The One about Google, Blogging, Vlogging and more

Yes Vlogging  is a real word.

This is the contractor’s reader s digest for you.You cannot take content from someone else or pictures from someone and blog it or put it on your website and call it you own. NO NO NO . You will be penalized also don’t buy links,

Is SEO dead or has it changed?

Now it’s all about original content, you use our key words to your content.

You can either write it all yourself or outline out what you want and send It off to be written for you.

You should be able to automate your blogging on your website to   be posted when you want.

And for the other places you want to post like linked in, twitter, google plus you can use hoot suite or other platforms like it to schedule it to go out when you want it to.

For the contractor who is having a challenge on what to write try sitting down a putting together 20 of the most frequently asked questions. Now you have 20 blog posts.

If that becomes a challenge start Vlogging (video blogging) same 20 questions. If you don’t want to write then send off the audio and have it transcribed some place like Odesk or Elance and now you have your blog post .

Take it one step further and turn it into a free repot for your potential customers.

Or an e book positioning yourself as the expert in your field. Always think about positioning yourself as the expert by doing that you will move away from being a commodity regulated by price only.

The one about it just doesn't happen to you only.

Really there are times that it all doesn’t go right for us also.

This one has nothing to do with contractor marketing but have a lot to do with employees and some of those crazy customers.And some of the weird stuff that happens and you wonder why.

I’ve come to realize that I can count on at once a year one customer that just goes off the reservation. Then you have an employee that is good so good that he makes up his own rules of employment.

We just wanted to have a little fun and let everyone know you are not alone, Every day is a learning experience.  Make sure you have fun in the process.

Street Bidder the ultimate in residential unsolicited residential bidding.

Another tool to help you market your business that will really hone your target marketing

Imagine going to the mailbox as you always do and you are opening your mail over the garbage pail and there is a post card with a picture of YOUR house on the card with an unsolicited bid for work to be done at your home. Someone just got your attention!

That is the true essence of Street Bidder

As the need arose to grow his business Josh the owner of a family run window cleaning company who also does roof cleaning ,pressure cleaning and gutter cleaning. Created Street Bidder to help grow his business a system that would be methodical, consistent,  systematic and targeted . To specific houses in specific communities.

A long term system that will help you own the areas you want to target and dominate.

You build up your data base over time to the areas you want to dominate and own it’s very specific like a sniper rifle and very personal.

The key to using street bidder in your marketing is to be consistent, pick your areas and build that relationship with those potential customers.

I like that they offer 2 programs a free program sort of a let’s get acquainted and a premium for 39.00 per month. If you are  going to be a serious user of Street Bidder you will defiantly take on the platinum feature it really  offers a great list of features your post cards are 49 cents each that’s even if you send one or a thousand. And you can actually up load your own post card designs. You can do a quick send post card and even do a quick send thank you card. . Or when someone calls off the Street Bidder card that wants a true estimate, how about sending a thank you for allowing us to come out and give you a quote. It’s the little things that make thing happen.

The uses are endless you just have to use you imagination to see how your company will benefit the most from this program.

Another super feature they added for a very reasonable price for those business owners who don’t have a website is a place where you can put fill in the template for a one page landing page. No you can personalize your mailings even more with the use of a QR code check out the video.

If you haven’t notice in the interview Josh is in the marketing business but he derives his income through his window cleaning company. Only those who come to this realization can really make their company grow.

Go to Street Bidder get your account and go take some pictures and send out some cards you could have business within a week.  

What Every Contractor Ought to Know About Face Book Advertising Interview with Pete Mitchell

Actually What Everyone Ought To Know About Facebook Advertising: How You Too Can Generate Hot Qualified Leads In The Next 20 Minutes With Facebook

On podcast #6 we talked about direct response and Pete actually brought us to the thought that it is actually instant results marketing.

With face book you will know advertising you will know almost immediately. For the contractor you can actually do a face book offer and you don’t even have to have a web site to do an offer and face book will help you along and let the people who responded to that the offer and let them know that time is running out and it’s time to  move. You can’t make it much easier than that, It shows up in the news feed with an expiration date to move them to act on you ad.

Another nice thing about Facebook advertising  is that you can really drill down and really target your customer base , let’s say you wanted only home owners who had an income above 100k and were professional  or business owners you could do that,

If you’re not sure who you target is you can upload all your clients to Facebook and tell them that you are looking for customers just like them and the y will find those people for you.

You can choose how much you want to spend each day start off small as little as 5.00 a day . the nice thing about Facebook advertising is that you get immediate results now ou can take thatsame add and use it in other mediums postcards , magazines you know the ad works and you are getting a return. You no longer have to wait weeks to find out if you ad works.

If you would like some help getting you ad up and running to get immediate results give Pete a call at 714-657-3559. Adding someone like Pete to your team allows you to do what you do best and that is selling those hot leads that are brought in by your Facebook advertising.

