Cash Flow this Summer – False Sense of Security?
It’s really busy. Some of you will have a great cash influx this summer lulling you into a false sense of security. Unfortunately, for some of you, that phenomenal cash influx will all evaporate at the end of summer when you pay your suppliers for the materials and equipment you purchased.
Avoid 
this frustrating situation by doing these five things:
1. Raise your flat rate prices by at least $25 an hour and preferably $50 an hour – for both maintenance and non-maintenance customers. A 30-minute repair is an additional $12.50 or $25. Most customers won’t see the difference…your checkbook and bottom line will (if you have 1,000 service calls this summer that is an additional $25,000 to $50,000 in cash).
2. Save the $25 or $50 for each service call in a savings account. You don’t have to transfer the money every day. Once a week run a report from your software to determine the number of calls you ran. Transfer $25 or $50 times the number of calls into your savings account. Yes, there will be some calls where the repair is less than an hour. However, there will be other calls where the repair will be more than an hour. Assume an hour per repair. You’ll have money in your savings account for the slower months.
3. Don’t do stupid stuff. No callbacks and no warranty calls. Yes, we are all human. This is the time for both install and service to ensure that jobs are installed properly and service technicians fix the disease rather than the symptom of the disease (i.e., the breaker tripped is the symptom. Why the breaker tripped is the disease). Service technicians do NOT want to go out at night to fix a dumb installation mistake. Everyone loses: the customer, the technician, and the company.
4. Ask all new customers to enroll in your maintenance program and renew all of your maintenance clients who have not renewed in the past 18 months. Customers understand the value of taking care of their system when it breaks in extreme temperatures. It’s the perfect time for someone to enroll in your plan. And a team member should reach out and renew all maintenance plans that have expired in the past 18 months.When do you do the maintenance for these customers? If it is a repair situation, sometimes your technicians have time. If not, within two to three weeks after they renew – assuming the technicians are available. Remember that once the initial onslaught of hot weather passes, it gets less busy and there probably will be some availability.
5. Save 5% of all commercial maintenance dollars that come in the door and all of your residential maintenance dollars that come in the door. Like #1, you won’t miss the money right now because you have enough cash to fund operations. You’ll appreciate the savings in slower times.
Visit www.financiallyfit.business to get your business financially fit in less than 10 minutes a month!
Ruth King is well known as “The Profitability Master.” She is passionate about helping small business owners get profitable and stay profitable. For over 40 years she has coached, trained, and helped contractors and others achieve the business growth and goals they wanted to achieve.
Contact Ruth by emailing ruthking@hvacchannel.tv.
