locations that have long been believed to be home to paranormal inhabitants. If you’re feeling extra brave this month, check out these “haunted” locations. AMERICA’S SPOOKIEST LOCATIONS A medium from Boston told Sarah Winchester that her family was haunted by every person ever killed by a Winchester rifle. Given that her husband and infant daughter had recently passed away, she took his words to heart. To build a home for the spirits, she began construction on what is now known as the Winchester Mystery House. She continued building the house for her entire life, 24 hours a day for 38 years. The home features many design choices that lend themselves to a spectral presence. There is a seance room, doors that open to brick walls, staircases that lead directly into the ceiling, and acoustics that channel sound into secret listening places. During the Halloween season, the house offers candlelit tours that are sure to send shivers up your spine. Winchester Mystery House San Jose, California

Pine Barrens New Jersey

A heavily forested area dotted with ghost towns and abandoned mills is going to be creepy as a matter of course. New Jersey’s Pine Barrens has all of this, plus the added fear factor of it being the spiritual home of a local legend: The Jersey Devil. The myth states that the Jersey Devil was born in 1735 and quickly grew horns, wings, and hooves. It has been spotted in the forest ever since, even lending its name to the state’s professional hockey team. Campers in the Pine Barrens claim to hear a ghostly presence, and some even observe mysterious drifts across the cedar swamps. When Stephen King checked into the Stanley Hotel on vacation with his wife, he wasn’t looking for inspiration, but he found it. Their stay in the hotel inspired “The Shining.” The book, along with Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation, quickly turned the Stanley into a destination for thrill- seekers and paranormal investigators. The hotel has played into its newfound reputation, offering ghost tours late at night. Recently, the proprietors even created a hedge maze to allow visitors to recreate the harrowing chase scene from the movie. At last check, there were no Jack Nicholson impersonators on site, but who knows what the future holds? Stanley Hotel Estes Park, Colorado

4 • Cleaner Tents For Maximum Profit • Teeco Solutions

Published by The Newsletter Pro • www.NewsletterPro.com