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How I Would Build a Service Business in 2026 (If I Had to Start Over)

Alex HormoziPublished Aug 29, 202626:44Added Aug 30, 2026

Download your free scaling roadmap here: https://www.acquisition.com/roadmap-yt-d 00:00 - Intro: Welcome to Scale or Fail

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946 segments
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  1. Intro: Welcome to Scale or Fail

  2. 00:00I'm about to help a complete stranger
  3. 00:01build a $7 million per year business.
  4. 00:03I'm going to give him a step-by-step
  5. 00:05road map on exactly what he needs to do.
  6. 00:06And 90 days later, we're going to check
  7. 00:08in with him to see what actually
  8. 00:09happened. And for all the business
  9. 00:10owners watching, I've scaled 10
  10. 00:12businesses past 10 million, three past
  11. 00:14100 million, and I've realized an
  12. 00:16important lesson, which is that
  13. 00:17businesses behave in patterns at all
  14. 00:18levels. And so, you can take any of the
  15. 00:20principles and tactics and apply them to
  16. 00:22your specific business and industry. At
  17. 00:23its current size, there are far more
  18. 00:25similarities than there are differences.
  19. 00:27And so, with that being said, let's go

  20. Kaleb's Roofing Company

  21. 00:28meet Caleb. Ready to rock?
  22. 00:30I'm ready to rock and roll, brother.
  23. 00:31All right. Tell me about the business.
  24. 00:32So, first off, my name is Caleb with a
  25. 00:34K. I own Keys Roofing Company,
  26. 00:35also with a K.
  27. 00:36Yeah. All right. Alex with an A. Nice to
  28. 00:38meet you.
  29. 00:38So, we are a premium and luxury roofing,
  30. 00:42gutter, and downspout contractor in St.
  31. 00:43Louis, Missouri.
  32. 00:44Hey, what's going on, folks? This is
  33. 00:45Caleb with [music] the K, the Kingdom
  34. 00:46Building Castle Contractor.
  35. 00:48So, we've been in business for 2 months.
  36. 00:49The current revenue, um, we're a little
  37. 00:51bit shy of 41,000. Profit is 24,248, so
  38. 00:55I'm at about 59%.
  39. 00:56So, you're doing only 20K a monthish
  40. 00:58right now. All right. Correct. The goal
  41. 01:00within the next 3 years is going to be 7
  42. 01:02to 10 million.
  43. 01:03Okay. Love that. So, how you get
  44. 01:06customers?
  45. 01:07So, the way that we get customers, um,
  46. 01:09two primary acquisition channels
  47. 01:10currently is door-knocking. So, I do a
  48. 01:12ton of canvasing and then also
  49. 01:14referrals, whether that's doing a great
  50. 01:16job for the person that I currently meet
  51. 01:18or people within my internal network.
  52. 01:20So, walk me through the money stuff.
  53. 01:22Yeah. Um, so with the money stuff, I
  54. 01:24have two streams of revenue with the
  55. 01:26full replacements. My average ticket
  56. 01:28year after year is about 18 to 25,000.
  57. 01:30The greatest thing about being the
  58. 01:32solution for the smaller problems is
  59. 01:34these jobs, Alex, they typically chunk
  60. 01:36up to those jobs. So if I'm coming
  61. 01:38through and I replace one down spout for
  62. 01:40somebody, run a gutters, what have you,
  63. 01:42nobody will else will even show up to
  64. 01:44even attack that job, which then
  65. 01:46qualifies me to get the next job and all
  66. 01:49their future jobs.
  67. 01:50How many doors do you need to knock to
  68. 01:51get a sale?
  69. 01:52Oh man, I have a high um close rate on
  70. 01:55that. So if I knock 20 doors,
  71. 01:58I'm getting a sale.
  72. 01:59Yeah.
  73. 01:59Like it's like that.
  74. 02:00Yeah. No, it's like that.
  75. 02:02It's like that.
  76. 02:03Like that. [laughter]
  77. 02:04All right. Um
  78. 02:06what's stopping you right now?
  79. 02:08So what's currently stopping me is um
  80. 02:10having more salespeople because if I
  81. 02:12have two more salespeople, one project
  82. 02:14manager, I'm 100% confident 7 to 10
  83. 02:16million is very doable.
  84. 02:18Okay. Um why is this important to you?
  85. 02:22I would say this is important to me
  86. 02:24because um I have two kids at home. So
  87. 02:26Wayan is three. My son August is 10
  88. 02:29months old.
  89. 02:30Oh, congrats.
  90. 02:30Oftentimes we look to our parents, oh
  91. 02:33like you know how to be successful and
  92. 02:34they'll give us all these things. And
  93. 02:36for me as dad,
  94. 02:37I need to show my kids what winning
  95. 02:39looks like.
  96. 02:40So that's first and foremost. But also
  97. 02:42secondly is I believe the roofing
  98. 02:44experience is primarily across the board
  99. 02:47terrible for both customers and roofing
  100. 02:50salespeople alike. So, the ability to
  101. 02:52solve this problem gives salespeople a
  102. 02:54great ecosystem to come and sell and
  103. 02:56actually be paid for what they do. Yeah.
  104. 02:58And then it allows me to have satisfied
  105. 03:01customers in the St. Louis area with the
  106. 03:03unmatched offer that I do.
  107. 03:05Um, all right. Hop on to the side and
  108. 03:06then we'll uh we'll dive into it.

