Signed a lease on a shop (Service Shop in the Auto Industry)

[Carlitos]

This was my first post on this thread, lol now i am going to update this now in Feb 1, 2023.
Keep in mind we closed year end of 2022 at $165K+

My shop overhead monthly cost is : $900
My personal expenses is $2,000,
APT rent
Electricity,
Food (not going out to eat)

My girl and I are doing ok with our relationship, I am a workaholic. But she has been a major help since she contributes to the smaller bills and food. Electricity, internet, and food. I pretty much pay the rent and give her extra money incase she is short on.

So if I spread 3K in 30 days, is $100 a day, My average ticket is around $500 or I'm averaging about $2K a week during the slow times which are only Dec and Jan. I am happy to be able to compare this year data with last year to see how far i have come, remember that March of 2022 was when I went out on my own.
For January we did 38% more sales than last year.



I have some great ideas to use technology to my advantage to continue pushing this business solo or at least hiring my girl full time for her to handle the front end. Scheduling, picking up calls, closing sales, following up etc..

I am also excited to mention we have started the e-commerce store to my main website. I am going to be receiving samples of my packaging finalize that, finalize manufacturing numbers etc..

My main business is financing this second channel of income for the same brand, start up cost it should be around $2,000, but no more than $2,500 and I want to keep it as close as possible to $1,500

We are starting with one simple product which anybody that has a car can used it.
Cost of landing of product all said and done is $1.60 cents
The shipping cost nationwide alone has gone up like crazy, the product alone doesn't weight more than 50 grams.

If I was to ship one item it would cost me $3.50 shipping alone.

But If I ship 6-12 items at once, shipping cost is $5, which is the goal, the way the product works is they need a new one every month. The idea is to have 3 price tiers to where the more you buy the more you save.

Tier 1 - Retail price for 1 item Free shipping
Tier 2- Save 5-10%, buying 6 items upfront free shipping
Tier 2- Save nearly 18%, buying 12 upfront and free shipping.

I already have a few guys interested in purchasing, and waiting for the drop. I am trying to figure out how to send a mas SMS with my store link to the 400+ clients I have serviced in the past to see if anyone would be interested in my product.

I am trying to figure out how to advertise and market my store, and do SEO for my store as well.

My website guy has already started on the technical side of putting the store together, first launch date is somewhere in Mid March, I am excited and trying to market for free the product as much as i can.

 

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[BizyDad]

View attachment 46982

This was my first post on this thread, lol now i am going to update this now in Feb 1, 2023.
Keep in mind we closed year end of 2022 at $165K+

My shop overhead monthly cost is : $900
My personal expenses is $2,000,
APT rent
Electricity,
Food (not going out to eat)

My girl and I are doing ok with our relationship, I am a workaholic. But she has been a major help since she contributes to the smaller bills and food. Electricity, internet, and food. I pretty much pay the rent and give her extra money incase she is short on.

So if I spread 3K in 30 days, is $100 a day, My average ticket is around $500 or I'm averaging about $2K a week during the slow times which are only Dec and Jan. I am happy to be able to compare this year data with last year to see how far i have come, remember that March of 2022 was when I went out on my own.
For January we did 38% more sales than last year.

View attachment 46983

I have some great ideas to use technology to my advantage to continue pushing this business solo or at least hiring my girl full time for her to handle the front end. Scheduling, picking up calls, closing sales, following up etc..

I am also excited to mention we have started the e-commerce store to my main website. I am going to be receiving samples of my packaging finalize that, finalize manufacturing numbers etc..

My main business is financing this second channel of income for the same brand, start up cost it should be around $2,000, but no more than $2,500 and I want to keep it as close as possible to $1,500

We are starting with one simple product which anybody that has a car can used it.
Cost of landing of product all said and done is $1.60 cents
The shipping cost nationwide alone has gone up like crazy, the product alone doesn't weight more than 50 grams.

If I was to ship one item it would cost me $3.50 shipping alone.

But If I ship 6-12 items at once, shipping cost is $5, which is the goal, the way the product works is they need a new one every month. The idea is to have 3 price tiers to where the more you buy the more you save.

Tier 1 - Retail price for 1 item Free shipping
Tier 2- Save 5-10%, buying 6 items upfront free shipping
Tier 2- Save nearly 18%, buying 12 upfront and free shipping.

I already have a few guys interested in purchasing, and waiting for the drop. I am trying to figure out how to send a mas SMS with my store link to the 400+ clients I have serviced in the past to see if anyone would be interested in my product.

I am trying to figure out how to advertise and market my store, and do SEO for my store as well.

My website guy has already started on the technical side of putting the store together, first launch date is somewhere in Mid March, I am excited and trying to market for free the product as much as i can.

Keep up the work quality and that first year will forever be your worst sales year.

With a year under your belt, a year of knowledge and establishing processes, what do you think you'll hit this year?

 

[Carlitos]

Keep up the work quality and that first year will forever be your worst sales year.

With a year under your belt, a year of knowledge and establishing processes, what do you think you'll hit this year?

I invested heavily in more SEO, GMB, advertising, marketing, CRM, all of this stuff was about less than 5% of my gross sales. of last year. In reality i think we should be doing at least 10%, but more toward branding and less advertising. I have learned that when you have a weak branding, and having a hard time getting your point a crossed, you will spend more in advertising and marketing.

On my busiest months I averaged around 20K a month easily, I should be able to fly through last year $165K, I aiming for $250 being realistic in gross sales but this is just my shop alone. With the ecommerce channel launching in mid march I am expecting to do at least half a million dollars end of this year. Hit a million dollars end of 2024 with my shop and ecommerce combined.

