Seth Said It
Welcome to Seth Said It, the unapologetic podcast where real stories meet raw truths. Join Seth Mills as he dives into personal experiences, business growth, and the highs and lows of life’s journey. From lessons learned the hard way to the wins worth celebrating, Seth lays it all out with unfiltered honesty and a touch of humor.
This podcast is for those who value authenticity, aren’t afraid of a little controversy, and believe that growth often comes with a bit of discomfort. Whether it’s a deep dive into entrepreneurial struggles, personal growth breakthroughs, or just telling it like it is, Seth Said It is your go-to for real talk that inspires, challenges, and occasionally ruffles some feathers.
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Seth Said It
Strategies for Mastering Pricing and Client Acquisition in the Service Industry
Navigate the nuanced waters of customer acquisition and pricing with us, Seth Mills, and our co-host Nik Dawson. Our latest episode promises you a blueprint for pricing services competitively, without shortchanging your business. Nik sheds light on the delicate art of setting rates that attract clients but also keep your operations in the black. Tune in for our revealing conversation about the strategic decision-making behind crafting agreements that work in your favor, and the essential balance between drawing in new clientele and keeping your loyal customers coming back.
Hear firsthand tales from the trenches of service sector growth, including my own experience with a clientele in a high-end neighborhood that taught me the importance of clear communication and well-managed expectations. We also examine the hidden sources of referrals and debunk the myth that loud promises equate to actual business. With Nik's sage advice, we illustrate how contributing your skills to the community not only fosters goodwill but can also cement enduring client relationships and open doors to unexpected opportunities. This episode is a treasure trove for anyone in the service industry looking to build a business that thrives on principled practices and genuine customer satisfaction.
Welcome back to the astro craft, grow, influence, invest podcast. I'm your host, seth Mills. Joining me today is yeah boy, nick Dawson, and today we're gonna be talking a little bit about customer acquisition and a little bit about competitive pricing as far as the market goes. So I know that with your warranty work you have a set dollar amount you make per per client or per warranty job that you do that is correct. How do you go about setting that? Do they set it? Does your manufacturer set it or do you? Or is an agreement.
Speaker 2:What do you? What does it work? So it really kind of just depends. So, like for myself, I Went in there and I really just I needed it to happen, had the company going back first, we were doing all right, but we weren't making any of the numbers that we make now. And so we were kind of in this what do you call it? Just the whole. I'm willing to lower my amount to make sure that I get the job.
Speaker 2:Yep or that. I get that because, again, when you're starting out and you're a Three-month-old company as opposed to these other guys have been doing it for five, ten plus years, or even a year, compared to a couple months You're like you gotta be competitive. Yeah, you got to be more competitive than you would think, so it's really a set amount. Okay, so the set amount it is an agreement. We sign an agreement every single year and that agreement basically tells us the job that they expect us to do, just the same thing as if somebody was to go hey, this is what I need you to do.
Speaker 2:I'm every single like what we were talking about at dinner early With the opportunity you've got, it would be here's your set amount. Yeah, you can, you can handle and you can talk about stuff, but there's a set amount. You know what you're doing, but they tell you kind of what they want on top of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, like with my opportunity that you mentioned. I have to be extremely competitive with how I price things as far as trip charges and Per per pane of glass, per pressure washing, like per per square footage. Whatever, I have to be extremely competitive because I.
Speaker 1:Don't want to have it erased to be. I don't want it to be a race to the bottom, like a lot of these $99 companies do. Yeah, if that's the case, then I will pass on the opportunity. It would be an amazing contract to have. However, I will pass on that opportunity simply because I'm not gonna work for breaking even or nearly Break even right.
Speaker 2:You have just to stop you for a second. You have to get to the point, to where you don't get stuck in that, though, exactly, you don't want to get stuck in that mindset, otherwise, you're always the most competitive, you're always gonna be a lower price, you're always gonna be there and you're never gonna be like, damn, why don't I have this workflow or this money flow?
Speaker 1:I've got the workflow, but I don't have the same money flow that I thought I would have absolutely, and that's what that is Like. We were talking about it. I have to make sure that I'm making a certain amount of profit per job and Whether or not they approve my bid or my price sheet, that's gonna be up to them. But I know what I need to make and I'm not giving them my bare minimum. I I could go, I could haggle with the prices a little bit more if they need me to. If they come back to the table and say, look, we like this, but we don't like this, blah, blah, blah, I can work with them.
