Take 5 Minutes To Do This & Your Business Will Thank You Later

Are you so busy right now that you have zero time to work on your business?

In the middle of winter, you are going to wish you had 5 minutes back in the summer that you could have done a few more things for your business.

I pulled some of the café members and mastermind groups at DYB along with some other coaches, to come up with 17 items I want to share with you.

It will only take 5 minutes to help you work on your business, in between everything else that’s going on.

We all know we do have 5 minutes. If you find yourself watching TV or scrolling through Facebook, stop and do one of these things.

If you select a few of these out of a list of 17, this is going to help your business immensely!

I am Ron Ramsden, a DYB coach and a painting contractor in Massachusetts.

I struggle with the same things that you do too; being busy, being slow, employees and everything else.

I have been there and I’m going to help you out.

We have a list of 17 things. These are the things that you can take 5 minutes here and there, to actually improve your business.

It’s like, “how do you eat an elephant?”

“You take one bite at a time.”

How do you work on your business?

Pick one or two things at a time. Do this one, do that one, and before you know it, you’ve gotten a lot done!

You will develop a rhythm and a habit that is going to help you in the future.

I’d love to thank everybody who gave us some feedback and some of you will see your answers here and hopefully you would share these with other people.

Imagine this, If you are going on an estimate and you are 5 minutes early.

You park down the street because you don’t want to intimidate the homeowner being parked at the front.

You have 5 minutes… so what do you do?

Do you just open up the newspaper or do you start scrolling through social media feeds?

A better choice than that would be to pick out one or two of these things and get them done.

#1 Send Note Cards and Thank You’s

What do you use a note card for?

It would be something that would say “thank you for the estimate,” or, “thank you for allowing me to look at your job”.

It can also be a follow-up card after a job that’s been completed, just to thank them for their business.

You might have met someone at a networking group, you can tell them, “it was very nice to meet you.”

It’s really simple and quick way to engage with your customers.

Keep the notes in your truck in a nice little envelope.

Have some stamps there as well and hand-write them all out.

It would be amazing if you only send two notes a week.

It’s two more than 99% of the other painters and contractors that are out there.

They’re very simple and very reasonably priced.

You can buy one of those Vista prints or from a local printing company.

They’re extremely effective because nobody sends handwritten thank you cards anymore.

#2 Follow-Up With Phone Call on Past Estimates

You’ve sent out all these estimates, but it’s so busy that you really don’t have the time follow up.

You might have an automated email follow up but there is nothing like a phone call.

You can look back at some of those estimates that you haven’t heard from in 2 weeks or a week and then call up, even if you only leave a voice message.

99% of the contractors out there aren’t even doing that.

You will be one step ahead or many steps ahead of them.

#3 Call Up a Past Customer

You might have painted a house a year ago and you see some space in your schedule 3 months from now but you want to make sure it’s full, what do you do?

Call up a past customer and say, “Hey, I’m just checking up on a warranty for your paint job that we did in the exterior house and wondering how it’s holding up.”

They might have some other work for you.

Let’s say they have some interior work and that’s a win-win, now you have some winter work.

Boom! You just landed another job.

#4 Scan Inbox

You are looking at email and sometimes important emails are forgotten.

You might have read it and then got sidetracked.

Scan your inbox and spam folders.

Take a few minutes and concentrate and follow up on those emails.

#5 Post/Schedule Posts on Social Media

Schedule a few social media posts when you have 5 minutes.

A lot of times when you find something and take a picture of it, maybe it’s not your highest volume on your social media views.

Go through your Facebook, go through your pictures and schedule your social media posts.

It only takes a moment, probably not even 5 minutes.

Do this just to keep the wheels turning on social media because it’s so easy to be posting when you are slow and not when you are busy.

People love to see the pictures of all the work you are doing.

#6 Review Old Voicemails

You’ll want to review your old voicemails.

I know we’re all very busy…

The other day I had 13 voice messages by the end of the day to listen to!

I started to listen to some of them and I skipped over and over.

I only saved a couple of them.

Go through the old voicemails and clean them all up.

Figure out if they’re worth returning or follow up with them and schedule those estimates.

#7 Touch Base With Canceled Appointments

This is an interesting one because I myself use “You Can Book Me”, so all my customers schedule their own appointments.

