I went to a "seminar" today given by Electrical Success International. That's all I really want to say about it unless anyone has heard of this and wants to give and opinion/feedback/thoughts, etc.

Same folks that provide another Electricians forum of sorts, I think, at: http://www.electricianboard.com/forum/default.asp. That forum used to be more active but has slowed over the last several months.

Radar

Try this discussion from ElectricalKnowledge forum.
http://www.electricalknowledge.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=934

How about searching this site? We have had a number of discussions about ESI, and a related operation, "Plumbers' Success International."

If you're going to operate a business, you have to exercise your own "due dilligence."

ESI stands for Electricians Success International. Are these the people that tell you to charge an elderly person $500 to change out a 20 amp fuse on an emergency call? Financial success isn't always sucess on a moral level.

You're the one that went to the seminar, Happi_Man. How was your experience?

Dave

IMHO,

We have debated ESI and the "Flat-Rate" system here.
Some guys believe in it, some curse it.
Be warned...It can get as hot as some of the other volatile subjects.

Get out your checkbook. Guess who will be the Happi_Man.

How I understand Flat Rate is there is no way i can run around town for 65.00 per hour doing these small Jobs .

That rate is all I can get at the best of times. Theres just no way when a customer asks how much per hour and I say a min 100/hr .

My overhead costs per hour is over 150.00 per hour based on a 4 hour productive day doing service work.

If i can get 600.00 in 6 hours great then my overhead is covered for the day that includes my employee and paying my self for 30.00 per hour in that 4 hour period. So now if i work 6 hours per day i am making less than 30.00 per hr.

I need to learn how to convince customers that i need 100.00 per hour to cover that extensive overhead items list that ALine posted, I guess carrying it with me will help.



[This message has been edited by dougwells (edited 01-14-2006).]

How I understand Flat Rate is there is no way i can run around town for 65.00 per hour doing these small Jobs .

That rate is all I can get at the best of times. Theres just no way when a customer asks how much per hour and I say a min 100/hr .

My overhead costs per hour is over 150.00 per hour based on a 4 hour productive day doing service work.

If i can get 600.00 in 6 hours great then my overhead is covered for the day that includes my employee and paying my self for 30.00 per hour in that 4 hour period. So now if i work 6 hours per day i am making less than 30.00 per hr.

I need to learn how to convince customers that i need 100.00 per hour to cover that extensive overhead items list that ALine posted, I guess carrying it with me will help.



[This message has been edited by dougwells (edited 01-14-2006).]

doug it's simple. you don't quote an hourly rate.

if you know that you are losing money at $65/hr, yet continue to do it, because the customer won't pay more, go work for someone else. At least then you won't lose money.

Flat rate is not just pricing, it involves a change of corporate culture. But when done properly, you sell the job, not the hourly rate. By selling the job, the customer doesn't have to guess how long it will take or what the total price will be. You will tell them before you start.

You'd be surprised at how someone who claims $65/hr is extremely expensive, will ok $400 for a job that will take you 2 hrs.

It does work. It'll work better when more guys see it and get on board. We should all look to raise ourselves up, rather than look to pull everyone else down. (note:this last comment is not directed at you, it's a general statement regarding the state of our industry.)

Thanks Mahlere


I am not quoting my hourly price over the phone anymore. I understand exactly what your saying. And I do hope others in my area get on Board and see the writing on the wall also.

The way i see it, if you are trying to start or build your business, it will require an investment, if you feel you have a good business background, or have someone in the business, with a proven success record, then you may not need a support company like ESI, or any other support services, however if you have excellant trade skills, and little, or no business know how, then the support services may be worth the investment, i would check, any company offering this type of service, to be sure, they can deliver what they promise.

[This message has been edited by LK (edited 01-14-2006).]

Yeah, ESI = $20K. I say "no way, Jose!"

there is no real magic bullet in any of these companies. what there is, however, is an education.

how much time and money will it take you to learn whats necessary to run a successful business on your own? I'd say about 3-5 yrs and probably well over $100k in lost revenue.

how many years will you barely get by, or worse, lose money, until you learn some of the principles taught by ESI, Nexstar, etc?

It's simply an education in running a service contracting business. If you want to just do new construction, probably won't help. If you want to run service, I guarantee you will learn ideas that will make you $50,000 in your 1st year alone.

