Ryan Paul Adams - Featured On

daily5-remodelHanley WoodRemodeling Magazine
You are here: Home / Archives for Stop Making Excuses

Focusing on Production and Ignoring Your Marketing is Dangerous

July 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I was consulting with a potential client today on one of our Free Strategy Sessions. Things were going really well and we were able to identify some key areas of his business that needed attention. At one point in the call he actually stopped and went silent for like 10 seconds and I wasn't sure if he was still on the call....finally he comes back on and says in kind of a solemn voice

"Ryan - no one has ever revealed to me the things that you just did. No one. I have been doing this for a long time and have hired a few consultants along the way to help me and they never mentioned any of this. This makes perfect sense to me and I can see the potential now. I really wish I had known this 10 years ago." 

It is for those simple "ah ha" moments that I do what I do. I firmly believe that I can change my little piece of the world by helping remodeling contractors figure out complex marketing and business problems. And it is not just about making more money it's about living a better lifestyle. With more marketing comes more awareness and infiltration in your market which drives leads, then jobs. More jobs means money, which in turn hopefully cash, and with cash comes the ability to hire, and hiring (employees, contractors, outsourcers, freelancers) frees you up to systemize your business and get more freedom to live your life. 

But like most remodeling businesses, my potential client is wearing too many hats. I could tell he was getting overwhelmed and all the gears in his head were spinning a bit. He couldn't fathom adding anything else to his plate right now even though he did not have enough jobs lined up and he was not making anywhere near the kind of money he wanted to be making after all these years in the business. While he probably needs to charge more for his services, he also desperately needs more business. 

Running a remodeling business is tough. I know this and you know this. But you aren't ever going to improve your situation without first figuring out your marketing and new client acquisition strategy. I typically do not send lengthy email replies like the one I am about to share, but I really felt a connection with this prospect and I sincerely want him to succeed (with or without me involved).

Why Marketing is The Key to Getting Out of the Chaos of Your Business - My Letter to My Prospect

I understand you are struggling on the production end of things and we can certainly help you figure some of this out. While we cannot solve all of your biggest problems on the production end, but having us involved solving some of your other big marketing and business problems will certainly help you in a big way. 

As part of our systems we include consulting and we can help you get in place the missing pieces you need to take your business to the next level. Some of these things are included, some of them you will pay extra for depending on what you need.  You don't just need more advice and consulting, you need people that can actually get stuff done for you and help you drive new business each and every day. 

This is priority #1 and I know it feels like putting out the other fires should be your top priority but it isn't and until you have complete control over your marketing and new business generation side of things, you will continue to run yourself in a lot of different directions. 

Why? Because if you are not marketing and driving new business, and focused on new client generation, you are not using your entrepreneurial hat. You are still operating as a technician. When you get control over your marketing and make this a priority your business will change and so will your life. But without this focus and a good team behind you that can hold you accountable, I am afraid you will be in the same position you are in 2 or 3 months from now. What is really going to change for you in the next 3 months? 

It sounds backward, but you NEED to focus on your marketing and make this a priority whether you do this yourself, hire someone in-house, or hire me and my team. Production is really secondary…or at least the effort spent on both need to match up somewhat. Production is important but it is not the most important thing (believe me I know what you are going through as I have struggled with this for years!). You will figure out the production end as you continue to work through the jobs and we can help you build some systems that will make things easier in the short term and the long term. 

Right now you are so bottom heavy with production issues and lack the lead flow and cash flow to hire the right people. If you don't get more jobs and more revenue, how are you going to solve your production end issues?   Typically you need cash to solve this problem and I don't typically recommend that you go out and borrow a lot of money to do this unless you have a great plan in place and really need this to grow fast. Your cash increase from marketing is what is going to solve your production issues, not the other way around. 

If you can simplify your service, I know you can find good people who can follow instructions to get the production end of things done. And with a couple more $50k or even $200k jobs, you would be able to hire some additional great people and develop better systems. 

Think about it...how can you solve your production issues without new revenue? You need to do what you feel is best and that is part of being the boss. Making tough decisions isn't easy but its part of our job as leaders to do this. You have some options here, but whatever you do, please don't ignore your marketing any longer. Do something today to make it better and over time your business will change forever. 

I am here if you need some help and I see a lot of potential for your business. If you want my help, I know I can get you to where you want to go if you are willing to put in some effort and stay in the fight.