 

[BizyDad]

I invested heavily in more SEO, GMB, advertising, marketing, CRM, all of this stuff was about less than 5% of my gross sales. of last year. In reality i think we should be doing at least 10%, but more toward branding and less advertising. I have learned that when you have a weak branding, and having a hard time getting your point a crossed, you will spend more in advertising and marketing.

On my busiest months I averaged around 20K a month easily, I should be able to fly through last year $165K, I aiming for $250 being realistic in gross sales but this is just my shop alone. With the ecommerce channel launching in mid march I am expecting to do at least half a million dollars end of this year. Hit a million dollars end of 2024 with my shop and ecommerce combined.

Wow. That sounds aggressive on the ecom side. Sure, it can be done, and I hope you do it!

I missed the part of the thread talking about that. I'll have to go back and review later.

 

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[Carlitos]

@Johnny boy I think it should be documented because we are about to add a lot of valuable information that is becoming a problem. With the economy all over the place you want to be able to stay as lean, efficient and a healthy payroll expense for now.

My biggest problem right now is having someone handled the front end, picking up calls, handing sms, emails, crm. Scheduling, following up with serviced clients, estimates, the whole menu!

For calls and SMS I use sideline, if I miss a call they automatically get a text, explaining I'm on call and will get back to them asap, now if they want a free estimate they can send over the year make and model. This helps a ton, I have closed a lot of clients this way, it also has a caller id, and weeds out bad clients. If they don't respond to my text, I don't get back to them, especially if they don't leave a voicemail. It weeds out the window shoppers.

Last year I got so many compliments how I was the best when it came to reaching back out to clients, and they loved my automated system. Well this year I want to get better at it.

Sideline also has a desktop feature, where you can sign in on a laptop have the screen of calls and text messages, you can text back and forth, copy and paste the customer information, we just verify their number, ask for their email and full name.

We use Square for all of our transactions it makes life so much easier, with having over $165K in transactions I got approved for a 5K loan from them in less than 15 min, had the money deposited in my bank account the next day, and I am almost done paying it off in 2 months.

So now you can schedule clients from a laptop logging in to the square account, go back and forth with the sideline app, and be on the phone as well. The 3rd one we use is a third party software for the CRM, I love the use of it, but hate I share my sales technique and info to another party, I am really considering hiring someone to clone me a similar CRM but adding only the features I really need and additional stuff that is needed.

After running the CRM for a month, it does help, but it doesn't offer that virtual assistant I was hoping for. You would still need someone to sit on a desk with a company laptop and cell phone.

The CRM all it does, is help you see the numbers in closed and loss sales, automated responses to the obvious questions, automated information send to the client, it just makes life easier for the front end.

So here's a plan I have, buy a laptop and cell phone under the company. Hire my girl at $15 an hour, more than likely she will work about 30 hours but assisting on the busiest day, she isn't leaving her full time job yet, so she would be working 2 jobs, we stay 5-10 min from her job.

The idea is for her to work from home, log in to the laptop, and have access to SMS, Emails, CRM and pick up calls. I will be running advertising for calls with the goal to make the company cell assign to her ring, yes she will get a lot of window shoppers or potential clients willing to book. I am also hoping that being it will be an interaction with a female this will lead to her closing more sales. I will have a guide for her to follow so she can easily give out estimates and book potential leads easier.

Which is the reason why I'm offering her $15 an hour, buying her a new laptop ($150-$200) Cell (Possibly a new iPhone or a not so new iPhone lol)

For every car she books, and I serviced she gets a commission of $20 per car. If we were to get 20 cars in a week that would approximately bring in $9,000 in gross sales, payroll would be $1,500-$2,00o for both of us. Then we have $7,000, and I would say in material expense and any other expense to complete those vehicles another $2,000 to deduct leaving us with $5,000 in profit.

20 cars a week is between 2-3 cars a day, we are currently opening 7 days a week by appointment only. Booking 20 cars a week is very doable in this business, we just need to those leads to come in.

I will still have the first company phone number which is assign to my cell, I would still be able to answer those calls, but incase i don't answer it I would like to forward it to my girl. Eventually the company will have 2 phone numbers. I would be at the shop working, I would be able to see from my end (shop PC) what she schedules, calls, sms, emails etc.. If she needs and assistant with a technical question I want her to be able to transfer the call to me so that I can help her with that customer.

I can always pull that number I started the company with from sideline, (as that number is extremely for me to keep) I can keep that number but if I was to do that it has to be for me to make the interaction and experience better.

So @Johnny boy I am asking for your advice or ideas how can i simplify the front end role for my call girl and myself. By simplifying this, it will lead to closing more sales, and increasing our gross sales. By doing that, I have the opportunity to hire an assistant full time in the back end, which I am dying to do so. But I think is extremely important we have the front end dialed in first.

 

[Johnny boy]

She doesn't understand that, and I am also a Capricorn so I am stubborn AF.

First of all we have to address this. You should not be a 30 year old man who ever says those words unironically.

Okay back to business.

Top of funnel you need to do two things

1. Be found when people are looking
2. Do some hunting of your own

That means 1. GMB page optimized and get all your friends to write reviews. Make social accounts and link to it and make sure name, address and phone number are all matching, search up directories to post to and post your info to get some authority and backlinks, don't spend too much time on this.
2. This will help organic ranking too but GMB will be your biggest source of customers ideally.
3. PPC campaign don't do the shitty updated stupid mode, enable expert mode.
4. Try other strategies like leaving business cards in the vehicles, give them discounts to give to their friends, ask them for a post on their instagram of the car and to tag you when you're giving them the car back. Gotta do all this stuff at the point of delivery when it's top of mind.

