Tommy Mello is the author of Home Service Millionaire and the founder of A1 Garage Doors, a $40 million-plus home service business with over 200 employees in 9 states. Through HomeServiceMillionaire.com and the Home Service Expert podcast, Tommy shares his learnings and insights to help fellow entrepreneurs scale their businesses.
In this episode, we answered some of our listeners’ most pressing questions.
Show notes
- Introducing this week’s Q&A with Tommy Mello. [1:30]
- Setting aside time for writing manuals. [2:12]
- Sharing process manuals online that will not allow downloading or printing. [3:23]
- Thoughts on a process or system that will help inventory, trucks and job costing be accurate, efficient and lean. [5:00]
- Making a business work without you being there 100% of the time. [7:17]
- The mindset for preventing burnout. [10:20]
- Growing a company to a decent size by self-funding, but not taking a decade to do it. [12:30]
- A pay structure that works best in areas that are expensive for business operations. [14:48]
- Establishing an effective point/grading system for technicians. [19:10]
- The activities or day in the life of a full time recruiter. [20:30]
- Deciding how many CSRs to have. [23:45]
- The significance of having many Google reviews. [25:25]
- The good business reasons to go up to 300 Google reviews. [25:50]
- How the number of Google reviews affect SEO — and what “enough” means in this context. [27:00]
- When to change a brand name that does not sound professional. [29:40]
- The benefits of nurturing clients for businesses providing one-time services like fencing. [30:20]
- Hiring someone to delegate manual tasks versus just doing it yourself. [31:36]
- Whether successful strategies in the home service industry can be applied in other businesses as well. [33:00]
- What to look for in a business when you buy it. [33:47]
- Greenfield market (starting a territory or new product line from scratch) versus acquiring a company. [36:22]
- Dealing with underperforming employees. [41:53]
- Taking advantage of good reviews. [42:31]
- Recommendations on books worth reading. [43:30]
- Tips on setting up multiple physical locations for Google My Business to enhance your presence in a single market. [49:04]
- On being published in Forbes Magazine. [50:17]
- Approaching someone who may be wanting to retire and sell their garage door business. [52:30]
Resources And People Mentioned:
- A Bluestocking Guide: Applying the Clipper Ship Strategy by Kathryn Daniels
- Yelp
- ServiceTitan
- Yext
- Glassdoor
- Indeed
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Building a Big Small Business Brand by Dan Antonelli
- Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less by Bob Fifer
- The Great Game of Business by Bo Burlingham and Jack Stack
- Ken Goodrich
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