It's a relatively cheap price for the education. People pay $100K+ for college in order to go into other industries. For a small tuition, you could create a life for your family that is better than you ever dreamed.

For the record, we are not an ESI or Nexstar company, however we run the same system. And yes, I paid for my education. Saved me a ton of time and money. I prefer to learn off others mistakes, rather than my own.

Doug,

Try this for the next 2 weeks. On a service call or a small install that you would normally quote a T&M price for.

Use your experience to determine approx. how long it will take you. Then use the $150 figure that you determined it would take to cover your costs and make a profit.

give the customer a complete price of the time @$150/billable hr plus the material with whatever markup you want.

for example. customer wants you to extend a circuit and install a receptacle. You figure it will take you 3 hrs and material is $20.

let's double material, since it's not alot, and get our labor.

3*150=450
material = 40

quote the price of 490. you'll get it. You just need to explain that it's a fixed price. no guessing. no worrying on their part over how long it takes you, etc.

try this for 2 weeks, you will lose some jobs, but I bet you actually make more money overall.

worst case scenerio, in 2 weeks, you go back to losing money on every job but making it up in volume.

it's not easy. but final question:

if you could double your rate, but lose 40% of your customers, would you do it?

What I took from it was a lot of what mahlere said. I just wasn't sure if it was a scam or whatever. There was a really overwhelming pressure to drop a couple thousand bucks without even thinking about it.

But the "philosphy" if you will made sense to me. I don't think its about ripping people off, but it is about the average homeowner not really understanding what it takes for us to make money in our business. So, yeah, $150/hr sounds outrageous to most people. You bypass that, sell them the value of your company and the work that you do, give them a flat rate price that they know will not change and most people will be happy with that. The stressful part about callign service people is that you have no idea what its going to cost and you always figure it will be higher than what you were quoted anyway. People don't want that stress.

We do spend a lot of time in this industry lowballing each other, which might get you the job instead of me but you might have just devalued us all as an industry. And we all work way too hard and eat way too much aspirin to drag ourselves down any lower. A lot of times (and this might be only my feelings) GCs and home builders don't really have any respect for us as it is. They think we're uneducated and ignorant and basing our prices on nothing or trying to rip them off (guilty conscience?). I think a large part of it is because we are putting our energy into "getting the job" as opposed to "selling the job" at a price that will allow us some profit.

I don't know. It was kind of a mindblowing experience yesterday but the good thing about it, regardless was that it got me fired up about a business that I have been really down on lately. I started feeling like all my hard work was for nothing and at the very least that "seminar" rejuvenated me. I read between the lines and realized that I can take the genereal info they gave me just then and improve my business.

Of course, I'll check back in 6 months and let yal know how its going


[This message has been edited by Happi_Man (edited 01-14-2006).]

happi-man,

look into nexstar as well. i've been told that they run a more above board (might not be the right term) ship. They apparently will give you answers and tell you why you should give them money. But I've never talked to either company, so it's only hearsay on how they specifically operate.

good luck

mahlere

"if you could double your rate, but lose 40% of your customers, would you do it?"

Yes doubling my rate and losing 40 percent or working half the time would be very easy to accept

doug,

that tells me you get it. seriously look into flat rate. you will double your rate, but you'll lose less than 40% of your customers. you'll definately come out ahead.

good luck.

I am in New Jersey, so contract, or as some are calling it flat rate pricing, is nothing new to us, the laws here require us to have a contract, for all our work with consumers, with commercial or industrial we can do either contract or T&M, the service end of electrical work, requires a higher rate to support the cost of doing service type jobs, unlike planned work, service has schedule problems, and non billed hours, and many other traps, that if not properly addressed, will cause losses, rather then profits, i think we all tried to bill out service work, at hourly rates, and never realized we were loosing money, because most of us, never tracked jobs, or did actual reports, to see if we made a profit on a job.

The customers you will loose, by charging a rate that will enable you to stay in business, are not the ones you need, you are not gouging the customer, only asking them to pay, your operating and overhead, plus a decent wage, to provide them with the best services, to resolve their problem.