What Everyone Ought To Know About Facebook Advertising: How You Too Can Generate Hot Qualified Leads In The Next 20 Minutes With Facebook

The holidays are just around the corner and there is no reason why you should take a forced vacation.

Every year about this time I hear the same old story the holidays are coming no one is spending money on _______ you fill in the blank. Painting, pressure cleaning, remodeling, roofing, repairs; no one is buying real-estate, Blah –Blah –Blah. Really??

 My customers spend money with me on my services all year long even during the holidays.

There is a hard and fast rule, People spend money on whatever they want whenever they want it and the time of the year doesn’t matter.  I’ve had people paint their house between Christmas and New Year because they had it budgeted. 

Our goal with this series of 3 podcast s is to help you ramp up your marketing for the holidays.

You have to change your mind set and believe that your customers have money to spend on your services and you are going to have to do a little extra to help them along.

Like ramp up your marketing for the holidays.

The simplest and probably most effective place to start is with your very own customers. They like you and trust you and welcome any correspondence from you.

If you have a newsletter that goes out to customers each month the add a separate thank you page. 

Let them know how much you appreciate their continued support of your business relationship. Now is a good time to do it at Thanks Giving time or just before. Forget about the Christmas card it gets thrown in the heap ThanksGiving cards believe it or not is more memorable because your are not doing what the masses are doing.

Wish them well for the holidays and give them a special thank you discount certificate for some service that they might  have done by you before the 1st of the year. And because it’s the holiday season you will allow then to take a picture of that certificate and send it to only one friend or family. 

If you don’t do a newsletter then send out a letter? Now is the time to start. Refrain from following the masses and sit by the phone waiting for the phone to ring.You can make it happen

Michele grew up in a family business like many of who have our own business

He went into the Air Force where he actually learned about pest control.

Went into the pest control business and had to learn about business

Started in the residential market and after 3 years went in to the commercial arena also

And grew consistently each year mainly by implementing systems and tracked where all the business was coming from. Tracking was one of the essentials for his growth and setting and resetting daily weekly and yearly goals,

Also putting a good team together and delegating what he wasn’t good at doing was a key to growth.

Michael talks about one of his big wins doing things in business that his competition wasn’t doing and in the end was a big winner.

Michael says with that you have to stay in motion when thinking about getting things done just keep moving.

Michael after many years in business building systems and a team that put his business in a position to be an attractive business for a buyer to pursue him and purchase. Why because he had learned from mentors and advisors how to become a profitable business that would eventually attract a buyer. This was a planned event.

Michael now has opened the Carli Group, business advisors that helps business owners set the steps in motion for an eventual exit plan.I say eventual because it takes time to build the machines and every business owner is in a different position.

Of course in order to get to that exit point the Carli Group helps you get to that place of profitability, building systems, finding core people as team members.

Each business owner is in their own place in their business structure. The  Carli group or any business advisor can help you discover where you are  and can help you go as far as ou want to go and as fast as you want to move.

The Carli Group focuses on 8 key elements that keep an business healthy he likens it to driving an 8 cylinder auto on 6 cylinder .The engine is running but not efficiently. Are we going to get to the destination but not effectively!

You can contact Michael at the The Carli Group where they help you focus on results

Go to http://thecarligroup.net

And visit their fan page click here     

Finding the puzzle pieces and putting it all together so you can see the whole picture.

Making sure the cogs and sprockets are turning and all the parts are moving together at a steady pace.

That’s what a successful business is supposed to look like.

A finely tuned engine that runs smoothly without a hiccup.or too many hiccups.

Now that we just described how your business should look like and run.

How do we get there?

You’ll be glad to know it’s not like jumping right in to the pool or trial by fire.

It is really a simple process not easy but simple.

As business owners we have a tendency to not want to deligate tasks that helps us run our business.

We many times are the person holding us back from being successful.

We need to find team members that will have strengths where we are week.

We need to get better at the things that we are good at  not better at the things we are week in.

Insisting on trying to get belter at the things we are not good at will only take away time energy and money away from being optimally productive.

Find those people that will strengthen your business. Who will fill in the gaps and help you build a successful team. Still not sure how to get there take a SWOT analysis of yourself first then your operation.

SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Be honest with yourself.

More than likely you will need an employee hand book. All new employees get 2 they read and sign both, you get one they keep one.

Weekly team meetings and notes for everyone who participates, might as well throw a safety meeting in that time frame also. A good operations manual will have the key elements to help you keep your business on a successful track.

So where or how do I begin first admit that you can’t do it all your self-admitting that is freeing in itself.

Find a mentor that is willing to help you or find and pay business advisor that can help get you.

Or if you are strapped for cash or don’t have the time to go looking for the other check out Score at

https://www.score.org/ .

