It's Just Business

96. Moving Forward - Dealing with Struggles and Successes

September 21, 2022 Dana Dowdell and Russ Harlow Episode 96
It's Just Business
96. Moving Forward - Dealing with Struggles and Successes
Show Notes Transcript

Why do quarterly planning? How do I adjust to business struggles? Dana and Russ discuss their business challenges over the last six months, successes they've experienced, and what they're planning for the fourth quarter of the year. Every business struggles, you are not alone!

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You can find Dana @adashofboss, @dana.dowdell and @hrfanatic
Dana DowdellBoss Consulting – HR Consulting
Google -  https://tinyurl.com/y4wxnavx

You can find Russ @reliable.remediation
Russ HarlowReliable Remediation – Disaster Restoration
Google: https://g.page/r/CXogeisZHEjMEBA

Dana Dowdell  00:06

Hey Russ,


Russ Harlow  00:07

Dana, how are you? 


Dana Dowdell  00:09

I am so good. How are you?


Russ Harlow  00:11

Really good. But I mean, really? How are you? How's business? How are things going?


Dana Dowdell  00:17

This is Russ & I's new segment, we're gonna be doing quarterly business check ins, where we talk a lot about what we're experiencing in business. So this is your first official one. We've talked about things a little bit in prior episodes, and obviously, as we've talked to other guests, but we're gonna do it with a little bit more intentionality, and do these quarterly. How do you feel about that? Yes,


Russ Harlow  00:44

I think it adds a lot of value, because I think a lot of people are going through the things that we're going through. And by talking about it, and knowing that one, they're not alone or two, they might get an idea. You know, whether it's from like, the coaching experience that I've been going through with Christine for the last year, and how much that's helped me grow, or some of the things she's made me do with my books and check on my numbers, etc. You know, it'd be a good jumping off point for people, I think.


Dana Dowdell  01:12

Yeah. And I feel like we also, both have had a pretty big amount of change in our business over the last year, let's say, You leaving the franchise, maybe doing some staffing changes. So this will be a nice little check in. 


Russ Harlow  01:31

Agree. 


Dana Dowdell  01:32

How are you feeling about your business Russ well?


Russ Harlow  01:37

You know, it's still hard. It's always hard, right? Whether we had been in the franchise or not, we had, you know, a tough second quarter. And then in the middle of that, I left the franchise and started 


Dana Dowdell  01:51

What timing. 


Russ Harlow  01:53

It was perfect, right. But I realized that the franchise website, after I started my own, I had my own website up and running. And when I saw the numbers that we were starting to generate and the amount of traffic and then how that turned into business, I realized that a franchise website was not serving me as well as it could have been, how's that for diplomatic. And so I've seen that grow, and we've continued to build on it. And that's how, you know, we talked about, you know, online marketing and search engine optimization, and all the things you have to continue to do and build on. So I'm excited. You know, we have seasonal downturns at the end of summer, and, you know, Labor Day and people going back to school, so usually slows down this time of year. But boom, this week, my phone blew up Wednesday and Thursday. And I've got, you know, I've had 12 to 15 estimates in that period of three to four days, I'm doing some on Saturday, I've got like seven Autobahn day. So it's a good feeling. It turned into business and revenue. But I'm seeing the hard work pay off, right from I used to do on social media on Facebook, for example, I used to do three posts a week, you know, every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, then my coach Christine's like, listen, from what I understand the algorithm algorithm rewards you when you post at least daily. And she's like, even though weekends. So that just means more work for me. So I started kind of finding ways to reuse posts from a few weeks ago changed the creative change of photo and to non posting. And I've been doing that for several months now I've seen a lot more traffic I've got my followers are up 20% different little strategies like that. And then we're driving traffic to the website from there, which of course, has an effect on, you know, where you show up in search, because Google recognizes you as a popular website. And all of a sudden, were showing up more. Were showing up and we had the greatest success. Like I asked the customer, Hey, how'd you hear about us? She goes, Oh, I looked you up and found you on Google. And I go anything else stand out? And she goes, you know, actually something did? And she goes, You know how sometimes when you type something in and Google goes, Did you really mean this? You know, it gives you a little suggestion. And you know how there have been questions. She said it was there and I said how much is mold remediation? And I clicked on it and it took me to your website. And I was like, Oh, yes, we've been working on that for months. And now a word you know, driving traffic I literally called my website marketing person like that, like within five minutes, and I was like, you gotta hear this. This is the best thing ever. And I know for some of you are like, wow, I wish that could happen and others of you are probably you're like, Well yeah, we do that all the time. But either way, if you put in that work, and it makes a big difference


Dana Dowdell  04:58

that's a really Cool, like, human touch point of a win, you know, the things that we talk about all the time and like your strategy when it comes to your marketing. And I know that you've, I feel like every time you and I talk, it's, I'm working on content, I'm working on content, I'm working on content. And so it must have been a piece of that content that brought her to your website.


