Your Atlanta Expo recently came to a conclusion—it was an incredible event full of new information and insight to help you build even greater success in your business. Fortunately, you can catch up on most of the action in the coming weeks on your affinity website.
Although watching the sessions will certainly be helpful, nothing can replace the experience Expo provides. That’s why you’re urged make plans to join us at your next Expo in Boca Raton, Florida, September 23-25, 2015! Expos are something that are best experienced—not watched. Being in the meeting rooms and around other contractors is the best and fastest way to become successful.
In the meantime, here’s a brief synopsis on what transpired in Atlanta:
Wave Goodbye to Your HR Headaches
You wear many “hats” as the owner of your company: manager, marketer, salesperson, trainer, technician, problem solver, and much more. Too often the role of Human Resources Manager is overlooked—and it makes you vulnerable.
During this session, Rebecca Cassel asked everyone to complete an “HR Self-Assessment.” For example, it included questions such as: Do you have a recently updated Handbook that’s been reviewed in the last six months, and do you have updated and displayed posters for 2015 state and federal law changes?
As Rebecca explained, if you answered NO to any of the 15 questions on that assessment, you are at risk of violating state and/or federal laws. To help you alleviate the stress and bother of being an HR Manager, Rebecca introduced a NEW strategic partner to assist you in ALL of your human resources needs, Certigy! They can handle compliance, payroll, benefits, and insurance. For more information on what they offer, please, contact your Client Success Manager.
Leadership Lessons to Take You from Today to $30 Million
SGI Member and Part-Owner Gus Antos of Milestone Electric & Air in Dallas, Texas, has grown his business to over $30 Million in sales in less than 10 years, and doing so while remaining highly profitable. What’s his secret? He revealed it in this session…
First and foremost, you must hire right. Gus explained that you can’t hire someone for a job and hope to inspire them along the way; instead, you must hire people who are motivated, and they will do a fantastic job along the way. Second, you must determine your values and culture and share them! Culture is your company, and your values are something you are as a person.
For Gus, his values are family, love, and excellence—and those values create Milestone’s culture and are communicated through four different ways:
- Advertising. All of Milestone’s advertising communicate Gus’ values of family, love, and excellence.
- Customer Interaction. Your customers must feel your values through your advertising, how you answer the phone and dispatch your people, how your techs act in the home, and through your debriefing of each call. Gus treats each customer as family!
- Team Members. Take time to recruit, interview, on-board, train, provide ongoing motivation and support, and make each new team member feel like family. Don’t skimp on each phase of this process.
- Building/Property. Your vehicles and building’s appearances reflect your values and culture. Keep them clean, tidy, and impressive.
Finally, in closing, Gus explained that it doesn’t matter how big your company is, don’t get overwhelmed with trying to improve each of these four phases. Instead, just concentrate on one and work from there. But whatever you do, Gus emphasized, do something!
Blue Chip Recruiting REVAMPED
You were given some great news during this session, Blue Chip Recruiting REVAMPED: You will need to be focusing more and more of your time on recruiting because according to all available statistics, all of the trades are increasing. There is more of a demand than ever for your products and services! Unfortunately, those same studies show that the positions of “skilled trades” are more difficult than ever to fill.
What does this mean for you? No longer are you just hiring, you must recruit. It’s best to find motivated people from other trades, or young people out of school, with great communication ability and train them in your trade. No more hiring and putting someone in a truck. To get the best, you’ll need to do more teaching than ever. It means more in-house technical and communication training. You may want to seek out technical school SGI partners for assistance. And you’ll want to utilize the experience of your top techs by implementing ride-alongs.
For a comprehensive program of what you can do in today’s changed environment, your SGI team has developed a NEW Blue Chip Recruiting Guide, which is an E-reader. Simply visit your organization’s website to download it today! See how you can begin recruiting the very best of the best to work for you!
Stop Spending Big Dollars Driving Customers to Bad, Ineffective Websites
You’re spending tons of money and time driving people to your website in hope they’ll pick you as their service provider. But how much money and time and thought have you put into the actual content within the pages of your site?
Today’s online consumers are more critical and fickle than ever! You need to connect with them immediately, directly address their needs, and promptly assure them that you’re who’s right for their family! You believe you’re doing that? Don’t be so certain!
