Ellen Rohr is the President and Franchise Operations Manager of ZOOM DRAIN. As a home services business makeover expert, she also offers consulting and often contributes to publications like Wells Fargo and HGTV magazines.

Ellen is passionate about giving small business owners a clear structure and plan to reach their goals. With these tools, their dreams of long-term success and making more money are much more attainable.

Learning From Experience

Ellen shares how her experience in many job industries and positions shaped her perspective and approach to business. Eventually, she joined forces with her husband, a plumber, to build ZOOM DRAIN. But they soon found themselves in debt.

That’s when she read an article about profit by businessman Frank Blount that struck a chord with her. She wrote him to tell him why his ideas were wrong, using her failing company as an example. He followed up to her letter with a phone call and some straightforward advice, and from that moment, the trajectory of her business changed.

Shattering Home Services Business Myths

Ellen’s journey to building a successful home services business required dismantling several myths she had been led to believe.

Myth #1: If you do what you love, the money will follow.
Ellen says that while it is great to do what you love, the money is never guaranteed. You need a budget and a plan.

Myth #2: Principles and profit don’t mesh.
Ellen says that money actually reveals your character. Use your profit to help others and do good.

Myth #3: Business is hard.
Ellen says that business is a matter of small, doable steps.

Often, the process of dismantling these myths and building a business that is profitable happens in three stages:

1. Complete denial: falling for those myths (listed above).
2. Avoidance: thinking that someone else should do it and figure out the financial problems you are facing.
3. The brick hits you: you get audited by the IRS or get ripped off by someone. This is when you are forced to take responsibility.

Shift Your Mindset and Focus On Value

One of the huge shifts that Ellen had to make was letting go of comparison. She had been basing her pricing off of her competitors’ pricing, instead of based off of ZOOM DRAIN’s unique costs. Frank’s advice and approach helped her shift her mindset from comparison to value.

Ellen shares what a value-focused business plan looks like:

1. When she is training her team members, she teaches them how valuable the service is that they are giving the customer.
2. Ellen worried that raising her prices might upset customers and employees. So, she adopted the practice of open book management, a concept coined by Jack Stack, author of “The Great Game of Business”, where she shows her team the numbers. This keeps all of the costs and profit transparent.
3. Think about it like this: you’re selling an inventory of time. When you look at how many hours you have in your fiscal year, spread out over your team, the math breaks through denial. This will help you see how to charge fairly and make a profit.

“A budget helps you set goals and a justifiable selling price.”

Assemble the Bean Team

Ellen emphasizes the importance of understanding your business’s numbers. Do not outsource that responsibility until you have a good grasp on it yourself. She shares that at a recent panel discussion, she heard the advice that your business should always “be audit ready.” To start cleaning up your books, Ellen recommends:

• Meet with your person entering data and your accountant/bookkeeper. Have print outs of your reports and your QuickBooks available on your computer. Discuss each of the numbers on the books and ask questions about them. Mark whether they match, do not match, or you need more information on each line item.
• Use a checklist and make procedures for everything.
• Look at your finances once a week, and again at the end of the month. Think of it like a game, and make adjustments to your strategy as you go. This will help you determine your Known Financial Position (KFP).
• Share your score (business goals and plan) with your team - make sure your employees understand your goal and are invested in getting there.

“They’ll play if you let them play. They’re going to help solve all your problems if you bring them into the game.”

More Money More Freedom

Ellen emphasizes that turning a profit, even if it’s just 20% more, will help your business in important ways, like: giving your employees healthcare, providing money back for your customers if you make a mistake, and reaching a KFP.

Most importantly, she emphasizes that it’s easier than you think.

For more information, visit ZOOM DRAIN and Ellen Rohr.