Andrew Sly shares his Electrical Story - Braking his back, A FREE TRIP to Hong Kong and finding that good employee! Part 2

Transcript

Auto-generated from the audio (3,767 words). Names, numbers and the odd Aussie-ism may be off — check the audio before quoting.

Hey guys, James Rust here from Marketing Secrets for Electricians and today this is a continuation from the last episode so if you haven't seen that or listened to that I would suggest going back and having a listen before this one. Other than that enjoy the episode as we continue investigating and talking with Andrew Slimes. So here's what I hear a lot. How do normal electricians like us who are properly trained and licensed who are not willing to cheat and take shortcuts and who are wanting to own a successful electrical business. How do we compete against the big guys who own the market share or the guys that charge peanuts for an electrical job.

On top of that we want to employ the best electricians so we can get off the tools and have plenty of time for other areas of life. That's the question. Join me and follow along as we search for the answers. My name is James Rest and welcome to Marketing Secrets for Electricians. their friend needs electricians.

They'll recommend seeing that numerous times. Exactly. Exactly. And that happens a lot. And it's just the easy thing.

Like it's there's nothing hard about giving someone a little bit of time having a bit of a chat to them. Like those minutes even though they're not you know you may not be making how many of a dollars for those minutes. They will they will turn into dollars anyway. And that's I think a lot of a lot of contractors they focus on the short term like I just got to get that money and run for the next job and run. If you invest more time in the person you're in that will pay dividends at some point in the future especially if it's like it's like you're building the relationship or business is built on a relationship.

They can't build a relationship. All they've got to compare and the other thing all they got to compare with you is the price. If you're like a hundred dollars an hour and someone's 20 they're like I don't know that guy but that guy is 20 dollars. They're just going to go for the cheaper one because they've got nothing to know. But if you've built the relationship I've won numerous jobs because I had a relationship even though I was more you know the expensive electrician.

They're like we like you. We feel you're going to do a good job. We trust you versus the other guys like and they were seedy looking and I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No. But you're right. And that's exactly what we are. We're not we're definitely not cheap.

We're not the cheapest but we're not the cheapest for a very good reason because we make sure we do a very good job. Totally. We need to be valuable. Yes. You pay for what it's worth.

We do get. That's right. We do get some people ask us to quote jobs and they say oh sorry I didn't think it was going to be that expensive. Like not everyone you know not everyone is the same. Obviously you know that one person might think that's too expensive where other people might see the real value in the service we provide and say it's worth it because that Andrew and the team we want these guys to do our job.

And this is what I find in marketing like if part of building the relationship and what a lot of electricians don't do is build a story. So you buy you sharing your story about your business about you about the relationship you have your building value. So you have more that you actually have more tangible value or perceived value to the customer versus someone who they haven't met. And you know what I mean. So it's like this different sharing our story communicating with the customer either online or in person.

We're like building that value and you're connecting with them and they're going to get more value and they're going to feel more valuable and they're going to feel like trustworthy and all these good things from just talking. You're giving it to them and they're moving on to the next electric. They can literally go 10 electricians. OK. Give me a price.

Yeah. But you know I read that message. How much for a lot. How long is the piece of string. You know you need to find out a bit more about this lot the customer wants done because how much for a lot.

For example for example is the light in the shed which has no power. That's going to be different by changing a light bat Nova or whatever. So so what would you recommend instead of just giving them a price. Do you call them up. Do you have a conversation.

What do you kind of do to help. Yeah. Let's just say that that that particular situation if someone sends me a message whether it's a Facebook or text saying hi my name's you know my name's James of my friend gave me your number. I write back. I reply to that message and I say like hey James thanks for getting in touch with us.

When you when you like what what we're hoping to have done with the light like is it to be stored in a B or C. You know is it to replace an existing light or is it a new location. You're like open up the question. You open up that that that how much for a light with with a number of questions because you want to know more about what they want to do. So you're showing interest in this person that will be a price for a lot because you what you need to know more about it because you can't give a price unless you know more about it.

So if you ask questions against the client teasing a bit more like OK so it must be different if he's got to run a cable. So I mean that's a completely different job. Okay. He's got thinking about he's thinking ahead. Yeah.

And that's I guess that's the other thing customers don't realize how much work they be. They're like you know I want this. And to them it's like it's a simple thing but realistically it might be a bigger job for whatever reason and you don't know unless you have that conversation. So that's an even if you don't ask the questions. Yeah exactly.

You need to ask ask to find out more to build a relationship and to just help the customer more than the other day you're trying to help them. So you know and then and then agree upon OK. This is a fair price that we both agree upon once you've figured out exactly what they're actually asking for. Yeah exactly. Cool.

So what. So when running your business what's kind of your worst moment or a bad story or something you can share you like shit. I wish that didn't happen. I'll tell you what. I've got a really bad story.

But at the end of it to me this was my moment that that made my business absolutely do a 180 and start to go like this. Cool. It was a bit. So I've been really busy. This is probably early.

I would have been mid September last year. So 2019 in September. My brother's a musician. And he plays in a band. So he he he's in the States at the moment because his wife's from there.

So what what what happened was one weekend it was my brother's wedding. He's bucks night on the Friday and he's waiting on the Sunday because his wife now wife had to go home because she was pregnant with their second baby. And my brother he was we he's got his name was to follow. Follow her. And he's you know less than one year old son.

You know move over there. But yeah. So there was that weekend. So it was a pretty big weekend. But I was buggered from a really big few weeks at work.

That was a really tiring way again because there was a there was a Friday night you know bucks do. And then Sunday there was a wedding. So you know. Next week straight back into running my business. And I was really busy before all of this.

This is leading up to something. But before this going back a while I want to double pass to the master electrician's conference in Hong Kong. I just replied to an email why I'd like to join them. And yeah I want and I was so. So that was that was booked for last week.

It was actually the week that led up to grand final day AFL grand final day. So yeah I was I was sort of meant to be leaving Hong Kong on early early on the Monday morning. And I gave the second pass to a guy that I'm a mate with from Brisbane Mick McCullough. She's a good bloke. Anyway my brother's in a band.

So it was a weekend after the wedding. And I knew it was going to be the band's last live performance at a local pub. And I thought you know I'm going. I'm I'm absolutely knackered. I don't feel like drinking.

Not a big drinker anyway. I'll just drive in. I'll watch the band play. I'll go home when they're finished. You know I'll be home before midnight.

Anyway all of the bands following you know they're all kind of mates and stuff. They were all really drunk and they were kicking around this huge inflatable donut. And it started off as a bit of foam like it was just getting bounced around like a beach ball. Then it got a little bit out of hand started getting kicked around and flung around and it was hitting people in the head and knocking them over onto the floor. It was breaking glasses knocking tables over.

that donut from the situation and sort of you know let's watch the band. So I did that a few times. I hung it up over the stage off the rafters and things like that. And it came back a couple of times. And then I thought nah I'm going to pop it or it's just going to wreak havoc.

So what I did I leaned on it sort of trying to pop it and all of a sudden I lifted up and I was above people's heads half on the bone up like sideways. And then they've dropped me. I've gone over backwards. I've landed on kind of my hip side. I actually fractured a vertebrae.

My L3 vertebrae was fractured from top to back. So there's like the vertebrae the two little bits of your muscle comes off and attaches down to your hip. One of those little bits of bone was fractured right through from top to bottom. I knew something wasn't right when I stood up but I wasn't sort of like oh geez that hurts and yeah I just thought you know. Did you like something with that or just like you bruised yourself or something?

I just yeah I think I was in a bit of shock from the fall I guess and I knew something wasn't right when I stood up but I didn't you know obviously you know I was in pain but I sort of I hung around for a bit and people saw me fall you know. You know sitting down in a glass of water you know I hadn't touched the drop of alcohol at all. So then that was on a Saturday night. Someday I thought this is bad. I hardly got any sleep from the pain.

I went to see a doctor just down at the local where my regular doctor is but I couldn't get into see him. So it was basically you know do I go to hospital or not. That was my question. I said you know I'm in pain but like I don't really want to go to hospital because I don't want to be stuck there for you know no one hours waiting you know waiting room or whatever. But anyway yeah so I took the Monday off hoping to see my regular doctor or I couldn't get in.

So I just sort of you know did amazing calls trying to get some mates to run their own business. around the local area to give me a helping hand for the week or at least that day of just whatever they could do. I couldn't get anyone because everyone was pretty busy. So I had to shuffle some things and then the Tuesday afternoon was when I could go and see my doctor and then he you know so basically Tuesday morning I was in a roof after I'd fractured my lower back on the Saturday night and I was screaming in that roof in pain. But I just had to do it because no I couldn't get anyone to do the work for me.

And I thought God this is this is this is rough. So yeah I went and got a scan on the Wednesday morning went back to work sort of after the scan and just did a few little things and I'd gotten rid of a few bigger jobs. I'll have to reschedule with you sorry. I was doing a switchboard upgrade and the lovely old couple that were there sort of you know I told them that I'd heard myself and I'm waiting to hear what what I've done to my back. And he's me thinking I might have done some ligament dangers or pulled some muscle or whatever.

Yeah my doctor called me while I was halfway through that switchboard upgrade asking how my pain was. And that's when he told me you've got a big crack. down one side of your vertebrae. And I said okay yeah I'll finish this switchboard and go home. I had to like a little old light to replace inside and I said look I've just been told by my doctor I've actually got a fracture in my spine.

So I've got to go. That kind of hit home. I saw the scan it was pretty bad. And I thought well God I'm going to Hong Kong on Monday. And that's exactly what I did.

I got on a plane to Hong Kong on the Monday. I left home at 2 a.m. to go to the airport and I jumped on the plane. And I flew to Hong Kong a week after I've fractured my lower vertebrae in my lower back. And yeah we're trying to pass the people there.

got a broken back and you still came. And I'm like yeah I want to trip here. I'm not given that off. I can still walk. It just hurts a little bit.

