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How to Grow your Business from $1 to $1M+
68 Plays5 months ago
In this episode of The Better Contractor, Brent Oberlink delivers the bold blueprint for transforming your business from a six-figure operation into a multi-million dollar powerhouse. If you’re serious about growing, it’s time to stop playing small and start playing smart. Brent dives into the crucial steps that too many overlook—like tapping into high-margin, specialized niches, dominating your market as the expert, and building systems that scale seamlessly. From hiring the right team to setting prices that reflect your expertise, this episode is packed with the hard-hitting advice you need to hit your next big milestone. Get ready to challenge the status quo, eliminate the low-bid mentality, and make the relentless pursuit of growth your business’s new standard. Tune in, and learn how to turn ambition into measurable results.
#ScaleYourBusiness #ContractorHustle #MillionDollarMindset #GrowthStrategies #EntrepreneurSuccess #BusinessGrowth #LandscapeBusiness #ContractorLife #TBC #RelentlessPursuit #BusinessMastery #TheBetterContractor
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Transcript
Introduction to Scaling a Business
00:00:14
Speaker
Alright, welcome back to another edition of The Better Contractor. Today, we're going to do a shorter podcast, but to the point. So, I think a lot of you guys like those. Some of you guys like the longer ones. So, today's going to be a little shorter to the point one. So today we're going to talk a little bit about the people who are just getting started, maybe just started their business in the last year. They're still doing a six figure, maybe an under and how to get that business to go from that point to the million mark and then on above. There's a lot of things that you need to do that a lot of people overlook. They're hungry during this stage and I get that. I was there. And if you overlook those things though, it will cause headaches for you in the future, whether that's cashflow, whether that is personnel issues, whatever it may be. If you don't do certain things, you will have trouble getting to that million and then continue to grow after that million.
Finding Profitable Niches
00:01:04
Speaker
So what are some key topics, key points? Number one, you need to know the segments in your industry that are more skilled and have a higher profit percent. So what are those things that are unique? You know, there's all kinds of people that will go out and do certain, you know, if you're in the lawn care business, for example, that will mow lawns. There's a lot of people doing that. So your profit percent is not all that great typically, unless you specialize or you go after a unique customer. But there's a lot of people that do those things. So therefore, it's more competitive, it's more cutthroat, and there's more low bid situations. Find the segment in your industry that is a little bit more unique that you can dive into and offer for your company.
Becoming an Industry Expert
00:01:47
Speaker
Number two, you need to become the best in your industry and be known for it without any doubt. You need to be the expert. So that's going to be number one, doing it, actually doing it well, and then marketing yourself and becoming known, whether that's on personal brand brand or whatever that is but your marketing needs to tell that story as well so you need to be the expert you need to let people know that you're the expert so that's going to allow you along with number one to market yourself in such a way that if there is a customer that is looking for that specific product or service that they then think of you and in your market they know or feel that you're the person that they need to choose regardless of that price. So as long as your price is in line or in the ballpark, you're probably going to nail that client. Number three, have systems and processes in place to ensure that you deliver consistently.
Implementing Scalable Systems
00:02:39
Speaker
Those are also going to help you scale. So a lot of people will skip this one here, especially in the beginning, because it may just be a crew of you and maybe a few of your buddies or whatever. You cannot skip this step. You need to put those processes and systems in place early on. So if that means you're hiring an accountant, you're hiring an attorney, getting that program in place, the employee handbook, when you get to a job site, what are the things that your crew has to do before they kick off? At the end of a job site, what do you require them to submit to you before they move on for the day or move on to the next job site? You need to have those systems and processes in place so that when you go to two crews, three crews, five crews, and 10, that you then can scale and have the same quality, the same work product, the same service, the same customer experience as you scale. Otherwise, you're going to be known as the company that has, hey, crew A, they knocked it out of the park. They were great. Crew B showed up and it was a completely different experience. You will ruin your sales and you will ruin your image if that is what you do. And if you think of it like franchise models work well, for what reason? They work well because it's a system. Develop a system that you can replicate as you scale.
Building the Right Team
00:03:56
Speaker
Number four, have the right team in place that delivers consistently and that you also then take care of. You know, the old saying of hiring slow and firing quickly. I was guilty of this in the beginning. A lot of you will be too. You hire friends, you hire family, you do whatever. And you are slow to fire because of that. You can't do that in the beginning. It is, I think, I actually think it's okay to hire friends and family. You just got to hire the right ones. You know, a lot of people say, oh, you know, don't hire your friends. Don't hire your family. At the end of the day, have an honest conversation with them and say, hey, I'm putting my business hat on today or this is my personal hat. But actually do that. A lot of people talk about it. Very few people do it. But you have to do that if you're hiring friends and family. And if you do that and they have similar core values to you, I think it's great. But you got to have that right team in place. If you do not have the right team in place, you're going to have trouble growing. You're going to have trouble scaling. You're going to have trouble delivering to your clients. Number five, train that team and invest in that team.
