Let’s Talk About Making Money with Anniversary Dates in Your Contracting Business Episode 62

Actually this week I want to talk about two things if we have time I will but first is about making money with anniversary dates and how you can use anniversary dates to get more business from your customers.

 

The other thing and I want to talk about gearing up and planning  for your slow season next year .I know  this sounds absolutely crazy  because many are gearing up for your busy season for most people right now we're getting ready to going to the spring season winters over and you gearing up for the busy season.

 And if what is going here is any indication of what’s going on in other parts of the country you are busy now. For some reason people are spending money, everyone I’m talking to is busy busier than their projections. So get the money.

 

Dave does that mean birthdays, wedding anniversaries it could be and we will come back to that thought a littler later. So let's talk about making money with anniversary dates in your contracting business this week.

 

So let’s talk about the anniversary dates here is an example

I got a new ac unit put into my house recently  one of those units that has the whole house filter and it that has to be replaced once a year so I put in my calendar to remind myself  and then when I saw my AC guy because I  just had to know. I asked him hey did you put my anniversary date in your calendar so that you could remind me that you're coming by to install my new filter next year and my friend the roofer was standing there and he started laughing he's going what are you doing I said I was just helping Dean with creating another profit center for his business and Dean started chuckling he said I got it all taken care of you are on the list to get your filter installed next year.

I said awesome and I just wanted Dean my AC guy to realize that he could create a profit center from just replacing filters that’s future business.

 

 I know that’s what I do is when I’ve pressure clean someone's place then I'll put them in my system, I'll send them out the card in about 12 or 13 months reminding them that  last year about this time you had your house  or the exterior  pressure cleaned  and I just wanted to let them know that that now is the time to do it and if you schedule with the next week or so we will charge you the same price as last year even know we have going up on  our prices  so why would I do that give it to them for the same price as last year ,because they're good customer number one two it didn't cost me anything to get them to do business with me stamp on a card they were acquired last year  .

Then reminding them that it was done and he needed to redo it again. Its set in motion scheduled to go out what if you didn’t have a system and got busy you would forget about them. Honestly your customers are busy people and like being reminded  it’s time to get something done  they really welcome the reminders and if you could set them up on a maintenance system that it do you do every six months or once a year  whatever business you're in that it's even better .

 

Now I have to do have regular yearly maintenance customers that I  have set up on a yearly basis were we at keeping he roof clean house all way out to the road we do minor repairs if they want them done painting touchup so I'm sending those customers a 30 day advance notice , I'll send them a card  with the Starbucks card in and say we are coming on such a date  to do your regular yearly maintenance  just wanted you to go out and grab a latte and sit down and make a list of all the extra things that you would like done  while we are there to keep you home beautifully maintained so  we know what you want done when we come by this year. This works out great because of that card and Starbucks cards they do actually make up a list of additional items and usually adds 50 to 60% to our yearly maintenance one we'd send out these posters I'm on the anniversary date.

 

So depending whatever type of business you're in with the electrician what you're a plumber with your air conditioning guy there's all sorts things that you could come up with that you could get into your clients home on extra time during the year as an anniversary you know you did service on this date we just want to let you know that we were at your home last year is there anything else that you have any concerns about any plumbing issues or offer a free audit on that anniversary date.

 

Let’s say you're Plummer go for a free audit on the pipes and hot water heater, dishwasher diner the one of the big things that goes is the water lines to the washing machine go through and do a check of the valves underneath the sink so the traps the P-trap are all tight and tie something into the audit may be a special for your good customer. A special that you might be running for that month to that quarter the spring the fall however that may be if your electrician safety check go  safety check. Or safety audit. Of course you need to be honest I our dealings there are all kinds of things that you could do to just. You just have to be creative and fill a need.

 

Carlton Sheets the famous guy who sold real estate investor courses said there are 10 solutions to every problem the first 3 are easy. Think hard.

 

Okay so now we can really into the anniversary dates like the wedding, birthdays let’s go to the wedding anniversary the birthdays and special things that go on in your customers life.

 

One of the greatest marketing techniques that I've seen in a long time and are fun to do if you can get your  customers birthdays  is half birthday card yeah that's right you send a half a birthday card on their half birthday a half birthday card and a half an envelope and on the  writing  of your half birthday you make an  offering you  give them a half discount  on a special you may be wanting to run for that time of the year or you can save this to your real birthday and use the whole discount.

 

 How you want to do it you just have to be creative to get your customers engaged into doing more business with you the anniversary could even be their wedding anniversary. I’ve seen restaurants use the half birthday cards all day long to get a new customer by offering a by one get one free for the special.  So one of the biggest challenges the most this is owners have like us is we get so in the trenches of making and doing the work that we don't step back and think about working on the businesses instead of in our businesses, so as like we said before in the beginning of the series podcast that you're actually in marketing business however you can get your client to open up whenever piece of information getting making a killer deal like what bait with they bite on.