  109. The Fix: Raising Average Ticket Sales

  110. 03:07Awesome. [music]
  111. 03:11Okay. So, um, the big thing that you
  112. 03:14right now have to deal with is like
  113. 03:15there's one of you and there you don't
  114. 03:16have that many like it's a small
  115. 03:19business, right? Right? And I'm not
  116. 03:20saying that as a slide. I'm saying just
  117. 03:21factually, right? Um and so you're going
  118. 03:23to be resourcing strength both time and
  119. 03:25money. And so I want to focus all
  120. 03:28efforts on the highest return stuff that
  121. 03:29you can do right now. Um what's very
  122. 03:31good about your business right now,
  123. 03:33honestly, is you because at any given
  124. 03:36point, you can knock 20 doors and you
  125. 03:37get a deal.
  126. 03:38Yep.
  127. 03:38Right. And so that reliability of being
  128. 03:40able to just basically go get money um
  129. 03:43is something that a lot of entrepreneurs
  130. 03:44don't know how to do. And that gives you
  131. 03:46a lot of what I'll call like cats have
  132. 03:47nine lives. like entrepreneurs uh need
  133. 03:49as many lives as they can and knowing
  134. 03:51how to go get money is one of the ways
  135. 03:52to do that. So, I think it's super good.
  136. 03:54Um there's a couple key decisions that I
  137. 03:55wanted to like walk through because one
  138. 03:57of the considerations I had was like,
  139. 03:58okay, was there a world where we could
  140. 04:00get repair average tickets up more
  141. 04:02meaningfully? Yeah.
  142. 04:03And so, say 7K is gross profit on the
  143. 04:06replacements. Sure. Does that sound
  144. 04:07fair?
  145. 04:08Yeah.
  146. 04:08Okay. So, if we have 7K replacements,
  147. 04:12right?
  148. 04:16Um, what is the gross profit on a
  149. 04:18repair? Oh,
  150. 04:20I'm at like 64%.
  151. 04:23And that average ticket is 1,500.
  152. 04:25Yep.
  153. 04:26So, $1,100 um gross profit on repairs.
  154. 04:29So, I'll tell you where I was originally
  155. 04:30thinking was basically, is there a world
  156. 04:33where, let's say we get this gross
  157. 04:34profit up to $2,000. Is there a world
  158. 04:36where you think you could sell three
  159. 04:37times as many repairs as you could
  160. 04:39replacements?
  161. 04:39100,000%.
  162. 04:40Right? So, this is what got more
  163. 04:41interesting to me was like I love when
  164. 04:43there it's like when when there's
  165. 04:44something that's been cast aside by
  166. 04:45other people, right? Like no one wants
  167. 04:46to do this particular thing, but then
  168. 04:48you orient a business in such a way that
  169. 04:49you can actually make really good gross
  170. 04:51profits on it. Part of me was running
  171. 04:52out the idea of like what if we just did
  172. 04:54repairs and you did an absolute like you
  173. 04:55just became you systemized the living
  174. 04:58out of it, right? So, what is the
  175. 04:59aggregate amount of all repairs? What
  176. 05:03would that ticket look like? So, if you
  177. 05:05did everything minus replacement,
  178. 05:07these should really be selling for like
  179. 05:082500 to 5K. The reason that this is
  180. 05:10interesting to me is that like if we can
  181. 05:11get this thing to two, three, you know,
  182. 05:144K.
  183. 05:15Sure.
  184. 05:16This becomes an incredibly interesting
  185. 05:17business.
  186. 05:18Yeah.
  187. 05:18Just from the sheer volume that you
  188. 05:20could do and the reliability of revenue
  189. 05:21cuz the obvious one is cool. We do
  190. 05:22repairs and then we try and upsell the
  191. 05:24upsell the roofs. Like that's fine. Um
  192. 05:26but I just like that you have this angle
  193. 05:28a lot. Hey, it's Alex from the future. I
  194. 05:30just thought it might be really
  195. 05:31interesting to see what actually happens
  196. 05:32to Caleb when he implements this stuff.
  197. 05:34And so we're going to show you how much
  198. 05:35his revenue increased by at the end. How
  199. 05:38has the business changed since switching
  200. 05:39from uh chasing full roof replacements
  201. 05:42to repair volume? And it's interesting
  202. 05:44because I was doing like 15 to 20
  203. 05:47services per month, but with the new
  204. 05:49model, I do about 60 to 80 per month
  205. 05:52right now. And so it's more than
  206. 05:55quadrupled in terms of uh services sold,
  207. 05:59built, and collected on. So I would say
  208. 06:01that it's it's been working. Our roof
  209. 06:03repair techs, they do about 3 to five
  210. 06:05jobs per day. Um, I have one currently.
  211. 06:07Once the second one comes on, I mean,
  212. 06:09we're doubling up even on that.
  213. 06:11Well, I would say that was pretty good.
  214. 06:13That uh that was a good one of those one
  215. 06:15of those good ideas out of nothing to
  216. 06:18add. Let's just run this out and like

