On countless occasions, I have found myself having a glass of wine with girlfriends fielding questions about my life in a small, family owned business in small-town Texas. The questions I am often asked are: “What’s it like to work for your dad?”; “What are the people like who work with you?”; “Do you have a hard time working with all men?”; “Do you have to wear boots and a hard hat every day?”; and “What is the hardest thing about your job?” I have so much fun entertaining them with stories about what it’s like to run a small business, how much fun it is to work for my dad, how hard it is to find “cute” PPE, and what it’s like to be bonded to your teammates in ways you never thought possible.
When it’s time to answer the question about the hardest thing about my job, the conversation always takes on a more serious tone. The hardest part of my job? It’s not bidding on jobs. It’s not successfully installing water wells. It’s not completing a well field. It’s not pump testing. It’s not even designing a custom well development program! The hardest part of my job is, without a doubt, recruiting and retaining quality employees who want to join and remain part of a small business.