A David Creation

Many professional painting contractors have begun to offer their prospects the opportunity to schedule their own painting estimates online. They install a button that says something like, “Schedule Online Now,” the homeowner then selects the date and time that is best for them and receives an email to confirm the appointment. So far, this scheduling solution has worked well for most painters.

The only draw back with the software available is it is not very mobile friendly. Most painters and contractors are in and out of the office with a very busy schedule that changes often. The programs they have been using are more manual and require the person to be in front of a PC to make changes to their schedule. That is until now! I’ve been researching an online scheduling program that seems to “beat all.” It is called BookFresh. It integrates with Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook and is mobile-friendly! You can make changes from your mobile device. In fact, they have an iPhone application for all the Apple fans.

To learn more about this amazing online scheduling program, visit their website: BookFresh. If you are a painting contractor, especially a member of Summit Services, contact me to learn more.

One of my clients, Josh Abramson, from A Allbright Painting, just announced the winner of his 5th Annual Painting Charity Giveaway. It was so touching reading the stories of the 3 nominees and hearing who one this $7,500 painting gift. Josh and company have done a fabulous job at marketing this charity event, but most importantly, A Allbright loves doing this. They do this event each year because they truly love giving back to the community. The community in Valencia really appreciates the work A Allbright accomplishes. It is a great idea to set aside the traditional marketing efforts to serve the people around you.

Great, job A Allbright Painting! To read the story of the family who one this year and a letter from the one who nominated them, view the site.

Oh…by the way, the winning family will be receiving an interior paint job by the professional painters at A Allbright completely free of charge.

How much money do you spend on servicing your Servers each year? How many times do you have to call up your computer guru and say, “My email is not working?” or “My Quickbooks file was corrupted.”

Computer hardware and software are a blessing to us and many times a curse. Almost every small business owner I have spoken with has spend many hours of frustration and lots of money fixing their computers. In 2010, I have a New Year’s resolution for you to consider: Make your office more mobile or online accessible.

Computer programmers and software engineers have been working extra hard the past couple of years to create online software for small and large businesses. Graphic designers have put the finishing touches to make the programs user friendly. For example, ACT! software dominated the small business market for quality Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Now companies such as Salesforce, SugarCRM, and Zoho have made easy to use and customizable CRM programs available online. They offer storage, added security, accessibility and trouble-free usability for a small monthly fee. Quickbooks, the #1 selling small business accounting system, now offers a very easy to use online version. Some accountants were not happy with the usability a few years ago, but in 2009, QB online is definitely a perfect option for small business owners. They have made it very easy to use!

Finally, because most business owners have been cutting back on personnel  and overhead, a mobile office is definitely the way to go! iPhone, Blackberry and Droid versions of accounting, scheduling, CRM and more are hitting the marketing almost every month. Going mobile should definitely decrease the amount of times you need to contact your IT person. It will make you far more productive and lower your stress too!

If you have mobile office and online software questions, feel free to email me!

Why should you consider outsourcing your marketing department to a guy like me? Why pay a few hundred a month when you could be spending that hard earned cash on advertising to get the phone to ring? Why do I do what I do?

Before I answer that question, let me  share with you a scenario of the typical small business owner and see if it sounds familiar. The owner of a small roofing business wants to grow to a half million dollar company in 1 year. He is currently doing $300,000 and decides to “do” some marketing. He reads a couple of articles, maybe a book or two and asks a few other small business owners what they spend on marketing. He ends up with the magical percentage of 7%! If he spends 7%, he is bound for success! He says to himself, “I’ll budget $35,000, create a nice ad for the phonebook, build a killer website, dust off my old business cards, print a few door hangers and I’ll be on my way towards the big $500,000 mark in no time!”

After a a month or two, he realizes he still has no website, his full page ad in the phonebook is not getting him the leads the salesman promised him and he has not had the time to put a single door hanger on someone’s lucky door knob. Why did this happen? He finally comes to the conclusion that he 1) Does not have the time to advertise. 2) He really is not sure how to advertise to get the right results. 3) There is no silver bullet. The roofing owner then decides that his first plan did not work well enough and what he needs is to try other marketing ideas: Google Adwords, Facebook, and a mailing campaign!

Sound familar? Most small business owners don’t have the time to plan and carry out an effective marketing plan. They also need help deciding on what types of marketing they should be doing for their business. A marketing manager can ask the crucial questions before deciding on a particular direction. For example, a marketing manager can interview the phonebook company and report back to the owner (you) with his or her thoughts on whether advertising in the book is a good idea. A marketing manager can organize your marketing department so that it is efficient, effective and consistent. You will avoid wasteful spending by having a professional managing your marketing. Finally, a marketing manager keeps you focused and on target. You will have more time to invest on other areas of your business and know that marketing is on the right track.

Hiring a marketing manager is an investment. However, a good manager and coach will make sure you have a good ROI. He will make sure you spend your marketing dollars wisely instead of spending here and there and hope for good results. So, if you find yourself second guessing your marketing decisions or frankly don’t have the time to work on a consistent and focused plan, you really will enjoy working with a marketing manager!

