Episode 149 - Electricians Can Thrive in Winter

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back, electricians, to another episode of Electric Purner Secrets, the Electricians podcast, where me and my good friend and partner, joseph, the sales bot, lou Canny, go live five days a week. Four days a week. This week, in fact, friday I made the mistake of saying see you Monday, joe, but it was Labor Day. We took it off, it's Tuesday. We're back to kick this week off. If you've got a case of the Monday, tuesdays, we're here to help you, motivate you, whether you're on the way to the next job, or at the job with us in your ears, or at the gym getting ready, or at the office, wherever you are, we're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. We've got a very, very important topic this week how can electricians survive the slow season? More specifically today, can electricians thrive in winter? There's an obvious answer, but first, joe, I want to know how are you doing today, brother?

I'm doing amazing. I'm still feeling like taking the little extra time was just probably the best thing you could have done, setting it up where I'm excited to be talking about what we're doing today. I feel like we've got a really good topic ahead of us, something I'm particularly very, very passionate about. I apologize to everyone in advance. If I just start going at it and frothing at the mouth, it's only because I love this particular topic.

Can I just ask why is it so important to you?

The reason being was I remember when I was running my team. Slow season was this thing. That was this ever looming cloud of darkness on our conscious. No matter what we were doing, we were always worried that slow season would come and they would just chop us out the knees. Then we'd have to spend, let's say, January, february. So March and April and May were just in recovery months. Then you'd end up working all summer just to put the money back in to then watch it just drain again. November, december, january, february. If I can stop other electricians from having that same pain, I am so so for it.

I got to add to that because, as you know, I'm a bit of a business strategy fucking nerd man. That's my F-bomb. I'm really going to emphasize how much of a nerd I am for this, and so much of this is business strategy is making the most of the leverage we have in the high season to then continue those relationships, leverage that trust and get back to more offers, no matter what time of year it is. But there is some real importance here to highlight on why we don't have this traditionally. Why are electricians kind of last ones to the table here, Joe? What is going on with that? Especially as someone who also coached HVAC and plumbers before, too right.

Yeah, no, it's one of those situations where I'm kind of embarrassed and I say embarrassed because I'm speaking about our trade as a whole. Not that I don't love us, but I really feel like we are considered to be this redheaded stepchild where all these cool big table parties are happening or big kid tables are happening. We're just like on the outskirts, like oh yeah, we're not ready yet. What I mean by that is this HVAC and plumbing have two very specific advantages over our electrical trade as we currently see. It Doesn't mean that we can't operate at their level, but we struggle in having a specific piece of equipment and a specific demand that your client would call in that particular season. So the example I would use is this let's say you had two dollars in your pocket and your furnace went out. You're still calling them to get this repaired or, if nothing else, you're trying to roll your sleeves up yourself and be like I got to YouTube this, I have to fix it. I need heat. I can't go without my kids having heat. I can't go without having things.

Does anyone listening to this or watching us now ever had a situation where they run out of heat in the winter? It's a pretty important ordeal.

I've had that happen to me personally and even though I have an HVAC background like I've worked on furnaces and worked on air conditioners before it's still stressful. You go downstairs and you're like I have no heat and I have about a one hour window before I'm going to decide to call someone right now. So I've got to get this thing working so that I can get this back on and continue with my life. As with the plumbers, they have hot water heating systems Right now. If you were in the middle of December and you had no hot water, it's not like August where you could say, yeah, I'm going to take a quick power shower, I'll be done. It's like it's 20 outside and you're going to come in from getting groceries and then you're going to jump in cold water and then you're going to come out Like you're not going to have a quality shower that way. So people in that particular industry have that advantage, whereas a lot of us don't have that kind of equipment to maintain.

Yeah for sure. That's a great answer, and I can't help but reflect back to an episode I did Honestly one of the first episodes we ever did when this podcast was Rise to Rise. We interviewed a fellow named Kent Bull, also very wise, and another master electrician who owns a series of electrical companies, and he actually talked about back in the day trying to start a plumbing division as well. To try to this would be one of the levers of that right To begin to gain more leverage in all seasons and to broaden our scope. But I really want to caution electricians who are listening right now that this is a very dangerous move and if you listen to that interview, you'll tell you all about how difficult that was, because it's a different set of skills. It does require a different set of management principles and systems and operations, and so what I really want to help electricians do more than ever, and more now, even in this week, is let's think back to the niche week even and reflect on how can we focus more and get more leverage for ourselves without becoming more generalized, without looking outside of our current vision. To do that, joe and I think that's one of the big problems to address here too, is that poll we all have. Well, if my service won't float in the winter, I guess we'll take on a Resi build.

