Wim GE De Vos

Small businesses with a BIG impact

A new mission 🚀 – #smallbiz #hometech #coalition.

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Be the change you want to see.

Something has been on my mind me for over 10 years now.
And it has intrigued me for at least 5 or 6.
Late last year I had enough. I simply could not get it out of my system.
So I decided to try and do something about it…

But first let me tell you about “The Big Problem” bugging me.
Here it comes…

It makes no freaking sense that the #hometech industry is not 10X BIGGER than what it is today.

Makes no sense at all.

  • the products exist
  • the solutions bring joy and comfort
  • the homes are everywhere
  • the customers are ready to spend
  • the installation companies are busier than ever

So why o why is growth at GDP + 5% at best in our industry…?
What are we missing? Where lies the key to unleash this potential?

I believe the reason (and the solution) is to be found somewhere in the atomised structure ⚛️ of the home tech industry.

Our industry consists of 1,000´s of small installation businesses with smart hard working entrepreneurs and employees. Technically skilled and trained people in a market full of opportunity. Passionate and ambitious in their quest for success. But for some reason we are not growing at the rate we could be growing. We all know this by now.

So what are we missing?

In my opinion we desperately need 2 things:

  1. An open community that shares and grows together.
  2. Business Building Skills

If we want to tap the potential of our #hometech businesses & industry than we need to work together to build and create these 2 missing components.

It is time to build. Nobody else is going to do it for us. Trust me on that one.

The best way to predict the future is to build it. #timetobuild.

So I ask you now: Will you join the #hometech #coalition 🤝 and go on a mission 🚀 to unlock the growth potential of your business and our whole industry?

If the answer is YES, then reach out or put your name in the comments and share your ideas, thoughts, energy, contacts and good vibes.

The future is not like the weather. It doesn’t just happen. People make the future. It’s not a destiny or hope; it’s a decision.

(if the answer is “no” – no problem – just let the coalition of business builders do their thing – in time you will probably benefit from it too)

70% of small biz owned and operated by one personiamamomandpop.com #quote | Small business quotes, Business quotes, Shop small business quotes

Note: This is part I of a series of V stories this week on my entrepreneurial journey of the last 2 years.
Episode I – the day I knew I had to fire ⏫ myself.

20th jan 2021 – Autonomous flight 🚁🚀 – the next destination 🎯

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the 3 axes of B2B

Since 20th of January 2021 Genesis Home Technology Architects is on its autonomous flight 🚀. Exciting times for all of us and our partners.

And I wanted to share with you 3 things:

  1. 🚀 Some of my guiding principles as stand by and see the team and company take off to its next destination.
  2. 🎯 What the mission and the plan is we have agreed upon.
  3. 🪐 Some predictions on the destination(s) on the journey the next few years.

Guiding principles:

  • Don´t tell people how to do it. Agree with them on the mission and then let them surprise you. 
  • Success lies in building high-performance teams. Therefore there are teams running the mission, but no CEO.
  • Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in. So keep moving forward.
  • This is a story about people.

Mission and the plan:

video on Mission, Strategy and Plan for next 5 years

Predictions:

  • The home tech industry is set for impressive growth. Opportunity is staring us in the face. For us and all of our partners.
  • The market will shift and change on the surface but technology will be at the heart of all homes of today and tomorrow.
  • Genesis Home Technology Architects will be a 25M€+ company by – or even before – 2025. I will take beer-bets 🍻 on this.
  • Genesis Home Technology Architects will have a strong European footprint. Europe 🇪🇺 with all its differences and potential is full of opportunity for a million reasons.
  • Installers of home technology will continue to grow in importance for architects, builders and home owners as stewards of comfort, well-being and entertainment in homes of today and tomorrow.
  • Experiences, services and solutions will drive customer happiness. Products will not.

There is so much more I could add to this post but that would take the fun out of following how the story evolves in the coming months and years 😄.

I may be right on the above and I may be wrong. Most likely it will be both.

But most importantly we all keep moving forward.
Do or do not. There is no try….

Tomorrow I will tell you about my new mission.

