A contractor's journey to self-mastery requires discipline, integrity, and respect. Welcome to Hammer and Grind. Welcome to Hammer and Grind, the podcast built for contractors. Real contractors, true stories, real solutions. My name is Brad Hebner, and I will guide you on your journey to mastery of your construction business. You can find Hammer and Grind on all the social media platforms. Just search for Hammer and Grind Podcast. Now, if you're looking for more help, you can check out our free Facebook group called The Contractor Profit Group. I do free trainings in there and it's a great community to be a part of. Now, if you're serious about making more money, saving more time, and creating a business that supports your lifestyle, check out my paid coaching group called The Profit Club. I've put together a proven system for creating a winning business. Now listen, I'm so confident that you will succeed in my program. I'm now offering a 10x ROI guarantee. That means if you don't make at least a 10x return on your investment within a 12-month period, I will refund you the full amount. You can find out more information about The Profit Club at hammerandgrind. com forward slash The Profit Club. Okay, in this podcast, I'm going to be talking about what I would do if I had to start over. If I was starting a... construction business in either a new city or I'm starting for the first time. These are the things that I would do to get my business going. Now, I want to point out a couple things here. I'm going to make the assumption that I already have a name. I've already thought of a good name for a business. I'm not going to go into all the details around how to pick a good name and all that stuff. But let's just assume I have a business name. I did that while I was working in my regular job, and now I'm ready to start. In an ideal world, I would do side jobs first to get my feet wet, or I would be working for another contractor, and then I would be secretly developing my skills, making contacts, and then launching my business. However, assuming that I haven't done any of that, all I've done is created a name for my business. This is what I would do from day one. Now, there's two different activities that I'll be talking about throughout this. Most of these activities are going to be non-working activities because it's a no-brainer that if I get a job that comes in and it's going to be an eight-hour job, I'm going to be doing that job all eight hours. So all of the non-production... activities are going to be done either after hours, in the evenings, or on the weekends. Or if I'm not working on the job, meaning I don't have any production to do, maybe I get a job for two days and then the rest of the week I don't have any work that I can do, I'm going to be doing these other non-productive activities during that time. In other words, every single minute of the day that I am not swinging a hammer, I am doing these other activities. Now, when you get started, the main thing is going to be getting work, right? So I'm going to be focused on getting work. But as soon as I get work, I'm going to also be doing these other activities, again, in the evenings, on the weekends, after hours, whatever, okay? So these are going to be simultaneous. I'm going to be doing activities to generate work. I'm also going to be doing activities to set up my business and grow and all of those things. So with that kind of set as the stage of what we're going to be doing, the very first thing that I'm going to do is write a letter. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to write a letter that says, Dear friends and family, I am excited to let you all know that I have decided to start my own construction business. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. It's part of my dream, blah, blah, blah, putting all the emotion into it as to why I want to do this and how I'm excited to bring you along on this journey. And I hope that you can be a part of it. Now, I'm going to state in there everything that I'm doing. If I'm doing painting, I'm going to put all the painting stuff. If I'm doing carpentry, doing all the carpentry stuff, I'm remodeling, all that stuff. I'm putting it in there. all the things that I'm going to be doing. Now, when you're very first starting out, you should be doing more of a wider net. I know I've said that you should niche down, and this is true. But in this scenario where I don't have any work, I just need to generate money. I have to have some money coming in. So I'm going to be a little bit more wide on some of the stuff I do. I'm still going to stay in my niche. I'm not going to be a painter. who builds decks. I'm not going to be a roofer who does concrete. I'm not doing stuff like that. Okay. I'm talking about if I'm doing carpentry, I may also, you know, build cabinets. I may do built-ins. I may do a deck. I may do fencing. I may do crown molding, base, doors, windows. Like those are kind of very wide things just to get started. I need to get some business. I need to get the phone ringing. I need to get money in the bank. So that's what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be letting everyone know, here's all the services I'm going to be doing. And I'm going to send that. I'm going to print it out, sign it like an old-fashioned letter. And I'm going to send that to the top 20 people, friends and family that I know. I'm going to send it in the mail. It's on purpose. I'm doing this because it's going to reach them. and they're going to read it. If you send it to an email, they're very likely not going to read it. So I'm going to pick the top 20 people, even my parents, my siblings, even people that may know that I'm doing this. I'm still sending them a letter. All of my friends, I'm sending them a letter in the mail and asking them if they need some work or if they know anybody that needs work. to please send it my way. Now, because I know what I know, in this letter, I'm also going to ask them for warm introductions to any interior