Successful people are simply those with successful habits.   

Brian Tracy

Chapter 12

Hoping To Get Paid!

If you take a job “hoping” to get paid, several things happen.

Just like a dog can smell fear, people can “smell” that attitude in the contractor.

It communicates that:

1. You don’t have much confidence in yourself or your ability.
2. You are not a real business.
3. You come off as a low status contractor or business.
4. When you give away your expertise and/or your knowledge for free, that is the poor contractor mentality. It is also why so many contractors are poor. They don’t really think much of themselves or the service they provide.

Rule #23 – We Never Do A Job Hoping To Get Paid.

But that is not the only problem. The real problem is what happens in your mind.

Think about how you feel each time you take a job or look at a job “hoping” to get paid. At the least, it is demeaning. You feel terrible on the inside and at the mercy of the person.

I sent a text to another contractor today that stated: “They are hiring you or buying your services to see if the unit can be saved. Whether the repair of the unit looks acceptable or not, they have still hired you. Don’t do anything for free hoping to make a little money. That damages your psyche.”

Some people, knowing how you feel, or how you see yourself, will use that against you. “Well, that is not quite what I expected. I was expecting something a little better.”  Now you feel guilty for asking to be paid. Many times things cannot be made perfect.

There are much better ways of dealing with these situations.

You have to have enough respect for yourself to believe and know that you deserve to be paid. That attitude has quite a different “smell,” and most people can tell that one, too.

I had a builder call today and ask me to look at a certain problem he had and let him know if it could be repaired. I told him he might as well let me repair it while I was there because the cost was the same for a trip charge to “look” as it was to repair. Once it was repaired, then he could decide if he wanted to keep the unit or replace it. He agreed to that idea. I will get paid even if he replaces the unit.

By handling the situation this way, he knows he will have to pay for my services either way. It feels much better for me also. It is fair to him and also to me and my family. Rather than doing this inspection for free, I could be doing another job that paid.

People should expect to pay you. They are paying for your expertise and knowledge. Folks should expect to pay for that. We have many calls where they just want us to “come take a look” at their problem, whatever it is. We are upfront and tell them it is $XX.XX for us to “look”. Knowing that we have a service fee for looking at a problem, many are glad to pay it.

So I recommend they send us pictures, and we can go from there. Since we do charge for inspections, we try to solve problems over the phone from pictures and give those recommendations for free.  Once I explain why we need the pictures, that we are trying to save them the cost of an inspection, they are usually grateful.

If people in your area learn you are willing to come “take a look” for free, you will not have time to make a living.  They will bury you in calls.

When you tell clients up front what you charge for your services, generally, they are willing to pay that — especially if you come recommended.

If you don’t bring up the cost of an inspection until you tell them it cannot be repaired, they many times will balk at paying you. They will say you did not do anything.

It is not fair or honest for people to expect you to give away your recommendations for free if you have to visit their job site. It is also not fair or honest to have you attempt to do a job they know may not be perfect and then expect not to pay. With inspections, sometimes that is unavoidable especially if it is for a large client. But even with them, you can be frank and let them know what your fee is for inspections, recommendations or advice.  Remember, they are hiring you to attempt to repair or to recommend.

It is also not fair to your family to give away for free what has taken you years to acquire in knowledge and expertise. Your family deserves better than “free.”

You will also be able to hold your head a little higher, people will have much more respect for you and they will have more respect for your recommendations and attempts to make a bad unit acceptable. This feels far better than “hoping” to get paid.  It is a completely different attitude.

This is not done with any arrogance or haughty pride but just with an expectation of being paid for your service whether it is an inspection or an actual job.

These things are worth thinking about both for your psyche and your pocketbook.

Proverbs 12:17 A good man is known by his truthfulness…. (The Living Bible)

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring 
to the hour.

Jim Rohn

Chapter 11

Rule #22 – Charge Like a Business  

The lady says, “You don’t charge for that do you? You just got here.” Sometimes our job only takes one to five minutes.

The builder standing there watching says, “That did not take long.  Are you giving me a discounted price?”

Another lady says, “Wow! That was simple. I’ll bet you don’t charge the builder much do you?”

“It is a trip charge ma’am.”

“I am going to turn you in to the builder!”

A new contractor told me one time that they only charge $15-20/hour.

One thing all these people have in common is that they are thinking in terms of paying a labor charge.

Think about it.  There is a great difference between paying a business for coming to your home and paying a day laborer you have hired to work.  One is a business – and one is a laborer.

If an electrician comes to your house and all he has to do is change out a light bulb to fix the problem, you still pay his company’s minimum trip charge because he represents and works for a business.

Most businesses should have a minimum trip charge for work, inspections on site, or giving advice on site. For example, in contracting these trip charges may run from $95.00 to $150.00. The business charges the trip charge, and they pay the electrician or plumber by the hour for their labor, $15-25.00 per hour.

The expenses to run a business are much greater than the expenses of showing up to work as a laborer.

I have listed here some of the expenses a business has to pay for overhead.