My heart breaks hearing that, but it's the truth for too many people. If you don't have a niche or you don't have a specific focus, that you're going to say this is how I'm handling winter as a residential service specialist. You're stuck in that trap where you're like oh I know I'll take on a construction project to manage the winter, but then that construction project and I can tell you from experience if that project stems longer and carries on into the spring months. Now you're in a situation to where you're turning away profitable work to stay doing unprofitable busy work and it is so painful to be like, no, I can't come to take care of you because I'm doing this.

Absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And in order to help electricians, I mean, we couldn't just do this in a single episode. So, again, we're going to focus on this all week, guys If you don't get all the answers you need or to this episode alone. We're inviting you to come back for tomorrow and the day after and the day after, because we're going to finish this week giving you the tools, the activities and everything you need to arm yourselves for winter. Why now, Joe? Why right now?

I mean you made a quote the other day that I couldn't stop thinking about because it's hilarious. You said winter is coming, and it's true, guys. It's September, like it's here Now. It is on our doorsteps. Right now in New York it's 92 degrees, but this week it's 92. On Tuesday, as of Friday, the high is gonna be 68. It's already on the drop, which means that October is going to come very shortly and suddenly we'll be wearing long sleeves, then November is gonna come and we'll have our sweaters on, and then, after Thanksgiving, suddenly it's like someone pulls the e-brake on your life and your business and now there's nothing. There's nothing happening. No one is calling, everyone wants to wait till spring, we're waiting for Christmas, we're waiting for this, we're waiting for that. And that's where you're in a reactive state, compared to being proactive and saying I see it coming and I'm gonna prepare for it. Compared on just putting my head in the sand or snow in the circumstance and saying I'm just gonna ignore it and we're gonna ride it out like we always do.

I love that. I love how you touched on the feeling, the temperature drop. I wanna go a bit deeper because I'm noticing it. Before this podcast I went outside to get a breath of fresh air. Sun's shining but it's not the same warmth already. You guys know I'm north of the border, pleasant peasant here, right. So in that I can feel it. The air is changing, there's dew on the ground, the frost will soon come, you'll be able to see your breath when you're standing outside, and so, innately, we kind of have this stuff even attached in our own minds and that fear begins building up. But, like Joe said, if we're reactive with this, then those fears can become true pretty darn quick. At least I mean I can say this. Not everyone even agrees on slow season. I've heard electricians say well, I don't get it, I don't experience that, and there could be several reasons for that. Maybe you're not 100% focused on service, right, that being one, maybe you've had a good couple of years. But in our experience, in our clients experience, in the collective experience that we have and talk through on this show, there is most definitely a drop in demand through these winter months, whether it be for two months or four, or even five in some cases.

Go ahead, joe, I can specifically tell you what your clients will say towards that month, because I've heard it so many times that it just needs to be said yeah, please do Everything's good. Quote unquote Good, but decreasing towards Thanksgiving. The week prior to Thanksgiving, there was always a huge influx and it was everyone who wanted their electric done, actually two weeks prior, but everyone wants their work done prior to Thanksgiving. As soon as Thanksgiving came, the one thing that was so hard to defeat was well, it's almost Christmas, we're not gonna make the expense now because we have Christmas coming up. And every one of us would have been like sure you get gifts for your kids, you're doing this, you're seeing family, it's busy, it's cold, sure, we get it. But then after Christmas, you have January. Their same argument was the same thing Well, we just had Christmas, now we're recovering from buying presents and this and that and all these other things. And then February comes and it's tax season. People are like well, taxes are coming, we can't just spend money on this now. So you have three back to back months with arguments that none of us seem to want to try and dissuade or defeat. And that's why it's so important that we have to do this, because if you don't, you're stuck with a three month anchor.

Yeah, I wanna give this a bit of at least give electricians a bit of how simple this can be on a turnaround, how simple it really could be. Okay, and you said something earlier in the preparation for this episode, even about having and leveraging the temperatures and the potential climate issues with projects that we've already done through the years. So just as a tidbit here on how electricians can be proactive, building that case up, would you say Joe, let them in on that little secret. I'd be happy to.

