The Offseason Book: Chapter 4: Sell More and Better (Cure 2)

Chapter 4 Sell more and better Tier 2 is about improving upon what you are already doing. In later chapters, we will look at expanding your service offerings. The easiest and often quickest way to boost revenue is to improve your current business model. Sell more and sell better accepted jobs Heads up. This chapter has a lot of math. Stick with me. Use the workbook and the charts to fill the math for your business. If you get lost on the math part, do not stress out. I will summarize the concepts and make them very applicable for your business. At Augusta Lawn Care, our gateway service is Mowing for Cure 2 selling mowing during the slower season is the key solution. This requires the climate and market to allow for year round mowing. The grass may not grow as fast. Customers may not need a weekly mowing service. Customers change it to an every other week schedule, but it is possible to still sell the service despite a slowdown in demand. Before we get too ambitious, let's review a couple of simple strategies that can help you win the off season. First, think about switching to level billing or a subscription model. Customers would pay the same amount each month. This approach solves the seasonal revenue problem. Level billing works well for services done all year. It's not as possible when service can't happen like mowing grass in the snow for Augusta. If you mow once or twice a month in winter, you can likely use level billing. Set a monthly fee for your recurring service. You can adjust visit frequency as needed, but for many markets, subscription models or level billing year round don't work. Why? No competitors offer them, which adds friction to the sales process. It may require more complex contracts and signatures. If customers skip signing agreements, they might cancel service. This can happen during the months when you do the least work and earn most of your profit. Also, level billing doesn't raise your total revenue. It spreads the amount of money over 12 months instead of focusing it in your busy season. Level Billing year round contracts are great for cash flow during the off season, but they can exasperate cash flow problems during the spring rush, especially if you're growing fast. Why? You're performing a ton of work but receiving less revenue than you should be at that time of year. Level billing distributes your revenue in equal amounts throughout the year. This helps you earn more profit when business is slow, but during the busy season you're performing more jobs and doing more work for the same monthly revenue. Also, this approach doesn't work for one time jobs. Recurring work aligns well with recurring payments, but it's tough to persuade someone to subscribe to recurring payments for a one time project. You can use another easy strategy by selling jobs that you don't need to do right away. Then schedule them for the off season. I call these time insensitive jobs. You can move these jobs a few months into the future without any issues. During spring rush, priority goes to time sensitive and recurring jobs. Time sensitive means that if you wait three to four weeks, you, opportunity is gone. Mowing is a time sensitive job. If the grass keeps growing and you don't act fast, the customer might hire someone else. Mowing is also recurring, which makes it even more valuable. You can schedule time insensitive and one time jobs for the off season. If you're building a paver patio, you might get that lead at the same time as a spring rush mowing request. Focus on the time sensitive recurring mowing job first. Then plan the paver patio for a few months from now. This helps level out your workload and fill your off season with profitable work. All the leads come pouring in during the spring rush at the same time. One time jobs, Recurring jobs Time sensitive jobs Time insensitive jobs. I do not recommend using a first come first served scheduling method. It will lead to seasonal revenue patterns each year. Instead, focus on recurring and time sensitive jobs during your Busy season. Schedule 1 Time and time insensitive projects for your slower months. With this strategic scheduling, you will see a revenue boost in the off season. This method cuts down on the number of trucks, workers and equipment needed during the spring rush. By delaying some jobs, you won't have to increase your labor and asset capacity as much to serve the new customers. The total annual revenue doesn't change, but better scheduling means better asset and employee utilization. You might need only 10 employees during the busy season instead of 12. Instead of keeping 2 employees in the off season, you can keep 5 or 6. This is possible because you move those one time projects to the slow season. This approach also reduces burnout. Entrepreneurs are less likely to quit when revenue changes are not as dramatic. Business A uses first come first served Scheduling. They earn $5,000 per month in the off season. They earn $100,000 a month during the busy season. That is a 20x difference in revenue between the seasons. Wild revenue fluctuations this is tough. Business A has seasonitis. Business B earns $40,000 per month in the off season. They earn $70,000 a month during the busy season. They push one time jobs and time insensitive projects out into the off season. Business B's revenue still fluctuates, but its operations are easier now. The difference between slow and busy seasons is less than a 2x in monthly revenue. You might be thinking there's no way I can do level billing. I lack enough time insensitive projects to fill my off season. What then? This is where cure 2 for seasonitis