Making Easy Money at Your Desk

It’s a slow day in your company.  Everyone is dragging as that empty call-board stares you in the face.  It’s getting close to quitting time, and everyone is just ready to put this sales-killing day behind you.

Suddenly, your best technician walks through the door.  He has a hint of a smile on his face like he knows something you don’t.  He walks right over to your desk and puts a piece of paper down on the desk.

You pick it up slowly, expecting a resignation letter after such a slow day, when you realize it’s an invoice.  And not just any invoice.  It’s a $10,000 day-saving invoice!

Your technician just made a $10,000 sale!  You jump out of your chair and give the man a huge bear hug.  Everyone cheers!  The day is saved by the $10,000 sale!

And, it is great, but just how great is it really?

If you’re like the average contractor, you’re operating at a 3 to 4 percent profit margin.  In that case, that $10,000 monster sale netted you a whopping $300 to $400.  Not so exciting now, is it?

But here is what’s exciting.  You can gain that $300 – the profit equivalent of a $10,000 sale – and more just by making some simple tweaks from the comfort of your desk.  These profit-minded tweaks don’t require you to step foot in a truck, put in any extra hours, or even take on an additional headache.

These are stress-free dollars that drop right to the bottom line.  To get them, you just have to start buying right, and here are four simple ways to change your buying behavior so that you’re earning $300 to $400 in savings without lifting a finger:

1. Grab the discount – The easiest way to grab those savings is to pay your bills in time to grab any early pay discounts your suppliers might offer you.  If you have this option, take it!  Even if it requires some extra cash flow management, it’s worth it.
2. Work with low levels – The second strategy is to keep your stock and inventory at a low level.  This saves you the expense of the space needed to house that inventory, lessens the chance that those parts become obsolete, and limits your exposure to shrinkage.  Bottom line – it saves you money.
3. Pass the hassle, keep the savings – The best option is to have someone else manage your inventory altogether.  If you can work with your supplier or manufacturer, you may be able to get involved in a virtual inventory management program where they manage your inventory and you only pay for parts as you use them.
4. Buy smarter with a little help from your friends – This one is huge.  The biggest impact you can have on your bottom line is by buying smarter at the lowest prices possible.  Even if you’re a $1 million company, you can buy lower.  Chances are there is a $5 million guy buying at even lower prices.  And even if you’re a $20, $30, or $40 million dollar operation, there are $400 and $500 million dollar companies getting deals you wouldn’t believe.  It all comes down to the power of numbers.

The only way for the independent contractor to get the same power of numbers is to band together.  Electricians’ Success International® can help you do just that.

When you can consistently save $300, $400 or more by buying right in your business,  you’ll feel like you are tripping over the $10,000 sales every day because those savings will drop right to your bottom line every time you make a smart buying move.

Start buying smart and start earning the extra profits you deserve.

Making Winners

The people we encounter daily play a major role in who we are and what we do. What happens in your office can determine your company’s victory or defeat.

What kind of influence does your office environment support? When your employees come to work each day, do they encounter coworkers who encourage achievement, or do they find themselves pulled down by bad seeds? You know what I mean by bad seeds—people who say “this place is the worst,” “the boss hates me,” and “the managers don’t care about us.”

As a manager and/or owner you can control your work environment and are able to create one that has the right stuff. You can inspire the team, encourage others to become your champions, and grow your own farm of influencers to produce a winning culture that cultivate team success.

Mentoring team members encourages stronger working relationships. Mentoring employees is a win-win experience for you and your employees. Who knows… you may create other mentors in your business making your mentor responsibilities less time consuming.

Grooming team members to become winners through training is essential for any company. It does not matter if

you work for McDonalds or Apple, Inc. If you are not properly trained to deliver exceptional customer service, your company will not reach its full potential. It may never scratch the surface. Use the resources that you have at your fingertips to grow your team’s skills. That is what we are here for.

Addressing challenges immediately with your employees fosters a winning environment. Letting employees know they crossed the line is the responsibility of the manager. When employees do not meet their goals, fail a customer or the company, it is your responsibility as the manager to get the employee the training necessary to bring up their performance.

Closing your eyes and ears, and thinking if I cannot see or hear the challenge, it cannot see or hear me, and it will just go away. Not a chance does that occur. Instead, let employees know that bad attitudes or acts will not go unnoticed or unaddressed. When performance fails, you are willing to invest in them by sending them to training—and always explain what performance levels you expect when they return from training. Talk with the employee professionally and in private when addressing challenges. Set the expectation and let the employeeknow that you expect them to take personal responsibility for their attitude and performance at work. Only positive attitudes and performance will be welcome.

