The Profit Roadmap

Jacob and Nicholle Godar talk about the trials and triumphs of the last year at Scooter's Lawn Care. They tell us about having their biggest year ever, moving to Florida from Illinois, shutting down a branch, and moving back to Illinois. It was a crazy year and they managed to keep Scooter's, and their marriage, thriving. Being married and in business together isn't for the faint of heart, bu...

Take pictures that people want to see and you'll grow your Instagram audience. Cody, Patrick and Bear talk about how to use Instagram to better effect for your small business. Resources Mentioned: Value First Marketing Framing Your Shots Blog Post Nicholle's Web Design Blog Post Special thanks to Nicholle for providing some quick talking points. SA5 is coming! Tickets are on sale now, get yours be...

Jonathan joins us in the studio to discuss the only process you can still implement in your business, regardless of how little time you have before the tsunami of busy season pulls you under. There are numbers EVERY business owner should know. They're vital to growing and keeping your business healthy. Jonathan tells us the numbers smart business owners are tracking and helps trim the fat so you'r...

The Weekly Member's Talk Show is live EVERY Wednesday at 3p Central Time, hosted by Cody (hey, you know him) and long-time friend of the pod Mike Callahan. You can see it every week on our Facebook page (give it a like and you should get a notification when we go live). "Summon the Rawk" by Kevin MacLeod ( incompetech.com ) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 The post Debbie Sardon...

Brandon Brown and Ryan Chipman explain their team-building process and how to create a company culture that drives employees excellence in this "Live from the Field" episode. Cody traveled to Schneider's Shrub and Tree Care in South Carolina to meet with Brandon and Ryan. Mentioned on This Episode: Ryan's consulting and EOS implementation Traction  by Gino Wickman You'll be able to see a vide...

Jess Winsett is our HR department at Service Autopilot. She's spent years honing her skills as a recruiter and has conducted 1000s of interviews. She's forgotten more about attracting and keeping employees than most people will ever know. So we lured her into the studio, claiming that Bear and I needed to work out some interpersonal conflict. (That's why Bear and I fought so much on this episode!)...

WARNING: This episode contains strong language and a discussion of self-harm. Conley Ipson is a hard-working young man. He's married, has a toddler, and, in 2014, was working his tail off as a solo-preneur. What people looking from the outside didn't know was that he was behind on his truck payments. His business was in tatters because he was overworked and underpaid. He was floundering. When the...

Patrick returns to the pod and he came prepared (with a legal pad covered in his trademark chicken scratch). 5 Secrets to Writing KILLER Headlines One Big Idea Appeal to a "Second Benefit" Use Power Words. Ask an Unexpected Question. Write Multiple Headlines (then write some more). THE BONUS IS IN THE EPISODE. You can't get it in the blog post, silly. Copywriting Resources that Patrick and Cody Re...

Jonathan convinces Cody and Bear of the necessity of finding accountability partners via a Mastermind group. He talked his experience with the ideas of Napoleon Hill (check out  Think and Grow Rich ) and the guys who joined the original Mastermind group: Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, etc. Titans of industry. Listen along as we hear about the times that Jonathan has learned from (and added value to)...

The customers are there, where are you? Nicholle Godar, marketing manager for Scooter's Lawn Care and owner of Godar Designs,  joins Cody and Bear to talk about developing a strategy for social media, especially Facebook. We talk about the most important part of that strategy: consistency . When you pair consistent posts with quality content, you see the true effect of Facebook and other soci...

It's 2018. We're the only industry still having this conversation. Jonathan Pototschnik is ready to put this issue to bed forever. Process credit cards and eliminate cash valleys in your business... yesterday. Your customers are using credit cards to pay for everything else in their life. Cody doesn't remember what cash looks like. Bear burned his checkbook two years ago. Jonathan wants his 2% cas...

'Tis the season to know your numbers. Bear and I wanted to throwback to our second-ever episode of PRM. We interviewed Scott Howard to talk about "the only business stat that matters." Because this is the busiest selling season for lawn care companies, we know that it's great time to review pricing and profitability. By way of reminder, our blog also has a lot of helpful information for pricing by...

