Doing $75,000 USD Per WEEK (Service Business)

[458]

Awesome insight, thanks for this specific detail.


Which form of competitive advantage (ie operate at lower cost vs competitors, or command a price premium, or perhaps both) did you decide to go after, and why?


From what you’ve shared it sounds more so that you went for lower costs, by 1) really dialing in your sales and marketing to be closing deals very effectively and efficiently, 2) keeping your delivery and operations lean and efficient to the point of quality you are aiming for, and 3) post-sales service in which you mentioned you continue the customer relationship beyond the first sale for opportunities to upsell by knowing more of their needs and how to bring them more value.


Was that the case at your company? If not, how did you see it?


Which other forms of competitive advantage have you found are likely present in many industries today because the status quo has them complacent and comfortable?


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You never want to rely on one macro advantage like price because your putting your eggs in one basket and that type of mentality always breaksdown over time.

Instead you need to be stacking micro advantages through your operation that together over time build a "moat" around any type of competition coming in and taking over. Some of my top ones are:

1. Speed to market (If you're not first you're last - Cardone)

2. Pricing (I am not the lowest cost but my pricing makes more sense than a lot of other options)

3. Technology (One simple example is headsets.. Ive called other companies and they have there guys talking on headsets built in the 90s that cost 5 bucks and sound like absolute dog shit. This is a small advantage when i have everyone on $150 headsets designed for making calls all day long)

4. Clarity of message (A simple small over looked advantage.. How clear is what you are selling? Is your target market understanding FULLY AND COMPLETELY what they are exchanging dollars for? Again, I've called other companies and they confuse the shit out of people with what they are saying)

And the list goes on and on. Honestly i could probably make you a list of 500 - 1,000 specific competitive advantages that i have over everyone else.

 

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[jcvlds]

You never want to rely on one macro advantage like price because your putting your eggs in one basket and that type of mentality always breaksdown over time.

Instead you need to be stacking micro advantages through your operation that together over time build a "moat" around any type of competition coming in and taking over. Some of my top ones are:

1. Speed to market (If you're not first you're last - Cardone)

2. Pricing (I am not the lowest cost but my pricing makes more sense than a lot of other options)

3. Technology (One simple example is headsets.. Ive called other companies and they have there guys talking on headsets built in the 90s that cost 5 bucks and sound like absolute dog shit. This is a small advantage when i have everyone on $150 headsets designed for making calls all day long)

4. Clarity of message (A simple small over looked advantage.. How clear is what you are selling? Is your target market understanding FULLY AND COMPLETELY what they are exchanging dollars for? Again, I've called other companies and they confuse the shit out of people with what they are saying)

And the list goes on and on. Honestly i could probably make you a list of 500 - 1,000 specific competitive advantages that i have over everyone else.

Sounds like a perfect textbook case study example, honestly, congrats. You looked at your entire value chain activities and optimized all of them, creating a unique set of activities, different from me-too competitors, that were pointed towards delivering a better value prop to your specific target market than others.


Beginning to think about how to implement some of this. Thanks again


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[458]

Sounds like a perfect textbook case study example, honestly, congrats. You looked at your entire value chain activities and optimized all of them, creating a unique set of activities, different from me-too competitors, that were pointed towards delivering a better value prop to your specific target market than others.


Beginning to think about how to implement some of this. Thanks again


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And never forget time, time is interesting because the larger your moat gets over time the more your competition goes out of business and the cycle continues until everyone is gone or you are somehow put under yourself. A very long timeline example is Mom and pop retail > Walmart > Amazon. For a long time, no one could touch Walmart, but the internet has completely changed retail and there moat has started to breakdown.

 

[pat9000]

Hitting stride now but still growing fast, 2019 should have us averaging 150k a week, right now i am at 75k per week.

I've learned a lot as we have grown, who has questions? Add them below and I'll answer (good questions only).

EDIT: SPECIFIC QUESTIONS RELATED TO YOUR OWN STARTUP OR BUSINESS, NOT RELATED TO MINE.

EDIT EDIT: A few current fun facts for everyone:

1. Current Age: 29
2. Xmas gift to myself: Topre Keyboard
3. Drink of choice: COFFEE x 1,000
4. Current work schedule: Mon - Fri 4am to 5pm and Sat 10am to 6pm
5. Current ride: Your mom

I am wondering. How many times does it take you to fail and how persistent do you have to be to be at your level?

I've run hard at multiple business types but none seemed to click. I guess you could call them failures. I feel like I'm fishing and just haven't found that one.

A few months ago I did stumble across what seemed to be pure common sense.

It was a weak point in all my business models.

As I read more it clicked and clicked. It's almost like dating a woman and then it just sort of meshed. I've made more with my current model than all my other models combined LOL.

I'm not sure if this means I'm going to fail again (kind of tired of that shit tbh) or not.

