Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the
astro craft, grow, influence,
invest podcast.
I'm your host, seth Mills.
Joining me today is yeah boy,nick Dawson, and today we're
gonna be talking a little bitabout customer acquisition and a
little bit about competitivepricing as far as the market
goes.
So I know that with yourwarranty work you have a set
(00:22):
dollar amount you make per perclient or per warranty job that
you do that is correct.
How do you go about settingthat?
Do they set it?
Does your manufacturer set itor do you?
Or is an agreement.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
What do you?
What does it work?
So it really kind of justdepends.
So, like for myself, I Went inthere and I really just I needed
it to happen, had the companygoing back first, we were doing
all right, but we weren't makingany of the numbers that we make
now.
And so we were kind of in thiswhat do you call it?
(01:01):
Just the whole.
I'm willing to lower my amountto make sure that I get the job.
Yep or that.
I get that because, again, whenyou're starting out and you're
a Three-month-old company asopposed to these other guys have
been doing it for five, tenplus years, or even a year,
compared to a couple monthsYou're like you gotta be
(01:22):
competitive.
Yeah, you got to be morecompetitive than you would think
, so it's really a set amount.
Okay, so the set amount it isan agreement.
We sign an agreement everysingle year and that agreement
basically tells us the job thatthey expect us to do, just the
(01:44):
same thing as if somebody was togo hey, this is what I need you
to do.
I'm every single like what wewere talking about at dinner
early With the opportunityyou've got, it would be here's
your set amount.
Yeah, you can, you can handleand you can talk about stuff,
but there's a set amount.
You know what you're doing, butthey tell you kind of what they
(02:05):
want on top of that.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, 100%, like with
my opportunity that you
mentioned.
I have to be extremelycompetitive with how I price
things as far as trip chargesand Per per pane of glass, per
pressure washing, like per persquare footage.
Whatever, I have to beextremely competitive because I.
Don't want to have it erased tobe.
(02:27):
I don't want it to be a race tothe bottom, like a lot of these
$99 companies do.
Yeah, if that's the case, thenI will pass on the opportunity.
It would be an amazing contractto have.
However, I will pass on thatopportunity simply because I'm
not gonna work for breaking evenor nearly Break even right.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
You have just to stop
you for a second.
You have to get to the point,to where you don't get stuck in
that, though, exactly, you don'twant to get stuck in that
mindset, otherwise, you'realways the most competitive,
you're always gonna be a lowerprice, you're always gonna be
there and you're never gonna belike, damn, why don't I have
this workflow or this money flow?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I've got the workflow
, but I don't have the same
money flow that I thought Iwould have absolutely, and
that's what that is Like.
We were talking about it.
I have to make sure that I'mmaking a certain amount of
profit per job and Whether ornot they approve my bid or my
price sheet, that's gonna be upto them.
But I know what I need to makeand I'm not giving them my bare
(03:32):
minimum.
I I could go, I could hagglewith the prices a little bit
more if they need me to.
If they come back to the tableand say, look, we like this, but
we don't like this, blah, blah,blah, I can work with them.
I'm not naming names, I'm notgonna say what company that I
have this contract with or thispotential contract with, but as
far as everything goes, I I'mnot gonna be the race to the
(03:58):
bottom.
I'm not gonna contribute tothat I.
I think that a lot of companieswill say, look, I need the
money, and they won't look attheir expenses right like.
I know several people who havestarted a company and they
They've got expenses out of theroof, say their expenses are
seven dollars a foot per squarefoot, whatever.
(04:19):
It's just me throwing outrandom numbers right.
Because they're not that highbut seven dollars a square foot
in expenses and they're makingeight dollars square foot and
they think that they're on topof the world because they see
that bottom line number, theysee their gross number.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Oh, a hundred percent
, you're not taking an account.
Okay, I gotta pay for my gas.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Exactly, pay for my
insurance and with the seven and
eight dollars square foot, $7expense.
Eight dollars is what you'recharging.
You do eighty thousand dollarsin revenue.
You're only making ten grand.
Yeah, you can say you.
You can say you're a milliondollar company.
You're only making a hundredthousand dollars, if I did the
math correct.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
You're somewhere in
there.
You're somewhere in, don't askme.
I'm probably not the best oneto ask about on that, but I I
Guess to kind of go back and tokind of answer part of your
question is my hourly or my perjob rate the same as what I do
outside of warranty?
