On this episode, Tom welcomes Al Levi of The 7 Power Contractor to bring you a real conversation about how to plan and prioritize your 4th quarter, ensuring a successful start to 2018. Plus, Tom and Al touch on the importance of finding the right people and allowing them to grow and hit personal goals within the company's overarching goals.
Goals are often a scary topic for many business owners, you can write what you want to achieve but if you don’t plan a way to make that list happen then you essentially are cheating yourself out of being accountable. You have to be willing to write down what you want, be specific, make it objective and put a time-frame on it. There is no such thing as the goal police, if you don’t hit the goal you set the world isn’t going to end. So you can’t let the fear of not hitting the goal prevent you from setting them in the first place.
If you’re like many human beings out there, you have a hard time holding yourself accountable. Luckily you can put yourself in a position to have outside help. Join an outside group so that you have peers helping to hold you accountable to getting things done. Don’t pick 100 things you want to do next year, focus on just the top few things you’d like to see get done and work your way through those. Your goals need to be specific, pick your top five or ten and then write them out objectively and make a plan for reaching them.
There’s plenty to be learned from when things go well in your business, just as much that can be learned when things aren’t going well. Celebrate and evaluate those wins to see how you can be doing it more in the future. Business is like going up a hill, you have to know where the plateaus are so you can catch your breath but you also need to know what items are crucial for the climb. It’s a false sense of safety if you are sitting on a plateau thinking that there are no problems or no ways to grow your business.
Growth doesn’t just have to be bottom line net profit or top line revenue. Growth in your business can (and should) be so many different things. It could be growing your employees, working on long-term marketing plans, helping your employees meet and reach their own personal goals, recruiting new staff, the options are endless.
Al’s 7 Powers
Listen in as Al’s breaks down how to find your Master Project List and then boil that list down to the top 5 goals you should be working on for next year. Your Top 5 Goals have to be written down and posted on a wall where everyone can see them. Every week you are accountable to that board of goals, what did you do every week to make those top 5 goals come to life?
Hold weekly meetings to discuss:
What did we do right and how can we do it again?
What did we do wrong and how can we fix it?
What should we be doing next week to be prepared as a company?
Always should discuss the top 5 goals and how as a team and company everyone is working towards those top 5 goals.
Keep in mind that you do not have to be the one that has all the answers. Figure out what the biggest issues are and then take yourself out of the equation to see who can solve that problem instead. Then give them the power and authority to change it and let them take charge. You do not have to be in or doing every single change, bring your people into it and help your people grow while taking smaller things off your plate.
To learn more about Al, visit his website The 7 Power Contractor and learn more about Al’s 7 Powers and how to implement them in your own business. You can also download Al's 7 Power Cheat Sheet and pick up a copy of his book The 7- Power Contractor . Be sure to join the community at The 7 Power Contractor's Facebook Page.
Ready to level up your business IQ? Visit The Contractor Fight Accelerate Group run by Tom! Don’t miss out, make sure to claim your seat at the must attend contractor event of the year, Revolution 2018.
Podcast Editing and Show Notes via Podcast Buddy
On this episode, Tom welcomes Mark Buckshon of Construction Marketing Ideas to discuss powerful marketing strategies for all contracting business. Learn the ins and outs of contracting marketing, find better ways to share your stories, and understand the data you need to keep growing your business.
Mark’s Top Three Discussion Points for Marketing
Retaining clients is one of the easiest and fastest ways to boost your overall revenue. Retaining clients is about keeping the connection with them, during and after a job and building a positive relationship with them through their customer experience with your company.
Even as brand new contracting company, you still have friends, family and have contacts that you can use to build your business. Find where you can contribute value to your community and get your name/face out there.
When you do spend money on external advertising, social media or print media, you need to look back at it afterwards and figure out how much business did you gain from it. Of the business you did get, how many of those customers are going to turn into repeat clients? Bringing you lifetime value from the ad.
For social media, you should focus on strategies that build direct relationships with people. Watch your social media carefully so you can respond quickly to any type of situation, positive or negative. Induce as much positive interaction or responses for your business as you can by providing an excellent customer journey.
Make sure that your website and social media pages are relevant and maintained. You want them to be a lively place for discussion and content driven. This is your place to encourage communication with current and former clients. You can also show off your skills by highlighting cool new jobs or fantastic past projects. Social media is building client relationships and referrals but on hyper drive. It will be one of your most powerful and inexpensive ways to build your reputation. Consistency is key, you have to reasonably reliable with it.
Make sure your website is responsive and has great mobile accessibility to it. More and more people will be using their phones to look at your website or social media pages and you want to be able to accommodate that. If you don’t look professional on your website and social media then you’ll be missing out on phone calls of potential clients right from the start. It’s so important to have a professional feel to your website and make sure it’s responsive.
Your main focus should be on making your customers experience top notch. They’ll remember the experience and it’s your greatest investment to your business. If you provide positive and outstanding experiences, then you’ll not only have repeat clients but those clients will happily share about their positive experience with others and you can use that to help market and build your brand to others.
Be sure to visit Construction Marketing Ideas for a more in-depth look at marketing for your contracting business. You’ll find relevant tips and valuable strategies that you can start applying today to boost your marketing plan and seeing tangible results. Mark has also written a book Construction Marketing Ideas that Tom highly recommends.
Want to level up your business IQ? Visit The Contractor Fight Accelerate Group run by Tom! Don’t miss out, make sure to claim your seat at the must attend contractor event of the year, Revolution 2018.
Podcast Editing and Show Notes via Podcast Buddy
In this episode, The No BS Performance Coach for Contractors, Tom Reber shares 3 ways to teach you how to make more money in your contracting business.
1. Take Control of Your Sales Process
2. Know What Your Costs Are
3. Raise Up Leaders Tom Reber is a business coach for contractors and co-founder of the Contractor Sales Academy.
www.contractorsalesacademy.com
Are you ready to take the next step for your contracting business? Everything you need to educate yourself to take your business to the next level of success can be found in The Contractor Fight Accelerate Group.
Today Tom sits down with Laura Reale of Aquareale and Pondtent to discuss how she uses strategic marketing in her own business and how she helps others in this industry to reach their full marketing potential. Laura majored in journalism and continued her education with a Masters degree in Marketing. She is a seasoned marketing professional who understands the landscaping and contractor industry and now helps other companies in the pond world.
You will learn from Laura how a potential Aquareale customer goes from an initial contact to a returning customer. How she gathers and retains their information and begins to build that client relationship. After re-branding and becoming Aquareale, their business did over $100,000 more in business than the first year. The first thing Laura suggests you look at is addressing your brand and the way you present yourself. You should have logo, updated website, business card and represent your brand well. Laura lives and works in this industry with Aquareale and really gets how marketing should look in this industry.
Marketing is all about building customer relationships with clients both past and future. Staying top of mind shouldn’t just be pushing sales. Her weekly tips and monthly newsletter provide useful information, a give and take to build a nurturing relationship with your clients. This not only keeps you top of mind for your own clients but also helps to keep you top of mind for referral sources too.
To see how Laura and Pondtent can help take your marketing to the next level, check out the Pondtent List of Services or Contact her directly.
Are you ready to take the next step for your contracting business? Everything you need to educate yourself to take your business to the next level of success can be found in The Contractor Fight Accelerate Group.