designers, any real estate agents, any home inspectors, anybody like that that's an influencer or a referral source for my industry, people that I may get business from. So I'm going to ask them, if you are friends or know anybody who is a, you know, enter these or enter these in their real estate agent, if you know any real estate agents or interior designers or home investors or home inspectors, please introduce them to me. Please give me their name and number or let them know that I'm looking for work and I'd be more than happy to talk to them. Okay. So I'm killing two birds with one stone. I'm telling them I'm in business. It's like putting the open sign on the door. I'm in business and I'm looking for these referrals or this type of work. Okay. I'm going to send it to them and you will get some business from that. You will get some family or friends who, whether it's through mercy, a mercy killing, meaning they're like, I don't really need anything done, but I want to support you. So come over and, you know, paint my door for me. They literally might make up stuff to try and help you out. That's okay. I'll take it. You're going to have some of that. You're going to have some people that actually need real work done and they want to give it to you because they know you. They may expect a discount. At this point, I'm willing to take whatever I can get and give discounts. I'm just trying to get money in the bank. It doesn't mean I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life, giving discounts and doing crappy work or things I don't want to do. I'm just trying to get the phone to ring and get money in the bank. Keep that in mind. This is short-term things. Short-term pain for long-term gain. Okay? And they're going to give you some referrals to some people. Hey, here is my friend's a real estate agent. She's always complaining they can't find good contractors. You might want to reach out to her. Now, here's the thing, guys. If someone goes out of their way... to give you information like a referral, you better damn follow up with them. There's nothing worse than burning a contact by not following up after they've gone out of their way to make a warm introduction or to respond and give you the information. If someone gives you a name to a real estate agent and you don't call them, you've just burnt that relationship. Now, they may still be your friend, or your relative, but they're not going to refer anybody else to you ever again. So don't waste those, okay? Always follow up when someone gives you a referral. So I'm doing that. We haven't even gotten started yet. That's just the very first thing I'm sending a letter. The next thing I'm doing is I'm going to get on a website like fiverr. com and I'm going to find somebody to design a logo for me. I'm going to pay somebody 5,10,20 bucks to design a logo. a really good logo because it's worth it. But I'm not going to spend a bunch of money. Okay? So find somebody on Fiverr, design a logo for me. Then I'm going to set up a Google My Voice or Google Voice number or something similar because I don't want people to have my cell phone number. This is a grave mistake. When you start your business and give your cell phone number, now people can be calling you 10 o 'clock at night, all the time, weekends, whenever, bugging you. Don't give out your cell phone number, guys. That's just silly. You can get a free number through Google Voice or it's like $5 a month or something dirt cheap. Set up a separate number for your business. That way, whenever people are calling you, you know it's a business line number. Someone's calling your business and not just a friend who might be calling you. I'm also going to set up my Google My Business. I'm going to set up a Google My Business account because Google is our friend and everything that has to do with Google. will always benefit us. So I'm setting up a Google My Business account and putting all my information in there and I'm going to start making posts in there. I'm going to set up a Facebook account, a Facebook page rather, for my business. I'm going to put some nice pictures in there. If you don't have any pictures whatsoever of any work that you've ever done, You can use some stock photos. However, you need to get rid of those stock photos as soon as humanly possible because people will know that they're stock photos. Start putting your original stuff on there. I don't care if the picture quality is not that great. It's better to have a picture of your work that's not very great than having a high-quality stock photo. People know what stock photos look like. Instagram. I'm going to create an Instagram account. I'm going to put pictures and posts on there. You don't have to put pictures on there. They can just be posts. They can be how-to tips. They can be how-to videos or tips and tricks, things like that. When it comes to content creation, you don't have to be original and you don't have to come up with the information. You can actually share other people's stuff. So if I get on the social media and I start following all these other people, Maybe I follow some kind of interior design website or group or designer who puts out really good content on like, here's the top five trends of bathroom remodels in 2022. I can share that post. I can go onto that Facebook post, click share, share it on my Facebook. And now I've provided value to my potential followers and I provided... also value to that person. So if I go look up interior designers, if I'm starting a remodeling business, I could look up interior designers, follow them on social media, and then start sharing their content. They will see that I'm sharing their content. That will make them happy because you're investing in them. So it's a reciprocity thing. The more stuff that I share and talk about and comment, they're going to like it. And also, if I comment on their post, if I go to their Facebook page and I comment on their stuff about, wow, this is such a great kitchen. I really love how you design the countertops