There are many traps that we can fall into that hurt business. One common snare is the idea that when you are busy you can cut back on marketing efforts. Your daytimer is overfull, your crews are busy, and you don’t feel a pressing need to market, so you don’t. I see the results of this in the slow season; from December through February, I get numerous calls saying, “David, help! My phone isn’t ringing!”

A well-run business knows the importance of consistent marketing. While it is prudent to increase or decrease your marketing according to need, it is important to keep your brand in people’s consciousness. I have recently received a number of leads from contractors who want my help, and I’ve had good conversations with them, but then I don’t hear back. Why? They are busy now, the phone is ringing and times are great. Several have asked me to call them back later when things settle down. The problem is, when things settle down it might be too late!

Continue to Brand Your Business

My advice is to maintain your brand through consistent marketing. Create a marketing schedule and calendar, then assign who will be responsible for each task throughout the year. For example, if you want to do email marketing, decide if you are going to do it monthly, quarterly or 6x a year. Then, put it on a calendar, assign the task to someone in your company or outsource it and don’t deviate. Stick to your plan.

Implementation is one of the other main reasons businesses stop marketing. They don’t have anyone keeping them on track, so they put things on hold. Steer the marketing ship through all four seasons of your business year, no matter what you encounter. Don’t go off course or get distracted when you are staying busy. Branding your business takes time and patience. Kindof like farming!

If you are doing a fair amount of traveling to and from job sites or estimating, your vehicle should carry your brand. A temporary fix is to use magnetic signs, but to be honest, I don’t like the magnetic look. My suggestion is to really plan out a nice and simple layout using vinyl. No need to do a full vehicle wrap for your truck or car. You should at least have your logo, website, licensing, and/or phone number on it.

The community in which you work should see your brand everywhere!

Photo Courtesy: GMT400.com

Trusted Companies

Today we have a plethora of cloud tech companies to choose from for our business and mobile solutions. It seems like monthly a new program or company surfaces with something “better.” My suggestion is to stick with trusted and solid companies for your cloud services. A few examples would be: Microsoft, Google, Intuit, Dropbox, Apple, Amazon, Salesforce, to name a few. These are companies with deep pockets and dealing with security and your data is an important part of their business.

Free Accounts vs Paid

Then I get asked, “So what about going with a company that has free accounts, like Google Apps. Is that safe?” Google, to date, still makes over 95% of its revenue from paid search. They can afford to offer “free accounts.” Their goal is to not keep their customers on a free Google Apps account but to push them towards ongoing paid services: premium accounts, Google Drive, Google Checkout etc. Therefore, if you stick with the more established companies who offer a free account, you are pretty safe. I saw “pretty safe” because I still would not store a lot of Financial data in a free account. I’d instead get a secure and fee-based vault program. My favorite cloud-vault is: Keeper. (About $30 a year)

Bottom line, Make sure your cloud solutions have bank level security and are established companies. Nothing in this life is completely safe, cloud based or stored at your office. A fire can burn down your office. A burglar can steal your backup drive; an experienced hacker might be able to get into a cloud program! Don’t let this scare you to do nothing! I typically recommend having your data stored in at least two locations. Consider an external hard drive and using cloud storage! One last thing, on your mobile devices, make sure you have a way to “delete” your data if your phone is lost or stole. The iPhone makes this easy using “Find My iPhone.”

Photo courtesy of: technology.inc.com

If you are a contractor that works in people’s homes or businesses, then you should strongly consider updating your site to make it look as personal as possible. Make your website looks like a showroom and think about what your customer would want to see when he or she enters. My guess would be that your customer would want to see samples or products, before and after photos, demonstrations of applications, samples and learn more about the people doing the work.

Make your website come alive in 2012. Be one of the only contractors in America who shows and tells your potential customers an incredible story.

Side Note. This is not something I can do for you. You have to be the one who makes this a priority. Hire a photographer / videographer and get some great photos and videos up! I guarantee you’ll begin to get better quality leads.

Samples of Contractor Websites Who Are On The Right Track 

Hard to find…but here are a couple:

• Shearer Painting
• Chism Brothers Painting
• Manor Works Painting

April 18th Cloud & Mobile Solutions Talks

Those who live in the N. Virginia, DC, Baltimore or Frederick areas are welcome to attend this week’s NARI meeting. I’ll be sharing a bit more about what cloud computing is, how to use it and why to consider to use it. I’ll spend the second half of the discussion sharing my favorite Business Essential Apps for Apple devices. I might have a couple Android suggestions too, but I really am no expert on Android devices or applications.

