Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: What's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Today, we're jamming on the things you should be delegating in your business and why you should think more like an entrepreneur or in this case, a solopreneur.
Speaker: Welcome to the show.
Speaker: We are here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Hope you're doing awesome.
Speaker: Hope you're ramping up for the summer and hope you're closing lots of deals and growing your solar business whenever you are listening to this show.
Speaker: As usual, we are free and available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iTunes, pretty much wherever you can find podcasts.
Speaker: We're coming at you every Tuesday and Friday.
Speaker: And enjoy the episodes while you can because we are thinking of possibly...
Speaker: Maybe just switching to weekly episodes.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: But as we ramp up, may shift the focus just a little bit.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: But I love doing episodes twice a week and coming at you as much as I can.
Speaker: Today's episode is something that we have talked about a few times and that is the importance of why you should be delegating things, why you should be outsourcing different tasks in your business and really in your life and just consider switching it up if you're not doing it already.
Speaker: We've heard some of the top guys in solar, some top entrepreneurs.
Speaker: Every time we have them on the show, there is a
Speaker: a common denominator in their success, a common thing that all successful entrepreneurs do.
Speaker: Probably a lot of common things because success leaves clues.
Speaker: But something that I noticed and that I have been fascinated with is these guys, they are pros at spending time on high value activities, things that are generating revenue and
Speaker: things that are moving the needle, they're not wasting their time on trivial tasks, on things that aren't helping their business and helping maximize their efficiency.
Speaker: And one of the earliest books I read on this, a lot of you have probably heard of Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek classic book, but he talks about the easiest way to start on this is finding virtual assistants, delegating things, looking for ways that you can maximize your time.
Speaker: So I'm going to tell you a story about something that I just a little light bulb moment I had recently.
Speaker: And then I'm going to show you and teach you and review some things that we have gone over a little bit in the podcast in previous episodes.
Speaker: I'm going to break it down some different ways we can maximize our times, different things we can outsource and how you can do it.
Speaker: And so the other day, many of you know that I recently bought a new house here in Escondido, California, outskirts of San Diego, right?
Speaker: And this house we bought, it has a little casita, a little additional dwelling unit, I guess you could call it, that we are going to rent out.
Speaker: We're going to try and Airbnb it.
Speaker: So hit me up if you want to come rent from us, maybe do a blitz hour.
Speaker: We are renting soon.
Speaker: But as we are getting this little casita ready, I had some work that needed to be done.
Speaker: I had to
Speaker: You know, furnish it, put in TV, everything you have to do to get an Airbnb ready, right?
Speaker: Put in the bed, set it all up.
Speaker: We're replacing the sink, just little things here and there.
Speaker: And so it's been a lot of work.
Speaker: And also we have to do some things for the yard, make it look better for guests staying there and hopefully desirable for anyone who wants to rent it out.
Speaker: Um, but recently a couple of days back, my wife, she had me out just pulling weeds.
Speaker: Um, it's got this little side, just kind of dirt area on the side that's just full of weeds.
Speaker: And she's like, okay, we need to replace that.
Speaker: We need to take out all these weeds.
Speaker: Let's just put down like some flowers, something to make it look better.
Speaker: So I'm like, okay, got to keep the wife happy.
Speaker: Um, we're out there just digging, digging, digging.
Speaker: Hour goes by.
Speaker: Two hours, a couple hours go by, and all of a sudden I look at the time, and it's like 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker: I'm like, what am I doing?
Speaker: I should probably get out on the doors and lose track of time, get out late on the doors, probably sell myself short that day.
Speaker: Could have booked a few more appointments, but got to take care of the family, got to get some stuff done in the house.
Speaker: Nothing wrong with that, right?
Speaker: Well, here's what I realized.
Speaker: I started thinking, what am I doing pulling weeds?
Speaker: What am I doing digging holes?
Speaker: I can literally go out and knock a door.
Speaker: I can go out and generate a lead that turns into an appointment, which turns into a solar install and could go out and make, you know, five, six, seven, eight thousand bucks in a day.
Speaker: But I'm out pulling weeds.
Speaker: So I start thinking, wait a minute, this doesn't make a ton of sense.
Speaker: Why am I out here pulling weeds when I can be out generating weeds?
Speaker: customers for my business generating revenue hey and I get it I mean it's not always gonna work out that way it's not like I'm guaranteed a same-day sale every time I go out there even though that has happened many times but I think many of us forget and some probably do
Speaker: Similar things to what I was doing.
Speaker: Sometimes we are out pulling weeds outside doing low money activities when we know we have a skill that can change the world, that can help people go green, that can help people own their power and make us a lot of money on the back end of it.
