Latest / Scrappy but Successful [Consultant's Personalities When No One's Watching] / 15. 3-Step Framework for Growing Home Service Businesses with Phil Risher

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15. 3-Step Framework for Growing Home Service Businesses with Phil Risher · Scrappy but Successful [Consultant's Personalities When No One's Watching]

• 0:03
  What's going on everybody welcome to Scrappy but Successful. It's a show where I sit down with your favorite consultants.
• 0:10
  We take the comedic route through their life and find out if they're successful today because they're sophisticated or because they're a little bit scrappy.
• 0:18
  I'm your host Jack Tompkins, CEO of Pineapple Consulting Firm.
• 0:24
  Fun fact of the day - most expensive pineapple ever purchased: $12,000 back in 1800, and it was grown in horse manure.
• 0:35
  Talk about getting stuff done. But that's neither here nor there.
• 0:40
  Today I'm joined by my friend Phil Risher. He's the founder of Flash Consulting, podcast host, dad of two, and a marketing guru for home services.
• 0:52
  Phil, we know you're successful man, but do you think you fall more on the sophisticated side or more on the scrappy side?
• 1:05
  Yeah, I mean definitely scrappy. Starting a business you've gotta be scrappy for that for sure.
• 1:16
  I would say there's a level of sophistication that it takes to truly scale a business and not just have a hobby. So I think there's a layer to both of those pieces.
• 1:28
  Yeah, walking in both worlds. We'll see if the data agrees with you. All right, let's start at the beginning. Where'd you grow up? Did you have any entrepreneurs in the family?
• 1:44
  No. My single mom, my dad was a pest control technician that I saw every other weekend. And that was kind of my entry into home service through take your child to work day.
• 2:11
  My mom - her parents immigrated here from Greece. So I had a little bit of that immigrant hustle in my blood.
• 2:22
  My first introduction to business ownership was in high school. I took an entrepreneurship class, and we actually made a business as a class. I was part of the marketing team for that.
• 2:38
  So I used to be a rapper in high school. I used to make music, beats and stuff. In the entrepreneurship class we needed someone to do marketing, so I made a rap song for the morning announcements.
• 3:15
  It went viral in my high school. People were singing it, they wanted me to perform it at the talent show. The business was a success. We called it Grandma Jackson's Cookies and Cocoa.
• 3:38
  This was when Soulja Boy came out making beats on Fruity Loops. And Logic - he's from the next high school over. There was this whole culture happening with beats and music.
• 4:08
  I burned CDs. I had a stack of autographed CDs - P. Rish was my rap name. P. Rish swag on full attack. I'd sell them out of my backpack for $10.
• 4:43
  All the other organizations wanted me to make more jingles for the morning announcements. So I had a whole mixtape going.
• 5:01
  I was a homecoming runner up and prom runner up because of this. I'm a short guy, I don't really play sports, I was in marching band. Come on.
• 5:21
  Grades were like 3.14 average - A's, B's and a couple C's. My mom knew your product is the people you're around, so she pushed me to be in the GT classes.
• 5:54
  Yeah, like sports cards for sure. I still have some of those. I would get the magazines to see what the cards were rated and the prices on them, then try to buy certain things.
• 6:35
  The big turning point for entrepreneurship was my first job at Ruby Tuesday's as a waiter. I learned that if I do a good job I get tips, paid right away, make more than hourly workers.
• 7:36
  None of my parents went to college. So they were like, no, you're going to college. I wasn't opposed to going - I worked at school and made money. I went to Geneva College near Pittsburgh.
• 8:22
  I went in for finance because I liked money stuff. When I was 16 at church they did Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Then I switched to management, then international business so I could study abroad.
• 9:08
  I studied in Rome for three months living in a convent with nuns. Then I studied abroad in China - Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai for a month.
• 9:50
  I graduated with $30,000 in student loans. My mom had moved away, so I called my dad and said - hey, can I live in your basement? I'm going to pay off my loans in 12 months.
• 10:23
  I worked at Enterprise Rent-a-Car making $48,000. Paid off $30,000 in 12 months. Then the next two years I saved $60,000 and bought a condo with cash when I was 25.
• 11:19
  Enterprise is a $27 billion family-owned business that only promotes from within. They build operators from the ground up. I moved up very quickly to branch manager.
