Gewinnen in einem austauschbaren Markt

0:00Whenever you're in a commoditized business, you're not obviously the goal is not to be in one, but it's like you either have to win on risk as in you are less risky, which is what a brand premium does. Is that like people believe that you're they're more likely to get the good result because of your reputation. That's the inverse of that. You now you can put covenants and guarantees if you don't have a brand, but long-term it's reputation. The next one is speed. Like if they if you can I mean if you could get the horses shoed faster than somebody else, that's valuable, right? Or if you could see the horse faster than somebody else, that's valuable. Um and then uh ease, right? Like how do I make it less friction for you so that you can just drop the keys off fun you know, functionally and not have to worry about anything else.

0:42Yeah, but that's like and we just like whenever we're trying to work with a business that's like relatively commoditized, happens a lot in home services, um is we just try and figure out which of those three vectors of value we can we feel like that that business can win on. Sometimes it's speed, sometimes it's risk, like they never have defects, like it depends on the business and we just we that's part of the discovery. I know your's is speed cuz you're faster than your competitors, so it's like that makes sense. Any kind of home service, the big issue is commoditization, right? Like there's huge demand for it, there's a lot of supply, and so people are going to make money without really a lot of skill.

1:13Um and so then you have bad players who underprice because and then basically it's a race to the bottom, which sucks, right? And so with on time on budget, the big concern that every every consumer or every homeowner has is is this going to be is this going to be on time, is it going to be on budget, right? And so with an on bud on time on budget guarantee, what we do is we say So you already raised your prices, but I would say like you could probably get away with raising them even more, but this is my process of doing this is like we're going to bump price by 20%.

1:47And then this gives you all the leverage you need in the conversation. So if I'm talking to a homeowner, I say listen, they're like well I've got you know two other quotes for less. It's like, "Oh, yeah, um did they guarantee time and budget?" No one will. Uh and it's like, "Oh, yeah, well then I can do it for a dollar." As long as I don't have to guarantee time and budget. >> [laughter] >> And then they're like, "Oh." And you're like, "Right, it's complete make-believe. With me, when you pay this, you know that it will be done by this time and it will be done under this number, period. And if it's not, I'll give you my profit, which I run 20% margins, I'll give you 20% back."

2:23Right, and we just bumped by 20% and you can after everyone else and you're probably not going to do it. Now, what makes this Now, here's what makes it a little even sexier is that this guarantee is contingent on one very important thing, which is that they don't change their mind. Which of course they're going to [ __ ] change their mind. >> Obviously. >> Of course. And so So, this allows you to win every bid, >> Mhm. >> but then you say, "Hey, to be clear, I can guarantee this as long as you're good that this is what we're doing." But then they're like, "Actually, I kind of want the other turf or I want to do the the edge. Can you cover that area over there?" You're like, "Absolutely can. I can't stick with this anymore, but like I'm still going to try and hit that goal, but I just want to make sure that you're clear that I can't like you just changed the terms."

2:59>> Yeah. >> And everyone's like, "Yeah, I I want that." All right. So, that's the kind of like no change contingency, which protects you. And then in the in the rare circumstance where you some they don't change their mind and you somehow go over, >> Mhm. >> you just give back the price raise that we just did. Right? And so, you keep what you were going to make anyways. And so, this covers you on both sides. How does that feel? >> I love that. And I think for our clients, they'll love that.

3:27>> Love it. And you don't need to be limited by this. You can You can make it >> be more than that. >> Yeah. Love it. Okay, the second thing is that So, maintenance plan. So, kind of like I was saying with Wild earlier, for on the horse side, it works the same way. I I try to do this on with every service business I can is okay, um they're like turf is going to have get damaged, it'll get it'll the edges will fray, you would you know the [ __ ] out of it. I get it.

3:52You need something, right? That's going to happen. So, I I like having as as little of as like the lowest price possible if I want them to say yes, because what I want them to do is just buy a sales consult. >> Mhm. >> Right? So, I'm going to come back a year from now and we'll cover repairs up to twice this number. Um and that's what most people do. We don't just do that. >> What do you mean by twice this number? >> So, let's say it's 200 bucks a year, we'll cover up to $500 a year in repairs.