Speaker: So what I decided to do instead, I'm like, there's probably people that would be willing to do this.
Speaker: There's people that will do this for minimum wage out here.
Speaker: Even though California minimum wage, it's not like it was when I was growing up.
Speaker: $7.25, you don't get that in California anymore.
Speaker: But I'm like, there's got to be people out there that would come dig and pull weeds for us.
Speaker: And so what I did, I went to church next Sunday.
Speaker: I happen to work with some of the young people at my church.
Speaker: We do these little activities on Tuesday evenings that I go just kind of help out with.
Speaker: So after the activity, I pulled aside some of the young men there and I'm like, hey, any of you guys want to earn an extra buck?
Speaker: And naturally, I'm
Speaker: Got like three people.
Speaker: They're like, oh yeah, sure.
Speaker: Come make some money.
Speaker: So grab their phone numbers, hit them up the next day, paid them 40 bucks.
Speaker: They worked for two and a half hours between a couple of them.
Speaker: They pull all my weeds.
Speaker: They dug out what needed to be dug out, took it all out to the trash.
Speaker: And I was out knocking doors.
Speaker: Okay, so the moral of the story is how many times are you doing low value activities?
Speaker: How many times do you catch yourself doing things that maybe someone else could do?
Speaker: Maybe you can be creative.
Speaker: Maybe there's people at your church, young guys at your church, right?
Speaker: They can do stuff like that.
Speaker: So I'm going to go through a couple things, but really just it's something we need to be better at is just valuing our time as solar professionals.
Speaker: And there's a time and a place.
Speaker: I know some people, maybe it's like a family thing and you're not going to outsource literally everything, right?
Speaker: But it's definitely worth considering what low value tasks can you get someone else to do.
Speaker: So here's three tips, three things you should think about as you're going through this.
Speaker: Have any of you really gone through and measured how much you're making per hour in solar?
Speaker: If you're listening to this and you don't know how much you make hourly, it's a good exercise to do.
Speaker: So my invitation is this for the next couple of weeks.
Speaker: If you have not done this before, go through, track how many hours you're really putting in your solar business, in your cells.
Speaker: And just doing this, actually just doing it, it's a good exercise in itself because you'll probably realize that you're working a lot less than you thought.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So that's going to be value, valuable alone, just doing that.
Speaker: But after you track how many hours you are actually working out there, how many cells you close, how much you made in commissions,
Speaker: go through now and really track how much did I make hourly doing what I just did.
Speaker: Hey, and chances are, if you've been in solar for a while, I mean, you should be making at least a hundred bucks an hour.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: There's high commissions in solar.
Speaker: If you're not, then you need to hit me up.
Speaker: We need to get you trained up and making some solopreneur money.
Speaker: So hit me up.
Speaker: We got some openings in our coaching program.
Speaker: We'll get you making the big bucks.
Speaker: But number two, now start to think.
Speaker: All the activities you do during the week, all the activities you do in your daily life, could someone else do this for less than $100 an hour?
Speaker: If the answer is yes, then that's where you need to maybe consider outsourcing things.
Speaker: Okay, so after you've done this, I want you to make a list of everything you do in your life, in your business, at your home, maybe you're single.
Speaker: Okay, so maybe it's updating your CRM, responding to customers, cleaning, changing oil, washing your car, grocery shopping, yard work.
Speaker: The list goes on and on and on.
Speaker: Maybe your meal prep, making your meals, cooking.
Speaker: So all those things I just listed off, majority of those, you could probably have someone else do it, right?
Speaker: And something that I learned recently, I think this is maybe from Danny Pesci, it is, setter closer tour.
Speaker: But how many of us are using our off time to do all these daily tasks?
Speaker: I catch myself a lot doing this.
Speaker: And again, you're still going to clean, you're still going to cook a little bit, you're probably still going to do some things, but you really have to spend four hours meal prepping on a Sunday, right?
Speaker: What if you use that time to actually recharge, to meditate, to do your weekly planning?
Speaker: I used to do the whole meal prepping thing, you know, four hours on a Sunday, just cook, cook, cook.
Speaker: Thought it was saving me tons of time.
Speaker: It does save time throughout the week, right?
Speaker: But what if you really use that time to recharge your batteries, to get your mindset right?
Speaker: Because there's a time where you need to be recharging too.
Speaker: So that's another thing to consider.
Speaker: But go through, make a list of everything you're doing and just think, could I possibly delegate some of these things?
Speaker: Could I get someone to do grocery shopping?
Speaker: You should never be grocery shopping.
Speaker: Nothing wastes my time more than going in a grocery store and having to find things on a list.