Expenses for a business:

• Workman’s Comp Insurance
• Contractor’s Liability Insurance
• Local Licenses
• Truck
• Truck Insurance
• Fuel
• Vehicle Maintenance
• Fax Machine/Printer/Copier
• Land Line for Phone
• Cell Phone
• Computer
• Bookkeeping Software
• Other Types of Software
• Internet Access
• Office Space
• Office Equipment
• Office Supplies
• Tools and Equipment
• Supplies
• Website
• Website Design and Management
• Drive time to the job

Expenses for laborer:

• Clothes
• Shoes

So if you are just beginning the business of contracting and you have been a laborer for years, you have to change how you think. It may be a shock to your mind to now charge like a business instead of being paid for labor, but you can do it.  Many other people have made the jump.

Since you are a business and not just a worker or laborer, you may need to dress like you own a business. Think like a business man or woman, and see yourself as one who owns a business.

You cannot charge $15-20 per hour, pay the list of expenses itemized above, then hand your spouse the change and expect them to pay all your personal household expenses.  You will go broke.

If you are going to contract business, you have to charge like a business!

Proverbs 13:11 Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears;

wealth from hard work grows over time.  New Living Translation

Successful people are simply those with successful habits.   Brian Tracy

SONY DSC

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.  Vince Lombardi

Chapter 10

How to Make Yourself Heard

Rule #21 – Learn Good Marketing Skills

When I first went into business for myself, my first client said, “I already have a service provider, but they won’t answer the phone, and they won’t call me back.” So that became my first rule: Always call them back; always be available. One thing I’ve learned, people will accept a lower standard of quality if you are easily available. Not returning phone calls is very frustrating to people no matter how great your quality of services or products are. If they are in a hurry, if they need it done right now, and they know they can get a hold of you, they will call you even if your quality is not as good as the other guys. This is not an excuse for poor quality, but just to show how important good marketing is. Being available by phone is part of marketing.

You don’t have to be the best in your field to be successful, but you do have to know about marketing. Marketing can include many different things:

• the way you dress,
• phone call etiquette,
• business cards,
• websites, etc.,
• AND knowing who holds the key in your market.

One of my accounts told me that they used our quick responses to phone calls and service calls to sell their products because the other service provider at times took months to get the jobs done. So we use our fast response to phone calls as part of our marketing. We put on our business cards, “We return telephone calls promptly.” That wholesaler used us to market their products.

Marketing does not have to cost a lot of money. I like the principles of Guerilla Marketing which is low cost or no cost marketing. It is very effective even though it might be free. One of the best authors on the subject is J. Abrams. He is great at Guerilla Marketing and has written several books on the topic. Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition is one of his well-known books.

Sometimes all it takes is one or two good ideas to make a huge difference in your marketing.

I remember reading in one of Robert Kyosaki’s books a conversation he had with a young female writer. He said, “I have read your work and you are very good.” “Yes,” she responded, “but I don’t sell very many books.” Robert said, “You need to look into marketing.” She responded, “I am a college grad, and that would be ‘sales’!” (Sales are a little beneath the class of a college grad). Robert told her he was not nearly as good a writer as she was, but he sold a lot of books. He said that marketing is the key. You don’t have to be the best at your craft, but if you can market well, that will put you right up at the top.

If you have days or a week or two when you are not busy (as we all do if we run a small business or are self-employed), one thing to know is that you will get busy again. So, in those off times, that’s when you can concentrate on marketing. You can:

• Work on your website or websites.
• Work on your twitter accounts.
• Clean out your truck.
• Organize your materials.
• Post to Facebook.
• Post to Instagram.
• Work on expediting your processes.
• Talk to your mentors.
• Talk to the key pins in your marketing process such as wholesalers, manufacturers, or large clients.
• Read books on marketing.
• Strategize.

In order for people to beat a path to your door, they have to know about you. Every field requires a different marketing strategy. Marketing can also include branding, a logo, and/or twitter accounts. If you are marketing a book, Michael Hyatt’s book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World is helpful.

Another book is Jeff Walker’s book:  Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula To Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You Love, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams.

Probably the biggest key is to pray a lot. God’s hand is with you because you are one of His children, and you should expect to see His hand at work to open doors for your business and to protect your business.

The Bible says that wisdom is worth more than rubies. Marketing is a type of wisdom. Once you learn the importance of it and the rudiments of how to do it, it can make you a lot of money. Without marketing, you could have the greatest service, product or book in the world and be very short on sales.

I have asked many people what they do to market their business. Many times their response is, “My work speaks for itself, and I get most of my work or business through referrals.” I believe this is a lazy man’s way of saying he is content with what he gets even if it is not much.

Marketing works. If all that was required was word of mouth, why do so many businesses advertise?

Walmart, Kohl’s, Stihl, movies, drug companies, Ford Motor Company, and the list goes on forever. It is because marketing works.

Many people are very good at what they do, like the female writer above, but they never really reach their full monetary potential because of a lack of understanding of marketing. We want to not only be good in our craft, business or books but good at marketing, too. That gives us a full package for a prosperous venture in our living The Prosperous Life.

