The Wealthy Contractor

EPISODE 233: Being willing to learn and adapt to emerging trends isn’t just a great way to differentiate yourself from your competition today—it's necessary to avoid the slow death of being left behind as customers and the market change.It’s time to consider the new strategies that are shaping the future of the industry! But don’t take my word for it; hear it straight from my guest this week, Benji Carlson.Benji is the Director of Content Marketing at Breakthrough Academy and the host of the Contractor Evolution podcast. He has worked with hundreds of trades and home service businesses and has a unique insight into new trends that are starting to propel some companies way ahead of the pack.In this episode, Benji and I will be diving into THREE emerging trends for home improvement businesses in 2025 and beyond. We look at:The emergence of the self-serve sales processes and its impact on our industry Clever performance-based pay structures for your entire team that motivate employees and control costs What modern brand building really means and whether Benji and I agree on its importance for contractorsWe also touch on the changes in customer behavior we’ve been seeing lately, why some customers hate talking on the phone (and how they want to communicate instead), and why someone who is "team human" still uses AI.Are you ready to position your company for success over the next decade and take it to the next level TODAY?Then tune in now!Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)Why modern brand building matters (05:47)Self-serve sales processes explained (07:09)Customer experience as a competitive advantage (18:50)Why you need performance pay (22:55)How technology can help grow your business (47:47)Additional Resources:⚡ Stop wasting time on tire kickers and start attracting A-players today with our HIRING RESOURCES, free to listeners of The Wealthy Contractor Podcast: https://trybta.com/wealthy-contractor/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!

EPISODE 232: 2024 was a tough market for the home improvement industry. Economic uncertainties and rising costs threw a wrench in many contractors' plans, but not for my guest today, Kirk Koskiniemi.Kirk took his roofing business from $10.4M to $16.7M over the past year AND raised profits at the same time. He and his team achieved this with a single mantra: "Do fewer things better".In this episode, Kirk lays out the areas they worked on to achieve this amazing feat during a year other home improvement companies were stumbling.We talk about how he optimized his sales funnel’s various conversion points, increasing average ticket size to drive down marketing costs (even on small repair jobs), what a typical week looks like for his sales reps, and the magic behind “handing out leads like they are diamonds”.You’ll also find out why their average NSLI (Net Sales Per Lead Issued) went from $5,600 to $10,500 in December when they were low on leads—and why they are thinking of switching sales goals from overall revenue to the highest NSLI.We finally chatted about how our Accelerate LIVE! event played a major role in his growth with its big learning and networking opportunities.Hit play now to hear how Kirk simplified his way to success and how you can too.Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)Kirk’s 2024 business performance (00:20)Challenges and benefits of remote management (14:52)Business growth and sales team focus (15:10)Sales funnel optimization and marketing strategies (15:52)Sales rep performance and training (21:12)Rehash and lead management (30:39)Accelerate LIVE! event and networking (34:42) Additional Resources:⚡ Save your seats for Accelerate LIVE! 2025: https://www.AccelerateEvent.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!

Lee Diamond, a former Fortune 200 executive, shares his unique journey of transitioning to home improvement entrepreneurship alongside his son. They discuss modernizing business practices and the art of change management. Lee emphasizes the importance of team culture to retain top talent and explores strategies for enhancing profitability in a post-COVID landscape. He also highlights the value of corporate strategies in small business settings, illustrating how to build a sustainable operation that aligns personal aspirations with business success.

EPISODE 230: To be a great business owner, you need to understand yourself. Why is that so important?Once you truly know what kind of leader you are, you’ll be able to understand what it takes to do these three things: manage your time efficiently, delegate, and implement. I discuss all of this (and more) in this week’s episode of The Wealthy Contractor podcast with my guest John Anglis.John is a seasoned leader who built a highly profitable home improvement business that operated independently of him before selling it to a private equity firm. Today, John is a consultant who specializes in sales training and organizational growth.John and I will be discussing his journey building a multimillion-dollar business and selling it. We’ll also be talking about what typically gets in the way of efficient implementation, how he uses his DISC to understand how people see him and be a better leader, how business owners sometimes abdicate instead of delegate, and the importance of networking as an entrepreneur. John will also preview his upcoming talk at our Accelerate LIVE! 2025 event, which will be focusing on creating impactful organizational structures through the various “break points” of company growth.Are you ready to scale your business to the next level with John’s insights?Then tune in now.Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)Meet John (01:01)Why DISC profiles matter (07:34)Time management for entrepreneurs (10:03)Delegation vs abdication (12:34)The key to success is implementation (20:07)Breaking growth plateaus (24:02)The platinum rule (29:02)Additional Resources:⚡ Save your seats for Accelerate LIVE! 2025: https://www.AccelerateEvent.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Profit Masters: https://www.TheProfitMasters.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!