comes into play. Getting more and better accepted jobs let me share my experience. During my first few off seasons at Augusta Lawn Care, I burned 70 to $100,000 in the winter. We did many inefficient tasks to keep the crew busy. I was afraid my crew would leave if I didn't give them 40 hours of work each week despite not having any incoming leads. I would bake cookies at home and deliver them to property managers for commercial jobs. We would pressure wash our mowing customers driveway to keep the crew preoccupied. We'd reorganize the shop space and sharpen equipment blades again and again. I was wasting all my profits from the past nine months. During those three off season months, I spent them on pointless tasks to keep my crew busy. I would have been better off spending $500 per day on advertising. That's $45,000 over 90 days. If this advertising had kept my crew busy with real work, I could have broken even. That would have been better than spending 70,000 to $100,000 on pointless tasks. We can solve Q4 collapse by advertising more and getting more customers. But how much do you need to spend? Let's find out how much you need to spend on advertising to fix your Q4 collapse. First, we need to find the revenue gap. How much more revenue we need to generate to solve Q4 collapse? Look back at page 2 of your workbook. Subtract your lowest revenue quarter the Q4 collapse from the median of your other 3/4. This calculation gives you the revenue gap you need to fill. Next, we need to determine how many more accepted jobs we need to fill this gap. Take your revenue gap and divide it by your average job value during Q4. For one time jobs like paver patios costing $10,000 each. The math to find the average job value is simple. For recurring work, you'll need to calculate the total value across your Q4 period. For example, you charge $50 per mowing service twice a month for three months. Your average job value would be $300. High value. One time jobs can provide a significant boost to your revenue. This may fill the revenue gap faster than recurring work. Keep this in mind when planning off season services. Here are the equations. Median revenue of Q1 through Q3 minus the lowest revenue quarter or Q4 this equals your revenue gap. Revenue gap divided by average job value in Q4 equals number of jobs needed. Now that we know how many jobs we need, we must determine our marketing budget. What will it cost in advertising to generate these jobs? First, estimate an achievable customer acquisition cost for your off season. Be conservative if you don't know this figure. A good rule of thumb is to multiply your busy season acquisition cost by two to five times. For example, if you spend $40 to get a customer in spring, expect to pay about $200 per customer in winter. The cost for clicks and leads go up a lot in the off season. This is because fewer people want your services then fewer people are searching for your services. That's why it's called the off season. This equation tells you how much you need to spend on advertising to solve your Q4 collapse. Your marketing budget for Q4 Number of jobs needed multiplied by your customer acquisition cost. We need to complete the equation to see if Cure 2 fixes our seasonality issue. In this case, increased marketing spend achieves more accepted jobs. You will use a set amount your marketing budget to earn more money. Your revenue gap from page 10 of the workbook. This will yield extra profit. Your jackpot from page four of the workbook. After completing this calculation, the question becomes is it worth it? You might find the numbers don't make sense. It could be that your customer acquisition cost is too high because in the off season. Or there's little demand for your services. This could mean you'll have to invest a lot in advertising to earn even a small amount of revenue. Your equation may show that spending $400 to acquire customer only brings in $600 of added revenue. This isn't a wise financial decision. It is not a good deal. I would agree with you. This approach wouldn't solve your Q4 collapse. But you could spend more on acquiring customers if you raise their lifetime value. Lifetime value shows the total revenue a customer brings during their time with your business. It includes all purchases, not just the first one. This could span three, four, five years or even longer. The business with the highest lifetime value can spend more to acquire leads. This is especially true for the the few available leads that come in during the off season. Spending $400 to gain a customer with a $600 lifetime value doesn't make sense. That's 66% of their worth spent on advertising to them. But spending $400 on ads for a customer with a $5,000 lifetime value could be a smart investment. The company with the highest lifetime value can spend more to get customers and still make a profit. These businesses gain market share because they can buy customers when others cannot. Most business owners focus on lowering their customer acquisition costs. We try to save five or ten dollars per lead. We should focus on boosting lifetime value. This lets us pay more to acquire new customers. My customers are worth $9,000 over their lifetime. My competitors customers generate only $600 in lifetime value. This means I can spend more on advertising and still make a profit. When leads are scarce during the off season, I can still afford to buy them. The question becomes how do we increase lifetime value? Is there a way to increase how much money we can make from each customer? This leads us to the second part of Cure two of More and better. We've talked about getting more accepted jobs through advertising. Now let's