Speaker: I will get lost.
Speaker: I will not know which aisle to look on.
Speaker: It will take me literally an hour if I have to look for anything on a list.
Speaker: So my wife knows she does not take me grocery shopping because I will literally go nuts.
Speaker: Hey, and we don't grocery shop.
Speaker: Guess what?
Speaker: There's things like grocery pickup.
Speaker: Almost every store now that I know of has a pickup option where you can drive by and pick up your things.
Speaker: Even better, you can get, I think it's like Walmart Plus.
Speaker: They will deliver groceries right to your door.
Speaker: Never have to step foot in it.
Speaker: Don't have to take the time to look at the lists.
Speaker: They will deliver it.
Speaker: So what we do every Sunday, I say, babe, what do we want to eat this week?
Speaker: She goes through.
Speaker: She does it all.
Speaker: Picks on her phone.
Speaker: It's free delivery.
Speaker: I think you have to spend like 30 bucks minimum.
Speaker: We wake up in the morning.
Speaker: Groceries are sitting right in front of the front door.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So how many things like that can you think of to do?
Speaker: And then from a business perspective, you've heard me mention in the podcast many times that I use a virtual assistant.
Speaker: Her name's Angelica.
Speaker: She rocks.
Speaker: She's going to be editing this podcast and releasing it.
Speaker: But for things in your business, even if you don't run a podcast, even if you're not trying to grow social media or whatever, which I think you should, but you can go on places like Upwork.
Speaker: Virtualstafffinder.com.
Speaker: You can find virtual assistants.
Speaker: They can do things like sending gifts to your customers.
Speaker: They can organize your CRM.
Speaker: You know, sky's the limit with this.
Speaker: And sometimes I run out of ideas.
Speaker: But there's lots of things you can have a virtual assistant do and organize for you.
Speaker: Hey, and then just in general, if you own a home like myself, it drives me crazy putting together this IKEA furniture.
Speaker: If any of you have bought stuff from IKEA, that place is the devil.
Speaker: They make this furniture that is so time-consuming to set up.
Speaker: So another app that I came across is called Thumbtack.
Speaker: You can get people to come.
Speaker: set up your Ikea furniture or just do stuff that you don't want to do.
Speaker: I am not a handyman.
Speaker: I'm terrible with doing handiwork.
Speaker: My wife is a lot better at that than me, but that's because I know my value.
Speaker: I don't want to be putting together Ikea furniture.
Speaker: I want to be out closing deals.
Speaker: I want to be out growing the podcasts.
Speaker: I want to be creating content.
Speaker: I don't want to be setting up Ikea furniture.
Speaker: Okay, so think about that.
Speaker: And we have other episodes that we will link to where I've talked a little more in depth about getting virtual assistants and things you can have them do.
Speaker: But I want you to start thinking like a solopreneur.
Speaker: I want you to maximize your efficiency, maximize your time.
Speaker: Again, some of the highest income people in solar, they are outsourcing so many things.
Speaker: You think of Ricardo Ritchie, who had over 400 deals closed last year.
Speaker: He does not do his customer service.
Speaker: Every time he closes a deal, he texts his assistant, does a three-way text, and then every single question after that from there on out, he has them handle it.
Speaker: And I'm not saying you should necessarily like outsource all communications with your customers because I think there is something to be said about having that personal connection and helping your customers.
Speaker: I think you can get good referrals from it, but you know,
Speaker: It's not a bad idea having an assistant to help you with customer support, with communicating, you know, with previous clients, things like that.
Speaker: Hey, and so speaking of solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, next episode, we have one of the coolest entrepreneurs that is growing his organization at a rate that I don't think has been seen before.
Speaker: Mr. Zane Jan is coming on the show.
Speaker: He is CEO of Better Earth, and this guy is legit.
Speaker: Some of the things were just mind-blowing that he talked about.
Speaker: His work ethic,
Speaker: the adversity he's had to overcome in his life growing up in just a super poor environment.
Speaker: Family had literally nothing.
Speaker: He was selling drugs, just some insane stuff.
Speaker: So you're not going to want to miss out with Mr. Zane Jan on the next episode.
Speaker: Make sure you tune in and remember, start thinking like a solopreneur.
Speaker: What can you outsource?
Speaker: Hope that helps.
Speaker: Keep crushing it and we'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker: Hey Solarpreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
Speaker: Well so was I and the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
Speaker: So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time we are doing a free sales diagnostic.
Speaker: We'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
Speaker: So at now we have six bucks for this month.
Speaker: So book a call now.
Speaker: Don't miss out.
Speaker: What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an S dot com.
Speaker: I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best.
Speaker: So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.
