Your logo is the workhorse of your marketing arsenal. It appears everywhere. It’s in all your print ads and on your website; it’s featured prominently on your trucks, uniforms, magnets, stickers and valve tags; it’s the first thing people see when they receive your business cards and letters on your company stationery; and so on. Your logo is incredibly important. It helps tie all your marketing elements together, and it can communicate a great deal about your company. It can tell consumers what you do (plumbing, HVAC or electrical); it can communicate your company’s personality (for example, lighthearted or serious); and it can help communicate your main message (for example, fast response time).

In the old Popeye cartoons, Wimpy never had enough money for a hamburger. He would offer to pay for today’s hamburger in the future. Wimpy was trying to negotiate the terms of a fixed price sale.

It seems ridiculous when it occurs in a cartoon. It should seem just as ridiculous when your customers similarly attempt to negotiate with you. When your customer compares your price to a competitor’s, is the customer comparing apples to apples or a filet mignon from a nice restaurant with the taco stand? After all, both are using beef. What’s the difference?

I adore a man who can work with his hands. I admire a woman who knows how to handle a channelocks. I appreciate a well laid-out mechanical room. I’m a huge fan of trades people.

Trades people are more in touch with the truth than other people. They are a no-nonsense group. They know that the electrical current is there, or it’s not. The burner fires up, or it doesn’t. It’s plumb, or it’s out of plumb. Trades people have remarkable “baloney” detectors. They identify quality by performance. They know that actions, not words, are the true measure of a person. Trades people understand the material universe and the way things work. That understanding is becoming increasingly rare.

Contractors often ask me what’s the best method to use to invoice time and material work, extras or service / repair work. It seems that many PHC contractors experience difficulty with clients regarding this matter.

Most citizens shop at the local supermarket weekly and sometimes bi-weekly. As a result of these frequent visits, they become wise and prudent shoppers who are familiar with the market price of a pound of hamburger, a bag of sugar and a loaf of bread.

However, not many citizens patronize a PHC contractor more than once a year, usually less than that. As a result John Q. Public doesn’t have the slightest idea of the market price for our goods and services because he simply does not purchase our wares as frequently as he does food, clothing or a “Big Mac.”

April 9, 2010 – Burlingame, California – The idea started with a story from a mother to her daughter. This story planted the seed of thought that you can make a difference one person at a time. My New Red Shoes is a way that Heather Hopkins decided to make a change in her city.

At Nexstar’s Owners’ Spotlight Series, internationally recognized business visionary Bob Prosen encouraged independent plumbing, HVAC and electrical service business owners from across the continent to “kiss theory goodbye” and move towards superior leadership. Kiss Theory Goodbye is also the title of Prosen’s best-selling book in which he highlights

Once upon a time, Business Mogul Warren Buffer bought the Washington Post newspaper. The previous owner and publisher at the time was Katharine Graham. Ms. Graham is one of my heroes. Her father built the paper and transitioned it to Phil Graham, Katharine’s husband. Katherine took on the publishing duties when her husband committed suicide. She guided the newspaper to editorial greatness, and navigated the Watergate scandal as Bernstein and Woodward reported it on the front pages. But the company was in financial trouble.

The Profit & Loss Statement shows the results of business operations for a stated period of the fiscal year – month, quarter, entire year, etc. It summarizes the relationships of income and expenses that occur between balance sheet dates, and details changes in the net worth of a company.

Analyzing the Profit & Loss Statement (henceforth referred to as “P & L”) is vital to understanding the day-to-day operation of one’s business. And frankly, producing a P & L only once a year just isn’t enough. A whole year is plenty of time for a business to go bankrupt before the owner even knows what hit him! It should be done monthly, or at a minimum, quarterly.

You are invited to expand your horizons at…

The New Orleans Roundtable

The second national meeting of the Service Roundtable will be the New Orleans Roundtable. At our first national meeting last fall, you told us that the peer-to-peer Roundtables were your favorite part of the meeting. You wanted more of them. In New Orleans, you’ll get them. Unlike other contractor meetings, the New Orleans Roundtable is focused on contractors interacting with each other.