focus on making each job better by upselling customers to make them more valuable to us. Most business owners think they have a leads problem if only I could get more customers. The question becomes do we have a lead problem or an upselling problem? Do we not know how to turn a $600 customer into a $5,000 customer? Upselling is when someone offers you an upgrade. This means selling a better version of a product you've bought or are considering. Consider the Ford F150. The same basic truck has models ranging from $38,000 to over $70,000. You have the basic XL, then the XLT, the Lariat, the King Ranch, and the Raptor. These different models allow Ford to upsell customers on the F150 lineup. Upselling is when you sell a pricier version of a product the customer already has or is about to buy. After I pick my truck model at a Ford dealership, I can choose an extended service warranty. This Warranty covers either 30, 100 or 1000 components. With premium care, I'm upgrading the level and quality of my initial truck purchase. The same principle applies to your estimates in your home service business. With software like Copilot CRM, you can suggest optional items on estimates. This helps customers see upgrade options and boost your revenue from each sale. If I want a 27 inch TV and the salesperson suggests a 40 inch TV or an extended warranty, that's an upsell. When booking airline tickets, you find options like basic economy, main cabin and first class. They all go to the same destination but offer different experiences and pricing. On that same flight, you'll see many upsells. These include luggage fees, priority boarding, seat selection, Wi fi, snacks and club access. Upselling better services and Options turns a $200 airline customer into a $1,600 one. There are 11 options or upgrades to increase customer lifetime value. On page 11 of the workbook, you'll find a list to help identify which ones might work for your business. The first way to boost customer lifetime value is to give discounts for increasing frequency. For example, if you clean a house monthly, can you offer a discount to switch to a weekly service? Instead of charging $150 per month, you might charge $80 per week. This increases the annual customer value, or ACV, from $1,800 to $4,160. Yes, you offered them a discount that reduced the cleaning price by almost 50%, but you also increased the service frequency. A lot price per visit multiplied by the number of visits per year equals annual customer value or acv. To find the lifetime value, divide the annual customer value by your annual churn rate. Annual churn rate is the percentage of recurring customers who leave each year.

Annual customer value divided by annual turn rate equals lifetime value. Let's do the math. If the annual churn for this cleaning service is 33%, the lifetime value goes up from $5,400 to $12,480. Switching from monthly to weekly service causes this change. Even with the discount, how do I know? The annual customer value for monthly service is $150 per visit multiplied by 12 visits per year. That equals $1,800 annual customer value. With a 33% annual churn rate, customers stay on average of three years, making their lifetime value 1800 multiplied by three equals $5,400. When I increase the frequency to weekly, the annual value becomes $80 per visit multiplied by 52 visits per year. That's $4,160 in annual customer value. Using the same churn rate, the lifetime value jumps to $4,160 multiplied by 3 equals $12,480. I've more than doubled the lifetime value without changing my core service. Who do you think can afford to spend the most on marketing the business that earns $5,400 per customer? Or the one that earns $12,480 per customer? The second way to increase lifetime value through upgrades is to sell supplements. You might say, I don't sell health supplements. I sell home services. In this context, supplements are products that customers must use on a regular basis. They get used up or dissolve, for example, treatments for lawns, odor enhancers or carpets or chemicals for pools. These small add ons upgrade the service experience and Increase customer value. The third approach is to increase the quality of the products you use. The type of mulch you use can increase the value of a landscape job. Upgrading quality can turn a dollar ten yard of mulch into a hundred dollar yard of mulch. To a painter, the paint quality matters. Upgrading quality can turn a $50 gallon of paint into a $500 gallon of paint. The fourth strategy is to sell tiered service packages. Good, Better Best don't give customers one option. Give them a cheaper alternative. Give them the option they asked for. Then give them a premium option. They might surprise you by selecting. For example, with irrigation services, you can offer basic installation. This would be your good option. Your better option might be installation plus a maintenance plan. Your best package could include installation and maintenance. It could also include a lifetime warranty on all equipment and pipes. If anything breaks, you do all repairs at no extra cost. These tiered packages can turn a $10,000 irrigation job into a $20,000 sale. You offer five years of maintenance and a 10 year warranty against any issues. The fifth strategy is to bundle services. For example, offer mowing, weeding and bush trimming together. Bundling services with a small discount can help you offer three times more to each customer. This boosts their lifetime value and reduces churn. You solve more of their problems. The sixth approach is to sell optional services on every existing quote. If someone requests a fall cleanup, why not offer an optional spring cleanup on the