No, it's not.
(05:18):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, but I'mnot having to go Chase it all
the time.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I was gonna ask how
do you, how do you approach
getting work that is notwarranty?
Because with your, yourwarranty work, it's given to you
.
It may not be a given everymonth, like you may not know how
many Work orders you're gonnaget, because not everybody needs
warranty at the same time right, but but out of the hundred
mile radius that I go visit,there's plenty of work.
(05:48):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The.
The cool thing is is evencustomers from whenever I
started 10 and a half years ago.
I still have those clients andthey reach out and they reach
out.
It's not as much finding thework as it is getting the
repetitive, having them comeback to you, because I've got
customers that their warrantyends this year, yeah, and If I
(06:14):
have the time to do it, I'mgonna help them out.
Well, for the most part thewarranty side again, I don't
have to chase it.
I get everything that I need.
But as far as those customersgo, like we did for your
family's friend, yeah, yeah, wewere kind of in a lull and I was
(06:35):
able to go hey, we can do this,we can do this, we can do this
and we can't do this, yeah.
So you kind of have to.
You have to weigh what you'redoing, but I think keeping those
customers there, I mean, here'sthe other thing.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
If I had a few pool
companies, listen to me, my
biggest advice would be Go tobuilders If you're gonna be
cleaning or doing any kind ofservice we've talked about this
cuz I thought I talked to youLast year middle it's a
beginning of last year aboutopening a pool company and
having somebody run it for me.
(07:06):
Are they just hiring anemployee?
And that was the biggest adviceyou gave me and I mean I ended
up not opening the company.
I don't know something mayhappen this year, may happen
next year, who knows.
Subject to change, exactlythat's.
That is the biggest piece ofadvice that you had given me.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, and I mean that
could go for pretty much
anything.
If, if you're a, if you're apool company doing service and
maintenance, but you go, or evenif you're doing pressure
washing or window cleaning, yeah, why not go?
Find you.
Some realtors have a bangingOpportunity for them.
(07:50):
Make it to where you go, hey,mister.
So and so I'll tell you what.
Whenever you sell this house,sell it with, depending on what
company you have, sell it withthree months free maintenance on
the pool.
Sell it with a free windowclean, free window cleaning,
(08:13):
offer something, so that way,whenever they come through one,
it makes your realtor lookreally, really badass.
Oh yeah.
Or it makes you look good, youdo a good enough job, they might
keep you going.
Or you do a great windowcleaning or a pressure washing.
Hopefully somebody would havepressure washed it before they
sold it.
Or maybe you meet up with thembefore and go.
(08:35):
Hey, what work can I do for you?
How can I help your businessand help these houses look
better?
How can I make your businesslook better?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So I will say one
thing a lot of realtors and I'm
not hating on realtors Love whatthey do.
They put in in it too, likethey put it in an immense amount
of work and each home they sell.
However, they, in my experience, are the cheapest individuals
(09:07):
in the world that there'sstereotyping like their
stereotypes on the cheapestpeople.
Realtors would have to be topthree for me because, oh yeah,
oh yeah, we've.
We visited a place A realtor'sson owns and you know exactly
what I'm talking about here inHouston, and that realtor Beat
(09:28):
me up on the price and I just Isaid, ma'am, I am sorry but I
cannot budge.
This is my bare minimum pricethat I'm giving you that I was
trying to work with her from thebeginning.
Yeah, I'm not working for freeand, if you, she lives over 40
fucking minutes from me and soI'm not gonna do anything for
less than 45 minutes away.
(09:50):
I'm not gonna do a job lessthan $350.
Yeah, easily, if, if I do itfor that.
And that's exactly what Iquoted her and she was like, oh,
you can do it for 200 and it'san interior and an exterior
window cleaning.
And I'm like, ma'am, no, Icannot, um or no, no, this was
(10:10):
exterior, this was only exteriorwindows.
The interior windows were anadditional 300 and she declined
them because it was an extra 300bucks.
And I'm like, ma'am, I can'thelp you, I can't help you with
the price.
And then she was like, oh well,if you do this, like if you
help me on the price, and I'llgo and tell my son to use you
(10:33):
for his business on the lake,and I'm like, ma'am, I can't.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I know I can't.
I can't run my business off ofwords words.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I can't run my my
business off of the word of
somebody that they're going togive me other business, because
that that in itself is bullshit.