Sincerely,

Ryan

I am not perfect and I make mistakes and there are infinite things to learn in this industry. But I know the above to be true because I have personally done it both ways in both my remodeling business and in my marketing consulting business. When I was failing and really struggling it was because I was not focusing on marketing and getting new jobs lined up. 

Need some help figuring out your strengths and weaknesses in your remodeling business? 

You are probably losing over a million dollars per year or more from bad marketing or NO marketing. Let me help you figure out what to do next with my Free Marketing Strategy Session. I also have a couple of additional bonuses I want to put in your hands as well. I am not sure how long we can offer this so sign up today to get on my schedule. Click here to find out more....

Filed Under: Remodeling Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Get Control and Grow Your Remodeling Business

May 20, 2013 by

Ever feel like your business and life is out of control?

Does your average day feel like you are putting one fire out after another?

Are you left wondering where the next lead is going to come from? 

My grandfather once told me that "you need to be in control at all times and the best way to do that is to never give it away." I think I was 14 at the time and had just started my first business. That stuck with me until this day. He went on to say "Don't make excuses. Ever! You need to find your way through every situation and look for the opportunity that is right under your nose." Every time you make an excuse about your situation or blame something else, you give away control. My wife calls it "giving away your mancard." Same could be said for a woman and a "womancard" phrase should be developed. 

So lets talk about control and what that really means for your remodeling business and for your life and the lesson I learned from my grandfather when I was 14. He was a masterful entrepreneur and understood a few key concepts about getting control that all the great successes understand. Our society is filled with excuse makers, doubters, and negativity runs rampant. I don't read the newspaper or watch the news on television because its mostly all fear and negativity. My success depends on those 2 things never creeping into my consciousness, so I don't partake. How about you?

Stop blaming external forces like the economy or a recession. Everytime you blame the economy or the recession on the core reason you are failing you are giving away your control. When you blame something or someone else for your failure you aren't taking responsibility for your situation. 

When I hear someone complaining about the economy as to why they are "slow" I ask them one simple question. "If I am a potential client, what is the #1 reason I should hire you vs another company?" They don't have an answer because they haven't even thought about it, which means they aren't differentiating themselves in the market. If they aren't differentiating, I know right then and there that they aren't marketing themselves well, or at all. I am speaking with someone who has no control. 

And if they had an answer, the next question would be, "how are you going about "attracting" new business vs chasing it?." Most remodelers chase the next deal but if you are positioned correctly, you should be in the drivers seat with full control over your own destiny. And most of the time, what that looks like is a steady stream of qualified people lining up to do business with you. You are in control. You aren't chasing. 

Money Doesn't Disappear. It Moves. 

Money rarely just completely stops flowing out of a remodeling sector, nor does it disappear. It simply changes hands or moves. In a recession, the middle class might cut back on remodeling their kitchen, but the affluent rarely do. Is that a market opportunity or should we just go back to complaining? You need to see opportunity in everything.

The best year I ever had in the remodeling business was the year that real estate and the economy took a nose dive. Competitors went out of business or sat idoly...but we kept marketing and positioning our uniqueness and had a really strong year. I had just discovered the power of building a killer USP and guarantee that crushed anything my competitors were offering. I was looking for opportunity when everyone else was watching the news and feeling sorry for themselves. 

And if the middle class cuts back on installing their dream kitchen, they still might go for something a step below their dream, especially if you can make it easy on them by lining up the financing or providing attractive payment terms. Can you create a targeted marketing campaign to the middle class market offering a streamlined kitchen package with easy terms that make them say YES? You bet you can. Control and Action. 

Very few people have control in their business (and life) and even less take action. There is a lot of money to be made in every remodeling market, but people need to know you exist and what you can do for them that is different from every other contractor. If you can't guarantee anything and don't do anything special or unique, its probably time you did something else. 

Need more help growing your remodeling business? Take advantage of all the FREE resources I have on www.RyanPaulAdams.com and my download my "3 Killer Ways to Grow Your Remodeling Business" today. 

Filed Under: Blog Posts, Business Growth Tips, Marketing Tips, Remodeling Marketing Tagged With: , ,
TRUSTe Privacy Policy Privacy Policy DMCA.com PME 360 BBB Business ReviewPME 360 - TrustE
E-Commerce Solutions