Ask a Painter Live #297: Mastering the Basics - Marketing/Leads!

00:46:58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--GQoYceg70

الملخص

TLDRIn this episode of 'Ask a Painter Live,' Nick Slavic, a seasoned painting professional, shares his expertise in mastering the basics of marketing within the painting industry. The discussion revolves around effective strategies for lead generation, emphasizing the significance of understanding one's ideal client. Nick points out that while social media has its place, traditional marketing methods like flyers and word-of-mouth referrals play a critical role in generating quality leads. He highlights the importance of tracking where leads come from and managing marketing costs to improve overall efficiency. By combining data-driven decisions with community involvement and reputation management, Nick aims to cultivate a successful painting business while encouraging others in the industry to do the same.

الوجبات الجاهزة

  • 🎨 Nick Slavic has nearly 30 years of experience in painting and restoration.
  • 💡 The main focus of the show is on practical strategies for running a painting business.
  • 📈 Understanding your ideal client is crucial for effective marketing.
  • 📑 Data tracking is essential for refining lead generation efforts.
  • 🤝 Word-of-mouth referrals account for about 50% of leads.
  • 🛠️ Nick offers master's classes to help others improve their business practices.
  • 📅 Community involvement fosters trust and generates leads.
  • 📉 Aim for a marketing budget of around 3.5% of revenue.
  • 🚀 Social media is useful but often yields less serious leads than other methods.
  • 📋 Track your leads to understand where they come from and improve conversion rates.

الجدول الزمني

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    In this episode, Nick Slavic introduces his show 'Ask a Painter Live,' explaining his experience in the painting industry and how he's sharing insights on making business life easier and effective. Today's focus is on marketing, with a hint about an upcoming winter retreat for creative brainstorming.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Nick mentions the importance of understanding your ideal clients based on demographics, highlighting that most of his business comes from older women in specific geographical locations. He emphasizes the need to balance perfection with productivity in marketing strategies.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Nick discusses various marketing sources and strategies, stressing that not all leads are equal; some methods yield more serious inquiries. He promotes the use of professional websites and easy-to-contact systems to enhance client engagement.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Nick shares his process for obtaining leads without a direct phone number, explaining how leads are collected via his website and streamlined into a spreadsheet for tracking. He notes that keeping data organized is crucial for interpreting marketing effectiveness.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    He discusses cost benchmarks for marketing, mentioning that larger companies aim for 3.5% of revenue for marketing expenses and how tracking cost per lead helps evaluate the success of marketing channels. He emphasizes focusing on numerics rather than broad reach metrics.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Nick details information breakdowns for the leads generated through various sources, including social media and print media, revealing the effectiveness of each method based on client demographics, geographical outreach, and expenses involved.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    He highlights key insights on job costing and how it relates to marketing, explaining that he tracks success rates and adheres to a data-driven approach to refine lead generation and efficiency in business operations.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Nick concludes with advice on utilizing community relationships and effort-based marketing tactics instead of solely relying on paid advertisements. He discusses the value of reputation and community presence for consistent business growth.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:46:58

    Finally, he encourages viewers to reach out for assistance and make the most of their marketing efforts, reminding them about the importance of community involvement in generating leads.

اعرض المزيد

الخريطة الذهنية

فيديو أسئلة وأجوبة

  • What is Nick Slavic's background?

    Nick Slavic has nearly three decades of experience as a master craftsman and entrepreneur in the painting industry.

  • What is the main focus of the show?

    The main focus is to share insights and strategies for running an effective painting business, particularly around marketing.

  • What are the upcoming events mentioned?

    Nick is hosting a Winter Retreat and a PCA Expo in early March.

  • How does Nick track lead generation?

    He uses a combination of spreadsheets and software like Zapier to track where leads come from and manage marketing data.

  • What is Nick’s target market?

    His primary clients are typically women aged 45 to 75 in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area.

  • Does Nick offer workshops?

    Yes, he offers long-format master's classes on various topics, including marketing, in different areas.

  • What is the significance of word-of-mouth in Nick's business?

    Word-of-mouth accounts for about 50% of the leads, indicating a strong foundation of trust and reputation.

  • What is Nick's marketing budget strategy?

    He aims for a marketing budget of about 3.5% of revenue and focuses on reducing cost per lead.

  • Is social media effective for Nick's business?

    Nick sees mixed results from social media, noting that leads generated there are often less serious than those from other sources.

  • How important is community involvement?

    Community involvement is crucial for establishing trust and generating leads, according to Nick.