Here’s a free video training on how to utilize YouCanBook.Me, so that people can schedule estimates with you online.

Occasionally, they’ll have to cancel and honestly, sometimes it gets put on the back burner.

This is when you touch base with them.

What I did was I opened up a separate folder when the person cancels it and it comes through “You Can Book Me” or personal email, I save that email to that folder.

I have a couple of them that I can follow up with to see if they are still looking to have that work done or maybe it’s time to just delete that message because they’ve already had the work done by someone else.

#8 Wash Your Truck

First impressions really matter.

Drive your truck through the car wash if you don’t want to get your hands dirty.

Wash that vehicle!

It would only take 5 minutes and it’s money well-spent.

#9 Send “Thank-You” Gift Baskets

Send thank-you baskets to your painter’s, their significant other, or their spouse.

If they’re married, send a bouquet of flowers or something like that.

Send it to their significant other or a spouse, just to say, “thank you for being a part of the company because we know there is always someone behind our employee who makes things happen”.

You will win that person over tenfold!

#10 Meditate

Just meditate and think about things.

Lower your blood pressure for 5 minutes and clear your head.

#11 Transfer Money to Savings

Right now everyone’s in the heat of busy.

Money is coming in, money is going out, but hopefully, there is some profit and the bank account is growing.

Why don’t you go to the bank and just set up an automatic drip program?

If you are not into the automatic drip program, just transfer some money over to a savings account.

You will be thanking me in Christmas time!

#12 Take a Deep Breath and Thank God

Thank God for all the wealth, the business, and hopefully your health.

You can thank him, you can pray.

Just take some time out of the rat race to breathe and be grateful for what you have.

#13 Organize Desk or Truck

What’s worse is if the homeowner is behind you and you have to open up the back of that pickup truck and it’s a disaster!

They’re going to think you’re going to leave their house like that…

Wipe off the dashboard, wash the windows and pick up all the papers and any trash.

A lot of guys throw coffee cups on top of the dashboard which is a really bad first impression.

Clean that up, make it look great and it will also make you feel good.

Anytime you have your car detailed, even if it’s an older truck or an older car, it makes you feel good when you get into it.

It’s like putting on a new suit on an old body.

#14 Chat on GroupMe

Hopefully, your crew is on GroupMe or in a group text.

Start up a conversation with one or two of the crews.

Send out something to all the guys and girls, employees and teammates.

Let them know that you really appreciate their work.

Keep them up to date on the schedule for the next 2 weeks.

#15 Call Mom and Dad

When was the last time you picked up the phone and said, “Hey Mom/Dad, I’ve been thinking about you,”?

You can also add brother or sister or anyone else to this list.

A lot of times our lives get busy, their lives get busy and they would appreciate it if you give them a call.

Believe me, for someone whose parents are no longer around anymore, I wish I could call my Mom and Dad!

#16 Send Someone Flowers

Like I said earlier, this would be for the painter’s significant other or their spouse; but what about sending flowers to a customer?

You’ve sent the flowers to the wife, then why not send them to your customers, just as a follow-up and a thank you for being a great customer.

That customer has given you work for the last 3 or 4 years, what would they think when you send them flowers?

That would be pretty thoughtful, and even better, they’ll tell all of their friends!

#17 Send Pizza to the Paint Store

I think this one is pretty thoughtful as well.

I like to take care of our paint store.

Make the phone call, have your debit card ready and send them a pizza.

Let the paint store know that you care about them.

You might do this at 11 o’clock in the morning and have the pizzas delivered at noon.

Call the paint store ahead of time and tell them not to go out for lunch today.

I know it ruins the element of surprise but the only reason I say that is because sometimes these guys already start making plans for lunch, calling for subs or something like that.

These are the 17 little ideas that will help you improve your business.

I’d love for you to share some of your ideas with me in the comment section.

If you want to talk, you can reach me at ron@dybcoach.com

You can check out our whole DYB experience at joindyb.com. We have a wealth of information for painters, contractors, running your business and all other kinds of great stuff.

You can also find me on Facebook. Send me a message there and we can chat.

I’m looking out for you, so you can be successful and have a great day.

I am Ron Ramsden, a DYB Coach, and a painting contractor.

I’m feeling your pain but we are going to get out of the bucket and we are going to have a successful business.

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon!