7. Why Contractors Lose Focus During Uncertainty (and the Systems That Keep Your Business Stable)

So right now, there seems to be lot of distractions, a lot of uncertainties from the war,

from the fuel increases, and if you are not super careful, it can affect how you show up

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in your business.

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In this episode today, I'm sharing how to stay focused, protect your money, and keep

moving forward.

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Hey, I'm Che Toya.

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I've spent more than 10 years in construction.

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working behind the scenes in marketing, hiring, and I've seen how overwhelming it can be

to grow a business.

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That's how we've learned to build a sustainable business using clear systems, strong

communication, and intentional recruiting.

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If you're ready for better hiring, smarter remarketing, and a business that doesn't fall

apart when you step away, welcome to building better contractor businesses.

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So before we get started, I would like to invite you

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to join Building Better Contractor Businesses Facebook group.

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Be sure to join by our show notes below.

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That is where you're going to learn more about systems, workflow, and what's actually

working right now.

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Truth is, you are not the only one going through this.

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So right now, it feels like we're hearing a lot of noise.

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A lot of different things that we're hearing from TikTok

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talk, Instagram, listening to the news.

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And a lot of times that can cause us to not know what direction to go.

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It can affect you, your customers.

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I've seen this before when COVID occurred.

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It was very scary times.

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You know, the truth is a lot of us didn't know what was going to happen.

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We didn't know if our business was still possible.

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but the truth is is that we had to stay focused.

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very scary time.

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At that time, I had a, I believe nine month old and it was very scary.

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I remember

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A lot of us didn't know what was going to happen.

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I remember before the shutdown, a lot of us was just saying, you know, maybe we thought,

oh, it wasn't going to happen to America, but it was a very scary time.

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And a lot of us just didn't know.

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I remember being scared to go to the grocery store, scared to go out to outings, just

because of the uncertainty that we were all going through.

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And I remember, don't take this timing,

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the time frame.

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occurred here in Las Vegas.

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And at that time, I remember that Vegas had a very off filling the strip.

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And I don't ever remember the strip being closed.

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Never ever.

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My 33 years of life, and at the time I believe I was like 27, maybe 28 years old, I've

never witnessed the strip being closed.

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The lights were being off, people walking on the strip and you seeing videos.

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Like I've never in my life ever witnessed this.

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But at that time, things were very fearful.

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And you know, we have a low voltage contractor business

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And I just remember thinking like, you know, like, is it safe?

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Should we work?

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And being in construction, technically you are in a central business, but at the same

time, was very, you know, the things you were hearing, the toilet paper scare, everyone

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was going to get toilet paper, but it was a time where it was just very uncertain.

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None of us knew what was going to happen.

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None of us, yes, we could work as an essential company, but it's like, do we want to put

our team, our families into harm's way?

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As I said at that time, I had a nine month old, maybe a 10 month old.

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And the truth is I did not want to put my family and even our teams at harm.

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But at the same time, we had a business to run.

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And you know, just things felt very, very uncertain.

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We all sat in fear.

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Before the shutdown, I remember being in class.

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At the time I was going to school at CSN.

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And there was a time where I was sitting in class and I coughed, or if someone else

coughed and we're all looking at each other like, oh, that person coughed, they must have

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COVID.

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So I remember just being at that time and I was at the time going to school CSN for

construction management.

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And I just remember like, you if you cough or you would hold that coffin because you were

scared of what other people would think.

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And then as soon as you coughed or someone else coughed, everyone would look at that

person like, oh, they got COVID.

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So I just remembering just being very, very, it was just a very scary, uncertain time.

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And then I do remember when the shutdown did happen, my construction management courses

did go online.

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And that was a

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thing that I had to be okay with as well.

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But just at this time, I was just very, very fearful.

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They were telling you to go buy a toilet paper.

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They were telling you to do certain things.

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But at that time when we couldn't go out or we were fearful to go out, I really decided to

choose to focus on marketing.

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That was the time that I really decided to

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really truly focus on learning marketing, learning why certain people do the certain

things, why people decide to buy.

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I spent hours, you know, at the time I also had a newborn, so not a newborn, a nine month,

10 month old.

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So wasn't like that we were going many places anyways around this time.

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But, you know, instead of us being, oh, it's COVID, we're just going to watch TV.

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you know, I decided to really, really focus on marketing, really get better skills.

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And so the importance of staying consistent and working behind the scenes.

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And during that time, I just remembered that, you know, I thought at that time the most

important thing was for me to develop a, some, just continue developing my skills.

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So for me,

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one of the biggest things that I really do enjoy is marketing.

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So for that reason, I just really focused on courses and things that I could do with

marketing.

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And at that time, I was also still going to CSN for construction management.

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And I took a lot of great classes and had a lot of great teachers at that time.

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But marketing was the direction that I really fell in love with.

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But, you know, in doing that, at the time, I did not

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think it was going to make a huge, huge difference.

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But for me, it matters.

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That time that I spent, and I wanna say, and I don't remember exactly how long the

shutdown was, it felt like forever, but that amount of time that I spent just learning and

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getting better and becoming a better marketer really mattered.

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So the most important thing that I can share with you

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from COVID, what I learned is even though that it's fearful, even though that time's gonna

be uncertain, I believe that the most important thing that you do during times, stay

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focused.

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Understanding that businesses still need you, even during times of uncertainty, it's not

the time to pull back.

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I remember you listening to

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market had, you know, had dropped.

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And I'm too young to understand that because at that time I was in high school.

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But, you know, listening to Grant Cardone and all these people that we follow, they've

always say that the people that become the most successful during uncertainty, they're the

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ones that continue.

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They're the ones that stay focused.

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They're the ones that keep going when everyone's saying, I'm gonna pull back.

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I'm gonna stop doing the things that I've done in the past.

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So I do think staying focused at this time or any time, let's be honest, there's always

going to be something.

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Always gonna be something that we hear, oh, this is happening.

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So the number one important thing is for you to stay focused.

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And I believe this is the time that a lot of contractors start pulling back.

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And that's exactly what hurts them.

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This is where other people grow.

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As I said, a lot of people that I've heard like Grant Cardone and all the other people

that I've followed and listened throughout the years, they say that this is a time that a

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lot of people start pulling back.

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They stop doing the things that have made them successful.

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And so for that reason, it's important that you keep showing up.

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It's very, very important that you keep showing up.

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While other people are pulling back, other people are disappearing.

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Other people aren't going to continue trying to hit their dreams because they're so

focused on what's going on around the world.

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And unfortunately, a lot of the stuff that is going on, it's out of our control.

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Number two, I think this is actually very, very important as well as protecting your

profit.

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Your capital, capital is very, very important.

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Having cashflow reserves or what's going to save you during times that are hard.

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One of the things that we've been doing for the last couple years, year, maybe year, I

think we've been doing it for about two years.

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We've been, a couple years ago I've talked about it, we've read the book Profit First.

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And Profit First is a great book because it teaches you the importance of separating

accounts for certain things.

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So that's a thing that we've been following for a very, very long time.

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which helps us protect our capital profit is by separating our money into separate

accounts.

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This gives you clarity plus control and not reacting emotionally.

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This is what sets you up.

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And I would also say, know, that profit first isn't perfect, but one of the things that

I've realized is that when you're starting to have to pull out money into

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other accounts to take care of things like payroll or business operations.

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It also just shows you that you're not currently making enough capital.

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You're not currently making enough money.

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So for that reason, I think having those accounts and we've been there before where we're

like, oh shoot, we got to pull money out of our, you know, we have an account for our

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owner's account and

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And so we've had to pull out money out of these account and, you know, be able to cover

operations and payroll and all that good stuff that you have to cover as a contractor or

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business owner.

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But that when things like that happens, it just shows us that we need more capital or even

maybe worse, we're spending money where it shouldn't be.

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And so if those things are happening to you following the profit first, it's most likely

either due to you're not making enough capital or you're overspending and not having an

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actual budget.

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it did give us clarity of when we were growing the business and still growing the business

and we had to pull money from certain areas to cover things like payroll or operations.