• 12:04
  When I was 25, I had two locations managing a $300,000 per month branch, 20 team members, and 400 cars. And you get paid off the P&L - commission if your branch is profitable.
• 12:57
  I won three Diamond Club Awards as their best branch manager because I get the numbers and can lock in and execute.
• 13:36
  I was good at delegating because I wasn't great at anything - just okay at everything. Sales, customer service, likable. So I could lean on others and fit in wherever needed.
• 14:47
  At Enterprise we had the BMI report - every single day it tells you the numbers year over year. You can see the progress you're making on changes, get instant feedback every single day.
• 15:48
  When I went to work at a home service business, I asked the owner - where's the scorecard? He said what's a scorecard? So we now track five numbers for clients: leads year over year, jobs, estimates, estimate close rate, and new customers.
• 16:39
  I read Rich Dad Poor Dad - he said the number one skill you can learn is how to sell. So I moved into Enterprise corporate selling fleet management to home service companies.
• 17:47
  At the same time, I started a personal finance blog. I was featured in Forbes and CNBC. When calling on home service businesses, I'd say "I was just featured in Forbes" - that leveled the playing field.
• 19:21
  One client - a $3 million duck cleaning company - was enamored by my story. I told him in six months I was leaving to buy a school bus and travel around the country. He reached out when I got back.
• 20:47
  When I went to work there all my worlds collided - Enterprise operations experience plus digital marketing expertise. His business went from 3 to 4 million in one year, profit went from $300K to $900K.
• 22:08
  Three main levers: good marketing, data that ties it together, and automations so nothing leaks through the cracks. Last year our average client grew 27% - $250K to a million in revenue.
• 23:28
  Flash is currently around $3 million. To break through 1 to 3 million you need systems. To get from 3 to 5 million you need data. From 5 to 10 million you need people responsible for growth.
• 25:15
  There are only four ways to get new customers: content, paid ads, B2B partnerships, and cold outreach. Pick one slow channel and one fast channel. And you can't be slow and be called Flash.
• 26:39
  The name Flash - Phil plus Ash, his wife Ashley. His duck cleaning client Tom basically fired him to set him free - gave him two friends as clients, became his first client himself at $50 an hour.
• 28:01
  12 months later Tom sold his company for multi-millions. The real problem launching Flash wasn't money - it was time. The first client went from 3 million to 8 million and sold to private equity.
• 29:50
  A search fund guy from an Ivy League school asked three questions: How do you get customers? How do you convert leads to sales? How do you bring back repeat business? That became the entire Flash framework.
• 31:41
  Two reasons for the discipline: innately I just have good discipline - paid off my loans, just lock in. And second, I come from a place of abundance not scarcity - not chasing external validation.
• 33:31
  Most marketing companies don't get into your CRM and pull return on ad spend reporting. They don't listen to the leads. The business owner is stuck piecemealing three vendors together.
• 34:21
  Never gotten paid via Venmo. I've always kept everything separate - personal bank account in a different bank than the business. If I'm going to run a real business, this is what I'm doing.
• 35:28
  We run on Profit First from Mike Michalowicz. Around a million dollars it was nerve wracking - felt like it was my money. The mindset shift: I'm a steward of resources, not the owner.
• 36:28
  When you have 22 team members, you can't say you want them to make $200K but pinch pennies on a $100 subscription. Your vision has to be so big their vision fits inside of it.
• 37:55
  My office is completely separate. I'm either on or I'm off - 100% on or 100% off. Not a work-life balance. We were named one of Inc. 5000 Best Workplaces last year.
• 39:40
  I'm a minimalist. Lived in a condo in section eight housing, lived in a school bus. I literally just have a laptop. No printer, no business cards. One stand-up light for accent.
• 41:04
  I hired an executive assistant who scrubs my email. If I don't know a number I don't answer - they'll leave a voicemail or text. Buying back your time to stay focused is really important.
• 42:14
  My wife is a rapper too. I produced a music video for her elementary school and she's like a rapper sensation there. We met in high school - she knew what she was getting into.
• 43:29
  If you're a home service business owner doing one to ten million, that's our bread and butter. flashconsulting.com - that's P-H-L-A-S-H consulting dot com.
• 44:49
  Phil Risher on LinkedIn and Instagram. YouTube - Flash Consulting - 2,000 subscribers, 1.7 million views. Great content there.