Author: Chris Ragan

How to Save Time, Achieve More, Become a Leader

EnviroSpec suggests that, to professional power washers, the single biggest, nonrenewable asset you have is your time. There are only three things you can do with it: Waste it, sell it, or invest it. As a power-washing service professional, what you do with your time acutely impacts how much money you can make.

If in the year 2021 you want to make customers come to you, earn a six-figure (or bigger) income, become a thought leader and a recognized expert in your chosen field, positively impact lives of many people, gain fame and earn respect of your peers — you have to invest your time into creating marketing assets that will work for you!

Just like the wealthy invest in assets that continuously appreciate in value and generate more money, savvy entrepreneurs invest in creating marketing assets that grow your business with no additional expense.

What are those assets? Here’s just a short list:

• Content
• Information products
• Referral partners
• E-zine subscribers list
• Customers list
• Incoming links to your website
• Testimonials
• Education

So if you want to become a “top dog” in the power-washing industry, you’ve got to start doing what the “big dogs” do and that is investing your time into creating high leverage marketing assets use this short checklist:

• DON’T design expensive logos. While establishing your uniqueness is important, people will not do business with you because you spent money on a cute graphic!
• DO survey your ideal clients. Learning and understanding their needs allow you to offer them solutions they want — and that makes you incredibly attractive to them.
• DON’T place ads that feature little more but your logo, phone number and address. Stop kidding yourself thinking you are the next IBM or Coca-Cola and that merely mentioning your name will get people pounding on your door!
• DO create content that addresses the most pressing needs your prospects and clients are desperately trying to solve! Write articles, create special reports, publish an e-zine or e-book (or regular book), and record audio/video products. If you advertise, advertise those information products not your services.
• DO take time to learn and leverage free publicity. Research media contacts, take time to understand what type of information appeals to them, and become good at presenting your information in the format they like best.
• DON’T attend every networking meeting you can find. Your time is much too valuable to try to attract business in one-on-one fashion. Contrary to the popular belief, networking isn’t cheap! If you add up the cost of your time, the price you pay to eat all that rubber chicken, and the energy to follow-up with people who will likely never do business with you, it gets very expensive. So make sure you know how to get customers and referrals from every meeting you attend!
• DO develop informative presentations. Find large gatherings of your ideal prospects and get good at getting yourself invited as a speaker.
• DON’T fiddle around adjusting the shades of colors on your website!
• DO look for online communities that already attract your ideal clients and find a way to make them link to you. Ask them to post your articles. Make your site content rich so they will want to list it as a resource. Or sell an info product and invite them to become an affiliate.
• DON’T beg for referrals!
• DO create ways your current clients can easily “give you away” (like an article or an audio CD).
• DO build relationships with referral partners. Create ways in which they can introduce you to hundreds or even thousands of prospects at once!
• DON’T try to figure everything out on your own — that’s a very expensive way to learn marketing and build your business.
• DO invest in knowledge products and access to experts. An hour or two with a knowledgeable adviser can save you thousands of dollars in time and money wasted on wrong strategies and improperly implemented tactics.

Providing people with easily accessible information about solutions you provide (your business) will position you as a valuable resource and an expert. These tools will not only attract all the new business you want, but they will allow you to charge the money you deserve and create the lifestyle you desire.

So stop wasting time attending “rubber chicken lunches” and chasing people who will likely never do business with you nor refer a single client. Instead, start creating high-leverage marketing tools that over time will generate an avalanche of new business!

For over 30 years EnviroSpec has been helping contractors become profitable. We hope you will continue to grow and prosper and we hope that you will always remember that we are here to help if and when you need it.

And remember to Power Through!

Choose Where You Market, Advertise Carefully

I was talking to my cousin, who is a high-end pavestone installer over one July 4th weekend, and he was telling me how bad business was for him and that his phone just wouldn’t ring. I had asked him what he was doing for advertising and he told me that he was advertising in the Val-Pac coupons. I said, hello McFly! Do you really think people who need a high-end pavestone installer are looking in the Val-Pac?

