How to Grow Your Contracting Business in a Downturn – In Just 7 Minutes with Tom Reber

 Discover how you can increase your sales as a contractor without overworking Know more on how to avoid unwanted mistakes in your business as a contractor Learn how to avoid “Feast or Famine” through recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of your business Resources/Links: Check out Tom’s Worksheet: http://www.thecontractorfight.com/50 Summary Is it difficult for you to take your business as a contractor to the next level? Do you want to steady and widen your sales? Are you ready to avoid “feast and famine”? Tom Reber is the creator of The Contractor Fight, a movement of Home Improvement Contractors who are taking back control of their businesses and fattening their wallets. In this episode, Tom talks about how it’s possible for you to increase your sales as a contactor without overworking. He also shares his insights on what you should do and what you should avoid as a contractor. Check out these episode highlights: 1:25 - Tom’s ideal client: “Our ideal client is the already successful Home Improvement Contractor. The guy, or the girl, that person who they know they have another gear. They've proven they can make some money; they can sell some jobs; they can get the phone to ring. But they just can't seem to get to that next level, whatever that next level means for them.” 1:53 - Problem Tom helps solve: “Well, contrary to popular belief, the average Home Improvement Contractor in the United States only makes about 55 to 60 grand a year. And so, with all the risks they take, and this and that, most of them like, you know, most entrepreneurs, you're good at the craft, right? You know the thing, but nobody ever taught you how to run a business, how to lead people, how to sell, what it means to really know your numbers, marketing, and all those things. And so, that's really the big problem. At the end of the day time these guys are, they're broke, they've worked 10, 20 years in a career that they have nothing to show for it.” 2:58 - Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Tom: “It's feast or famine. You know, the phone's ringing 40 times a day or it's not ringing at all. I've got a crazy amount of work and I don't know how I'm going to do it all. Or I've got nothing on the calendar for the next, you know, three weeks. So, feast or famine.” 3:55 - Common mistakes that people make before they find Tom’s solution: “Well, they try it out to work the problem. They just think putting in more hours, more time, taking on more projects, more clients more jobs, that's a big mistake people make. They also, try to do it all instead of what we say hit one nail in at a time. You know, if I'm a carpenter and I'm tapping a nail in over here and one in over here, at the end of the day, if I never finished a nail, I got upset nails, I accomplished nothing. Exactly. And so that's a big thing.” 5:03 - Tom’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “So, this is the game-changer. Seriously. Like, we've seen this happen with thousands of people over the years. If you simply figure out exactly what it's going to cost you to produce the job, so, say labor’s going to be 300 bucks, the material's going to be 100 bucks, it's 400 bucks. At least double it and sell it there so that you'll have after you produce the work, you have what we call a 50% gross profit.” 6:01 - Tom’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Tom’s Worksheet: thecontractorfight.com/50 7:13 - Q: Why do I do this? A: It really comes down to the fact that my mission with The Contractor Fight and our company is to bring respect and dignity back to the t...