Are quotes custom or can they be automated? Can people order your services and can pricing be transparent? If so I would have an immediate booking system which is easy to set up.

They enter their info, next page is questions that helps calculate their options, then they get a list of options/add-ons on a checkout screen where they can pick their date, and they can pay right there. Then if they don't buy you can follow up with a call when it's convenient. You could actually not even have someone on the phones and it can just be a message that says "we have an amazing, convenient, fast instant quoting and scheduling system so you can get a price and schedule your service instantly" and it sends them a link right away. You can probably set up a crm to create a lead for every call and if they fill out the online form it populates the rest of their info assigned to that number, marks them as either a phone lead, or they filled out the form and didn't buy, or they bought. Then you'll know who to call back.

The general idea is 1. get found, cast a wide net, optimize for when people are looking for you. 2. reduce friction and make people think "wow, that was super easy!"

If you cannot automate scheduling or quoting in the way I outlined above, and you have to have someone on the phones, you can set it up in a couple ways. You can assign your girl a number and she puts people in the crm when she's on the phone. I had my girl doing that. She would put them into hubspot at the beginning of the call. You can also get on ringcentral and set it up to where customer makes a call, it rings your girl, if she doesn't pickup it forwards to answering service number (for when customers call during dinner time, or she's on the phone or at work). And answering service can have a script, input them into your CRM with a lead form, try to forward the call to you and take a message if no answer.

 

[Carlitos]

Top of funnel you need to do two things

1. Be found when people are looking
2. Do some hunting of your own



Are quotes custom or can they be automated? Can people order your services and can pricing be transparent? If so I would have an immediate booking system which is easy to set up.

They enter their info, next page is questions that helps calculate their options, then they get a list of options/add-ons on a checkout screen where they can pick their date, and they can pay right there. Then if they don't buy you can follow up with a call when it's convenient. You could actually not even have someone on the phones and it can just be a message that says "we have an amazing, convenient, fast instant quoting and scheduling system so you can get a price and schedule your service instantly" and it sends them a link right away. You can probably set up a crm to create a lead for every call and if they fill out the online form it populates the rest of their info assigned to that number, marks them as either a phone lead, or they filled out the form and didn't buy, or they bought. Then you'll know who to call back.

The general idea is 1. get found, cast a wide net, optimize for when people are looking for you. 2. reduce friction and make people think "wow, that was super easy!"

If you cannot automate scheduling or quoting in the way I outlined above, and you have to have someone on the phones, you can set it up in a couple ways. You can assign your girl a number and she puts people in the crm when she's on the phone. I had my girl doing that. She would put them into hubspot at the beginning of the call. You can also get on ringcentral and set it up to where customer makes a call, it rings your girl, if she doesn't pickup it forwards to answering service number (for when customers call during dinner time, or she's on the phone or at work). And answering service can have a script, input them into your CRM with a lead form, try to forward the call to you and take a message if no answer.

The GMB is something i worked my a$$ off to build it where we at today. Yes, I agree most of my customers comes from Google. Being found isn't the issue anymore, the issue is maintaining that spot at top 3. Not that I am having an issue, but is also work that my call girl can been doing, especially following up with clients we already serviced. I am ranking top 3 for most main keywords, and cities. At the beginning of this year I hired another person to optimized a lot better my GMB. We are expecting to be ranking top 3 in some new local cities before the summer hits. I already know organically we will be getting more calls this year than we did last year. Which is why I also plan on running a google ADs for them to call, and get estimates right away.

Yes quotes can be automated, I would be interested to see how can that be done. Yes pricing can be transparent, but I also feel like the fill out form where I get their basic information such as name, email and phone number in return for a free quote. The last thing you want is giving out quotes for nothing in return, data today is extremely valuable.

Currently I have fill out forms in all my pages, home, and all service pages, when they fill it out it goes to my current CRM I am using. I am actually using High Level, but I hate the fact I have to pay someone in order to use it. I am really considering having my own CRM created very close to what I am using but adding additional stuff.

My bigger question to you was how you have set up ringcentral, I was watching videos today on VOIP systems and now it all makes sense. I am now in between OpenPhone and RingCentral. I am now leaning more toward OpenPhone as is seems easier to set up.

I am surprised you haven't built your own CRM for your own company.

 

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[BizyDad]

@Johnny boy I think it should be documented because we are about to add a lot of valuable information that is becoming a problem. With the economy all over the place you want to be able to stay as lean, efficient and a healthy payroll expense for now.

My biggest problem right now is having someone handled the front end, picking up calls, handing sms, emails, crm. Scheduling, following up with serviced clients, estimates, the whole menu!

For calls and SMS I use sideline, if I miss a call they automatically get a text, explaining I'm on call and will get back to them asap, now if they want a free estimate they can send over the year make and model. This helps a ton, I have closed a lot of clients this way, it also has a caller id, and weeds out bad clients. If they don't respond to my text, I don't get back to them, especially if they don't leave a voicemail. It weeds out the window shoppers.

Last year I got so many compliments how I was the best when it came to reaching back out to clients, and they loved my automated system. Well this year I want to get better at it.

Sideline also has a desktop feature, where you can sign in on a laptop have the screen of calls and text messages, you can text back and forth, copy and paste the customer information, we just verify their number, ask for their email and full name.

We use Square for all of our transactions it makes life so much easier, with having over $165K in transactions I got approved for a 5K loan from them in less than 15 min, had the money deposited in my bank account the next day, and I am almost done paying it off in 2 months.

So now you can schedule clients from a laptop logging in to the square account, go back and forth with the sideline app, and be on the phone as well. The 3rd one we use is a third party software for the CRM, I love the use of it, but hate I share my sales technique and info to another party, I am really considering hiring someone to clone me a similar CRM but adding only the features I really need and additional stuff that is needed.