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التمرير التلقائي:
  • 00:00:22
    Alright. Happy Sunday
  • 00:00:25
    everybody. Uh I am Nick Slavic.
  • 00:00:30
    I'm the proprietor of the Nick
  • 00:00:32
    Slavic Painting and Restoration
  • 00:00:35
    Company. I'm also host of this
  • 00:00:37
    show Ask a Painter Live. It's a
  • 00:00:39
    weekly live Facebook show.
  • 00:00:41
    TikTok show here. Instagram
  • 00:00:43
    show there. Uh where I use
  • 00:00:44
    almost three decades of
  • 00:00:45
    experience as a master crafts
  • 00:00:46
    person and a trades business
  • 00:00:47
    entrepreneur to basically show
  • 00:00:48
    you what this life is about.
  • 00:00:49
    The things that I have done to
  • 00:00:50
    make my life a little stress
  • 00:00:51
    free, more fun, and and run an
  • 00:00:51
    effective business. So, We're
  • 00:00:52
    going to get into a whole bunch
  • 00:00:53
    of super fun stuff. We're
  • 00:00:53
    continuing the series of
  • 00:00:54
    Mastering the Basics this week.
  • 00:00:54
    This week's topic is going to
  • 00:00:55
    be marketing. First, I'm going
  • 00:00:56
    to mention a few things though.
  • 00:00:56
    Tons of stuff going on. In a
  • 00:00:57
    couple of weeks, we're having
  • 00:00:58
    the Aska Painter Live Winter
  • 00:00:58
    Retreat. There's going to be
  • 00:00:59
    about 18, 20 people coming from
  • 00:01:00
    across the country. Thought
  • 00:01:01
    experiments, limiting belief
  • 00:01:02
    testing, all sorts of crazy
  • 00:01:02
    stuff. We're at capacity now.
  • 00:01:03
    I'll let you guys know if we
  • 00:01:04
    have any opening slots. But
  • 00:01:04
    look for more of those this
  • 00:01:05
    year. Those things are super
  • 00:01:06
    fun. We go to a luxury log
  • 00:01:06
    estate up in the wilderness in
  • 00:01:07
    Minnesota. We do a bunch of fun
  • 00:01:08
    stuff together with some of the
  • 00:01:09
    brightest thinkers in the
  • 00:01:10
    country. So, alright. Uh let's
  • 00:01:12
    see. The PCA. Painting
  • 00:01:15
    Contractors Association. Um we
  • 00:01:18
    are having our expo in early
  • 00:01:19
    March and if you want to be
  • 00:01:20
    around four to 500 of the
  • 00:01:23
    brightest, most aggressive,
  • 00:01:25
    progressive trades business
  • 00:01:26
    entrepreneurs and everybody
  • 00:01:27
    else in your industry, I would
  • 00:01:29
    tell you, go there. It's a it's
  • 00:01:31
    an of both time and money but
  • 00:01:33
    anything good is and if you
  • 00:01:35
    need more information, there's
  • 00:01:37
    links here Also, if you want
  • 00:01:41
    this but in a long full-day
  • 00:01:44
    format in your area, I have
  • 00:01:46
    master's classes. Uh I have a
  • 00:01:48
    full, probably about a
  • 00:01:50
    five-hour marketing master's
  • 00:01:52
    class. This is a very condensed
  • 00:01:54
    version where I just skim over
  • 00:01:55
    the top on a lot of this stuff.
  • 00:01:57
    If you want me to be in your
  • 00:01:59
    area, there's a link in the
  • 00:02:00
    show notes. I can come. We can
  • 00:02:01
    spend an entire day. We can get
  • 00:02:03
    underwriters. We'll have lunch
  • 00:02:04
    together and I'll present two
  • 00:02:06
    masters classes to you of your
  • 00:02:06
    choices. Uh get a big group of
  • 00:02:09
    people together. It's going to
  • 00:02:10
    be awesome. So, if you guys
  • 00:02:12
    want more of that, links in
  • 00:02:14
    there. I'm not going to waste
  • 00:02:15
    any time today. It is family
  • 00:02:16
    time. It is Sunday. Um I did
  • 00:02:18
    have an archery tournament with
  • 00:02:20
    Gator Boy yesterday. So, we
  • 00:02:22
    postponed the show til today.
  • 00:02:22
    Doing a Sunday experiment to
  • 00:02:24
    see if we can reach a different
  • 00:02:25
    audience, more people, things
  • 00:02:26
    like that. So, today, by the
  • 00:02:29
    way, you guys are super nice. I
  • 00:02:30
    put posts out on Instagram and
  • 00:02:32
    Facebook asking for Mastering
  • 00:02:34
    the Basics, topic suggestions,
  • 00:02:36
    and really the overwhelm
  • 00:02:37
    majority was marketing, lead
  • 00:02:39
    generation, things like that.
  • 00:02:40
    So, I condensed. I gave you
  • 00:02:43
    some or I'm going to be showing
  • 00:02:44
    you some really good data from
  • 00:02:47
    my company from last year and
  • 00:02:49
    then, some from this year in
  • 00:02:51
    real time. This is, this is my
  • 00:02:52
    value proposition to you guys.
  • 00:02:54
    I'm not a consultant. I am not
  • 00:02:55
    a coach. I am doing this with
  • 00:02:57
    you and I want this industry to
  • 00:02:59
    improve because I've seen how
  • 00:03:01
    this little freedom machine can
  • 00:03:02
    change my life. I'm going to
  • 00:03:04
    give you guys real-time
  • 00:03:05
    information. These are absolute
  • 00:03:07
    100% solve things. All these
  • 00:03:10
    are kind of in process for me
  • 00:03:11
    but I'm here doing it with you
  • 00:03:13
    and we're going to solve this
  • 00:03:14
    together. So, let's dive right
  • 00:03:16
    into this. Uh thank you
  • 00:03:17
    everybody for watching. Uh
  • 00:03:19
    bonjia, all my friends in
  • 00:03:21
    Brazil. Alright, let's share
  • 00:03:24
    this and let's get going. I'm
  • 00:03:25
    going to actually show you some
  • 00:03:26
    really cool stuff for my
  • 00:03:27
    business today too. So, now,
  • 00:03:31
    Remember, everything that I
  • 00:03:32
    show you is stuff for me, for
  • 00:03:35
    my business, things that work
  • 00:03:36
    for me. I'm going to give, I'm
  • 00:03:38
    going to give you some pretty
  • 00:03:40
    good perspective before we
  • 00:03:41
    start this thing, which is,
  • 00:03:42
    this thing is not the absolute,
  • 00:03:44
    only way, the final answer for
  • 00:03:47
    getting leads and marketing
  • 00:03:49
    your business. I'm showing you
  • 00:03:50
    stuff that I'm doing. You need
  • 00:03:51
    to adapt this to your company.
  • 00:03:52
    So, let's go. Let me get this.
  • 00:03:56
    Alright. Assumptions and
  • 00:03:57
    variables. I start every
  • 00:03:59
    master's class with going
  • 00:04:00
    through some assumptions,
  • 00:04:01
    laying out some variables
  • 00:04:01
    because I want you guys to know
  • 00:04:03
    what is all about. This is not
  • 00:04:07
    me saying, if you're doing
  • 00:04:08
    something different for me,
  • 00:04:08
    you're wrong. This is me
  • 00:04:10
    saying, here's a cool data
  • 00:04:11
    point for you. Take this and
  • 00:04:12
    use it to benefit your
  • 00:04:13
    business. This is just my
  • 00:04:14
    company. We all have different
  • 00:04:16
    experiences. We all have
  • 00:04:17
    different data. There is no bad
  • 00:04:19
    forms of marketing, just poorly
  • 00:04:21
    used forms of marketing. So,
  • 00:04:23
    everybody, dogs on Angie,
  • 00:04:26
    HomeAdvisor, things like that.
  • 00:04:27
    Not my preference but I know
  • 00:04:29
    people who had worked
  • 00:04:30
    wonderfully for it and guess
  • 00:04:31
    what? If you devote intentional
  • 00:04:33
    time, intentional money and
  • 00:04:35
    you're aggressive in your
  • 00:04:36
    communication, almost every
  • 00:04:37
    form of marketing will work.
  • 00:04:38
    You're going to reach different
  • 00:04:40
    people which will talk about
  • 00:04:40
    later but I'll just leave it at
  • 00:04:44
    that. This is what I do. Um
  • 00:04:46
    know your ideal client and
  • 00:04:48
    location. So, this is pretty
  • 00:04:49
    simple too. Um honestly, if you
  • 00:04:51
    look through all of our
  • 00:04:52
    marketing data, most of the
  • 00:04:54
    people who need our services
  • 00:04:55
    are 45 to 75-year-old women in
  • 00:04:58
    the Southwest Metro of
  • 00:04:59
    Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
  • 00:05:00
    That's who comes to us the
  • 00:05:02
    majority of the time for this.
  • 00:05:03
    So, just know, there's because
  • 00:05:05
    of the sex of people, you don't
  • 00:05:07
    necessarily have to change a
  • 00:05:07
    lot of marketing but maybe
  • 00:05:09
    location and sex combined,
  • 00:05:10
    income level types of houses
  • 00:05:13
    professionals, stay-at-home
  • 00:05:14
    people, things like that. You
  • 00:05:15
    gotta know your ideal client
  • 00:05:16
    and speak to them. Um don't let
  • 00:05:19
    perfection stay hidden the way
  • 00:05:20
    of really good. I will tell you
  • 00:05:21
    right now, my process is maybe
  • 00:05:23
    60% refined. This is one of my
  • 00:05:25
    most unrefined sort of
  • 00:05:28
    processes in my entire company.
  • 00:05:29
    How to paint a bedroom?
  • 00:05:32
    Excellent. We got that down. It
  • 00:05:33
    will take it will take an act
  • 00:05:35
    of god to change that standard
  • 00:05:36
    operating procedure because it
  • 00:05:39
    is so tight. It's been done
  • 00:05:40
    thousands of times. Now that
  • 00:05:40
    I'm more bandwidth to devote to
  • 00:05:44
    running the business over
  • 00:05:45
    building this thing over the
  • 00:05:46
    last five years or so. I can
  • 00:05:48
    start devoting my time to
  • 00:05:49
    process refinement and one of
  • 00:05:52
    the ones is the marketing but I
  • 00:05:54
    know a thing in my business is
  • 00:05:56
    I can spend a bunch of money
  • 00:05:57
    and get a bunch of leads and we
  • 00:05:58
    can keep this thing moving. But
  • 00:06:00
    it's more of just like a it's
  • 00:06:01
    an unrefined process where I'm
  • 00:06:03
    just doing it because there's
  • 00:06:04
    other things that I need to
  • 00:06:05
    devote my time to. Now my goal
  • 00:06:07
    for this year is to cut my cost
  • 00:06:09
    per lead 25%, Which tech could
  • 00:06:12
    change my marketing budget
  • 00:06:13
    somewhere between maybe like
  • 00:06:14
    five and 25 percent less this
  • 00:06:16
    year which is a big thing for
  • 00:06:18
    me because I'll show you what
  • 00:06:19
    that number is later. Not all
  • 00:06:21
    leads are created equal. So,
  • 00:06:22
    one thing I want you to
  • 00:06:23
    understand is that you hear a
  • 00:06:25
    lot of people talk about ROI. I
  • 00:06:27
    got this many people to see it.
  • 00:06:28
    I got this and that. I'll show
  • 00:06:29
    you why. I don't track or
  • 00:06:31
    follow or use a lot of those
  • 00:06:33
    metrics later. One weird data
  • 00:06:34
    point in my company is that I
  • 00:06:37
    do a lot of flyer marketing and
  • 00:06:40
    I've also done tons of social
  • 00:06:41
    media marketing experiments. I
  • 00:06:45
    can, a true statement is, I can
  • 00:06:47
    spend money for Facebook,
  • 00:06:48
    Instagram, and get a bunch of
  • 00:06:49
    leads, but they are not as
  • 00:06:50
