Heather: Adding Value To Florida Rates

Heather revisits the topic of Florida rates and gives some tips on how to add value to your service, so you can charge what you are worth.

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Hey guys and gals, it's Heather with Hump Days with Heather on the Talking Pools podcast. So in this episode, I wanted to follow up with the last episode, well not last, but like one of the very first episodes I did when we moved here to Florida about the rates, right? Because you remember how I said, you know, why do y'all charge $100, $95, some ask the nine weekly service fee, and I wanted to see what the what the most is that I could get for the weekly cleaning, right? I had somebody bring this up at the Ipsa pool and spa show here in Florida because I totally forgot to follow up with that. So I apologize. I've been going through a lot of stuff, as y'all know, you know, with us closing the business down. Um that was that was a toll on me. It it hit my heart and it hit me hard. I was not I wasn't prepared for it mentally, even though like I kind of knew it was gonna happen once we moved. Um well I think it's because I was set that it wasn't going to happen because yeah, who wants to close your business down? But you know, when you move and you're you're running it afar and then you have to find somebody replacement and all that, right? So I just I was not in a good headspace for probably the first well, not really the first, but the last few months, you know, of us being here, and just come to realization about that, you know, I've done a few on my podcast talking about you know mental health and mental stability. It's a it's important, it's very important. And whenever you you go through things in life, and for me, that that is probably one of my biggest things that I've gone through in my life. Well, I wouldn't say the biggest, because you know, I had an atopic pregnancy, so that was that was probably my biggest thing that I've ever gone through, and just that was hard in itself, but you know, um this would probably be like my second, my second biggest thing, just closing, you know, closing my business down because one, not only is it money for my family and our income, and two, I I love what I do, right? I I love the pool industry, I love the people in the industry. I just I truly love what I do, and to be able to know that hey, I may not be able to do that again, or hey, I may not be able to find another job with that, you know, it was it was heart-wrenching. And then just thinking about all of our past customers, like I love them. I've been, we have been very blessed with our business with the customer clientele. Probably in the 12 years of business that we've been, or 15, however many years it's been, I can probably count on on one hand the legitimate bad clients for our industry, or not for our industry, I'm sorry, from for our business. And so it was I need a you know, a break. And I know some of y'all mentioned, like, hey, where's Heather been? It's been a hot minute since she's actually posted on social media, or she's actually done this on social media, because you know me, I know I normally either go live or I normally make some crack ass joke. You know, I'm normally very active on it, but I was reflecting and taking a mental health break and just kind of you know dealing with that aspect of of our life and our trial that we were going through. And I have to admit, like my hubby, hubby hubby is just phenomenal. Well, he he isn't affected as much as me. I mean, he affected him, don't get me wrong, hands down, it really affected him, but not nearly as much as it did for me, because I was so associated with me being the business, you know what I mean? Like, okay, well, if I don't have my business, then who am I, right? I'm trying to disassociate myself and come to realization, like, okay, if I don't have a business, that doesn't define me. And for me, that was one of the single hardest things for me to kind of come to come to terms with because it's been my business for so long, and I've done nothing but that for so long. And I I grew it from zero dollars to you know over seven figures, and it was you know, it was just heart wrenching for me, I guess, so to say. So, a little backstory on that, nonetheless. Okay, so let's talk about the pricing that I was able to get here in Florida. So the max that I could get was $165. I've noticed that was kind of like the the cutting turn point. $150 seemed to be okay, but you have to sell value, right? Of course, clients. Why am I gonna pay you $150 when Joe Blow is $100? You've got to show that value, and you have to be a salesperson to be able to do that. Not one of these people that are like, oh, well, if you want to go with him, then F off, I'm done with you, kind of deal. No, you legit need to show value. You got to compare, okay. Well, Joe Blow may not balance your chemistry at LSI. Well, great, homers don't know what LSI is, so explain that. That's gonna show your intelligence, right? That's gonna show you know what you're doing. Joe Blow may not have insurance, give them a copy of your COI insurance. Like I had a copy on my website on the very front page that gave them a copy of our insurance so they could see it. And every year I would update it, I would go back and update it. Well, Joe Blob maybe not give you reports, and I've noticed a lot of Florida people don't. Like, there's very few companies that actually give the homeowner an actual report of them being there. They either leave it in the skimmer or they don't leave anything at all, right? So you're gonna add value to that. And there's softwares that you can have a portal, right? You build an app that shows value, right? You have a good online presence that shows value, right? You have company wrapped chucks that shows values. You do customer appreciation things, that shows value, right? So every little thing that you do is going to show that value. Hey there, hardworking contractors. Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Look no further than Integrity Consultants, your partner in success. Imagine having a coach who's not just a textbook expert, but a seasoned contractor with over 15 years of hands-on experience in the field. That's right! We understand the challenges you face because we have been there too. Our tailored coaching programs are designed to help you master the art of business, from winning bids to boosting profits. We'll guide you through proven strategies that actually work in the real world. But it's not just about the numbers. We're here to help you build a thriving business that brings you joy and freedom. With Integrity Consultants, you'll gain the confidence to make those tough decisions and steer your company towards greatness. Join our community of successful contractors that's transformed their business with the expert guidance of integrity consultants. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity. Ready to turn your dreams into reality? Visit our website at integrity-consultants.com and go to the client intake form. Or call or text us at 214-427-5803 to schedule your free consultation. I will tell you, if they're in the older cell, like here in Sebastian, they've got um much older crowd, right? That was a little hard push. But once I got into Vero and some of the higher end houses, it's not so hard. But they still they still push back, right? So as an industry whole, if we kind of all start slowly increasing that rate where it's you know 130, 140, 150, 160, you know, and just keep going up and up and up. And as you're going up and up, then at that point, hopefully you're going to start increasing that value for that client so you can get the rates because it is hard as hell to be able to do insurance for your trucks, gas for your trucks, tolls for your truck if you're somewhere where you go on the toll way. It is hard whenever you're going through other issues for that aspect of it. And you've got to be able to understand what those bottom dollars are so you can actually adjust your rates accordingly. If, and I I say this in a lot of my business coaching in a lot of my my classes, or not classes, I'm sorry. Well, I'll do it in my classes too, but in my podcast, follow profit first for contractors, like it changed our entire business model from the ground up. We started it a long time ago, and it just made you fully understand your numbers and your bottom dollar and where it was sitting at, right? And with that being said, with chemistry, it's gonna be a little bit harder to follow that, but you've got to have some type of reporting system to make sure that you're keeping up with your chemistry. Because if you have one technician that's picking up 300 pounds of shock in one week and they're only doing like 40, 50 pools, something's wrong, right? Ding ding ding, a light bulb should go off in your head. If you've got somebody picking up an excessive amount of DE or excessive amount of acid or bicarb or soda, whatever you know it may be. So just make sure that you are following your chemical tracking. Make sure you actually know what your actual bottom dollar is. Like you should have a software that says this client cost you X amount of dollars this month, this client costs you X amount of dollars this month. You should be able to pull a report client by client, how much it actually costing you, what your profit was on that job for that month. And if you go to bill out, are you billing separately for chemicals? Are you not billing separately for chemicals? What that cost is, you know, so on and so forth. Do you know what your cost per pound for a hundred-pound bucket of shock is? You know, what happens if your chemical increases? Do you go back and add that to the back end, right? So there's a lot of things that need to happen for that. And I've even gone so far as to breaking it down for my homeowner where, okay, you want me to show you my value, and all you care about is the bottom dollar. So here's my cost as a business owner to operate. And yes, I've done this in Texas and I've done it here. Um, sorry, I've got the hiccups in the yard. Um I will break down, like let's say we're doing weekly cleaning, okay? So I write down $150, right? $150, write it on a piece of paper. Then I'm gonna take my tech pay, and if they're hourly, if they're salary, if they're paid by the pool, whatever it is you pay, you're gonna kick that in. Then you've got an employee insurance, right? Whether it's health insurance, it's working comp insurance, it's business insurance for that particular employee. Then my next line is gonna be my actual business insurance, right? You're gonna have hopefully your general liability insurance on there. You're gonna have errors and emissions on there, whatever business insurance is. Then you're gonna break out your office staff. If you have office staff, every percentage goes in that, right? Then you're gonna have your electricity, your office, your desk, your computer. I mean, literally all your operating expenses, your phone, your marketing material, I mean, all of this, right? By the time you calculate all this inside of this, because every little bit, you should be taking a percentage, like for even numbers, right? Let's say your bill is is $500. Okay. So if your bill is $500 for your operating expenses, you should be taking, depending on how many people you have, between five to eight percent of that. So, like $25, right? Give or take of that should be calculated for every single client, depending on how many clients you have, depending on what your actual overhead is. Like all these expenditures should be calculated inside of inside of your expenditures. So I broke it down, and then I take 20% of profit that goes into my profit account, right? For owner's draw and stuff like that. And then you've got your end of your taxes that you've got to pay, then you've got your sales and use tax that you've got to pay, right? So you've got all these different expenditures, and by the time you export those expenditures and you show a client and they're like, Oh, well, I never really realized it was this, because I've had clients ask me that. And then they're like, Okay, well, if you're this detailed, imagine how detailed you're gonna be with my swimming pool, right? Because you know all this. Like, don't be afraid to break that down. Now, sometimes you can say, Okay, if the client's asking that much, it's not worth my time. That's not the right client for me. While I understand that, for me, three clients, and I've only had to do this three times. The three clients that I've actually had to do that with became some of my best clients. Now, not include I'm not talking about Florida clients, right? I'm talking about Dallas clients. They become my best clients ever, where they paid their bills on time, they always did everything upgraded. Like I told them if something broke, they fixed it, you know, it it was just great because we had that transparency. And you never know. Some people, that's all they want is just that transparency, right? So try that and see if that helps you. And if you have your CPO license, you know, incorporate that. If you have your CST, your CMS, your CPI, you know, all those licenses cost you money. And the education, you know, the pool and spa shows for education. Do you do that? You know, so on and so forth. So to show that value, right? All right. Well, I hope this episode helps you. And until next week, I'll holler at you later. Bye, guys.