Stop Cutting The Ends Off The Ham

ChrWright

There is a story of a woman who was preparing a ham to be baked. Before placing it in the oven, she sliced an inch off the end of the ham.

Her daughter was watching her bake a ham for the first time. She asked, “mom, why did you cut an inch off the end of the ham before you placed it in the oven?”

“I don’t know,” replied the mother, “my mother always cut an inch off a ham before she put it in the oven.”

Curious, the mother picked up the phone and called the grandmother to ask why she cut the end off a ham before baking it.The grandmother answered that she had no idea why she cut the end off hams before baking them.

“My mother always did it,” she said.

Finally, the mother and the grandmother got the great-grandmother on the phone. The grandmother asked, “Mom, why did you cut an inch off the end of the ham before placing it in the oven?”

The great-grandmother replied, “I cut the end off the ham because my oven was too small to fit a full one.”


If there ever was a time to take a hard look at the hows & whys of the way you run your business, it's now. With the "R" word being banted about & new construction in a serious valley--a lot of businesses are going to fail. A lot of guys & girls who don't have good business managment skills are going to be weeded out. (I'll leave the comments about whether that's good or bad to someone else.)

I see a lot of posts lately from what most would consider "mom & pop" contractors promoting methods of managment & craftsmanship that I find hard to believe.

Staying small is not necessarily a bad thing. I know a lot of guys who expanded, got too big for their managment ability, and scaled back to being small again. I don't believe a craftsman who enjoys their work and gives good service to their clients should be looked down on because they have no interest in growing.

That said, those who are new here or have young businesses need to make a conscious decision about where they want to go. If you want to grow a professional company, you must run things much differently than those who are small and don't mind staying small.

4 out of 5. That's the typical number given to how many new businesses fail within the first 5 years. 4 out of 5. Those aren't very good odds.

Stop cutting the ends off your hams. And if you're posting advice on here, as a professional--give some thought to what your promoting and why you do things the way you do. Half the flame wars on here are started by guys throwing facts & advice around that have no basis in reality and can be dispelled in 10 seconds with a simple google search.

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
www.WrightWorks.net - Facebook - Twitter - Carmel Remodeling
Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

mahlere

so you mean to tell me that every ham the great grandmother baked was exactly 2" bigger than the oven? surely you jest

mickeyco

I'm hungry for ham now.

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mdshunk

Ham rhymes with Spam, and I havn't had breakfast yet. Off to the kitchen....

laybrick

[QUOTE}

Half the flame wars on here are started by guys throwing facts & advice around that have no basis in reality and can be dispelled in 10 seconds with a simple google search.[/QUOTE]

You mean like this one?

Brock

Can someone tell me why someone would use the word "expousing"? I prefer ham over turkey anyday.

mdshunk

Sorry, that wasn't in my contract.

Forry

Thanks Chris, well written.

Sorry about the ham...

ChrWright

expousing = promoting... have fixed above... was before my morning vat of coffee...

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
www.WrightWorks.net - Facebook - Twitter - Carmel Remodeling
Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

buildenterprise

I thought the proper term was "espouse" but I don't want to ruffle any feathers around here......so you can say expouse if you want. Just like people call espresso expresso......

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neolitic

Personally, I don't cut the end
off the ham.
I pour ½ pint of bourbon on
the ham,
and ½ pint in the !

(Point taken though)

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Brock

OMG! I think I have a new recipe for Sunday dinner.

ChrWright

In my best Homer Simpson voice... "mmmmm, bourbon"

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Christopher Wright, CR: President @ WrightWorks, LLC/President @ Central Indiana NARI, Named to the 2010 REMODELING Big50
www.WrightWorks.net - Facebook - Twitter - Carmel Remodeling
Indianapolis Kitchen Remodeling Contractor - You Can Get There From Here

neolitic

If I told ya the rest of
the recipe....
I'd hafta kill ya!

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