Podcast 92: The Best From 2018 with Dave Sullivan

Did you meet and exceed your goals for 2018? Or are you saying “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda”? If you haven’t downloaded my free 1 Page Business Plan, go to my website, download the fillable template, and get the year started off right! To help you grow a more profitable business in 2019, today I talk about the best episodes of the past year.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

My goal for the podcast: to help contractors run better businesses, with less stress and more free time
My goal for my business: to NOT be tied to the business and be able to take time off whenever I wanted
80% of contractors who start a business will be out of business within 5 years

From Episode 66, with Michael Stone: Top Six Reasons Contractors Fail
- Not charging enough for their work
- Failure to use proper change orders
- Failure to use good legal contracts
- Having too many employees for the work volume
- Having an improper payment schedule on contracts
- Having a lack of profitable sales
From Episode 59, with Scott Calhoun, attorney: Are you protected from these four business killers? Disillusion, Divorce, Death, and Disability
A big tip: outsource your front desk reception
From Episode 78, with Jill Nelson of Ruby Receptionists: Get more qualified leads by using a virtual receptionist
The three-legged stool: Sell work, do work, and keep score
The Sales Leg:
- Episode 40, with Tim Musch of MarketSharp: Six simple steps to increase sales
  - Generating inquiries
  - Setting up calls/appointments
  - Lead warming
  - Sales presentation
  - Proactive follow-up
  - Proactive repeat and referral activities
- Episode 34, with Aaron Hockel: How to get more online reviews
- Episode 43, with John DeRosa: How to escape the price-driven sale (John says to debrief after every sales interaction)
- Episode 82, with Marc Levesque: Everything you need to know about PPC to keep a full pipeline
The Work Leg:
- Episode 48, with me: How to set up a job (the key is communication with the customer)
- Episode 16, with Dean Logan: How to control labor costs
The Score Leg
- Episode 56, with Randal DeHart: The dashboard for a successful business (check out his 5 key performance indicators)