or whatever. I love the color combinations you did. If I start posting on their posts and complimenting them on their things. they're going to feel good about that. And they're going to say, who is this guy? And they're going to look you up and they're going to be interested in talking to you. Okay? This is how you build long-term. That's a long-term strategy. It doesn't mean if I go on there and post, hey, I really like your color combinations that I'm going to get a job tomorrow. That's not the purpose of that. It's to build authority and build networks. A lot of these things are not going to get you work right away. but it will help get you work longer down the road, a little bit farther down the road. And it will help build your credibility. It'll help build your authority. It'll help you to get known. The name of the game when you first start is everybody needs to know what I do. That's the name of the game. Everybody needs to know what I do. I'm going to talk about it so much that my friends and family are going to be annoyed that I talk about it too much. Okay? That's what you need to do. And when you first start out, guys, listen, you don't get to start a business and work 20 hours a week and make $100,000 a year and take vacations and everything's sweet and fun and it's great. You're going to work your ass off for the first year in your business. You're going to be working 60,70,80 hours a week while you build this thing. There's no nights or weekends off. I don't care if you have a family or not. They're going to have to make some sacrifices. You're going to have to make some sacrifices. And it's only short term. I'm not saying you have to do that for the whole length of your business. You shouldn't have to do that. If you are, you're not doing something right. But if I can work 70 hours a week for three months, that could potentially set me up so that the rest of my life, I never have to work that much again. But if you go in there and you only work 30 hours a week and that's it, it will take you years, years to get to the point to where you need to go. People get to where they're at through hard work. It's hard work. It's constant action. You can't get massive results without massive action. It's just how it is. Okay? So we got the Google My Business, all the social media set up. We're recording videos and tips and tricks. And now we're going to get a website. Now, if I have the money, I'm going to hire someone to build me a website. If I don't have the money, I'm going to build it myself. Now, today, there are so many free templates out there that you could have a website up and running in one day for like 15 bucks a month. You can go on WordPress or Wix or Squarespace or some of these other platforms out there. and build a website for like 15 bucks a month to have it hosted and everything with a template. There's literally no reason not to have a website. None. Okay. Now, the next thing I want to be doing, I'm going to be joining a B &I group as soon as I can. A Business Networking International. That is a networking group where you pass referrals. They only have one seat of each profession in there. So one accountant, one insurance agent, one lawyer. one investment guy, one general contractor, stuff like that. This will help you do many, many things in your business. One, it will help you get business, actual referrals. Two, it will help you to network because now you're going to have access to an accountant, an attorney, an insurance guy, all the people that you're going to need to grow your business. You now have access to them. And you can get to know them and decide if that's who's going to be a good fit for your business. Third thing it's going to do is it's going to help you to create commercials because you do 60-second commercials. It's going to help you to develop an elevator pitch and be able to promote your business. The fourth thing it's going to do is help you to get in front of people and do public speaking. You have to be able to be comfortable. to talk to people in a public setting or in a situation where everyone's watching you and they want to know about your business. It's going to help you develop those things. It's going to help you become a better speaker, a better communicator, a better storyteller. So there's benefits beyond just getting work from the referrals. So join a BNI group. I'm also going to talk to five people a day. I'm not allowed to come home. until I've talked to five strangers every day. Now, there's talk about business cards and you can print out business cards. I don't use business cards. I think they're dead. If you want to spend money on business cards, that's fine. I wouldn't do that. I would simply talk to them. I would have either a website or my Facebook or something set up so that they can come and find out information from me. Okay. I Google on business, whatever. I can simply have that URL, that link on my phone and I can send it to them or I can text it to them or whatever. But I'm talking to five people. I'm talking to people at the gas pump, talking to people at the fast food restaurant, everywhere. If I don't have any work going on that day and I'm working from home on marketing, I'm getting in my vehicle and I'm driving somewhere and I'm talking to five people in person every day. Five people every day. in person. Did I mention that it's five people a day in person? Now, I'm going to start going on to Facebook and Craigslist and Nextdoor and any other site like that where people can post work. I'm not going to pay for anything. I'm not joining Angie's List or Home Advisor or any of Thumbtack or any of those ripoff places. I'm not doing that. I'm going to the free places and I'm going to start searching. For people that are looking for work, and I'm going to start commenting on their posts, I'm going to start engaging in dialogue with those people to try and generate work. Every day, I wake up in the morning, I get on those for 10,15,20 minutes, I search and see if there's anything, comment on