Who Can Attend

The National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) has local chapters throughout the United States. I will be speaking at the Mid-Maryland chapter. Typically you will find owners of general contracting and remodeling companies in attendance along with individual contracting trades. Vendors who service contractors, called industry partners, and usually attending as well. If you are not a member, you can still attend this meeting for $50, which includes dinner. This month, the Women’s Council of Realtors will also be attending this talk. The event is from 6-9PM at Dutch’s Daughters in Frederick, MD.

To sign up online and learn more, visit the NARI Mid-Maryland Website.

So I have my work cut out for me. I have slightly over an hour to tell 4 different groups: contractors, vendors, sub contractors and realtors all about Cloud and Mobile Solutions. They way I usually do my discussions is I always welcome questions during the entire presentation. I like to keep people awake, so come prepared to ask me about your mobile or technology questions.

So what’s keeping you from blogging? Is it that you are not sure what to write about? Or are you afraid you’ll run out of ideas? Maybe you are not a good writer and are afraid of what people might think when you misspell “except” when it should be “accept.” I can think of a dozen more reasons why most small businesses don’t blog.  I think the number one reason is that small businesses don’t make the time to fit in this very important marketing idea. There is room for everyone still to begin and continue to write what they are passionate about.

Has it worked for me? I’ve been writing about a blog a week for six years and believe me, I sometimes want to quit. I, like you, run a small business, volunteer at my local church as a trustee, am one of the managers of our church building project and raise 4 small kids 6 and under. Do I have writers block? Do I sometimes want to stop blogging? Yes! Quite often to be honest. I have the same fears my clients have but have to stuff away that head trash. Has it helped my business? In more ways than 1. It has given me opportunities to do public speaking and travel all over the country, gain new clients and grow my business without spending any money on traditional advertising. Actually, I did just spent $35 when I reordered business cards! Ok almost no money on traditional advertising. The point is, if you personally will not blog, you’ve got to get someone to start blogging on a regular basis and be faithful to continue to write for your audience. Don’t stop! Press on!

Still Need Help?

If you are not sure where to begin, fill out my quick contact form and let’s talk. I’ll point you in the right direction. As always, I recommend blogging in house before outsourcing.

Photo credit: Woman in Thrisis

Side note: When my wife read the title of this post, she said, “Is Nespresso a joke? Shouldn’t it be Espresso?” Another reason to read this.

Nespresso has been known for many years amongst the elite group of fine coffee drinkers for making quality espresso machines. The general coffee drinkers out there still stuck on Folgers or Costco’s 3 Lb bag of Kirkland would never have known about Nespresso or its lastest CitZ model. Keurig tried to get the general coffee drinkers to step it up a notch when they introduced their K-Cup coffee makers. They catered to the busy lifestyles of most Americans and introduced a simple way to make a less messy and consistent cup of coffee. Nepresso saw the success of the coffee pod business and introduced the CitZ with its “coffee capsule.” However, they were just a little too late to have the success Keurig has had the past few years. Keurig has become the “Kleenex” of the pod coffee business. It is becoming a standard household item.

What is Better?

I am a coffee snob, so to be honest I’ve never liked the way Keurig coffee has tasted. To me the pods of coffee are not fresh, and I can never get the cup of coffee to taste the way I want. That was until I stepped into William Sonoma this past Christmas. I was introduced to the Nespresso CitZ with its tiny little capsule. At first I laughed and thought, “Oh great Nespresso is coming out with pod coffee!” I didn’t like pod coffee and didn’t think it would ever work with elite and coffee snobbers like me. Boy was I wrong! Nespresso is selling their product to those who love good coffee. Their market, so far, is not the Keurig folks. Their capsules are a fraction of the size of a Keurig K-Cup pod. Why? So it can hold freshly ground coffee in an airtight capsule. It is air that is the single reason coffee begins to age and lose its fresh taste. Nespresso also grinds fresh coffee, packs it into capsules and quickly ships them to the consumer’s home within 1-2 days. Therefore, their capsules don’t sit on the shelf for months but are used by their audience while the coffee is still fresh (typically the shelf life would be 3-4 weeks). The coffee taste is 10x better than any cup of Keurig I’ve had, because Nespresso uses a completely different method of brewing and producing it’s coffee. Their machines use the espresso style and pump system, rather than the traditional drip method. In laymen’s terms, Nespresso produces more of an Italian espresso-like cup of coffee (rich and strong with more crema). Have I wet your appetite to try a cup of Nespresso? The cost isn’t much different. You can purchase a new Nespresso CitZ for around $200 where a Keurig ranges from $120-200.