But meanwhile I hope you join me in wishing the team a safe and fun flight. And feel free to give them a hand if and when you can.
I will be forever grateful. 🙏🏻

Note: This is part IV of a series of V stories this week on my entrepreneurial journey of the last 2 years.
Episode III (previous) – here.
Episode V (next) – here.

19th jan 2021 – firing ⏏️ myself – 748 days later…

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Firing yourself is one of the most important rites of passage for anyone who is used to helping with everything. As a company grows, the pie gets bigger and the percentage of it occupied by one person needs to shrink. Why? Because there is only so much time in the day. And because organisations all have a natural tendency to turn their founder/ceo/director into a bottleneck. (And some people gladly hang on convinced they are crucial and essential).

In my experience all organisations tend towards complexity and concentration of power. This never ends well… The promotion of simplicity and autonomy are the antidote 🧪.

So as a company enters a new phase in its growth it must shed its skin, reinvent how it works, and the best possible thing you can do is join in on the metamorphosis.

Communication and structure will change in a growing company, but its values, vision and mission should remain the same. The reason why we started the business and the problem we are trying to fix has only grown more meaningful. That is why we write it down, share it constantly and let it guide our actions every single day. What does need to change is the way the company operates, how work gets done, and who does what. 

So on January 19th 2021 it was time🕛.
Time for the old to make space for the new.

I informed the team over Zoom (not exactly the way I had imagined doing this 2 years earlier) and we briefly reviewed our success so far and the great opportunities that lie ahead.

I ended the meeting with explaining that their time had come. They were ready. Or at least as ready as they would ever be. You learn how to swim by swimming. Not by watching Youtube videos.

It was time to step up – yet again – as everyone has done so many times before. Time to embrace the opportunities ahead. To decide to always be learning. To agree to compete with our past selves. For each and every one to take on a bigger challenge and more active role in the team and in the business.

It was time to leave the comfort zone. For all of us.

The results will be phenomenal. It is written in the stars. ✨

I sent everyone a letter. The letter of resignation I had written months earlier during the 2020 lock down. The letter is titled “Autonomous Flight 🚁🚀”. And you can download the original version here.

Now the word was out, the letter had been delivered. I did it. I had fired myself after more than 15 years.

I had a deep feeling of pride and excitement. The business – even though technically still mine – could not be in better hands.

As I went surfing 🏄🏻‍♂️ for the rest of the day I knew Genesis Home Technology Architects was set up for tremendous growth ahead – more on that in tomorrows post.

Note: This is part II of a series of V stories this week on my entrepreneurial journey of the last 2 years.
Episode II (previous) – here.
Episode IV (next) – here

2 jan 2019 – the reality of firing ⏏️ myself – the work begins 💪🏻…

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Tuesday January 2nd 2019. Exactly one week since I knew I would have to fire myself… And so the Big Secret Mission begins.

It was clear right away I would have to work on the businesses like never before instead of in the business if this really was going to happen. In order for the business to reach the next level and continue its growth, a number of things would need to take place. All of which were no revolution or rocket science. But they would take time, effort, patience and consistency. And so the work begins 💪🏻👊🏼🧘🏼‍♂️🚀.

I made a plan as I so often do. It turned out more to be a list. From the start I knew this list would only grow longer as time passed by. So I gave myself a deadline. January 2021. I gave myself exactly 24 months to prepare the company for further growth and scaling. Enough time to not rush things and have some room for unexpected events (eg. a global pandemic etc…😎) but short enough to know I could not waste any time either.

Here are some of the things that were on the list…

  • Mission and Vision: build a tribal community around our Vision and Mission of #makewowthestandard. Both internal and external.
  • People: double down on autonomy, teamwork, high energy, commitment, trust
  • Processes: all processes defined and constantly reviewed by the teams in charge (called “formulas of success” because we avoid strict rules and processes)
  • Resources: invest in talent, relationships, knowledge, stock, VIPLounges (as we call our experience centres), PartnerZone (as we call the digital workspace with our partners)
  • Business Model: document each piece of our proven business model and share it with everyone on the team so there is a collective understanding.
  • Culture: grow and strengthen our culture of relentlessly simplifying the complex, growing high performance teams and continuous improvement. (more on this here)
  • Investments: invest in strategic initiatives that would place the company in a unique and strong position for when I fired myself.

