KickStart: “Actively recruit” high-performing (and under-appreciated) employees you encounter working in service jobs.
Are you desperately advertising for quality production employees to actually do the jobs that keep rolling in? WRONG! This is your first mistake! You won’t find great service workers with “help wanted” ads! Here’s why…
KickStart: Trumpet your service worker’s accomplishments to increase morale AND supercharge your marketing.
Are you struggling with high turnover and/or marginal frontline employees?😥
“Well, DUH, Steve! You just described my life! I pay much more than the ‘going wage’ but nobody wants to work anymore!” Ummmm, sorry to disagree but the Very Best People DO “want to work”! But I digress…
KickStart: “You never get a second chance to make a first IMPRESSion.” Will Rogers
Good old Will was correct! One of the best ways to immediately IMPRESS a homeowner is to…
KickStart: The homeowner is always watching… everything and everywhere! Behave accordingly!
I’ve taught (pontificated?) extensively on the absolutely essential homeowner/service tech relationship. Basically, everything, including your family’s future financial welfare, comes down to how the client feels about your people involved in their service transaction!
However, emotions (and feelings) can be… complicated.🫢 (“Ya think, Steve?”) I’m reminded of a TV host, Art Linkletter, back in the day. Art was famous for his “Kids Say the Darndest Things!” observation. I would morph this into, “Clients Think (and Feel) the Darndest Things!” This means…
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: 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: 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: 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: “Accountability breeds response-ability.” Stephen R. Covey
An essential part of growing into adulthood is becoming “accountable” for our actions. Honestly? Prisons are full of overgrown babies who have never matured enough to follow this basic rule of nature: “For every action there is… a re-action.”😥
However, I (eventually) learned that “accountability” shouldn’t focus ONLY on the bone-headed mistakes of my service employees! Instead, when a worker took “response-ability” I needed to both praise them and share the extra profits that they generated!
KickStart: Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. C. S. Lewis
I’ll admit it. When I started my first Home Services business I was a cocky, proud and yet insecure jerk!😲 (My dear wife is saying right now, “So Steve, you think you’ve changed over the last 50 years?”)🤔 Hmmmmm…