SPOTLIGHT by Amber Lutz-Sherman Amber Lutz-Sherman Lutz Plumbing, Inc. Learning to lead a 100+ year old Kansas City plumbing company without ever picking up a wrench Can you run a business without knowing how to perform the revenue generating tasks? You may have heard the term, imposter syndrome, while reading other articles or listening to your favorite podcast, but have you ever felt like an imposter in your own business? The term, by definition, means a condition where individuals doubt their achievements and feel like they are frauds. It is characterized by feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. Despite being highly successful, people with imposter syndrome feel like they are not good enough and are constantly under the threat of being exposed as frauds. So how could one that owns their own business ever suffer from imposter syndrome? Well, I am one of those people and am here to share that it can be very common among entrepreneurs. What is my business, you ask? Plumbing. And do I know how to perform the technical aspects of plumbing? No. Do I know how to read blueprints or create quotes for work? No. Did I start the business myself? No. All of these add up to a perfect storm of symptoms of the IS condition. I am the fourth generation and only female owner of Lutz Plumbing, a company that has been in business for over 102 years. In 2003, I graduated from the University of Kansas and though I planned to join the family business at that time, there was some financial strife preventing that from happening, so I used my degree to begin work with a marketing firm. Even my degree wasn’t related to the plumbing industry or any trades for that matter. In 2005, I had a conversation with my dad, who was the owner of Lutz Plumbing at the time, and he had brought the business back around and was at the point he had to have help in the office so he could run more plumbing calls. I started off as an admin and CSR/ Dispatch for my dad and one other plumber. I worked my way up to office manager and marketing manager, then fast forward to 2020, and I am now the President and sole owner, with 16 years’ experience in the industry and have grown the revenue of my company over 75% in the last five years. And even after all that time and growth, I still felt like I wasn’t the best leader for the company. Reading the beginning of the last paragraph might help make sense of the fact that I feel like an imposter in my own business, and for me, it used to overshadow what I was doing for the business, because I wasn’t the one out there “making the money.” I didn’t load up in the truck every day and visit with our customers face to face. Then, sometime in 2017, I hired a CSR/Dispatcher who later became office manager and started putting distance between myself and the everyday tasks of the business. And this made me feel like an even bigger imposter! Now I wasn’t booking calls or managing those that did and seemingly not an integral part of the cog that turns the wheels of the business. 50 enterprising Women
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