Russ Harlow  05:23

Yeah, I mean, a lot of different things go into it, there's so many factors, it's like spokes of a wheel, right? Trying to do video content, and then reuse it a lot. So I'm trying to build up my YouTube page, and then use that video on social media on LinkedIn, and Facebook, and Instagram and Tiktok. And, but by using it for all of those places, you can, you know, reduce the amount of work that you're trying to put in instead of trying to make one video for all of those places. But it's helping to drive traffic, it's helping to drive business. And the best part about it is I have the influence. It's not like I'm relying on a franchisors website that I can't change, I can say, hey, this isn't working and talk to my marketing person. And we can brainstorm, go, Alright, let's do this, this and this. And it makes a big difference. So I am feeling good about business.


Dana Dowdell  06:21

Do you feel a sense of relief in a way?


Russ Harlow  06:25

Uh, you know, I'll be honest, like, we've been treading water at a certain revenue level for five years now. And it's still scary. Like, I still think, am I up to the task? And, you know, that's, that's just been me being transparent. It really is still there scary? Because if I don't know if I'm up to it, I'm trying to be. But there is a percentage of fear still there going? What if, what if I don't make it? What if I get busy and can't handle it? What if I get busy and can't find the help that I need to continue to build a business? What if I become the bottleneck and become the source of failure for my business? I got to, you know, right now, it's my family. But if I bring on, you know, other employees, it's their families, and you know, you have a responsibility, and I take it really seriously. So starting to work on systems and processes, so that I can hand things over and delegate as it becomes necessary. But yeah, there's still a little bit of fear. I mean, I am happy because I'd like to make some more money. So there's that.


Dana Dowdell  07:47

Well, that's good.


Russ Harlow  07:50

Well, you know, honestly, with this year with inflation and everything else, you know, I told the story of BNI. The other day, you know, the beginning of the year, I was paying the mortgage and all the bills at the end of the month and realized we were out of money. I had to start a couple of months in a row. And I had to have a little talk with my wife, I said, Hey, Jennifer, what's going on? She's like, I don't know, I'm not bad, and all the same stuff. But foods, more expensive foods up 20 to 30%, fuels up at that point was up, you know, 200%. And you know, we're not doing anything differently. And we had to start having talks about, well, we've got to make a few changes. I gave myself a little bit of a raise, just so we can meet the difference. We're talking, you know, several $100 over a month, but it's not because my business could afford it. It's because I had to pay my mortgage.


Dana Dowdell  08:38

So hard.


Russ Harlow  08:40

It really is hard. And I know I'm not alone. I when I told that story of BNI I saw every single head nodding up and down going yep, I totally get it. And so I know there are people listening to this podcast right now going, oh, man, I remember. Yeah, it's still hard. Yeah, it is. You know, I got my electric bill the other day, and it was like, holy smokes, I can't believe it. So I mean, this is why we do it. Right. And we want to continue to grow, I need to get out of the business. I need to continue to do these things so that we can you know, build the company that I believe we were meant to build. And so I need to continue to you know, make those things happen. What about you what's been kind of going on? What's new and exciting? What's scary.


Dana Dowdell  09:29

I mean, every day is scary. And I it will forever be scary. Unless I become like, totally out of touch with experiences. It will always feel scary. But I think you know, I'm definitely an A, there's been a lot of change. It's a feel like I've added a lot to my plate that's really fantastic and important like hiring a business coach, adding some subcontractors is starting to get profit for us are certified, like all of those things are in the long run, I know really great ideas. But right now they feel mildly overwhelming, which is challenging. Um, and so I've had all of those ads, and then some, you know, if you've listened to a couple episodes, you know that I, I laid someone off. And so that's been like a month and a half transition of looking at the finances and seeing what the impact on that is. While doing that change of not having someone else on payroll, my S corp application got approved. So I am, like, that's another change in terms of how I operate of like, I'm doing profit first, but then I am also an S corp. So how do I make sure that I'm, you know, not only making payroll for my employee, but also now making payroll for myself? So it's definitely, you know, the constant state of overwhelm that I'm used to feeling still exists. And truthfully, I think I'm getting tired of it.