After running the CRM for a month, it does help, but it doesn't offer that virtual assistant I was hoping for. You would still need someone to sit on a desk with a company laptop and cell phone.

The CRM all it does, is help you see the numbers in closed and loss sales, automated responses to the obvious questions, automated information send to the client, it just makes life easier for the front end.

So here's a plan I have, buy a laptop and cell phone under the company. Hire my girl at $15 an hour, more than likely she will work about 30 hours but assisting on the busiest day, she isn't leaving her full time job yet, so she would be working 2 jobs, we stay 5-10 min from her job.

The idea is for her to work from home, log in to the laptop, and have access to SMS, Emails, CRM and pick up calls. I will be running advertising for calls with the goal to make the company cell assign to her ring, yes she will get a lot of window shoppers or potential clients willing to book. I am also hoping that being it will be an interaction with a female this will lead to her closing more sales. I will have a guide for her to follow so she can easily give out estimates and book potential leads easier.

Which is the reason why I'm offering her $15 an hour, buying her a new laptop ($150-$200) Cell (Possibly a new iPhone or a not so new iPhone lol)

For every car she books, and I serviced she gets a commission of $20 per car. If we were to get 20 cars in a week that would approximately bring in $9,000 in gross sales, payroll would be $1,500-$2,00o for both of us. Then we have $7,000, and I would say in material expense and any other expense to complete those vehicles another $2,000 to deduct leaving us with $5,000 in profit.

20 cars a week is between 2-3 cars a day, we are currently opening 7 days a week by appointment only. Booking 20 cars a week is very doable in this business, we just need to those leads to come in.

I will still have the first company phone number which is assign to my cell, I would still be able to answer those calls, but incase i don't answer it I would like to forward it to my girl. Eventually the company will have 2 phone numbers. I would be at the shop working, I would be able to see from my end (shop PC) what she schedules, calls, sms, emails etc.. If she needs and assistant with a technical question I want her to be able to transfer the call to me so that I can help her with that customer.

I can always pull that number I started the company with from sideline, (as that number is extremely for me to keep) I can keep that number but if I was to do that it has to be for me to make the interaction and experience better.

So @Johnny boy I am asking for your advice or ideas how can i simplify the front end role for my call girl and myself. By simplifying this, it will lead to closing more sales, and increasing our gross sales. By doing that, I have the opportunity to hire an assistant full time in the back end, which I am dying to do so. But I think is extremely important we have the front end dialed in first.

Just my two cents...

She will learn more and faster if she is in the shop. She can just put someone on hold and walk over and ask you a question if she gets stuck. Once she knows the job, she could work from home.

 

[BizyDad]

I am surprised you haven't built your own CRM for your own company.

Have you priced out what a custom CRM will cost?

 

[Carlitos]

Wow. That sounds aggressive on the ecom side. Sure, it can be done, and I hope you do it!

I missed the part of the thread talking about that. I'll have to go back and review later.

Yes it does, lol but I also now have collected nearly 1,000 contacts from serviced clients, and potential leads that were interested in a quote. I will be using that list to try to push the ecommerce side. Is a very good product that as soon as we start offering it to clients, and they see why ours is better it will get traction fast. I am also considering dropping some of these to local big dealerships, where they can give out to clients they closed on. I will also be offering it to very client that comes in and gets serviced at the shop.

If I can convert 1,000 clients to buy a full year supply for free shipping at $93 per head thats nearly 100K.

 

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[Carlitos]

Just my two cents...

She will learn more and faster if she is in the shop. She can just put someone on hold and walk over and ask you a question if she gets stuck. Once she knows the job, she could work from home.

Very true not that is a problem, but we may actually do that in the first weeks, I know she is a fast learner and already has front desk experience, as she works for a surgery office closed by. They handle big clients and big tickets, their surgery office brings in a day 500- a million dollars lol

 

[Havox]

View attachment 47001


The GMB is something i worked my a$$ off to build it where we at today. Yes, I agree most of my customers comes from Google. Being found isn't the issue anymore, the issue is maintaining that spot at top 3. Not that I am having an issue, but is also work that my call girl can been doing, especially following up with clients we already serviced. I am ranking top 3 for most main keywords, and cities. At the beginning of this year I hired another person to optimized a lot better my GMB. We are expecting to be ranking top 3 in some new local cities before the summer hits. I already know organically we will be getting more calls this year than we did last year. Which is why I also plan on running a google ADs for them to call, and get estimates right away.

Yes quotes can be automated, I would be interested to see how can that be done. Yes pricing can be transparent, but I also feel like the fill out form where I get their basic information such as name, email and phone number in return for a free quote. The last thing you want is giving out quotes for nothing in return, data today is extremely valuable.

Currently I have fill out forms in all my pages, home, and all service pages, when they fill it out it goes to my current CRM I am using. I am actually using High Level, but I hate the fact I have to pay someone in order to use it. I am really considering having my own CRM created very close to what I am using but adding additional stuff.

My bigger question to you was how you have set up ringcentral, I was watching videos today on VOIP systems and now it all makes sense. I am now in between OpenPhone and RingCentral. I am now leaning more toward OpenPhone as is seems easier to set up.

I am surprised you haven't built your own CRM for your own company.

I run an agency whitelabeling HighLevel(HL).

• Invoices can be produced under "Payments" tab.
• If you uploaded all of your leads into HL you can mass email/SMS under the "Contacts" tab. The only caveat is you have to purchase a phone number from them for $1.15/mth + SMS charge.
• Appointments can also be booked on the Calendar.
• HL has a built in missed call text back
• You could get a VA pretty inexpensively, but probably better to keep it within the "family".
• Use Notion for SOPs/knowledge base.