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It just showed us that either we needed more capital or maybe we were spending money where

we should not be spending money at.

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So if you have not yet read the book, Profit First, read it.

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There's a relay, I believe it's called, that they recommend for the banking.

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I've not personally used it.

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But in the book, he does mention the banking called relay, which makes it very simple for

you to follow the profit first philosophies.

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But we've been doing it now for, I believe, maybe a year or two, and it's been very useful

for us.

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And then when money isn't there where it should be, it also shows us, oh, it's time to

make some more capital or see where we're spending our money at.

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And number three is customers.

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You know, during times of uncertainty, customers may work be a little bit slower.

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They may not make a decision right away.

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They may not always give you a no, but maybe they're just more of like, I'm thinking more

about things.

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They're asking more questions when things are uncertain.

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They're taking longer.

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And as a contractor, a lot of us may see this as, oh, they're not interested.

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But that's not the case at all.

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That that isn't the issue.

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This issue isn't there.

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They're they're not interested.

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Maybe they are but most likely they're just it's uncertain They're uncertain of what's

currently going to go on.

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So for that reason There's things that we need to do to help them move forward a little

bit But to understand that just because someone is not currently ready That does not mean

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they are not going to do business with you, but they just might be a little slower or

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you know, there's certain things that you may have to do because of the current times.

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there, as I said, there will always be things, something going on in the world that we

can't have no control of.

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So number four, be sure you are following up more.

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I want to make sure that's very, very clear.

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You know, as I said, a lot of people are being slower.

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They're not making decisions as fast.

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So for that reason, we have to be following up.

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We can't just say, I'm not ready yet.

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and that's it.

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If that's the case, unfortunately, things are really gonna suck.

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So for that reason, just make sure you're following up, make sure you're putting systems

into place.

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I talked a few weeks ago about our current CRM system that we are currently using, which

is Monday, and we did pay someone to help us set up that system, which is we paid someone

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through Fiverr, and he helped us set that system up.

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So we have the automations.

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So we make sure that we have the follow ups and making sure that we are following up with

everyone in the right timing.

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So number four is just make sure you continue following up with your clients, making sure

that you are continuing putting the systems into place so that way you're not having to

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understand that someone may not be ready right now, they may want to think about it some

more.

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So the importance of having those systems into place that you're continue following up

with them.

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You know, and if they do say no, you could say, hey, like, do you mind if I continue

following with you?

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And they'll tell you yes or no.

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They could tell you, they may give you, like, they're like, no, then you could take,

remove them from your CRM system.

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Like if someone says no, no, do not follow up with me.

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Do not, do not not follow, like, stop following up with them.

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But.

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I do think that's very important and we've been there before where we just didn't have the

right systems into place where we stopped following up with someone and possible the

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reason why we stopped was because we did not have the right systems into place.

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So following up is going to be very, very important when timing is uncertain.

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Another big thing is just slow down.

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So when you speed up, you don't send in wait.

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Right now, no one doesn't, like right now, know, a no now does not mean that it's going to

be a no forever.

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Make sure you're asking, hey, John, you know, I know right now is not a good time, but can

I follow up in two months, three months, you know, when timing's a little better?

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And they will tell you yes or no.

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But the most important thing is that during this time that we're staying in front of them,

and there's so many different ways that you can do that.

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If you have an email list, if you have a, so many different ways that you can follow up

with them, so many ways.

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So just continue with following up until they say, no, stop calling me.

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Number five, this, keeping your standards very, very high.

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During this time, do not drop your level of standards.

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I've talked about it a couple of weeks ago, but I've been really speaking to our team on

the importance of having high standards.

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I listened to a video a few months ago and it just talked about Disney's philosophies.

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It talked about the importance of having high standards to your people.

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What's one of the biggest things that when it comes to contractors,

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that I cannot wrap my head around is answering your phone.

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To me, this is crazy.

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You know, we've done things such as the Dream 100, and the Dream 100 is, you know, pretty

much us reaching out to whatever, like if it's contractors, it's IT professionals.

