The Stone Industry Education series came to Detroit, MI, to discuss with fabricators how to improve their business. Presented by Stone World magazine and The Natural Stone Institute, and hosted by Universal Granite and Marble, the presenter of the event was Eric Tryon. "I want you to take one thing from here to implement into your business and do well," said Tryon. "Too often people try to take 1,000 things from a meeting or an event and try to implement them into their business and it goes poorly so they assume nothing will work for them. That’s not how to improve your business."

The event housed fabricators from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and all over Michigan to discuss the problems they may be facing, especially when it came to the inner workings of their shop. "There are a lot of things going on in your business and in your shop," said Tryon. "Think about how many people interact with a job during your process. It’s a lot. That makes this the ultimate team sport. So many people have to work together to make sure that project goes out the door right and makes that customer happy."

In order to keep things on track, Tryon spoke a lot about different systems and processes that his business used to stay on track. "You need to put in place formal processes and systems and honor your commitments," said Tryon. "Now, I will tell you mine, but it may not work exactly the same in your business. You need to implement it to your business and change it to make your business run smoothly.

"Great leaders make things simple and make things easier for their employees and customers," Tryon went onto say. "With your employees, nobody wants to be put into a position to fail."

The group also talked about different ways to hire for their business and how to retain those great employees.

In the afternoon, the group broke down into three sections, marketing/sales, technical and business to go more in-depth about the inner workings of their shop, and how to improve it.

There are two more Stone Industry Education seminars left, on October 10 in Tampa Bay, FL; and November 7 in Seattle, WA. Make sure to check www.stoneindustryeducation.com for more details.