I've pushed hard at this for years and read so many books it's not even funny.

I am just wondering how much more persistence will it take for me to gain some decent traction beyond some fizzes here and there?

Thanks.

→ Take Control of Your Life Today! ←

 

[458]

I am wondering. How many times does it take you to fail and how persistent do you have to be to be at your level?

I've run hard at multiple business types but none seemed to click. I guess you could call them failures. I feel like I'm fishing and just haven't found that one.

A few months ago I did stumble across what seemed to be pure common sense.

It was a weak point in all my business models.

As I read more it clicked and clicked. It's almost like dating a woman and then it just sort of meshed. I've made more with my current model than all my other models combined LOL.

I'm not sure if this means I'm going to fail again (kind of tired of that shit tbh) or not.

I've pushed hard at this for years and read so many books it's not even funny.

I am just wondering how much more persistence will it take for me to gain some decent traction beyond some fizzes here and there?

Thanks.

→ Take Control of Your Life Today! ←

This question is very personal in nature and there are so many variables at play it's almost impossible to answer.

If you keep failing at different businesses you need to step back and narrow down the top two things you continue to do that prevents success. If you look hard enough eventually you'll see something that is common throughout all of your failures.

The elimination of this will enable a higher probability of success on your next attempt.

 

[Veloce Grey]

3. Technology (One simple example is headsets.. Ive called other companies and they have there guys talking on headsets built in the 90s that cost 5 bucks and sound like absolute dog shit. This is a small advantage when i have everyone on $150 headsets designed for making calls all day long)

I've seen so many variations of this one and every time I see/hear them it still astounds me.

 

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[ryanscio]

Hey @458

Great information in this thread. You mentioned you are in a market with a cap around 100-200m.

How are you able to make hundreds of thousands of calls sustainably? Won’t you reach the entire market pretty quickly?

In another thread you answered a question similar to this but I’m still confused what you would do after reaching practically the entire market via cold call.

In most B2B markets there simply aren’t enough businesses to pull off this high volume of cold calls. In my market, for example, there are roughly 12,000 businesses.

Does this high volume approach (I.e. tens/hundreds of thousands of calls) only apply to B2C where the market allows you to make that many dials sustainably?

 

[Alex123]

458, I saw some of your other cold calling threads and they were amazing. When did you get in the cold calling game, any previous inside sales jobs? How long do you think it'll take to get to IPO level for your company? You guys seem to be growing like wildfire. Do you think cold calling would work for higher ticket items in the b2b sector? For example, My uncle runs a $200mil company in the cloud computing industry, and his clients are usually smaller-mid size business he charges 17k a month for certain services. When I talked to him, his company is entirely sales based, although they don't cold call, he said it was "outdated" and him and his sales guys pretty much just network/use events to gain clients. In this example, do you think your sales process/strategy could be effective for a business this size?

 

[Andreas Thrane]

Hi @458

I have a huge amount of respect for your success. Thanks for being a ressource on this forum!

I am about to start my first service business. Mobile car cleaning with steam. Of what i know of, nobody else are doing this in my geopgraphical area. I live in a rural part of Denmark where agriculture is a big part of the business community.
I want to position my product and business, but i see some different opportunities. The car cleaning business can be either B2C or B2B. I dont know how narrow and specialiced i should market the business/service.
B2C: Everyone can order a car wash.
B2B: Big companies with fleet of cars can buy the services - this include tractors because of the agriculture (This is based on a subscription based business model)

Does the one exclude the other? OR should i create two different business?

Thanks in advance. English are not my mother tongue, but i hope i made myself intelligible.

 

[458]

Hey @458

Great information in this thread. You mentioned you are in a market with a cap around 100-200m.

How are you able to make hundreds of thousands of calls sustainably? Won’t you reach the entire market pretty quickly?

In another thread you answered a question similar to this but I’m still confused what you would do after reaching practically the entire market via cold call.

In most B2B markets there simply aren’t enough businesses to pull off this high volume of cold calls. In my market, for example, there are roughly 12,000 businesses.

Does this high volume approach (I.e. tens/hundreds of thousands of calls) only apply to B2C where the market allows you to make that many dials sustainably?

Market cap is typically expressed in a yearly amount. Therefore, 100-200m would be the amount of total business in that niche that is generated on an annual basis. If you were able to penetrate 1% of the market, your business would gross 1-2m in revenue per year.

 

[458]

458, I saw some of your other cold calling threads and they were amazing. When did you get in the cold calling game, any previous inside sales jobs? How long do you think it'll take to get to IPO level for your company? You guys seem to be growing like wildfire. Do you think cold calling would work for higher ticket items in the b2b sector? For example, My uncle runs a $200mil company in the cloud computing industry, and his clients are usually smaller-mid size business he charges 17k a month for certain services. When I talked to him, his company is entirely sales based, although they don't cold call, he said it was "outdated" and him and his sales guys pretty much just network/use events to gain clients. In this example, do you think your sales process/strategy could be effective for a business this size?