  217. The Fix: Systematize with VSLs

  218. 06:22run out a version of the future. Okay.
  219. 06:25So, let's just say that we try and get
  220. 06:27really really sexy with our repair sales
  221. 06:29motion.
  222. 06:30Sure.
  223. 06:30All right. So, all the repairs we try
  224. 06:33and get our foot in the door quite
  225. 06:34literally, right? Mhm.
  226. 06:35We get our repairs and then they go to
  227. 06:38um have their onboarding call with
  228. 06:40Amanda. Right. Prior to the onboarding
  229. 06:42call, I would love to have them watch a
  230. 06:44VSSL that talks about the other the
  231. 06:46benefits of what you guys do. It's a
  232. 06:47long-term investment. Blah blah blah
  233. 06:49blah. Right. Um, and then Amanda then
  234. 06:52tries to close them on a menu close of,
  235. 06:55okay, uh, you got this thing, but you
  236. 06:58probably don't need this. You probably
  237. 06:59don't need this, but what you really
  238. 07:00going to probably want to take care of
  239. 07:01is this and this, which, you know, my my
  240. 07:03partner didn't have enough time to to
  241. 07:04talk about, but given what we now know
  242. 07:06about it because we did a little bit
  243. 07:07more work than just talking to you. Um,
  244. 07:10we're all going to be there. We're going
  245. 07:11to have the dumpsters out. We're already
  246. 07:13going to have the tarps open. It's like
  247. 07:14you might like the the hood's going to
  248. 07:15get popped, right? So, you might as well
  249. 07:17just have us fix everything while we're
  250. 07:18here. Getting the first sale is the hard
  251. 07:20part. Getting the approximate sale is
  252. 07:22significantly easier.
  253. 07:23Way easier. Right.
  254. 07:24Can I ask you a question about this? So,
  255. 07:25with the VSSL, so I have a a high
  256. 07:27quality YouTube channel. Is a VSSL kind
  257. 07:29of the same as a YouTube or is that
  258. 07:30different?
  259. 07:31It's it's has a more specific purpose.
  260. 07:32As you scale the sales team, you might
  261. 07:34want this video to be more targeted in
  262. 07:35terms of like more s.
  263. 07:37Okay.
  264. 07:37Right. And so the the VSSL structure
  265. 07:40looks more like this, which is you have
  266. 07:42your intro
  267. 07:43and then you're going to have your
  268. 07:44promise of like, hey, in this video I'm
  269. 07:46going to explain X, Y, and Z, which is
  270. 07:47the promise that they want. you're gonna
  271. 07:48have an amazing roof and blah blah blah
  272. 07:49and it's gonna help you avoid
  273. 07:51this pain that you probably dealt with
  274. 07:52in the past x y and z. Um, and so you
  275. 07:55might not believe me because you just
  276. 07:56met me and so let me just give you some
  277. 07:57proof of Angie and Daniel and so and so
  278. 07:59that are all around this area have
  279. 08:01houses as big or bigger than yours so
  280. 08:03you can feel like I work with people of
  281. 08:04your caliber.
  282. 08:05Um, and so in this video I'll show you
  283. 08:06the plan of how we actually do that. And
  284. 08:08so then we have old way new way
  285. 08:10which is the way that the current
  286. 08:12industry looks is this. and our special
  287. 08:14K right uh process is X Y and Z and
  288. 08:18that's why it's very different than the
  289. 08:20you know the old way of doing things and
  290. 08:21then we say okay now clients typically
  291. 08:24have a couple questions around this
  292. 08:25stuff and so we have objection number
  293. 08:26one through whatever n uh objections
  294. 08:29that they have and with each of those
  295. 08:31you just break the beliefs you're like
  296. 08:32uh they think this here's why that's
  297. 08:35wrong or they didn't know this this is
  298. 08:38what's right and here's proof
  299. 08:41and so you know Angela a similar
  300. 08:43question. She owns whatever house down
  301. 08:45the street and um she thought this it
  302. 08:48actually works like this instead. Um and
  303. 08:50so here's proof, right? So each one of
  304. 08:52those is basically that's just a belief
  305. 08:53breaking mechanism over and over again.
  306. 08:55And so that way your sales guy when he
  307. 08:57comes back after, you know, walking the
  308. 08:58house and this is like a 7-minute video,
  309. 09:00whatever.
  310. 09:00Um you be like, "Oh, video give you a
  311. 09:02little bit more context." It completely
  312. 09:04edifies them, edifies the company, gives
  313. 09:06a shitload of social proof and stats.
  314. 09:07Yep. And so like I would also bring in
  315. 09:09something like uh you know uh houses
  316. 09:11that have some sort of roofing plan um
  317. 09:13resell at a higher value. Like I would
  318. 09:15put those pieces into it. So it's like
  319. 09:16you're actually not really paying for
  320. 09:18this. Uh you're going to pay for it
  321. 09:20either way. It's just you get to enjoy
  322. 09:21the house without all the issues the
  323. 09:23whole time, but it ends up reflecting
  324. 09:24your home value.
  325. 09:25I see.
  326. 09:25So you might as well just like the worst
  327. 09:27thing you can do is fix all these things
  328. 09:29the day that you sell the house and you
  329. 09:31could have just had a nice roof this
  330. 09:32whole time and sold it for the same
  331. 09:34value, but instead you're just fixing
  332. 09:34your house for the next guy.
  333. 09:36Makes sense. Okay. That's how I would
  334. 09:37sell it. Sure.
  335. 09:38Right. Um, and so this is before you
  336. 09:40actually close, but then you before you
  337. 09:43talk to Amanda,
  338. 09:44right?
  339. 09:46They should still watch another one. So
  340. 09:47they watch one when you're on camp like
  341. 09:49on property
  342. 09:50and then cuz [clears throat] this is
  343. 09:51about the first sale.
  344. 09:52Understood.
  345. 09:53The VSSL that they're going to talk to
  346. 09:54you from Amanda. So this is VSSLs in
  347. 09:55general. But the VSSL that they're going
  348. 09:57to see when they talk to Amanda is about
  349. 09:58the other stuff.
  350. 10:00Got it.
  351. 10:00So it's just it's just framing the
  352. 10:02conversation. So this is probably more a
  353. 10:04little bit more about us and working
  354. 10:05with us in general. This is going to be
  355. 10:07more about other things that people
  356. 10:08don't know about like their roots.
  357. 10:10Mhm.
  358. 10:10So it's you get the difference.
  359. 10:13I'm thinking about that.
  360. 10:13Got it. Yep.