same estimate? They're not going to wake up after the winter and decide to start cleaning up their property. Sell the service they asked for today, but also give them the option for future services. If they ask for weeding services. Offer most installation with modern software. It takes seconds to add these options to your estimate. The seventh strategy is to set up a bonus program for your technicians. This way they will seek ways to boost customer lifetime value. Technicians can use tools like Copilot CRM to send a text or email upsell offer to customers. The technician can do this while they are on the customer's property. They tap once when they see extra service needs. Your employee might be mowing the lawn and notice weeds in the flower beds. In seconds they can provide a weeding upsell through text. If the customer accepts the upsell and books more work, the technician earns a bonus. We hand these bonuses out as cash at the next team meeting to reinforce this upsell first culture. Also consider selling follow up services. Often we see these as callbacks or customer service problems, but they are opportunities for growth. If you're painting someone's house. Why not sell a 30 day touch up visit as part of the package? If your crew misses something, customers do not get upset now they know you will make a return visit. This way you boost the value of the first sale and increase customer satisfaction. Selling limited time or lifetime warranties is another powerful approach. Sell a leak free warranty. If you are selling roofs, sell a replacement warranty for plants you've installed. If you're a landscaper, offer a retreatment guarantee for pest control if the issue isn't fixed. All these can increase the lifetime value of the customer. Many customers will pay a higher price to completely solve their problem. They prefer to pay more for your guarantee than to risk having a bad outcome. The tenth strategy is to sell personalized recommendations through property inspections. Offer 21 point inspections and property reviews on an annual or quarterly basis. You're the expert. Customers often lack knowledge about plumbing, landscaping, trees, fencing and most home services. Sell this expertise as a value add option on every estimate. Finally, sell premium access to support. Many businesses provide support as a standard feature, but why not create a premium tier? Get 247 emergency response try our text concierge service for a fee. Receive services from specific technicians. We charge $230 to mow a lawn. It usually costs $45. They wanted one specific employee at one specific time. We sold access and support at five times the normal price and they loved it. When can you promote these upsells to customers? You have many opportunities throughout the customer journey. You can do this in person on property inspections or estimates. Walk the customer's property to spot service needs they may not see. Add upsell options in your estimate. Add upsell options in your website form, estimate template or customer portal. The end of job walkthrough is a great time to upsell. They've seen your quality work and feel happy about hiring you. You solved their problem. You proved your value. This is a perfect point of activation. Sell them more. Don't do this if you hate making money. After customers leave five star reviews, send them a promotion. If they leave a positive internal survey, reach out to suggest more services. Create milestone moments to reconnect and keep leads warm. Milestones can include customer anniversaries, finishing 10 service visits or birthdays. These milestones unlock special offers or discounts. Make up milestones. Celebrate National Donut Day. Create more selling opportunities. Create reasons to make an offer. On page 11 of the workbook, circle three upsell strategies you will use. These can help you boost your average ticket. This will increase the lifetime value of the customer. Choose the Best time to introduce these upsells in your sales process before, during or after the job. Digital, over the phone or in person. Get specific. This will help you get the best results. Instant pricing has proven to be a significant asset for my business. At Augusta Lawn Care. We upsell customers after they submit an estimate form online. On every phone call, our command center agents make an offer to increase the job value. These changes brought in millions in extra revenue. When customers have their payment info ready at checkout, it's a great time to suggest more services. Another way to sell more and better accepted jobs is to show your prices on your website. Allow customers to accept the estimate without delay. We call this instant pricing. Some owners worry that customers want to meet in person before buying. After I set up online checkout at my anytime fitness gym, membership signups rose by 28%. This gave me the confidence to bring the same approach to home services. If the customer prefers to meet in person, add that option to your estimate request form online. We found that many customers prioritize prompt and effective solutions to their problems. They don't want to ask five contractors for bids. They don't want to have to take time to meet with estimators. They don't want to have to wait a week to get prices. They want to solve their problems as soon as possible. Yes, price sensitive customers will check your rates against competitors. But these customers aren't your ideal clients. Your best customers value their time and pay for solutions delivered without delay. Research shows that 70% of homeowners accept the very first estimate they receive. They recognize professionalism in business with efficient systems that