All of these market forces can result in a very high degree of competition, which challenges businesses to find ways to stand out and differentiate themselves. At 缅北禁地, identifying and developing value around competitive differentiating factors is a multi-step process.

Know Your Customer

If you let them, your customers will 鈥渨ant鈥� your home improvement business to death. Oftentimes one home improvement project bleeds into another – a paint job becomes a drywall repair, which becomes installing new baseboards, which becomes installing the wall mounted TV, and so on. All of these projects sound simple, but each requires a different skillset, a different set of tools & materials, and will delay the completion of the project beyond its original date, pushing back the next customer in line. If you want to stand out in a competitive market, you have to accept that you must say 鈥渘o鈥� to a customer that鈥檚 asking for something so that you can say 鈥測es鈥� to the next one who鈥檚 waiting.

Getting granular on the type of customer you want to work for is the first step in the process because it allows you to hyper focus on developing a value proposition that makes sense for them. For example, service plumbers are hired for a variety of reasons by a variety of homeowners. The family who hires a plumber to come to their million dollar home to install a new tankless hot water heater has drastically different buying behaviors than the single mom who needs someone to come unclog a drain. These clients have different levels of urgency, will want to communicate with the company in entirely different ways, have different willingness to pay, different warranty expectations, and so on. You can鈥檛 begin to stand out in this hyper competitive industry until you decide which type of customer you primarily want to do work for.

Ask Your Customer

Once you鈥檝e identified your customer, building a great business becomes much simpler. If you want to know what your customer wants, and why they hire you, just ask. Surveying customers about why they hired you, what other companies they considered hiring, and how their experience was, is an incredibly powerful source of information that can inform future decisions. If you want more customers, simply look at your book of business, find your best customer, and ask them how they found you. Your marketing strategy lies entirely in what they tell you. Don鈥檛 be afraid to ask that customer for a referral at the same time – your A customers know other A customers!

Know Your Team

Once you鈥檝e identified exactly what kind of customer you鈥檇 like your business to focus on servicing, it鈥檚 time to assemble a team specially designed to service them. Again, getting granular is key.

For example, many people think that is easy – you need to drive a vehicle, climb a ladder, and use a squeegee. The reality is that oftentimes employers expect their team to complete a variety of tasks, and often they can鈥檛 be good at all of them.

Your window washer may need to wash the outside of a window, enter the customer’s home in a professional and courteous way, safely set up a ladder on their brand new hardwood, wash the interior of the window without spilling a drop of water, and leave the home as though they were never there. More often than not, on top of this set of skills, window washers need to climb on roofs, clear out gutters, run high powered pressure washers without causing property damage, manage a schedule, collect payment, generate invoices, knock on the neighbors door to try to sell the next job, and so on. It鈥檚 not as simple as 鈥渨ashing windows.鈥澛�

Understand exactly what your customer wants, then build a team with the specific skill sets required to provide that service. If your customer wants to have a seamless experience where they never see anyone, you need a simple window washer. If your customer wants to speak to the team, have them clean the interior, have the home power washed, and the gutters made spotless, you need a customer service expert, not a window washer.聽

Put simply, standing out in the hyper competitive home improvement market isn鈥檛 about spending the most money on TV commercials. Standing out requires you to get incredibly clear on who your service is built for, and ensuring every one of their wants & needs is fulfilled in a way that no one else can.

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Generally, businesses all around the world can be categorized into three major buckets.聽

There are businesses that make things, like Volkswagen, Apple, and Samsung. These businesses are infrastructure heavy, often rely on global supply chains, and require research and development to stay at the forefront of their industries.

There are businesses that sell things, like Amazon, Alibaba, and Home Depot. These businesses are marketing mavericks who often make very slim margins by reselling high volumes of someone else鈥檚 products to consumers and businesses. These companies must be masters of efficiency, and are always finding ways to decrease the cost of distribution.

Then there are businesses that do things, like Deloitte, Uber, and your local neighborhood window washer. These businesses deliver value to their consumers largely by selling labor, and the ones who do it best recognize that what聽 they鈥檙e actually selling their customer is time.

The Home Services Industry

The home services industry is largely made up of businesses that are great at doing things, and are generally led by entrepreneurs who seek to develop companies that have a reputation of superior service. In 2016, 缅北禁地 was born with a similar goal 鈥� to acquire, scale, and franchise businesses in the home services industry. The 缅北禁地 family recognized that the true value of what a home service business sells is the time a consumer doesn鈥檛 have to spend completing that service themselves.

Joe the window washer, Sally the maid, and Jennifer the painter are all exceptional in their trades. They鈥檝e spent years perfecting their techniques, honing their skills, and building their businesses to dominate their local home services industry. A hard truth about their businesses though is that anyone can wash a window, clean a home, or paint a wall, even their customers. The average homeowner might not do it as quickly or as well, but at the end of the day they absolutely could go to the store, buy the materials, and spend their weekend doing the project on their own. Oftentimes this fact drives entrepreneurs in the home service industry to constantly discount in an attempt to win business, and as a result they often wind up performing the service themselves instead of hiring staff and growing a sustainable company. These entrepreneurs often build their home service business on their own backs, and, as a result, when they seek to eventually exit their business they realize that there is no inherent value for anyone to purchase; they literally are their business.

缅北禁地 partners with entrepreneurs in the home service sector with the goal of helping them grow a sustainable business that can be expanded using a franchise model. These entrepreneurs often need help developing sustainable systems, financing to expand in employees and space, and acquiring new customers that are willing to pay a sustainable price. Since 2016, 缅北禁地 has invested in 10 businesses in the home services sector, leveraging their strengths to build centralized marketing, customer service, sales, and finance teams that deliver services to each of the brands. Since their inception, 缅北禁地 has franchised 2 brands into new Western Canadian markets, bringing their unique services into entirely new markets.

People First

The home services industry is right for us because of the three major business 鈥榖uckets,鈥� it鈥檚 the only model that鈥檚 predicated on people first. Put simply, 缅北禁地 cannot succeed without helping people. 缅北禁地 helps entrepreneurs build better businesses, we help homeowners save time, and we help our team members build meaningful careers. There are plenty of pro鈥檚 and con鈥檚 to the other major business 鈥榖uckets,鈥� but, for the team at 缅北禁地, people trump all. The home services industry is full of inspiring, passionate people who aim to deliver the best service in their local communities, and that鈥檚 a mission 缅北禁地 can get behind.

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