In a way that's probably one of the worst things. It's one of the worst injuries I've ever had. And probably what followed when I got back from Hong Kong was probably one of the worst things that has ever happened to me. So that was just leading up to the worst thing. That's just the leader.

The broken back is probably the cause of the bad, the rest of the bad. I mean that was a pretty rough thing to happen. And I guess it kind of proved to me that I could push through because if I was employed and I broke my back I wouldn't have worked for probably six months. But I didn't have a choice. I had work to be done.

I had a family defect. It was me and my work experience kids that I was already kind of hoping to put on as an apprentice. So yeah I was sort of lucky when I got back from Hong Kong. He was on school holidays so he could help me out a bit. And I lied on my load with jobs.

But yeah anyway I went straight back to work when I got home. Like I got back to Melbourne on the Sunday morning. Pretty much yeah. I mean I was given painkillers and that sort of thing. And I had to have him because of how much pain I was in obviously.

But yeah I was looked after by an awesome bunch of people in that master electrician Australia family. From right up the top to everyone there. Great bunch of people and it was awesome to get to know all of them over there. And it kind of proved that there's lots of good people out there. Not that I didn't have faith in that already.

But yeah so I basically pushed through for that. I pushed through for the work. I pushed through for my business. But I pushed a little bit too hard. And then it was probably maybe a few weeks after I got home from Hong Kong.

And I realized how run down I was. And one day I just cracked. It was a Friday afternoon. And I just realized how slow I was. How tired I was.

You know how much pain I was in. Because I didn't want to take painkillers and go to work. Because we need to be thinking. I can't drive on painkillers and I can't do electrical work on painkillers. So no painkillers.

I'm just going to work. But yeah it kind of hit home. Like this is horrible. I just felt broken. Like I kind of think it was a mini breakdown if you like.

I don't know if you'd call it that. But I kind of was you know. I was just absolutely stretched beyond repair. And yeah I already started to get the ball rolling with hiring an A grade. So I think I put the ad out.

It would have been the week I got back or the week after I got back from Hong Kong because I thought nah look I need someone. I need an employee and I'm ready to do it. And I mean I wouldn't have made that decision without this incident. I probably would have kept. If I didn't break my back the way I said it I would have been.

I still would have been humming and hiring an employee at the time. I would have been working myself for baggage. I would have been trying to you know do everything. I probably would have put my apprentice on. And it would have been me and him.

And then you know I know eventually I would have employed someone. But I think this gave me the push I needed. And it let me step back. Step back a little bit. And let someone take the reins of the tools.

And I'm going to heal my back and heal my you know worn out mind. And I think from there that's where you know my business changed into a you know obviously I found the right employee. But yeah that it's just I find that that's the thing that caused me to make a positive change. in the business was something so negative like breaking your back. Oh definitely.

So I know it's a crazy story. And I sometimes go oh yeah when I broke my back and I think I broke my back. Like what? It's intense yeah. Like it still sounds nuts.

And I mean people have showed the scans too but you know when it happened we're like how are you still walking mate? Like it's a little decent fracture. I think I count my lucky stars. You know you're still here and I'm still young and fit. That's partly to your advantage like that you were young when you broke it out.

Otherwise you would be in shape. Yeah but I'm talking this was like nine months ago. Yeah but still like if you're like six you'd be like. Oh yeah that'd be dumb. Yeah.

Yeah no you're right. But I don't think a 60 year old would be in the sick of a bunch of junk. You never know. Some people never grow up. No no no.

I'll tell you what there's a few things that were said about that because I bet if I was drunk I either wouldn't have I wouldn't have tensed up when I fell. I probably wouldn't have even fallen. You'll never know. But yeah that's. You're more relaxed I guess.

So yeah. And that's where I've heard of people like you know getting hit by a car. But because they were so relaxed they just got up again. Yeah. Yeah.

I've heard that heaps like car accidents and things like that. You know the people driving that were drunk you know because they're all relaxed. Yeah. But then you know to say because the car accident the other car you know that might be where someone gets hurt or injured. Exactly.

But I mean that that I guess probably was my that that's where my you know a half moment came after all of this was. That's the silver lining you know. You know how they say the silver lining of the like a bad thing. That's definitely a silver lining. Oh yeah.

A you survived. B you found an employee. Yeah. And C I still managed to probably the one that I've won in my life was trip to Hong Kong. Yeah.

Really good for my business. Yeah. So so the actual trip to Hong Kong actually helped your business too. Do you want more customers for your electrical business. Do you not want to spend a huge amount of money on ads.

If you answered yes to both of those questions I've got great news for you. I want to create a growth hacking system for your business. This simple strategy can be used to grow your business very quickly on a shoestring budget bringing you lots and lots of new customers. If this is something you would like to partake in you can visit marketing electrician dot com. Click on the giveaway button and to your details in and I will talk to you soon.