  361. The Fix: Maximizing Door to Door Sales

  362. 10:15Now I think that in terms of scale, you
  363. 10:19should go all in door to door.
  364. 10:21Okay.
  365. 10:21It's what you're good at.
  366. 10:23Like I don't think we need to be cute
  367. 10:24about this.
  368. 10:24Sure.
  369. 10:25Um and just get really violent with it.
  370. 10:27Nice. I'm down for that.
  371. 10:28Yeah. I just It's like I have full focus
  372. 10:29on this. If you just every 20 doors and
  373. 10:31maybe it's every 40 for your guys or
  374. 10:32every 50 for them, whatever.
  375. 10:35like
  376. 10:36it's like I want to go make money. It's
  377. 10:38like great. So, you know, your
  378. 10:39commissions I don't know what would a
  379. 10:40commission on this be.
  380. 10:41So, we do 10% on repairs.
  381. 10:43So, let's say the average uh repair we
  382. 10:45can get that to like 4K revenue,
  383. 10:48right? So, 4K revenue, they're going to
  384. 10:50get 400 bucks.
  385. 10:51Yep.
  386. 10:51Right. Divided by uh 50 doors. So, it's
  387. 10:54like, want to go make 10 bucks? Knock
  388. 10:56that door. Want to make another 10
  389. 10:56bucks? Knock that door. Want to make
  390. 10:57another 10 bucks? Knock that door. It's
  391. 10:59just like it just makes it really
  392. 11:00straightforward for them. So, it's like
  393. 11:01how much money do you want to make? Just
  394. 11:02knock that many doors.
  395. 11:03That's the piece,
  396. 11:03right? Yep. Um, and I think you building
  397. 11:05out this DDD army is like the clear
  398. 11:08straight shot.
  399. 11:09When I came back from scale or fail, my
  400. 11:11biggest thing was like, how do I go all
  401. 11:13in on door knockocking and just
  402. 11:15basically do more of what's working and
  403. 11:18just sell more jobs, get more services
  404. 11:20completed. Uh, that dedication has
  405. 11:23resulted in us doing literally more than
  406. 11:26four times the sales velocity that we
  407. 11:28were doing. And quite honestly, I feel
  408. 11:31that I'm a few deletions in terms of my
  409. 11:33own like habits that I got to kick or
  410. 11:35like delegations I got to put out there
  411. 11:37of selling 20 to 40 more services per
  412. 11:40month.
  413. 11:42Awesome. I mean, at the end of the day,
  414. 11:43it always comes down to the team. So,
  415. 11:44kudos that he was being a good leader
  416. 11:46and pushing credit down because that's

  417. The Fix: Cleaning up with Maintenance Memberships

  418. 11:48what you got to do.
  419. 11:49Okay. So, what are you doing on the back
  420. 11:51end when you deliver the house?
  421. 11:52So, like full job's finished is what
  422. 11:54you're saying.
  423. 11:54Mhm.
  424. 11:55So, we have like a cleanup process, too.
  425. 11:58So, like I make sure that the house is
  426. 12:00better looking than how we left it.
  427. 12:02And then the first thing that we're
  428. 12:03going to do is ask them for a Google
  429. 12:05review. I also come from a background of
  430. 12:07like financial advising and mortgage.
  431. 12:09So, I want to make sure LTV is high. And
  432. 12:11the way that you do that is you actually
  433. 12:12stay in good contact with your clients.
  434. 12:14I get a lot of business just by I call
  435. 12:16these people every six months to a year.
  436. 12:18I have detailed notes. Hey, how's your
  437. 12:19kids doing?
  438. 12:20Let me give you a cool little thing.
  439. 12:21What you got?
  440. 12:22Okay. [laughter]
  441. 12:23So you're going to do your like you're
  442. 12:26going to get your review and you're
  443. 12:27going to get your reel. So what I do is
  444. 12:28give an incentive.
  445. 12:30So I want to say, hey, so what most
  446. 12:31people do is they sign up for our, you
  447. 12:33know, diamond
  448. 12:35roofing call whatever you want. VIP.
  449. 12:38Mhm.
  450. 12:39And it's $15 to $20 a month.
  451. 12:43Just paid annually.
  452. 12:44So it's 180 to 240. Depends on the
  453. 12:45market, right? You can go a little
  454. 12:46higher if you want to.
  455. 12:48And uh we put uh $2 for every $1 that
  456. 12:52you put on this into future repairs.
  457. 12:54Typically people need to get their roof
  458. 12:56checked once a year. Um and so we'll
  459. 12:58come out
  460. 13:00for that to check on everything, make
  461. 13:02sure it's up to date, and we'll take it
  462. 13:03out of the repair that we have to do.
  463. 13:04Okay. Okay. So you're you're more
  464. 13:06talking about like a the maintenance
  465. 13:07program, like something like that. Okay.
  466. 13:09Yeah, I like that.
  467. 13:10Yeah. And then if you want to, and this
  468. 13:12is like where we can we can get a little
  469. 13:14bit niftier. It's like you can make this
  470. 13:16$500 a year.
  471. 13:18Um, but if you just leave us a review,
  472. 13:19we'll knock it down to 200.
  473. 13:22Okay.
  474. 13:24And now we have a little a little
  475. 13:25carrot. Yeah.
  476. 13:26For them. But at the end of the day, you
  477. 13:27don't we just we don't even care about
  478. 13:29the money. We care about the fact that
  479. 13:30we're going to have appointment see that
  480. 13:31we're going to go out to see the person.
  481. 13:32Yeah.
  482. 13:32And then
  483. 13:34Yeah.
  484. 13:34sell more stuff.
  485. 13:35Let's do that.
  486. 13:36Yeah.
  487. 13:36Good idea, dude.
  488. 13:37Yeah. I actually do this for a living.
  489. 13:39Um,
  490. 13:40so we have launched it and I've put a
  491. 13:43few offers out there on it. I'll be the
  492. 13:45first to tell you that I need to find a
  493. 13:47better way like in my sales motion on
  494. 13:50how to get that through and an offer
  495. 13:52that really makes sense. Uh, there's
  496. 13:54been some commercial maintenance that
  497. 13:55we've done that we've done a fantastic
  498. 13:58job on, but in terms of like throwing
  499. 14:00that on residential, I'm still finding
  500. 14:01my way.
  501. 14:02I'll have to ask that. I'll have to ask
  502. 14:04Cale about that when I see him. Um to
  503. 14:06figure out where where he's putting it
  504. 14:08because it's probably a timing thing. Um
  505. 14:09and I'll have to see how he's actually
  506. 14:10like scripting the words around it. Um
  507. 14:13because if you can tack that on the end,
  508. 14:15it takes the business from being onetime
  509. 14:16business to recurring business, which is
  510. 14:18obviously significantly more valuable
  511. 14:20and dramatically increases LTV. So, it's
  512. 14:21one of those like it's kind of it's
  513. 14:23sometimes just tweaking a couple things.
  514. 14:25Um and then all of a sudden it's like
  515. 14:26boom, it clicks and then you're getting
  516. 14:2780% or buying it. So,