4:18>> Okay. >> We make up the prices on our own anyway, so whatever. Right? So, it's like I'll give you twice the number on the repair cost. Anything under 500 bucks we'll just handle. Um and we'll come out and just keep it as like it'll double the like the I'm sure you'll have some stats, but it's like, you know, if you're buying the turf, it'll it'll double the duration of it. And if you plan on selling the house in the future, the last thing you want to do is have to redo the turf for somebody else to enjoy. >> For sure. >> That's what I would say. That's how I pitch it. It's like, well, [ __ ] It's like, yeah. So, once you do it, what people don't realize is if you're going to sell the house, they're going to sell it like [ __ ] cuz it's just wear and tear. If we do this, it'll add to your home value rather than being something you have to replace later.

4:52>> Got you. >> And you get dinged for it. Um so, the maintenance plan And so, here's the here's my favorite way of doing it. Which while I think if if it makes sense for you, you can try and adapt this, but I like the way you already outlined yours. But the way I would do it is like um you could have it be $500 a year, right? >> Mhm. >> And then you say, "Or you can just leave me a five-star review."

5:23And I'll throw it in. >> I have to say I have to stop right there. >> So, it's like it's 500 bucks a year, it's what most people do. Um and we're running a deal right now where if you leave us a five-star, um we'll comp it. >> For the first year? >> Yeah. >> I love that. Now, does does the um does the same person who does the work do the kind of like the the walk-through, you know, like the it's all done, let's wrap up?

5:52>> No. >> Okay. >> The person who makes the sale is So, currently how it's set up is the salesperson is the product manager. Basically shows facing. Um so, if you're with it we can do this process and do the final walk-through with the client. >> Okay. So, that's good. They're not the laborers per se, right? Okay, so here's here's what's magic. So, when you have that kind of when that guy has that conversation says, "Hey, um you know, we have a maintenance plan for $500 a year." All the stuff I just said.

6:20Um and or, you know, And right now, ownership is running a special where if you just leave us a review, um it'll be free. And if you do leave a review, the guys get a little spiff and it, you know, it'd mean a lot to them. If if he says it about the guys and he's not the owner, it crushes because it's like as long as you if you get How How you heard Jose did an awesome job? Like, they get a little spiff, it means a lot to them and their families and like you'll get 500 bucks for free.

6:48>> Okay. >> And everybody does it. >> Got you. That makes >> When I think about career pathing, um I think about two columns that are kind of in parallel. So, you've got title {slash} perks. Sorry, that's a K. Perks and then money, right? And so, let's say that we've got Hm? >> I just watched your video on this on the plane here. >> Oh, did you? Okay, well, then you'll be bored by it. But, uh So, it doesn't matter what role you have. Let's say you've got a um you know, an an editor, right? So, uh you've got an editor and so, when they come in, they're going to come in as a junior editor. And then over here, let's say that they're getting $10 an hour. I'm just making this up, right? $10 an hour and then they've got $11 an hour, $12 an hour. And so, we're going to start at junior.

7:38That's the first career path thing. You're a junior editor and you're making $10 a year. Um after you hit your first 30 days, we're going to say awesome. Uh we're going to move you from $10 to $11. So, that's going to be move number one. After day 30 or after you do XYZ. Now that you're at $11 uh for another, you know, you pass my next milestone, you're going to get you're going to be promoted from junior editor to editor.

8:08And editors don't have to do one element that junior editors have to do, which is like they don't have to clean the lenses on the cameras. I'm I'm making it up. Um from here, we say, "Okay. Uh >> [clears throat] >> editors then uh our third move is going to be like, now you've done over 100 videos and it's now 6 months in, you can now be an editor you get another pay bump." From there, we say, "Okay. You've done that for another 6 months and now you can become a senior editor."

