Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service

We oftentimes look to spend as much money as it takes to get a new client when often times it simply takes digging from within! Today's episode is about the things we can do to improve our marketing without spending a fortune. Our guest today is Matt Smith from Service Industry Marketer. His goal is to share with others how he created success within his service business.

Below are 4 tips we talk about in today's episode:

1. Providing better service than anyone else.
2. Giver's Gain.
3. Farming from within your business.
4. Is print media back on the rise?

If you would like to reach out to Matt, below are the best ways to reach out to him.

www.serviceindustrymarketer.com

www.instagram.com/serviceindustrymarketer/

www.youtube.com/serviceindustrycoach

www.facebook.com/serviceindustrymarketer

And if you would like to get in touch with Tersh, the links below are the best way to reach out to him!

www.instagram.com/servicebusinessmastery/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Wgwjfr-TduZOY7cnKPhhg/featured

www.bluecollarroots.com

Today's episode is an update on how things are going with IceBound since Tersh & Brandon partnered up in January of this year.

Tersh provides 4 tips that are helping him grow his business on his mission to a million dollars.

1. Outsourcing employee hiring services to companies like BizPal.
2. Using GrowMyHVAC.com for thorough but cost effective flat rate pricing.
3. Ensuring you only keep honest team members...even if you have to hire from outside of your industry and train them.
4. Hiring a marketing firm to help grow your brand.

Please reach out to Tersh if you have any questions or recommendations

[email protected]

Or on Facebook Tersh Blissett or the Service Business Mastery Podcast group.

Today's interview is with a business broker named Patrick Lange.

Patrick is based out of Florida on the pan handle, but services all of the surrounding states.

Listed below are a few of the tips we talk about-

1. Why would someone sell their business?
2. How far out should they start planning for the sale?
3. What do the owners typically do once selling the business?
4. How does the seller get paid?
5. How does a broker value a company?
6. What sort of tax liabilities are expected?

Bonus!

1. What is the benefit of acquisition of a company?

Patrick Lange's phone number is 352-440-4604

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-lange-businessbroker/ www.businessmodificationgroup.com

How to stay in business with the rise of internet sales of HVAC systems.

We talk with Chris Rush of MyEZInstall.com about how to stay ahead of the crowd when it comes to internet sales of hvac systems.

We often complain about companies selling systems on the internet, but now there is a way for us to still make our normal margins from these same customers.

Follow this link to join Chris on a webinar to help get signed up with his company or to simply learn more about what he has to offer. https://onlinexperiences.com/scripts/Server.nxp?LASCmd=AI:4;F:QS!10100&ShowKey=51394&LangLocaleID=1033&AffiliateData=Social

How do we know if a technician is worth the money they cost? How long do we wait before we track them? Ted Gravlin comes on the show and helps to explain the process of determining your fully loaded labor rate. Link to an online calculator to help you figure out your true labor burden. https://www.tsheets.com/resources/determine-the-true-cost-of-an-employee How much should I charge per hour?

We have all been frustrated with the amount of people who are looking for a job in the service industry. How can we target the ones who are unhappy with their current job? - Patrick Long with BizPAL talks about BizPAL and how the company came into being what it is today. - We discuss why someone would want to come work with IceBound, but the reasons they do not leave their current jobs. The average age of the techs in our industry is 46 years old. - Patrick explains the difference in hunting and fishing when it comes to looking for a new hire.

● We went live with Service Titan. ○ We had a few hiccups, but they were addressed instantaneously and are smooth sailing now. ○ Any problems that we faced were taken care of by the team at Service Titan as soon as we reached out to them. Most of the issues had to do with us not understanding how the program worked. ● My family was able to meet Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday morning when he flew into Savannah to watch the St Patrick's day parade. ● I had several networking events throughout the week, and they all went smooth. ○ We are still getting a fair amount of work from the networking.

Brandon and the service technicians met with Service Titan about how to operate the program on their iPads The meeting went into detail showing the technicians ways it will help speed up their jobs, prevent customers from calling them in all hours of the night, and ways to help other technicians when they come back to the job later. One new feature that was explained a little more was the fact that financing can be offered on every service call. This will help with people who have a hard time paying for a service repair. It also allows options to be given to the customer on system replacements if they desire. We are excited with the ease of use and the customer support provided by Service Titan. Our only concern is the amount of time we have before we go live, and the workload that we have placed on ourselves. Weekly follow-up. I was part of a press conference dealing with the healthcare event that is coming up. The community is absolutely in love with ICEBOUND for all the things that we are doing for the event. We will be getting at least one government/city HVAC/refrigeration contract out of this event. They are paying us to build refrigerated trailers that we can later use to store food for our restaurant customers if they ever have a freezer or cooler go out on them. I have like 10 new subscribers to the podcast.... shout out to you if you're listening to this! We are meeting all kinds of high up government officials! Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force. We are talking to ALL the local restaurants We got a new trailer to pull behind the Transit Connect. We installed a Trane high efficiency package unit on Saturday due to our workload, and the customer was ecstatic with our service and the quality of the system!

● We have finished filling out the paperwork for BizPAL ○ The program that Patrick has is supposed to help us recruit new team mates faster! ● I interviewed Craig Cody about the 2018 Tax law update, and he helped to clear up some questions I had on the new tax code. ● Had a meeting with the local Ronald McDonald House. ○ We are installing 15 ptac units in the home at no charge to the house for the labor. Trane is also donating 2 of the systems. ● Brandon and I went and looked at a system that some worthless individual installed...we lost the quote because he was $300 less than us, but he did a horrible job on the install. ○ Pictures will follow be posted in the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/153387135246751/ ● Buy Local Lunch networking event ○ Great place to get to know business owners of local businesses. ○ There were 130 owners in the room. ● Service Titan onboarding webinars at random times throughout the week ● Soccer event in Charleston, and watched Atlanta United play against Charleston Battery