If I'm being quite honest, younever guaranteed work If
somebody.
If you're in a service-basedbusiness listening to this
podcast right now, my biggesttip, my biggest piece of advice
and word of advice to you is donot lower your prices for
(11:05):
anybody who says they're goingto get you more business,
because nine out of 10 times thepeople who are quiet and don't
say that are the ones that getyou more business.
They're the ones that give youa review.
They're the ones that go intothe friends and families and and
say, hey, this dude does windowcleaning, this dude does pool
cleaning, this dude does poolwarranty, whatever it may be,
they're the ones that do it, theones that are quiet, the ones
that tell you they're going toget you more work or spread your
(11:27):
name.
They never do it.
They don't even give you areview.
I had an I yesterday in myneighborhood.
I did a house wash, a partialhouse wash of a home, the front
and their courtyard, and theywere like, oh yeah, yeah, no,
well, because there was amiscommunication, it happens
Could have been on my part.
I I can say it could have beenon my part, because they asked
(11:51):
me how much to wash theircourtyard and how much to wash
the front of the house.
Well, does it sound to you likethey were asking for how much
to clean a pool deck?
When they said the, the, the, Iwill say the pool is in the
courtyard.
But when they said courtyardcleaning and pointed to the
walls when I first met herhusband, dude, does it sound
(12:13):
like they're talking about thepool deck?
No, Exactly.
So, and we live in a prettyprestigious neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
It's some part.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, sorry, my bad,
my bad, my bad.
There's a man gate 24, seven.
It's a pretty damn prestigiousneighborhood compared to a lot
of people and I am very happy toadmit that and proud of it.
But and I'm grateful, but Idon't want to make a.
I don't want to upset anybodyin this neighborhood, right?
(12:45):
So, especially because I livehere, I'm like you know what I
will, I'll throw it in and thisloop this.
This is going back to what wewere talking, or what I was
talking about.
I said I'll throw it in.
Just give me a good review onFacebook.
Oh yeah, absolutely, whenevershe's.
So I do we finish.
Whenever she's paying.
She's like, oh yeah, and shejust texted me the link.
(13:07):
Yeah, oh yeah, taxi tour.
Still have not received areview someone's talking to big
game.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I'll be honest, a lot
of my referrals if I get my
referrals that way, majority ofthe time it's they'll go.
Yeah, I got referred to you byJohn Smith and you go who, and
it's like I talked to them forfive minutes Over the phone.
(13:35):
They didn't even see me on site.
Well, they had a lot of greatthings to say about you Because
you took care of them and youtook care of them in a timely
manner.
How much would it cost for youto come out here?
You're like I have to look thisguy back up because I don't,
yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I've had to do that
before.
I've had clients that haverecommended me and I don't
remember them.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I got.
I got referred to a.
I got referred to a homeowner.
He was trying to sell his home.
This is going off a little offtrack, but I'll keep it short.
Had a guy that called me becausehe was referred by a pool
company and it's equipment thatI don't work on.
Well, I know another guy thathe knows he doubles and
(14:14):
everything, but he knows moreabout one major competitor, way
more than I do.
Yeah, so whenever I'm talkingto this phone, when I say, hey,
man, this is the guy to call,reach out to him, he'll help you
out.
Two weeks go by I haven't heardnothing.
And I'm talking to my buddy,reagan.
Then I referred him to and he'stelling me about this job and
(14:36):
I'm like man, this sounds reallyfamiliar.
And I said the, the guy's name,or I was like are you talking
about so-and-so?
And he goes oh, no, kidding,that's how we got my number.
He had no idea.
And he goes man, let me get youa referral fee.
Oh, so you should.
So you've got stuff like thattoo.
But here's the cool thing Ihave a very, very nice customer.
(14:57):
She lost her husband.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Oh, no, I hate to
hear that just last year, summer
of last year.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So we were talking
she's like my expenses are so
crazy.
By the end of the month I havelike $300 to my name.
That's it.
She doesn't work.
She's got a kid in college,she's got a kid that has health
issues and I was like she goes,I need my filter claim, but I
don't feel comfortable doing it.
Do you know anybody?
Because everybody's quote me150, 200 plus.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
You should.
I'll say this you should haverecommended me because I would
have done it for free.
I have a special place in myheart for people like that.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I'll tell you what.