Sounds like you're running Google Ads. Have you thought of running FB Ads? You can create a Lead Form with FB Ads and it will send the lead directly over to HL thru automations.

If you have any questions feel free to reach out.

 

[Carlitos]

I run an agency whitelabeling HighLevel(HL).

• Invoices can be produced under "Payments" tab.
• If you uploaded all of your leads into HL you can mass email/SMS under the "Contacts" tab. The only caveat is you have to purchase a phone number from them for $1.15/mth + SMS charge. Appointments can also be booked on the Calendar.
• HL has a built in missed call text back
• You could get a VA pretty inexpensively, but probably better to keep it within the "family".
• Use Notion for SOPs/knowledge base.

Sounds like you're running Google Ads. Have you thought of running FB Ads? You can create a Lead Form with FB Ads and it will send the lead directly over to HL thru automations.

If you have any questions feel free to reach out.

I love HL, I wish I could get it as an agency level but not sure how, and I’m sure as an agency the cost is cheaper, otherwise I’m thinking in building my own CRM.

So what I need for my needs is a CRM like HL, and a VOIP like open phone, that will cover everything and keeping it a low cost depending on what HL would cost me or I can just build my own.

Not running Google Ads yet, and yes we ran Facebook ads last year we spend nearly $4K and brought over 10K worth of work, i didn’t keep up with this, that’s another thing I don’t know how to keep up with ROI with certain things which I’m new to in to setting up. As far as the lead forms I have all that and love it, I just don’t want to pay someone else for using HL lol

My main questions are on how to obtain HL as an agency side and what’s the cost for you guys.

 

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[Havox]

I love HL, I wish I could get it as an agency level but not sure how, and I’m sure as an agency the cost is cheaper, otherwise I’m thinking in building my own CRM.

So what I need for my needs is a CRM like HL, and a VOIP like open phone, that will cover everything and keeping it a low cost depending on what HL would cost me or I can just build my own.

Not running Google Ads yet, and yes we ran Facebook ads last year we spend nearly $4K and brought over 10K worth of work, i didn’t keep up with this, that’s another thing I don’t know how to keep up with ROI with certain things which I’m new to in to setting up. As far as the lead forms I have all that and love it, I just don’t want to pay someone else for using HL lol

My main questions are on how to obtain HL as an agency side and what’s the cost for you guys.

I'll be happy to answer your questions. DM me, I don't want to throw off the topic of your thread.

 

[Johnny boy]

View attachment 47001


The GMB is something i worked my a$$ off to build it where we at today. Yes, I agree most of my customers comes from Google. Being found isn't the issue anymore, the issue is maintaining that spot at top 3. Not that I am having an issue, but is also work that my call girl can been doing, especially following up with clients we already serviced. I am ranking top 3 for most main keywords, and cities. At the beginning of this year I hired another person to optimized a lot better my GMB. We are expecting to be ranking top 3 in some new local cities before the summer hits. I already know organically we will be getting more calls this year than we did last year. Which is why I also plan on running a google ADs for them to call, and get estimates right away.

Yes quotes can be automated, I would be interested to see how can that be done. Yes pricing can be transparent, but I also feel like the fill out form where I get their basic information such as name, email and phone number in return for a free quote. The last thing you want is giving out quotes for nothing in return, data today is extremely valuable.

Currently I have fill out forms in all my pages, home, and all service pages, when they fill it out it goes to my current CRM I am using. I am actually using High Level, but I hate the fact I have to pay someone in order to use it. I am really considering having my own CRM created very close to what I am using but adding additional stuff.

My bigger question to you was how you have set up ringcentral, I was watching videos today on VOIP systems and now it all makes sense. I am now in between OpenPhone and RingCentral. I am now leaning more toward OpenPhone as is seems easier to set up.

I am surprised you haven't built your own CRM for your own company.

Why would I try to do anything better than hubspot? It's F*cking awesome and integrates with everything so smoothly. Just like how I don't try to build my own trucks, I let Ford do that.

Ringcentral call quality is amazing. Openphone has mediocre call quality and customers are always unable to hear us clearly.

Our ringcentral setup is this:

Call comes in "blah blah press one for sales and two for support"

*press 1* call goes to our office gal. If she misses it or can't answer or doesn't answer after like 20 seconds it forwards to our answering service number which has a script and a web form so they collect customer info, and its automatically put into our crm even if you call at 2am.

*press 2* call goes to same office gal, but if she doesn't answer you get a voicemail or if it's outside of business hours it's automatic.

Any support customers trying to be sneaky and call the sales line at 8pm and try to complain about the 3 leaves still on their lawn and how they're going to sue us and call the better business bureau because of it...our answering service is trained to immediately transfer them to our support line where they'll get a voicemail and reminded they can use our app/customer portal to make requests.

Every single lead ends up in Hubspot.

1. Form on our website for scheduling an in person quote puts them in hubspot.
2. Form on our website for getting an instant quote with our chat bot and property measuring system puts them in hubspot.
3. Calling us, our office gal puts them in hubspot.
4. Talking to our answering service, they put them in hubspot.



It's a Kanban board. The leads show up. The office girl's job is to make that list of leads disappear.

When customers fill out and sign our online contracts which take only a minute to send out, it automatically updates their lifecycle stage in hubspot as a customer. So if leads signup on the instant quote, that's one way for them to disappear from the leads view.

If they call and want a remote quote, our office can use our software to send them a quote and then set their lifecycle stage to "quote" that's another way.