them, and then if I have production work, I'm going to go do it. And then in the evening, I'm going to get on there again and check it out. Like I said, every minute I'm not working on the job, I'm marketing. Now, after I've made some money, let's say I've done a couple jobs and I've made some money, I'm going to pay myself the absolute bare minimum that I need to survive. I'm not going to pay myself a lot of money so I can go eat fast food and hang out and be cool. I'm paying myself the bare minimum. I'm paying my power bill, my house bill, any vehicles. Any bare minimum electricity, water, and then I'm eating ramen noodles and I'm eating bologna sandwiches and all that stuff. Again, this is temporary. I'm trying to conserve as much money as possible so that I can grow my business as fast as possible. Every penny that I spend on stuff that I don't need, like a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets or whatever junk food you eat. is a penny less that I have to spend towards my business. So I'm going to pay myself the bare minimum. And then whatever's left of that, I'm going to split it 50-50 into two categories. 50% of that is going to go into marketing efforts. That could be shirts, t-shirts to wear, could be vehicle wraps. It can be anything marketing related that I think I need to invest in. The other 50% is going to go into building the business. And that can be things like new tools that I may need to do jobs faster or more efficiently or it allow me to do more jobs. It could be software that I need to run my business like QuickBooks or some type of CRM or something. Something like that. 50% of that's going to go to growing my business. Okay. I'm also going to be getting my bank account set up. I want to have my bank account structured now. so I don't have to worry about it later. A lot of these activities I did not do early on in my business, some of which I didn't do for years, and it hurt me. Now I know I need to have these things set up from the get-go. And these things that you get set up from the get-go while you're slow are much easier than to do whenever you're super busy because you won't get around to doing them. So I'm setting up my bank account. I'm getting any licenses or insurance or anything like that, legal stuff I need to have for my business, I'm getting that stuff done. When I first start out, I may be doing jobs for cash. I may not have a license yet. I may not have gotten to that point. Maybe I'm waiting on taking a test, whatever. But I'm working towards getting all of this stuff done as quickly as possible that I need to do to become legal. I know a guy that's been running his landscaping business for about 10 years and he doesn't even have insurance or a license. It's the dumbest thing I ever heard. He's just waiting to get screwed. So I'm going to be getting that stuff as quickly as I possibly can afford it and is able to do in terms of time. Okay. So I'm setting all that stuff up while I'm working. I'm also going to be looking into joining Lowe's or Home Depot as far as their install programs. Because again, I just need money coming in the door. I can always back out of that stuff. I can always quit those things if I don't want to do it anymore. But I need work to come in. I need to be able to generate income. And every second, if I have the marketing done, if I've done all of my content posts for the day, If I've gone on all my websites and I've searched to see what jobs are out there and I just don't have anything else that I can do marketing related, I'm going to spend any extra time I have on working on the business. Now, working on the business are activities that help the business grow. Doing estimates and invoicing is working in the business. That's not working on the business. It's not paperwork. When you hear people say work on your business, they're not talking about doing paperwork and data entry. They're talking about doing things like brainstorming on how you can generate more work, brainstorming on new products or services that you can offer. It's putting together systems to make your business run better. It's creating organization. Those are the things that are working on your business, things that grow your business. So I'm working on creating systems. I'm documenting my processes. I'm doing job costing on every job, things that are important to grow and understand. I'm not going to push these things off. So every minute that I'm not working or doing marketing, I'm working on my business. A good ratio to use when it comes to working on your business is every eight to 10 hours of production work that you do, you should be spending about an hour of work that helps to grow your business. And early on, that's going to be checking your prices, looking at your time. You're going to be documenting your time of how long it takes you to do everything. You're going to be documenting how you do everything. You're going to be documenting processes of how you do stuff. Listen to me, guys. It's so much easier to do this stuff in the very beginning when you're slow than it is to do five years later when you're super busy and your business is chaos because nobody knows what to do. It's 10 times harder to create systems then. than it is to do it in the very beginning while you're growing, while you're learning the business. So take that time to start documenting. It can be at the end of each day. You just say, this is what I did today. I put a door in. It took me 30 minutes to go get the door. It took me three and a half hours to install the door. It took me a half hour to caulk everything. It took me two hours to paint the door or whatever you're doing. It took me 30 minutes to clean up. And I'm documenting that. And I'm putting it into some kind of spreadsheet or something so that I know the next time I need to do a door install that's like that, I know roughly what it's going to take to do it. And then I know what I need to charge. Because early on, you're probably going to undercharge. You're probably not going to make