Know Your Numbers: Measure Twice, Cut Once.

Susan Clements

Executive Director, E-Myth Benchmark

My husband Bob and I are remodeling our home. Our contractors have done a majority of the construction and infrastructure work; however, as they have completed their portion of our project, we are left looking at stud walls and flooring that is part linoleum, part plank, and part plywood. Bob has done an amazing job of tracking and planning the numbers associated with the contractor agreements and the costs of materials and related construction expenses. He is keeping the project on track and on budget. I am doing the design work, deciding where everything should be located, and then changing my mind about where everything should be located. We make a very good team!

From the stud walls out, Bob and I will be doing much of the finish work. We have plotted, planned, schemed, dreamed and purchased materials…we have graphed, mapped, designed and measured everything! Yet we continually are running into something that just didn’t work the way we thought­­ something that should have been shorter, longer, taller, wider, or located somewhere else! We spend our evenings and weekends walking around mumbling to ourselves with tape measures attached to our bodies and extra ones laying on every available surface. You simply can’t have enough tape measures––there is way too much to measure if you’re going to get the job done right!

I have proven I can measure things. I know inches and feet, and I know how to measure the distance from here to there, yet when I put it all together… it often (way too often) doesn’t give me what I wanted. So of course I begin to measure everything again and look at every measurement according to the vision I have of that room when it is complete. The numbers simply don’t have meaning unless I can apply them to my vision to see if I fall short or have met my goal.

As we are working together, Bob and I have agreed that before we cut, order, pay for, or install anything we will measure it at least twice. Measure twice, cut once is the age-old adage that we have taken as a mantra for our remodel. Measuring is an activity that enables you to quantify and understand:

• what you need in order to reach your vision;
• how much has been done;
• how to identify how much more is needed before you can get what you want; and
• what you want someone else to provide you with in order to reach your goal.

Measuring provides vital information and making decisions without quality information in a remodel project, as in life, can be a very expensive and time burning mistake. 

Measure Twice cut Once:

• Know what needs measuring in your life and profession!
• Know what you want so you can measure where you are in relationship to it.
• Know the numbers that are important to you in your life and your profession.
• Measure your progress in moving towards what you want in your life.
• When you know your numbers, you are more prepared for life changes you can’t control.

Susan Clements is Executive Director and co-owner of E-Myth Benchmark, a business coaching company serving businesses in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada, and the UK.  As a business coach Susan has steered client businesses through growth initiatives, sales and marketing strategies, management restructuring, personnel issues, customer service challenges, and action plans for growth and change. Leveraging a personal and professional experience platform of business ownership and management of businesses in both the private and public sector, Susan has designed a revolutionary coach training and delivery system that tools E-Myth Benchmark coaches to actively engage in results based coaching with business owners, leaders and managers leading to greater freedom and flexibility.  E-Myth Benchmark provides E-Myth Mastery Impact™ business coaching, business management and leadership workshops, trainings and seminars.  Contact Susan at www.e-mythcoaching.com or sclements@e-mythcoaching.com.