If they want to get an in person quote she scheduled an in person quote with one of our sales reps and it pops up on his google calendar, she sets their stage to "quote" and it gets rid of them.

Any quotes with a quote date that has passed without signing up is in "follow up" automatically, without doing anything.

Her job is to clear the leads out by placing them in the correct place. Then she clears out the follow up. If they aren't interested they are marked as a dead lead and disappear from the active views.

No texts, no emails, no bs. It's all in one place, the objective is simple and easy.

Make it easy for your customers. Make it easy for your employees. Ensure nobody falls in between the cracks of your systems.

I am always chasing the dragon trying to bring harmony, simplicity and peace to my business with systems, but it is extremely tough when you want to combine that with trying to scale quickly. In less than 9 months we've gone from writing down leads on a piece of paper and texting me the quote information every day and no crm, to having 4 locations, an app/customer portal that I built, sales managers and a company office, registering as an official franchisor, rebranding, forming 5 LLC's and 4 S-corps, and filing trademarks.

 

[Carlitos]

E-Commerce Update:

Very excited as having an ecommerce business has always been a goal of mine. Packaging samples should be here in a few days this week coming up. I will be test fitting the product in the packaging, and making sure it works like is meant to with the product. Online store has started to be put together, the time line is I expect to have the store ready to go by end of this month. That means once I get the samples I'll be able to see what I need to do the photography of it myself to upload to the site.

The design on the packaging is still being worked on hopefully I have it done by end of this week, as I need to finalize everything with manufacture no later than end of next week. It takes about a month to manufacturer everything. So I expect to have the product around the same time I plan on launching the website, which plans for the drop is Third week of March.

So I am going to have to scratch out my original budget for this investment. Seems like my investment will be around $4,500- $5,000.

Is a bit scary, from past experience if I don't take the shots, and I know it makes sense to make the investment, I just need to do it without dwelling on the idea. So now I am thinking on a plan to make this work, as there's no room to fail.

I have a little over 1K contacts, half of those I have their full name, the other half is just phone numbers. 1/4 of that big list (1K) I have their emails. So it makes more sense to do 2 SMS campaigns for phase 1.

Phase 1 is to introduce myself again, and pitch the idea of the PRODUCT by mentioning the biggest benefits. Are you interested?

Phase 2 this pile, then talks more about the product, and mention a limited time discount and provide the link.

Phase 3 they click the link and finally see what I have to offer. Retail for one product $9.97 for small, $11.79 for XL free shipping, after discount $8.18 free shipping for small, and $9.55 Free shipping for XL. The idea here is to make back my investment as fast as possible and also creating awareness. I am not expecting a profit yet, but if I can make back the $5,000 and create traction and awareness with the product is a very early win. The offer will only run for 2 weeks to see how that plays out.

After the discount the retail prices are the following 3 pricing tiers.
Single Item Small - $9.97
6 Months supply Small price drops to $9.16 per item but you need to buy all of them together - $54.96
12 month supply Small price drops to $8.18 per item but you need to buy all of them together - $98.16


Single Item XL - $11.79
6 Months supply Small price drops to $10.98 per item but you need to buy all of them together - $65.88
12 month supply Small price drops to $10.98 per item but you need to buy all of them together - $131.76

Whether you buy one item or more is all free shipping and of course we have to add the taxes as well. My prices are competitive, inflation is already priced in, and overhead is extremely cheap. Small are recommended for Coupe and Sedan vehicles. XL is recommended for Mid SUVs and Full Size SUVs.

The average customer spends $10-$15 a month on my competitors product for what is supposed to do. The idea is my product is last longer, and over the long run we are by far the most affordable, and after a month in your car you have additional usage of it around the household.

 

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[Carlitos]

March 1st was my second year anniversary in business, while that's awesome there's still a lot of work to do. I am also happy to say that @Havox has come on board in my company. He is basically my VA and manages the CRM for my shop now.

This guy is Godsend, has done an amazing job, and has done far more work in less time than other guys that I have hired in the past to run my CRM. The key to finding the right person was finding someone new to this industry. He was eager to learn, and was ready to put in the work.

Will be update more later, busy day today.

 

[Carlitos]

@Havox I been extremely happy with this dude, and have been investing in him because I truly believe he can be part of my company where he can make more money.

I’m flying him out to Denver for a big conference meeting that’s going on in the industry. Since he is the one behind the CRM, managing my ads, copywriting etc… I thought this would be the perfect idea for him to learn more about the industry, so more ideas can flow, that he can help implement to continue to grow my business.

I think this would be the second time I would meet someone from this forum, the first time didn’t go so well in NYC. Lol

I’m really excited all expenses are paid on me, I’m flying him out, got hotel booked, going to meet him in person go out to dinner and have some fun and get to know each other better, and maybe have some drinks, lol I drink idk if he does. I’m drying to Colorado from Texas, as I prefer to drive than to fly. Flying now has been so boring for me unless I’m going out of the country.

March 2023 was 200%+ in gross sales, April is when things get really busy, so I’m more curious how we do from April moving forward

The e-commerce store is 90% done, has been a PITA getting this done. Product is nearly finished, I’m waiting on the final proto type before I have it mass produced.

 

[BizyDad]

@Havox I been extremely happy with this dude, and have been investing in him because I truly believe he can be part of my company where he can make more money.

I’m flying him out to Denver for a big conference meeting that’s going on in the industry. Since he is the one behind the CRM, managing my ads, copywriting etc… I thought this would be the perfect idea for him to learn more about the industry, so more ideas can flow, that he can help implement to continue to grow my business.

