KickStart: Get your entire company focused on their ‘Triple A’s’ (Appearance, Actions and Attitude) and profits will soar!
I admit it. I truly love inventing acronyms for routine daily activities. (This drives Sioux nuts!)đ But my staff used abbreviations in my residential services business all the time. For example…
We invented and implemented a PDS (Production Day Sheet), IQC (Immediate Quality Check calls) and an EEB (Employee Efficiency Bonus program), etc. You get the idea, right?
KickStart: Benefit from our current run-away inflation rates to justify your new (large) price increases.
In ‘normal times’ (is there such a thing any more?) I’m a huge proponent of small (3% to 4%) yearly price increases. Here’s why:
1) A small yearly increase will ‘fly under the radar’ of your clients. (Most customers can’t remember what they paid last time.)
KickStart: When you honestly don’t know what to do… WAIT!
Motivational speakers constantly exhort you to “git ‘er done” and “get moving”! But since Steve Toburen isn’t a ‘goo-roo’ I’ll remind you that sometimes ‘Procrastination Pays’! Say what, Steve?đ˛
Yep, when I’m honestly perplexed on what to do going forward I’ll engage in what I call…
‘Creative Procrastination’: Waiting on events (or just plain ‘serendipity’) to show you the next step.
Let me be clear on what Creative Procrastination (CP) is NOT! CP doesn’t mean slacking off and then complaining that a) the economy is bad, b) competition is too fierce or c) there are too many ‘Price Shoppers’ out there! (Our industry is full of excuses like these and so many more!)
KickStart: Find the elusive ‘Personal Freedom’ by starting NOW to create a Critical Mass Business that will run smoothly without you!
Let’s take a semi-nostalgic trip back to your high-school days with one question: Did you PLAN on becoming a Home Services business owner? Seriously?
Me? I just sort of drifted into my Home Services business! (HSB) Why? Because as Luke 16:4 says, “I was not strong enough to dig, and was too ashamed to beg”!đ˛ Plus I was basically ‘unemployeable’ in the corporate sector. (As a born rebel I still am unemployable!)
All Home Services entrepreneurs are navigating murky (and very treacherous ) waters! Frankly, working with stressed out homeowners has always been ‘challenging’.đ But today…
When you add in increasing competition, the brutal hiring crisis (especially the shortage of front-line technicians) AND the ongoing issues of this stubborn COVID pandemic PANIC can strike! Is it time to… ABANDON SHIP?đ˛ No! However…
As a prudent ‘captain’ you should be making disaster preparations now while constantly looking downstream for both your business and your family. A good place to start?
SpeedTIP: Your company WILL take ‘surprise hits’. Set up systems now to see these blows coming to defend your business.
As entrepreneurs we’re all incurable optimists. (Negative thinkers tend to stay ‘comfortably trapped’ in dead-end jobs their entire lives.) Heck, if you hadn’t focused on the positive you never would have opened your residential Home Services business!
KiskStart: Learn to âlet goâ (and discover âPersonal Freedomâ) by redefining the word âperfectâ.
Iâve been accused (unjustly in my opinion) of being âa bit OCDâ!đ˛ OK, OK! Iâll admit I liked things to be âperfectâ in my home services business and especially for my much-loved customers! Sound like anyone you know?đ¤
Hereâs the deal. If you are serious about growing your company into a âCritical Mass Businessâ (one that will run smoothly without you being there 24-7) you MUST tweak your definition of âperfectionâ. Hereâs whyâŚ