How to Grow Your Electrical Business during Lean Times?
Today, most electricians decide to hop into business for themselves. Over the years, they have already mastered the trade, developed a set of applicable rules and regulations, and established strong relationships with loyal customers. However, knowing how to grow and run a thriving electrical business requires a different skill set compared to any first-rate electricians, especially during lean times.
If you own an electrical business, you most likely spent the first few years learning the finer details of managing your company and assessing your market share. But if the business has become lean, you may find it increasingly difficult to manage and run your company. But here are nine tips that can help you deliver consistent results when growing your electrical business regardless of the current economic climate.
1. Define your marketing strategy
Make sure to create a robust marketing strategy for the short-term and wholeheartedly invest in it. Only an effective marketing plan can become your tool in widening your reach and increasing your network. Can you clearly define the following?
· What type of work has mostly generated your profit/revenue over the last three years? And how much for each?
· Where do you see your profit coming from in the future?
· What areas do you serve now? And which ones do you want to serve in the future?
· Do you have the resources and skills to deliver on the answers to both second and third questions? If so, are you presenting this the right way in your marketing presentations? And if not, what are you doing to establish these resources and skills?
If nearly everybody in your company cannot answer the above-cited questions, you will have a tough time pulling everybody together to work on a particular marketing project. Marketing your business is a group effort. Communicating your successes, failures, and efforts helps in eliminating repeated mistakes and wasted time. As the owner, make sure all your people understand your top goal — to generate income.
If having all of your employees in one place has been a recurring issue, go for software solutions. Construction scheduling software, for instance, is an advanced software tool that has everything you need — powerful features for project management, crew supervision and even inventory!
2. Cultivate team relationships
Projects are often awarded from people to people. In fact, there are some dynamics at stake, like pricing. However, the information that may lead you successfully winning a contract is nearly related to strong relationships.
For instance, think about the vendor who notifies you of potential projects and gives your break on pricing. Think about the excellent contact with any of your contractors advising you about the overall scope and pricing. Think about the manager who never questioned the bill and exchanged you with a first-name basis.
If those things rarely happened or never happened at all, you probably need to increase your attention on relationships. The building blocks to most, if not all; business transactions are relationships. Every employee should build a relationship with someone to bring greater value to your company within your company.
Depending on the number of crew you have, you need to figure out the most effective way to gather warm leads. Only with subcontractor scheduling software can you set up a session for your employees. This software tool can help you open up discussion quickly anytime and anywhere.
3. Collaborate with Materials Vendors and Electrical Accessories
Suppliers of electrical accessories, materials and appliances are also your excellent source of business; these stock-wits work with several commercials, residential and industrial clients. They have incredible insights into the electrical needs of their clients.
By simply collaborating with a reputable local vendor and supplier, you have access to more business opportunities. For each project being referred to you, you might need to give the vendor a small percentage of payment as a commission. It’s considered as a small price to pay for them for the steady flow of income that will come your way.
Speaking of your electrical materials, tools and stock supplies, these are some of the resources you need to track as well aside from your project and team. Make use of inventory management software to have complete control of your inventory.
4. Keep Your Technology Up-to-Date
Almost every day, new business technologies and software solutions hit the market. All of these technologies improve business productivity and even personal safety. Take note of this — you’re not buying new tools and technology for its own sake. You’re having and deploying all of these techs to help you maximize your profitability and grow your electrical business. Whether it is software for tasks management, bookkeeping, tracking time, developing financial projections, or job bidding, it is all out there and becoming better and better over time. Technology’s long-term benefits for your business are a very worthwhile investment.
5. Make a survey
Do your clients remember you six months right after you have completed a project? If they do, is it in a quite positive manner? If you are not sure, then ask them right away. In general, most people spend so much time telling and selling potential customers in what they do and offer, completely forgetting to step back and listen.
Reaching out to previous clients and asking them a couple of questions can lead to useful insight, often resulting in additional jobs and referrals! There are several ways to perform a client survey. But, ensure first that the items below are addressed because they need to be:
· Structured
· Happens on a regular basis
· Feedback gets back to the team so changes can be made accordingly.
· The client is notified of the changes being made based upon his feedback.
Survey helps you refine your marketing strategies. This very simple process is proven to be an extremely valuable tool.
6. Expand your reach via service offerings
Your exposure during a project is common with the contractor. You communicate with them and work with them. When the job is finally complete, there’s still an end-user who is most likely needing your electrical services in the future. Start a relationship immediately with that end-user and introduce your warranty team.
You aren’t asking for business; you are only offering solutions while splitting yourself from a different contractor. Setting up a meeting from a project manager to your service manager (warranty team) with the end-user can give you the opportunity to expose your company further. While you manage your warranty period, you can focus on additional services to be presented, like tenant improvements, emergency service, and lighting maintenance.
Remember the idea of word of mouth? It’s now your opportunity to shine in this specific area and help separate your company from the others.
7. Rebrand your electrical services and turn it essential
During slow economic periods, it is not your electrical business that is greatly affected. As a matter of fact, your client’s livelihood has taken a hit as well. Probably this is the reason why they are not seeking any of your electrical services in the meantime.
It is crucial to rebrand your electrical service in such circumstances to showcase why your clients “need” your help. Generally, most people ignore electrical requirements unless if the problem is very pressing. So, this is the very reason why you should use “Safety” as one of your themes to promote your electrical business.
There’s no single person who doesn’t want to keep their employees safe. Hence, if you’re promoting safety on your services, no one can anymore cut corners, especially your clients and prospects.
8. Attends events organized by construction and real estate industries
Even if you’re facing a slow period in your business, other businesses and industries aren’t in the same situation as you. They might be hosting events, meet and greet events, and expos to boost sales. Such events are a great way to promote yourself and your business.
If you come across any construction, real estate, or contracting industry events, make sure to attend them. You can able to meet and network with property developers, real estate agents and property owners. You can use this chance to introduce your business, services, operations, software solutions you use for construction crew management, etc.
It further increases the chances of getting a call-back from prospective customers. You can also attract top talents during occasions and events like this. So keep attending, keep introducing and keep enticing.
9. Add value to your service either with free or low-priced add-ons
During downturn times, your clients want to know if they are getting value for the money they pay. It’s only when they are fully convinced to continue choosing your electrical company for the services they needed. By implementing some of the measures below, you can give value to your clients:
To evaluate the system’s performance, have post-installation check-ins for the first two to three months.
· No discounted prices or extra charges for nighttime or evening electrical services
· Discounts on the purchase of electrical accessories
· Free consultations, quotes, and property inspections
· Free informative resources on how to turn new properties more electricity-efficient
It may seem like a costly venture to implement any of this, but it helps you over time by considerably setting you apart from your competitors.
Key Takeaways
It’s crucial for electricians to know how to bring in their business during difficult and slow periods. Hopefully, the tips delineated above will help you grow your electrical business during this slow period, helping you get by despite the inevitable economic downturn.