    serious on social media as if
  • 00:06:52
    you do word-of-mouth referral,
  • 00:06:54
    flyer, things like that. So,
  • 00:06:55
    again, when somebody says, hey,
  • 00:06:57
    I'm getting a whole bunch of
  • 00:06:58
    these, you know, I got 21
  • 00:06:59
    people that requested an
  • 00:07:00
    estimate. If nobody actually
  • 00:07:01
    follows up and takes a job,
  • 00:07:02
    that is a useless form of
  • 00:07:04
    marketing and the cost per per
  • 00:07:06
    lead is be very high. So, you
  • 00:07:08
    have to yeah, we'll get into
  • 00:07:10
    numbers that I actually care
  • 00:07:11
    about later on. Now, the basics
  • 00:07:14
    of having a professional
  • 00:07:17
    business. I would say like an
  • 00:07:18
    entry feed, even play in this
  • 00:07:19
    game is you gotta have a
  • 00:07:21
    website, you gotta have an
  • 00:07:22
    Email address, you gotta be on
  • 00:07:23
    Google Maps, and there's a
  • 00:07:24
    bunch of other little stuff
  • 00:07:25
    like that but you have to be
  • 00:07:27
    easy to find and those are some
  • 00:07:30
    of the main ways to do it.
  • 00:07:32
    Also, unsatisfying answer, just
  • 00:07:35
    like, what do you charge for a
  • 00:07:37
    project? Almost these
  • 00:07:38
    questions, what do you charge
  • 00:07:40
    for X, scheduling, marketing
  • 00:07:42
    can all be answered with job
  • 00:07:43
    costing and simple tracking of
  • 00:07:45
    a few things but the problem
  • 00:07:46
    is, successful people usually
  • 00:07:50
    combine information and grit.
  • 00:07:52
    The information's all there. Do
  • 00:07:54
    you have enough grit to
  • 00:07:55
    actually put it to use and do
  • 00:07:57
    something with it? Alright,
  • 00:07:58
    where do leads come from? So, I
  • 00:07:59
    divide almost all problem
  • 00:08:01
    solving things in two ways
  • 00:08:02
    which is You can solve problems
  • 00:08:07
    with labor, your effort, or
  • 00:08:09
    with money, or with both. So,
  • 00:08:10
    as we go through this thing,
  • 00:08:11
    this is not exhaustive, right?
  • 00:08:13
    Like, this is just a, this is
  • 00:08:14
    just a little bit of a, this is
  • 00:08:16
    just a little bit of a list of
  • 00:08:18
    a high-level stuff. Obviously,
  • 00:08:20
    if we could run businesses off
  • 00:08:21
    of word-of-mouth previous
  • 00:08:22
    client and referrals, we would
  • 00:08:23
    do that. I'll show you data
  • 00:08:25
    about half of all the finished
  • 00:08:27
    business, all the projects, all
  • 00:08:29
    the leads in my company, are
  • 00:08:30
    that, which are the best leads.
  • 00:08:32
    They are already have this
  • 00:08:33
    built-in layer of trust.
  • 00:08:34
    They're free and somebody else
  • 00:08:35
    is doing it for you. The goal
  • 00:08:37
    would be to do all of this.
  • 00:08:39
    Also, Dominic Crowley, what's
  • 00:08:41
    up, brother? Love following you
  • 00:08:42
    and thank you for tuning in
  • 00:08:43
    this morning. Special dude
  • 00:08:44
    watching today. So, force
  • 00:08:47
    multipliers too. So, think
  • 00:08:48
    about builders, realtors, and
  • 00:08:50
    designers who are out there
  • 00:08:51
    advocating for you. Um lead
  • 00:08:52
    generation sites, Angie,
  • 00:08:54
    HomeAdvisor, things like that.
  • 00:08:56
    Paid for leads. Uh social
  • 00:08:57
    media, obviously, TikTok,
  • 00:08:58
    Instagram, Facebook, all the
  • 00:09:00
    all the good stuff like that.
  • 00:09:02
    Web searches. Uh so, again, if
  • 00:09:04
    you Google is the big one
  • 00:09:04
    there, and there's a whole
  • 00:09:07
    bunch of SEO, ad words, all
  • 00:09:09
    that other kind of stuff. Uh
  • 00:09:10
    print media. So, newspaper,
  • 00:09:12
    magazines, other things like
  • 00:09:13
    that. Uh you'll be surprised.
  • 00:09:14
    I'll show you interesting piece
  • 00:09:15
    of data why I still advertise
  • 00:09:17
    in newspapers sometimes here.
  • 00:09:18
    Um so, vans, yard signs, and
  • 00:09:20
    local presence is a big thing
  • 00:09:22
    too. Um male flyers, you know,
  • 00:09:24
    that sort of thing and Email
  • 00:09:26
    marketing. So, process of
  • 00:09:28
    getting leads. Um interesting
  • 00:09:31
    data point about my company, We
  • 00:09:32
    don't have a phone number that
  • 00:09:33
    people people can call and this
  • 00:09:35
    surprises a lot of people. Uh I
  • 00:09:36
    did this for a couple of
  • 00:09:37
    reasons. Number one, the main
  • 00:09:39
    reason listen, people think
  • 00:09:41
    it's impersonal. We actually
  • 00:09:42
    get some complaints every once
  • 00:09:43
    in a while when we ask people
  • 00:09:45
    what we could have done better
  • 00:09:46
    on their jobs to say, it would
  • 00:09:47
    have been nice to have a phone
  • 00:09:47
    number. What those people
  • 00:09:49
    aren't understanding is that
  • 00:09:50
    you did. You had six phone
  • 00:09:52
    numbers. Once you accepted a
  • 00:09:54
    project and you're in our
  • 00:09:55
    company, then, you have amazing
  • 00:09:56
    support team, an unrivaled
  • 00:09:57
    support team but back in the
  • 00:10:00
    day, when I did not have enough
  • 00:10:01
    time because I was doing all
  • 00:10:02
    the estimating, painting during
  • 00:10:04
    the day, and other things. I
  • 00:10:05
    could not take phone calls
  • 00:10:06
    during the day. Data point one,
  • 00:10:08
    data point two I'm not a
  • 00:10:10
    compliance guy. The biggest
  • 00:10:12
    problem I had when people would
  • 00:10:13
    call me is I'd be writing down
  • 00:10:15
    their name, their address,
  • 00:10:16
    phone number, Email address,
  • 00:10:17
    and guess what? Nearly every
  • 00:10:20
    single one I got wrong. It's
  • 00:10:21
    just something about me, know
  • 00:10:23
    thyself. I can't write. If you
  • 00:10:25
    gave me a hundred Email
  • 00:10:26
    addresses to write down, 75 of
  • 00:10:28
    them would be correct.
  • 00:10:29
    Twenty-five wouldn't be and
  • 00:10:30
    then it's a disaster. Then you
  • 00:10:32
    gotta call them again. Then you
  • 00:10:32
    gotta test the email. Then you
  • 00:10:34
    gotta do this. It was such a
  • 00:10:36
    clunky system. I know myself. I
  • 00:10:37
    know how my brain works. I
  • 00:10:38
    funnel everybody my website
  • 00:10:40
    initially. Once they're into my
  • 00:10:41
    website, then, they have all of
  • 00:10:43
    our contact numbers and
  • 00:10:43
    everything else. So, what
  • 00:10:45
    you're seeing here is a
  • 00:10:46
    screenshot of my website and I
  • 00:10:48
    try to make things very easy
  • 00:10:49
    for them which is you see the
  • 00:10:50
    big red thing that says free
  • 00:10:51
    quote, paint my walls, paint my
  • 00:10:53
    trim and cabinets. I'm trying
  • 00:10:54
    to skew people for certain
  • 00:10:56
    projects. Uh when people like,
  • 00:10:57
    hey, I really like to have my
  • 00:10:58
    cabinets painted. Oh my god,
  • 00:10:59
    paint my cabinets or my trim
  • 00:11:01
    right there. You gotta make it
  • 00:11:02
    easy for people like this. So,
  • 00:11:03
    one of the things I'm going to
  • 00:11:05
    show you here is I'm going to
  • 00:11:06
    take you through. I'm going to
  • 00:11:08
    hide this one and I'm going to
  • 00:11:10
    actually show you how you go
  • 00:11:12
    through my I'm going to go
  • 00:11:14
    through my website here and I'm
  • 00:11:16
    going to actually show you how
  • 00:11:17
    to do this, how easy it is. So,
  • 00:11:18
    if I'm here and I want my walls
  • 00:11:20
    painted. So, if I were a
  • 00:11:21
    potential client, I would come
  • 00:11:23
    to paint my walls. And then you
  • 00:11:24
    can see next screen shows up
  • 00:11:27
    and then there's a form to fill
  • 00:11:28
    out and the cool thing about
  • 00:11:29
    this is autofill. So, when
  • 00:11:32
    people, when people show up
  • 00:11:33
    here, if they've done this
  • 00:11:35
    before, they're autofilled.
  • 00:11:36
    Now, the two things that you
  • 00:11:37
    gotta be very careful about
  • 00:11:39
    collecting is this, they cannot
  • 00:11:40
    submit this unless they tell me
  • 00:11:41
    where they heard about me. So,
  • 00:11:43
    again, these are major forms
  • 00:11:44
    Marketing. This is one of the
  • 00:11:45
    most important things about
  • 00:11:47
    marketing is tracking where
  • 00:11:48
    your leads come from. You have
  • 00:11:48
    to force people to do this.
  • 00:11:50
    They will not offer it up. Ten
  • 00:11:52
    to 20 percent are probably not
  • 00:11:53
    accurate either. You have to
  • 00:11:55
    understand that. So, we'll say
  • 00:11:57
    vans and then description of
  • 00:11:58
    project. Paint my cabinets.
  • 00:12:03
    Alright, I am not a robot. I in
  • 00:12:05
    fact own this website and then
  • 00:12:07
    I submit.
  • 00:12:12
    Alright? And then what happens?
  • 00:12:15
    You get a you get an email. So
  • 00:12:16
    in my email box it'll give you
  • 00:12:19
    a confirmation right here.
  • 00:12:20
    It'll give you a a confirmation
  • 00:12:23
    there. One other thing I
  • 00:12:24
    want to show you guys which is
  • 00:12:25
    really cool is I'm going to
  • 00:12:27
    hide this and I have a
  • 00:12:30
    spreadsheet. Every time
  • 00:12:32
    somebody goes to my website and
  • 00:12:34
    types in a lead, it zaps it,
  • 00:12:36
    Zapier into a spreadsheet and
  • 00:12:38
    this is how I start tracking
  • 00:12:39
    leads. Make it easy. So, if you
  • 00:12:40
    guys can see this, I
  • 00:12:41
    highlighted this one line down
  • 00:12:43
    here and if you look at it very
  • 00:12:45
    closely, it says, Nick Slavic
  • 00:12:46
    instantly and it says,
  • 00:12:51
    Time, date, my Email address,
  • 00:12:53
    phone number, Vans, here's my
  • 00:12:56
    project. So, again, it's
  • 00:12:58
    compiling data and now, the
  • 00:12:59
    cool thing about this
  • 00:13:00
    spreadsheet is that you can
  • 00:13:02
    sort the columns by, okay, show
  • 00:13:04
    me all the leads from one week
  • 00:13:05
    or show me all the leads from
  • 00:13:07
    word of mouth, things like
  • 00:13:08
    that. Show me location and that
  • 00:13:11
    sort of thing. So, again,
  • 00:13:12
    trying to make it easy and all
  • 00:13:13
    the data, I'm going to show you
  • 00:13:15
    later. Is there any way to see
  • 00:13:20
    what you're looking at? You
  • 00:13:21
    have to go to Facebook to see
  • 00:13:21
    my screen share here. I cannot
  • 00:13:23
    share a screen share on
  • 00:13:24
    Instagram or on TikTok. So, Ask
  • 00:13:27
    a Painter Live on Facebook. Has
  • 00:13:29
    this stream going right now?
  • 00:13:31
    It'll be archived there,
  • 00:13:32
    archived on YouTube as well.
  • 00:13:33
    So, all the data I'm going to
  • 00:13:34
