Videos

Will I see you in person while you are out learning your competition? I will be speaking live across the United States 9 times over the next 7 months! #lawncare #snowremoval #cleaning Organize-Automate-Dominate

Will I see you in person while you are out learning your competition

Hey, Mike Callahan here, got a question for you- Will I see you on the road in the next seven months? Going to be speaking live nine different times across the US, East to West Coast for the lawn care, snow removal and home cleaning industries. Going to be going in and most of the talks talking about how to organize, automate and dominate your local markets. So the question today kind of going out, not more of education and just a question to you, are you going out investing yourself in out-learning your competition? Some of the biggest takeaways and advancement in my business is been going out getting outside of my comfort zone and meeting other industry professionals in either the same industry or different industries. So my challenge today is hit the road, hop on a plane, go out and meet other like-minded individuals in different industries and different parts of the country, and go out and learn how you can go out and organize, automate and dominate your market. So hopefully, be looking to see you somewhere between the East Coast, West Coast or somewhere in between in the next seven months. Going to be doing some live speaking engagements for the lawn care, snow removal, and home cleaning. First is going to be the end of July for the top 100 snow removal companies in the United States. Absolutely stoked talking about next level sales. And then we’re going to be continuing right up through the end of February. So hopefully, to see you live in person. And let’s go out to work together and out-learn our competition and dominate our local markets.

Are the “flat tires”’or negative events in your business taking away from your positive focus and ability to grow and scale your business?

Are the “flat tires”’or negative events in your business taking away from your positive focus and ability to grow and scale your business?

Hey, Mike Callahan, I want to suggest a question here- Are the flat tires in your business derailing your success and your ability to scale faster and dominate your market? Well, I just got done plugging a tire here. My wife’s car picked up a nail and it was flat this morning, but these things in our businesses, the nails in our tire, the unexpected things are going to happen in our lawn care or home cleaning businesses. How are you going to face these challenges? Are you going to face them with optimism and look forward and see how you can learn from them? Or are you going to let them derail your day in negativity and suck the life out of you and your business and your team members from the negativity that could possibly be coming from this.

So my challenge today is face the business obstacles, or the flat tires in your business, with optimism-  What can we learn from them? How can we be proactively ready for them? And when they do happen, how can we have the mindset of positivity so we’re not letting it derail our day or our team members’ days? And I can’t tell you how many days and times we went down to our shop and one of our trailers or trucks caught a nail. The team didn’t know about it, we got down there, there was a flat tire. We’d have individuals on the team that would face it with optimism. They would go in and fix it and get ready and get a new tire on the truck just as a back-up, maybe an extra can of Fix-A-Flat, whatever that took, so they were ready if that next flat tire came up or there was other people that literally derailed their whole entire day and their positivity and their positive focus was gone. So my challenge to you today is, no matter whether it’s a flat tire in your business or a growth or scaling obstacle, maybe a no-show-no-call employee or a troublesome consumer that is sucking the life out of you and changing that positive focus, I would suggest getting rid of that negativity – whether it be a client – or refocusing your energy on a positive focus to overcome the flat tires in your business. So face your challenges with optimism and how could you proactively be ready when they happen. Because it’s not if they’re going to happen, it’s when they’re going to happen. So if we’re ready for them, we expect them, it is going to allow us to drive to our end goal whether it’s a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or quarterly sales goal or employment goal or maybe a work-life balance goal. These things are going to happen. So my challenge to you is how are you going to face the challenges that are going to come up in your business today and in the next 30 days with optimism and a positive focus to move forward and grow and scale your business with a great work-life balance that you’re not going to kill yourself from a heart attack of the basically self-imposed stress and anxiety that we all face in our business. So drop your comments below how you handle the positive focus and positive outcome when negative things happen in your business.

Weekly Meeting Rhythm For Your Business

Does your company data need a clean up?

Does your company data need a clean up?