Just one more thing, the next time you take your truck in for a repair, when they present you with the bill, tell them you will be right back, go to the bank, and ask the teller to give you that amount in one dollar bills, then go back to the repair shop, and pay the bill, by counting out each dollar bill, this may help you better understand the cost of service work, and remember you brought the truck there, he did not come to you.


[This message has been edited by LK (edited 01-15-2006).]

LK, I agree. Just wish more guys around here would see it that way.

But the key to flat rate and correct pricing, is offering the service. if you don't offer the service the price you're charging, then there is a problem.

Sure, everything from how you respond to their call, to how you preform your work, all has to be delivered as promised.

Paul,Roger or Scott,
Couild this thread be moved to the Business Area?.

I plan on going into my own business in a few years. The discussion here has been priceless. Thanks fella's.

I agree Mike, this is a Business Area subject.

I have been reading your posts on Electricians' Success International. I have worked for the organization for some time now and the systems and programs work wonders for those who WANT to change their business. If you have the will and desire to change your business for the better, then ESI would work for your company. However, the opposite is also true. If you are happy where you are in your business and do not have the desire to change your company, ESI is not for you.
I am not trying to sell the membership to you, however, I will answer any questions you have about ESI. I suggest you come to one of our free profit days if you are interested in what ESI has to offer your company. At the very least, you will get re-juvenated about an industry that is so often overlooked!

Brooke

[This message has been edited by Belectrician (edited 01-16-2006).]

[This message has been edited by Belectrician (edited 01-16-2006).]

When you say..

"I am not trying to sell the membership to you, however, I will answer any questions you have about ESI."

I ask...
How do the arrive at the $83,000 profit guarantee figure.

Thanks.

Nexstar's Bronxe membership is $8000 for the first year, $5000 initiation and $3000 per year after that. The $5000 includes over $4000 in software plus other fist time benefits.

Nexstar was the first of these type of organizations called Contractors 2000.

I think ESI was borne to get your company in postion to be sold or franchised. Its sister organizations, PSI and Airtime 500 now also sell franchises like Benjamin Franklin Plumbing and One-Hour Heating and Air Conditioning. Take what you will from that info based on your level of cynicism.

Also, ESI is a for profit organization. I personally don't have a problem with that, but it can be seen as suspect, especially when you realize that Nexstar's profits are put back into the organization.

I am anxious to see what the Electrical Franchise will be, maybe Mr. Sparky will go nation wide?

I hear that all attendees of the Success Days are made to sign a confidentiality agreement, and the attendees are told that a surprising outcome of this is that ESI is making real good money suing those attendees who breach this "contract".

I will be looking forward to seeing what the guy from ESI is actually able to share here, especially anything of substance other than a sales pitch.

Good Luck!

Oh, yeah. I am not associated with Nexstar or ESI.

This is where I think this is heading.
These franchises will all become a part of Clockwork Home Services. Will this put small shops out of business like Home Depot and Lowe's did to the small hardware stores?
Here's a line from their mission statement.

Services Company: We intend to become the world's largest and most profitable home service company.
http://www.venvestinc.com/comp_wwd.asp
http://www.venvestinc.com/comp_profile.asp

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 01-16-2006).]

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 01-16-2006).]

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 01-16-2006).]

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 01-16-2006).]

My sentiments exactly.

I didn't want to stir it up, so to speak, so I left my post semi-open ended.

The systems offered by ESI and Nexstar are world class, and In my opinion priceless. Why not pay for others mistakes, instead of paying repeatedly for your own.

But... the whole thing is like a huge chess match. We are now at the beginning moves of a Bobby Fisher chess match. They have thought this out many moves ahead, and are positioning themsleves for the soft sell of franchising, and then the check mate move of join us or die...

Of course this is only relevant if your business is solely or strongly into service. The ESI's of the world have no interest in New construction or remodeling unless it is done at service rates.

I have lots of info and opinions on this subject. For those of you who are mostly service oriented, I would love to hear from you via email, as I have some interesting ideas about this subject, and I would love to learn what you have to say as well. I am a small electrical contractor specializing in resi service and repair, and I would appreciate sharing ideas with others who are pursuing similar goals.

Thanks!

email: kiwisholland@hotmail.com

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.......

They remind me of them two "Midgets" "little people if you will, who were on infomercials back about 10-15yrs ago telling people how they could make millions in real estate. For a nomimal fee, they would tell you their secret....