respect their time. Make it easy for these ideal customers to commit. Make it easy for people to give you money. Once they've paid, they stop shopping around. Have you shown up to start a job only to discover that another company has already completed the work? This happens when customers agree in conversation but never complete a transaction. Secure your business with clear estimates. Use simple payment processes to strengthen the closed deal. Amazon sells billions of dollars worth of goods in a single day from people they've never met. You've likely received an Amazon package in the past week. This happens because they've streamlined the purchasing process, making it quick and simple. They even offer Buy now with one click functionality. Some Amazon executive likely worried this feature might lead to more misplaced shipments and returns. Someone might click the instant checkout button by mistake. It could also go to the wrong address. This would require an expensive return process. They were right about those risks. There is less accuracy. There is room for error. So why did Amazon do this? Amazon added one click purchasing after seeing a 70% cart abandonment rate. This meant that only 30% of customers who added items to their cart finished buying them. Does this Sound familiar? Only 30% of your customers accept your estimate. What was Amazon's solution? Remove steps from the checkout process. They replaced the steps of clicking add to cart, going to the cart, checking out, entering payment information and confirming the shipping address. Now it's all done with the click of one button. Tired of customers ignoring your estimates? Offer them instant pricing. This way they can accept quotes right away. No phone calls or meetings required. Most home service businesses avoid instant pricing because they fear inaccuracy. Lets address that myth. Check price accuracy in a distribution. Some jobs get priced too high and you earn more than expected. On other jobs, you charge too little and you lose money. But on average, pricing falls in the middle. In person, quotes tend to be the most accurate. Since you've seen all the variables over the phone, estimates are somewhat less accurate. Website instant pricing shows the widest distribution of accuracy. But here's the key. Average across all these methods still land in the middle of the distribution. Sometimes customers with small properties accept your mid sized price. You might have charged less if you had seen it in person first. They're glad to pay more because you fixed their problem right away. They didn't have to meet five strangers at their homes to get quotes. They value speed and convenience over saving a few dollars. If you provide recurring services, you might need to change your pricing after the first visit. That is the worst case scenario. At Augusta, we accept the pricing for 99% of mowing instant quote submissions from our website. Sometimes customers choose the wrong size property for their pricing. For the rare 1% that is far below our accurate price, we increase the price after the first service. Better yet, offer great service for three to six months. Build trust and then increase the price. When you deliver quality work. Most customers will stay with you despite a price increase. When implementing instant pricing, don't focus on tracking lead count. Instead track the number of accepted jobs. Lead count may drop, but your close ratio will rise. This means more real customers and higher revenue. All tire kickers get filtered out by the instant pricing system. People who think we can mow their lawn for $10 often give up when they see the real prices. We don't waste our time on them. Customers who click accept and give payment details are serious buyers. Your close ratio skyrockets once you have their credit card info. Most people will go ahead with the job. Instant pricing eliminates administrative time. No answering phones. No scheduling estimators. No driving around properties. Your website works around the clock. Customers can check prices and book services anytime without needing help from office staff. These office and overhead costs vanish from your business model. At Augusta Lawn Care, we continue to add instant pricing for more and more services on our website. My goal is that 75% of all estimates at my locations will use instant pricing. I don't want my estimators or general managers to waste time on in person estimates. They cost a lot in overhead. This approach tackles our more and better cure or seasonality head on to get more accepted jobs. We use ads that lead to our instant pricing forms. These forms are available all day, every day, even on weekends and holidays. The instant pricing brings in better and accepted jobs customers who are willing to pay a premium price. In the 2000 and tens, home services changed. Home service professionals started accepting credit cards and building websites. This set them apart from amateurs. In the US there are over 600,000 landscapers. Most growth and profits go to the top 5 to 10% who use these technologies. In the 2000s, offering pricing over the phone and online will distinguish industry pros from amateurs. Businesses that provide quick pricing and checkout will lead the market. In the 2000-30s. AI and robotics will make this fragmented industry more concentrated. You can install instant pricing on your website at three levels. The easiest way is to add a price range to your form. This helps customers know what to expect before they submit a request. A better method lets customers see specific prices. They can accept the estimate. This means less need for extra communication. The best method, though harder