How much Quote Follow Up is Too Much?
"Can you turn off my automations, your system is blowing me up?" I've gotten that a lot the last few months since I've set my system up. We basically text and email at day 1,2,3, 6,8,12,16,20,25,29 after the quote is sent unless they give us a "no". I feel like it can go two ways. The people that are going to accept but haven't gotten around to it are annoyed by it. The people that aren't going to accept usually don't say anything. I do get a "no" about day 12 though. The others, no response either way. What kind of nurture sequence are you guys setting up and how successful is it?At what point do you hire an agency?
I'm at the point in my business where I really need to not be doing stuff that I'm not good at and I have enough money to invest in different areas of the business to improve the operations. I'm actually rebranding as well so I'm changing our website then it got me thinking - My old website was good, I put a lot of work in to the back links, SEO optimizing it myself, but it does look a little DIY. I got to thinking, this would be a good time to do it correctly and potentially have a professional do it, and maybe I've been missing out on potential traffic because of the website. Has anyone hired an agency with success? What about failures? What things should I be thinking about when approaching this?At What Point Does “More Revenue” Stop Being the Goal?
As business owners, we’re constantly encouraged to grow. More clients. More employees. More service areas. More revenue. But eventually, growth comes with more management, more overhead, more complexity, and sometimes… not that much more profit. We’ve hit points in our business where the question shifted from “How do we make more?” to “How do we make what we already have work better?” Better margins. Better clients. Better systems. Better retention. More revenue per client. Less dependence on the owner. I think there’s a huge difference between growing a business and just making a business bigger. For those of you who have been at this for a while: how do you decide when to keep pushing for revenue growth versus optimizing the business you already have? And has anyone intentionally decided NOT to grow past a certain size?Are You Selling Your Service… or Selling the Experience?
Customers have more choices than ever. Sometimes the difference isn’t just the service you provide, but how you make people feel from the first interaction to the final follow-up. What are some ways your business creates an experience that keeps customers coming back?At what point does a “good customer” stop being a good customer?
I think when you first start a business, a “good customer” is pretty easy to define. They book regularly. They pay their bill. They don’t cancel all the time. They’ve been with you for years. But as we’ve grown, I’ve realized there’s a lot more to it than that. What if they’re a great recurring client, but your team dreads going to their house? What if they pay on time, but constantly question the bill? What if they’ve been with you for years, but expect exceptions to every policy because they’re a “long-time customer”? Or maybe they’re profitable on paper, but the amount of time your office spends managing them makes you wonder how profitable they actually are. I used to look at keeping a client for a long time as automatically being a win. Now I think WHO you retain matters just as much as how many clients you retain. There’s also the part that makes this difficult: you build relationships with people. Walking away from recurring revenue isn’t always easy, especially when the customer hasn’t done one huge thing “wrong.” Sometimes it’s just 100 little things that add up over time. For me, I think the line gets crossed when keeping one customer starts negatively affecting our team, our operations, or our ability to properly serve the rest of our clients. So I’m curious… At what point does a “good customer” stop being a good customer for your business? Have you ever intentionally let go of a long-term or profitable client because the relationship just wasn’t worth it anymore?What’s something social media gets entirely wrong about entrepreneurship?
Online, everyone celebrates revenue milestones. Very few people talk about payroll, workers’ comp, taxes, recruiting, difficult conversations, or the emotional weight of leading a team. If you could erase one unrealistic expectation social media creates about running a business, what would it be?What Marketing Actually Works for Outdoor Service Businesses During Slow Seasons?
I run a small land clearing/brush clearing business in Ohio, and with how wet it’s been in our area lately, things are starting to slow down a bit. I’m trying to be proactive and focus on marketing so I can keep work coming in and continue growing the business. For those of you who’ve been in a similar spot, what marketing has actually worked best for you to bring in more customers and keep jobs lined up? Facebook ads, Google ads, yard signs, referrals, local networking, something else? I’d especially love to hear what’s worked well for seasonal or outdoor service businesses when weather starts affecting the schedule. Appreciate any advice or ideas you’re willing to share.Who Here Has Had Success with Yard Signs?
I'm a part of Home Service Accelerator and one of the main things they recommend is to use unbranded yard signs and put them in high value areas to get leads. It's a volume play. Basically you put out 100 signs but if you book one job (in my industry) it pays for the $400 in yard signs you spent (plus your time). Now I should mention I haven't been super consistent with this which I believe could be my issue. I also don't know who would hit up a yard sign for a kitchen remodel BUT you never know. My process to find where to put them is to go on the USPS website and find the mail routes with the highest average income then determine which streets to put it on from there. Is anyone else using this strategy? I'd love some pointers if you are having some success with it.