Three Reasons Why I Wrote A Post About Coffee on a Marketing Website

1) I write about what I love. I love marketing, technology, and coffee among other things. I’ll use a blog for an excuse to write about coffee any day.

2) I am impressed with how Keurig has dominated the market in so little time with their K-Cup coffee makers. They were innovative thinkers. They thought carefully about what Americans wanted next when it came to coffee. Nespresso did too, but they were just a little late to make a dent. The marketing lesson I’ve learned from Keurig is to always be innovative in your business. Continually be thinking how your business can be better and produce something that is different than your competition. Nespresso is a competitor of Keurig, but they are miles behind Keurig because they entered the game of disposable coffee pods late.

3) I want you to go into William Sonoma sometime and ask for a sample cup of Nespresso’s CitZ. My guess is your eyebrows will raise just a little and it just might turn you into a coffee snob. There is no turning back once’s you’ve had a good cup of joe. It truly is that much better.

6 Years Later, The Short Story Version

I started my first painting blog for my dad’s paint company in May of 2006. We’ve dabbled with a little SEO work in the past, but the thing that has kept him at the top of search engines in America’s finest city, San Diego, was good ‘ol blogging. In six years of writing blogs, it still works. My dad’s company spends next to nothing on consistent blog writing. The fruit of those labors have only produced more traffic, more leads and lots of copy cats! Hey, can’t be upset about people wanting to copy you, as the saying goes, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” My dad’s Painter For a Day program also spread to hundreds of painters across the country. How did people find out about it? Blogging and the web!

Google Still Likes Blogs

Google is changing their search criteria again soon. They will actively and aggressively be filtering websites that try too hard to be ranked well. Instead, they will be looking for sites that provide quality and helpful information to their audience. So forget about keyword stuffing and just write, and write blogs your customers will want to read. Don’t worry about not getting lots of comments and subscriptions. Focus on quality content and you will see your website traffic increase.

If Nothing Else, Read This Article

So for the past few years, I’ve been on a soap box telling contractors they must be writing consistent and quality blog post. Instead of me continuing this message, I’ll turn it over to my friends at SocialTract who explain the benefits of “Content Marketing” using blogs. Take a moment and read their latest blog: “How Consistent Blogging Can Grow Your HVAC Business.” The takeaway is simple, remove the words “HVAC” and insert your business “Painting” “Remodeling” etc.

If you need help writing consistent blogging, let me know. I’ll point you in the right direction.

Unfiltered Reviews
My suggestion is to create a growing list of real customer reports and put them into a binder. When you go out on a sales call, bring the binder and originals with you. While you do you take-off, let the homeowner browse through the reports and note cards without you around. If you have multiple sales people, photo copies are fine. The key is to show a prospect unfiltered reviews. See what people really had to say. Tell them the reviews are all there! If your company is reputable, (which you must be if you are reading this) then you have nothing to hide! If you want to get real specific, you can try categorizing the testimonials and report cards by types of jobs or location. So if you are doing an interior project, you can have them flip over to the interior report cards. This is a great way to see the handwritten copy of your clients and shows people that you are a true professional.

How Are You Doing This Now
How do you handle testimonials and customer report cards now? How do you use them to help sell jobs? Do you rely completely on online reviews? Love to hear your thoughts.

I’ve met many business owners who don’t know where they are headed with their company. They don’t have any short or long term goals established. If asked what they hope to do in revenue this year, or even 3-5 years, most don’t know how to answer or tell a little lie to make it sound like they do. Only a small percentage of small business owners know where they are headed. Only a few focus on the end goal.

It might look something like this, “In 5 years I hope to be making a $250,000 salary, working 10 months out of the year, have 15+ employees, with 80% of my business coming from repeat and referrals. I will have a full-time business manager, production manager and office administrator while I focus on ________. I’ll be known in my town as the #1 _________ providing exceptional _________.” The end in goal is not always the end when you sell or retire, although that is a goal. The end might be a marketing campaign, hiring employees, a charity event, your salary, and so on. Another example, Instead of saying, “We need to hire someone.” You’d say, “We need to hire a person who can sell $1,500,000 with little or no oversite from me!” Then you begin working backwards and breaking down all the steps it will take to look for a closer of that caliber. Whatever you want to accomplish, you have to start at the end and work backwards. You as the business owner has to know where you are headed so you can lead your team forward with confidence. When the owner is focused on the end, he (she) will begin to see his employees catch the vision.

How will move your business forward this year? 3 Years? What will it look like in 10 years? Let me know in the comments below or by emailing me, as some of you still do.