Acknowledge your team members in public for their achievements. People are more willing to meet you half way if they feel appreciated.

Understand those who are around us shape us—good or bad. This is why it is important for you, the manager and/or owner to adapt your personal style and become more aware of the affect you have on other people.  Infectious attitudes and positive work environments start from the top.  Be a good influence and you will have a good team.

What’s Your Story?

Are you a good storyteller? Are you able to keep customers interested in what you have to say while presenting them with stories that drive home the points you’re trying to make?

Storytelling is a distinct skill, and it’s one that you should practice to perfect because people will forget facts and figures the moment you walk out of their home. However, if you can make the same point with a story, they’ll remember it forever.

Stories stick with us because our brains are hard wired for stories. We thrive on emotions and sensory information and that’s what stories provide and what facts lack. A list of bullet points about why your company is the best doesn’t have any emotions for the homeowner to grab onto. As a result, they won’t internalize or remember them. But if you can present a story about how your company provided outstanding service or how you backed up your guarantees, they’ll remember it. Not only will they remember it, they may tell their family and friends, too.

While stories are an important element for success when you’re selling in the home, that’s not the only place where they can have an impact in your company. As the owner or manager, it’s important that you grasp the concepts of stories and put them to work for you too.

For starters, what is the story of your company? When you are talking to members of the community at an event or simply out on the town, do you have a story prepared of what makes your company great?  Remember, facts aren’t memorable, so simply having a bullet point list of what you offer isn’t the same as having a compelling story about what makes your company great.

This is a great way that you can use a story to help your company stand apart from the rest. Create a story based around a service call where one of your team members went above and beyond the call of duty. Create a story based around a time where you stood behind your guarantees and made sure that the client was satisfied with the service you provided. That story will be much more memorable than just telling someone that you have a money back guarantee.

People buy based on emotions and knowing a story about the company they choose will make them emotionally invested in that company and its people. Get them invested in you by crafting a compelling story about your service.

But as the owner or manager, the clients aren’t the only people that you want invested in your company. You want your team to be invested too, and stories can help you sell the vision of your company to your team.

Where do you want your company to be in five years? Whatever your vision may be, you’re going to need your team to help you get there. But they have to want to get there too, and getting them to buy into your vision starts by creating a story of what that vision looks like.

Instead of just saying, we’re going to have three locations in five years, you can create a story about how their lives will change in five years when you have three locations. How will the town be different? What will people say, and what will people do? Stories have characters, dialogue, details, and a lesson, so create one that drives home your vision, and your team will be on board. Plus, they’ll have a story to remind them of the vision as the years go by.

Those are just a couple of examples of the difference that storytelling can make beyond the home. It’s an important element of sales that your team…and you…should master!

See Success with Your Mind’s Eye

In an industry that is so active and requires physical action on a daily basis, the psychology of success can often be overlooked. That’s a critical error. To achieve goals, there must first be goals in place.  Unfortunately, long-term aspirations don’t always make themselves abundantly clear in the form of tangible targets or specific numbers. To endure the ups and downs that come along the journey to achieving inexact goals, the proper attitude and perspective is a must. For many reading this, the dream is attainable, making this discussion more than just cheerleading. It’s important and should be continually reinforced, especially in the dog-eat-dog world of small business.

In order for you and your company to become the means of providing everyone involved in it the lifestyle they desire, you must, “Dream It, Perceive It, Believe It and Conceive It.” What does that even mean? We may know the dictionary definitions, but how does it apply to a contractor?

Dream It

If you’ve been in business for years or are just starting out, it’s never too early or too late to dream. In fact, regardless of where you are in your career, as an SGI member, you have a head start because of the support. It’s also clear that you have the desire to be better.

Do you know specifically what being better and succeeding means to you? So that you never have to rely on anyone else for motivation, you need to establish it. Envision what it is you’re looking to build through your business. In other words, you have to know what the company is going to look like before you get to the point of success. So, first things first, you must dream it.

Perceive It

Now you have to start to see it clearly in your mind’s eye. What does your shop look like? What does your training facility look like? How much business are you going to do? How dominant are you going to be? What’s it going to provide for you and your family? All of these things you start to make concrete.

Someone once told us a story about how they took a Dale Carnegie class many years ago, and one of the suggestions to the class was to actually put together a binder of the things they envisioned life to look like in the future. Another guy in the class had done the exercise ten years earlier and he shared his binder with the class. At the time he made the binder, he was single, but he had a picture from a catalog of a guy with a woman and two children. Lo and behold, ten years later he was married with two kids.