Secret was, they took your money, that is how they made their money....

Dnk...

Ahhh,

The Rice Brothers. Twin dwarfs selling real estate. They are still on late night TV on occasion...

One of them just died recently, they are friends of my Uncle in Florida.

But really its like any of those late night infomercials selling systems. I just think the Nexstar system has a lot to offer, as does ESI. I am just not sure I want to pay that much for the info.....

[This message has been edited by kiwisholland (edited 01-16-2006).]

Check out their magazine, which I actually enjoy. Its more of an "infozine", kind of like one long ad for VenVest. But there are great ideas to be gleened for the clever...
http://www.thesuccessfulcontractor.com/

Notice some of the headlines:

"How to Value and Sell Your Contracting Business"

"One Contractor's Exit:
Why Tim McGuire Went"

"The Ultimate Exit Strategy: How To Create Wealth Out Of Your Contracting Business"

*Things that may you go Hmmm...*

[This message has been edited by kiwisholland (edited 01-16-2006).]

Hello Everyone,

Looks like I missed quite an informative night. Like I said before, I would be happy to answer any specific questions so it is not just shear speculation about our organization. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately in your eyes) I am not a salesperson but will do my best to explain our organization. After all, wouldn't it be best to get the info. first hand?

OK- Here is the deal. ESI is a FOR PROFIT organization. We do funnel profits back into research and development because it is in the best interest of our members to have a constant competitive advantage in the marketplace, thus it is in our best interest to see that they get it. If we did not provide this, we would not be in business. Why would you want business advice from a company that is not a PROFIT making company?

If we were not successful at increasing the revenue and profitability of companies who choose to utilize our systems, we would not continue to be in business.

Regarding putting people out of business and franchising: I have heard all of these baseless rumors for some time and here is the truth. We realize HD, Lowes, the utility companies, etc. have taken your clients and our clients. This is one reason why we are in existence. We can beat them at this game because we know service and they do not. Many of these companies have offered our company substantial money to advise them. We would not do so as this does not serve our clients' best interest.

We service all types of contractors:
1.Those who wish to remain independent and build the strongest service business possible.
2. Those who wish to nationally brand themselves and hope to achieve greater market share this way.
3. Those who wish to exit their business and achieve wealth after becoming highly successful.

We do not see that there is really any other option besides closing your doors in this business.

ESI and the other affinity groups (AirTime500, PSI, and RSI) are built to serve the 1st group, franchising divisions are built to serve the 2nd and the financing/brokerage side of the business is built to serve the 3rd group.

If you use our systems (marketing, call taking, scheduling, dispatching, accounting/financial, management, group buying, training, PRICING, etc) and you truly do have the desire to improve your life and the life of your company, you can do it regardless of the size of your company. We have companies that join us at start-up stage and companies that do many, many millions in service revenue.

I would be happy to forward anyone who is interested the info. on some of our members so that they can call for themselves and get the inside scoop or answer any specific questions that any of you have.

You can also email me directly at bdeters@yoursgi.com

Looking forward to your responses!

Brooke

By chance, could you offer us any customers who tried your service and were dissatisfied, as so we could see and analyze both the upside and the downside?


Dnk....

[This message has been edited by Dnkldorf (edited 01-17-2006).]

Dissatisfied is a relative term. Dissatisfied means we did not deliver what promised and that is never the case. Of the 200 members we have in ESI, there have been very few who have had to leave us because they were not happy with our products and services. They did not want to change their business and did not implement all the tools like we told them to do. They have left our organization on good terms and I would be happy to provide the names and numbers to you through email.

Regards-
Brooke

I am glad you are willing to be so candid, thanks:

1) Do you sue attendees of your Success Days for sharing info they learned at Success Days? And were you not so surprised to learn that you were making nearly as much money suing these prospective customers, as you would make getting their business, that you freely share with/warn attendees about this?

2) What is Better about ESI than Nexstar?

3) Other than the idea to look in old phone books for the numbers of competitors that went of business, would you throw us another bone from the vast group of tips you share with attendees? The guy from ESI who profiles members of the Electrician Board, I believe named Troy, told me that obvious one. He called me 5 or 6 times, but could never remember my first name. Felt like I was buying a mattress.