Proverbs 21:5 Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity,

but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.  New Living Translation

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.  Brian Tracy

Chapter 9

Be Bold!

Rule #20 – Be Bold When It Comes to Money

Fear stops us from living a truly prosperous life at times. I have been in contracting for about 40 years, and in that time I have seen many people lose money and go broke because of the fear of asking to get paid.  Boldness is far better and more profitable than fear.

You don’t have to be rude. Just ask. Or in some cases let them know that you need to be paid when the job is complete. We always do this on commercial jobs.

As we conclude the phone conversation about time and pricing, I just tell them we need to get paid the day we are done. They may say they don’t carry checks. We ask if they have a credit card and then ask if that will work for their boss. Also we add $3.50/hundred to do a card because that is what we are charged. Most of the time, they agree.

That is so much simpler than trying to collect from a company that is out of state. If you have ever tried that kind of collecting, you will know what I mean. Generally, it takes three months to get money that way. We just don’t do jobs like that anymore.

With smaller, local contractors we usually ask them to meet us and pay when we are done when it is the first time we have worked for them. Usually, people understand the situation and do just what you ask. If that goes well, we will bill them in the future.

If they object, then that raises a red flag. They may be ones that you would have a hard time collecting from anyway. Tell them you really need to get paid while you are there because they are a new account.

If you stick to your guns, usually they will do that.

This type of dealing with people about money also has the advantage of showing that:

1. You have some integrity.
2. You are not afraid of losing a job.
3. You respect yourself enough to conduct your business properly.
4. Thus, most people will have more respect for you and treat you better.

I worked with a young man years ago that told me the builder owed him for all the materials and labor for five houses. WOW! I asked him why he would do the next one if he was not getting paid.

Fear was the answer:

1. Afraid the builder would not pay for any of it if he asked for the money.
2. Afraid he would not get the next job if he insisted on getting paid.
3. Afraid of the confrontation.

He eventually went broke and got a job.

Fear… some call it sand in the machinery of life.

(More on this in Rule #45)

Boldness without being rude is one of the well-worn paths to The Prosperous Life.

Proverbs 28:1 ….   But the righteous are bold as a lion (KJV)

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.  Vince Lombardi

Chapter 8

Staying Out of Trouble

Someone once said that we don’t communicate well enough. There may be many reasons for that: the wrong choice of words, being unclear about what we really mean, or because we are trying to imply something we hope the person gets, but we really don’t want to come right out and say it.

By rephrasing the words back to the speaker, we can verify that what we are hearing is what the speaker meant.  This can be done with your spouse, children, coworkers or even your boss.

Rephrasing is to say back to the person, in your own words, what they said. “What I hear you saying is…..”

Example:

“What’s for dinner?”

“We were going to have chicken, but I forgot to thaw it out, and I have been so busy today I hadn’t even thought about it.”

“So are you wanting to go out for supper?”

“Would you mind?”

Here is another example:  The salesman writes up a repair order on two of his products sitting in a wholesaler’s warehouse. His company sends the repair order to an independent repair contractor. The contractor sees that one unit is a warranty repair and one has been damaged, probably by the wholesaler’s warehousemen. The repairman calls the manufacturer, and the manufacturer agrees to pay for the one unit with the defect but refuses to pay for the other damaged one.

During the repair the salesman shows up and says to the repairman.

“You are new at this aren’t you? I would hate to lose an account like this as I only have two accounts. Don’t let little “technicalities” cause us to lose this account. This time I will pay for the non-warranty repair.”

Rephrasing: “So what I hear you saying is that no matter what is wrong with the units, you want me to write up the invoice to the manufacturer to show that these are all warranty repairs. Is that right?”

If he says, “yes,” now you know he wants you to lie. You can:

1. Just end the conversation without confirming that you will do that and next time it happens, mention to the manufacturer what you have been instructed to do by their salesman.
2. Let him know that you will only bill warranty repairs to the manufacturer, and if he wants to pay for all the others, you will call him each time to confirm his continued willingness to pay.

Rule #18 – Practice Rephrasing Anything Questionable or Unclear.

Rephrasing can clear up many situations. It can help straighten out fuzzy thinking, help use the right words, make things clearer and at times keep you out of trouble.

Communicating well is part of The Prosperous Life.

Rule #19 – Never Look in the Windows.

I learned this from a direct sales company 45 years ago and have followed it ever since.  If you look in the windows of the house you are knocking on, first of all to passersby or even the homeowner, you appear to be a rube (an uneducated, unsophisticated country boy). This is just rude.

What if you arrived a little earlier that the lady had anticipated, and you see her racing half-dressed to the other end of the house and she sees you?  No matter what you do, that situation is a mess. And remember people talk.

I first ring the doorbell then turn away slightly from the door and step back a bit if that is possible.  On the second ring if the door is not answered, I also add a knock.  Sometimes doorbells don’t work.  Then we try a third time before I would call them on the phone.  Sometimes they are running the vacuum, etc. and did not hear you.

If you stand back a ways, you don’t seem to be so much in their space when they open the door.

Think about it!

Proverbs15:8….  The prayers of the upright are his delight (The New KJV)