Your first job as a founder is not to look successful. It is to make the business work. Sell something people genuinely need. Charge enough to deliver it well. Keep your expenses lower than your income. Protect your cash. Learn what produces profit and repeat it. Document anything you do more than twice. Hire when the work is proven and teachable. Pay attention to customers, but do not let every opinion change your direction. Build the business so it becomes less dependent on you each year. Revenue gives the business movement. Profit gives it strength. Systems give it freedom. Integrity gives it longevity.

how do you deal with customers that want to know part numbers so they can match it with their research, when you are marking it up.

The day rate, or daily revenue target, is your anchor. It is the north star that guides every scheduling decision, routing decision, and service opportunity throughout the day. The blended mix of diagnostics, completed repairs, and add-on sales must collectively equal that target. If you consistently hit the target daily, the monthly results will take care of themselves. While individual metrics such as diagnostics, repair conversions, and add-on sales are important to track, they are not the ultimate objective. Their purpose is to support the daily revenue goal. Some calls will produce lower revenue, while others will generate significantly more. The key is maintaining the right balance across the schedule so the total outcome of the day reaches the target. In the end, the day rate is the goal, and every individual call is simply a step toward achieving it.

"Success isn't built by chance. It's built through vision, consistency, and a commitment to serving others at the highest level." - Appliance Business Academy 🔹 "A customer may buy an appliance once, but they'll buy trust for a lifetime." Think about it; every customer interaction is an opportunity to design an experience so exceptional that people can't help but tell others about it. 🔹 "Every callback, complaint, or compliment is the direct result of a system, your current system, improve the system and you improve the outcome. Iteration is key." 🔹 The most successful appliance businesses don't chase transactions. They create processes that deliver predictable excellence, day after day. They seek transformation and better outcomes for thei customers. The better the experience for the customer, the more emotion is attached to their memory of it. This means your customers will remember you more for a better experience and will continue to call you in the future when appliance related issues arise. 🔹 "Serve the customer beyond the sale, and the sale will continue to serve you." This is important. When we focus on solving problems, educating customers, and exceeding expectations, revenue becomes a byproduct of value. The businesses that struggle often operate from scarcity without knowing it; guarding opportunities, fearing competition, and focusing on what they might lose. The businesses that thrive operate from abundance; sharing knowledge, building partnerships, helping customers make the best decisions, and believing there is more than enough opportunity for everyone. Having an abundance mindset creates the playing field for miracles to happen. 🔹 Abundance is understanding that referrals don't reduce your opportunities, they multiply them. Training your team doesn't diminish your value, it increases your impact. Helping a customer, even when there's no immediate sale, plants seeds that often return tenfold. 🔹 In the appliance industry, abundance means delivering more value than expected, creating relationships instead of transactions, and viewing every interaction as an opportunity to improve someone's life.

What is your biggest issue when it comes to knowing your numbers?