Score is a company that has been around for 50 years comprised of business people helping business people for free. Go check it out today.

Every day we have to decide on what it takes for us to run a profitable business ,We get phone calls ,customer service situations and projects that come in front of us and we have to decide if weather it’s an opportunity or a distraction.

In order to decide which one it is we have to decide on many factors .Do we have a plan in place that will guide us and from chasing the cash. Come to the conclusion that we need to set some criteria for running our business that will help us see the opportunities that are out there and stop chasing the distractions.

Sometime distractions can appear as opportunities.                                                                                              So how can you tell the difference?

1. What is your core business? IF you define this then you will be focused

2. Have you set incremental goals for growth? If you define this then you will be focused.

3. What or who is your target market? If you define this you will be focused.

If you haven’t figured it out by now it’s being focused on a few things that will help you determine if you are chasing a distraction or an opportunity.  

Sit down  and figure what are those 5 or so things that you can look at that will give you a dashboard on how to keep from being distracted and to be open to new opportunities that will help you be more successful in your contracting business.

Every day in our contracting businesses or as a service provider   we get up to go out the door to run our business.

But what does it take to run that business? 

Why am I not making a profit in the market place?

I have to stop trying to compete on price alone. Or if I’m in a situation where I do have to compete on price  that I know what my numbers are so I can bid the work so I don’t lose money. Or I know when to walk away.

How do I make a profit as a contractor?

How do I get my prices in my contracting business to a place that I feel comfortable about doing the job In such a way that the customer feels like they are getting value because I don’t have to rush.                                                                                  

Because from past experience I’ve bid the job to low and have had over runs poor relationship with the customer. And as a result no profit a mad customer and no chance of a referral. 3 strikes you’re out .

On to a new inning its time to change the past and start a new day get in the game to win.

Knowing  what your numbers   are knowing what it takes for you to run your business on an hourly basis ,a daily basis  is crucial to whether you prosper or fail in business, then you add profit into the mix on your labor and material and you will be in the real game of business and be much happier.

You can’t be like the 2 guys selling produce on the side of the road at the end of the day they say we didn’t make any money .We will have to get a bigger truck next time. 

Bottom line is go figure out what your  expenses are break it down on a per hour and per day add the percent of profit to the equation  and make sure it’s a healthy percent  because no job ever runs perfect.

 Does the quality of your customer service add to your bottom

line or create a black hole of lost revenue?

Is your customer service good because you work at it?

Or is it bad because you don’t’ work at it.?

No one ever talks about mediocre customer service.

More times than not you hear a complaint that’s the way it goes.

So think about this every time you hear a complaint about bad

customer some business owner   just lost a customer.

Customers cost money to acquire. You just lost a customer

now you think I’ve got to go get another one. Spending more

 money on marketing to acquire a new customer to replace

 the one you just lost.

And you’re probably thinking I’d belter ramp up the sales

 and marketing to get a bunch of new ones just in case we lose more.

Granted no one keeps every customer there is always a natural

attrition of customer loss. But losing customers because of bad

customer service is a conscious decision of the owner.  

Every company has a program to ramp up sales but most

don’t have a training for good customer service .

Some might say I was never taught how to give good customer

service what do I do? For starters    

You know what bad customer service is reverse engineer it.

Turn the negative to a positive experience.

If everyone is trained on how the customer should experience

 good customer service then it becomes a company goal to be better.

Let’s look at it for 2 points of view the positive and the negative let’s do the negative first so we can finish up on a positive note.

Bad customer service outcome run the numbers for your own situation

You lose the customer

You have lost minimum of 2 referrals   lost revenue

You lost the life time value of the original customer lost revenue

You have to market for your new customer  

If your closing ratio is 25% then you have to go and see 4 prospects time and gas

To get one customer, and if your track record for bad customer service is in play,

 double or triple this number.

The person who has a bad experience tells 13 people, fact.

While the person who has a good experience only tells 4

Now let’s take using good customer service as an awesome back end marketing tool.

You have a ecstatic customer who was treated well with the program that you put together on how to give great customer service that you have taught your team..

They are ecstatic about your company and how they were and are treated they become an advocate for your company. They sell.

How many will they refer through their life time lets say 4 in the next 2 years.

And 2 of those refer 2 in the next 2 years so that gives you 8 new customers in the next 2 years from  one ecstatic customer.  What if you had 20 customer that did that on a regular basis.

It’s possible only of you set up your business thihis way.

Some great material to read for great customer service is

WAYMISH Why are you making it so hard for me to give you my money?

Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless: How to make customers love you, keep them coming... Jeffoy Gittomer

Inside the Magic Kingdom: Seven Keys to Disney's Success by Tom Connellan

Out-Nordstrom Nordstrom Creating the World's Best Customer Service by Keith Lee