Winners Don't Whine
If you want to complain, if you want to bellyache and moan and get pity sympathy - then running a business is not for you.
I heard a great quote while watching a Codie Sanchez YouTube video -- she is the CEO of "Contrarian Thinking" and creates great entertaining and informative content about getting people better at building up themselves and their businesses. If you haven't before, you should check out her stuff.
She had said "Winners Don't Whine" - which is an amazing one-liner and here's why.
Everyone has those moments, those bad days, those disappointing events and issues -- and we all immediately jump to "Well - this sucks" and feeling sorry about the situation and about ourselves. It's human nature. It happens.
But - if you're trying to improve yourself or your business - it can't end there.
If the first part of that quote is "Winners don't whine" - the second, unspoken part of that quote is "Winners Take Action"
That's the difference.
We can complain about our failures and our business problems all day long, but if we aren't actively doing something about it - if we aren't trying to change that situation -- then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
So let's take a look at the "Whine" (the "complaint") and what we can do to turn it on its head and convert that into an business development or contractor marketing action - something we can do to get ourselves out of our problem.
Whine: "No one leaves me reviews. My competitors have way more reviews than me."
This is a super common complaint and rightful concern that most new contractors have. But complaining about it won't do anything to solve the issue.
Reviews don't just happen by accident. You need an active, automated review management system. A way that is built into the very bones of your business structure.
Incorporate actively asking for the review. And by that I mean, at the end of the job, asking if your customer is satisifed with your services and then asking for a review after that. You should then provide them with follow-up communication, including click-to-review links.
Add that process into your workflow for every single happy client you have.
The only way to get more reviews than your competitors is to ask for more reviews than your competitors have. That's a concrete action that you can take to dig yourself out of your review hole.
Whine: “Everything’s going up in price, and I’m losing margin on every job.”
Your business costs going up is not unique. Everything costs more now. Netflix costs more. Milk costs more. Everyone is increasing their prices - which is unfortunate. You have two potential actions to take to fix this issue here - and really, you should probably do both of them.
Action 1: Make sure you are efficient. Less waste and more efficiency in the planning and implementation of your craft -- no matter what industry you're in, will help to bolster your bottom line. That isn't to say that you should use sub-par product - just to make sure that you're efficiently purchasing and managing your inventory and equipment.
Action 2: Adjust your pricing. If you're a lawn care company and you've been charging the same prices since 2004 - you're in trouble. The cost of doing business changing is a reality.
And yes, when you communicate the need to increase pricing to a customer, you may have some loss as a result. The goal is to present a fair increase in a straight-forward, friendly manner - so that you can retain enough customers that the increase in money that you take in is more than offset by your customer loss numbers.
That's to say, you should make more money while working with less customers.
Being efficient and realistic with your pricing is important to make sure you're getting paid fairly for the quality work that you do.
Whine: "I never know how busy I'll be month-to-month"
Even if you're a brand new business, you should still have a basic understanding of what seasonality does to your business lead flow.
People will try to spend less near the year-end holidays. People will generally start to spend a little more when they get money back from taxes. Changing seasons can have direct impacts on when people look for services.
There are patterns that you should know to expect.
Now if you've been in business for more than a year, you should have an idea of what your success should look like based on historical data. You know, because you're tracking your customers and lead sources and you have all of that data saved somewhere. Right? You do keep track of your customers, right?
If you're not, you absolutely must track your business. Knowing your historical slow times will allow you to boost your numbers where they need to be boosted, like perhaps with different attempts at advertising, pushing referral programs, or offering discounts for pre-booking seasonal services.
If you have a bad month every November, you should be planning for a bad month in November.
You should find ways to bring in more leads - by increasing or diversifying your lead generation efforts. Not taking any action and complaining about a slow month doesn't fix a slow month.
"Contractor Marketing Tips And Tricks" - The Footbridge Media Podcast
About Chris Lonergan
Chris Lonergan has over 12 years of contractor marketing experience with Footbridge Media. With a background in web design, print design, content creation, and online marketing, Chris is focused on providing quality marketing and business solutions in the construction and service industries - helping small business owners to more efficiently manage their companies and grow their operations.
Chris Lonergan has previously contributed to and/or been featured in PM Magazine (Plumbing & Mechanical | Contractors x Engineers), theNEWS (ACHR - Air Conditioning | Heating | Refrigeration), Service Roundtable's blog, inPAINT Magazine, the SMB Marketing Agency Show, and the Green Industry Podcast. Chris is also a past SGI/CertainPath breakout session presenter.