    show you later is basically
  • 00:13:36
    started on as this data. This
  • 00:13:37
    this large amount of data and I
  • 00:13:39
    use spreadsheets as my database
  • 00:13:40
    and I'm willing to work with it
  • 00:13:42
    like that because I haven't
  • 00:13:43
    found anything that does it
  • 00:13:44
    exactly for me. So, we're
  • 00:13:46
    getting there though Oh,
  • 00:13:48
    Quentin, how's it going, man?
  • 00:13:50
    One of my fine crafts people
  • 00:13:51
    watching today. So, okay. Let's
  • 00:13:54
    go back to Alright.
  • 00:14:01
    Sorry, I gotta get make sure I
  • 00:14:03
    got the right screen share in
  • 00:14:04
    there. Nope. Get out of there.
  • 00:14:07
    Get out of there. So, cost of
  • 00:14:12
    marketing and benchmarks. So,
  • 00:14:13
    one of the coolest numbers that
  • 00:14:14
    I was introduced to years ago
  • 00:14:16
    is larger companies typically
  • 00:14:19
    over a million plus kind of
  • 00:14:22
    like circle around this number
  • 00:14:23
    of like three point 5% of
  • 00:14:25
    revenue as a marketing budget.
  • 00:14:26
    So, if you, if you're a
  • 00:14:28
    million-dollar company, if you
  • 00:14:29
    produce a million dollars, a
  • 00:14:30
    painting business a year, hm
  • 00:14:32
    $35, 000 on average is a good
  • 00:14:34
    place to start with your
  • 00:14:35
    marketing. Now, I've also heard
  • 00:14:36
    things from zero to 10 percent,
  • 00:14:38
    20%, which is an enormous
  • 00:14:40
    amount of marketing. Uh a lot
  • 00:14:42
    of people who are some some
  • 00:14:44
    companies love marketing. They
  • 00:14:46
    truly just love marketing. It's
  • 00:14:48
    fun. Some some operators, some
  • 00:14:50
    owners of these companies are
  • 00:14:52
    really love that game of
  • 00:14:53
    polling levers using money and
  • 00:14:54
    stuff and some of them if I'm
  • 00:14:57
    being honest, overspend quite a
  • 00:14:58
    bit. If you're in the 10%,
  • 00:15:00
    that's a really expensive form
  • 00:15:02
    of marketing. Uh so, 3. 5% of
  • 00:15:06
    revenue. Obviously, you want
  • 00:15:06
    that as low as possible. Um
  • 00:15:08
    give or take. and $150 a lead
  • 00:15:11
    which sounds like a lot, right?
  • 00:15:12
    It sounds like a lot of money
  • 00:15:13
    but in in the span of running a
  • 00:15:17
    business for the year, you
  • 00:15:18
    know, you can get a lot of
  • 00:15:19
    leads for $35, 000 based on
  • 00:15:21
    that. Now, the other sort of
  • 00:15:23
    soft metrics that you can use
  • 00:15:25
    to see if your marketing is
  • 00:15:26
    effective is, is your
  • 00:15:28
    skeptical? And our jobs and
  • 00:15:30
    your competences? And we got
  • 00:15:32
    Sig barking at Bird. Sig, hey.
  • 00:15:35
    You alright buddy? Alright. So,
  • 00:15:39
    there's bunch of birds out on
  • 00:15:39
    the bird feeder and Sig is
  • 00:15:41
    barking at them. So, alright.
  • 00:15:43
    Um say, come on, bud. It's
  • 00:15:47
    good. Stay with me, bud.
  • 00:15:49
    Alright, good boy. Alright
  • 00:15:53
    Let's go back to my screen.
  • 00:15:55
    Okay, analyzing effectiveness
  • 00:15:56
    of marketing. So, here's one
  • 00:15:58
    thing that is not that
  • 00:15:59
    interesting to me that I hear
  • 00:16:00
    everybody talk about which is
  • 00:16:01
    traditional ROI. I got a 18 to
  • 00:16:04
    one ROI. Say, that, okay, good
  • 00:16:06
    start. That number does exist
  • 00:16:08
    in my company but what I'm more
  • 00:16:10
    interested in is cost per lead
  • 00:16:12
    and cost per completed project
  • 00:16:13
    because that is a tangible
  • 00:16:15
    number, something comparable to
  • 00:16:16
    other things. The problem with
  • 00:16:18
    ROI is like this, you can lull
  • 00:16:20
    yourself and fool into thinking
  • 00:16:23
    that it's a way better number
  • 00:16:24
    than it is. So, think about,
  • 00:16:25
    hey, I paid a thousand dollars
  • 00:16:26
    on Facebook for marketing and I
  • 00:16:28
    got a $2, 000dollar project out
  • 00:16:29
    of it. I just doubled my
  • 00:16:31
    investment. No, another way,
  • 00:16:34
    another way to think about that
  • 00:16:35
    is that job cost you a $1, 000.
  • 00:16:37
    So on a 000 dollar or on a $2,
  • 00:16:40
    000 project, half of the money
  • 00:16:41
    that you're going to make on
  • 00:16:43
    that was devoted just to
  • 00:16:43
    getting it which is super
  • 00:16:44
    expensive. So, what, think
  • 00:16:46
    about this. If your marketing
  • 00:16:47
    budget is 3. 5% of your
  • 00:16:48
    revenue, which means if a $2000
  • 00:16:50
    job, if stick to your 3. 5% of
  • 00:16:53
    marketing, that lead probably
  • 00:16:55
    should have cost you $70 give
  • 00:16:56
    or take based on the amount of
  • 00:16:58
    revenue on that job. One thing
  • 00:17:00
    I'm not interested in is reach,
  • 00:17:02
    views, and impressions. You get
  • 00:17:03
    people all the time on on the
  • 00:17:05
    Painter Internets, the Facebook
  • 00:17:07
    saying, oh my god, I reach 41,
  • 00:17:08
    000 people. It's like, okay.
  • 00:17:10
    What did it cost you and how
  • 00:17:11
    many completed jobs came out of
  • 00:17:12
    it? I don't even care about
  • 00:17:14
    estimates a lot of the times.
  • 00:17:15
    Estimates and leads leads are
  • 00:17:16
    one thing. Estimates are the
  • 00:17:18
    next thing and completed,
  • 00:17:19
    accepted estimates are the
  • 00:17:20
    third thing I'm interested in
  • 00:17:23
    those three numbers and seeing
  • 00:17:23
    how they rack. What's the
  • 00:17:25
    conversion rate from somebody
  • 00:17:26
    who is just a lead, who goes to
  • 00:17:28
    the website versus requesting
  • 00:17:30
    an estimate, versus accepting
  • 00:17:31
    an estimate, and then getting
  • 00:17:33
    it produced. Those are the more
  • 00:17:34
    interesting numbers to me. So,
  • 00:17:35
    when somebody says I reach 40,
  • 00:17:37
    000 people for $20 on Facebook,
  • 00:17:39
    I'll say, you may just wasted
  • 00:17:40
    that $20 and anybody ask for an
  • 00:17:42
    estimate? And out of the people
  • 00:17:43
    asked for estimates, did
  • 00:17:44
    anybody actually ask you to
  • 00:17:45
    paint their house? So, what I'm
  • 00:17:47
    interested in is cost per lead,
  • 00:17:49
    cost per completed project. So,
  • 00:17:50
    if you ever want to compare
  • 00:17:52
    numbers with me, if you have
  • 00:17:53
    questions about this stuff,
  • 00:17:54
    that's the number that I'm
  • 00:17:55
    going to start talking about
  • 00:17:56
    because all this other stuff,
  • 00:17:57
    18 to one ROI, I reached 40000
  • 00:18:00
    people. That could either be
  • 00:18:02
    insanely effective or a
  • 00:18:03
    complete waste of money. You
  • 00:18:05
    need to drill a little bit
  • 00:18:06
    deeper on that stuff. What data
  • 00:18:07
    to track, I just showed you
  • 00:18:09
    this estimate or this this
  • 00:18:11
    spreadsheet form on here in
  • 00:18:12
    real time, you saw my name come
  • 00:18:14
    up on there. I love this in
  • 00:18:17
    aggregate like this. So,
  • 00:18:18
    obviously, we're going to date
  • 00:18:20
    and the time. Uh we're going
  • 00:18:22
    name. We're going Email. We're
  • 00:18:23
    going phone number. We're going
  • 00:18:24
    address. City, state, zip, that
  • 00:18:26
    other stuff. Um we're going
  • 00:18:30
    where they heard about me? The
  • 00:18:31
    yellow column you can see right
  • 00:18:32
    there. And then the pink
  • 00:18:33
    column. They actually have to
  • 00:18:34
    describe their project because
  • 00:18:35
    we really don't pre qualify in
  • 00:18:38
    the way that most people do. Um
  • 00:18:39
    we love helping people with
  • 00:18:41
    estimates. We're not trying to
  • 00:18:42
    talk people out of estimates or
  • 00:18:43
    seeing not seeing if they're
  • 00:18:44
    good fit. But also if somebody
  • 00:18:45
    says build me a deck, we don't
  • 00:18:46
    build you a deck. We will stay
  • 00:18:48
    in a deck but we won't build
  • 00:18:49
    it. And I want to see a little
  • 00:18:50
    bit of that information right
  • 00:18:51
    away so we don't waste people's
  • 00:18:53
    time. So having that track.
  • 00:18:54
    Now, if you are a single
  • 00:18:56
    company and you only do 50 jobs
  • 00:18:58
    a year and you're only doing a
  • 00:19:00
    hundred estimates a year. This
  • 00:19:01
    is easy. You can almost track
  • 00:19:03
    that on a legal pad. The
  • 00:19:04
    problem is you want to be able
  • 00:19:04
    to search it and query it. Uh
  • 00:19:06
    if you start looking for the
  • 00:19:07
    the keyword deck or exterior in
  • 00:19:09
    there, you might see that
  • 00:19:11
    there's an inordinate amount of
  • 00:19:12
    people that are looking for
  • 00:19:12
    that or not enough, you know?
  • 00:19:14
    Job costing, job costing rears
  • 00:19:17
    its head again. So, the first
  • 00:19:18
    big mastering the basics show
  • 00:19:21
    of this year was job costing
  • 00:19:23
    for a reason. You guys are
  • 00:19:24
    seeing how all this ties
  • 00:19:27
    together. Tracking simple
  • 00:19:28
    amounts of data and then this
  • 00:19:30
    data sort of touches each other
  • 00:19:32
    and and amplifies and
  • 00:19:34
    weaponizes the other data in
  • 00:19:35
    your company and you can really
  • 00:19:37
    get some cool things out of it.
  • 00:19:38
    So, what you're seeing here is
  • 00:19:39
    one quarter worth of job
  • 00:19:41
    costing. There's about, well,
  • 00:19:42
    there's a hundred and hundred
  • 00:19:43
    and forty-four jobs that we did
  • 00:19:45
    in that quarter there. 121 of
  • 00:19:47
    em. You can see my conditional
  • 00:19:49
    format in the green and red. Uh
  • 00:19:50
    we track revenue per hour gross
  • 00:19:52
    profit, material, and labor.
  • 00:19:53
    When something is green,
  • 00:19:54
    obviously, it's good when
  • 00:19:54
    something is it does not meet
  • 00:19:56
    our standards and what we can
  • 00:19:57
    look at this, there's 144 lines
  • 00:19:59
    of data for this one quarter,
  • 00:20:01
    121 jobs met our standards. So,
  • 00:20:03
    that's about 84% of all
  • 00:20:05
    projects we did there met our
  • 00:20:06
    gross profit standards, 23
  • 00:20:08
    projects, or 16% did not. Now,
  • 00:20:10
    I removed some data from the
  • 00:20:12
    personnel in the company
  • 00:20:13
    because it's based on, this is
  • 00:20:14
    actually what I, what I do to
  • 00:20:16
    calculate bonuses and stuff
  • 00:20:17
    too, but you can actually track
  • 00:20:19
    it then by, okay, we got two
  • 00:20:20
    project managers, which one
  • 00:20:22
    produced more, were there
  • 00:20:23
    projects more profitable, did
  • 00:20:24
    materials over. You can start