This made me think how there are a lot of power-washing business owners who do the same thing — just “spray and pray.” What does that mean, well you know how you can buy 5,000 postcards real cheap, the spray-and-pray people will take those 5,000 postcards and just send them out to anyone and everyone for which they can find an address. They have no strategic plan and they have no clue who their target market is. They say something like, “My service could really help just about everyone.” Here is something to think about: “If you have everybody for a prospect, I can guarantee you will have nobody for a client!”

Read that again and again until it sticks in your brain.

This spray-and-pray type of power-washing business owner is running hit-or-miss marketing that becomes expensive and frustrating — and the next thing you know they are complaining about how this stupid marketing crap just doesn’t work.

This lack of proper planning and a failure to clearly define your target market will kill your business. Power washing is a niche business. However, there are niches within this niche of a business. You have residential and commercial, and you can even break it down more from there.

On the residential side, you have house washing, roof washing, deck cleaning, driveways, walkways, and the list goes on and on. The commercial side is even larger — you have fleet washing, flat-surface cleaning, hood cleaning, large-building cleaning, mine-equipment cleaning, rail-car cleaning, boat and ship cleaning, and again the list goes on and on. The more narrowly you define your market, the easier and less expensive it will be to populate your list of new clients.

Angling for the right clients

You see, building a business is like fishing, and the reason I am using this analogy is because I once owned a commercial fishing vessel as well as had several commercial fishing licenses, so I can say I know a lot about fishing. You go out to fish, the first thing you need to know is what kind of fish you are going after. Why? Because knowing what kind of fish you are going after determines what type of equipment you will use and what kind of bait you will need.

Now, let’s put that into business terms. Most power washers bring a fly-fishing rod and lure to the monster shark tournament at the local lake. Hello, they are going after the wrong prospects, looking for them in the wrong places and using the wrong approach! Think about it.

In other words, why try to convince someone to use your service when they don’t even know what it is. Go after the prospects that are already using power-washing services. If you see a fleet of trucks that you know are being washed, or if you see a neighborhood that is always being cleaned, go after them, after all you are the best out there. And, I will say it again: If you don’t have the best product or service out there, CHANGE IT, so you DO have the best product or service.

I want to leave you with some questions that will help you define your target market:

1. Who is my audience?
2. What do they want?
3. How can I reach them?
4. What will they buy from me?
5. How will I make money?

I said it before and I will say it again: If you don’t have one, you need to get a time-tested and proven marketing system that will turn your power-washing business into a moneymaking machine. Once you have these systems in place you can just sit back and have the money come to you.

And also remember to always POWER THROUGH!

Plan Your Work — Work Your Plan

The professional power-wash business is a difficult one — even if you do everything right. Success is not easy unless you plan your work and work your plan.

There is a saying that people can be grouped into three categories — those with money and no time, those with time but little money, and finally those who have both time and money. It’s a cute story, but is it true?

Frankly, one thing we are all given is time. It’s what we do with our time that makes the difference. And no, we will not be talking about “time management,” because that doesn’t exist. You can’t manage time, you can only manage what you spend your time on — and that’s what makes the difference.

The movers and shakers in our industry are people who practice “… a place for everything and everything in its place.” They are the most organized people around. One of the basic elements of using time effectively is getting and staying organized. So let’s explore this a little more.

What’s the price you are paying for being unorganized?

• Stress and anxiety
• Unclear priorities
• Low productivity
• Lost sales and income
• Procrastinating
• Lack of discipline
• Diminished self-esteem

Chances are the less organized you are the more stressed your lifestyle is. You are probably frequently late for appointments or you miss them entirely. You maybe have had to reschedule a job because you didn’t order the soaps you need. You are very likely to “lose” clients as well as existing ones by not following up with them on a timely basis. It’s probably also true that deadlines are not your strength and you frequently are completing projects the night before they are due. How many of the same tools do you have because you don’t know what you did with the last three you bought?

Does any of this sound familiar? Are you curious as to what a difference being organized can make? Let’s take a look at it.

Ask yourself: What is my being unorganized costing me in dollars?

What are the benefits of getting organized?