  517. The Fix: The Menu Close [Kaleb's BEST Unlock]

  518. 14:31because you're starting out, the It's
  519. 14:33funny because the the bigger the
  520. 14:34business, the more tailored the um
  521. 14:37advice has to be because there's just
  522. 14:39more moving pieces and considerations.
  523. 14:41The earlier like at at the hypothetical
  524. 14:43stream at the beginning, the first step
  525. 14:44of starting a business is always the
  526. 14:45same, which is that you will need to
  527. 14:47start an LLC of some kind so that you
  528. 14:48can accept money.
  529. 14:49Yeah. Yeah.
  530. 14:50Right. So, it's like if every if you're
  531. 14:51at zero, the steps are identical. And if
  532. 14:54you're at a zillion, the steps are
  533. 14:55entirely unique. You're a few steps from
  534. 14:57zero, eight weeks. Right. Yeah.
  535. 14:58Um, and so, uh, the process here is
  536. 15:01really, really straightforward. We need
  537. 15:02to add tweak this front end VSSL, add a
  538. 15:05backend VSSL. Amanda needs to follow a
  539. 15:08script in terms of like, um, I like the
  540. 15:09menu close. So, the menu the the the the
  541. 15:12menu the menu process works like this.
  542. 15:14Step one is that Amanda's going to
  543. 15:15unsell
  544. 15:17what they don't need.
  545. 15:18Mhm.
  546. 15:19So, she gains trust.
  547. 15:20She's like, "Hey, looks like you're this
  548. 15:22is fine. Looks like this is it. You
  549. 15:23probably have a couple years on this.
  550. 15:24Don't worry about that. Don't worry
  551. 15:24about that." And then they're like, "Oh,
  552. 15:25wow. She's not going to try and upsell
  553. 15:27me a bunch of shit." You're like,
  554. 15:27"Yeah."
  555. 15:29The second thing um is we're going to
  556. 15:33we're going to prescribe what we do
  557. 15:35think they need. So, you don't need
  558. 15:38this. You don't need this. You don't
  559. 15:39need this. You don't need this. But what
  560. 15:41I am saying is you're probably going to
  561. 15:42need this and this and this.
  562. 15:43Mhm.
  563. 15:44Now,
  564. 15:48would you prefer A or B?
  565. 15:52Gotcha.
  566. 15:52Would you rather have a male or female
  567. 15:54person doing the install? Would you
  568. 15:55rather start on Monday or Tuesday? Would
  569. 15:56you rather like
  570. 15:57Yeah,
  571. 15:57it doesn't matter. Like would you rather
  572. 15:58the neon nails or the the white nails?
  573. 16:00Coffee or water?
  574. 16:00It's a fake. Yeah, it's a fake choice,
  575. 16:01but it just makes the clothes a lot
  576. 16:03easier.
  577. 16:03Mhm.
  578. 16:03And then four, [panting]
  579. 16:09card on file.
  580. 16:10Mhm.
  581. 16:11Great. You just put that on the card
  582. 16:12that we already the payment method we
  583. 16:13have on file. Awesome. That's the
  584. 16:14script.
  585. 16:15Yeah.
  586. 16:17So, welcome. We're excited to really
  587. 16:18have you. I looked at some of the
  588. 16:19images. Um, it looks great. Look, you
  589. 16:21know, your gutters look great. The blah
  590. 16:22blah blah looks great. You know,
  591. 16:23beautiful home that you got here. So, I
  592. 16:25don't think you're going to need this
  593. 16:25and this and this. You are going to
  594. 16:27probably need to take care of this. And
  595. 16:29so, would you rather this or this?
  596. 16:30Great. You want to take care of that
  597. 16:31with a card file? I mean, we already
  598. 16:32have the hood popped up. That work for
  599. 16:34you. Great.
  600. 16:34Nice. Yeah.
  601. 16:36Super smooth.
  602. 16:36Yes. And we're good about this, too. So,
  603. 16:38we could definitely do that.
  604. 16:39Buttery.
  605. 16:40Nice.
  606. 16:40And so, that's a script for Amanda to
  607. 16:42follow.
  608. 16:42Cold. Love to see it.
  609. 16:44How is the menu upsell going in terms of
  610. 16:47like prescribing people a solution? Uh,
  611. 16:49taking something off the table. This has
  612. 16:51been one of the most the most effective
  613. 16:53strategies that I've injected into my
  614. 16:56business because I get to give my raw
  615. 16:58authentic opinion to people and it
  616. 17:01automatically builds that trust because
  617. 17:04not every product is for every person.
  618. 17:06So I have to look at the variety of
  619. 17:08solutions that I have and say this one
  620. 17:10is made specifically for you Janet for
  621. 17:13this reason. Um people like that
  622. 17:15the menu epsile absolutely slays. It is
  623. 17:18my favorite of the If you had to ask me
  624. 17:20what is my favorite chapter in the money
  625. 17:22models book, it is the menu upsell. It's
  626. 17:23in the upsell section. If you have any
  627. 17:25kind of transactional sale that's like
  628. 17:27you're not doing a super complex thing,
  629. 17:28but it's like you can do it in one
  630. 17:29conversation. It absolutely slays. Like
  631. 17:32it is it is I have I spent so long
  632. 17:34honing that process. If you have the
  633. 17:37opportunity to use it, it's in the book.
  634. 17:38My book's online for free. If you want
  635. 17:39the hard copy, you can grab it. But like