  • 00:20:25
    parsing out this data. But you
  • 00:20:28
    combine this data with your
  • 00:20:29
    leads. So, out of those 144
  • 00:20:31
    projects, we can go back to
  • 00:20:33
    this spreadsheet and we can
  • 00:20:35
    say, okay, out of all these
  • 00:20:36
    leads that came through, how
  • 00:20:37
    many turned into estimates
  • 00:20:38
    which we have Andy's sales
  • 00:20:40
    tracker and my sales tracker
  • 00:20:41
    and then, we have this job
  • 00:20:42
    costing. So, you can see the
  • 00:20:44
    levels of data that we're
  • 00:20:45
    looking for. How many people
  • 00:20:46
    are leads that ask for an
  • 00:20:47
    estimate? How many people get
  • 00:20:48
    an estimate? How many people
  • 00:20:50
    accept it? And we have those
  • 00:20:51
    three spreadsheets together
  • 00:20:52
    that we can query. Mark cost
  • 00:20:54
    and distribution. So, this is
  • 00:20:56
    actually for week one, two, and
  • 00:20:58
    three of this year. These are
  • 00:21:00
    all zip codes. Uh these are how
  • 00:21:01
    many households. These are
  • 00:21:03
    postal mailing routes, cost per
  • 00:21:05
    household, and then cost per
  • 00:21:07
    printing and I have all these
  • 00:21:08
    aggregated. So, you can see
  • 00:21:09
    when we look at the spreadsheet
  • 00:21:12
    here, we we devise we divide
  • 00:21:15
    this number by weeks and you
  • 00:21:18
    can see, you can go to week one
  • 00:21:20
    in January. Let's say we got
  • 00:21:22
    4-seven leads that week and
  • 00:21:23
    then you can go to this one and
  • 00:21:24
    say, okay, week one in January,
  • 00:21:25
    we spent fortysix hundred
  • 00:21:26
    dollars in marketing. Give or
  • 00:21:29
    take. Uh and then we can start
  • 00:21:31
    doing our lead calculation. You
  • 00:21:32
    know what I mean? How many
  • 00:21:33
    households do we touch? What
  • 00:21:35
    are the cost per lead? Uh the
  • 00:21:36
    interesting thing is I should
  • 00:21:38
    tell you guys at this point is
  • 00:21:39
    these numbers are high, right?
  • 00:21:40
    This this seems like an insane
  • 00:21:42
    amount of money. What you need
  • 00:21:43
    to know about our company is
  • 00:21:44
    that there's a demand curve in
  • 00:21:46
    the painting industry. The peak
  • 00:21:47
    where my tips and my fingers
  • 00:21:50
    are is summer. And the the my
  • 00:21:51
    wrist down here the troughs are
  • 00:21:54
    in winter. What I want to do is
  • 00:21:55
    this. I don't want too much
  • 00:21:57
    demand in summer and not enough
  • 00:21:59
    in winter. We take literally
  • 00:22:01
    almost our entire marketing
  • 00:22:02
    budget and expand it. But in
  • 00:22:04
    the six months of winter in
  • 00:22:05
    Minnesota to take this demand
  • 00:22:06
    curve and level it out. Like
  • 00:22:08
    that. Um if we do nothing, if
  • 00:22:10
    we do not market at all, we
  • 00:22:12
    will run out of work in winter.
  • 00:22:13
    Half of our leads come from
  • 00:22:15
    word-of-mouth referral and past
  • 00:22:16
    clients. That's not enough to
  • 00:22:17
    keep 35 people in this company
  • 00:22:19
    busy. So, that's why we need to
  • 00:22:22
    pay for leads. Again, effort
  • 00:22:25
    and money. We're using our
  • 00:22:25
    money to even out that demand
  • 00:22:28
    curve. Now, what we do also, I
  • 00:22:31
    actually just made a huge
  • 00:22:32
    change to our drywall marketing
  • 00:22:34
    because we're being overwhelmed
  • 00:22:34
    by drywall leads and so much so
  • 00:22:37
    that it's monopolizing our
  • 00:22:38
    estimators
  • 00:22:44
    estimating calendars. So, we
  • 00:22:44
    actually have to take our our
  • 00:22:45
    drywall leads down. So, I
  • 00:22:46
    changed the marketing. I also
  • 00:22:47
    have all the spending but we
  • 00:22:48
    knew this because this is an
  • 00:22:49
    excerpt from one of my weekly
  • 00:22:52
    leadership team meetings.
  • 00:22:53
    You're actually seeing
  • 00:22:54
    real-time data where I look at
  • 00:22:55
    my leadership team and I lead
  • 00:22:57
    this meeting and all these
  • 00:22:59
    numbers have to be presented to
  • 00:23:01
    the company for the good of
  • 00:23:01
    everybody. So, we can see, you
  • 00:23:03
    know, we it's a pulse of the
  • 00:23:05
    company weekly. We start off
  • 00:23:06
    with our job costing. We review
  • 00:23:07
    every job. We go over our
  • 00:23:08
    weekly goal
  • 00:23:13
    which is a job costing of all
  • 00:23:14
    the projects we did in
  • 00:23:14
    aggregate. We go over our
  • 00:23:15
    schedule, weekly production
  • 00:23:16
    plan. So, we're looking at our
  • 00:23:16
    our our production team and
  • 00:23:17
    saying, what are you guys
  • 00:23:19
    planning on doing next week?
  • 00:23:21
    What what level of revenue is
  • 00:23:22
    it? So, we can kind of get a
  • 00:23:23
    feel of what kind of projects
  • 00:23:24
    are coming. Then, we go through
  • 00:23:26
    lead times. We actually get a
  • 00:23:27
    lead time update based on all
  • 00:23:27
    the schedule on every type of
  • 00:23:28
    job, drywall, walls, cabinets,
  • 00:23:31
    trim, exteriors, decks,
  • 00:23:32
    carpentry, things like that.
  • 00:23:33
    When will we experience a work
  • 00:23:35
    interruption? How much is sold,
  • 00:23:37
    interior versus exterior? sold
  • 00:23:39
    last week. Uh this is kind of a
  • 00:23:41
    cool number. Um Andy and I had
  • 00:23:43
    a bang up week last week. We
  • 00:23:44
    sold almost $160, 000 for the
  • 00:23:46
    paintwork. Um we have a a huge
  • 00:23:49
    estimate lead time but we
  • 00:23:50
    actually just have Ian, our new
  • 00:23:53
    estimator starting last week.
  • 00:23:54
    So, that'll help with that. But
  • 00:23:55
    here's the part in red where I
  • 00:23:57
    want to show you guys which is
  • 00:23:58
    I get the pulse. I see every
  • 00:24:01
    lead that comes through the
  • 00:24:01
    company and our coordinator
  • 00:24:03
    reports in it. We had 70 leads
  • 00:24:05
    that we come through which is I
  • 00:24:06
    think an all-time high for us
  • 00:24:07
    which is pretty amazing. Um
  • 00:24:08
    people get back to work in the
  • 00:24:10
    third, fourth, fourth week of
  • 00:24:12
    January and they start asking
  • 00:24:13
    for painting and you can see we
  • 00:24:15
    track em. Of those, we have 46
  • 00:24:17
    estimates scheduled from that.
  • 00:24:19
    Five no response or five did
  • 00:24:20
    not need an estimate because
  • 00:24:22
    again, a lot of painters get a
  • 00:24:24
    hold of me through that instead
  • 00:24:25
    of Emailing me. So, there's
  • 00:24:26
    some in there and then no
  • 00:24:28
    response. So, no response is
  • 00:24:28
    good and bad. Uh
  • 00:24:33
    It can be deceivingly bad which
  • 00:24:34
    is, oh my god, nineteen of
  • 00:24:35
    those people ghosted us. At the
  • 00:24:36
    time of this reporting, a lot
  • 00:24:38
    of the times, people have not
  • 00:24:39
    formally gotten their estimate
  • 00:24:41
    on the calendar yet. So, that's
  • 00:24:42
    kind of a no-response sort of
  • 00:24:43
    thing. So, yes and then you can
  • 00:24:45
    see, we work 900 labor hours
  • 00:24:46
    last week. We did some reviews.
  • 00:24:48
    We did some net promoter score
  • 00:24:49
    and things like that but
  • 00:24:50
    getting that weekly pulse is
  • 00:24:52
    very important to a company
  • 00:24:53
    like this. So, we track sales
  • 00:24:54
    too. So, this is the 2021 sales
  • 00:24:57
    tracker for me and Andy. You
  • 00:24:59
    can see our numbers posted here
  • 00:25:00
    We track weekly and then again,
  • 00:25:03
    you can see our conditional
  • 00:25:04
    formatting. Did we meet our
  • 00:25:05
    goal? Did we not meet our goal?
  • 00:25:07
    What is our, what is our
  • 00:25:08
    monetary goal, All that other
  • 00:25:09
    stuff. So, again, combining
  • 00:25:11
    these things and seeing trends
  • 00:25:13
    is a very big thing. Now, sniff
  • 00:25:14
    test on 2021. I'm going through
  • 00:25:17
    doing a complete urine review
  • 00:25:19
    on my company right now and I I
  • 00:25:22
    condense it down 'cuz we have a
  • 00:25:23
    whole bunch of crazy data
  • 00:25:24
    coming through with that and I
  • 00:25:25
    use it to make decisions based
  • 00:25:27
    on bit or for marketing next
  • 00:25:28
    year but here's basically what
  • 00:25:29
    I want to walk you through is
  • 00:25:31
    real-time data I can show you
  • 00:25:32
    on how I market, what's
  • 00:25:34
    effective, what's good, what's
  • 00:25:35
    not good. Give or take. So,
  • 00:25:37
    what you can see is on top of
  • 00:25:39
    this thing, then, we'll get to
  • 00:25:41
    some questions here shortly. I
  • 00:25:42
    thank you guys for doing this
  • 00:25:43
    here. Oh, estimator Ian's
  • 00:25:46
    watching as well too. Alright.
  • 00:25:50
    Okay, guys. I see all the
  • 00:25:51
    questions coming through. Hold
  • 00:25:52
    tight. I'm going to give you
  • 00:25:53
    this data. This will probably
  • 00:25:54
    generate some more questions
  • 00:25:55
    and then we'll get after it
  • 00:25:56
    here. So, okay. On the top, the
  • 00:25:58
    gray and white and black thing
  • 00:26:00
    you're seeing. Um I have two
  • 00:26:03
    black boxes around that stuff.
  • 00:26:05
    Um basically, what you see the
  • 00:26:07
    top one, that one that says 48.
  • 00:26:09
    six percent. Those are all
  • 00:26:10
    basically leads that I did not
  • 00:26:12
    pay for that just generate
  • 00:26:13
    themselves. So, we have
  • 00:26:14
    word-of-mouth, previous client,
  • 00:26:15
    Facebook, Instagram, things
  • 00:26:17
    like that. We don't really do a
  • 00:26:18
    lot of paid marketing through
  • 00:26:20
    Facebook and Instagram. Every
  • 00:26:22
    time I do, I can make lead show
  • 00:26:23
    up. They're not very serious
  • 00:26:24
    leads. So, I just don't do
  • 00:26:25
    that. I go to other sources.
  • 00:26:26
    51. 4% of all my leads were
  • 00:26:29
    paid for and you can see,
  • 00:26:30
    newspaper, web search, fans,
  • 00:26:31
    yard signs, and flyers. give or
  • 00:26:33
    take. So, what's really
  • 00:26:36
    important here is that, yes,
  • 00:26:39
    newspaper's confusing, right? I
  • 00:26:42
    pay maybe 300 bucks a month to
  • 00:26:45
    have an ad in our local
  • 00:26:46
    newspaper. Um the very high age
  • 00:26:49
    demographic that calls on me is
  • 00:26:50
    still a great way to get a hold
  • 00:26:52
    of them. Also, I think of it as
  • 00:26:54
    almost this weird little
  • 00:26:55
    history project where for time
  • 00:26:57
    and eternal, there will be some
  • 00:26:58
    record of my company with an ad
  • 00:27:00
    in that newspaper. They archive