I think this would be the second time I would meet someone from this forum, the first time didn’t go so well in NYC. Lol

I’m really excited all expenses are paid on me, I’m flying him out, got hotel booked, going to meet him in person go out to dinner and have some fun and get to know each other better, and maybe have some drinks, lol I drink idk if he does. I’m drying to Colorado from Texas, as I prefer to drive than to fly. Flying now has been so boring for me unless I’m going out of the country.

March 2023 was 200%+ in gross sales, April is when things get really busy, so I’m more curious how we do from April moving forward

The e-commerce store is 90% done, has been a PITA getting this done. Product is nearly finished, I’m waiting on the final proto type before I have it mass produced.

Great work. Great progress. Awesome to meet somebody from the forum.

Sounds like you're leveling up in business bro.

What's the big conference meeting about? What's your goal for the conference? How will you know if this is money well spent?

You guys going to make some good connections there? Work the booths? Have you guys thought about some conversation starters?

Or is this more about pre-sales for the e-commerce launch? That's exciting.

 

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[Carlitos]

Great work. Great progress. Awesome to meet somebody from the forum.

Sounds like you're leveling up in business bro.

What's the big conference meeting about? What's your goal for the conference? How will you know if this is money well spent?

You guys going to make some good connections there? Work the booths? Have you guys thought about some conversation starters?

Or is this more about pre-sales for the e-commerce launch? That's exciting.

Has not been easy, and I know it won’t continue to be easy. But I can use my wealth wisely and continue to grow and expand, and try to hire the right people.

Is extremely extremely crucial RIGHT NOW to have the right people in your team. Hard times are already here and we want to be able to continue fighting and earning business to be able to eat.

Aside from the conference we are obviously going to touch base on where everything else is, we will obviously be working as well we are bringing our laptops, I want to see the back end of the CRM and learn how everything works, exchange some ideas I have, and etc…

The conference is a great investment, because is being held by the brand I use for one of my main bread and butter service.

Is a dealer only conference, meaning all shop owners who carry their brand film can attend. A lot of the new stuff they are coming out with will be shown at the conference, new products, new ideas, new marketing, etc…

Is a 3-4 day conference event, where a lot of ideas will be presented. They also have some of their CRM specifically build for the industry will be speaking at the event. Their CRM is completely different from the one we use.

This conference is for shop owners, to learn more, possibly net work with others owners, this industry is actually a very high ego driven industry lol

So I personally like to stay low key, and I’m actually more excited that Havox attends. I’m actually extremely shy, all though there will be people there that already know me, 99% of them I have never met in person only through social media I have seen them.

 

[BizyDad]

Has not been easy, and I know it won’t continue to be easy. But I can use my wealth wisely and continue to grow and expand, and try to hire the right people.

Is extremely extremely crucial RIGHT NOW to have the right people in your team. Hard times are already here and we want to be able to continue fighting and earning business to be able to eat.

Aside from the conference we are obviously going to touch base on where everything else is, we will obviously be working as well we are bringing our laptops, I want to see the back end of the CRM and learn how everything works, exchange some ideas I have, and etc…

The conference is a great investment, because is being held by the brand I use for one of my main bread and butter service.

Is a dealer only conference, meaning all shop owners who carry their brand film can attend. A lot of the new stuff they are coming out with will be shown at the conference, new products, new ideas, new marketing, etc…

Is a 3-4 day conference event, where a lot of ideas will be presented. They also have some of their CRM specifically build for the industry will be speaking at the event. Their CRM is completely different from the one we use.

This conference is for shop owners, to learn more, possibly net work with others owners, this industry is actually a very high ego driven industry lol

So I personally like to stay low key, and I’m actually more excited that Havox attends. I’m actually extremely shy, all though there will be people there that already know me, 99% of them I have never met in person only through social media I have seen them.

So the goal will be education then?

Some of the best education will be the other people in the room. Come prepared with questions like What do you do for your marketing? What's generating your leads? Do you have a referral program?

I don't know, I'm just spitballing here based on what I know of your business.

If you're going to ask some of these tips, have one little tip of something that's been working for you that you can share with them in exchange. Get a little reciprocity going. Some of them won't have any idea how to rank in Google Maps for example.

When Havok isn't looking, ask how much they're paying for their help.

4 days and two plane tickets plus hotel seems like a lot. I'm guessing this is your first conference, which is super exciting.

But while you're in this room, be thinking about how you can turn this opportunity into money too. Because you're spending a lot of it to be there.

Don't overlook the pre-sale thing. Have you thought about what wholesale pricing might look like?

@Andy Black @MJ DeMarco I'd like to nominate this thread for notable at least.

 

[Carlitos]

So the goal will be education then?

Some of the best education will be the other people in the room. Come prepared with questions like What do you do for your marketing? What's generating your leads? Do you have a referral program?

I don't know, I'm just spitballing here based on what I know of your business.

If you're going to ask some of these tips, have one little tip of something that's been working for you that you can share with them in exchange. Get a little reciprocity going. Some of them won't have any idea how to rank in Google Maps for example.

When Havok isn't looking, ask how much they're paying for their help.

4 days and two plane tickets plus hotel seems like a lot. I'm guessing this is your first conference, which is super exciting.

But while you're in this room, be thinking about how you can turn this opportunity into money too. Because you're spending a lot of it to be there.

Don't overlook the pre-sale thing. Have you thought about what wholesale pricing might look like?

@Andy Black @MJ DeMarco I'd like to nominate this thread for notable at least.

Yes educational content not only for me but for Havox as well. Between him and I everything is pretty much full transparency. I’m driving he is flying out. Actually it came out pretty cheap, lol half day of work. Honestly I don’t look at what’s costing me, because I know for a fact once Havox gets in there he is going to start brainstorming ideas and help me implement them. To where I can make my money back instantly.