Russ Harlow  11:22

I get it, I get it.


Dana Dowdell  11:24

But, you know, I, so something I just started doing, or I just kind of rolled out internally is that thing, my business has just grown really organically like it's never I did a business plan, like once ever, possibly, you know, so like, I don't have there's never been a, you know, list of ideal clients, or, here's, you know, what area of the business we want to intentionally grow. I kind of set really soft revenue goals every year, but they're not based on anything other than what it what I feel like I want the business to make, you know,


Russ Harlow  12:12

that's probably not healthy. Probably no.


Dana Dowdell  12:16

But I think so, I think I realized, like, I guess the business is successful, right? It feels successful. But I have kind of been running it like a fucking hobby, in a way. And I realized how great my fucking employee is, oh, my God, she's amazing. My, I have a virtual assistant, a copywriter and a social media contractor now that I'm working with, and they're all just three amazing women that I feel just do a really fantastic job representing the business. And so I started implementing it, we started our first strategy meeting, where it's me and ally, who's my consultant, and then the three contractors to, to kind of, like, start actually treating the business like a business and seeing where there can be opportunities for collaboration amongst them. And having them kind of bring some own their own ideas to the business. So that was a big value add, if you will, and I feel really excited about where that's headed. But then it at the same time, it's also really overwhelming, like you have an hour long meeting with all these amazing, brilliant brains, and you walk out of there with 14 More ideas and a slightly longer to do list.


Russ Harlow  13:55

Think that's, you got to be fair to yourself, because and I don't think you're just being humble. I know you. You're, you feel inadequate, sometimes and and you're a great I think leader, you were the president of BNI for a while i You're still my favorite president. By far i loved working with you or you know, as you know, on your leadership team. So, you know, give yourself a little bit of whatever it takes a boost of confidence or something because I am sure these people are fantastic, but at the same time, you're pretty, pretty awesome yourself.


Dana Dowdell  14:34

It's so funny I, at the very end of our call I and I'll probably get emotional saying this but like, Ali, you know, we're basically signing off for Ali, who's my consultant. She's like, I know you just like I'm sure you're feeling overwhelmed. But she's like, think about five years ago and you started this business. You didn't ever think you would be doing what you were doing now. And So she's like five years from now, when you're trying to manage your international travel schedule. Think about this conversation and like, it's, it's just to have people that are on your, your page is, is really nice. But yeah, I think it's definitely I want to start looking at my business more as a business, and particularly around the client experience. I have always viewed how I treat our clients as my competitive advantage, and that we are very much integrated into the business. And I think in a way that has made it hard to have a really structured onboarding process and an appropriate exit strategy when a client isn't working out, if that makes sense.


Russ Harlow  16:02

Absolutely. I'm curious, has that come out of working with your business coach, or just something that you've decided to focus in on because I'm curious about your experience with your coach, too?


Dana Dowdell  16:17

I think it's a combination of both, you know, I'm, I regularly feel and worry that I do not charge enough. And when then I and then I start having these conversations about that, and I hate I hate it right, I hate that I'm not charging, what I know we are worth in an organization. But then I start to feel the anxiety and the doubt of increasing those prices. Because, you know, because I love my clients so much, you know, or something like that. So it's I think it's kind of like I'm hypothetically slapping myself in the face being like, Get with it, Dana Get with it. You have to put your oxygen mask on first before you can do it for anybody else. And, and I think, you know, it's funny, I used to do business and think that my clients are gonna fire me at every single moment like I, I really struggled feeling. Feeling like what we offered is valuable. Because HR is just a really challenging thing to get people excited about, you know what I mean? It's not a revenue generator, it's not like I can tell them that hiring me will save them 20% of their expenses. It's hard, right? So I've always kind of felt like, not just not, not It's not proud, but like not, I don't know, I just always thought we weren't doing a good job. And that has entirely changed. And like, I fucking know with 100% certainty that we do a really good job. And what is the best part about hiring us as your Human Resources consultant is that you're we're integrated into your business. So when we start having a conversation about hiring someone, it's based on business need business decision, versus just, you know, some textbook HR philosophies, and so that that feeling has changed, or I'm more confident in my business, but I think I need to get more confident about how I'm running the business as a business.