Yeah, my pleasure. So let's talk. I mean, with a quick science lesson, if nothing else, we're all electricians. We know what we're talking about here. Yeah, we know that metals expand and contract with temperature, right. So we know that when things get hot, they're going to become closer. When they get cold, they're going to contract and separate, right. So assume that you have exterior walls and an older home. If connections aren't perfect, they're more likely going to separate during the coldest seasons, when they start to set, when they you know, obviously the insulation isn't perfect, you'll have issues. So if you were going to find a problem, this would be the best time to do so. The second thing is, if you followed those connections and you said all right, there's something where it could potentially be a loose wire or it could potentially even have the slightest of gap separations, plug a space heater into that. You're going to find that gap real quick. And the thing is is wouldn't that be justified as a proactive step for your clients? Hey, I see you have electric space heaters. Hey, I know you're doing these things to make sure your home is protected and warm. Can you blame me for wanting to just do the due diligence to ensure that it's not creating an arc hazard behind the wall. That's all I ask. Can I just ensure that I'm doing the due diligence to ensure that things aren't going to happen when we suspect that they're likely as to happen?

Yeah.

And with that argument very few people are like no, I don't want you to do it. But if you want to go even further with it, how can you introduce that? The way we would introduce it is whenever we would sell our maintenance agreements or our club memberships, we would build it in advance and say we come at during the coldest months of the year to inspect for these particular conditions when we do a total home safety evaluation. That way, if there was something defined, this is the most likely time that we would find it, not that we're trying to sell you something, but so that we can inform you of the proactive steps you can take while it's still a very small problem before it gets big. And if we don't come in these particular months, there is a possibility that we could miss it.

Love that. Yeah, really proactive measures and again making the most of your year round efforts. So all the seasons where it's high, again in this elimination of slow season, we're actually always trying to moderate the schedule and make sure that we don't have to work extra hard when things are good, just to make ends meet and have a reserve for when things are bad. Does that make sense? Yeah?

I mean, if you think about it, we have this mentality where we have like almost like a bank that we're always transferring money to like a pile. Right yeah, I've always looked at it like there should be that and there should always be like a next bag next to it for a reserve. I cannot see in good conscience looking at the pile and saying you know what I know for a fact every year I'm going to tap into my oh shit fund because I couldn't take enough proactive steps to prepare for something I knew was coming six months in advance. It just feels really, really off to me. So there's a lot of things. Why are we not taking that? That doesn't make sense to me.

There's two pieces I got to we're gonna talk about. One is profit first. We got to touch on that. But I also want to address something because electricians may be listening right now and going well and having that intuitive feeling of like I'm not going back to a client's house for quote, unquote free. I'm not going to do that. There's all this like construction mentality that's still built and beat into the minds of electricians and when it comes to service guys we can't say this enough that old dog won't hunt. We've got to get rid of that thing. We need to stop looking at club memberships. That's like passive income per month. That's not what it is. That's not what it is at all. It's having an agreement to continue working together, having leverage to get back in the home, having leverage and trust built to a high enough quantity that we can actually make more offers without being offensive or salesy or any of the above. You know what I mean. The more that we extract from ourselves that feeling of I'm not doing that, I don't want to help them with that. I need to make more money than that and really just build all of this into your pricing ahead of time so that you can serve at the highest level and forget all these. Was I profitable? Did I do this well enough? That's like an end of the year, right? That's a different time. Venture Day to day projects and service. You don't need all that. You don't need to be so critical if you're properly established to know that, just like the casino principle, the house always wins. Exactly, we've won the math right If we go back to Michael McAluwitz, which we're going to with a profit first, and we first talk about one of my favorite books by him. Fix this Next. Listen. The first hierarchy of business needs that first floor is sales. We need to have a consistent exchange all year round. Otherwise, this isn't a business that is attractive to buyers. This isn't a business that is attractive to staff. This might not even be a business that's attractive to you if you can't create revenue in the off months. A sustainable business leverages every month of the year to make an exchange, different ways to do that. Then level two is to worry about the profitability, because if you've mastered the exchange then you know you can thrive given the right profitability. Does that make sense, joe?

