KickStart: Obsess over the “important stuff” in business. (And life!)
The secret, folks? We learned in Part I of this series to reject treacherous, time-wasting Displacement Activities that add nothing to your home service company bottom line and/or future family happiness. How?
KickStart: Get more 5-star reviews by asking for the homeowner’s “Permission to Proceed” throughout the project.
Are you happy in our Home Services industry? You reply, “Absolutely, Steve! What’s not to love? I’m blessed with interesting jobs, the money is great and I work with some great customers and employees!” (Of course, these same clients and employees can be a trial sometimes!)
But now look through your first-time customer’s eyeglasses to feel in a very real sense… their pain!😥
KickStart: Smooth the way for new service employees and your “keep ratio” will soar!
Think back to your first day of school.🤔 How did you feel? Nervous? Confused? Scared? Did’ya pee your pants? (Come on… they say confession is good for the soul!)
Guess what? Your brand new techs face these same traumatic emotions as they timidly work on-site in your client’s homes! Who cares how they feel?🤷🏼♂️
You should! Repeated studies prove that a consistent, structured “onboarding routine” will dramatically decrease new employees quitting quickly and often with no notice. In fact…
KickStart: I’m a slow walker, but I never walk backwards. Abraham Lincoln
As Home Service Business owners we’re often our own worst enemy. I call these “Displacement Activities” “Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder”!🤪 (Most business owners are blessed [cursed?] with a frenetic, almost manic energy/curiosity!)
Me? I would have driven good, old Honest Abe nuts! (As I did my long-suffering wife Sioux!) Both in business and personally I ran (not just walked) forward, backwards, and much of the time in meandering energy and time-wasting detours!😥
KickStart: Anticipate “New Hire Remorse” by investing time in a new service employee immediately after hiring.
As a Home Services entrepreneur you deal with “Buyer’s Remorse” daily. And I really do feel your pain!😥 After all, the “I talked with my husband, and he says…” last minute cancellations I got were incredibly frustrating!
And yet you face a “remorse” that is MUCH more dangerous to the growth of your residential services business than a “remorseful prospect” bailing out! Think about this…
KickStart: Don’t waste precious business time on non-important busy work.
Maybe Fyodor Dostoevsky said it best 143 years ago, “Above all, don’t lie to yourself.” And yes, our Home Services industry is full of hard-working entrepreneurs who are lying to themselves.😥
“Say what, Steve?” Here’s the deal. Everyone “fritters away” time. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing- we all need down time to relax and recharge.😎 But when we fool (lie to) ourselves we may fall into what I call…
KickStart: man·age ˈma-nij To direct with a degree of skill.
Finding a balance in business (and life) is an ongoing, moving target for most of us. Our shared Home Service Pro entrepreneurial challenge? Managing our OCD tendencies to not get distracted off into Displacement Activities!🙄 Instead, you must focus ONLY on the high-profit, “important stuff”.
True Confession Time: I still find myself going down obsessive rat holes while wasting enormous time on pursuits that add nothing to my happiness, relationships or even my financial net worth!🤔 (You’d think I would have learned by now!)😲
Remember, your residential services company is an incredibly fragile creature. This means as a service business owner or manager you must…
KickStart: “You should not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking!” Oliver Cromwell
Every Home Services business owner KNOWS they should do more cold call selling. Correct? Absolutely! And yet…
We don’t! I know, you’ve got 1,000 reasons (excuses?) to not make sales calls but in reality…
We all hate, fear and despise knocking on the doors of strangers😬 and therefore… we don’t! But wait!
Why not do “Serendipity Selling” when you instinctively “strike” during your daily business (and personal) routine? For example …
KickStart: “Words are important. If you cannot say what you mean, you will never mean what you say.” George Bernard Shaw
Yep, in business the words we use with prospects (and clients) can have big consequences going forward. For example…
I see many Home Service Businesses offering “free estimates”. Me? I disliked this word “estimate” so much I banned it in my own residential services company!😡 Here’s why…
KickStart: Tactfully use Valid Business Questions to sort home service prospects into different Response Options.
Question: “Do you want to work for every homeowner that calls your Home Services Business?”🤔
Answer: “No way, Steve! After all, some callers live too far away, other prospects want services we don’t provide and some homeowners simply can’t afford us!”
Well answered and a good analysis! And yet… how much time do you waste with prospects that simply aren’t good potential customers? (Even worse is scheduling an onsite pre-inspection that is a complete waste of time!)😲