Toolbox Talk

I'm sorry if I made you think about the song from Oasis but that's not what I'm pointing out here. I'm talking about your business :) If you're like me and you're trying to grow and scale your business, looking forward to the future, then you're already taking steps on how to get there. 

The journey is a bit difficult and I understand that. There can be some discouraging moments along the way. But I'm encouraging you to look back - not in anger but to see how far you've come. It will help you feel better. I'll show you how to look back and see your progress.

How many of you heard this line from McDonald's saying, “Would you like fries with that?” I bet most of us say yes to this simple upsell question, right? I think this strategy is good for your business and using it is a powerful revenue increaser for you. Now, I know there's a little bit of discomfort here but I'll help you overcome it in this short video.

I read the news recently which said tradies are earning more compared to other professions. This caught my attention because if you read the news carefully, they're clearly missing some points. 

I bet you wouldn't want your customers thinking you're ripping them off just because you're charging more than $90 an hour, right? So here's my thought on how you can defend yourself with how to charge your customers.

What do you do when there's no more work to do? Are you back to cleaning the shed? Cleaning the shed isn't fun. You don't want to be cleaning this sh*t, right? It's a very stressful place to be. 

Of course, what we want is to always have work to do so we can earn money to pay for our staff, our business and family's need. What happens is, we end up cleaning the shed if we don't build our marketing machine properly. I'll explain a bit more what I mean.

Is your business too complex right now? Do your processes require too much time and energy for you and your staff to accomplish? If so, I encourage you to avoid complexity at all cost. 

It's known in bigger business to be a cause of cost, and in smaller business, I think sometimes we allow it to creep in and we shouldn't. Now, I'll tell you it's not easy. It takes a bit of discipline. Let me explain to you more.

Today's blog is about small trades business vs big trades business. There's a lot of difference between a small and informal trade business, and a structured and systematized one. I have read from Seth Godin's articles that the small business kind of works, and the big business kind of works, and then in between is a bit sh*t. Do you agree? Let me explain to you a bit more.

How's business going? Is there a lot going on right now? What I mean is, sometimes you have to do a lot of things. You start doing some more marketing and you get a bit busy and then, you have to go and work on your operations machine and grow people, hire people, or make it more systematic or take yourself out of it, and so on. 

Everything you do has another effect and sends you over to somewhere else and that's what I mean by the juggle. I'll explain a bit more about it and how I think you can manage it.

I often hear people say that they get their business through word-of-mouth marketing, but is it enough? If you're a small business, I don't blame you if that's the only thing you do. But if you're ambitious to grow bigger with your trades business, I don't think you can rely on word-of-mouth alone. Let me tell you why in this video.

My girlfriend, Michelle, who's a PhD in psychology, tried to build a website on her own. She did a good job building it. but not as great as she was in her field. Recently, she noticed that her website wasn't bringing any leads and when she tried to Google herself she was nowhere to be found. And so, my lesson for today is about websites and why doing-it-yourself is not a good idea. 

How's your day today? I've been sending emails about improving your cash flow, has it helped you a bit? I'd like to know :) Today, I'll be talking about the 4th way on how to loosen tight cash flow. Clue: it's the subject of this email. Yes, I'll share with you how to track money coming in and out your business. Plus, I've got a free download for you that you can use to help you do it.