So you are a contractor floating along when times are good, picking and choosing jobs to bid on, getting referrals left and right. The economy starts to change a little and people are spending less. The news affirms this crisis and suddenly things are very gloomy in the Balinese Landscape industry. How can the small contractor stay in business?
Let’s start by saying many have already gone. The first sign of a slow-down, some contractors change careers until things look better. If you are a contractor who enjoys his work and is looking for ways to grow your business then you need to make some changes. Believe it or not, we must all change to improve what we do. (ie I know how to swing a hammer, but a nail gun makes sense in many situations)
I have what I think are the 3 “Golden Ideas” to succeed in contracting today. I have seen the very ideas bring record sales this past year, in a county with 25% unemployment in the List Of Home Improvement Companies industry. Think the following ideas as possible changes that can be made to your business.
1. Change to way you get business. Get out of the non-productive advertising. If that Big Yellow Book publication is not bringing in a bunch of new business, find something better. Television and radio spots eating into your bottom-line? How about trying something like the internet instead? There are countless ways to use to internet to market your business. Get on Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, Twitter, and all the other social and networking sites. See what it is like. Learn as you go, get your feet wet, see what works.
2. Treat the customer a little differently than you have in the past. Make that customer, each one, the most important customer you have. Treat them as if they were the only customer you have. Be grateful for that property owner who wants to pay you for your service. How we treat the customer has a direct impact on future sales. We may not be able to control when a where the benefit will happen, but it will. Besides, isn’t that the way you would want to be treated if you were the one paying someone else?
3. Ask for help. Now I’m not talking about help with your job. We don’t need the homeowner handling tools here. What I’m talking about is asking for help in getting new business. There are several ways to do this. Ask for a written testimonial. Ask them to go to a web site to review your business. Ask them if they know of anybody interested in having some work done. The key here is to ask. It may be a little humbling, but you may find that the customer has already run the thought through their head already. Their follow through may not be as thorough as yours. So ask!
So maybe things are a little bit slow for some contractors, people are spending less. The key to remember is that people are still spending. If we change how we get customers, treat them better than we did before, and then ask for their help – maybe we can get more business during these slow economic times.
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