Business is two parts
1. Acquisition
2. Fulfillment of obligation
When I think of business in this way, everything becomes much clearer and mistakes become obvious.
Lawn care company
I currently run a lawn care company in washington state. I started it around June of last year. I quickly got customers but realized with any amount of advertising, my schedule would quickly fill up for the year.
"Where's my problem?" Acquisition or fulfillment of obligation? The demand or the supply?
The fulfillment of obligation obviously. This is fixed through fixing processes, narrowing focuses, eliminating problem customers, using contracts, etc. This makes it more profitable, more scalable, and creates a business that actually works.
I went so far in that direction that a single average lawn care contract produces roughly $1,000 in profit and each customer is bound to a year-long contract of monthly payments automatically withdrawn from their bank account each month. We have a cancellation fee as well. Through our online systems, I can sign customers up, monitor workers, and do everything from a laptop anywhere.
Because I intentionally made my conditions less "attractive" for many customers who want to pay cash, not pay until work is done, or want one time services, it makes it harder to get customers. That's okay.
Time to focus on acquisition.
I bought a list of phone numbers in my zip code. There's 5,000 numbers within a few miles from me. I recorded a message using an app "slybroadcast" and here's what it says.
"Hi, my name’s Johnathan from (company) and I just signed up one of your neighbors for lawn care. And I offered them 20% off if they gave me a phone number of a neighbor of theirs that eventually signed up. The reason I called is because I wanted to offer you 20% off as well. So that would be 20% off lawn care for both of you because you’d be on the same street. If you wanted a free quote for this year just give me a call back at (phone #). Thanks, and have a nice day. Hope to hear from you soon."
The app I use sends out that message as a voicemail so it seems like I tried calling them and just left a message. They've been calling back and here's what I say.
"Hey, just got a call from you. Who recommended me?"
"Oh hey! Let me check my notes. Uh...Rachael gave me your number *says the number that called me but says the wrong number by one digit*"
"Oh that's the wrong number".
"Oh I'm sorry about that. You don't live in (city) do you?"
"I do"
"Oh wow, okay well I can still extend the discount to you since I called you even if it was the wrong number it's the least I can do. Do you usually get lawn care from a company?"
You see where I'm going with this.
So each morning I send out x amount of vm's and get signups on demand. Each message costs me 6-10 cents each so it's definitely worth it.
Time: less than an hour. An hour for each appointment if they prefer I show up in person. But I can sign them up anywhere actually.
Real estate
I am partnered with a real estate investor and agent who owns 17 rentals in my area. We get lists of people who would likely be selling their homes (upcoming foreclosures) and we wholesale the properties or he buys them personally and I make thousands each deal we get.
I use a program a data analyst friend I know made to filter through the data and find the best people to contact. I roll up at their house and work out a deal with them and it comes out to a $300-500/hr job. I only do it on the weekends.
Time: a few hours a week.
Consulting and web design
I was bored one day and felt like I could tell companies how to suck less at marketing, so I whipped up a marketing and web design brand with a good (great) website in a few hours.
I made a craigslist ad and posted it in Seattle, San Fran, LA, NYC, Dallas.
I got two clients within a couple of days and a total of $30 spent in ads.
I hopped on the phone with the first one and talked to her about her accounting firm for 2 hours. She just sent me $1,000.
I'm doing some consulting for the other client tomorrow morning. We'll see how that goes.
Time: a few hours a week.
In total
Each morning I send out voicemails, post some ads nationally, and each weekend I knock on some doors.
The rest of my time is mostly free.
I'll let calls go to voicemail. Call them back in one batch when it's convenient. Check email for new leads, and call real estate leads for follow up for a little bit. This only takes an hour in total at most.
Each day, I write out "acquisition" and "obligations" and write down two things: 1. the most effective ways to acquire more stuff that pays me and 2. what I have to do to fulfill my obligations to get paid. These things take me very little time each day.
"You run three businesses?"
I guess. I have three revenue streams with high $/hr returns. But I have quite a bit of time that I'll have to start filling with more things. As of lately since I started being more efficient I don't know what to do. Go to the gym more? Visit my sister who's in college? Take a trip somewhere? Idk. I'm enjoying myself just fine chilling at home listening to some music thinking about how I don't have to listen to people tell me what to do.
I'm going to stay focused and put energy into maintaining, growing, tweaking and saving for a rainy day. I'm very much looking forward to having cash for the next recession and buying some properties.