Chris Sims, our director of marketing, talks producing valuable content for clients and leads on social media. What is "Hyper-Local" Content? It's content that sells your status as a local small business. It's putting a face and a name and a place to your business. People love to support local businesses and keep their money in their community. Use that powerful marketing tool to your advantage. M...

Maximize profits after the sales rush ends by selling to the customers you already have. What Comes After Selling Season? Upselling season. Join us as we talk with our CEO and co-founder, Jonathan Pototschnik about the art of the upsell. Upsells are the best way to increase your profitability throughout the year. Here are the blog posts we mentioned on the show today: 11.5 Ways to Market Your Lawn...

Rebekah Spencer from our Launch Department talks to us about our onboarding process and how you can take principles from that process and use it in your business to increase retention with new clients. Treat New Clients like People Remember marketing is a relationship. This person has just committed to you. Show that you match their commitment with a Welcome Packet. Check out this video from...

Chris Volpe, resident business optimizer, talked with us about how to clear the Brussels sprouts, green beans, or "whatever vegetable you hate off of your plate. You know it's true: the tasks you hate wind up on the backburner. Those backburner tasks frequently find their way through cracks, despite our best intentions. At The Profit Roadmap, we encourage you to find one of those tasks TODAY...

John Caldwell, our CTO, is back this week to talk about moving from being a ground-level, hands-on "doer" to a high-level, vision-casting "leader." This is the transition that every service industry company owner HAS to make. You have to get off the truck and out of customers' properties. You want to work "on" your business, not "in" your business if you want to grow and scale. How Do You Become a...

Dropping huge clients to align with his business' purpose is the kind of thing Ted Glaser does, even when it hurts. Why You Should Drop the "Wrong" Clients It doesn't matter how much money you make if you're miserable. And it doesn't matter how much revenue you're pulling in if there's no profit. Ted exercises great self-control in his business to straddle extremes. He's phasing out a significant...

Jacob Godar named Scooter's Lawn Care after a nickname he received from a mentor while working at an auto body shop. He was young and ready to work his tail off to build something for himself. He considered opening his own body shop but the high overhead, startup costs and prospect of constantly smelling like oil and Bondo dust kept him out of the car game. Always Hustling: The Hallmark of Ev...

Jason Cupp talks with Cody and Bear about the impact on your business of understanding your unchanging instincts as explained by the Kolbe Index, the only quiz/questionnaire whose results NEVER change. Instincts Never Change: Kolbe Action Modes Unlike a personality profile or IQ test, Kolbe index results don't change. The four numbers that represent your underlying instincts are always the same. T...

Are you ready to put your business on Autopilot? That's what we're talking about with John Caldwell, our CTO, today on The Profit Roadmap. Automations is Out of Beta At SA4, John announced that automations was officially out of beta and ready to be used. Our Certified Advisor and friend of the show, Mike Callahan , is helping people get up and running with his 20 Days to Close automation. John als...

Volpe is BACK! Chris Volpe, head of our training department, discusses "coachability" and its weight in the hiring process. What is "Coachability"? Chris emphasized that you should be looking for candidates who are willing to learn and grow with your company. When hiring, look for those people, even if they have a little less experience. Especially in entry-level, field positions, you can train a...

Our original plan was to release this episode on Christmas Day, but we said "bah, humbug" to that terrible plan because you need this Holiday Spectacular NOW. Cody and Bear give easy, actionable morale boosters for the holiday season. These are surefire ways to show your employees that you care about them and appreciate their work with your business throughout the year. A Cavalcade of Surpris...

Martha Woodward owns Dusting Divas, a successful cleaning company in Oklahoma, and she's the co-founder of Quality Driven Software , a software company borne of her cleaning company's need for employee-specific data. She found very quickly in her cleaning business that the best way to solve problems was to turn those problems into incentivized challenges for her employees. Why the Ultimate Employe...

Jim Evans, our VP of Sales and master salesman, tells us why "pressure-cooker" sales environments like in  Glen Garry Glen Ross  won't make you money. He gave some suggested reading: Spin Selling The Challenger Sale Listen to the show to hear why he recommended both books (and the advice he said you SHOULDN'T follow from one of them). Always Be Listening Ultimately, the advice Jim gave u...