Wizard of Ads Managing Partner Paul Boomer analyzed several member websites from stage and explained what they’re doing well and what they could improve upon. Odds are, you’re likely making some of the same mistakes that your fellow members are making. It would be of great value for you to go to your organizational website and review the video from this session. See what recommendations Paul made and implement them into your own site. Your web presence must be something you continually work on and improve to maximize its effectiveness!
Building Your Brand & Business Through Community Engagement!
You spend money on advertising and rely on word-of-mouth to spread your company name and generate interest in your services, but there’s another way to market yourself: Through community engagement. Yes, to truly become the company everybody loves, you need to get engaged… not just be present.
Building a brand in your community means building an emotion people feel when thinking about you. That’s how loyalty is gained. Before you can work on creating loyalty from customers, you must create it within your team. That loyalty only comes when you invest in them. They’re the ones who will make your brand come to life!
Now, when looking for community organizations to work with, pick those who you’ll feel passionate about. Maybe it’s dogs, the elderly, or disadvantaged youth. Once you have your organization, generate a list of way you can be engaged with that group—more than spending money! By spending time with that group, not only will you find new, loyal customers, you’ll find other side benefits, such as team building, engagement, pride, and team member retention!
Pushing Past the Million Dollar Mark: Growth Strategies for the Small Contractor
You feel like your business is moving in the right direction. You’re making some money, but you keep hitting that million dollar revenue ceiling. What can be done? During Expo, you were given the essentials every small company must implement in order to push past that million-dollar mark.
- The Right People. Your people are everything. You must have the right team members, to find the right people, it means recruiting outside of the trade often. You must also be a company someone will want to work for, too. Make sure your business conveys professionalism in every way. Finally, call behind every service call to ensure that your technicians are following through on what you’ve trained.
- The Right Price. Are you priced right? Are you implementing StraightForward Pricing? Are you utilizing the Replacement Investment guides? Are you selling Club Memberships? If the answer is no, you want to evaluate these aspects of your business.
- The Right Plan. You must be a planner! Develop a revenue goal each month and track your results daily! Have Scoreboards to develop competition among your team and contests to allow that competition to flourish. Planning also entails creating a budget; knowing what revenue is needed each day, week, and month; and utilizing the Daily Management Essentials Report.
Follow through with those three steps, and you should find your small business achieving a million in sales in no time!
Leading a Faith and/or Values-Based Organization
During this session, Milestone Electric & Air’s Gus Antos talked about how he’s managed to build one of the largest residential businesses in the country while still not losing sight of what’s most important to him: His faith and values. He explained how you can build a business focused on both, as well.
Gus explained that biblical principles and business principles are not very different. They ask you to put yourself in customers’ shoes, be diligent, work with excellence, don’t lord over employees, be a good steward, and be generous. These beliefs should be echoed throughout your company. He showed research saying 97 percent of people have no problem working with faith-based companies.
What being faith-based does NOT mean is being a pushover, making bad decisions, not being profitable, not cramming your beliefs down others’ throats, and not being so sanctimonious that people don’t want to work with you!
You, as the owner, must create the right environment to be a faith-based organization. Gus challenged you to work on yourself harder than you work on your business. He asked you to always treat customers with the Golden Rule and always be humble when working with your team, never take yourself too seriously. Finally, Gus stressed to constantly remember why you are in business—it’s not all about money, it’s about inspiring others, too.
Turn New Federal Water Heater Regulations into Increased Sales & Bolstered Bottom Lines
As you well know, effective April, 16, 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DEO) is requiring higher energy factor (EF) ratings on virtually all residential water heaters—and how it will directly impact your business was discussed at your Expo.
For you, it will require increased costs. You’ll need to invest more into technical training and tools in order to properly install these more energy-efficient water heaters. Due to their increased size, you may even need two people on each job. You’ll also need to evaluate if these larger tanks will fit onto your service vehicles and where they’ll fit in customers’ homes. One silver lining exists: Do-it-yourselfers will likely no longer exist, as these new water heaters are far too complicated.
Of course, your clients will be impacted by the increase in product and installation costs. While they will enjoy reduced energy costs, these new water heaters will create increased maintenance costs.
Before April 16th arrives, your pricing must reflect these mandates. You’ll need to update your pricing guides. You may also look into having dedicated water heater install teams. By being proactive now, you’ll be able to retain your margins well into the future.