as much money. Because you don't have any reference point. You have no experience. So I'm documenting every single thing that I'm doing so that the next time I do it, I'm going to document it again. I'm going to compare the two notes. Because at some point, the more you do stuff, the more efficient you become. But what happens is, if you're early on and it takes you six hours to do a door and you're charging a certain amount, and then after a few dozen or so doors, Now it only takes you three and a half hours. You inadvertently start discounting yourself because it doesn't take as long. When people were still paying you for six hours, but now you're able to do it in three, you've lowered your price without even thinking about it because you're more efficient at it. But I don't want to do that. I want to lower my price. I just want to become more efficient and make more money. Because now when I become more efficient, I can do two doors in one day instead of one. So instead of making, you know,250 bucks a day, I might make 500 bucks a day. That's if I was doing like a subcontract job for Lowe's or something. You have to be documenting this stuff and using it to your advantage as you're growing while you're slow. And listen, when it comes to spending money on advertising and marketing, if it comes down to your last dollar and you have to decide between marketing your business or eating, you better think long and hard about whether or not that food's worth it. Because marketing is so critical to your business. If you do marketing correctly, if you do branding correctly, it will help sell your business in the future. Or it will make it so much easier to sell your business. The people that say all you need is referrals, they don't understand what it takes to grow and scale a business. And they also don't understand that things are different than they were 30 years ago. Okay. One thing I forgot to mention with my Google My Business is that I'm collecting reviews with every single job that I do. I'm getting some kind of review from every single job that I do. Because reviews are digital referrals. And that is where everything is going in the future. It's already there. We're already there. But there's still some time to help get on that train. Eventually, everyone will know this and then eventually everyone will have reviews and then there will be some other platform or way to pre-qualify people. Right now, you can still get on the game of getting reviews because most contractors do not understand this and they don't use it to their advantage. So I'm going to collect as many reviews as I possibly can. And that's what I'm going to do. And I'm going to rinse and repeat that. over and over every day until I build up, until I start making money, until I systematize my business, until I start to get brand recognition and brand authority, until people start finding me. And then I'm going to repeat the process and just keep growing and growing and growing. Now, as I'm doing this, I'm checking my prices, making sure I'm job costing and hitting my numbers and 50% gross profit. And then I'm making more money. So now I can pay myself more money. Once you do a lot of these things, like once you buy a vehicle wrap one time, that investment is done. You know, it may cost you $3,000, $4,000, but that investment is done and will last you five, six, seven years unless you buy more vehicles. So some of these things are not like you're going to have an outgoing all the time. You're going to have an initial investment. And then you're going to be able to reap the benefits of the profit that's left over. Okay. If you do this, you will have success. It's almost guaranteed. Now, while you're doing this, you're also going to have to increase your productivity. All that stuff, you know, hire people that plays in. But these are the things that I'm going to be doing for the first few months to make sure I get started the right way. And then I'm going to continue to do some of these. As I go on, I may not be talking to five people a day every day, six months later, because I may not need to. Right? If I have enough influencers or enough referral sources, I may not need to do that. But I'm going to keep tweaking. I'm going to keep hammering. I'm going to keep grinding. And I'm going to set myself up to win. And if you guys listen and do any of these things, if you've been in business for three years, five years, and you're not even doing half of the things that I mentioned, you haven't set yourself up to win. If you're struggling right now, and you're not doing these things that I mentioned, it's because you haven't set yourself up to win. All right? That's it for this podcast. I hope it was helpful. I hope there were some nuggets in there. I hope that you can take this and apply it to your business and help you to grow and have much success. You know where to find me on all of the platforms. Hammer and Grind Podcast, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. You know where to find me. Reach out to me. Let me know if I can help you in your business. Don't forget that the Profit Club is just... I don't want to be a plug here, but it's really changing contractors' lives. And it's hard to convey that to contractors when I'm talking to them. I talk to many contractors that are struggling in their business and I know that I can help them in their business and change their life, yet they just don't want to make the investment. And that's why I have the 10x ROI guarantee. Guys, I set it up for you. I take you step by step on how to create a winning business. And on top of that, I put my money where my mouth is and I give you a 10x guarantee that if you don't make your money back,10 times the investment, I will give you the investment back. There's no reason whatsoever not to take me up on this offer. It will change your business. It will change your life if you're struggling in your business right now. That's my guarantee. And that's all I got. Till next time, you know what to do. Be the best you.