 

 We need to be different these are the things that needed to be different about and see how they work for you and it's okay to copy somebody if you think it's a good idea but test it first before you do it on a big scale it could  really sucks.

 

So you probably say these sounds really, really good how do I get all this stuff into a system so that they can go out automatically. That's really what needs to be done is it always be automatic and all needs to be in your system to go out on the days for the weeks that you wanted to go out way, way, way in advance so you're going to have to sit down and create a system for these cards these envelopes these in some  the gifts to go out and not this next couple weeks I  will go over my system on how I actually send everything out how I set it up so probably in about two weeks ago over that.

 

Okay so enough about the anniversaries   I think you get the idea on how to put those together. Whether it be  an anniversary for service anniversary for birthday however you want to do it just really make it happen be that guy be that contractor that standout  out amongst the others because when you stand out amongst the others you no longer a commodity business.

 

Let’s get into the other topic for today

 

Its spring business is gearing up

Many are coming off a slow or reduced business season for the winter I know some contractors listening s are living different areas that actually have snow living in Florida I forgot what that is like.

 So by not having snow basically my business is fairly consistent all year.

 

  But I realize it that there are somethings you contractors out there just aren't able to do because of the weather and I want to actually think about that for next year to start planning for that for next year.

So that when you're slow time or season comes up . You're no longer slow.

 

So talking about next year’s slow time is a crazy thing to be talking about right now because everyone is getting ready for the busy season

I really, really want to talk about being prepared for your slow season and creating ways for it not to be slow. Now that it's over you don't have to think about it I know you're going to be busy anything about getting more customers are getting really ramped up for the new the busy time but really not time to really think about your slow season for next year.

 

There are 2 situations you can work your butt off until it slows down again and have put money away to get you through and not have to work or you can plan ahead. Let's kick around a few ideas on what you can do next year to help prevent that from happening.

 

Why do it now

 

Well because one you are getting ready for next year ,2 when things are stressful you brain does not work in a very creative way, so now as things are picking up and flowing smoothly your brain will actually work more freely and creatively without the stress.

 

So I really challenging time relating to working in the snow it’s been over 30 years since I moved from the north. that's why I moved to Florida so I would have to deal with that but I think about it every once in a while about how and what I would do if I were in that position, this really took a lot of thought and preparation to come up with what I would actually do as a painter I would actively market for interior work,   you actually have to think outside the box  of what could you do to grow your business in the winter months and am thinking about you and actually think about is the trade that I'm in and what I would do to help myself during the winter months if I couldn't actually work on the outside and it be challenging any inside .

 

 When I first went back to business when my slowest months was February 1 two years I realize that February was my slow month so basically had do was I had to create and ramp up my marketing  in November December and January .February is no longer my slow month .

 if I were in it and a different climate I knew I was being a different climate I would basically as I'm thinking about it I would advertise more for our market more towards preparing for the winter in the fall and during the winter I would put together some type of home audit for the homeowner on spring cleaning to the spring repair sort of like what I do with my maintenance items now I would just do up free in home audit. In the winter and start writing audits and start getting that work schedule for the spring,

 I would definitely stay in the high-end and I would probably have to collaborate with decorators more now just do it homeowners I would really ramp up my availability to realtors who dealing high end homes really become their good friends so that I could be referred as much as possible create an really awesome referral rewards program. First I would build their trust that might do that through more networking this would be an awesome time to get out there and network and be more out there turn slow times into relationship building times. Sort of planting your farm and getting ready for the harvest.   Those are just a couple things I know that I would do. I would create joint ventures more than I do now with the other businesses that have the same type of customers that I do that would benefit from my services and I might do a mailing with that company that has the same customer base type I have and pay for a mailing having them introduce you to their customers and pay them a small percent of revenue for them letting me borrow their customers the first time.

 

 These are some awesome ideas for anybody who goes into a slow season and goes into a funk because of he added stress, plan ahead way ahead so that you don't run into the slow seasons they are not fun. Like I said before the biggest challenges with stresses that when  you're stressful because business is slow then do your brain just doesn't think right it's not creative doesn't open up to the possibilities of what can happen so really now is the time when you're busy to think about how can I get more business how can I get more business what can I do to attract more people in the slow times and you'll be surprised at how your brain thinks accordingly, these are some great ideas that anybody can use it anytime but mainly if you're slow I would go through these and make a check list of things that you want to start implementing to get stat business often running steadily during a slow time. Now that you have your mind thinking in this abundance of getting business start your list for the future.

 

Next week I want to go over strategic partners what they are how to put them together how to have them sell your services and why they would even consider it.