Speaker 1:I'm not naming names, I'm not gonna say what company that I have this contract with or this potential contract with, but as far as everything goes, I I'm not gonna be the race to the bottom. I'm not gonna contribute to that I. I think that a lot of companies will say, look, I need the money, and they won't look at their expenses right like. I know several people who have started a company and they They've got expenses out of the roof, say their expenses are seven dollars a foot per square foot, whatever. It's just me throwing out random numbers right.
Speaker 1:Because they're not that high but seven dollars a square foot in expenses and they're making eight dollars square foot and they think that they're on top of the world because they see that bottom line number, they see their gross number.
Speaker 2:Oh, a hundred percent, you're not taking an account. Okay, I gotta pay for my gas.
Speaker 1:Exactly, pay for my insurance and with the seven and eight dollars square foot, $7 expense. Eight dollars is what you're charging. You do eighty thousand dollars in revenue. You're only making ten grand. Yeah, you can say you. You can say you're a million dollar company. You're only making a hundred thousand dollars, if I did the math correct.
Speaker 2:You're somewhere in there. You're somewhere in, don't ask me. I'm probably not the best one to ask about on that, but I I Guess to kind of go back and to kind of answer part of your question is my hourly or my per job rate the same as what I do outside of warranty? No, it's not. Yeah, yeah, exactly, but I'm not having to go Chase it all the time.
Speaker 1:I was gonna ask how do you, how do you approach getting work that is not warranty? Because with your, your warranty work, it's given to you. It may not be a given every month, like you may not know how many Work orders you're gonna get, because not everybody needs warranty at the same time right, but but out of the hundred mile radius that I go visit, there's plenty of work. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:The. The cool thing is is even customers from whenever I started 10 and a half years ago. I still have those clients and they reach out and they reach out.
Speaker 2:It's not as much finding the work as it is getting the repetitive, having them come back to you, because I've got customers that their warranty ends this year, yeah, and If I have the time to do it, I'm gonna help them out. Well, for the most part the warranty side again, I don't have to chase it. I get everything that I need. But as far as those customers go, like we did for your family's friend, yeah, yeah, we were kind of in a lull and I was able to go hey, we can do this, we can do this, we can do this and we can't do this, yeah. So you kind of have to. You have to weigh what you're doing, but I think keeping those customers there, I mean, here's the other thing.
Speaker 1:If I had a few pool companies, listen to me, my biggest advice would be Go to builders If you're gonna be cleaning or doing any kind of service we've talked about this cuz I thought I talked to you Last year middle it's a beginning of last year about opening a pool company and having somebody run it for me. Are they just hiring an employee? And that was the biggest advice you gave me and I mean I ended up not opening the company.
Speaker 1:I don't know something may happen this year, may happen next year, who knows. Subject to change, exactly that's. That is the biggest piece of advice that you had given me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean that could go for pretty much anything. If, if you're a, if you're a pool company doing service and maintenance, but you go, or even if you're doing pressure washing or window cleaning, yeah, why not go? Find you. Some realtors have a banging Opportunity for them. Make it to where you go, hey, mister. So and so I'll tell you what. Whenever you sell this house, sell it with, depending on what company you have, sell it with three months free maintenance on the pool. Sell it with a free window clean, free window cleaning, offer something, so that way, whenever they come through one, it makes your realtor look really, really badass. Oh yeah. Or it makes you look good, you do a good enough job, they might keep you going. Or you do a great window cleaning or a pressure washing. Hopefully somebody would have pressure washed it before they sold it. Or maybe you meet up with them before and go. Hey, what work can I do for you? How can I help your business and help these houses look better? How can I make your business look better?
Speaker 1:So I will say one thing a lot of realtors and I'm not hating on realtors Love what they do. They put in in it too, like they put it in an immense amount of work and each home they sell. However, they, in my experience, are the cheapest individuals in the world that there's stereotyping like their stereotypes on the cheapest people. Realtors would have to be top three for me because, oh yeah, oh yeah, we've. We visited a place A realtor's son owns and you know exactly what I'm talking about here in Houston, and that realtor Beat me up on the price and I just I said, ma'am, I am sorry but I cannot budge.