  • 00:27:02
    all the stuff. So, I think it's
  • 00:27:03
    actually kind of cool. It
  • 00:27:04
    maintains a local present. It
  • 00:27:05
    does have some gravitas in my
  • 00:27:07
    local area here. It's not the
  • 00:27:08
    big Minneapolis Saint Paul
  • 00:27:09
    thing. It's more of a very
  • 00:27:11
    hyper-local sort of my hometown
  • 00:27:12
    sort of thing and yeah, it's
  • 00:27:13
    more of just supporting that
  • 00:27:15
    and and that sort of thing. So,
  • 00:27:16
    it's been about 3, 600 bucks
  • 00:27:17
    last year on that We got 57
  • 00:27:19
    leads from newspaper. Uh we got
  • 00:27:22
    a hundred and sixteen leads
  • 00:27:23
    from Websearch. We actually
  • 00:27:24
    don't pay that much money on
  • 00:27:25
    Google AdWords. Again, I've
  • 00:27:26
    done a whole bunch of
  • 00:27:27
    experiments and when a marketer
  • 00:27:28
    says to you, yes, Nick, you
  • 00:27:30
    gotta pay an insane amount of
  • 00:27:31
    money and it'll take three
  • 00:27:32
    years to get any result. That's
  • 00:27:33
    not that interesting to me
  • 00:27:34
    because there's other things
  • 00:27:35
    that I can do right now. You
  • 00:27:36
    need to show me an an immediate
  • 00:27:37
    return on my investment. Uh
  • 00:27:40
    Vans, we actually got 62 people
  • 00:27:41
    that saw our vans and called
  • 00:27:42
    us. We have 49 people that saw
  • 00:27:44
    our yard signs. Uh and again,
  • 00:27:46
    the biggest one
  • 00:27:49
    Um 33% of
  • 00:27:50
    all of our leads came
  • 00:27:51
    from flyers. Now, you can see
  • 00:27:55
    the prices on those things. Uh
  • 00:27:56
    we hit about maybe a 000 homes
  • 00:27:58
    last year. Uh the percentage of
  • 00:28:00
    cost, it's 86% of my marketing
  • 00:28:02
    cost for 50% of the leads but
  • 00:28:04
    it works very well. It costs
  • 00:28:05
    about 57 cents per house. Our
  • 00:28:07
    cost per lead is high which
  • 00:28:10
    again, my goal is come to bring
  • 00:28:11
    that down. It's about a hundred
  • 00:28:12
    and sixty-eight per lead on
  • 00:28:14
    that stuff. Uh yeah, we spend
  • 00:28:16
    about $85, 000 on that. Total
  • 00:28:18
    marketing spend, just under a
  • 00:28:19
    hundred 000 last year. We got
  • 00:28:22
    one thousand five hundred and
  • 00:28:22
    forty-six through the business
  • 00:28:26
    last year, give or take. Now,
  • 00:28:27
    you can start looking at some
  • 00:28:28
    pretty cool data down below
  • 00:28:29
    here. Uh we did about two 1
  • 00:28:31
    million in revenue with another
  • 00:28:34
    100 grand in in accounts
  • 00:28:36
    receivable produce. So, really
  • 00:28:37
    we did about two point two
  • 00:28:38
    million last year. We did 462
  • 00:28:40
    projects. You can see how it
  • 00:28:42
    breaks down over a quarter. Our
  • 00:28:43
    average job size is about $4,
  • 00:28:45
    500 give or take but that helps
  • 00:28:46
    us understand like when you
  • 00:28:47
    combine all this data, what is
  • 00:28:51
    the cost per lead? What is the
  • 00:28:52
    cost per estimate and is the
  • 00:28:53
    cost per completed job. So,
  • 00:28:55
    perspective and advice and then
  • 00:28:57
    we're going to get to a whole
  • 00:28:57
    bunch of questions here. So,
  • 00:28:59
    number one, fine, right? You've
  • 00:29:01
    seen some data from my company.
  • 00:29:02
    Nick does it this way. So, I
  • 00:29:04
    must do it that way. Don't do
  • 00:29:05
    that. Do some experiments but
  • 00:29:06
    you gotta be good at it. The
  • 00:29:08
    baseline is job costing. The
  • 00:29:10
    baseline is tracking the cost,
  • 00:29:12
    the source, and the outcome.
  • 00:29:14
    You can see my experiments like
  • 00:29:15
    this. Uh a brief rundown of my
  • 00:29:17
    experiments are social media.
  • 00:29:19
    You can get a lot of leads.
  • 00:29:21
    They're not that serious.
  • 00:29:21
    Google AdWords At one point, I
  • 00:29:23
    was paying $1 000 for every job
  • 00:29:26
    completed that came through
  • 00:29:27
    Google AdWords and it was not
  • 00:29:29
    ramping up. It was not going
  • 00:29:30
    down. So, I I stopped that.
  • 00:29:32
    Now, I do do minimum Google
  • 00:29:33
    AdWords. I talk to my web guy
  • 00:29:35
    and I say, listen, 500 bucks a
  • 00:29:37
    month, give or take, just do
  • 00:29:39
    whatever you can with that or
  • 00:29:39
    do something effective with it.
  • 00:29:40
    You gotta do something in there
  • 00:29:42
    but I'm just not going all in
  • 00:29:43
    on Google AdWords. I want that
  • 00:29:45
    stuff to work. If I'm being
  • 00:29:46
    honest with you guys, I do not
  • 00:29:48
    want flyers to work. It is
  • 00:29:50
    gross. We're printing paper.
  • 00:29:51
    It's basically sending mail to
  • 00:29:53
    people. The problem is you
  • 00:29:55
    could consider a junk mail.
  • 00:29:57
    Absolutely. The problem is,
  • 00:29:59
    it's effective. It works
  • 00:30:01
    really, really well. We get
  • 00:30:02
    tons of compliments on our
  • 00:30:04
    actual flyers like this. This
  • 00:30:06
    is an actual flyer. I also send
  • 00:30:08
    send one to myself to see the
  • 00:30:09
    distribution but basically,
  • 00:30:10
    it's just appealing to a
  • 00:30:12
    certain demographic. We know
  • 00:30:13
    how to do that and honestly, it
  • 00:30:15
    works. I do not want it to
  • 00:30:16
    work. I want Instagram or
  • 00:30:18
    TikTok or Facebook or Google
  • 00:30:19
    AdWords to work. The problem
  • 00:30:20
    is, it does right now. And so
  • 00:30:24
    we're doing something else. Now
  • 00:30:25
    what you also need to know
  • 00:30:25
    about my experiments is we're
  • 00:30:27
    going to be shifting using more
  • 00:30:29
    effort instead of money. Money
  • 00:30:31
    allowed using money to solve
  • 00:30:33
    the marketing thing over the
  • 00:30:34
    last five years has given me
  • 00:30:36
    the opportunity to put my
  • 00:30:37
    effort into something else in
  • 00:30:39
    the business to solve problems.
  • 00:30:41
    Now that my bandwidth is
  • 00:30:42
    getting cleared up, we have a
  • 00:30:43
    world-class estimating team,
  • 00:30:44
    world-class production team,
  • 00:30:45
    world-class crafts people out
  • 00:30:47
    there. Now I have time to
  • 00:30:49
    circle back and say, okay, now
  • 00:30:50
    we can start getting into more
  • 00:30:53
    relationships with builders and
  • 00:30:54
    designers and realtors we like.
  • 00:30:55
    We can do some more email
  • 00:30:56
    marketing which again is
  • 00:30:57
    probably a little more effort
  • 00:30:58
    than money. There's a little
  • 00:31:00
    bit of money involved. Um and
  • 00:31:01
    there's just a whole bunch of
  • 00:31:02
    that relationship building.
  • 00:31:03
    working on past clients, Things
  • 00:31:04
    like that. Uh where we can
  • 00:31:06
    devote our sales team effort
  • 00:31:07
    instead of our money to do that
  • 00:31:09
    stuff. So I want to bring our
  • 00:31:10
    our cost of leads down at least
  • 00:31:13
    25% this year. That's a
  • 00:31:14
    personal goal of mine. And
  • 00:31:15
    again labor versus money. Now
  • 00:31:17
    don't forget about the
  • 00:31:19
    intangibles though. Like people
  • 00:31:19
    always say I write Now, this is
  • 00:31:21
    a tough time for painters out
  • 00:31:23
    there. It's the middle of
  • 00:31:24
    winter in most of the upper
  • 00:31:25
    northwest or in upper northern
  • 00:31:27
    part of the United States. I
  • 00:31:28
    see every other question on the
  • 00:31:31
    painting forms is how do you
  • 00:31:31
    get more work? How do you get
  • 00:31:32
    more work? Here's the thing
  • 00:31:34
    folks. I'll tell you exactly
  • 00:31:35
    what I did. I actually went out
  • 00:31:38
    on my own in 2007 and competed
  • 00:31:40
    against my own family business
  • 00:31:41
    in our town. My family business
  • 00:31:42
    had been around for 20, 30
  • 00:31:44
    years at that point. No name. I
  • 00:31:46
    put my shingle out, competed
  • 00:31:47
    against it. I relied on all of
  • 00:31:49
    the relationships I've my
  • 00:31:50
    entire life. I'm super involved
  • 00:31:52
    in community groups, veterans
  • 00:31:54
    groups, economic development
  • 00:31:56
    authority, tons of other stuff
  • 00:31:58
    like that, history groups, all
  • 00:31:59
    that other sort of thing. I'm
  • 00:32:00
    around town. I I have a a
  • 00:32:03
    stable base of relationships in
  • 00:32:06
    this town and that is
  • 00:32:08
    legitimately what helped out.
  • 00:32:09
    So, when people say, how do
  • 00:32:10
    you, how do you get leads early
  • 00:32:12
    on and they immediately go to
  • 00:32:14
    Angie's List, HomeAdvisor,
  • 00:32:14
    fine. That works too. But
  • 00:32:16
    honestly, you having a presence
  • 00:32:18
    in your community and being
  • 00:32:18
    known as a trusted that is key
  • 00:32:21
    to building that 50% of all the
  • 00:32:23
    G. I mean, we did, you know,
  • 00:32:25
    four hundred and sixty-two,
  • 00:32:26
    five hundred jobs last year.
  • 00:32:27
    250 of those came with no
  • 00:32:29
    money. People that know and
  • 00:32:31
    trust us and have us do
  • 00:32:33
    painting work for them. That is
  • 00:32:34
    a huge thing. in order to have
  • 00:32:35
    that. In order to do 250 jobs
  • 00:32:38
    that you don't pay for based on
  • 00:32:40
    a base of trust, that takes
  • 00:32:43
    tons of intentional effort in
  • 00:32:44
    order to do that. Don't forget
  • 00:32:46
    about relationships. Don't
  • 00:32:47
    forget about community
  • 00:32:48
    involvement. Don't forget about
  • 00:32:49
    reputation. Every job is is a
  • 00:32:52
    base is basically an
  • 00:32:53
    advertisement for your next
  • 00:32:54
    one. You have to be easy to
  • 00:32:56
    find people legitimately. One
  • 00:32:59
    of the best ways of getting
  • 00:33:01
    work in the middle of winter
  • 00:33:02
    when you're not, when the leads
  • 00:33:03
    aren't coming in strong, you go
  • 00:33:05
    door to door and you drop off
  • 00:33:07
    flyers. Some municipalities you
  • 00:33:08
    got to actually register as a
  • 00:33:10
    solicitor. You can't just do
  • 00:33:11
    that. It's illegal. You pay a
  • 00:33:12
    $10-dollar fee and you go do
  • 00:33:13
    it. Posting, three to six times
  • 00:33:16
    a day on social media is a
  • 00:33:17
    wonderful thing. Going on those
  • 00:33:18
    community boards. Uh new prank
  • 00:33:20
    happenings. Every town has a
  • 00:33:22
    happenings sort of Facebook
  • 00:33:23
    group and people are looking
  • 00:33:24
    for painters. You can even post
  • 00:33:25
    services there. Say, hey, I got
  • 00:33:27
    a couple weeks free here, you
  • 00:33:28
    know? I'm going to do some
