Page 166 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

One converted, reprogrammed tradesperson said to me that when he arrived into my network he was very rough around the edges. He admitted that since joining as a licensee in the network, he had learnt so much, and he is now a better business person because of the discipline we taught and applied. A lot had to do with our systems that we instilled into him. When he decided to take good service seriously and follow our systems, his income went up, as well as repeat customers. Do a good job for a customer and they can become a customer for life. It is simple and just a matter of applying some discipline and respect. A bonus is that your marketing costs and time looking for work diminishes, as you have a flow of repeat customers and referrals (if you get referred, it’s a done deal for a sale). He went from being a tradesperson to a business person, and as a result he was not rushing around like a headless chook and was making more money – his costs went down and his margin went up. Additionally, he was building an asset that was saleable.
One thing I don’t like with tradespeople is cash jobs. I think it is a good thing paying tax, and if you are paying tax, your business is successful. Why some tradespeople offer discounts for cash, I don’t know! Well I do, but what do you do with cash? You waste it. I don’t know too many