4) Would it be fair to say you have collected at least $4,000,000.00 in revenue from your first 200 members? AND would it be fair to say ESI will make at least $10,000,000.00 when its goal of 500 members is met? Is it true that these figures are only for the first years fees, and don't include revenue from the yearly dues?

5) Would you share some of the comments made by those who decided they didn't want to follow your systems, and backed out. No specific names, just real comments. Did those people get their $20,000.00 back?

Thanks again for your honesty with this subject!

When you say..
"I am not trying to sell the membership to you, however, I will answer any questions you have about ESI."

I ask...
How do the arrive at the $83,000 profit guarantee figure.

Thanks.

One other question if you don't mind...

If this system is so good, why are you not using it, rather than working for someone?

Dnk....

It seems to me that charging $150.00 per hour sounds great, but if it only goes towards the additional overhead associated with increased advertising costs (full page phone book ads $15,000 / year) shiny new trucks, crisp uniforms, dispatchers, increased travel time & unbilled hours, increased fuel costs, increased insurance costs, etc., then you will still only be able to offer the same service that can be offered by other, less "inspired" contractors.

No?

IF I knew nothing about business AND I had $20,000 of expendable cash, then I might could see how joining one of these organizations could help. But having been in sales jobs for quite a few years in the past, as well as doing a fair amount of research on the internet, I think that I have gained enough information to do flat-rate work and develop my own flat-rate pricing system. It's not exactly rocket science, after all.

From a practical standpoint, I have dealt with the public long enough to know that anytime you can legally and morally not disclose information about your pricing - the better off you are. As a property manager and homeowner myself, I want to know up front how much the work is going to cost so that I don't get a huge bill that I wasn't expecting and end up in a major dispute with someone. In fact, I have even paid a little more to get a job done at flat-rate than it probably would have cost me to have it done on T&M just for the simple fact that I was guaranteed a specific price that I could bank on. So, there is no doubt in my mind that flat-rate is the way to go for service work.

Insofar as the "system" is concerned, I think that there is enough information available on this forum to set up a pricing system without spending $2500 on special software. If you're good in Excel, you can easily set one up yourself that does all of the math for you. I track my time on each job, then compare it to the times listed in the National Electrical Estimator to see if I am slower or faster than the national average. I have found the NEE to be pretty accurate - if not a little generous.

As far as scheduling and the actual service is concerned, just use a little common sense as to how you would like to be treated when someone comes to your home. Call Sears and have a technician come out to clean the coils on your refrigerator or something, then watch what they do and ask the guy questions. They get their money for service calls up front, over the phone. They show up on time and cover their shoes with protectors before they come in the door. They are clean-cut, wear clean uniforms, and drive clean vehicles with clear graphics. In fact, you can learn a lot just by observing other service companies and talking to their technicians - such as plumbers, HVAC, computer services companies, and the like.

A little time spent on research can easily save you $20,000. After all, even companies like ESI started out with one guy doing a little research. If he can do it, I figure I can too.

Redsy: I can assure you that ESI members charge well above $150 per hour. Of course its all tied in standardized pricing, so unless you can get charged for a "diagnostic fee", you will never be able to guess the amount. And there is nothing wrong with any of this, in my opinion. Each business has costs of doing business, and frankly, thats all that matters. Figure your costs of doing business, and what type of profit you need to make and THAT is all that matters. Who cares what Mr. '87 Malibu station wagon is charging, and who cares what the most expensive ESI member in your area is charging? Its not REALLY relevant to you. You are in business to make a profit. PERIOD. Thats the long and the short of it.

TNSunny: Why not call all the electrical contractors in your area with big YP ads, and see their act. Pay their dispatch fee, ask them to price this list of stuff you need to do in your house (your wife has a list I bet), and learn... The lessons will be priceless, and you can see how the other guy lives. Plus its OUR industry, not Sears or Mr. Plumber.

If you have an ESI member in town, more reason to see the "Act".

Good Luck

[This message has been edited by dougwells (edited 01-17-2006).]

Just going to paste this from the gereneral thread

electure
Moderator posted 11-23-2005 07:42 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you understand that? Not too difficult, huh?
OK, then putting dirty words in your posts with a symbol in place of one of the vowels is no different, is it? The meaning isn't changed in the slightest.
I've posted this info every couple of months now in one place or another, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better, instead I end up editing more and more posts for this kind of j*nk.
CUT IT OUT....please. This ruins some pretty good posts with good information.

