Mega-Makeovers

Posted Monday, March 8, 2010

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.” ~Eric Hoffer

Greetings!

One of my clients has a business that delivered $6 million in PHC Sales in 2009. He operates in a city of about 3 million people. Here’s the interesting part: He has 10,000 active customers in his database. He knows because he just “cleaned up” the list and deleted customers who had not bought anything from him in the last 4 years.

So, while his trucks drive past 3 million people every day, he only needs to provide service to 10,000 customers every few years to hit that Sales number. Not everyone is his customer. Only so many people will pay a premium for his services. Of course, he charges more than the going rate. Naturally he has gotten his share of customer complaints. And still he made double digits profits in 2009.

Are you willing to find customers who really want and need what you have to offer? They are out there. Anything else you tell yourself, is…a lie.

More lies exposed in my column this month…

“Take your customers money. Take all of it! They’ll make more.” Harry Friedman

Xo$, Ellen

PS…If you are willing to set aside what you think is “true”, you can get the phone to ring. Join us for www.GetMoreCallsNow.com

Posted Tuesday, March 2, 2010

“We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.” ~Anais Nin

Greetings!

I got an email from a contractor. He said, “So many are crying the blues right now. Am I wrong, or is now a great time to build a business?”

He is not wrong. NOW is the best time to grow a business. Now is the only time we ever have.

My mentor, Frank Blau, started Flat Rate pricing in 1972. Prior to this, we experienced a hundred years or more of Time and Materials pricing in the PHC industry. Frank said he crunched the numbers when he started his Service and Repair division. He figured that he had to charge $83 per hour and he was competing against other companies charging $18 per hour. He turned the industry on its ear with his pricing model, adopted from auto repair pricing.

Frank told me he was willing to do whatever it took to be successful. Even if everyone else thought he was wrong.

The time is now and it’s a great time to build your business.

Xoxo$$, Ellen

PS…We aim to help as desired and required. So, we have a new program to help you Grow Calls NOW. www.GetMoreCallsNow.com Sign up for this program if you are willing to release what you now believe is true…if you are willing to let go of believing it has to be hard, or you have tried everything already.

Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010

“Having once found the intensity of art, nothing else that can happen in life can ever again seem as important as the creative process.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Greetings!

Oh, I dig the Olympics! My DVR is hot from recording every minute. Hot Rod and I burrow into the couches and fast forward through the commercials. And we watch and cheer and sob over the victories and defeats. (OK…I do the cheering and the sobbing. HR is…stoic.) The drama of the downhill! The grace of couples figureskating. The winners and their amazing stories. How about Alex, the mogul Gold Medalist, and his best friend and brother, Freddy? Joy! Life in all its glory and horror is presented in extreme sporting competition. It’s about speed and height and form and…grace, emotion and artistic expression.

It’s what you do when you solder a perfect joint and complete a your extraordinary masterpieces. You make weather! You keep babies and old folks warm and comfortable. You know what it will take to heat a home and save the planet.

I applaud you, dear champion. Here’s to being our best and doing what we love to do! .

Xoxo$$, Ellen

PS…if you are ready to train for your personal and professional best, join me and Al Levi for the Step by Step program. Super simple. Awesomely powerful. Just show up and do it. One Step at a time, one month to get it done.

Posted Thursday, February 11, 2010

“Speech is civilization itself. The word – even the most contradictory word – preserves contact. It is silence which isolates.” ~Thomas Mann

Greetings!

I dig it when someone, me included, expands and develops and can do something they have never done before. Like Mike. Mike Vesey, Vesey Plumbing and Heating, is a member of a networking group called LeTip. It’s a solid lead generation program that brings business owners together to develop business relationships and personal skills. Here’s what Mike reports…

“Le Tip makes ordinary business people better. I couldn't speak in front of a crowd before to save my life. Now I run a meeting every week with 25 other members, who have more experience than me, and we're growing. I received about $30K in business referrals last year, and I get to be around motivated people every Wednesday morning for 90 minutes. It works well for me. Maybe some other folks can benefit, too.”

Thanks for sharing, Mike! I just love good news emails like this.

Xoxo$$, Ellen

Posted Monday, February 8, 2010

“Companies must remove these four words, ‘It’s not my job,’ and build a culture of ownership.” ~Jack Stack

Greetings!

You can buy a chocolate bar for less than a dollar. And, you’ll feel like crap after you eat it. You might get a headache or at least a guilt trip from the empty calories.

Or you could buy an Askinosie Chocolate bar. Founder Shawn Askinosie has developed a fair-trade program to support his cocoa growers around the world. He is a protégé of Jack Stack’s and practices open book management, sharing real, vital financial information at all levels of the company. Recently, Shawn traveled to Costa Rica to distribute profit sharing, equal to an entire months' pay, to each of the farmers who supply his company with cocoa beans.

BTW, a simple high cocoa content Askinosie chocolate bar will cost you about $11. You will feel great about it. And it will be mind-bendingly delicious.

So, what’s the problem with your prices being 10 times what your competition is charging?

Learn about Shawn and his amazing business by clicking here.

Xoxo$$, Ellen