EPISODE 229: Lead volume is down. Cost per issued appointment is skyrocketing. Marketing to homeowners is getting harder and more competitive.So what do you do?In this episode, we dive into this with my guest, Justin Bartley, the founder and president of Next Door & Window.With over two decades of experience in the home improvement industry, Justin has mastered the art of squeezing more out of your marketing dollars, so much so that this year his business grew 15% with very little change to how many sales appointments they ran.In this episode, he shares many hard-won secrets behind his company’s consistent growth in the face of a changing market. He discusses the power of direct mail marketing, reaching a 0.6% marketing cost with repeat customers, and fighting rising marketing costs with sales processes. He and I also touch on what CRM data they think is critical at Next Door & Windows, how business owners can free themselves from day-to-day operations to focus on what they’re really good at, and much more.Are you ready to take the first step towards a more successful business?Then tune in now!Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)Lead generation after the pandemic (02:31)Repeat customers are the answer (06:11)Direct mail marketing for customer retention (11:23)You need sales training to drive growth (19:13)Lessons from 2024 (34:25)Additional Resources:⚡ Save your seats for Accelerate LIVE! 2025: https://www.AccelerateEvent.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Profit Masters: https://www.TheProfitMasters.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!

EPISODE 228: Are you struggling to bridge the gap between ideas and execution in your home improvement business?Knowing how to turn your plans into actions is a quintessential skill every business owner struggles with but should hone into one of their primary competencies .After all, success in business comes from unrelenting action and knowing how to EXECUTE ideas systematically.To discuss this in more detail, I’ve invited Jon Graboyes to sit down with me in this week’s episode of The Wealthy Contractor podcast.Jon is the 3rd generation owner of Graboyes Windows and Doors, a 75-year-old family-owned business specializing in replacement windows and doors in suburban Philadelphia. In this episode, Jon and I discuss how he brought transformative change to his company. We cover “the list” of things he tackled coming out of COVID that kept the business moving in the right direction, what changes in marketing had to happen in order to double revenue, and where they get the data that keeps their marketing costs low. We also talk about how Jon’s company more than tripled its profit, the hard act of replacing all the people that no longer serve your company, what a P&L should NOT look like, what being part of a mastermind group does for your business, and much more.Are you ready?Let’s dive in.Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)Meet Jon (03:06)People management in a family business (09:12)Dealing with internal conflict (11:54)Let’s talk about marketing (19:02)You need to know your numbers (27:47)Working with EOS (35:38)The importance of working on yourself (38:11)Jon’s life after work (43:42)Additional Resources:⚡ Save your seats for Accelerate LIVE! 2025: https://www.AccelerateEvent.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Profit Masters: https://www.TheProfitMasters.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!

EPISODE 227: As a home improvement business advances through various stages of growth, scaling operations is one of the hardest and SCARIEST things we go through as owners. There’s a LOT of risk and we don’t always know which steps to take next.As your business gets bigger, so do your operational needs—they also get more complex. And it’s up to you not only to scale it all, but to do so while making money. (Hopefully really good money all along the way.) The question I often hear is : “Where do I even start?”And to answer it, I’ve brought in an expert to this week’s episode of The Wealthy Contractor podcast, Megan Curry.Megan is an absolutely astounding business leader and operator who specializes in team development, company operations, and scaling businesses profitably. She is the COO of Revelare Home and the co-founder of The Profit Masters.In this episode, Megan and I will be discussing what she’s learned from looking at the finances  of hundreds of home improvement companies and the strategies you need to grow a home improvement business, whether you’re at $1mil/yr or $20mil/yr.We’ll also be touching on team development and how to optimize your workforce, shifting from a focus on sales and marketing to concentrating on what impacts profitability, why you should plan your operational needs from a perspective of profitability BEFORE you grow, what percentage of your budget to spend in which areas, and much more.Whether you’ve just started or you’re a seasoned contractor, I’m sure you’ll gain some great insights from this episode.Tune in now.P.S: Megan will also be a speaker at our big annual event, Accelerate LIVE! 2025, so make sure to get your tickets now before they sell out to hear more from her and other top industry experts. Learn more in the additional resources below.Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)Meet Megan (02:07)Profitability and growth (12:39)Let’s talk about Profit Masters (22:42)Accelerate LIVE! is coming soon (35:10)Additional Resources:⚡ Save your seats for Accelerate LIVE! 2025: https://www.AccelerateEvent.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Profit Masters: https://www.TheProfitMasters.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!