Speaker 1:This is my bare minimum price that I'm giving you that I was trying to work with her from the beginning. Yeah, I'm not working for free and, if you, she lives over 40 fucking minutes from me and so I'm not gonna do anything for less than 45 minutes away. I'm not gonna do a job less than $350. Yeah, easily, if, if I do it for that. And that's exactly what I quoted her and she was like, oh, you can do it for 200 and it's an interior and an exterior window cleaning. And I'm like, ma'am, no, I cannot, um or no, no, this was exterior, this was only exterior windows. The interior windows were an additional 300 and she declined them because it was an extra 300 bucks. And I'm like, ma'am, I can't help you, I can't help you with the price. And then she was like, oh well, if you do this, like if you help me on the price, and I'll go and tell my son to use you for his business on the lake, and I'm like, ma'am, I can't.
Speaker 2:I know I can't. I can't run my business off of words words.
Speaker 1:I can't run my my business off of the word of somebody that they're going to give me other business, because that that in itself is bullshit. If I'm being quite honest, you never guaranteed work If somebody. If you're in a service-based business listening to this podcast right now, my biggest tip, my biggest piece of advice and word of advice to you is do not lower your prices for anybody who says they're going to get you more business, because nine out of 10 times the people who are quiet and don't say that are the ones that get you more business. They're the ones that give you a review. They're the ones that go into the friends and families and and say, hey, this dude does window cleaning, this dude does pool cleaning, this dude does pool warranty, whatever it may be, they're the ones that do it, the ones that are quiet, the ones that tell you they're going to get you more work or spread your name. They never do it. They don't even give you a review. I had an I yesterday in my neighborhood.
Speaker 1:I did a house wash, a partial house wash of a home, the front and their courtyard, and they were like, oh yeah, yeah, no, well, because there was a miscommunication, it happens Could have been on my part. I I can say it could have been on my part, because they asked me how much to wash their courtyard and how much to wash the front of the house. Well, does it sound to you like they were asking for how much to clean a pool deck? When they said the, the, the, I will say the pool is in the courtyard. But when they said courtyard cleaning and pointed to the walls when I first met her husband, dude, does it sound like they're talking about the pool deck? No, Exactly.
Speaker 1:So, and we live in a pretty prestigious neighborhood.
Speaker 2:It's some part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry, my bad, my bad, my bad. There's a man gate 24, seven. It's a pretty damn prestigious neighborhood compared to a lot of people and I am very happy to admit that and proud of it. But and I'm grateful, but I don't want to make a. I don't want to upset anybody in this neighborhood, right? So, especially because I live here, I'm like you know what I will, I'll throw it in and this loop this. This is going back to what we were talking, or what I was talking about. I said I'll throw it in. Just give me a good review on Facebook. Oh yeah, absolutely, whenever she's. So I do we finish. Whenever she's paying. She's like, oh yeah, and she just texted me the link. Yeah, oh yeah, taxi tour. Still have not received a review someone's talking to big game.
Speaker 2:I'll be honest, a lot of my referrals if I get my referrals that way, majority of the time it's they'll go. Yeah, I got referred to you by John Smith and you go who, and it's like I talked to them for five minutes Over the phone. They didn't even see me on site. Well, they had a lot of great things to say about you Because you took care of them and you took care of them in a timely manner. How much would it cost for you to come out here? You're like I have to look this guy back up because I don't, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've had to do that before. I've had clients that have recommended me and I don't remember them.
Speaker 2:I got. I got referred to a. I got referred to a homeowner. He was trying to sell his home. This is going off a little off track, but I'll keep it short.
Speaker 2:Had a guy that called me because he was referred by a pool company and it's equipment that I don't work on. Well, I know another guy that he knows he doubles and everything, but he knows more about one major competitor, way more than I do. Yeah, so whenever I'm talking to this phone, when I say, hey, man, this is the guy to call, reach out to him, he'll help you out. Two weeks go by I haven't heard nothing. And I'm talking to my buddy, reagan. Then I referred him to and he's telling me about this job and I'm like man, this sounds really familiar. And I said the, the guy's name, or I was like are you talking about so-and-so? And he goes oh, no, kidding, that's how we got my number. He had no idea. And he goes man, let me get you a referral fee. Oh, so you should. So you've got stuff like that too. But here's the cool thing I have a very, very nice customer. She lost her husband.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, I hate to hear that just last year, summer of last year.
