As I sit here eating my lunch in a beauty brands parking lot for marketing purposes (and I’m out of eyeliner), I can’t help but be grateful for the busiest season to date. But it also, occurred to me that I’m probably 1/10th as busy as some of you are. So I have a giant favor(s) to ask.
If someone asks a question that has been asked many times before and they may not know the proper search terms, can we consider responding with some search terms that might help? Or a link or two to posts you can remember without much effort on your part?
This does two things:
Teaches a man (or woman) to fish?
Frees you up from reiterating information you’ve probably spent hours reiterating if you’ve been here for awhile if not days if you’ve been here a LONG while.
I’m super grateful for all the great info and contributors, but we’ve all got long to-do lists and many of you that includes significant others or kids.
If you’re not sure if updated information is in the search results or you’d like to take the time to give a man the fish. By all means.
But you may be hurting their overall success as a business owner too.
Just my two cents. Feel free to let me know if you think the idea is selfish and awful. I’d love to hear your opinion.
Lastly, because it belongs under busy season etiquette, a lot of us have put out our email addresses or phone numbers with an open invitation for those with questions… but if you text me or email me (both have happened) without introducing yourself and just tell me the project and ask how much you should charge or asking for the documents I’ve offered in the past from bigbootymama@yahoo.com or some other personal email address or random number it gets deep sixed instantly.
Deep six = tossed into the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean never to be thought of again. Davey Jones locker.
I don’t send out documents or pricing or anything anymore. It’s all here now for the most part including stuff from other contributors who’s stuff is far better than mine anyhow.
I’m endlessly grateful for all the contributors and the gold mine that is this forum. I was just reading a post from a few years ago the other day that probably hadn’t been opened in as long.
I’m here to help you learn how to fish. It’s not just about getting stuff clean. It’s a business first. So give it the effort.
I personally owe a ton to this forum and the contributors. Had a 2.7k week which I know is a bad week for most of you guys here but it was a great week for me and the calls for estimates & scheduling keep rolling in. The info is invaluable here. From washing techniques to marketing hacks it all helps… soak it all in & hit up that search bar . There’s a ton of great info out there
Also finished a job today & went to tell homeowner & do walk around. She couldn’t believe I was done in under 3hrs & looked skeptical, said guy she had 2 years ago was there for 7 hrs. After walk around she thanked me & said house actually came out a lot better this time too. Knowledge is power!
What amazes me is how much great information there is in past posts. I learn so much from reading through old posts. I’d search for one topic and end up learning 100 more topics just from reading through posts trying to find the answer to my original question. It’s definitely the better way to learn instead of asking a bunch of basic questions over and over again and getting a single answer each time. Plus, you’ll save time and get an instant answer if you just search for it. Not saying all answers are there but you’ll still learn just trying to search for your question.
I think some get upset when they are told to search but they need to realize that many would rather spend time with their family or be out making money than to spend time typing an answer to the exact same question for the one thousandth time.
The way I see it is it’s my business and I don’t want anyone, nor do I expect anyone, to spoon feed me. I guess a lot of it for me is not wanting to take up people’s time unless I have too. The great part is there are guys here to help if I’m having trouble figuring something out.
Every time I see someone get mad when they are told to use the search bar for a basic question reminds me of how our society has implemented the “every kid gets a trophy”. Whoever thought of that idea needs kicked in the teeth.
Sheesh, They give you some authority and power on here and now you’re trying to sloth off all your admin duties #1 being, to be the first to answer all the questions that have been asked more than five times. What a slacker, LOL.
Google aggregates your Facebook reviews below the map listing too. Reviews are reviews.
I never asked for reviews on Facebook until this year. I found its somewhat easier to get them. People love being on Facebook and if you send them a link to get back on it they’ll take it.
I just gotta figure out how to get people to stop posting them as visitor posts. I think I’d be at 16-17 instead of the 12 I’m at if I knew how to send a link directly to the review form.
Yes I agree. Everyone uses FB and actually the majority of my customers so far haven’t had a gmail email anyways. I’ve actually gotten 2 reviews sent to me as private messages haha oh well
For future reference, If the last thing your customer hears is how huge reviews are for you and how grateful you are they’d take the two minutes to leave you one, then you copy and paste a link into a text from your phone, you’ll get a review within minutes from every 3rd or 4th customer.
I ask every time.
In the first call: Be sure to check out our awesome reviews on Google, HomeAdvisor, Angie’s List, and now Facebook.
Before hand: if I knock your socks off would you be willing to leave a review on Facebook or google?
After: Can I ask a favor? Reviews are so important for me as a small business. If I text you a couple links would you mind picking one and taking 2 minutes to leave a review? I’d be super grateful.
1 customer will always say yes to be nice without any intention of leaving reviews. 1 customer will say yes and then get sidetracked and it’ll take a few days or even weeks. 1 customer will forget entirely. And 1 customer will leave you a review within minutes.
Without formally tracking I pretty certain there’s a 25-30% chance a customer will leave a review.
Unless they’re commercial for some reason. Can’t figure that out.
You just started and have done 60 houses… that’s awesome Mike.
Before I found this forum, I was knocking on doors, wasting tons of time, stumbling around not knowing downstreaming was a thing, and did maybe 30 houses my 1st year.
Good for you man. Do you have a goal for the year?
I have a dollar that says this was @Innocentbystander, but even if it wasn’t… it’s only fair to tell you that my ol’ man and I got a great laugh out of it.