1. Acquisition
2. Fulfillment of obligation
When I think of business in this way, everything becomes much clearer and mistakes become obvious.
Lawn care company
I currently run a lawn care company in washington state. I started it around June of last year. I quickly got customers but realized with any amount of advertising, my schedule would quickly fill up for the year.
"Where's my problem?" Acquisition or fulfillment of obligation? The demand or the supply?
The fulfillment of obligation obviously. This is fixed through fixing processes, narrowing focuses, eliminating problem customers, using contracts, etc. This makes it more profitable, more scalable, and creates a business that actually works.
I went so far in that direction that a single average lawn care contract produces roughly $1,000 in profit and each customer is bound to a year-long contract of monthly payments automatically withdrawn from their bank account each month. We have a cancellation fee as well. Through our online systems, I can sign customers up, monitor workers, and do everything from a laptop anywhere.
Because I intentionally made my conditions less "attractive" for many customers who want to pay cash, not pay until work is done, or want one time services, it makes it harder to get customers. That's okay.
Time to focus on acquisition.
I bought a list of phone numbers in my zip code. There's 5,000 numbers within a few miles from me. I recorded a message using an app "slybroadcast" and here's what it says.
"Hi, my name’s Johnathan from (company) and I just signed up one of your neighbors for lawn care. And I offered them 20% off if they gave me a phone number of a neighbor of theirs that eventually signed up. The reason I called is because I wanted to offer you 20% off as well. So that would be 20% off lawn care for both of you because you’d be on the same street. If you wanted a free quote for this year just give me a call back at (phone #). Thanks, and have a nice day. Hope to hear from you soon."
The app I use sends out that message as a voicemail so it seems like I tried calling them and just left a message. They've been calling back and here's what I say.
"Hey, just got a call from you. Who recommended me?"
"Oh hey! Let me check my notes. Uh...Rachael gave me your number *says the number that called me but says the wrong number by one digit*"
"Oh that's the wrong number".
"Oh I'm sorry about that. You don't live in (city) do you?"
"I do"
"Oh wow, okay well I can still extend the discount to you since I called you even if it was the wrong number it's the least I can do. Do you usually get lawn care from a company?"
You see where I'm going with this.
So each morning I send out x amount of vm's and get signups on demand. Each message costs me 6-10 cents each so it's definitely worth it.
Time: less than an hour. An hour for each appointment if they prefer I show up in person. But I can sign them up anywhere actually.
Real estate
I am partnered with a real estate investor and agent who owns 17 rentals in my area. We get lists of people who would likely be selling their homes (upcoming foreclosures) and we wholesale the properties or he buys them personally and I make thousands each deal we get.
I use a program a data analyst friend I know made to filter through the data and find the best people to contact. I roll up at their house and work out a deal with them and it comes out to a $300-500/hr job. I only do it on the weekends.
Time: a few hours a week.
Consulting and web design
I was bored one day and felt like I could tell companies how to suck less at marketing, so I whipped up a marketing and web design brand with a good (great) website in a few hours.
I made a craigslist ad and posted it in Seattle, San Fran, LA, NYC, Dallas.
I got two clients within a couple of days and a total of $30 spent in ads.
I hopped on the phone with the first one and talked to her about her accounting firm for 2 hours. She just sent me $1,000.
I'm doing some consulting for the other client tomorrow morning. We'll see how that goes.
Time: a few hours a week.
In total
Each morning I send out voicemails, post some ads nationally, and each weekend I knock on some doors.
The rest of my time is mostly free.
I'll let calls go to voicemail. Call them back in one batch when it's convenient. Check email for new leads, and call real estate leads for follow up for a little bit. This only takes an hour in total at most.
Each day, I write out "acquisition" and "obligations" and write down two things: 1. the most effective ways to acquire more stuff that pays me and 2. what I have to do to fulfill my obligations to get paid. These things take me very little time each day.
"You run three businesses?"
I guess. I have three revenue streams with high $/hr returns. But I have quite a bit of time that I'll have to start filling with more things. As of lately since I started being more efficient I don't know what to do. Go to the gym more? Visit my sister who's in college? Take a trip somewhere? Idk. I'm enjoying myself just fine chilling at home listening to some music thinking about how I don't have to listen to people tell me what to do.
I'm going to stay focused and put energy into maintaining, growing, tweaking and saving for a rainy day. I'm very much looking forward to having cash for the next recession and buying some properties.
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