  636. The Fix: Let Customers Pay for Speed

  637. 17:41it crushes. We This is the process
  638. 17:44because all we're doing is we're going
  639. 17:45to increase average ticket with this via
  640. 17:47menu uh sale process. The two VSLs, one
  641. 17:50for you and then one for her.
  642. 17:52We're gonna get more reoccurring
  643. 17:53business on the back end with our little
  644. 17:55membership that we're going to credit
  645. 17:56towards any repairs.
  646. 17:57Mhm.
  647. 17:57You're going to need to do it either
  648. 17:58way. So, you might as well just not even
  649. 18:00feel it.
  650. 18:01Sure.
  651. 18:02And then we shove scale door to door.
  652. 18:04Got it. I had a speed incentive in play,
  653. 18:07too.
  654. 18:07It's all margin.
  655. 18:08Yeah. Oh, for sure. So, the way I think
  656. 18:10about like the reason that I'm such a
  657. 18:11big proponent of speed, right, is let's
  658. 18:13say that you've got
  659. 18:17So, you got house A, B, C. We'll put a
  660. 18:20little put some roofs on for for keys,
  661. 18:21right?
  662. 18:22Yeah.
  663. 18:22So, we've got house ABC. If like we have
  664. 18:26to do this amount of work and this
  665. 18:27amount of work is going to take the same
  666. 18:28amount of resources, but if C wants to
  667. 18:29pay us an extra th,000 and A is still
  668. 18:32very much within the window of like an
  669. 18:33acceptable time period to get the repair
  670. 18:34done.
  671. 18:35Mhm.
  672. 18:35We might as well just make it C B A or
  673. 18:38CA B, whatever.
  674. 18:40But literally just reshifting the order
  675. 18:42of the work by allowing people to spend
  676. 18:43more to go first
  677. 18:45just makes more money.
  678. 18:46Correct.
  679. 18:47And so when you do the end of your
  680. 18:48repair thing, it's like, hey, you know,
  681. 18:50we always try to be really fast, but for
  682. 18:52a lot of our clients, you know, time is
  683. 18:53money. um we have a 20% um priority
  684. 18:57sure
  685. 18:58boost. So if you want us to get this
  686. 18:59done um for sure by the end of the week
  687. 19:01and if we don't we don't even charge it.
  688. 19:04Uh we basically put you at the front of
  689. 19:05the line and then you don't have to
  690. 19:06worry about it.
  691. 19:07Okay, I'm with that. Yeah, that's good.
  692. 19:10Cuz if I mix that, I have like a
  693. 19:11prepayment incentive.
  694. 19:12So yeah, and I mean speed's all margin
  695. 19:14and in this business margin matters a
  696. 19:16lot.
  697. 19:16Ton.
  698. 19:16So I would say you can tack that on to
  699. 19:18the initial here.
  700. 19:19Yeah. But if we can get the average
  701. 19:21ticket up to that 2, three, 4K because
  702. 19:24of this motion.
  703. 19:25And then you add your speed piece in,
  704. 19:27all of a sudden you guys can start doing
  705. 19:28two, three, four repairs a day. It's
  706. 19:30like doing a full
  707. 19:31roof replacement a day.
  708. 19:32That's what I'm saying. Like that's why
  709. 19:34I love the repairs because I'm not
  710. 19:35competing with anybody on these guys
  711. 19:37think they're too good for it.
  712. 19:38Yeah. I just like it. I love I if I can
  713. 19:41I love high volume businesses
  714. 19:43just because there's more stability. the
  715. 19:45the reps get way more like the sales
  716. 19:47reps get way more reps um in because the
  717. 19:49sales cycle is much shorter. There's way
  718. 19:51less um administrative uh headache with
  719. 19:53the insurance and the payment that's
  720. 19:55delayed. There's there's basically no
  721. 19:56cash flow constraints with the business
  722. 19:58and you can just
  723. 19:59and then you just add more of these and
  724. 20:01that literally becomes the machine.
  725. 20:03So I actually have not only rolled that
  726. 20:05out but had some of my first takers as
  727. 20:07of recently um a commercial client that
  728. 20:10had an emergency on their job. Uh
  729. 20:12basically threw him a quote out there.
  730. 20:14was like, "Hey, we could either do this
  731. 20:15next week or I can get to it tomorrow
  732. 20:18for x amount more um extra 300 bucks of
  733. 20:21like straight margin." Uh they took it,
  734. 20:24got the job completely done, they were
  735. 20:26super satisfied, and not only was it
  736. 20:28like effective, but they wanted to buy
  737. 20:29the next job right after it. So, speed
  738. 20:32works, baby. If you're ever not sure how
  739. 20:35to add margin to a business, especially
  740. 20:36if you're supply constraint, meaning you
  741. 20:38have more people who want your stuff
  742. 20:39than you have the ability to do, add
  743. 20:41speed incentives for people to just move
  744. 20:42to the front of the line. You do the
  745. 20:44same amount of work and you just make

