I recently had an opportunity to have lunch with a good friend.  Tom and I met working at a Ministry with in our Church.  I enjoy time with Tom because we try to run our business’s by making decisions based upon our faith.  As I am sure most of you would realize that being a business consultant for small contractors, I often find myself teasing him as to what he should and shouldn’t do.  I do this just like he would analyze my bulkhead that separates my properties backyard from my waterway lagoon.  Tom is in the Marine Construction Business.  He specializes in providing new bulkheads for water front properties and driving foundation pilings for new homes along coastal property’s.  Tom is very good at what he does and because of this, I enjoy picking his brain and teasing him about ways that he could improve his business.  One pet peeve of mine is Tom’s reluctance to advertise.  His advertising budget almost doesn’t exist!  Of course I have to challenge him about this deficiency, and to find out how he generates leads and perspective clients.  His answer seems to be almost ignorant.  Word of mouth!  Hmmm, I thought – Gotta be more to it than that.  Sure Tom does good work and his customers are happy, but to have all of his customers talking about him, something else has to be going on, so I began to prod a little.  It was after a cold and snowy February afternoon that it all came together.  Tom’s success at generating leads and having a constant flow of work is done by the ultimate form of “Guerrilla Marketing”.  Tom’s profession of Marine Construction is surrounded with heavy machinery, fascinating work and detailed expertise.  When Tom shows up to put in a homeowners bulkhead, he has back-hoes and trenchers on the customers property for at least two weeks.  This is visible from the front of the house with yard signs and trucks, and in the back of the home for many boaters who are driving by the property during the boating season.  Tom has one distinct advantage to his marketing besides the heavy machinery.  He is in a industry that I like to call, “Neighbor Repetitive“.  If one person on the block is having a new Marine Bulkhead replaced, then its time for everyone to have it done.  In a nut shell, Tom shows up, tears the place apart, while making a whole bunch of noise for two weeks, and leaves the customer with a product that they should be happy with.   Anyone who is within earshot (everyone on the street) will know that their neighbor is having a bulkhead replaced and it is time to inquire about it.  Tom went on to explain to me on that snowy afternoon, that if he doesn’t get at least two to three neighbors to inquire about work on any particular job site, it is an oddity.  Imagine that! 

The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turn viral. The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla Marketing.  Most Residential HVAC and Plumbing work is not done with the use of heavy equipment.  Even so,  there are ways to let your current customers surrounding neighbors, know you are there to provide a great service.  Standard operating procedures should dictate;

• At the conclusion of every major installation, the installers should be dropping off, to immediate neighbors, letters of invitations for either sales or service. 
• At the beginning of every installation, yard signs should be in place (Don’t forget the gift card reward to the homeowner for any leads that generate a sale). 
• Clean and organized trucks with eye catching  truck wraps can get neighbors to notice. 
• Most importantly explaining to the customer the value in referrals and how much you would appreciate theirs.
• Marine bulkheads and docks have life expectancy’s that are not much different then home heating and cooling equipment.  Understanding the age of communities along with networking with other organizations within local municipalities can give you a marketing advantage for homes that are in need of new HVAC equipment. 

Learn to market your business constantly and efficiently so that you don’t have to worry about trying to hoard all of your money during the peak months.  Understand Guerrilla Marketing to make your business more profitable. 

If you want to find out more about the tactics that can help keep your phone ring year round, contact me today at 732-616-4617 or joe@contractorbusinessprofits.com .

Hiring during the slow months, to some contractors, is terrifying, however, there is significant benefits to this procedure.

1. First and foremost, all contractors who have employee’s should be advertising regularly for a steady supply of perspective employee’s. There are ways to do this without hurting anyone’s feelings (such as current employees). A steady stream of applicants is a necessity for any small business owner.
2. I recommend to all of my contractors to have at least four “Classified Advertisements” budgeted into their chart of accounts. These four are run during the change of the seasons. This should allow you more than enough potential employees resumes to skim through.
3. Classified Advertising is not the only means of acquiring a perspective employee. Referrals from existing employees with REWARDS! This has always been one of my best ways of getting some of the best employees. Many mechanics, sales people, and office personnel have friends who are in the same industry. “Birds of a feather, flock together!” That being said, there is a good resource for help. Don’t forget to not be stingy when it comes to the REWARD. 
4. One of the best methods of obtaining installers, service technicians or sales people is to have a good relationship with your suppliers. They have a good feel for what is going on in everyone of their customers business’s. They know who is happy and who is not. They know who is looking for a change. Setting up an individual REWARD program for those individuals can be as helpful as the employee reward program. Be careful not to portray yourself as a headhunter when applying this procedure, but like all of your companies operating procedures, there are ways to do this.
5. With the use of some of the procedures I listed, you should be able to have success acquiring perspective employees or at least a data base of prospects to pull from. Keep in mind, in trying to put together a “Turn Key Operation”, these systems should become standard operating procedures. They should be in line with your interviewing and new employee processing procedures. It should all be a fairly simplified system that produces success.
   

If you should have any questions about hiring new employees or anything about running your small business, contact me at 732-616-4617 or drop me an email at joe@contractorbusinessprofits.com.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the people who own and run Field Diagnostic Services.  For those who are not familiar with this organization, they have put together some testing equipment along with some procedures for ensuring peak efficiency of HVAC Equipment.  Very impressive and cutting edge, while very simplistic.  These principals ensure proven procedures are followed for maximum efficiency along with enabling the contractor to prove to the customer the return for the investment.  Great stuff and very different.  They have differentiated themselves from their competitors and much of the industry and thus ensuring PROFITABILITY!

 What have you done to ensure that the Service Company down the road can not compare to yourself.  Contractor Business Profits has worked with many company’s putting together marketing and advertising paradigms that have helped break down financial barriers that could not be achieved before.  Proper review of any organizations financial reports help any company put together plans and systems that can absolutely differentiate themselves from the rest.