Russ Harlow  18:37

I don't want to get too far off on a tangent. But it made me think as you were talking, like, there's got to be statistics to show. You know, what turnover costs companies, what lawsuits costs companies, what happy employees versus, you know, but below average, happy employees, you know, on productivity and everything else. So I would think that there's that you could have a cut sheet, right here, hey, having a good department does save you 14%, or whatever, you know what I mean?


Dana Dowdell  19:11

Yeah, that's something my business coach was, that's a recommendation from her as well. She's like, create a white paper about what's the potential cost of not having human resources. And I was like, Oh, my, you know, oh, my God, that's, that's great idea. And then I was like, fuck, and I have no bandwidth to write that. So I had my copywriter write it and she did a really good job. And, yeah, she did a really good job. But we, you know, there's a resource of like, what, why having human resources on your team is important and what the potential bad outcome could be. So yeah, it's just it's a lot of transition right now and it feels A little bit, like, just too much going on to be quite honest, though, again, it feels scary. I'm curious


Russ Harlow  20:09

too, if there's, you can focus, you can show some negative sides. But you can show positive sides too, because I think people learn differently. You can scare them and going, Oh, if I don't have this, then this might, it might be what it costs me. Or you do have this, and this is what it's saving you because of a, b, and c happy employees, no, you know, more higher productivity. You can even have them side by side in the same white paper, I would think,


Dana Dowdell  20:36

yeah, yeah, it's, you know, I'm starting to, I'm going to start looking at my website, too, you know, seeing taking that more seriously, because I haven't really put much time, energy or thought into, you know, the back end. But we have, you know, it feels like we came out of that meeting with some big goals of what we want the business to do and be and so more change to come just generally overwhelming.


Russ Harlow  21:07

And as you were talking, I was thinking back, you were talking about pricing. And I was like, this goes back to our very first conversation. You know, before we started the podcast, and I had a similar kind of conversation with my coach recently, because six weeks ago, before we were gonna meet again, she's like, this is what I want you to do, I want you to sit down and figure out what your breakeven number is. And being in the accounting bookkeeping sphere, she was kind of pushy, that you should know these things, I knew about what it was, I knew, like, Hey, we're aiming for a certain number. And I knew that's kind of, and I added a little bit higher, because I know if I hit it, we're definitely gonna be okay. She's like, No, you need to know the actual number. So I went through, you know, five years of p&l Didn't average, you know, because, you know, we have ups and downs. So I wanted to have, you know, a 12 month average, and have a good idea what it is, generally speaking. So our next meeting, we, you know, talked about it and evaluated, it looked at all the other line items through payroll and marketing and things that were spending an overhead, et cetera, et cetera, to see how we can change that number to be more profitable. But I came out with, I think I need to raise prices again, because we're inflation is, I mean, I do a lot of driving, I'm gonna do 150 miles on Monday with all my estimates, you know, as a tank of gas.


Dana Dowdell  22:36

Have you ever raised your pricing from?


Russ Harlow  22:39

Oh, yeah. So when we changed CRMs with the brand last year, I made a 10% increase, when we were changing my price book over to the new CRM, I'm like, this is a good time to up prices, because I hadn't done it in three years. At that point, I had adjusted pricing based on jobs, and said, Oh, this is gonna be a little bit more expensive. So I just kind of added some money on but instead of being more kind of individually specific I was, now I'm making global changes. So I made a 10% increase there. And I said, I was thinking about doing that again, because I haven't done it in a year now. She said, Oh, yeah, you're way behind, you should probably think about doing it at 15%. Because of the changes that have happened this year. I mean, it's just plain as day and it's cut and dry. And it's not your fault. And it's okay. You have to stay profitable profits, not a four letter word. Okay, it really it's not, it's, it's how your business runs. You know, everybody thinks it's about greed. It's not about greed. If you can't make money, you can't stay open. And if you provide a service, or a product that your community or your clients really need, you have to be profitable so that you can deliver it if they deserve it. If they need that, then it's your responsibility to make sure your pricing keeps you profitable so you can stay in business. There's just no no two ways around that.