• Having clear purpose and objectives
• Enhanced functionality (easier to take action)
• Ability to better focus on individual tasks
• Increased productivity and profitability
• Greater sense of accomplishment on daily basis
• Feeling harmony, peace, balance
• Greater self-confidence and healthier self-esteem

One of the integral functions of your computer is called defragmentation — or “defrag.” Whenever your system starts acting up or slows down, a good start at fixing this problem is to defrag the hard drive, which cleans all the files stored on your hard drive and puts everything in its proper place. It’s also the case with our lives — we have to do a “defrag” and get organized to be able to “run” properly.

Ask yourself: What specifically would be different/better in my life/business if I were more organized?

What needs to be present to get and stay organized?

Clear Goals:

I know – here we go again with this “having clear goals” business. But without knowing where you want to end up it’s kind of hard to choose action steps, identify priorities and be accountable. After all, if you are not after any specific results it doesn’t matter what you do with your time, right?

Guidelines:

Remember the last time you were leaving for vacation; did your productivity skyrocket a few days prior to taking time off? Most likely you did.

When you have a serious deadline (like leaving work for a week) you are forced to prioritize your activities; you list the “must do’s”, you don’t waste time on any nonessential work, and you delegate everything you possibly can – all because you are “short on time”. Without clear and specific deadlines you are giving yourself an impression that you have an unlimited amount of time – but do you?

Good Habits:

Whether you like to admit it or not we all are creatures of habit. How you use your time now is the results of years of “practice”. To change it will also take time so don’t look to do this overnight. Don’t overwhelm yourself with fixing all your problems at once. Just focus on one improvement per month. For example – make the next four weeks your “put all papers in proper files away” weeks. Set up reminders for yourself up for reverting to your old habit of building mountains of paper on your desk. It’s natural to stumble at first. Just notice it and figure out what you can do to reduce your chances of following your old routines again. Before you know it four weeks will be up and most likely you will have developed a new good habit of filing away all paperwork on regular basis. Just try it! You will be amazed with your results.

Discipline:

It’s the ability to finish what you started even if you don’t feel like it anymore! Today you may be very excited about your “put all papers in proper files away” weeks. Chances are tomorrow at 5pm you will feel more like just quitting for the day rather than filing your mountain of papers away. But doing it anyway – that’s discipline. That’s one of the predominant characteristics of hugely successful people! Do you have it?

Ask yourself:  What is my number one goal this year?

Make it a real goal that you can track. Don’t just say I want to make $1,000,000. Say I want to add 3 houses per week and I want to add one truck fleet per month, etc. Keep them realistic.

Here is your home work for the week….

1. This week send out ‘thank you’ letters to people whose houses you have washed and ask for referrals.
2. Call 3 trucking companies this month.
3.Send out 2000 additional post cards (500 per week).
4. Attend one business to business meeting.

Ask yourself what habits I have to change to create the results you want? How will you do it? How will you  keep yourself accountable?

You don’t have to over load yourself.  Just put in that little extra effort and you will be surprised at the results.

And remember to always Power Through!

5 Tips for Powerfully Selling Your Power-Washing Business

Control the Entire Process — This includes the environment, the timing, and the flow of the conversation and always design a process to allow prospective customers to get to know more about you and give you time to properly prepare to meet with them. Also, you decide when and where the meeting takes place — whether it’s in person, over the phone, or online.

Use Positioning Materials — Make sure each potential client has a chance to get to know a little bit about you and the knowledge you have about the project in question. You will want them to know what kind of results you’ve created for past clients and how those results will benefit them.

Pre-Qualify Before the Call — When you are just starting out you don’t want to create too many obstacles for potential clients before they get to talk to you. But as your popularity grows and you get busy, it’s critical you only talk to people who are seriously interested and in a position to pay for your services.

Keep Track of Time and Stick to Schedule — Keep the meeting on topic and moving. Don’t allow too much off-topic chit-chat and stick to the agreed time. This lets your potential client know you are professional, serious, and respect your time and theirs.

Follow up — Regardless of the outcome of the meeting, you must follow up! If you reached an agreement to move forward, send a brief outline of the objectives you and your new client agree upon and what working with you will look like going forward. If the prospect didn’t hire you, send a brief outline of objectives you discussed and how you could be of service to address those issues. If you set a follow-up appointment, send a confirmation of time and the topic to be discussed at that time.

Always follow up, follow up, follow up. And Power Through!