Cold calling doesn't work for everyone and everything but it works for a lot of things. B2B is typically harder when it comes to cold calling because you first have to get the decision maker on the phone and second convince him or her to stay on the phone with you. There is a much smaller margin of error when cold calling businesses. For example, you can't get me on the phone, its nearly impossible; and if you did i would just hang up the second you ask "Is this X?".

 

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[458]

Hi @458

I have a huge amount of respect for your success. Thanks for being a ressource on this forum!

I am about to start my first service business. Mobile car cleaning with steam. Of what i know of, nobody else are doing this in my geopgraphical area. I live in a rural part of Denmark where agriculture is a big part of the business community.
I want to position my product and business, but i see some different opportunities. The car cleaning business can be either B2C or B2B. I dont know how narrow and specialiced i should market the business/service.
B2C: Everyone can order a car wash.
B2B: Big companies with fleet of cars can buy the services - this include tractors because of the agriculture (This is based on a subscription based business model)

Does the one exclude the other? OR should i create two different business?

Thanks in advance. English are not my mother tongue, but i hope i made myself intelligible.

1. I wouldn't start that business, it violates most of the rules of starting a scale-able profitable business.

2. If you MUST start that type of business then i would focus on calling businesses/individuals that are contractors and give quotes in person at peoples homes. These businesses/individual contractors have to show up in a vehicle that is sparkling clean every single time they go to give a quote. They know that first impressions are everything. And for those that don't do this, just write it in your pitch that you can increase there business through a sparkling first impression.

 

[amp0193]

@458 What are you using to manage SMS follow ups?

My price tag is high, and I use SMS a lot to follow up with customers. It's super effective, but it's all done on the phone, and using two thumbs isn't very efficient.

Just wondering if there's some software that's good for doing SMS follow ups, preferably automated in some way.

 

[jcvlds]

@458 What are you using to manage SMS follow ups?

My price tag is high, and I use SMS a lot to follow up with customers. It's super effective, but it's all done on the phone, and using two thumbs isn't very efficient.

Just wondering if there's some software that's good for doing SMS follow ups, preferably automated in some way.

I've heard of a couple solutions through direct peers or through podcasts. Have never directly used any of them, so sorry I can't add any further insight or details to each.

Thryv, Textedly, and Avochato. I believe some of the full-suite, more robust CRM's also have this capability (e.g. Salesforce, Close.io, et al)

 

[Alex123]

Cold calling doesn't work for everyone and everything but it works for a lot of things. B2B is typically harder when it comes to cold calling because you first have to get the decision maker on the phone and second convince him or her to stay on the phone with you. There is a much smaller margin of error when cold calling businesses. For example, you can't get me on the phone, its nearly impossible; and if you did i would just hang up the second you ask "Is this X?".

Makes sense. What outreach strategy would you recommend for b2b sales? And for future reference, how would you gauge whether or not cold calling will work for your niche, simply through testing? Thanks for your response! The knowledge youre dropping is GOLD.

 

[TheChosenOne]

Hitting stride now but still growing fast, 2019 should have us averaging 150k a week, right now i am at 75k per week.

I've learned a lot as we have grown, who has questions? Add them below and I'll answer (good questions only).

EDIT: SPECIFIC QUESTIONS RELATED TO YOUR OWN STARTUP OR BUSINESS, NOT RELATED TO MINE.

EDIT EDIT: A few current fun facts for everyone:

1. Current Age: 29
2. Xmas gift to myself: Topre Keyboard
3. Drink of choice: COFFEE x 1,000
4. Current work schedule: Mon - Fri 4am to 5pm and Sat 10am to 6pm
5. Current ride: Your mom

Making more than 500k in revenue means at least 37% goes bye bye.
Have you figured out any loopholes that can help reduce those taxes? (Not the usual Depreciation or Shareholder Meetings type of loopholes.)

 

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[458]

@458 What are you using to manage SMS follow ups?

My price tag is high, and I use SMS a lot to follow up with customers. It's super effective, but it's all done on the phone, and using two thumbs isn't very efficient.

Just wondering if there's some software that's good for doing SMS follow ups, preferably automated in some way.

There are hundreds of options out there. Basically anything that is a VOIP app for Windows will work, it just depends on your budget and how much integration/automation you need/want. We use a basic option that allows us to copy and paste phone numbers and messages but not anything that is integrated with another application or API.

Go here and look for something that fits your requirements:

voip app for windows - Google Search

 

[458]

Makes sense. What outreach strategy would you recommend for b2b sales? And for future reference, how would you gauge whether or not cold calling will work for your niche, simply through testing? Thanks for your response! The knowledge youre dropping is GOLD.