It really does. And there's one extra thing that I want to touch on there is that you're not just showing up to random people's homes. This isn't like you just opened the yellow book as if that was a thing people do anymore and you should be like, ah, this is the person Gold call. That's what we're doing. It's like this person has not only purchased from you, but has purchased to a level that justified a club membership, and ideally, you've been with them at least for six months. So any purchase that you've made, now you're able to say, hey, you've gotten these to pay it off or you've gotten to experience life with it. Has it improved the quality of your life? Has it improved everything that you're experiencing? Is it solving the problem you want? If nothing else, you now have a touch point with this qualified person and, if you set yourself up correctly, you already told them when you sold the membership that you would be coming back to inspect to prevent problems from happening. So they already knew it was coming, they knew when it was coming, they paid you for it and they've purchased another service in the past, at least once. Wouldn't you rather have a calendar full of those type of people, even if they were quote, unquote, unpaid? All they did was pay you in advance. It's not unpaid.

Yeah, definitely, I agree, man. And to really round that out and go right into the profit first mentality, we're not going to talk about the five accounts, but I do want to talk about cash reserves, because if your pricing was effectively built as a service model, then what you have built into that is a growth rate. You've got growth items built in and one of the most critical components of your pricing is making sure that every staff has 2,000 hours factored in. Why?

I mean realistically. You know that you have 2,000 hours because that's what you're expecting to work at 50% efficiency.

Well, actually 2,000 is full time. Sorry to correct that. 1,000 is a 50%. Yes, we anticipate the 50%, but we're factoring in 2,000 hours, so we can do just like you did so, which is pay your staff full time through the winter.

That's a very important thing to do, and the reason why we always justified that was, if we didn't, what's stopping them from going elsewhere? Why would I put all this money into training the staff and improving them and growing them and developing them and then, as soon as it's slow, I could potentially risk losing them and now have to bring in all new staff in the spring, retrain on our process just to cycle them back out again. It's not a sustainable model.

Definitely. And so one of the mistakes we see being made is not properly accounting, then, for that revenue, right, knowing that, hey, cash reserves are high, everything's great, we had a great summer, and then we spend, spend, spend on growth Maybe it was on to further marketing in advance. The team hire more people without recognizing that there's a slow season coming, and saving some of those reserves to pay your staff even when you're not able to make a full-time week for them. And so that balance, that coordination of your cash flow, of this proactive strategies to make sure we're able to still get in homes, perform inspections, perform preventative maintenance, warranty calls, all the rest of it, and be able to offer more and continue to honor the roadmap of the picture that we paint when we offer six options in the first place. That comes together so well, joe, we got to wrap this one up, but what do you think about an action item or an all-star? What would you like to take today?

This is an area of specialty. I would like to take the all-star action because I really think that I could fire some people up with it.

All right, okay, the action item that I'm going to say simply your service electrician. You're in the right place. It likely means you have your rates figured out. If not, please reach out. We help with that too. We've got value pieces we give away to help you establish your rates and knowing your growth rate, please just keep in mind and look at how much do I set aside? What is the component of this? That is, payroll for my team. We need to protect that team. I really want to place importance on this. Where is your cash reserve? Do you have 90 days of payroll set aside so that, no matter what, your team thrives through this time? Because what leads the rest of the week? They're going to be the strategies to keep that team busy and make sure that it's productively producing more revenue for you. How's that? For a start, joe?

That's a solid start. I love that. All right, all right, all-star action is a little bit more involved. But I want to give some things that you guys could take action on today with. You know that we need to have things on the calendar for winter. Regardless of who you are, you need something there in order to set this up. The first step is fill them with inspections. You can set those inspections up by doing the club membership. If you're not already doing club membership, please set that up now. The reason being is that it will not only make you be different from your competition, it'll enhance the relationship you already have with your existing client. But you now have a strong, justifiable reason to come back during this slow season. Because you're not offering club memberships doesn't mean you're out completely. You can still have independent, direct inspections, provided that you can let the customer know these are existing clients. Only, you're following up to not only ensure the work you've done, like you can say hey, I just did work for you six months ago I want to ensure that everything is perfect and give you a clean bill of health, even through the winter. Then, while we're there, we can do a total home electrical safety inspection, just to give you a clean bill of health. That would work as well. The ultimate goal is get back in the door. If you can get there and start turning screws to look at things, you will find reasons to stay, love it man.

Huge episode, huge week coming up. Electricians can thrive in the winter. If you believe we just gave you adequate proof, go ahead. Leave us a comment on our Facebook page at Electric Nurse Secrets. On Facebook, that's also the Electricians podcast. Let us know where you listened to us first, how we can make your experience better as we help you four days this week, not five Master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. Guys, we're committed to seeing you rise and can't wait to help you thrive through this winter. We'll see you again tomorrow. Until then, my friends,