  • 00:33:29
    painting for somebody, let me
  • 00:33:30
    know. You gotta be easy to find
  • 00:33:32
    people. Google Maps, website,
  • 00:33:35
    Facebook, Instagram, maybe
  • 00:33:37
    TikTok yet. I would, I would, I
  • 00:33:39
    would not use that as a main
  • 00:33:40
    form of advertising for your
  • 00:33:41
    business. You gotta be easy to
  • 00:33:42
    find though. You can use tons
  • 00:33:44
    of effort instead of money
  • 00:33:45
    early on to get these leads.
  • 00:33:47
    For god's sakes, if you are one
  • 00:33:49
    job away from going bankrupt,
  • 00:33:50
    you're not feeding your family,
  • 00:33:52
    call every single person you
  • 00:33:53
    know and ask them to work for
  • 00:33:54
    them. How bad do you want it?
  • 00:33:56
    Do you have the grit? Give or
  • 00:33:57
    take. Alright, let's get back
  • 00:34:01
    to the main page here. Alright,
  • 00:34:03
    I'm going to start going
  • 00:34:05
    through some some questions.
  • 00:34:07
    Oh, man. Thank you guys for
  • 00:34:08
    watching. Lots of people here.
  • 00:34:09
    So, thank you for taking family
  • 00:34:11
    time spend it with me, Dustin
  • 00:34:13
    Hutchinson. How's it going?
  • 00:34:15
    Jimmy Coleman, how's it going?
  • 00:34:17
    Uh Wilson Barrera.
  • 00:34:23
    Morning. Yes. Um Jose Andraje,
  • 00:34:25
    good morning my friend in
  • 00:34:26
    Brazil. Alright. Anthony Cade.
  • 00:34:29
    Facebook is number one for him.
  • 00:34:31
    Yes. Anthony does a very good
  • 00:34:32
    job marketing on social media.
  • 00:34:35
    Uh and if you want more data on
  • 00:34:36
    that, I I personally do not.
  • 00:34:38
    I've I've not got the return.
  • 00:34:40
    People think that I must have
  • 00:34:42
    this easy way of getting all
  • 00:34:42
    the jobs we want because I'm a
  • 00:34:44
    log month on social media.
  • 00:34:45
    Don't ever forget that this is
  • 00:34:46
    for you guys, painting
  • 00:34:47
    contractors. This is not, this
  • 00:34:48
    is not typically, it's it, I
  • 00:34:50
    mean, listen, I would love this
  • 00:34:51
    a place where I interact with
  • 00:34:53
    all my clients. The problem is,
  • 00:34:54
    this is super nerdy stuff for
  • 00:34:56
    business owners and master
  • 00:34:57
    craftspeople. So, alright.
  • 00:34:59
    Anthony Cade, believe it or
  • 00:35:01
    not, we spend zero on
  • 00:35:02
    advertising, advertising for us
  • 00:35:03
    is staying top of mind. We show
  • 00:35:04
    our work and that's it. No
  • 00:35:06
    asking for work. It's a long
  • 00:35:07
    haul game but it works for us.
  • 00:35:08
    Of course, there are
  • 00:35:09
    four-person companies. So, I'm
  • 00:35:10
    sure this may flip as I
  • 00:35:11
    continue to grow. Interesting
  • 00:35:13
    data point. I'm glad you bring
  • 00:35:14
    that up, Anthony, was I was
  • 00:35:15
    able to support about four or
  • 00:35:17
    five painters before I needed
  • 00:35:19
    to spend money to get more
  • 00:35:22
    leads, give or take. We ran
  • 00:35:24
    about a half-million-dollar
  • 00:35:25
    company before I actually
  • 00:35:26
    needed to say, okay, we're
  • 00:35:27
    getting a little light in
  • 00:35:28
    winter. Let's get out there and
  • 00:35:29
    do some stuff here. Alright,
  • 00:35:31
    Ian Serp, my new estimator.
  • 00:35:33
    Love that guy. Thanks a lot,
  • 00:35:35
    man. We'll see you Monday.
  • 00:35:36
    We're going to have a big week
  • 00:35:37
    here. So, Chad Devereaux had a
  • 00:35:39
    record week also. It's almost
  • 00:35:41
    like the switch. Uh the good
  • 00:35:43
    part about having tons of data
  • 00:35:43
    is that I briefed my entire
  • 00:35:46
    team and typically the third
  • 00:35:47
    week of January, people have to
  • 00:35:49
    return to normal life and the
  • 00:35:50
    work is uncorked. You'll see
  • 00:35:53
    monstrous amount of leads come
  • 00:35:54
    through. So, Chad, we're in the
  • 00:35:55
    same kind of geographical area.
  • 00:35:56
    Uh every year, it it is that
  • 00:35:58
    way. Every year it is that way.
  • 00:36:00
    Uh no. Alright. Brian Kemnitz,
  • 00:36:03
    do you track average hours work
  • 00:36:05
    per painter? Yes, 900 hours
  • 00:36:06
    last week. 35 painters and only
  • 00:36:09
    25 hours a week. That's a lot
  • 00:36:10
    of hours left on the table.
  • 00:36:11
    Yes, Brian but you have to
  • 00:36:12
    understand. Not everybody is a
  • 00:36:14
    in our organization as a
  • 00:36:16
    painter. There's a leadership
  • 00:36:17
    team in that as well. Um I can
  • 00:36:19
    actually show you Let's see if
  • 00:36:23
    I can bring up
  • 00:36:28
    Yes. So, yeah. A lot of the
  • 00:36:30
    times when you guys are doing
  • 00:36:31
    sniff tests on my numbers, you
  • 00:36:33
    also have to say, listen, some
  • 00:36:34
    of the numbers are not as
  • 00:36:35
    simple as that sort of thing.
  • 00:36:37
    So, what I will do is bring up,
  • 00:36:39
    let me do a quick screen share
  • 00:36:41
    for you guys here. Give me just
  • 00:36:44
    a second. I'm looking for my
  • 00:36:46
    dashboard. Okay, I'm going to
  • 00:36:49
    get in here and I'll show you
  • 00:36:50
    guys our weekly goal tracker
  • 00:36:50
    because that's where we
  • 00:36:51
    actually look at some of the
  • 00:36:53
    stuff. So, I am going to screen
  • 00:36:55
    share, give me thirty seconds
  • 00:36:58
    and I will bring up that Chrome
  • 00:37:00
    tab, dashboard, share. Okay.
  • 00:37:05
    Let me make sure I have it up
  • 00:37:08
    for you guys.
  • 00:37:12
    Alright. So, we track actual
  • 00:37:16
    revenue per hour. Uh all all
  • 00:37:19
    sorts of crazy stuff because
  • 00:37:22
    one of the things that my
  • 00:37:22
    people have to do as well is
  • 00:37:26
    there's a whole bunch of and
  • 00:37:26
    sorry, this is a big
  • 00:37:28
    spreadsheet. It's still kind of
  • 00:37:28
    loading here. Alright, here we
  • 00:37:30
    go. Um one of the things that
  • 00:37:32
    we rate our painters on is
  • 00:37:34
    production. So, we have our
  • 00:37:35
    goal tracker by weeks down
  • 00:37:37
    here. Let's get into week five.
  • 00:37:41
    Let me make sure this is coming
  • 00:37:43
    through. Alright, coming
  • 00:37:45
    through. So, let's go back to
  • 00:37:47
    this. Let's go back to week
  • 00:37:50
    four. I think that's the last
  • 00:37:51
    completed week we did and you
  • 00:37:52
    can actually see here and we
  • 00:37:55
    produced about 47K last week
  • 00:37:58
    and right here, you can see the
  • 00:37:59
    name and everybody here. Uh
  • 00:38:01
    these are the actual hours
  • 00:38:03
    worked every week. So, yeah.
  • 00:38:07
    and we
  • 00:38:07
    do, that's a, that's a
  • 00:38:09
    weekly job costing right there.
  • 00:38:10
    So, Hope that answers your
  • 00:38:14
    question, Brian. Jesse Allen,
  • 00:38:15
    good morning, Nick. We have
  • 00:38:16
    always done some church work in
  • 00:38:18
    the winters to keep us busy.
  • 00:38:20
    Typically, at cost for certain
  • 00:38:20
    amount of work, they're happy
  • 00:38:21
    to get their parishes done and
  • 00:38:23
    discount generates tons of
  • 00:38:24
    leads. Yeah, agreed. Uh
  • 00:38:25
    interestingly enough, we
  • 00:38:26
    normally do that in in December
  • 00:38:28
    as well too. So, Leonardo
  • 00:38:31
    Silverio, TikTok for Branding.
  • 00:38:32
    Yes, but you also have to
  • 00:38:34
    consider Facebook, Instagram,
  • 00:38:36
    and TikTok have all like
  • 00:38:38
    there's generational creep,
  • 00:38:39
    right? Facebook initially was
  • 00:38:40
    pictures of food and cat
  • 00:38:43
    pictures and nobody understood
  • 00:38:44
    it. It was it was the young
  • 00:38:46
    folks. And then people little
  • 00:38:48
    older and now all grandparents
  • 00:38:49
    use Facebook. Instagram was
  • 00:38:51
    then that next thing of food
  • 00:38:52
    and cat pictures. But now you
  • 00:38:54
    can see grandparents. Our
  • 00:38:56
    clients are on Instagram. A lot
  • 00:38:57
    of stuff. TikTok will go that
  • 00:38:59
    way too when the next social
  • 00:39:00
    media platforms. This is not
  • 00:39:02
    rocket scientist. It's just how
  • 00:39:04
    this stuff works. So. Alright.
  • 00:39:06
    What's your system for reaching
  • 00:39:07
    out to past clients? Rick
  • 00:39:08
    Sabatini. Uh so in the past we
  • 00:39:10
    used to send thank you cards to
  • 00:39:11
    Everybody. Uh we have been very
  • 00:39:13
    unintentional about this
  • 00:39:14
    because a lot of our work is
  • 00:39:15
    naturally generated from that.
  • 00:39:17
    Uh Rick, that is one thing that
  • 00:39:18
    we're actually going to get
  • 00:39:19
    super intentional in the next
  • 00:39:20
    12 months about is talking to
  • 00:39:22
    our previous people that
  • 00:39:23
    already know and love us. So,
  • 00:39:25
    alright. Nick, what what is
  • 00:39:26
    your marketing percentage of
  • 00:39:27
    revenue? So, mine was a little
  • 00:39:29
    high this year. Uh I think
  • 00:39:32
    we're at about five, five and a
  • 00:39:33
    half percent this year. My goal
  • 00:39:34
    is three and a half percent on
  • 00:39:35
    average and I would like to
  • 00:39:37
    creep that down a little lower
  • 00:39:38
    too. So, Austin Schumacher
  • 00:39:39
    being customer has been our
  • 00:39:42
    biggest ROI. Word of mouth
  • 00:39:44
    about the quality has given us
  • 00:39:45
    so much business. Agreed. And
  • 00:39:47
    the one thing you guys should
  • 00:39:47
    all know. one, one, two, three,
  • 00:39:50
    maybe even four-person company,
  • 00:39:51
    you really shouldn't even need
  • 00:39:53
    to do any paid marketing, give
  • 00:39:54
    or take. You, if you answer
  • 00:39:56
    your phone and you do decent
  • 00:39:57
    amount of work, you will be
  • 00:39:59
    flooded with stuff. So, if
  • 00:39:59
    you're a single person company,
  • 00:40:01
    you may have to get a little
  • 00:40:02
    active with your labor in
  • 00:40:03
    winter to fill a schedule but
  • 00:40:04
    you shouldn't be spending $1,
  • 00:40:06
    000 a week in advertising. That
  • 00:40:07
    should naturally be generated
  • 00:40:09
    for you just by doing the
  • 00:40:09
    things need to do to run a
  • 00:40:11
    business. So, Leonardo, what do
  • 00:40:14
    you use to automate all this
  • 00:40:15
    data? Uh so, it's not really
  • 00:40:17
    automated, I automate it all.
  • 00:40:18
    Zapier is about the only thing
  • 00:40:20
    I use and I go easy on that
  • 00:40:21
    stuff. There is one zappier
  • 00:40:22
    that takes a website lead and
  • 00:40:24
    puts it into my spreadsheet and
  • 00:40:26
    then, I deal with it after
  • 00:40:26
    that. I manipulate those
  • 00:40:28