Training and Onboarding for Success
00:04:55
Speaker
So to me, you have to have that training set up in the beginning. So the onboarding process, I think HR is important. The employee handbook, all those things are important at the very, very beginning. And what you're doing with that training and onboarding is not just telling people how to do a specific task. You are also going in and telling them what you expect. So to me, you can't go do a, you know, employee evaluation or whatever, three, six, nine months, 12 months in, and expect a different result if you've never actually told them what you expect to begin with. You can't expect what you don't expect. So you have to tell your team up front during the onboarding process, this is what we do when we show up to a job site. This is how we do it. This is how we grade it. This is how your reviews will be done. If you want a raise, this is what that will be based on. And the training portion of it, especially if you look at it, like obviously we offer training at TBC, better contractor, but it's even simple stuff. You know, how to strap stuff down to a trailer, you know, how to, you know, make sure when you leave like a lawn or you leave a job site, what is expected for that to look like. How do you keep the job site? How do you leave a crew? All that kind of stuff is important. You need to set that stuff up from the get-go. Or if not, you're not really in control of your project. You're not really in control of your job. You're not really in control of your company because you've never told them what you expect. Number six, get booked because you were that
Leveraging Reputation for Consistent Bookings
00:06:28
Speaker
good. That sounds simple, but basically that is sales 101. If you're doing a lot of these things and you're becoming known as that company and that person for whatever niche that is, you are probably going to be booked and that is where you want to be. You want your sales team out there booking stuff months out, hopefully not for next week. So you need to get so good that you are booked out months, months in advance. Number seven, charge the correct price based upon financial data, your expertise, your name, because you're booked and because you're the
Pricing Strategies for Profit
00:07:04
Speaker
best. People mess this up all the time. They base their pricing off of, oh, well, the competition, contractor A, B, and C are charging between $1,000 and $1,200, whatever it may be, for this product or service. If they're not as good as you and you're doing a way better job and it costs you more than that to do it or you demand a higher profit percent, then you need to charge more than that and market yourself to the right client. Don't just be the contractor that looks at low bid. Don't just be someone who wants to undercut people. Market yourself and sell yourself as a company that's doing the job right, that treats their employees well, and that gets the right client because you don't want the client that some of the other contractors are going after. You don't want the low bid client. All that usually is, it's just a pain. It's someone who wants a lot and is willing to pay you a little and then nitpicks the job and is mad at you because you didn't do whatever one thing they wanted done. But in reality, you bid it so cheap, you don't have the ability to even do that one thing or make it right to them without losing money. That is not where you want to be. So do a good job. Market yourself accordingly. Chart the right price. You should know your financials so well to know that, hey, if I have a skid steer, three personnel, truck, trailer, a job trailer, that equipment, and it's on site for 10 hours, this is exactly what that cost me to do. This is my overhead attached to that specific crew size. And this is the proper percent that I want. All of that should be in a spreadsheet or whatever software so that you can go through and say, hey, this is actually the price I need to charge in order to attain this profit that you're in. Number eight, talked about it a little bit, but stop playing the low bid game.
Focusing on Quality Clients
00:08:58
Speaker
Dish the customers that do, you don't want them. They want cheap, let them go buy cheap.
00:09:03
Speaker
um That is one that a lot of contractors, for whatever reason, allow to happen. Most industries would never allow someone to basically demand the low price. You would basically build the product, you would perform the service, and then you would name whatever price you're willing to do. For whatever reason, when it comes to contractors, people want to name the price for you or demand that you be low bid demand that you cut corners and then guess what they get mad that you do what cut corners you cut corners to stay alive that has to stop you guys um it's it's not good for the industry it's not good for you and if you're actually serious about going to a million 10 million 20 million you are not going to do it with that method. You will not do it. you You won't make it to 10 million because you'll be bankrupt most likely. So do not play the low bid game. Know your financials, know your books, price yourself accordingly with all of your overhead, with the profit you need. Take care of your people.
Commitment to Long-term Growth
00:10:02
Speaker
If you do that, and the last thing as we wrap up, you're going to have to be relentless about it. It is not easy to go from zero to one million. It's harder to go from a million to 10 and harder to go 10 million on above. The people that do every one of those steps are completely relentless about it. Relentless meaning they're not doing it for a season. They're not doing it it for for a a month. month they're They're not doing not doing it it for for a a year. year they're They're doing doing it for years and years and years and they're doing it even when they don't want to so there's days you know i'm 42 i've been in this game for a little while there's days where you don't want to get up and you don't want to do the work but you do it anyway you get up you perform the work you execute on that day and you move on to the next one. If you're serious about growing your company and taking it to that mark and more, hopefully, a million is not really that much, guys. Really, your goal should be 10 plus. um That's going to be where you're going to have the financial rewards that you want to see. But you got to be relentless, guys. You have to be. So, eight key steps. If you need to go back and listen to this podcast again, I would do so. But you guys just starting out, if you're serious about doing it, these eight steps that we just outlined will help you get there. So if you like the podcast, please share it. Guys, our subscribes keep going up and we appreciate that so much. um But get out there, be relentless, execute.
00:11:23
Speaker
well see you next time