There was also a picture of a house. And boy, did the house that he lived in ever look like the picture that he put into a book ten years ago. Next in the binder were pictures of the cars he dreamed of owning. Surprise, he was driving the cars that he had back in that picture.

The point is, the clearer your vision, the more likely you are to succeed at what you are attempting to do. Sit back some day, this day, tonight, tomorrow, this weekend, turn everything off and just dream a little bit and then start to make it very, very clear.

Believe It

You’ve got to believe you can do what you dream and perceive. You’ve got to believe it can be accomplished. This is your attitude; this is the thing that you have to be able to control. You have to be able to say, I know I can do this. Then, start down the path.

Don’t be mistaken however, it’s not going to be an easy path just because you dreamt it and have a clear perception of it. You’re going to have to work to make those dreams become reality. Some people might get very lucky and be born with the right name and inherit a great deal of wealth. Somebody else might get lucky and get a lottery ticket that’s going to pay off. But for those who succeed and get what they dream of in life, they work hard to be able to accomplish it. When you do that, you’re going to find out how quickly you can achieve it.

Conceive It

So now you see it in your mind’s eye. You know you can, but before you get to achieving, you have to conceive it. Now is the time to put it on paper.

You have to make a plan and say, “Here’s how I’m going to get it done. This is what I’m going to do to get this dream to become my reality.” Get it down so that you can share it with your support structure and tell them, “This is what we’re going to do. This is how exciting this is going to be.”

This is the step where the work begins. You’re going to begin executing your plan and make certain that you achieve what it is that you’re after.

Watch Out for the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

I once heard that the two most important ingredients to a successful business are urgency and accountability. I agree.  In fact, if your business lacks urgency, it probably makes up for it in desperation.

Before you dismiss this topic as something that does not pertain to you, you should first make sure your company’s urgency is not desperation in disguise.

• If your business is always in panic mode trying to fill the schedule to cover payroll, you’re not being urgent; you are being desperate. You should be urgent to market for more clients or train your people to serve them better, or cut cost to stay profitable no matter what size you are.
• If your call-takers are rushing through the calls to answer the next ringing line, you are not being urgent to gain business; you are being desperate to stop the ringing phone. Your urgency should be to find out why the call-takers are not able to spend the time needed to correctly use their scripts.
• If your techs and/or salespeople are running as many calls as dispatch can squeeze in each day, you are being desperate to get the calls done.  The focus is on pacifying clients, not serving them. Your urgency should be to find a way to allow your field people the time necessary to serve your clients.
• If dispatch is grabbing whatever calls they can to fill the schedule, they are not being urgent about profits; they are desperate to make the schedule look full. This is a sure way to run up labor costs. The urgency should be to run a profitable schedule by marketing for more clients or giving a tech or two a day off.
• You have installers cleaning the shop when there is no work that day. Keeping people busy when there is no work is desperation to get caught up and keep your people happy. This runs up labor costs. I promise they will take their time cleaning when they have it. If you have urgency to keep the shop and yard clean at all times, they will move much quicker after a day on a job as they will want to get home.

A company with true urgency bred into its culture will have a different attitude about things.

• When you are so excited about a decision to make change in your business that you begin implementing it right away, you have urgency.
• When you are faced with a customer complaint and your team moves fast and is eager to resolve it, you have urgency.
• When the phone rings and you rush out to serve the client—even when you are ahead of budget, and you have fun doing it—you have urgency.
• When you move the repair call on the five-year old system a couple of days out and waive their diagnostic fee for the inconvenience so you can fit the repair call on the 18-year-old system without over working your techs, you have urgency.

To have urgency, you must have an “urge” to do something.  The urge of most people is to sweep problems under the rug as soon as possible and go home as early as they can. These people are easy to spot. They are the same ones who complain about the same things over and over.

So how do you create a company with urgency? The easiest way to do so is to make sure your company has that other thing I mentioned earlier… accountability. You can use accountability to create that urge needed in your people. But before you do that, you need to set an expectation. Set high expectations, and hold your people accountable to them. This will give them urgency to achieve. If it doesn’t, you have the wrong people. Lack of urgency and accountability will stifle sales and lead to the entitlement mentality in the workplace. In other words, it’s a knife to the wrist of your business.

If you have disguised urgency in your business, you should address it now. The best time to start something is the time you decide to do it. Don’t wait. I’m not saying you should not take a moment and plan it out a bit; you should. But don’t halt progress looking for reasons something can’t be done. Look for reason it can.

Sometimes you are too deep in your business to see it objectively. This is a good reason to have an outsider and help you see your business as you should. Coming to a Success Day can do just that. Call 1-866-943-8066 to join us at a Success Day and let us help you.