“How much will a new water heater sot me – mine is leaking?” Anyone in the PHC service business hears this question and others like it numerous times a day over the phone. Most attempt to answer it by quoting an hourly labor rate or giving a “ballpark” estimate of what the job will cost based on the caller’s description of the problem.

Once upon a time, I worked at The Body Shop. The Body Shop is that green store with the prime location at your local mall. They sell perfume oils and lavender body scrub and lip gloss that tastes like mangos. I love The Body Shop products and I was excited to learn the retail game. So, I got a job there.

It was fun! The sales presentation was to get customers to try the lotions and potions. It worked…the smell and feel of sesame body butter sells itself.

Interestingly, NO ONE came in the day after the sale and accused me of ripping them off. The same people who cry foul at a middle-of-the-night drain cleaning charge will drop $250 on nut oil massage products without blinking an eye.

Let’s open with this question: If you were offered the opportunity to invest $10,000 and get $100,000+ back in five years, would you make the investment? Business owners who understand the value of training are making this kind of investment regularly and reaping the rewards. Read on to learn the benefits of training and how to calculate the return on their training investment.

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.

It’s no secret that times are tough right now in the business world. But on the bright side, some economic reports are beginning to look a little more optimistic and talk of economic recovery is all over the news. Markets tend to be cyclical, and in this case, it is just a matter of time before we head into another era of economic prosperity. When we reach that time and you need to hire more employees to get the work done, will you be ready and will your employees be ready?