    spreadsheets and search in
  • 00:40:29
    order to do what I need to. So,
  • 00:40:31
    alright, Harvey Folis, do you
  • 00:40:33
    include a certain amount for
  • 00:40:34
    trade shows? I do not do trade
  • 00:40:35
    shows. That is not my
  • 00:40:36
    personality. I am introverted
  • 00:40:38
    and fairly passive, aggressive,
  • 00:40:39
    standing there and greeting
  • 00:40:42
    people and trying to get their
  • 00:40:43
    information for an estimate is
  • 00:40:43
    not something that I'm
  • 00:40:44
    interested in, just my
  • 00:40:46
    personality. Rick Sabatini,
  • 00:40:47
    you're welcome. Alright, so
  • 00:40:48
    let's go to Instagram. Make
  • 00:40:50
    sure it didn't pass over
  • 00:40:51
    everything. Thank you everybody
  • 00:40:53
    for watching. This is super fun
  • 00:40:54
    to do. Dominic, love,
  • 00:40:57
    following, Dominic. Okay,
  • 00:40:58
    people. Awesome. Alright. Thank
  • 00:41:00
    you guys for doing this. Um I
  • 00:41:02
    do appreciate all this. Oh,
  • 00:41:04
    last question. Dan Zapanzek,
  • 00:41:05
    what's the hardest transition
  • 00:41:06
    point in getting leads
  • 00:41:07
    marketing growing from 1. 5 to
  • 00:41:09
    two? Um what's the hardest
  • 00:41:12
    transition point in getting
  • 00:41:14
    leads marketing?
  • 00:41:18
    so The biggest thing for me was
  • 00:41:25
    like a series of questions
  • 00:41:26
    which is can we even have
  • 00:41:27
    enough work to support this
  • 00:41:28
    company in winter? And yes, we
  • 00:41:29
    found out that we could and
  • 00:41:31
    now, it's this process of
  • 00:41:32
    refinement. So, Dan, I might
  • 00:41:33
    need a little more information
  • 00:41:35
    on your on that question, but
  • 00:41:38
    for me, by the time we hit 1.
  • 00:41:40
    5, we already kind of knew
  • 00:41:43
    that, you know, Facebook wasn't
  • 00:41:45
    going to drive 100% of our
  • 00:41:46
    work. We were already dabbling
  • 00:41:46
    in flyers. It showed a lot of
  • 00:41:48
    promise. So, now we're refining
  • 00:41:49
    that process over and over and
  • 00:41:51
    over again. So, this year,
  • 00:41:53
    we're really dialing into, hey,
  • 00:41:56
    if we spend this much and we
  • 00:41:57
    touch this many houses, this
  • 00:41:58
    many leads are going to come
  • 00:41:59
    in. So now, it's a lever where
  • 00:42:00
    we can
  • 00:42:05
    getting that baseline data is a
  • 00:42:06
    big thing and I'm always of the
  • 00:42:07
    of the so for
  • 00:42:11
    winter. I've always worried
  • 00:42:12
    about not having enough work.
  • 00:42:12
    One of my rocks, one of my
  • 00:42:13
    goals is to not let this
  • 00:42:14
    company run out of work. The
  • 00:42:16
    problem is for the last five or
  • 00:42:17
    six years, this company has
  • 00:42:19
    been different and bigger every
  • 00:42:20
    single year than their year
  • 00:42:21
    previous. So, it's always been
  • 00:42:22
    a new version of this company
  • 00:42:23
    that I've had to deal with. So,
  • 00:42:25
    I've always overspent in
  • 00:42:28
    marketing to ensure that we
  • 00:42:28
    have enough work coming through
  • 00:42:30
    all the time. So, and then
  • 00:42:32
    getting that data and then
  • 00:42:33
    refining it like that. So,
  • 00:42:35
    Brian, average hours per
  • 00:42:36
    painter is something I haven't
  • 00:42:37
    tracked until recently and
  • 00:42:38
    while did I find opportunity.
  • 00:42:41
    Uh we definitely leave hours on
  • 00:42:42
    the table. I'm trying to fix
  • 00:42:43
    this Asap. What things do you
  • 00:42:45
    have to drive this number up?
  • 00:42:47
    Uh well, Brian, you pay for
  • 00:42:48
    payroll. So, that, I mean, it
  • 00:42:49
    should be automatically
  • 00:42:51
    calculated for you anyway. Um
  • 00:42:53
    one of the things that we
  • 00:42:55
    incentivize to get that number
  • 00:42:55
    upright, we actually suffered
  • 00:42:56
    in the year of COVID 2020.
  • 00:42:58
    People kind of got used to work
  • 00:42:59
    in 32 hours a week and that's
  • 00:43:02
    not how this company runs it.
  • 00:43:03
    they want the benefits of this
  • 00:43:04
    company, if you sign up for a
  • 00:43:06
    full-time job, you need to work
  • 00:43:07
    full-time hours. I mean, that's
  • 00:43:07
    just they employ agreement that
  • 00:43:10
    we have. If you want health
  • 00:43:10
    insurance, you need to be a
  • 00:43:12
    full-time employee of this
  • 00:43:13
    company. So, the standards. I
  • 00:43:17
    think it was two shows ago. I
  • 00:43:19
    did Mastering the Basics on
  • 00:43:21
    standards and deliverables. In
  • 00:43:22
    order for you to keep your job
  • 00:43:23
    in my company, you must average
  • 00:43:25
    40 hours a week for 50 weeks a
  • 00:43:27
    year, 2000 hours. If you're
  • 00:43:29
    not, you're not eligible for a
  • 00:43:30
    raise. So, Brian, that's the
  • 00:43:31
    thing right there. If you are,
  • 00:43:33
    if you want to talk about a
  • 00:43:34
    raise, you need to put in a
  • 00:43:35
    minimum of 40 hours a week,
  • 00:43:36
    give or take 50 weeks a year.
  • 00:43:38
    That's just how it is. You can
  • 00:43:39
    put an overtime, you can take
  • 00:43:40
    time off, you can backpack
  • 00:43:41
    through Israel but you gotta be
  • 00:43:43
    here for a full-time job. So,
  • 00:43:45
    holding people accountable,
  • 00:43:46
    Brian, is the big thing. Uh,
  • 00:43:47
    Dustin Hutchinson Email
  • 00:43:49
    Marketing allows direct video
  • 00:43:51
    messaging. Thomas Powell, if I
  • 00:43:53
    reviewed your programming in
  • 00:43:54
    previous Emails multiple times,
  • 00:43:56
    what can I do to show
  • 00:43:57
    appreciation when asking for
  • 00:43:59
    more documents in the future?
  • 00:44:00
    Well, I appreciate that. So,
  • 00:44:01
    honestly, the one thing that
  • 00:44:03
    almost nobody does that would
  • 00:44:04
    help this the most is like and
  • 00:44:06
    follow Ask a Painter and share
  • 00:44:08
    this show. There are hm let's
  • 00:44:10
    see. There's about between
  • 00:44:13
    TikTok, Instagram, and here.
  • 00:44:14
    There's about 80 or 90 people
  • 00:44:16
    watching right now live. If
  • 00:44:17
    every single person just hit
  • 00:44:19
    the share button, we could
  • 00:44:20
    reach more people like us which
  • 00:44:21
    would give more interaction
  • 00:44:23
    which then would spread this
  • 00:44:24
    word, get these documents there
  • 00:44:26
    and allow this industry to
  • 00:44:27
    change. So, honestly, if
  • 00:44:29
    everybody, every time they
  • 00:44:31
    watch Ask a Painter, hit the
  • 00:44:32
    share button and just shared it
  • 00:44:33
    to their page, we would have
  • 00:44:35
    infinite growth of this thing
  • 00:44:37
    and I would be much
  • 00:44:38
    appreciated. So, also, get in,
  • 00:44:40
    get a master's class in your
  • 00:44:41
    area. One of the most rewarding
  • 00:44:44
    things I do is take all this
  • 00:44:45
    information in a whole day
  • 00:44:47
    format and come to you and we
  • 00:44:49
    do this in real time and
  • 00:44:51
    instead of me just showing you
  • 00:44:52
    the things like this, we go for
  • 00:44:53
    four or five hours and then, we
  • 00:44:54
    ask ask and answer real-time
  • 00:44:57
    questions and we talk about
  • 00:44:57
    your specific business in a
  • 00:44:59
    group of our peers. So, having
  • 00:45:01
    a master's class in your area
  • 00:45:01
    would mean a great deal to me
  • 00:45:03
    because it's one of the things
  • 00:45:04
    I love doing the most is
  • 00:45:05
    helping people in groups of 10
  • 00:45:06
    to 50 give or take. So,
  • 00:45:09
    alright. Rock Solid. Hey, how's
  • 00:45:10
    it going? Uh we've hey Nick,
  • 00:45:12
    we've been trying to gain new
  • 00:45:13
    clients. Do you have any tips
  • 00:45:14
    for portraying yourself as a
  • 00:45:15
    trusted company? Yeah, it's a
  • 00:45:17
    thousand little things and it's
  • 00:45:18
    not easy. So, again, our we are
  • 00:45:21
    a cream, tan, and brown
  • 00:45:22
    company. So, everything we do,
  • 00:45:23
    colored vests, hats, all our
  • 00:45:26
    logos are the same. Our website
  • 00:45:28
    looks like our stuff, our
  • 00:45:29
    Instagram, our Facebook. Looks
  • 00:45:32
    like our stuff. The best thing
  • 00:45:34
    you can do is look the part and
  • 00:45:37
    be the part. So, Vans, website,
  • 00:45:40
    marketing, people, messaging,
  • 00:45:43
    what you promise, what you
  • 00:45:45
    deliver, all has to be same.
  • 00:45:47
    So, it doesn't free people out.
  • 00:45:48
    But then, doing good jobs also
  • 00:45:51
    adds to that too and so, my
  • 00:45:52
    company has been around for 14
  • 00:45:53
    years. I can guarantee you a
  • 00:45:55
    large reason why half of our
  • 00:45:56
    jobs come from repeat, previous
  • 00:45:58
    clients, word-of-mouth
  • 00:45:59
    referrals, things like that is
  • 00:45:59
    because we do take care of our
  • 00:46:01
    clients in a very special way.
  • 00:46:03
    So, yeah, that's basically it.
  • 00:46:04
    Uh let's see here. Brian
  • 00:46:06
    Kemmons, you guys are asking
  • 00:46:07
    really good questions. Imma
  • 00:46:08
    hang out for a little bit. It's
  • 00:46:08
    interesting. Yes, employees are
  • 00:46:10
    part of the issue but when they
  • 00:46:12
    finish a job early, we have to
  • 00:46:13
    have them on the next job ready
  • 00:46:14
    for them. Our reaction time is
  • 00:46:16
    more the problem. Oh, there you
  • 00:46:16
    go. Interesting. So, sounds
  • 00:46:18
    like you guys need to up your
  • 00:46:19
    game to schedule a little
  • 00:46:20
    better for your people. Um
  • 00:46:22
    yeah. So, we're very fortunate
  • 00:46:25
    to have this production team
  • 00:46:26
    that does not like any wasted
  • 00:46:28
    time at all during the day. So,
  • 00:46:29
    They always have a queue of
  • 00:46:32
    jobs in their ready to go which
  • 00:46:33
    is a good thing and they they
  • 00:46:35
    work on it a lot. Uh okay,
  • 00:46:36
    folks. that's about it for me.
  • 00:46:38
    I appreciate you guys all
  • 00:46:39
    watching. Uh it's been a fun
  • 00:46:41
    show. Uh I am happy to help in
  • 00:46:43
    any way I can via Email, Nick
  • 00:46:44
    at Nick Slavic.com. If there's
  • 00:46:46
    some way I can add value to you
  • 00:46:47
    and your company, I will try in
  • 00:46:48
    my free time. Otherwise, it's
  • 00:46:50
    Sunday and yeah. We'll talk to
  • 00:46:53
    you guys later. It's been a fun
  • 00:46:55
    show.
الوسوم
  • Painting
  • Marketing
  • Lead Generation
  • Small Business
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Community Involvement
  • Word of Mouth
  • Social Media
  • Cost Management
  • Data Tracking