Speaker 2:So we were talking she's like my expenses are so crazy. By the end of the month I have like $300 to my name. That's it. She doesn't work. She's got a kid in college, she's got a kid that has health issues and I was like she goes, I need my filter claim, but I don't feel comfortable doing it. Do you know anybody? Because everybody's quote me 150, 200 plus.
Speaker 1:You should. I'll say this you should have recommended me because I would have done it for free. I have a special place in my heart for people like that.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what. Next time you're over in Magnolia, let me know and I'll get you it's, it's, it's a little bit of a drive.
Speaker 1:I'll be in. I don't know if I should tell you, but I'll be in Magnolia Friday.
Speaker 2:Okay, at our favorite person's house. Oh yeah, oh, that's right, that's right, you'll pass his house. Getting to hers? Oh okay, I'll send you whatever Give me a favorite. Go look at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try and do the same thing I did for this guy. So I told him no, I don't need a referral fee. You know, let's go, let's go grab dinner, let's keep our relationship going I don't care about it.
Speaker 2:I love money, but I don't want your money right now. And so two days passed and I get to her house and she's like I just I'm struggling with this, I can't get this done, can't get this done, and I was like give me five minutes. So he was at her house today. Oh, cleaner filter.
Speaker 2:Oh nice and is gonna maintain the pool for a month. You know how much it's gonna cost her. Nothing I I got in on my referral fee by making sure she's taking care of for a month. Yep, I Know it's kind of a sidetrack. I'll be useful 25 30,000 gallons.
Speaker 1:How big is the pulled back?
Speaker 2:I've got pictures.
Speaker 1:Show me the pictures. We go yeah, you can pull now, or whatever.
Speaker 2:I'll pull them up after, just remind me I.
Speaker 1:I got a. I Got an idea.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Is it dirty?
Speaker 2:Man, I don't, I don't pay attention to stuff like that like you do, like you probably wouldn't, on certain swimming pools. How big is the driveway? Is it fairly big? It's a. Fairly, it's a. Yeah, it's a fairly big size driveway, smaller than y'all. Okay, yeah it's probably just as long though.
Speaker 1:I'll probably do the her driveway and I'll do her bull bull deck free of charge.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, hey, and if the pool decks not too bad, we'll find something. Yeah, just I want to give back to this lady. She's been super nice, so not to get way off track.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:As far as referrals go absolutely where it can get you.
Speaker 2:Now this lady will forever call me before she has another pool issue. Oh yeah, she'll always call me first and see and if I need a kind, if she needs a contractor. So I told her I've got other contractors that I can refer to her. And Whenever you can work with a guy and be like, hey look, this is the situation and you can work with them Not saying work for free, oh no, no, 100%. But if you can and for me that's no different than tithing. If you're, you know, if you're like a church goer, it's like my version of tithing. Yeah, give to the the widow.
Speaker 1:Absolutely we'll talk more about that, but Anything else as far as the referrals or you want to try anything else, I mean Well, I mean actually, now that you mentioned it, as far as referrals over the last week is over the last, what is it? January 30th?
Speaker 2:31st.
Speaker 1:Yeah, over the last 31 days we have been extremely slow. Yeah, like you mentioned, knowing other contractors is very beneficial. Yes, over the last week we have done. We have had our busiest week For January. In the last three years, since why I opened this company, this has been the busiest January and we didn't get started working until what? Was it Thursday of last week? I forget the exact day. It was like January, like it was in the teens, I don't know. No, no, I guess it was like the 23rd. We didn't start working until then because we had the Storms coming through and storms and we had freeze and finally we had good weather Until this Saturday, where we're expected to get like two to three inches of rain.
Speaker 1:But that was all because of a contractor, yep, a remodeling company. Back in November he he had Reference me or or gave a recommendation for me To one of his clients and said and then he texts me hey, this, this lady is going to be calling. She's super sweet, she's super kind. We ended up doing both of her houses For pressure washing and window cleaning, full service and drive, like everything minus the roof. She was by far the easiest customer to work with, the nicest customer we've had, and Not only that, he got me two more jobs Yesterday. Oh, yeah, and I'm like.