During the following 24 months all my tasks, opportunities, problems to be solved would go through my simple filter…

  1. Is this something related to working on or in the business?
  2. Who is/are the people on the team that can think this through with me and make decisions?
  3. Is this a BIG/medium/small opportunity or challenge?
  4. What are the steps needed to get this done before jan 2021?

And as time progressed, so did all of us in the businesses. Chipping away every day, every week, month. Making progress. Some days more than others. But always moving forward.

And yes shit happened. Good shit and bad shit. But the good shit prevailed every single time. Some say we are lucky…🍀. Certainly felt that way.

Opportunities seemed to multiply and increase in size the more I worked on the business, most people grew a lot while some fell behind (and left), problems became “interesting challenges” and disasters did not seem to exist, a pandemic hit and everyone switched modes and gears as it were a giant speed bump, we invested more than ever in things that will bring long-term customer happiness, success and growth …

24 months of crafting our business machine. 2 years of training and growing the team. What a ride. 🤙🏼

I had built several businesses before. Some of them failed, some of them did OK. Some simple, some more complex. But never did I have such a high level of internal motivation and drive while learning so much.

As we approached the end of 2020 – that “special year” as some call it – I found myself by the Christmas tree 🎄 again. Scoring my performance. This time satisfied with “personal development” and “leaving the comfort zone“.

“Now this is how I want to spend my time and energy” I told myself. “I´ll never work or live on autopilot ever again…“

Soon it would be time to fire ⏏️ myself…

Note: This is part II of a series of V stories this week on my entrepreneurial journey of the last 2 years.

Episode I (previous) – here.
Episode III (next) – here.

26 dec 2018 – the day I knew I had to fire ⏏️ myself

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Every year over the Christmas holidays I reflect on the year gone by. I set aside a full day only to look back on my performance at work. What did I do and how did I do? When did I perform well and when did I bomb? Where had I learned and where did I plateau? (“Plateau-ing” resulting in a more negative score than bombing – except if it was the result of stupidity or act on pure emotion).

On 26th of december 2018 I almost gave myself one of the best self-evaluations ever 🎇. The business had just reached a 5 million in sales, profits where at a record level, the team was growing and performing, we had successfully started rolling out our digital platform (which would prove to be vital in 2020 aka “the year of digital transformation”), new experience centres opening but most of all customers and suppliers were very satisfied, even happy.

So no real surprise my personal score did not drop below a 7/10 and mostly 8´s or even the occasional 9. Except for two parameters. They were at an all-time low. 3/10 for “self-development” and a 4/10 for “leaving my comfort zone”… Not good Wim. Not good at all…

It hit me hard. I was on a high because of all the “objective” business metrics. Even the “soft” parameters (but more important ones) were looking better than ever. And then completely flunking the 2 most important parameters… What happened? Is business success inversely related with personal development and risk-taking? That would go against everything I believed in.

Studying things closer I could also see that all the high scores where for things I had already done numerous times before over the last 20 years. Hiring, firing, launching a new brand or product, building a team, co-create processes, motivation, communication, marketing our value proposition, expanding our business and scope,… Then it struck me. 👊🏼 In the face yes.

I had been working on auto-pilot for the whole of 2018. Major personal fail 🙅‍♂️.

It kind of all made sense now. We had proven and refined our strategy. We had been executing well in a booming market. Everyone was doing what they did best. And we were enjoying the ride 🍾 more than we were pushing the accelerator…

That is when I knew I had to fire myself…⏏️

Complacency needed to make way for ambition and learning. Leaning back replaced by falling forward. Not just for me, but for everyone on the team.

I was determined to start 2019 with a growth mindset and a Big Secret Plan…🕵🏻‍♂️

Note: This is part I of a series of V stories this week on my entrepreneurial journey of the last 2 years.
Next up – Episode II – here.