Are you a contractor who feels like you're doing everything for your construction business?

Do you ever feel like your team is working hard, but your systems and workflow still feel chaotic?

Are you struggling with team building because roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined?

Many construction business owners work extremely hard, but without clear roles, their business systems and workflow start to break down as the company grows.

Highlights of the Episode

In this episode, I’m sharing why clearly defined roles are essential for contractor team building so you can build better systems, improve workflow, and grow your business without chaos.

At K&B Communications, Kevin and I built the business side by side. As our company grew, we realized we needed clearer roles and responsibilities so our team could operate more effectively.

Stepping fully into my role as CMO allowed us to create better systems, improve communication, and build a stronger leadership structure.

In this episode, I share why role clarity is one of the most important foundations for building a scalable contractor business.

Resources & Links Mentioned

Become a Contractor Insider

Get weekly insights, systems, and real behind-the-scenes lessons to help you build a more organized and profitable contractor business:

https://buildingbettercontractorbusinesses.grwebsite.com/

Join the Building Better Contractor Businesses Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1K64LtaA33/

Learn more about K&B Communications

www.kandbcom.com

Books Mentioned

1. What the Heck is EOS?
2. Process

Connect and Next Steps

Step 1: Become a Contractor Insider (join our email list)

https://buildingbettercontractorbusinesses.grwebsite.com/

Step 2: Join the contractor community

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1K64LtaA33/

Step 3: Listen to the podcast

Building Better Contractor Businesses

Step 4: Write a review and share this episode with another contractor who needs help improving their systems and workflow.

Disclaimer

The information shared in this episode and the show notes is for educational and informational purposes only and is based on personal experience. It should not be considered legal, financial, or professional advice. Every contractor business is different, and you should consult a qualified professional before making business decisions.

Affiliate Disclosure

If you purchase through any of the links mentioned, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

If you are still doing everything in your business, this is for you.

2

Last year, I let go of payroll, hiring, voicing, all of it.

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I got to step fully into my role as a CML and it changed everything.

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Today we're talking about the importance of roles because if you don't know your role,

your team doesn't know their role, your business will always feel chaotic.

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Let's get into it.

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Hey, I'm Shae Toya.

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I've spent more than 10 years in construction, working behind the scenes in marketing,

hiring, and I've seen how overwhelming it can be to grow a business.

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That's how we've learned to build a sustainable business using clear systems, strong

communication, and intentional recruiting.

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If you're ready for better hiring, smarter remarketing, and a business that doesn't fall

apart when you step away, welcome to building better contractor businesses.

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Let me ask you something.

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Are you still doing everything in your business from payroll to hiring, invoicing,

ordering material, answering the phone, supporting the team in the field, and possibly

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still doing the work?

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And somehow you're supposed to grow too, right?

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If that's you, this episode is going to be for you.

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My...

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transition of letting go of everything but just one thing.

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Last year, my role completely changed.

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For years, I did a lot of different things from running payroll on a bi-weekly basis.

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If I'm hiring, we're always hiring.

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So I did weekly interviews every Wednesday at 11.

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and 12 p.m.

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for more than five years.

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I also helped with onboarding and offboarding employees, invoicing, supporting the team,

as well as putting out fires when necessary.

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Running meetings, marketing, basically I wore a lot of different hats.

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But for very long time, I thought that is what made me valuable.

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But what I was really going on is I was being stretched very thin.

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I couldn't go deep in anything because I was reacting more than I was actually being a

leader.

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In 2025, we made the decision for me to take on the position as the CMO, Chief Marketing

Operations.

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You know what, marketing is my lane.

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Marketing is something that I've actually fell in love with for years.

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And so the things that have changed, yes, I still run leadership meetings.

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No, I do not do any type of payroll.

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And honestly, the first week that I did not run any payroll, I was a huge stress reliever.

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I don't do any type of invoicing now, HR paperwork, and if you've done any HR paperwork in

the past or present, you know how long that can take from withholdings, from unemployment

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claims, from anything you may receive from the government or anything, health insurance,

all that good stuff that we have to take care of.