Next time you're over inMagnolia, let me know and I'll
get you it's, it's, it's alittle bit of a drive.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I'll be in.
I don't know if I should tellyou, but I'll be in Magnolia
Friday.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Okay, at our favorite
person's house.
Oh yeah, oh, that's right,that's right, you'll pass his
house.
Getting to hers?
Oh okay, I'll send you whateverGive me a favorite.
Go look at it.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Because I'm gonna try
.
I'm gonna try and do the samething I did for this guy.
So I told him no, I don't needa referral fee.
You know, let's go, let's gograb dinner, let's keep our
relationship going I don't careabout it.
I love money, but I don't wantyour money right now.
And so two days passed and Iget to her house and she's like
I just I'm struggling with this,I can't get this done, can't
(16:20):
get this done, and I was likegive me five minutes.
So he was at her house today.
Oh, cleaner filter.
Oh nice and is gonna maintainthe pool for a month.
You know how much it's gonnacost her.
Nothing I I got in on myreferral fee by making sure
she's taking care of for a month.
(16:41):
Yep, I Know it's kind of asidetrack.
I'll be useful 25 30,000gallons.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
How big is the pulled
back?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I've got pictures.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Show me the pictures.
We go yeah, you can pull now,or whatever.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I'll pull them up
after, just remind me I.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I got a.
I Got an idea.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Is it dirty?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Man, I don't, I don't
pay attention to stuff like
that like you do, like youprobably wouldn't, on certain
swimming pools.
How big is the driveway?
Is it fairly big?
It's a.
Fairly, it's a.
Yeah, it's a fairly big sizedriveway, smaller than y'all.
Okay, yeah it's probably justas long though.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I'll probably do the
her driveway and I'll do her
bull bull deck free of charge.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Okay, okay, hey, and
if the pool decks not too bad,
we'll find something.
Yeah, just I want to give backto this lady.
She's been super nice, so notto get way off track.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
As far as referrals
go absolutely where it can get
you.
Now this lady will forever callme before she has another pool
issue.
Oh yeah, she'll always call mefirst and see and if I need a
kind, if she needs a contractor.
So I told her I've got othercontractors that I can refer to
her.
And Whenever you can work witha guy and be like, hey look,
this is the situation and youcan work with them Not saying
(17:58):
work for free, oh no, no, 100%.
But if you can and for methat's no different than tithing
.
If you're, you know, if you'relike a church goer, it's like my
version of tithing.
Yeah, give to the the widow.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Absolutely we'll talk
more about that, but Anything
else as far as the referrals oryou want to try anything else, I
mean Well, I mean actually, nowthat you mentioned it, as far
as referrals over the last weekis over the last, what is it?
January 30th?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
31st.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, over the last
31 days we have been extremely
slow.
Yeah, like you mentioned,knowing other contractors is
very beneficial.
Yes, over the last week we havedone.
We have had our busiest weekFor January.
In the last three years, sincewhy I opened this company, this
has been the busiest January andwe didn't get started working
(18:57):
until what?
Was it Thursday of last week?
I forget the exact day.
It was like January, like itwas in the teens, I don't know.
No, no, I guess it was like the23rd.
We didn't start working untilthen because we had the Storms
coming through and storms and wehad freeze and finally we had
good weather Until this Saturday, where we're expected to get
(19:19):
like two to three inches of rain.
But that was all because of acontractor, yep, a remodeling
company.
Back in November he he hadReference me or or gave a
recommendation for me To one ofhis clients and said and then he
texts me hey, this, this ladyis going to be calling.
(19:40):
She's super sweet, she's superkind.
We ended up doing both of herhouses For pressure washing and
window cleaning, full serviceand drive, like everything minus
the roof.
She was by far the easiestcustomer to work with, the
nicest customer we've had, andNot only that, he got me two
more jobs Yesterday.
(20:01):
Oh, yeah, and I'm like.
So Whenever you go to or you'retalking about referrals, they
can be extremely beneficial inthe servicing and the service
contract industry, becauseReferrals can make or break you.
Last year, I spent zero dollarsin ad spend and I made six
figures.
Granted, I spent most of it onsubcontractors or Like.
(20:27):
I don't have a lot of money inmy name right now.
Yeah, because what?
When?
When you're making that kind ofmoney and you're young, you're
22, turning 23 you don't youdon't think of money, you don't
think of money as a an aspect ofyour life that you really need
(20:47):
right then.
