2020 threw us all some major challenges. (Where do we go for our Understatement of the Year Award?). Kidding aside, FRAN+JO (brothers, Frank Leonello and Joe Leonello, Jr. – respectively, our CEO and our President) did some reflecting and wanted to share lessons they learned and our approach to 2021:
When we were initially planning our 2020, we were set to have a record year in terms of revenue. Less than 3 months in, all of our Pennsylvania job sites were shut down. At first, it was just for 2 weeks, but as that deadline approached, it was extended to a total of 7 weeks. It was trying, but our determination saw us through.
One of our core values is loyalty – a commitment to our people, our process, and the results. Our first thought was of our employees. We are a family-owned business, and we see our 120+ employees as family too. Fortunately, the company did not experience any lay-offs. Our office staff was able to remain working by utilizing our existing remote server and various digital resources such as video conferencing. Like many businesses, we took the PPP loan. While it did not cover all of our costs, it did allow us to retain all of our employees.
Keeping our people with us has been the highlight of our year.
To be honest, our people have been the highlight of our entire 23 years as a company. There is way more to business than the bottom line. We learned early that in order to move forward, you need your employees. It’s the only way we could step into different roles and grow the business, which meant relinquishing a certain degree of control. In turn, we found people that have truly stepped up and shown us loyalty for years, even decades for some. We can’t thank them enough.
Another equally important part of “our people” are our clients. We have always been focused on fostering lasting relationships with our clients. It’s the basis of our business. The methods we used to communicate changed temporarily. Still, in the face of adversity, we were able to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones.
Remaining loyal to our process, we trusted that things would come around again. We worked with our Safety Director to develop additional protocols for the situation, stayed the course, and are seeing positive results because of that.
We don’t know what new business will be like in 2021.
What we do know is 2020 taught us to remain consistent with our approach to day-to-day operations but think outside of the box for big-picture things. The rest involves being patient. If you’ve read this far, we’d like to thank you for being here and for showing your support. Here’s to a healthy and prosperous 2021!