Dana Dowdell  24:10

Oh, Russ


Russ Harlow  24:15

I've been listening to some other podcasts I've been listening to, I mean, industry specific and some other businesses and that's just it comes through as you have to be profitable. It's not about greed. You have to make money if you read the E Myth revisited. You know, talking about a woman who's running a bakery, and she's just in the job and just stuck in the business and not treating it treating it more like a hobby or a job than a business and just spinning her wheels. You know, you have to get profitable you have to bring in great people. You have to you know, people didn't want to lose this bakery. It was the best one around, but she was killing herself to keep it open. So and she's, you know, shutting off the lights and sweeping the floors 1030 at night so she can be in at three o'clock. in the morning, and I know it's just a story, but at the same time, it hits home.


Dana Dowdell  25:06

And that has to be a common experience for a lot of business owners, right? Like you work, I experienced that. Like I work until 10 o'clock at night sometimes because I have to.


Russ Harlow  25:21

Before we started recording, I told you I had worked all day had to finish up some things because of my Saturday was busy. And I worked till 10 o'clock last night putting together my social media for the week, because here we are on a Saturday morning recording. And I know I have estimates all morning. So I knew that I was going to have the time. And so instead of watching TV or you know, relaxing a little bit and having a beer on a Friday night, I worked and then passed out at


Dana Dowdell  25:44

10. Yeah, running it like a business running your business like a business.


Russ Harlow  25:50

Yeah, that's okay. And being profitable. That's the big thing. Right? So I went through, I pulled out my price book, and I you know, just use Excel. All right, this is what a 15% increase looks like, you know, rounded off some some, some even numbers or whatever. And let's move from there. So that's going to be implemented Dr. October 1, so I can make all the changes in all my templates for proposals and estimates. I mean, sorry, not sorry, I'm gonna have to stay in business. You know, and I think sometimes people, people not unlike you need that permission almost, to say


Dana Dowdell  26:31

It's okay. Yeah, I don't know if I've. I don't know if I ever told the story about the attorney who changed my mind about pricing. And it was very interesting, because I think it's entirely ironic that I have an attorney's office calling me for HR advice. You know, I think that says something. But anyways, I had another one where it was, an attorney reached out to me, basically, with a quick question that maybe took me 1520 minutes of my time. And I had, I had gone back and forth around like, what, should I even build them for this? Like, is it even worth it? There's a part of me that feels really uncomfortable that if I don't have a conversation about price at the very beginning, that it is not fair for me to then send them a bill. And guess that I understand. Like I had I reached out to a tax attorney, because I wanted to make sure that I was doing things correctly. And not once did we talk about price and shame on me, because I should have asked and then I got his invoice. And I was like, oh, life. Um, so like, there's that general feeling that if I don't have that conversation, like, hey, I want you to know that I you know, I do bill, at least a quarter hour. And then I feel really guilty. But I was like, No, he reached out to me. I gave consulting advice. And he's in my BNI. So he went up stating, and very publicly, please bill me for that. But I think you're right, like, I, I need I seek approval still, right. I'm 33 years old, I have a, you know, a business that brings in almost $300,000 of revenue each year, like I still seek permission to like, do things which is saying it out loud, feels ridiculous.


Russ Harlow  28:35

And I think that it's okay. Like, like, there are certain things that you can give away for free if it's something that you do, right. There's another attorney in our group that deals with bankruptcy. And he says, you know, free consultation, the beginning so I can figure out what's going on, especially as a referral from this group. Another one, a financial advisor who's like, I don't know what I can do until I talk to you. So that first hour is on me. Oftentimes, we do free visual inspections and estimates for customers. And you it's usually the Gen X and above. And boomers that will be like, I'll come over I'll do the inspection. I'll talk to him office I will have spent 30 to 45, maybe 60 minutes an hour, you know, so you know, they're like, how much do I owe you? Like, if I was going to charge you, I would have told you look, it's 150 bucks to come out. And for my time that I'm going to give you a report and everything else. But I say no, it's okay. Because the stuff we do is expensive. I mean our average tickets you know, above three grand. So I mean, if there's work to be done, I just expected when it and that's all and I don't mind coming out and saying hey, you don't need us or hey, you can do this yourself or, you know, do this, this and this and then call me in six months. And some people are like, well, I don't know and for those people who really want to pay me You know what I say? If it means that much to you, you could give me 20 bucks for lunch? That, you know, again, I brought my lunch. So how about a great review because of your experience that we were able to provide? And I tell you out of the, you know, probably 105 star reviews between Google and Facebook, I'd say 10% of them are people that I actually never performed, performed work for. They were customers who were just happy that we came out and help them with a situation.