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But one of the biggest things that I've found is just answering your phone is you're going

to beat the contractors who aren't answering their phone.

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So many times I've heard it in our, you know,

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or other people who are currently answering our phone, wow, someone finally answered our

phone.

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To me, that shouldn't be a high standard.

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It's for you to do something that you should be doing anyways.

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But making sure that you answer your phone.

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Also, you can use services.

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One of the services that we do offer at KMB Communication is VoIP services.

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So VoIP services, if you are not always sitting at your desk,

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VoIP services is going to make it sound like you're a bigger business and where the phone

is ringing, but it goes straight to your cell phone.

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So now you could be out driving and the phone is going to your cell phone and it makes it

sound like you are bigger than you are, but you're going to have certain things that you

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possibly didn't have before.

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It's gonna be like, oh, for operations, choose this number.

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And then when it's on hold, it's also gonna give you the option for a number, which has

been really, really cool is to have that option and make it sound like you are bigger than

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what you may really be.

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So VoIP services is something that we do currently offer with our construction business,

but just having that where you're, maybe you do not have the option to stay at your desk,

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which is fine, but having a VoIP system is going to allow you to answer your phone.

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while you're driving or while you're doing other things until you are able to hire someone

that can sit by their desk.

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And I think that's been a big game changer for us.

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Another standard that we've been really truly focusing on is making sure we're getting a

same day response.

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So if someone reaches out to us, we're like, know, and maybe we don't know the answer, but

we're making sure that we're responding within the same days.

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You know, it's not, oh, you're gonna respond.

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to send us a message and we're not gonna respond for a week from now.

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So we're making sure that we are staying open.

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We are open Monday through Friday, so if you message us during the weekend, you may not

hear from us on a Saturday or Sunday.

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But just the importance of having the same day response to me is very, very important.

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And then also just clear communication.

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This is...

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what we've been also talking about is communicating with your client, communicating with

your team of what's going on.

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Another thing that I did learn from Disney philosophies is when it comes to it, your

customer doesn't not need to hear about your stress.

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So that's another thing that I got from the Disney philosophy as well.

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When you go to Disneyland or Disney World or wherever you go within Disney, it seems like

everyone's just having an amazing day.

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but that might not always be the case.

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So that is one of the things that I did learn from the Disney philosophy is just, your

customer doesn't always need to know the negativity.

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They really just need to know that the job's being done.

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So clear communication is very important.

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And this is just going to help your reputation.

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oh Setting your standards high, and unfortunately, being in the contractor industry, I've

learned not everyone is answering their phone.

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So make sure you're answering your phone.

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Make sure that you're,

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you're showing up on time.

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These are just some simple things that it's going to increase your reputation when things

are just a little bit slower.

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So be sure to ask yourself, where am I currently at in my business?

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Where am I being inconsistent?

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Is it follow-ups?

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Is it communication?

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Is it systems?

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And be sure to focus on that this week.

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If you're wanting some more support with this, be sure to join our Building Better

Contractor Businesses Facebook group.

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This is where we are going to help you, where you can ask questions, where you can connect

with other contractors who are also struggling with the same things.

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What helped them?

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You're not just in this alone, because you're not.

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That information is in our show links below.

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So unfortunately,

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We as contractors cannot control what's going on around the world, but what we can control

is how we show up during times of uncertainty.

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This is what running a real business looks like, showing up even when things feel

uncertain.

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Be sure you stay focused.

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Stay consistent, protect your money.

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The contractors who stay steady right now, stay super focused right now are the ones who

will be standing later.

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And if you haven't yet joined us, be sure to join the Building Better Contractor

Businesses Facebook group.

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I will see you there.

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And like always,

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We're here building better contractor businesses.

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If you believe that this episode brought you real clarity, be sure to share it with

another contractor who also needs it.

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And if you want to keep this conversation going, be sure to join our community of

contractors inside Building Better Contractor Businesses Facebook group.

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This is a community where we talk through the real problems

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that you are having in your business.

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The link will be found in our show notes.

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And remember, we are not just completing projects.

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We are building better contractor businesses.

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I will see you next time.