  746. The Scaling Roadmap

  747. 20:45more money. There's a lot of things that
  748. 20:47are very exciting right now and it's
  749. 20:49also new and whatever.
  750. 20:51Sure.
  751. 20:51But like we need to knock more doors
  752. 20:54and we sell more repairs.
  753. 20:55Gotcha.
  754. 20:55How's that sit?
  755. 20:56That sits really well with me. I mean I
  756. 20:58came here for some clear direction and I
  757. 21:00feel I have actionable steps on what
  758. 21:02needs to have happen. So it's just a
  759. 21:03matter of debriefing it with the team
  760. 21:04and putting systems in play.
  761. 21:06Simple.
  762. 21:07Barry.
  763. 21:09Cool. Appreciate you.
  764. 21:10Nice to meet you, bro. I think we have a
  765. 21:11little scaling road map. What's that
  766. 21:13count right now?
  767. 21:14Uh four, five once Alejandro, my sales
  768. 21:17guy joins.
  769. 21:18Alejandro.
  770. 21:19Alejandro.
  771. 21:20Where we at? So that's going to be 1 to
  772. 21:21four to 5 to 9. You're right in this
  773. 21:24little little transition here.
  774. 21:26Mhm.
  775. 21:26So what we were talking about today was
  776. 21:27basically specializing our product.
  777. 21:29Okay.
  778. 21:30Right. Um from a marketing perspective,
  779. 21:34uh the free stuff, you've like you're
  780. 21:35already on your way with this in terms
  781. 21:36of making the content. Mhm.
  782. 21:38Uh so you're you're you're on the right
  783. 21:40direction with that.
  784. 21:40Sure.
  785. 21:41Uh from a sales perspective, you're
  786. 21:43going to probably have to track this
  787. 21:44maybe a little bit more than you are
  788. 21:45right now cuz right now you're the it's
  789. 21:47you.
  790. 21:47Mhm.
  791. 21:48Um but as the team scales up, this is
  792. 21:50going to probably be the next piece that
  793. 21:51you're going to want to have to install.
  794. 21:52Um and then you do, it sounds like you
  795. 21:55have better tracking on the back end
  796. 21:57because you have some experience there.
  797. 21:59Um but in order to get to this next
  798. 22:01level over here, that's what we have to
  799. 22:03basically check those boxes off. And you
  800. 22:04have about half of them. So I think you
  801. 22:05are ready to like gas this. So um with
  802. 22:09this I want you to think about sales
  803. 22:11people as your new customers or your new
  804. 22:13avatar.
  805. 22:14Yeah.
  806. 22:14And some of the marketing that you're
  807. 22:16going to do is to go get these guys so
  808. 22:18that all of a sudden you can have four
  809. 22:19guys on your team or five guys on your
  810. 22:20team and you can probably easily manage
  811. 22:21that on your own.
  812. 22:22Mhm.
  813. 22:22And then that's what's going to allow
  814. 22:24you to unlock this. The thing and that's
  815. 22:25again with with volume comes
  816. 22:27reliability. And with reliability you
  817. 22:28can get you can you can decrease costs
  818. 22:31because you can forecast. And
  819. 22:32so fundamentally what you're what you're
  820. 22:33discussing is like I can start
  821. 22:34forecasting out that if I know I'm going
  822. 22:36to hit this volume then I can cut my
  823. 22:37cost basis in half or by 2/3. It's like
  824. 22:39okay yeah and that's how business is
  825. 22:41done.
  826. 22:41Yeah.
  827. 22:41Right. In the beginning it's always
  828. 22:42super rocky because everything's really
  829. 22:44volatile and it's feast or famine.
  830. 22:46That's why I like the reliability of
  831. 22:47this in the beginning. So we get cash
  832. 22:48flow and there's a heartbeat in the
  833. 22:49business. Uh and then everyone just kind
  834. 22:51of like water starts flowing through the
  835. 22:53pipes. Straightforward though.
  836. 22:54Yeah.