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Those were things that I did, but I no longer have to worry about.

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But in the beginning, I had to learn to be okay of letting it all go, not being part of

every meeting that occurred.

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I remember there was a time when some of the staff were having meetings and I was not

invited and I felt hurtful.

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I felt very hurt because I thought that was me being valuable, being part of that meeting.

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But I don't have to be part of every meeting because technically I can only handle so

much.

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And that was part of letting go, but that was super, super hard.

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And I had to learn how to let go.

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But why is letting go so hard?

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You know, as contractors or someone who's possibly been doing the same thing for years,

letting go can be a huge problem.

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It can be very difficult.

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know, contractors who struggle with this, it's because, you know, they may think no one

will do it like me.

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It's faster if I just do it.

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I have a few friends who said that they keep hiring people and they can do it a lot

faster.

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So they just don't.

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You may be thinking, I know how to do everything.

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I would have to train someone else.

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What if things get messed up and if I'm not doing everything, I'm not valuable?

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Kevin, our CEO, had to go through this too.

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He used to wear multiple hats.

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He wore a lot more hats than I did.

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From operations, client relations, field issues, making sure the job got completed,

decisions on everything.

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Kevin pretty much have an overview of everyone.

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And now his primary role is building and strengthening client relations.

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Also high level leadership.

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And then he is also our visionary.

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He had to let go too and learn to be okay with letting go.

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And that requires trust.

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It requires trust in our team, trust in our systems, and with leadership meetings as well.

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So what happens when roles are clear?

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Now everyone understands their role.

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They understand what part of the business they're involved in.

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Decisions get easier and cleaner.

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Communication also improves and accountability increases because everybody has their own

responsibilities.

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Because of that, the blame decreases.

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Growth now becomes very possible or quicker because you do not have as much on your plate.

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And in 2025, we really dialed in what

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our roles were as a team.

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We read the book process.

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We also read the book, What the Heck is EOS?

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And reading these books, they just talked about the importance of our roles.

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And so some of the questions that we ask our team is, what is your actual responsibility?

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What is your role?

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What decisions do you own?

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What do you not own?

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That one is really big.

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because clarity as an organization is freedom.

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We started having leadership meetings back in 2024, and that was a huge game changer for

us.

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We now have weekly leadership meetings, quarterly planning meetings.

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Our weekly leadership meetings happen on Thursdays at 12 o'clock.

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They're gonna happen no matter what.

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The same staff

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comes to every meeting, as well as our quarterly planning meetings, which are planned out

quarterly.

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And this is in person.

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A lot of us do work remotely.

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So this does provide us an opportunity to spend some time with each other, have lunch and

plan for the quarter, which I think is very, very important.

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This is where we get to clarify expectations, you know, during our quarterly meetings.

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reading What the Heck is EOS, we talk about our rocks, and your rocks are pretty much your

goals.

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And there was a time where I was coming up with everyone's rocks.

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But what I found was that made me feel very overwhelmed because I had to think for

everyone.

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But what we've learned in following the philosophy of What the Heck is EOS is that

everyone comes to the meeting with their own rocks.

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their own goals, and then that way they are accountable for their own responsibilities

within their roles.

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We also address frictions.

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So any issues that we may be having from the top to the bottom, from anything that's

possibly going out on the field, you know, there was an issue that occurred honestly just

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a few weeks ago.

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And the issue is not, it wasn't that it was a huge, huge, huge deal, but our

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client was upset.

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And because our client was upset, it was due to, you know, trash being placed into the

wrong trash can.

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As I said, something very, very simple.

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But because we meet on a weekly basis, we are able to fix that problem right away.

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And our project manager actually had a solution to the problem even before the weekly

Thursday meeting, which was great.

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but these are the things that we have to know about so we can grow and become a better

organization.

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But because we meet on a weekly basis, we're able to make changes quickly instead of

having to wait weeks or months or years to make a change.