Unless you have a very compelling offer for your clients, 4 times a year is a good amount of times to connect with your customers if you are a small service company. Sometimes you can get away with once a month and even a couple times a month, if you are really trying hard to get the phone to ring. However, the conservative approach is still quarterly.

The only companies who can get away with weekly email blast are large and successful retail chains such as Apple Computer, LL Bean and Amazon.com. The rest of us have to be more careful or we will be labeled spam or get lots of unsubscribes. The only way to really know if you are bothering people is to try it out a couple times and see what response you get. You won’t know unless you try. Marketing is a science. We are still learning how people react to advertising, especially with all the web and email capabilities available to us all.

I ran across a great article called, “Your Brand as a Cult” this morning. It is quite true!

As a service contractor, remember, do not spread yourself to thin. Develop your brand. Discover your ideal customers. Go after them!

Stay away from anyone who will never hire you. You know who they are. Avoid them at all cost. Read this BLOG POST and purpose to make your brand into a cult. Yes. It is possible even for a small painting contractor to be loved by your customers!

Most of my clients use PCs for running their companies. Only a small handful use a Mac at home. I hope that getting an Apple computer will be on their New Years resolution for 2010! They are incredible machines. The most common objection I hear from the PC camp about an Apple is, “I know they are good, but they are so much more expensive.” I’m not sure I can agree with that statement having owned many PC computers and now several Apple machines. I have been on the PC side for most of my life. I’ve replaced PC computers many many times. I’ve watched as tens of thousands of dollars have been poured into building, maintaining and fixing my dad’s Microsoft Exchange (PC) servers while working for him.

The typical laptop last about 3 years. As for an Apple Laptop’s lifespan, I have heard over 5 years and going strong. So, if the Apple product last 2x as long or longer but it cost more upfront, what is a better value: the PC or Mac? Apple is not double a PC in most cases. It might be 25% more but not 50%. You can get a small but quality Mac computer for as little as $600. So, if an Apple last two times longer than a PC, isn’t it worth it? How many professional painting contractors preach to their prospects that their painting company is the best! If something is truly better quality and value, why not buy it?

So, this Christmas season, try a mac. You will not be disappointed.

Mobile-friendly websites are the new thing! Most large companies have them already: Starbucks, Best Buy, Amazon and CBS to name a few. Why should painters be left behind? A mobile website can be a great asset in your marketing plan. Think of all the business professionals who have a smartphone: iPhone, Blackberry, Droid etc? Almost every business executive and or owner I meet has one. I’ve also spoke to a number of business owners who do use their mobile phones to look up service companies, so why not try to reach these guys?

Now, let me give you a brief understanding of what a mobile site can do and what it is NOT. First off, your current websites are not considered “Mobile-Friendly.” It has to have certain programming codes to make it mobile-friendly. Apple, so far has made this process relatively simple for designers and programmers to take your existing site and make it mobile. RIM (i.e. Blackberry) has made the job a little more difficult. It takes more time and more codes to get a mobile site up on a Blackberry device. If you don’t have a mobile site, typically it makes the navigating of your site a little more tedious. Mobile users want fast loading sites with quick information. Therefore a good mobile painters site should have the following: your services, a few photos, where you service and a contact button: email or phone. You don’t need 4-5 pages.

Until mobile sites become standard for all small service businesses (still years away) you do not have to make your mobile-friendly site perfect. If you create it, you are miles ahead of your competition. Finally, a basic 2-3 page mobile site would probably cost $800-1000. There is an up front cost, but if you are reaching more of your ideal client, it is worth the investment.

I have been asked many times if LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (i.e. Social Media) help businesses grow. Personally, I think these Social Media sites should be viewed like any other networking events we do and not a “silver bullet.” In other words, treat Social Media as a way to connect with someone and begin nurturing/building that relationship. Connecting on Linkedin or Facebook take time just like meeting someone in person takes several meetings. The one thing to remember is to not act desperate. Remember, people buy from people they like! If they like you, you’ve made a connection! If they really like you, you’ve got a fan for life.

To explain the benefits of networking online for success better, please take a few minutes to read this great article I found through LinkedIn: View Blog Article Here. If you don’t have time for the whole article, read the last two paragraphs.

On Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, I received an email blast from a privately owned Mac store near my home. The ad was well designed and had some nice specials from Apple. The ad encouraged you to get into their store for the one day only “Black Friday” specials. The next morning, I received, “Black Friday Extended” in my inbox. On Sunday morning, I got yet another email from this company saying it was extended again. I guess it was a sign that could be good or bad: GOOD: It was so good that they extended the offer! or BAD: it was so bad they had to extend the offer!

The way I read the emails made me feel they did not get enough business. It could just be me! I’m not sure how effective it is sending 3 email blast in three days. I think most folks would click “Unsubscribe” if that happened.