EPISODE 226: In the last episode, you listened to part 1 of my presentation on how to break free from the grind, make your business work for your life, and achieve financial freedom. I discussed what it means to be a dreamer, and how to turn your dreams into practical plans for your business. In this episode, I dive even deeper. In it, I’ll be breaking down why you need to prioritize profit over revenue, what “financial freedom” actually means, and how to leverage people and processes for scalability.I’ll also be discussing how to reverse engineer your success, the huge role personal growth plays in the success of your business, and the one question you’ll ask right away that’s going to ruin your big financial goals.Listen in and learn everything you need to know to build the business that’ll get you the life of your dreams.Tune in now!P.S: This is part 2 of my presentation, so make sure to tune in to episode 225 to catch part 1.Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)It’s time to start believing in outcomes (02:26)Revenue vs profitability (07:09)How to delegate efficiently (19:07)How personal growth drives business scaling (33:49)Additional Resources:⚡ Save your seats for Accelerate LIVE! 2025: https://www.AccelerateEvent.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!

EPISODE 225: You’re hard-working. You’ve put a lot on the line for your business. But like so many in your situation, your business takes more and more of your time and freedom away from you. You end up SERVING your business.I’m going to tell you hands down: Your business should be serving YOU. Instead of a job that drains your time and energy, it should be a tool that funds your dream life.This is why, in this week’s episode of The Wealthy Contractor, I’m sharing with you what it takes to build a business that serves you, your family, and an incredible life you’ve only dreamed about.I’ll be breaking down a step-by-step system and tools to achieve clarity, profitability, and freedom as an entrepreneur. Let’s dive in.P.S: This is only part 1, so make sure to tune in to the next episode to catch part 2 where I share even more advice on how to build the right business for you.Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)Why your business should serve your life (11:44)Dream, plan, execute (15:14)Success starts with clarity (27:01)Additional Resources:⚡ Save your seats for Accelerate LIVE! 2025: https://www.AccelerateEvent.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!

EPISODE 224: To grow a truly successful home improvement business, you don’t just need to sell more or deliver quality work, you also need to make sure your sales and production aren’t misaligned.After all, it is this alignment that creates the foundation for a thriving business: predictable growth and profitability without all the headaches.How can you achieve this?To answer this question, I’ve invited an expert on this week’s episode of The Wealthy Contractor podcast, Chris Hermes, the founder of USA Showers, a bath remodeling company based in Arizona. Chris learned the ropes from industry leader (and my dear friend) Brian Gottlieb, applying lessons on KPI management and the importance of cash flow in handling the “back end” of the business while scaling profitably. With a disciplined approach to alignment between sales and production, and a personal commitment to self-development, Chris is now on a mission to double his own business’ revenue in the coming year.In this episode, Chris and I will be discussing his personal development journey, the story of how he went from running sales to being thrown into running a $25 million backend, how he scaled his brand new USA Showers to $6M in revenue in less than a year, why you should trick yourself into thinking you’re better than you are, and so much more.Chris’s journey to his own multimillion dollar bath remodeling business is truly inspiring, and I can’t wait for you to learn more about it.Are you ready?Let’s dive in!P.S: Chris will also be a speaker at our big annual event, Accelerate LIVE! 2025, so make sure to get your tickets now before seats sell out to hear more from him and other top industry experts. Check the additional resources below for more info.Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00)Meet Chris (03:11)Let’s talk about discipline (10:23)Forecasting the future of your business (15:09)Trick yourself into thinking you’re better than you are (17:49)The million-dollar blueprint (23:17)One final question (30:11)Additional Resources:⚡ Save your seats for Accelerate LIVE! 2025: https://www.AccelerateEvent.com/ ⚡ Learn more about The Wealthy Contractor Success Society: https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/SuccessSociety⚡ Brian’s book, The 7 Secrets To Becoming A Wealthy Contractor, is now available. Visit https://www.TheWealthyContractor.com/ for a free copy (just pay shipping).⚡ Follow us on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWealthyContractorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheWealthyContractor/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TheWealthyContractor/--The Wealthy Contractor is a podcast for home improvement professionals who want to grow their business, work less, and make more money. Follow us for more!