Small Business Coaching
for Service & Trade Companies
Learn LEADS to get more customers to find you
Learn SALES to convert more leads into jobs
Learn DEVELOPMENT to solve for Key Man Risk
See disclaimer at footer.
Business development is the systematic process of driving enterprise value.
For many small business owners, even though they technically own their company, in reality they “own a job” more than they own a business? We’ve designed our small business coaching services to change that.
BUILDING A GOOD BUSINESS STARTS WITH THE CONCEPT OF VALUE
Have you ever thought about selling your business or paused to ask, “I wonder how much my business would be worth if I sold it”?
Many small business owners we speak with don’t even know that’s possible. That’s because their mentality has been owning a job rather than building a business that could be worth selling someday. Think about it, no one ever had a W2 position and listed it for sale.
Regardless if you ever sell your company, don’t you think it’s important to know how a business is valued?
Hint: A business isn’t valued like pricing a home.
If you don’t know how to calculate your company’s valuation how can you purposefully & consistently do the things that make your company more valuable?
Business development is the process of identifying the critical components impacting company valuation, then solving each constraint that restricts growth.
I start here because regardless if we’re talking about website SEO, Google Ads, measuring ROAS… building a valuable business is the context of making a business more profitable.
Otherwise all we’re talking about is helping you produce a higher income. At that point you might as well consider applying for a higher paying job and forget the stress that comes with building a business.
Read more on Enterprise Value
What kind of coaching do you offer?
WE COACH OWNER-OPERATORS IN LEAD GENERATION, SALES, and BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Service businesses that serve a local market have 4 systems that comprise the company. See Systems page for more.
Those systems are:
Leads
Sales
Product & Fulfillment
Performance Dashboard
Truly the scope of business development encompasses all the above. But if you’re an electrician we’re not here to coach you on how to be a better electrician. So we do not coach on Product & Fulfillment.
If a company hires us for Business Development training we coach them on Leads, Sales, and how to build the Dashboard. This level of training is best fit for a company that meets all 4 criteria (see below).
Full scale Biz Dev coaching is expensive and many owner-operators are not ready for this. So we have training that focuses on Leads and/or Sales, which is far more accessible price-wise.
What criteria should companies meet
to be a good fit for coaching?
OUR COACHING IS BEST FIT FOR 2 TIERS OF COMPANIES
TIER 1: Scale to $1M in annual revenue while the owner stays “in” the business
TIER 2: Scale to $10M in annual revenue to systematically detach the owner from the daily needs of the company.
TIER 1 COACHING IS TUNED FOR COMPANIES THAT MEET THESE 3 CRITERIA
1. Location-based, service companies (i.e. you’re a plumber who works within a 40min radius)
2. Majority of revenue comes from customers hiring you directly (not subcontracted through a GC)
3. Owner committed to making lead gen a top priority if annual cash flow is under $1M
TIER 2 COACHING IS TUNED FOR COMPANIES THAT MEET THE ABOVE CRITERIA PLUS 1
4. Owner committed to building a business that eventually no longer needs the owner in the day-to-day operations.
What are examples of companies you work with?
TYPES OF COMPANIES WE WORK WITH
The bulk of our work is with companies that serve residential & commercial real estate. But our systems are designed for any service business targeting a local market. Ask yourself, “Do I want more homeowners in my area to find my business?” If the answer is yes, our coaching could appeal to your business.
Home trades:
asphalt paving (and concrete)
house painting
hardwood flooring
custom home designers
fence contractors
deck builders
Home services:
window cleaning & pressure washing
tree care
gutter cleaning & seamless install
handyman services
house cleaning
pest control
garage floor epoxy
Mechanical trades
electrical
plumbing
HVAC
Other examples of local services
pet grooming and dog walking
junk removal
fixed wireless internet providers
security system installers
auto body and tire shops
car wrap and window tinting
home inspection companies
Do you own a business, or do you own a job?
Have you imagined what it’d be like if your company no longer needed you there for the day-to-day operations, and yet the business still predictably cash flowed and increased in revenue YOY?
What does the process look like to decouple the operator from “owner-operator”? How does that person become owner-investor?
This is only possible by identifying, installing, and iterating systems & roles so the business becomes mechanistic; a boring cash-flowing company.
Imagine that, owning a company that owes you rather than the owner owing the business.
If you’re an owner-operator and want help figuring out this process we’d love to setup up that discovery call.
Enterprise Value
Enterprise value (EV) is the total worth of the business, cash-free and debt-free. Let’s say a business is valued at $1M. If the checking account has $100K, and the business has $50K of loans we’d subtract the cash & debt to calculate the enterprise value at $850K.
But how did we get to that million dollar valuation? Is that the price an employee or a fellow tradesman owner-operator would pay? (i.e. a plumber buying another plumber’s business)
What if the buyer wants to be an absentee owner-investor? (Berkshire Hathaway purchasing Mrs. B’s Furniture Mart)
These are questions that drive great business development.
Driving enterprise value is the context & backdrop of all that we offer at The Culture.
Whether it’s building a lead gen campaign with an SEO-driven website paired with Google Ads
or integrating a CRM with lead source attribution so we can finally calculate LTV/CAC
or service analysis & prioritization based on TAM, job costing and crew capacity
All this work is done to chase down & reverse-engineer enterprise value. When we say we help owner-operators build an investor’s perspective, this is the framework we’re referring to.
If you don't know how a business is valued how can you expect to systematically do the very things that increase the value of your business?
When you understand the fundamentals of business valuation you can isolate the drivers of value and push them to produce the output that best suits your current leadership team and production crew (or a future buyer).
In other words, when you understand how much a ready-willing-able buyer would pay for a business like yours you can take the necessary actions to preserve or increase that value.
A great business owner develops a business to not need him or her regardless if he/she ever sells the business. This is because a sellable business is a valuable business.
A business that isn’t worth being sold isn’t worth being held onto–other than for the job it creates for the owner.
Business development makes the difference between being a business owner or a self-employed sole proprietor.
The business owner works on the business, for the business.
The sole proprietor works for himself.
(and before you get offended, yes both are working for those he provides for)
This is NOT good versus bad.
This is scalable versus unscalable.
This is salable versus unsalable.
If you would like to schedule an intro call please fill out the form. Please note our scheduling is limited.
There’s a lot to discuss to discover we we’re a good fit to bring your business to the next level. We look forward to your call.