Hey, Mike Callahan here with a quick video. Just finishing up day two of a two-day deep dive in sunny San Diego. As we’re driving in today, had a question that popped up-  How are you handling the standardization of information in your CRM, your customer relationship software that you use? Whether it’s an Excel sheet or a glorified CRM, things that we need to be looking at is a standard way to enter in the client’s first name, last name, a way to track if it’s a commercial client, the business name. How they heard about you for lead source tracking to see how many people came from each marketing source. How many converted into a client and the actual cost of an acquired customer. In addition, are you tracking things like cell phone and signifying where the cellphone is stored? With different technologies coming out like ringless voicemail bombs, we have the ability to automate phone calls. So for instance, one day or three days after an estimate, we can create a solution through automation to actually drop an automated phone call that hits a cell phone doesn’t ring, and it can leave a pre-recorded voicemail saying, “Hey, it’s Mike from ACME Lawn Care, left you an estimate three days ago. Was wondering if you had any questions and if you’re interested, feel free to sign up on our online estimate. Sorry I missed you wanted to leave you a voicemail.” Where now, we are leveraging some of the information and data hygiene we’re putting into our CRM or even an Excel sheet or QuickBooks to manage the workflow in a standardized way. And if we ever go to shift from, say, an Excel sheet or QuickBooks to a CRM or customer relationship management software that does scheduling, billing, invoices, or automation, we have a very clean list that’s standardized that can be imported or exported out of the software system. If you have any comments or questions, drop them below. But my question for you is how are you handling your marketing list and your data hygiene in the system you’re using inside your service business this year?

Are YOU living the dream? [of a business owner]

Are you a white collar, blue collar, Or GREEN COLLAR worker?

Are you a white collar, blue collar, Or GREEN COLLAR worker?

Hey Mike Callahan here, just leaving Dallas, Texas- The Lawn and Landscape Top 100. My question for you today is are you a white collar, blue collar, or maybe a green collar worker? I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman called Ivan Geraldo of Clean Scapes out of Austin, Texas. A conversation we had was how can we differentiate ourselves and get above the industry perceptions of lawn care and snow removal. A lot of people think we are individuals running around in a brokedown pickup truck with a used lawnmower. But obviously, that’s not the case.

[silence]

What we weren’t doing and what was included in the service. It also included our satisfaction guarantee. So we took the risk out of the equation. So we were no longer someone running around with a broke down pickup truck and a lawnmower. We were a professional company. We had uniforms and we had a professional guarantee with a written contract that’s spelled out exactly what we’re doing and what we weren’t doing for the contract. The next thing we required is either a credit card on file, which eventually required 100%, but only worked in credit cards and checks. We differentiate ourselves from the competition. We would not take cash because we’re not a fly by night operation. And then the final and third thing that we did is we went out and had our satisfaction guarantee and we basically required to check or credit card. We went out and actually, with all of our bids, submitted a copy of our liability insurance. So those three factors which seem really obvious, most people running a professional business is what differentiated ourselves from the competition and we were the green collar industry. Most people think we’re a blue collar and running an illegitimate business but we really weren’t. So by taking these steps, we really differentiated ourselves to potentially justify a higher price and overcoming those perceptions of our industry right out the gate. I know just about any industry that’s service industry related, whether it’s lawn care or home cleaning, those are the issues that we all face. So I’d highly recommend having a written contract. It outlines the services of what’s included, what’s not included, your satisfaction guarantee. Operate only in check or credit card. I recommend 100% credit card required on file for cash flow. And then the final thing is submitting your insurance with workman’s comp and liability insurance right upfront with your estimate or bid that you’re submitting. So any comments or questions, drop below. Ivan and I had a really interesting conversation and we really aren’t the white collar, we’re not the blue collar. Lawn care industry maybe the green collar industry now and I really like that saying. So do you have any other thoughts yourself what can we do to raise the perception of whether it’s lawn care or home cleaning industry in the perception of our industry as professionals and not just a fly by night operation? So hopefully this is interesting to spark some conversation but it was on my mind in the last couple of hours here, on the way out of Dallas, Texas.

How to standardize and automate the training of your office staff or virtual assistant

Are Employee Problems Slowing Your Business Growth?

Tracking Your Customer Retention Rate

Contract renewal and communications