How many customers were you dealing with per year on average to break the million mark? Most of that work is apartments correct?
About 70 to 80 apartments a year, but only thru about 3 different companies. I lost a lot when I quit offering gutter cleaning along with washing, and gave up the TN, Ga, VA SC stuff. There is more work out there than can possibly be done. I really kept one crew doing residential but not anymore. The guys that are chasing individual houses are in for and endless grind. If your going to wash houses only, go thru a HOA and require a X amount of houses to show up
Ah, so you were sort of scaling in a different way even then 
Once you develop steady work you’ll absolutely need a CRM. I’m still a one man show and have no idea what I’d do without the features a CRM provides. Keeping up with the schedule and estimates/sending the estimates and keeping track of everything wouldn’t only be difficult, it’d take up a lot of time. Besides that (which is extremely important), it makes your company more professional, as it should be.
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But yeah, to add what has already been said, download it and use the free trial (or pay for a month if a free trial isn’t available) and see if it seems efficient for you. It seems it would work well for a company with a handful of trucks but I’m solo so I can’t say for sure.
yeah, that’s my fear. Jobber got unwieldy in calendar view with 4 crews. Although I thin there is a dedicated dispatch view, so I’ll check it out and see. Most CRMs do most stuff, the biggies for me are a dedicated dispatch view (or other way to see the crews in an understandable way), and useful integration with ResponsiBid. None of them seem to give the quality proposal tools RB does, so I’m staying locked in there for sure. We’ll see if it works well.
Yes. Need this in Jobber, badly. It’s my biggest gripe
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I appreciate the feedback! Especially from a fellow one man show with far more experience… What CRM are you liking the best these days? I’ll definitely check it out! This first year has been very manageable but I expect to get beat up this Spring & I’m trying to prepare for that now while I have a chance. I’ve been using a 5 subject notebook for everything & I definitely have a solid workflow down but I’m wide open to the idea of anything that will streamline things moving forward. Based on my limited knowledge, it just seems like putting info into a CRM vs into a notebook would be a similar task… Then there’s the learning curve, glitches, etc… I really like the simplicity of updating my notebook every night & tossing any receipts in the folder.
I don’t worry with reciepts any more. Most are printed on thermal paper and can’t be read after a year usually. My accountant sends an email about once a quarter with a few questions but she can usually figure out how to categorize them based on where the purchase was from. Keep everything as simple as possible.
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Thanks for sharing the wisdom sir! As always. I’m a huge fan of simplicity! With my 5 subject notebook; #1 is expenses plus mileage. #2 is estimates plus mileage. #3 is sales plus mileage. #4 is owners draws (with an area in the back for notes, part numbers, etc…). #5 is for capturing contact info & details when a customer calls. I’m thinking of incorporating an old school schedule planner for estimates & jobs in 2022 so I can fill in the blanks without having to physically remember everything I have scheduled. Anything you would add to that?? Also, I haven’t met her yet but I have a killer accountant up my sleeve. She’s worth her weight in chiropractors for sure. Thanks again dude! I owe you a 6 pack of Cheerwine.
I’m currently using Housecall Pro along with Responsibid. The one way communication bugs me. I know the RB is working on a ton of updates. We’ve found ways to work through most issues. I’ve only ever used HCP. I was told the the connections are going to be improving. HCP has been working on a ton of updates as well. David with RB is a huge help. He has helped me with tons of setup stuff. I know this doesn’t completely answer your questions but hopefully provides some insight on my experience.
Yeah, same with Jobber. The way I understand it, it’s the CRMs not giving RB full API access to develop 2 way interaction with their software. I think they want to make it generally difficult to get your info out of them, to keep you from swapping away easily. When we went from Jobber to ServiceTitan, we had to use Zapier and go through a QuickBooks integration as an intermediate step to get it to work at all…
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Mileage is mileage. It doesn’t matter if it’s for estimates or what not. I’ve never met up with mileage. Just keep up with your fuel. You can keep up with truck fuel and equipment fuel and get a small write off on equipment fuel since it’s not subject to road tax, but it’s not worth the hassle for me. I use a pocket size spiral binder for notes, and a spiral bound Walmart day planner to write in for the schedule. That was my task this week. Next year is booked except for about 15 Fridays that I’ll fill with residential. Most of the time I run the pocket note book thru the washing machine and lose info, but if it’s important they’ll call back 
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You rock dude! Love it! As far as notes go, my phone crapped out a few months ago so I had to get a new one. The one I replaced it with has a “stylus”, which I didn’t care about when I first bought it, but after that it became my new note pad. It’s a button on the bottom of the phone, you push it & a PEN pops out of the phone, at the same time your phone screen turns completely white. While you have the customer on speaker phone, just write down their info on the screen & hit the check mark… it gets saved just like a photo. It comes in handy when you’re on the can & the spiral notebook is in the next room with a customer is on the phone haha. You couldn’t possibly have any idea how much you’ve helped me out. Thanks again sir!
Get a company c/c tied to your checking acct or dedicate a personal one to nothing but company expenses. Use that card for any expenses, gas, etc… Then you’ve got a record in one place of everything spent. For mileage I use Mile IQ. It’s $59/year but saves me a ton.
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Thanks @Racer !!! I started a separate checking acct for the business before ever taking the first job. As far as mileage, I find myself going to the same places all the time for biz expenses; fill up gas jugs, grab a load of SH, Lowe’s, etc… which makes keeping up with mileage easy. (I can flip back a page & see how far away Advance Auto was last month) I just haven’t seen anything yet from a CRM that would suggest it’s any easier than a spiral notebook for a one man show thus far but am totally open to suggestions. You still have to input the info just the same one way or another… I’m def not trying to highjack @JAtkinson post… He’s the guy looking for complex experienced advice here. He’s got a lot going on & would love to streamline his work while making life easier. He just might be the cutting edge of new challenges as far as that goes. I can appreciate that but I like my spiral notebook. Thanks again!
Meh, same problems, just the solutions change as you go through the business life-cycle…unless you’re IBS and have the year booked with annual deals (man I wish). although it might bore me Maybe then I’d actually do some fishing…
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You’re a savvy dude. I firmly believe you’ll figure it out.
Just remember, we’re just random guys on the internet giving advice. My advice is based off of what works for me. My trucks are company owned and I don’t have to separate milage from work versus personal. Fuel tax may vary from state to state. Get all you can from here, but pay an accountant to tell you what to do.
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Sadly, I’m limited to one “like” for this post…
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