I'm sorry that I am only now seeing this thread. But I hope you at least went to Waco and checked them out for yourself. If you didn't at least check them out, you might kick yourself later. Please note that I didn't say you should join. I just said you should check them out.
As for the idea that Mr. Electric operators are way over-priced, I would take those comments with a grain of salt. There are way too many "slugs" in the industry and on these boards. They have no clue how to run a business and think they are really cleaning up when they aren't. If you do only service work and you have employees doing that service work; you'll eventually find out just how expensive it is to offer service work to your customers. The alternative to to pay your guys crap and for them to do crap work, which is way too common.
As for the Mr. Electric system, it has some good points and some bad points. Do I think you get enough good points to offset the fees, no. There are much better options than giving all of your money to the big boys in Waco. I think they learned too much from Ms. Reno when she visited that fine city some time back.
After trying to "make money" providing service work on our own, we joined a group called the Nexstar Network in 2006. Their coaches really helped to wake us up to the true cost of providing quality service work to customers.
Also note that if you aren't willing to cut corners, you'll cost more than others period.
I did a few estimates behind Mr. Electric before he had to close down. No, I wasn't cheaper. In fact I was triple on one. But then again I was running five new circuits to the basement for all of the stuff he said he wanted to run rather than just hook up to the two existing circuits that were there. But I digress.
I do think you need to take a long and hard look at joining a best practices group. Before you make any decision, call Nexstar at 888-609-5490 and ask to speak to Lisa McNeil or Rich Piepenburg. You may use my name (Matt Hermanson) when you call them and you may ask them for my phone number as well. I'll tell you what I like and what I don't like.
The cracks about paying $5,000 for a van wrap job are yet another example of folks that don't really have a clue. We have not taken the truck wrap plunge yet. You'll pay less than $5K if you're having several trucks done. Most of the Nexstar members that have done the wraps can track way more business to having the wraps than the wraps cost. That is counting profit, not gross billings. And they know because they ask how/why the customer got their phone numbers, etc. And then they track all of that so they can tell you how much business is coming from where. The wraps are coming for us, we just want to use our budget for some other things first. Nexstar really preaches tracking things. If you can't track it, you can't manage it.
Do I think Nexstar is the end all. NO.
But give them a serious look. Yes, you'll write a BIG check to join, but that's life. You can also go to their web site
www.nexstarnetwork.com and look for members in your area. Call them up and ask them what they like and what they don't like about Nexstar.
If you don't like my tone, take a number. There are plenty of members in Nexstar that don't like my tone either. Oh well, get a life.
But even if you were to join Nexstar or something like them, don't stop there. We also try to learn from many others. Go to Hudson Ink, Contractor Selling, Ellen Rohr and many others.
Be a student, not a slug.
Belated wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.
Matthew Hermanson
