WHERE to Recruit Awesome New Production Workers

KickStart: “Actively recruit” high-performing (and under-appreciated) employees you encounter working in lower paid 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…

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Focus On Onboarding Your New Service Production Workers

KickStart: Smooth the way for new service employees and your “keep ratio” will soar!

shy school childThink 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…

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The Insidious Danger of “Displacement Activities” – Part I

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…

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Stop your “Nobody Wants to Work in Service Any More” Grumbling- NOW!

KickStart: Don’t fool yourself with the “Nobody wants to do service work any more?” complaint. Instead, ask the more productive question: “Why doesn’t anyone want to work for… ME?”

Everyone from Fortune 500 CEO’s to your local competitors slamming down boilermakers at lunch are all desperate to hire more home service employees. And they’re all moaning the same complaint…

cant find quality home service employees“Nobody wants to work any more!”😫

Seriously? Nobody? As in, “Not one single person?” Come on, people! As I write this the U.S. has a 3.6% unemployment rate. So a bit of simple math tells us that…

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How to Attract (and Keep) Great Service Employees!

KickStart: Share money, praise and profits to attract and keep the Very Best People!

pigs get fat - hogs get slaughtered

I learned so much from my residential customers. After all, our clients had to be financially successful even to afford our high prices💲💲 So, I would just 1) ask questions and 2) LISTEN to my client’s answers.

One very wealthy CEO (who I suspect was a bit bored in retirement) often regaled me with his stories. Since I was trying to build a Critical Mass Business that could run without me I focused on Paul’s hiring tips. His first tip was…

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The WHY (and how to) of Building an ‘Employee Waiting List’

KickStart: Avoid ‘Desperation Hiring’ by continually recruiting and interviewing future employees BEFORE you need them!

Why, oh why, did it always happen late on a Friday afternoon?☹ I’d had a good week (defined as 100% delighted residential clients!), was finishing up paperwork on my desk, and looking forward to a fun weekend. Then my employee Charlie appeared…

Charlie: “Uh, Steve, can I talk to you?”

Me: “Sure, Charlie, what’s up?”

frustrated home services business manager

Charlie: “Ummmm, Steve, I’m really sorry to do this to you. But I’ve got a new job starting on Monday. I asked them if I could give you more notice but they’re insisting I start immediately…” 

And my relaxed weekend came crashing down! Now I was facing double shifts to cover Charlie’s booked-solid schedule! Or even worse being forced into the dreaded Desperation Hiring! AAARGH!😲

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BEFORE Hiring Do a ‘Trial Hire’

KickStart: BEFORE hiring even the best job applicant pay them to work with you for a day.

Have you ever received a text like this from a new hire? (Remember, this applicant interviewed great!)😥

resignation text

If so, here’s the deal: You LOVE the Home Services industry. (Me too!) But hard as it is to believe…

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