8:38And if you do that throughout multiple steps in the career, so it's like that's uh like in the sales role, right? You have setters and you just so it's like junior setter, setter, senior setter and then you become a junior closer, closer, senior closer and then you have uh so like you have all these paths. So, if you have six like that with the pay bumps, you have 12 career progressions. And so, this keeps people invested much longer. And so, we've seen this done really, really well in med spas and also in like nail salons. Like it sounds random, but the same idea. Um and so, you might be a, you know, call it a junior level one aesthetician and then a level one aesthetician and then a uh senior level one aesthetician and then a uh junior level two aesthetician, level two aesthetician, senior level two and then uh junior level three, level three, senior level three. And so, it's like gives huge progressions and then with each one of those, they had to get [snorts] they had to pass these mini certifications that were purely made in-house that allowed them to do more expensive and complex procedures, but that allowed them to increase their hourly billables.

9:39And so, by doing that, they just always felt like they were learning, and they always felt like they were making progress. And so, we saw this I we almost bought this we put an offer on this nail salon chain that I really liked. See, I do nails, so I can do it all. And what what was genius about this lady's model was that she took like the average stick in the industry was like 6 months for a nail esthetician, she was keeping them for like 4 years. And she was taking girls who had no high school diploma, and they're making 70,000 a year, which is huge for the markets that she was in. And so, like that's what that's why they just stayed with her forever. And she would just like literally she would teach them how to do like gels, and then she taught them how to do fancy nails, and then like the little bedazzle I don't I she had a whole system around it. But that same process applies to sales people, editors, anything that's a repeated role.

10:24>> You don't have to have a thousand of these. If you get 10 good ones in good markets, what will be like the step that's between where you're at now so let's assume that you take these steps that we went through, and you scale up to a number that you're like, this is really good for this facility. I don't want to like build out more or anything like that. Once we get to that point, the next step is actually me doing what we call scale zero, which is how do we get you to do zero in the business, and then have the business still continue to operate at the same or better than it was with you operating it. Once that happens, then we have the duplicable model, because what happens most of the time is business owner starts to make money with and they're working in the business, and then think, "Okay, this is working. Therefore, I will take this cash that I'm making over my next location." Then they take all their time and go to the next location. The profit here, let's say the let's say the revenue drops by 20%, and the margin's 25%. All of a sudden, they went from, you know, making a lot of money to making almost nothing, but now they doubled their overhead because they've got this one. And this one's not growing as fast as the other one did because they put years and years of sweat effort over here, and this is brand new, it's a staff, you don't have the same word of mouth, and all of a sudden now you're working twice as much and making less money. That's what happens most times, and that's what sucks. So, from a belief perspective, that's like the big mistake to avoid is like expansion should happen when you're making more money than you know what to do with, and you have more time on your hands than you know what to do with.

11:48That's when you expand, not when you're like, "I'm not making enough from this facility." This totally applies to you. "I'm not making enough from this facility, so I'm going to open another one." That is like that is how so many people think about it, and I only say I know that because I did it. >> [laughter] >> Um and it's the wrong way to do it. Real quick, if you are a business owner, and you are not growing as fast as you'd like, I'd like to give you a free gift. So, my team and I put together the $100 million scaling roadmap, which is basically 200 hours of us looking over all the portfolio companies we've had, and what stages of growth they went through, and more importantly, where they got stuck, and how they got past it. And so, we broke it in these 10 stages, and we made this little kind of quiz thing where if you put in your business information, it'll tell you where you're at, and the most important part for you, what to do for each of functions of the business across product, marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, IT, human resources, and finance. And so, no matter what you're struggling with, someone else has already struggled with it and solved it. And so, I'd like to give you this thing absolutely free. You can go to acquisition.com/roadmap, plug in your business information, and if you want us to actually help you deconstruct your business, and you're trying to scale, we'd love to help you out. On the thank you page, you can book a call with my team, and we will look at your business, see if we can help, and if we can, we'll invite you out to Vegas, and we'll do this in person, live.