Episode 38: 7-Power Contractor for 7-Figure Success

Do you ever feel like you’re the only one who has all of the answers? Do your employees constantly call you with questions and make you wish there were clones of you to handle it all? Many business owners can relate to this, and it’s exactly what Al Levi struggled with for many years. The good news? Al figured out how to make it all stop!

Firefighting

While running his business, Al’s phone and beeper were constantly going off. He was always bombarded with calls to put out fires. Al was needed for everything at his company, and he liked playing the fireman/rescuer/guru role. When there was a problem, he was the only one who could help. Unfortunately, you can’t scale all that well when you’re the only one with answers. Until you’re able to stop being attached to playing this firefighting role, and ready to change your identity, you’re going to continue to prevent your team from doing the job the way you want and ultimately, real growth for your business.

Al reached the point of exhaustion, and decided to make a change. Following advice from Dan Hollohan and after reading The E-Myth HVAC Contractor by Michael E. Gerber, Al took the time to create an organizational chart, defined roles and responsibilities, and wrote down the processes and procedures for everything in his business.

Finally, after years of frustration and putting out fires, Al was able to enjoy a vacation with his family without his phone ringing off the hook! His staff finally had the tools they needed and didn’t have to rely on Al for everything. They had answers right there in front of them instead of needing to call Al all the time.

The 7 Powers

After growing and having success Al entered the consulting world. He wanted to share his breakthrough with other contractors, and created 7 Power Contractor in hopes that he could make a world of difference for others going through the same issues he did.

Reading the E-Myth was life changing, and it gave Al the why and what he needed to change, but he was still stuck on the how. Thankfully, Al is good at the how, and created the manuals and systems for success for other contractors to use. He narrowed down success in the trades to 7 specific areas that you need to focus on as an owner, and calls them the 7 Powers.

1. Planning Power

Every conference you go to, podcast you listen to, and book you read all have good ideas. Do you really need another good idea, or you do need to get an idea implemented? Al had lots of great ideas floating around, but what he lacked was a way to implement them. Planning Power is doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. Implementing ideas is the hard part, and getting that sorted out was the true breakthrough for him. You have to collect your top 5 ideas, and spend time getting those to come to life.

2. Operating Power

Operating Power is documenting policies and procedures to prevent you from micromanaging everyone. It’s not just for your benefit, but for everyone in your organization! It’s your foundation for how to run your business top to bottom for 80% of the things that happen. There will always be that 20% or weird things that happen, but the 20% is much easier to handle with the majority of things covered.

3. Staffing Power

You should be always recruiting, always hiring, always training, always orienting, and always retaining. Staffing Power is an ongoing process, not just a one-time thing. It involves three main things: fixing the holes in your existing staffing, training, and retaining. You have to have the right people for the job, they need to be trained properly, and you want to keep them for the long haul.

4. Sales Coaching Power

It’s not just your technicians that need help selling, it all starts with your CSRs. You have to be able to coach your CSRs, techs, and possibly even your dispatchers on how to do sales the right way. This means documenting your sales system and integrating it into your culture.

5. Selling Power

Without a documented, repeatable selling system, you simply can’t train your team how to do sales the right way. There’s no shortcut around this! Al has a five-step system to ensure your team sells things the right way, and to help you integrate this system into the culture of your company.

6. Financial Power

Many contractors get used to their “normal” monthly expenses, and never sit down to figure out how to cut expenses and improve spending in the right way. Financial Power is about real-world accounting like knowing your sellable price, getting a handle on your P&L, and figuring out what expenses are worth continuing and which ones need to go.

7. Marketing Power

Marketing Power, in a nutshell, is getting the right amount of calls from the right customers at the right time. Not everybody is your customer! You have to lose that idea. Al has narrowed down marketing to three specific areas that you should be spending your time and money on to get your phones ringing off the hook.

Get Ready to Grow

Documenting your processes is a lot of work, and most never get around to doing it. That’s part of why Al’s book and resources are so powerful for contractors. Your operational manuals have to be right, and it takes a lot of time. You can’t just sit around waiting for the “right time”. That’s what the 7 Powers book helps you get through. Al also has an incredible operating manuals course to help contractors get this vital component of success done the right way.

Ready to stop putting out fires and start letting your team help you grow? If you’d like to contact Al, you can email him with questions. Be sure to visit the 7-Power Contractor website for tons of free information and resources to help you on the road to 7-figure success. As a gift to our listeners, Al has included this free secret to running a successful business!