  837. The 90 Day Update

  838. 22:55Like it.
  839. 22:56Well I want every entrepreneur to win.
  840. 22:58And so I think what's more important or
  841. 22:59more interesting is what actually
  842. 23:00happened when he executed all the stuff
  843. 23:02um that I outlined for him over the next
  844. 23:0490 days. And so that's what we're going
  845. 23:05to show you. Give me the update. So what
  846. 23:06was what was revenue 3 months ago again?
  847. 23:08So it was a little under 32,000
  848. 23:11and then um I guess it's been 90 days
  849. 23:13since then is so uh what is it now?
  850. 23:15So right now I am at 250,000. So like
  851. 23:19yeah it's like 247.
  852. 23:21Hell yeah.
  853. 23:22But it's been rolling, bro. Like when I
  854. 23:24came on I was sub 20 reviews. So I'm at
  855. 23:2662 fivestar reviews, 85 services built,
  856. 23:30sold, and collected on whereas I was at
  857. 23:3232 over there.
  858. 23:34Hired the repair tech.
  859. 23:36It's been a lot of stuff, dude. Like
  860. 23:38I've never tried this hard in my entire
  861. 23:40freaking life. And I absolutely love
  862. 23:42this.
  863. 23:43Which things did you do that uh made the
  864. 23:45biggest impact?
  865. 23:46So I went all in on door todoor first
  866. 23:48off and I had to figure out how to
  867. 23:50structure that.
  868. 23:51Alex, who genuinely helped me the most,
  869. 23:53I would say. So, I actually went and got
  870. 23:54an ERP system. So, it's like a custom
  871. 23:56CRM that is built for us that is
  872. 23:58allowing me to like run the jobs the way
  873. 24:00that I want.
  874. 24:01So, now that I have the repair tech, um
  875. 24:04I am doing three to five services every
  876. 24:06single day.
  877. 24:07Mhm.
  878. 24:08Right. My guy um it's it's been wild too
  879. 24:11cuz he actually ended up having meniscus
  880. 24:13surgery yesterday.
  881. 24:14Ah,
  882. 24:15and his brother filled in his role. So
  883. 24:18when they both come on at the same time,
  884. 24:19I'm going to take that 3 to five
  885. 24:21services a day and it's really going to
  886. 24:22look like six to eight and I am just
  887. 24:24going to win by just absolute violence.
  888. 24:27I have decided.
  889. 24:28I mean that is the uh that is the I
  890. 24:30think the the first thing we said was go
  891. 24:32all in on door to door as primary growth
  892. 24:34engine.
  893. 24:35Yes, the VSSL. So I'm shooting the VSSL
  894. 24:37come next week. Your prescription idea
  895. 24:40has been monumental to in terms of I'm
  896. 24:43going to talk to people about hey let's
  897. 24:44say all the gutter guards. Yeah,
  898. 24:46there's one option that no, you don't
  899. 24:47want this because of XYZ and then I'm
  900. 24:49prescribing what they need. So that
  901. 24:51consultative aspect to selling is
  902. 24:53increasing trust a lot and then people
  903. 24:55are just taking every recommendation.
  904. 24:56The menu upsell, baby.
  905. 24:58Yeah. So,
  906. 24:59so tweaked the tweaked the motion, went
  907. 25:02all in on door todoor, tweaked the tech
  908. 25:04so you could sell more. Um, and yeah,
  909. 25:06and you're getting in only the the big
  910. 25:09dogs in terms of producers, right?
  911. 25:13Oh, yeah. It sounds like a pretty
  912. 25:15productive 90 days.
  913. 25:16I've had a monomomaniacal focus on most
  914. 25:19everything he's put into that list and
  915. 25:21I've ROIed on every single move. Asking
  916. 25:24myself too is like, you know, how can I
  917. 25:27do more? Like, I've never tried this
  918. 25:28hard in my entire life. And you know
  919. 25:30that the advice is good when all you
  920. 25:33really feel that you need is like, hey,
  921. 25:34I just need 90 more days. Like that's
  922. 25:38I'm satisfied.
  923. 25:39Oh god, he's satisfied. That's good.
  924. 25:41[laughter]
  925. 25:42Um, yeah, it's nice when stuff works
  926. 25:44without I mean, what's interesting is
  927. 25:46like, think about how if you play a
  928. 25:48video game and you've played the game
  929. 25:49before, how fast you move through the
  930. 25:51levels until you get to a level that you
  931. 25:52haven't played [clears throat] before.
  932. 25:54Like, that is the advantage of having
  933. 25:56some insight from ahead looking back
  934. 25:58saying, "Hey, man, just go here, go
  935. 25:59here." And what you don't see is like,
  936. 26:02well, I stayed stuck here for 3 months
  937. 26:03because I didn't know what to do. So,
  938. 26:04it's like when you have the right
  939. 26:05directions, you can just the only uh
  940. 26:08hold back is just pure execution, just
  941. 26:10absolute violence. and he said he's got
  942. 26:12my monomaniacal focus and what he's
  943. 26:13doing and it's showing
  944. 26:14everything that you told me has worked.
  945. 26:16I will say that.
  946. 26:17Well, I love to hear it and congrats on
  947. 26:19going from 30K to 240K [laughter]
  948. 26:23uh in 90 days. It's all you, dude.
  949. 26:24That's all you. I'm glad we could just
  950. 26:26be one small one small step in there.
  951. 26:28Yeah. All of
  952. 26:30Appreciate you, brother. All right. And
  953. 26:31so that was this episode of Scale or
  954. 26:33Fail. Stay tuned for the next one as
  955. 26:35they all compete for $100,000 in a year
  956. 26:37of working on scaling.
How I Would Build a Service Business in 2026 (If I Had to Start Over) — Transcriptly