How I launched a $4 Million Dollar Business In One Year ⚡

One year, One Company, Four Million Dollars.

Sup,

A lot can happen in one year. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on one in particular: The 365 days where I took an electrical company acquisition and grew it into a four-million-dollar powerhouse—pun intended.

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Part of that growth was a killer website and great lead gen. And you can get that too with Service Scalers, the PPC and SEO one-stop shop.

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• Setup and verification

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Looking to avoid the frustration? Let Service Scalers tackle the job.

Now, let’s power up and talk about a year in the electrical life.

Let’s do it.

• Adapt and Pivot Quickly: From construction to residential.

• Leverage Existing Customer Base: Offer discounts and cross-promotion bonuses to win over that acquisition’s audience.

• Lead Generation Strategies: LSA, GMB, Radio, mail, and more.

• Structure for Success: Build a team of all-star technicians and give them a pay structure that motivates.

Reading time: 4 minutes and 20 seconds

Acquire, Pivot, Adapt

Let's go back a couple of years.

We bought an electrical business that had heavy exposure to new construction and technology. It focused on commercial projects—a great business.

The challenge was timing.

I bought that business in Q4 of 2021. And as we all know, 2022 saw drastic changes. Interest rates, material prices with a ten percent increase, and rising fuel costs.

All at once. It made the lockdown year look quaint.

It was at that point we needed to change course and adapt. We shut down that construction arm and turned the electrical side towards residential, like our other services.

It was at that point that things took off. How? Ramp up, customer services, utilizing all of our marketing mediums, and building a killer team.

Leads, Leads, and Leads

Part of buying a business is having an installed base of people. However, we also had the added advantage of now being able to offer electrical services to our HVAC and plumbing customers.

There’s a real power in offering multiple services. It keeps things in-house, for one. It gives an easy answer when our field techs are asked “Hey, do you know a guy who could do this?”

Yes. I do know a guy. Me.

At this point, you can keep people in your ecosystem, give discounts, and generate leads via word of mouth. Great customer experiences will always be your best lead gen. That said, we also took it as an opportunity to use every marketing channel available to us.

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

• Google Local Service Ads (LSA)

• Mailers

• Radio Ad

• Email to Current Wilson Customers

• Expended Membership Offerings

We were able to quickly expand our slate of technicians. But how do you get the best?

Performance = Payment

Time for the most “well, duh” advice of all time. If you pay people well and offer the ability to earn more, they tend to work harder. When it came to expanding from one electrical tech to three, and then to six, it was all about compensation.

Hourly pay, plus a monthly bonus based on performance. And given that electrical tends to be a high-dollar service, we had every tech pulling in about half a million each.

This system worked incredibly well because we hired the right people who were good at offering options to customers and discussing their pain points. However, techs were only half the story.

Using tools like the ServiceTitan Price Book Pro, the sales team we hired was able to offer options and stay informed.

Honestly, the hardest part was that lead generation. But. once we get people into the Wilson ecosystem it turns them into satisfied customers.

Whatever way we could fill the schedule, we did it. And that’s how you can do it.

On the Pod This Week

This week on the podcast we talk about the constraints of capital raising on scaling and how you can use it to your advantage. Keep an eye out next week, as we’ll be moving the podcast to once a week on Tuesdays for the busy summer seasons.

Don’t want to miss a minute? Then consider subbing over on YouTube.

We had our first live stream Q&A this week for our business growth Facebook group. It was a lot of fun and a new experience for me. It’s surreal talking to a chat room in real-time, but also just very cool.

Thanks to everyone who asked questions and submitted ahead of time. We’ll be back at the end of next month to do it again. Be sure to join the group so you don’t miss out.

Have a great week, and stay hungry.

👊

John