Sometimes you just need a change. A reset.

 If you were offered a reset button for your business, would you press it?

We’ve been doing solo podcasts for a while on the Disaster Podcaster. Much easier, far less complex recording process. 

We did a podcast with Andy McCabe recently to talk about the Restoration Rebel movement, how it got started and where it is today. 

As we post-produced it we realized that there were some audio issues. Nothing that most people would pick up on, but significant enough that we felt that they needed to be addressed to get future podcasts to an acceptable standard in our books. 

We adjusted knobs. We turned dials. We slid sliders. To no avail. 

Then Klark yanked the XLR chord out of channel 4 and plugged it into channel 1. Shazam. 

All was well. 

The audio was seemingly perfect. 

All we needed was to change channels. 

We needed to try something new. 

To Reset. 

The irony of the situation was that the podcast that revealed the issue to us was the podcast about the reset of the restoration industry. 

The podcast was an incredible story about resetting. 

Resetting the way restoration businesses CAN be run when the owners/leaders CHOOSE to stand up for themselves.

Resetting the conversations between insured, contractors, and adjusters can be held. 

We are seeing a big wave of restoration contractors that want to reset the way they do business. 

Many restoration companies are born from the concepts explained in the book E-Myth. I won’t give away the story, but it's the idea that a employee of a company gets the idea that they can do it better, make more money and live more free. 

While some of those can be true, what often happens is that they don’t fully understand what it takes to run a business. 

Once they get several years down the road, and a few employees, they realize that they aren’t as free as they thought, they aren’t making as much money as they thought and the business they are running isn’t any better than the one they left to embark on this adventure. 

This person has trouble figuring out the best way to stop the chaos. 

Here at Restoration Advisers we have a process that helps owners and leaders systematize (cliche word) their business. 

Systematizing your business simply means organizing it. Organizing your people. Organizing your finances. Organizing your client experience. Organizing your training. Organizing your equipment (vehicles, tools, etc). 

We don’t do the organizing. We simply help businesses discover the best way for their organization.We are often asked for templates, and examples of how other companies are doing it. While we have documents, samples, templates, and more, the intent is for us to help you learn to document what is already working well for you. 

To use the old adage… we want to teach you how to fish so you can feed yourself, rather than doing the fishing for you.  

Program business vs non-program business. Program work can be a good way to start your business if you aren’t familiar with sales and marketing. But with the contracts that are being pushed out, tread very carefully and understand what you are agreeing to. If it is merely lead generation, then its hard to go wrong. But when the program starts dictating price, or controlling what jobs you can do on your own vs what you have to run through the program, this is where you can really start a downward spiral as a business. 

We are not a marketing consulting firm. We know a few sales and marketing coaches. Sales and marketing is not our niche. But we do know that it takes diligence and focus to keep your sales and marketing engine going well. If you as the business owner or leader are not sales & marketing focused we urge you to weather the storm and hire a sales & marketing specialist as soon as you can. At the end of the day the decision about program vs non-program boils down to how well you can market your own business, and the standards that you expect to maintain in your community. 

We have several books on the topic of Sales & Marketing in our Book Vault. 

Some of our favorites are:

• The Power of Who
• Purple Cow
• Building a Story Brand 
• All Marketers are Liars

If you are on programs and are interested in pushing the reset button (aka learning more about how to run your business without non-program work), reach out to us here.

Hit the reset button on pricing. Are you tired of 3rd party pricing programs giving you old data to build your invoices from? Do you wonder how to make your own price lists? This is another increasingly common reset button that is being pushed in the restoration industry. 

This is within the scope of the Restoration Advisers coaching and consulting. We can help you establish T&M pricing, custom line item pricing, etc. Not only can we help you build your own pricing methodology, we can even help you deploy the pricing from a software perspective, but also from a process standpoint. Knowing how to properly communicate with the client using your own pricing is very important. We have some recommendations on softwares that other clients are using to build estimates and invoices, manage jobs, and CRMs all wrapped up in one powerful platform. 

Many of us have had to have a reset in our lives. In our careers. 

Some of us “came up” in the restoration industry, but many of us stumbled upon it.

The idea of hitting the reset button is important to keep in the forefront of your mind. It may feel risky to unplug from channel 4 and to plug into channel 1. Sometimes it won’t work. But at least you tried. Now you know. If it doesn’t work. Unplug and try something else. Keep trying. The effort is the key. 

We’d love to hear about a time when you hit the reset button. Let us know in the form below, or better yet,  join the conversation in Restoration Nation and share about a reset that worked out for you!