Use a thesaurus, think for a minute for a different word, do something, but stop this practice. I'm going to begin sending entire posts to the trash can if it keeps up. There's no reason for this on ECN. Remember, this site is "G" rated.

Thanks

Here is the Thread
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/006554.html


[This message has been edited by dougwells (edited 01-17-2006).]

BTW i have had a request that if this topic gets into any heated discussions that we move it to Wed Business Chat Room
Thanks


[This message has been edited by dougwells (edited 01-17-2006).]

Belectrician,

I would like to invite you, to join us this wednesday evening 01/18 at 9:00 PM ET, on the Business Chat, please reply if you will be able to join us.

Thank you,

Les

I would be glad to join you tonight. Let me know how to get in the chat room.

Brooke

In response to Kiwiholland's post on the previous page.....

1) Do you sue attendees of your Success Days for sharing info they learned at Success Days? And were you not so surprised to learn that you were making nearly as much money suing these prospective customers, as you would make getting their business, that you freely share with/warn attendees about this?

*We do not make it a practice to sue attendees of Success Days. If this were the case, we would not have much interest in attending. Whomever told you this was either misinformed, misunderstood, or just plain wrong. We do have the right to enforce our intellectual property. This means that anyone that is not licensed to use our materials (management, marketing, group buying, training, pricing, etc.)...basically anyone who copies our info. without permission (non-members) do not have the rights to our stuff. We have had people try and they are typically stopped. No one likes to go to court or sue anyone. Generally, I would think that the expense would outweigh the cost.*

2) What is Better about ESI than Nexstar?

*We are not Nexstar, so I can not speak for them. I also make it a policy not to demean competitors and recommend the same to client members. I can say that I would rather get advice from a profitable company that is already using the same materials that we give you to generate nearly a hundred million dollars in sales throughout North America in businesses that our parent company owns. The stuff is proven to work every day. Nexstar was founded by people that are now members of our organization (especially on the electrical side). It was also formed out of members of our predecessor organization Contractor Success Group (CSG) in the early 1990's. We invented this industry. ESI is the only company of it's kind focused only on independent electrical contractors. This is not the case with Nexstar or any other group. Most of all, electricians should choose ESI because the proven success of our membership base.*

3) Other than the idea to look in old phone books for the numbers of competitors that went of business, would you throw us another bone from the vast group of tips you share with attendees? The guy from ESI who profiles members of the Electrician Board, I believe named Troy, told me that obvious one. He called me 5 or 6 times, but could never remember my first name. Felt like I was buying a mattress.

I am sorry that you felt that way. Our sales dept. is not staffed with trained advisors. We do not always want them to know everything about the system, because giving parts of it away is not protecting the interest of our membership base who pay to have the rights to utilize our tools. Keep in mind what we give you is a system. If you use only parts of it, it can only be partially successful. For example, if I gave you the rights to use our yellow pages and your got a huge volume of phone calls but did not use a proper phone script to book the calls, did not dispatch for profits to maximize revenue on those calls, did not utilize StraightForward Pricing and our recommend SOP for running each service call on those calls to maximize revenue and service to the client, you would not be nearly as effective as members that do all of these other basics.*

4) Would it be fair to say you have collected at least $4,000,000.00 in revenue from your first 200 members? AND would it be fair to say ESI will make at least $10,000,000.00 when its goal of 500 members is met? Is it true that these figures are only for the first years fees, and don't include revenue from the yearly dues?

*I have done some quick math and I do not think that these numbers are quite accurate. At 500 members in weekly fees this would probably be closer to $5M. This is assuming that the company runs operationally excellent, does not have to float members that struggle in the beginning, does not have notes to finance members, etc. However if this were true, we would not need to staff the number of accountants that we have. In my eyes this revenue is peanuts. If we were an electrical const. company that was fairly well established $10M/yr would be simple. We have some members that do 4 times this amount with their const. dept. It is true that you do get acess to the best staff of people in the contracting industry for less than the price of a minimum wage worker!
Your weekly fees amount to much less than one call per week. The amount of additional revenue on this one call (from using our stuff) will actually pay your dues. So if you are asking if I think we charge too much...my answer is definitely "no." Back in the early 90's our founders charged what we do today (15 years w/o inflation is pretty good.) Most of our growth has come from starting other successful entities.*

5) Would you share some of the comments made by those who decided they didn't want to follow your systems, and backed out. No specific names, just real comments. Did those people get their $20,000.00 back?