Right, this year is gonna be alittle bit different and it
already is, but yeah, so as faras referrals go, like that is a
big thing is getting othercontractors, meeting other
contractors and networking.
Networking is the other Tipthat I would give anybody
starting a company right now.
Network with anybody you can.
(21:08):
I don't care if it is a snowcone Stand, because that snow
cone stand.
Oh yeah, that's right, I forgotabout that that snow cone stand
can turn into a marketing guru,which can turn into a good
friend, which can turn intoDoing work together.
As far as me me hiring him forfor advertising potentially this
(21:30):
year I mean it's great dude andI'll go ahead and plug his
business if anybody's listening.
I know I have a lot of bluecollar businesses here.
It's I am marketing.
I forget the exact website.
Hold on them.
Give me like two seconds.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
No, you're good if
you want, I can.
One thing I was gonna say toyou is Don't be, don't not make
friends in your same line ofwork.
That makes sense, your friends?
You have some friends that aredoing the same thing that you're
doing window cleaning andpressure washing but who's to
(22:09):
say that they're having a super,super busy month or they need
work?
And it's vice versa.
Y'all can feed each other work,because I don't know about you,
but in my industry I can't takecare of the quarter million
pools in the Houston area alone.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Oh no, I'm so Lee and
and, pausing real quick and
such right, if anybody needsmarketing, like I was saying,
his name is Kyle and he ownsZion does it better calm?
He is a full-on marketingagency, I mean, based out of
Houston.
He's great.
He's an amazing dude, he knowshis stuff.
(22:47):
He does work for Chick-fil-Asmoothie King.
No kidding.
Yeah, clayton Holmes, christianbrothers automotive like he
does.
Yeah, he does all of theiradvertising, maybe not like all
of their like right, but as faras this local area.
No way it's.
(23:07):
Zion, does it better calm?
Zi own does it better calm?
Amazing dude, family-oriented,you can't get anybody better.
Speaking of marketing and andnetworking, yeah, he's an
amazing guy, I.
So I've, like, I think, likefive or six months left of free
(23:27):
snow cones at his snow cones, oh, dude, yeah, but uh, yeah, no,
he's just an amazing guy, um,and I just I wish him all
success.
He's, uh, he's helped me, um, alittle bit.
I'm going to be reaching out tohim.
I actually probably here in thenext two, three weeks, uh, to
request some assistance and seewhat we can or cannot do this uh
(23:50):
, this year.
Anything else you want toelaborate?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
on, man.
I think just that last part.
Make friends in your sameindustry.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I agree, Like you
said, you could subcontract them
out to help you Um if you getan a bind maybe you don't have
the exact gear that you need,but they do, yep.
And then I ran into that issuebefore, instead of going and
spending $500, you could subthem out for a hundred.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
And I wish it was.
I wish it was 500.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I wish it was that
cheap right.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
My typical piece of
equipment is anywhere from two
to 5,000.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
The actual equipment
there.
I was a dove, but no, I thinkthat's, I think that's it on my
end, I think Well.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I do appreciate you
joining me in for this, uh, this
episode.
Absolutely, and I do apologizeEverybody listening for a no
episode.
Last week we were battling somepretty severe weather.
If you ask me, I mean 11 inchesof rain within three days.
Pretty good flooding in theneighborhoods, but pretty good
flooding everywhere.
Actually, yeah, certain parts ofI 45 that were shut down, which
(24:58):
is unheard of even in Harvey 45, it wasn't shut down, but I
mean, I guess more power to thisstorm that came through you.
You ain't lying.
It's a good thing.
It didn't come through a weekearlier, though, because they
said that for every inch of rain, it would have been a foot of
snow, so we would have had 12feet of snow.
I don't know the truth behindthat.
(25:19):
I don't know if that's real,and anybody who's listening to
us in the Northern States likelet us know, please.
Yeah, but if that's true, thatthat would have been insane.
That would have been thecraziest winter that Texas has
probably ever seen.
Oh, 100%, at least this one.
Yeah, at least here on thecoast, essentially.
But yeah, guys, I appreciateyou guys for listening.
I hope you guys have a blessedweekend and we will see you guys
(25:42):
next Friday.
Thank you for listening to theastro craft, grow, influence and
invest podcast.
I am your host, seth Mills, andjoining me today was Nick
Dawson, and we will see you guysonce again next Friday.