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 shares that her expertise comes from her own journey as a plumber’s wife and entrepreneur, which you can hear more about in Part 1 of her interview.

What Do You Want?

After working with some great mentors, Ellen and her husband got their business out of debt and started making a profit. Since they weren’t worried about making payroll anymore, the conversation shifted to what was next for their company.

Her husband said he wanted to work on his own. The business growth and expansion Ellen was envisioning was not what he wanted. This realization was a crucial part of their planning as they moved forward.

“Business planning is the process by which you clarify your intention and move to aligned action…another way to think of it is to dream, act, and test.”

They soon sold their company, started ZOOM DRAIN, and Ellen began her consulting journey. In this process, she shares how she also stopped trying to change her husband: a lesson that can apply to any business partner relationship.

Take Action With a Business Plan

Ellen emphasizes the importance of “auditioning” various experts to see if their approach to planning and structuring an organization resonates with you. Al Levi, Howard Partridge, and John Maxwell were some of the names who were instrumental in helping Ellen create her own business planning process that she outlines in her book “The Bare Bones Biz Plan.”

Ellen’s guide to building a flexible and dynamic business plan is broken into 6 steps: 

1. Setting sight: your vision/vision board, mission statement, value proposition, and financial goals.
2. Building the team: who do you need to make this vision happen? This includes business partners, employees, vendors, etc.
3. Making money: your Known Financial Position, weekly scorecard, and monthly checklist.
4. Getting it sold: when you reach this step, you’ve probably realized that you need to charge more for your services. Learn from experts how to create strong marketing and sales processes to make this happen.
5. Getting it done: make good on your promise to your customers by implementing systems and procedures.
6. Making sure: are you on the right track? Do the numbers look good? Is your life improved?

Qualities of Success

Ellen’s number one piece of advice for reaching success is: write things down.

Both of Ellen’s books, “The Bare Bones Biz Plan” and “The Weekend Biz Plan,” will help you build and implement a successful business plan. Start with “The Weekend Biz Plan” for an introduction to her processes. Then, dive into “The Bare Bones Biz Plan” and start achieving your goals.

For more information, visit ZOOM DRAIN and Ellen Rohr.