As for the presale thing are you referring to the e-commerce business? Yes I have to mentioned a little more on what we have planned for that.

 

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[Carlitos]

This is something I posted in another thread, and I pasted here because this is extremely valuable.

Another thing we did and generated close to 3K and cost us less than $10, was we build a SMS campaign using phone numbers I collected of people that called asking for a price but i never got to service them last year.


We are still struggling with Google ads and Facebook.

But overall, I have been focusing more on SEO, and continue to maintain my GMB now that I get a ton of organic leads.

The only information we collect from FB using our CRM is when they fill out the form from our ads. We have collected so far 40 from a month running it. and closed 2 leads. So we have sort of made our money back and profit 10-20%.

Honestly, I am keeping my ad spends overall under 10%, I focus more on branding, SEO and GMB. I have seen that the average lead would rather not click on your ads, and do its own research and go through the process to get a quote. I get a ton of organic leads, i would say 95% of my leads are organic.

This is another reason why I don’t post prices online. You lose traffic instantly, people don’t stay longer, and they are getting a quote for free.

Giving a quote should no longer be free, wether is monetary or time. When people call, text our fill out our form, we collect some of their data in exchange to give them a quote.

Hence the idea I came up with, and Havox helped me implement it above. We had a big list collected of nearly 1K phone numbers of people who called asking for a quote. All we had was their phone numbers.

Some of them booked and never showed up, or canceled last minute. Other phone numbers were landline. Eventually the list was narrow down to 600 and out of those 600 we brought in close to 3K. Cost us $10

All the customers we serviced, we strictly collect their emails as well as is used for the warranty of the product being installed.

 

[Carlitos]

D**N has been a while since i have updated this thread lol things have been going well will update tonight.

 

[Private Witt]

D**N has been a while since i have updated this thread lol things have been going well will update tonight.

 

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[Carlitos]

So sorry, so much to do very little time to accomplish. I need to learn to be organize!
I am happy to say we are 15K away from surpassing last year numbers, this year I hardly spend any money on Ads, I wanted to see the difference. depending how fall and winter goes I could be closing this year at 200K or above that.

Extremely happy with the business, is growing everyday more and more. Been focusing heavily in continuing to work on SEO, branding, marketing, and pretty soon going to be having a YouTube channel to push more content visually. I think videos will definitely help me more not only with SEO but also bringing more higher end clients, not that i don't get them but more is never a bad thing. lol

I bought myself a Van, is 90% complete and ready to be offering mobile detailing services, maintenance. This is another revenue and a big marketing idea I have visualize and brought together again by taking action and not being scared. The wrap on the van is sick! lol Is so Nasty that I am eager to start driving it!

Next year is definitely going to be the year and time to start focusing on hiring quality and people that are willing to stick to my company and vision. I definitely want to close next year at 500K plus+ I must accomplish this next year, everything is position perfectly to be able to push it there.

I also finally got my product, packaging and everything together. Ecommerce store is there, now we need to bring the customers to this amazing product that works! Has been tested constantly, and has been proven to work how it was meant to work.

I came up with a way to offer a car air freshener that will simply go under your seat and guarantee to last a month! No need for 5 different air fresheners, clutter all over your car, sticking it on vents, double side tape on your dashboard, NONE of all that nonsense. lol It works amazing and I get so many compliments on it, now I just need to bring attention to it for my ecommerce store to go crazy with incoming orders!

If anyone needs a recap on anything specific please comment and i will reply

 

[Carlitos]

Business is good, this month I should be closing close to 180K in gross sales. I am trying to see if I can close 20K for December! really trying to push for that 200K mark.

I am very happy to see we hit a tad bit above from last year numbers, without spending in advertising. I can say I have finally done the last biggest investment i needed on equipment for a while. This equipment was 10K, and in order to justify the purchase, I had a 12K ticket job brought in for it.

The average ticket job to be done with this new equipment would be $2,500, now is time to focus in bringing in more leads for it.

I am also happy to say I am a Dad to be for the first time we are pretty excited, and next year is going to be an amazing one, I am excited to see how far I can push it myself, but I am looking to finding my right hand man, I need someone whose going to stick with me and help me grow more to where I can step back and focus more on sales which is what I really enjoy.

I still need to figure out Facebook and Google ads. I think is time to see what investing 5% of our budget can bring us in sales. Is time to add fuel to the jet to reach that Milli goal, with the most efficient small team possible. If we can be extremely efficient, profitable and with a small payroll expense.

 

[Tiago]

This thread needs to be GOLD! Consistent action over the last 3 years is starting to pay off.

 

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[Carlitos]

This thread needs to be GOLD! Consistent action over the last 3 years is starting to pay off.

Has not been easy, honestly i feel like the BIGGEST goal would be to stay in business, keep growing it, look to opening more businesses (not in the same industry, but my exit plan in 10-20 years), and keep the family together.

The above would be the biggest FLEX! I have noticed divorced is a big thing when businesses owners are growing and expanding their entrepreneur journey.

When December rolls around I am going to be planning my 2024 Journey, I think the next big number to hit would be 500K! How close can i get to that by Dec 31, 2024? Lets go!!!

 

[Carlitos]

Quick recap for some motivation those following my thread, I realized I left out an important detail that happened in March 1, 2022.

That was the date I was forced to go out on my own, i was forced to quit my full time job working at the other shop. It was scary, I only had $200 in my bank, luckily all my expenses were paid off, so i knew then and there THIS had to work. End of my first month i did nearly 20K in gross, and the rest was history. lol Here's an updated pic how far my shop has come.

This vehicle did a big impact in my business in a big way, the gain train wont slow down we have to keep it going!