*We have had people that have not used our info. to improve their companies. This number is very, very small. Most of them were potential start-ups. I say potential b/c it actually requires that you put forth the resources to start a service company. Two guys were journeymen for electrical utilities trying to start this up in their spare time. One was transfered to the day shift and that basically ended his attempt to be a businessman. One just could not devote the time to hiring someone, training that person, etc.
We had one person that was a FedEx worker. His wife was not for him leaving to start the company. He ended up quitting and trying to come back and had the same problems. Three went bankrupt before they could get off the ground...Oh the horror stories I have heard in Industrial and Const. Work. One guy sold out to another member. We have a few more. What really gets me are those guys that join and don't use the stuff for a long time. Yes, they actually pay all this money and let the stuff sit on a shelf. These are ones that bug me the most.
We don't make a policy of chasing struggling contractors and financially breaking them...we would not have a great reputation and would not be a financially strong company if we did this. Imagine if you treated your clients that way. How successful would you be?*

Brooke

To enter the chat room, simply click on the oval icon (above left, under the flag) that says "ECN chat." Your name and password are the same as what you use here.

Thanks Brooke
For your very professional response to the members questions.
The following thread should explain in about the 5Th post how to log on tonight.
the Chat starts about 9 pm EST and some are a bit earlier.
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/004291.html

[This message has been edited by dougwells (edited 01-18-2006).]

Kiwisholland: I'm not sure that I fully understand your reply. I'm an electrical contractor myself - I just happen to be the property manager of a shopping center as well.

In regard to the dispatch fee, I don't know of any EC's in my area that charge them. Everything here is free estimates and free dispatch. It definitely makes it tough when one company is trying to charge a reasonable trip charge and the rest do not.

With respect to "its OUR industry," I'm not really sure I understand what you mean. My only point was that Sears and other service companies have a much better system than most EC's - especially those in my area. I have learned a lot about how to run my own business by simply watching what they do. That's why in the near future I intend to have my secretary/dispatcher to run the customer's credit card for the trip charge before I even head out to their home. At least then I'll know that my expenses are covered if I don't get the job.

Finally, I believe that no business model is going to be a perfect fit for everyone. It all has to be tailored to fit your business plan and your market area. So, the information that I am sharing is simply my opinion and what I believe works for me in my area.

Thanks for your response and best wishes to you.

Sincerely,

Kevin

When you say..
"I am not trying to sell the membership to you, however, I will answer any questions you have about ESI."

I ask...
How do the arrive at the $83,000 profit guarantee figure.

Thanks.

This is what I believe to be the ESI plan. You get contractors from all over the US and Canada to join. You turn them into very profitable companies using the ESI systems. You then create a franchise and offer these companies the opportunity to buy into the franchise. Almost overnight the franchise brand is all over the US and Canada. ESI will be operated under Clockwork Home Services. Clockwork Home Services will have franchises all over the US and Canada for Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical, Roofing and other home services.

I'm not sure if I'm right but I think the idea is that when someone thinks of home repair services Clockwork Home Services be first on their minds. Just like when you think of home improvement centers Home Depot and Lowe's come to mind. Clockwork Home Services will become a national brand like Sears, Blockbuster, McDonalds etc. Everyone will have heard of Clockwork Home Services or at least their franchises.

http://www.venvestinc.com/comp_wwd.asp

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 01-18-2006).]

Hello everyone-

I really enjoyed talking to everyone last night and answering any questions you had on ESI. If you have any futher questions or inquiries about ESI, please post your message here or email me at: bdeters@yoursgi.com

Brooke

Just My Own Opinion
Brooke,
Maybe it would be better if readers emailed you rather than bumping this thread up any more. That way you can deal with them on an individual basis.

We don't want this to become an advertising thread.

I know I am not a moderator, but why not post all info here, so we all can learn and form an opinion based on the amount of spin per response?

Thanks!

How 'bout this

We'll lock this one up, and another thread can be started with specific questions and specific answers.