Speaker 1:So Whenever you go to or you're talking about referrals, they can be extremely beneficial in the servicing and the service contract industry, because Referrals can make or break you. Last year, I spent zero dollars in ad spend and I made six figures. Granted, I spent most of it on subcontractors or Like. I don't have a lot of money in my name right now. Yeah, because what? When? When you're making that kind of money and you're young, you're 22, turning 23 you don't you don't think of money, you don't think of money as a an aspect of your life that you really need right then.
Speaker 1:Right, this year is gonna be a little bit different and it already is, but yeah, so as far as referrals go, like that is a big thing is getting other contractors, meeting other contractors and networking. Networking is the other Tip that I would give anybody starting a company right now. Network with anybody you can. I don't care if it is a snow cone Stand, because that snow cone stand.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot about that that snow cone stand can turn into a marketing guru, which can turn into a good friend, which can turn into Doing work together. As far as me me hiring him for for advertising potentially this year I mean it's great dude and I'll go ahead and plug his business if anybody's listening. I know I have a lot of blue collar businesses here. It's I am marketing. I forget the exact website. Hold on them. Give me like two seconds.
Speaker 2:No, you're good if you want, I can. One thing I was gonna say to you is Don't be, don't not make friends in your same line of work. That makes sense, your friends? You have some friends that are doing the same thing that you're doing window cleaning and pressure washing but who's to say that they're having a super, super busy month or they need work? And it's vice versa. Y'all can feed each other work, because I don't know about you, but in my industry I can't take care of the quarter million pools in the Houston area alone.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I'm so Lee and and, pausing real quick and such right, if anybody needs marketing, like I was saying, his name is Kyle and he owns Zion does it better calm? He is a full-on marketing agency, I mean, based out of Houston. He's great. He's an amazing dude, he knows his stuff. He does work for Chick-fil-A smoothie King. No kidding. Yeah, clayton Holmes, christian brothers automotive like he does. Yeah, he does all of their advertising, maybe not like all of their like right, but as far as this local area.
Speaker 1:No way it's. Zion, does it better calm? Zi own does it better calm? Amazing dude, family-oriented, you can't get anybody better. Speaking of marketing and and networking, yeah, he's an amazing guy, I. So I've, like, I think, like five or six months left of free snow cones at his snow cones, oh, dude, yeah, but uh, yeah, no, he's just an amazing guy, um, and I just I wish him all success. He's, uh, he's helped me, um, a little bit. I'm going to be reaching out to him. I actually probably here in the next two, three weeks, uh, to request some assistance and see what we can or cannot do this uh, this year. Anything else you want to elaborate?
Speaker 2:on, man. I think just that last part. Make friends in your same industry.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 2:I agree, Like you said, you could subcontract them out to help you Um if you get an a bind maybe you don't have the exact gear that you need, but they do, yep. And then I ran into that issue before, instead of going and spending $500, you could sub them out for a hundred.
Speaker 1:And I wish it was. I wish it was 500.
Speaker 2:I wish it was that cheap right.
Speaker 1:My typical piece of equipment is anywhere from two to 5,000. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The actual equipment there. I was a dove, but no, I think that's, I think that's it on my end, I think Well.
Speaker 1:I do appreciate you joining me in for this, uh, this episode. Absolutely, and I do apologize Everybody listening for a no episode. Last week we were battling some pretty severe weather. If you ask me, I mean 11 inches of rain within three days. Pretty good flooding in the neighborhoods, but pretty good flooding everywhere.
Speaker 1:Actually, yeah, certain parts of I 45 that were shut down, which is unheard of even in Harvey 45, it wasn't shut down, but I mean, I guess more power to this storm that came through you. You ain't lying. It's a good thing. It didn't come through a week earlier, though, because they said that for every inch of rain, it would have been a foot of snow, so we would have had 12 feet of snow.
Speaker 1:I don't know the truth behind that. I don't know if that's real, and anybody who's listening to us in the Northern States like let us know, please. Yeah, but if that's true, that that would have been insane. That would have been the craziest winter that Texas has probably ever seen. Oh, 100%, at least this one. Yeah, at least here on the coast, essentially. But yeah, guys, I appreciate you guys for listening. I hope you guys have a blessed weekend and we will see you guys next Friday. Thank you for listening to the astro craft, grow, influence and invest podcast. I am your host, seth Mills, and joining me today was Nick Dawson, and we will see you guys once again next Friday.