to set up, collects payment info at checkout. This secures the customer. To give you some peace of mind, include a few lines of fine print at the bottom of your web form. Keep it short. Three sentences at most. Something like price is subject to change after the first visit. Gives you flexibility. At Augusta, we adjust prices for fewer than 1% of our instant pricing customers. We focus on providing great service and make price changes later if needed. What if instant pricing seems impossible for your specific business? Focus on improving your follow up process for pending estimates. Consistent follow up will increase your close ratio. This means more estimates turn into accepted jobs. If you get half the leads in the off season but double your close ratio, you'll still have the same number of new customers. Our study found that making three follow up phone calls boosted close ratio. At Augusta Lawn Care, the close ratio increased from 34% to 67% when we made three follow up phone calls. But be careful. The quality of those Follow up phone calls matter. Weak follow ups, like just checking in or do you have any questions won't work. Provide clear reasons for your call. Here are some reasons you can use we have one last spot left. This service is a team favorite. We need before and after photos for our social media. Routes near you are filling up fast. We're six weeks booked out, but one spot has become available next Monday offering specific scheduling options or limited time promotions, rates urgency and improves conversion rates if you're a solo operator, introduce yourself as the estimator. When you're meeting the client. Don't tell them you are the owner. Personalize your follow up approach. When calling about a pending estimate, say something like hey Mr. Jones, I really want to get that job done for you. I know your daughter's prom is coming up next Thursday. We're booked out several weeks, but if you want to move forward with a job, I'm going to clear my schedule and do it myself. This creates urgency and shows your personal commitment to their project. They have already met you. They trust you. This is a tried and true way to double your close ratio. Changing how you follow up on estimates allows you to sell more jobs when leads decrease. But can we do better follow up than phone calls? At Augusta, we developed a tiered follow up system based on how far we're booked out. When we're four plus weeks booked, we send the estimate via email and text. When we are three weeks booked out, we also do follow up phone calls. When we are two weeks booked out, we also send personal selfie videos to the customer to follow up. When we have just one week of bookings, we also make a video breaking down the quote. We use screen recording software for this. In the video, we explain the quote on screen and look at their property using Google Street View. These personalized approaches take more time but increase conversion rates. When you have free time during slow periods, put more effort into each potential customer. Create your own four stage follow up strategy in your workbook on page 13. Design an approach that adapts based on your current backlog of work in the busy spring season. With a packed schedule for six months, you won't need to spend much time following up on each estimate. Many clients will decline because of the long wait, but during winter when you're only booking a day or two in advance, make sure to follow up like your life depends on it. It does. As I like to say, when you're fishing in a barrel during the spring rush, you don't need bait, you only need a net. But during the Slow season. Treat every lead as gold and follow up with absolute diligence. Sending selfie videos to new customers and pending leads is a powerful technique. Take out your phone, record a quick personal message, compress it in an email app and send it to the customer. This reactivates the estimates. Sitting in pending status, you might think you're too busy. But remember, these customers put food on your table. You can record these videos on your commute home. Take 10 to 15 minutes. Connect with new customers and leads you haven't converted yet. Set up automations in your software system. This way you'll get notifications for each estimate sent or accepted. This will include new leads and new customers. I do this for dozens of new customers every day using Zapier and Copilot CRM Automations. I get emails every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. They remind me to make these videos. The automations trigger these I spend 10 to 15 minutes daily on these personal connections. It has increased my conversion rate. It hasn't cost me a dollar. So how does more and better work as our second cure? We sell more with off season ads, but our customer acquisition costs go up. Profits on the work are low, but we sell better by upselling and increasing customer lifetime value. With higher lifetime value, we can justify acquiring customers despite higher customer acquisition costs. This creates a sustainable cycle. Higher lifetime value makes customers profitable. This lets us spend more on ads. Then we can generate more leads even in the slow seasons. Now let's look at a different industry. The story of a $3 million handyman business Joey stood at the center of his empty warehouse. The weight of the past few months pressed down on him with great intensity. The early spring morning brought a gray drizzle. It matched his inner turmoil. Months ago, this place buzzed with tools and the chatter of 25 workers. Now, silence echoed with a painful resonance against the bare walls. Fix it. Handyman Services had grown to $3 million a year, a