Mike Dahlke is a serial entrepreneur, business coach, investor, and turnaround specialist. After leaving the financial world in 2011, he jumped into entrepreneurship, and now focuses on both home service companies and business turnaround situations that require strategy and capital. A featured speaker across the United States for different organizations, he built Blue Skies Services from $60,000 of revenue to over $3,000,000 in six seasons. Currently, he owns equity in over 15 businesses in 8 different states, and has completed over 10 acquisitions.
In this episode, we talked about strategic planning, leadership, mergers and acquisitions, business finance…
Show notes
- Introducing Mike Dahlke. [1:18]
- Mike’s journey: his passion, and how he ended up where he is today. [4:09]
- How prioritizing getting the cost structure in line can turn a failing business into a really profitable business. [7:54]
- A good, sustainable average amount of money, percentage-wise, to take home. [12:04]
- Business investments, and why it’s not about what you make, but about what you keep. [14:24]
- The process and benefits of purchasing a billboard. [15:23]
- The kinds of internal finance and accounting problems that can be saved by a business turnaround or acquisition solution. [17:19]
- The different strategic ways to do mergers and acquisitions. [19:52]
- Some useful tips for coming up with a strategic game plan when it comes to performance pay and motivating employees to do better. [24:20]
- What a brand is, and how to build a strong brand. [27:24]
- The two simple qualities of the most successful people in the home service space. [30:34]
- How to ask the right questions to secure sales and get future clients. [34:46]
- How the right leadership and company culture can get a business through a global crisis. [42:40]
- The characteristics of a great leader, and how to develop oneself as a leader. [45:18]
- How to become better at recruiting, and how to get a lot of great applicants. [50:10]
- The one word that makes leaders and CEOs successful. [55:19]
- How to ensure high-quality referrals from employees. [58:11]
- How professionals in the home service industry can build better relationships with customers and clients. [1:00:27]
- Three books on Mike’s reading list. [1:03:20]
- How to get more information about Mike. [1:04:38]
- Mike’s most important piece of advice to home service business owners. [1:05:14]
Resources And People Mentioned:
- Blue Sky Services
- Red Hook Investments
- Goettl Air Conditioning
- Amazon
- Kleenex
- Zoom
- Skype
- Ask by Ryan Levesque
- Gino Wickman
- Yelp
- Bluefishing by Steve Sims
- Boundaries for Leaders by Henry Cloud
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
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