Dial 5,000 businesses and see what happens. If after 5,000 dials you have zero prospects, zero follow up calls, zero deals, then its probably a bust.

 

[458]

Making more than 500k in revenue means at least 37% goes bye bye.
Have you figured out any loopholes that can help reduce those taxes? (Not the usual Depreciation or Shareholder Meetings type of loopholes.)

S corp with officer W-2 is the best "income" tax reduction strategy because you can bypass a lot of self employment tax you would otherwise be subject to going Schedule C/LLC route. Other than that, taxes is just a cost of doing business.. If you want to pay less in taxes, make more money. Seriously, if you have an issue paying a lot in taxes, make more money..

 

[Maxboost]

Any mindset hacks for when you first got started?

Any good book recommendations?

 

[458]

Any mindset hacks for when you first got started?

Any good book recommendations?

"No one is going to do the work for you."

 

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[Alex123]

I know you said your market size was roughly 100-200 million, but if the market was much bigger, how would you scale this company to 100 million in revenue?

 

[458]

I know you said your market size was roughly 100-200 million, but if the market was much bigger, how would you scale this company to 100 million in revenue?

Since everything is pretty much systematized and plug and play now in our operation I could scale through just adding more fronters, closers, and admins. To get to 100 million I would need about 5-10 additional fronters, 10-15 additional closers, and 10-15 additional virtual admins.

That brings up a good point though to think about.. If you are just starting out or you are a few years in but are in a niche with the ability to scale to $100 million in revenue, my recommendation would be to first build out all your systems and processes while staying in the revenue range of $300k - $1m without using leverage and then once you have a truly bullet proof system that only requires you to add additional personnel to scale, that is when you can quickly go from $1m to $20m and then to $50m and up by using leverage without going bust along the way. The money is in the system and its better to first build it and then scale, than to scale and build it at the same time.

 

[Andreas Thrane]

1. I wouldn't start that business, it violates most of the rules of starting a scale-able profitable business.

2. If you MUST start that type of business then i would focus on calling businesses/individuals that are contractors and give quotes in person at peoples homes. These businesses/individual contractors have to show up in a vehicle that is sparkling clean every single time they go to give a quote. They know that first impressions are everything. And for those that don't do this, just write it in your pitch that you can increase there business through a sparkling first impression.

Thanks for the reply.

When you say scale-able, do you mean CENTS?

 

[458]

Thanks for the reply.

When you say scale-able, do you mean CENTS?

Google.com

 

[LightHouse]

I know you said your market size was roughly 100-200 million, but if the market was much bigger, how would you scale this company to 100 million in revenue?

The ultimate mental masturbation question....

 

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[MyDuckets]

I get the impression you aren't actually performing the service - is that correct?

If so, do you use 1 or multiple providers for the service?

How do you structure those relationships and what is your quality assurance process like?

 

[458]

I get the impression you aren't actually performing the service - is that correct?

If so, do you use 1 or multiple providers for the service?

How do you structure those relationships and what is your quality assurance process like?

Actually we perform 100% of our services in house through our own employees.

 

[Ocean Man]

2:40 AM here, just finished reading all your progress threads. And it's great to see you continuing to answer the majority, if not all, the questions asked. Honestly, I'd love to hop on a call with you, but to be honest, I have nothing to provide and really don't have any questions prepared.

I do have a personal question though, and I hope you don't mind if I ask it.
How has your relationship with your girlfriend been (through start until now)?
You've put in so many hours over the years, day in and day out. I would think that would cause some strain or hardships on the relationship. e.g. Not being able to spend enough time together. For me, relationships are extremely important, and if that means earning 5/10mil instead of 40mil by reducing the number of hours, but still being able to have my relationship. That's what I'll do.

 

[458]

2:40 AM here, just finished reading all your progress threads. And it's great to see you continuing to answer the majority, if not all, the questions asked. Honestly, I'd love to hop on a call with you, but to be honest, I have nothing to provide and really don't have any questions prepared.

I do have a personal question though, and I hope you don't mind if I ask it.
How has your relationship with your girlfriend been (through start until now)?
You've put in so many hours over the years, day in and day out. I would think that would cause some strain or hardships on the relationship. e.g. Not being able to spend enough time together. For me, relationships are extremely important, and if that means earning 5/10mil instead of 40mil by reducing the number of hours, but still being able to have my relationship. That's what I'll do.

Since i started I have had a few girlfriends and yes most of them didn't like my hours.. However, if they like you or love you, they will put up with it. The key is finding one that only complains about it once in awhile.. Most of them will complain about it every chance they get, women love to complain. (I can hear them complaining right now about that sentence.)

In regard to reducing your hours, you can do that, but only after the business has been built. IE. 5-10 years of 80-100 hour weeks.