figure Joey once wore like a badge of honor. But numbers can mislead. Underneath the success was a shaky business prone to distractions and seasonal downturns. The cracks began showing when a massive job went sideways, swallowing $200,000 in losses. Joey had a vivid memory of that day. It felt like a nightmare that kept replaying in his mind. He felt helpless as project delays piled up, contractors struggled and customers became impatient. Every call about the job stabbed at his confidence. Each setback twisted anxiety in his gut. The $200,000 loss wasn't just money. It was his pride, his reputation, and the security of every employee who trusted him. When the final bill landed with gut wrenching finality, he knew what he had to do. But firing 25 employees in one day wasn't a business decision. It was a human one. Some of these team members had been with him from the beginning. He built things with them, laughed together, celebrated wins, and endured long nights. Letting them go hurt more than any financial hit. Telling them there were no more hours, jobs, or paychecks stung deeply. What made it worse was the humiliation of what had become of the company's finances. Rent to his landlord had gone unpaid for months. Joey kept an eye on his bank account. He hoped a deposit would come in before payday. His employees knew there were times they wouldn't even cash their checks because they knew he didn't have the money. They believed him so much that they waited. That kind of loyalty only made the pain sharper. The bitter irony was the business had seemed to flourish on the outside. But beneath that facade lay a dangerous reliance on seasonality. Winter months always arrived like a predator, reducing revenue to a thin trickle. Joey wanted to make ends meet, so he decided to start a retail side of the business. He started selling parts and materials to other Handyman competitors. He believed this would bring stability, but it only spread him thinner. The retail operation became a distraction, pulling him away from the core service. When I got there to film the turnaround episode, Joey looked tired. His drive was still strong, but he seemed worn out. His confidence had taken blow after blow. As we dug deeper, we saw the real problem. The real problem was seasonality. It was the hidden force that drained his business each year. Together, we confronted this monster head on. We created a strategy to sell more and better. This includes warranties, guarantees, and lifetime inspections. These offerings will generate recurring revenue and allow for ongoing upselling. The idea appeared simple at first glance. If a Customer chooses a $12,000 bathroom remodel over the $10,000 basic package, Bixsit Handyman will offer a lifetime warranty. This includes yearly inspections and maintenance checks. Every inspection visit lets us spot new possible work inside the house. These include upgrading the windows, doors, kitchens, and paint. Homeowners often need these, but haven't prioritized them yet. Each inspection became a sales call. It happened organically and without pressure. As the technician walked through the house, the light started to return to Joey's eyes. This strategy used the thousands of customer contacts already in his database. Each one was a potential source of recurring incident and upsold revenue. Joey shifted his focus from retail distractions to his service foundation. This change helped him find a sustainable path forward. His focus would be training his technicians on how to sell the warranty. Then he would train his team on using the in person warranty inspections as a way to sell more jobs. They would perform the inspections during the off season when work was otherwise slow. This gave them the ability to drum up work on their own. This was a form of on demand jobs they could create without delay. Every house they walked into for a warranty inspection led to more work. The real transformation wasn't financial. It was emotional. The weight lifted a small amount from Joey's chest. He could finally envision a stable, profitable offseason without chaos, without desperation. He saw the faces of his former employees and made himself a promise. Never again. Never again would he allow the off season to put their jobs at risk. One job going south during the winter would not jeopardize everything he had built. As we wrapped filming, Joey walked me to my truck, standing taller and breathing deeper. I wish I had known this sooner, he said, small smile breaking through months of stress. The off season nearly killed me. But now I think I finally get it. It's the real problem I wasn't addressing. We finished filming the turnaround show. The rain had stopped, leaving the pavement slick and glistening. Joey glanced at his warehouse. They had made mistakes, but now they had a stronger, smarter business. He aimed to sell more and sell better. Upselling became the mantra of technicians, managers and admin staff. He aimed to cure his business of seasonitis. Never again. If you need help in your business, like Joey from Fix It Handyman, I have a solution. I would like to come to your business for a day. Also. I will pay for everything. It is free. My team will record the coaching I do with your business and publish it online for others to learn from. If you are struggling, have debt and cash is tight. Apply@mikeandys.com turnaround we'll make a six week plan to help your business thrive. We'll set up systems and boost profits. If Your revenue exceeds $1 million a year and you're very profitable, visit mikeandies. Com Breakthrough. We will create a plan to take your business to the next level of growth. I look forward to seeing you in person.