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They happen very quickly just because we do have weekly leadership calls.

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ah Also our leadership quarterly calls, we also are able to refine roles.

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We are a small business, but things do change.

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and we're able to make changes right then and there instead of having to wait weeks or

months or years.

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We're able to adjust responsibilities when needed.

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know, sometimes someone steps into a role and we realize, that person does not have the

strength to handle that role or that responsibility.

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So now we're able to be like, oh, this person fits better here.

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And that's not a big problem.

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But because we meet on a weekly basis, we're able to know exactly who's strong where.

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and roles aren't about ego, they're about effectiveness.

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So what did just having my one role as a CMO, what did it personally do for me?

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Well, it provided me to fully embrace my role as a CMO.

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I got to focus just on marketing, looking at the numbers, where are our leads currently

coming from?

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What are our things that we're currently doing that's not working?

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So our marketing got better.

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I would say that currently, if you look at our CRM system, our dashboard, it shows us

exactly where our leads are coming from.

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And looking at it, it says 40 % of our leads are currently coming from online, and that is

without doing any type of ads, which to me is huge.

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Our messaging got clear.

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So, you know, because I am able to now focus on one position, we're able to just make sure

that our messaging is coming across very clear.

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Our brand got stronger.

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Throughout the time, we've been really focused on our standards and the importance of when

we're out there that our standards are coming across and that someone can be like, oh,

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that was K and B Communications.

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Our system's improved.

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One of the things that I see that we could currently improve is our proposals.

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So that is something that we're currently working towards.

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But because we all have our roles and we're not all over the place, now we can improve

these systems that we possibly did not have the time to do.

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And then also because I have more time and I'm not having to run payroll or chase

invoices, I'm also now able to start this podcast, which is very, very exciting.

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And I wouldn't be able to do that

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if I had all those other extra responsibilities that I had to do, and now I can really

truly build the foundation of looking at the numbers and looking at what's working and

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making sure that the company is going in the right direction.

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My job as a CMO is to make sure that our people, our team is coming across their best

ability that they can, making sure that I'm giving their resources that is needed.

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So letting go allowed me to be better at what I actually love to do.

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and to become good at it.

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I've studied marketing and I've studied those things, but I also had to learn other things

to make sure that we are moving in the right direction.

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And I believe that is where a lot of contractors miss, that we do not understand that we

don't have to do more to scale.

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A lot of us believe that for us to scale, we have to do more work.

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but it's just us being more strategic of what is it that we're focused on.

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You don't have to do more to scale.

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You can scale by doing less, but being more strategic, being better.

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So for the contractors who are listening, if your business still depends on you for

everything, you do not unfortunately have a company.

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You have a job, and I'm sure you've heard of it.

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For when you're employed through your company, we are the worst employees, these are

lunatics.

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But there's a question that you should ask yourself is what is your true role?

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And also am I operating in it?

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Or am I just filling gaps?

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And here's the truth.

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If you want to build a better contractor business, everyone must understand their role.

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including you, and that's very, very important.

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Roles create clarity.

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Clarity creates leadership.

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Leadership creates stability.

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Stability creates growth.

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Next time, we'll continue the real systems behind building a contractor business that

doesn't fall apart when you step away.

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If there was anything that you've learned and you'd like to share it with us, be sure to

join our Facebook group, Building Better Contractor Businesses.

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Share the things that you're learning from our podcast.

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Share the struggles that you're currently going through.

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We'd love to hear about it.

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But if this episode has hit home, be sure to share it with another contractor who also

needs to hear it.

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And if you're ready to build a better contractor business, you are in the right place.

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If you believe that this episode brought you real clarity, be sure to share it with

another contractor who also needs it.

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And if you want to keep this conversation going, be sure to join our community of

contractors inside Building Better Contractor Businesses Facebook group.

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This is a community where we talk through the real problems

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that you are having in your business.

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The link will be found in our show notes.

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And remember, we are not just completing projects.

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We are building better contractor businesses.

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I will see you next time.