The fastest way to a strong bottom line is to build the top line. While the small business owner must always watch expenses, no one can save their way to prosperity.

The surest way to build the top line is good marketing. The four P’s of marketing are product, price, place, and promotion. Over the rest of this series, we will deal with each, but will start with pricing. For service companies, pricing breaks down into four areas…

Motivation is what causes us to take action. What motivates you is different from anyone else, though there are some commonalities. You can’t make someone learn. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. And if the student isn’t ready, well, the teacher may hit a brick wall.

This applies to you, too. Sometimes the reward is so enticing you’ll do anything to get it. Bring on the feather. Sometimes the pain gets so great you will do anything to make it stop. Be grateful for the brick…

Imagine bidding a job to supply and install the plumbing, heating and air conditioning for a new home or building, without any drawings, plans and specifications to go by. The owner just says, “Oh, it will be a two-story dwelling with a bunch of rooms.”

Nobody in his or her right mind would take on such a job. But guess what? Most PHC contractors do something just as silly when it comes to running their businesses…

I am a restaurant person. My first job was handing out cheese samples in the mall for a gourmet cheese company. That was my first job serving food and making sales. I love restaurants…and have worked in virtually every position on the org chart. Perhaps I would still be in the restaurant business if my husband hot rod’s partner had not died.

I have received numerous letters more or less along the same lines, but none as eloquent as what you are about to read. Please excuse it’s length, but it is the heart-felt story of a plumber’s career and he deserves to be heard. It requires no further commentary from me. It speaks for itself…

For 20 years I traveled all over this country attempting to stamp the message of profitability into the lives of the wonderful people in this great industry, and teach them self-respect for the indispensable work they do. It has been a burning passion of mine.

At various times I tried to enlighten, cajole, embarrass or do whatever else it takes to get the message across. I made numerous friends along the way – as well as a few enemies. What is frustrating to me, however, is knowing that my articles and seminars are not enough. If a seminar was all it took for a contractor to turn his or her life around, you would find me presenting them every week of the year. A seminar helps, but it takes more…

As many of you know, Bio-Clean® is one of the best add-on sales products available to service plumbing contractors. This environmentally friendly biological drain cleaner, which comes in powdered form, is a trade exclusive sold directly to plumbing contractors. This little gem is key to upping your average ticket and showing your clients that you do more than just install and repair.

But, how do you get your service techs to sell it?

Leadership is an important component of all successful HVAC, plumbing, and electrical independent contracting companies. But a strong and mature leader is one who desires to mentor, grow, and cultivate future leaders that are following in their footsteps. While recruiting great coworkers is always an important part of growing a company, it is also vitally important that leaders cultivate leadership skills in longtime and loyal coworkers that have been part of their company team through good and bad.

In a classic Lennox dealer meeting video, the Lennox territory manager encourages Dealer Jack to provide training for his technicians.

“What if I train them and they leave?” exclaims Dealer Jack.

“What if you don’t and they stay?” counters the TM.

As amazing as it seems, many small businesses hesitate to invest in training for their employees. They would rather retain ignorance than to risk losing competence. The irony is that by training, they do neither.

Recruiting and keeping good employees, especially service techs, is the most difficult thing I know of in the PHC service business. I’m sure that Blau Sudden Services has a better track record than most firms in the industry, simply because we offer one of the best compensation and benefits packages to be found anywhere. Our service technicians have been here an average of seven years, with two at the 23-year mark in tenure. Office personnel average five years of service, with a couple in the 10-year range.

But our track record of employee retention is hardly ideal. Several months ago we lost a service tech that had been with us for close to 20 years. This was an eye-opener to me…