Dana Dowdell  30:30

Have you ever looked at how many, what your conversion rate is of the visual inspections to paying clients?


Russ Harlow  30:40

Yes, well, yes, when I had a CRM with the brand, I, it was all in a database, we were using Salesforce at the time, and there were a lot of it was easy to track. So that's one of the things I'm working on now. Because I'm not within a CRM that has those tools. And that's something that Christine was on me about, too. Because Wait, what's your closing rate, what's your all these different things, we have to know these things so that we can build that funnel the right way. So because I don't have the right tools in place, I don't know those numbers anymore. I know what they used to be, you know, before six months ago, you know, our closing rate was about 60%, you know, on, you know, good leads, which is fair, given our pricing, you know, anything lower than that, and I'm probably pricing too high and significantly higher than that 80% Plus, by pricing is probably too low. Because you get way too much business. And that's a good way to think about it. It's not personal, right? You just kind of figure out, this is the closing rate we need in order to stay profitable, or, you know, if we're closing 100% of jobs, like some people think they have to close every job. And I was I was not on board with that from the very beginning. Like I never struggled with that at all. I was just like, there's some people I don't want to work with. There's, you know, pricing issues, people who are going to beat me up on price, and I don't want to deal with that. Yeah, I don't know. So I do have to find a way to track that better now.


Dana Dowdell  32:10

I'm curious. This year, probably what six months out from leaving the franchise? Yes. Six months, six month review, you know, how do you any regrets?


Russ Harlow  32:24

Oh, no. No, not at all. I mean, honestly, because of the website problems, I mean, that was the probably the biggest one, to getting to build a website that kind of represented me in my business. So my pumpkin planning journey, understanding my ideal client, understanding my area of innovation, and what my ideal clients look like, and how to bring them in what kind of wording I'm marketing. All of it now is designed around me and my business, not the brand. And you know, the culture that was there, that was good when I started but then changed. It's just been a world of difference. And to confirm that I've made a good decision. And it was a mutual decision on my part. But the issues that I was dealing with for a year prior to that, and you know, trying to get changed within the brand. Also confirmed by the number of phone calls I get from owners still in the network, who say how did you get out? How did you escape? How are you still in business? Didn't they make you sign a non compete didn't all these different things and I'm just like, listen, they offered me mutual termination. That was a gift and I took it. Your situation is different because you're not happy and you want to get out. I don't know what to tell you. But I got a call this week and one last week so still getting calls from people going I gotta get out of here. It's just going so badly. I don't know what to do. Yeah, kind of started a tidal wave. I feel like they thought I was just a crank and because I wasn't killing it and revenue, they figured I was just going to, you know, fizzle out and die anyway. And I think they misread the room because when they saw when people in the network saw me leave, I mean, honestly, I was Brand Champion and 2018 I was franchisee of the year and 2019 and then within a year I'm out of the network and a business on my own completely rebranded competing against them here in my market and everybody goes how the hell did that happen? Well, I just refuse to die and I won't go away.


Dana Dowdell  34:50

Their resiliency, like we're talking, you know, like, figuring it out, figuring out what to do,


Russ Harlow  34:58

and it's still scary, not gonna lie to you I'm gonna go back to that I got a little emotional talking about it earlier, I still am afraid, you know, making sure I get the right people in place. And I think I just got to choke it down and make it happen. You know, when I'm my big boy pants, what I'm whatever it is, you know, cowboy up, you can draw whatever euphemism you want. But, you know, drive on?


Dana Dowdell  35:25

Yeah. What do you think the next three months, the next quarter looks like for you?


Russ Harlow  35:32

Well, I know what I'm, I know what historically has done. And so I'm trying to, you know, hit my revenue mark again, and hit a growth point. I feel like our marketing and our message has started to hit a stride. And I want to continue to grow that we've kind of hit pause on the website. So I know, there's some things that we have to do to add new and relevant content, and continue to make sure we're showing up in Google and hitting all the places. I'm getting a lot more calls from people a little bit further away than I didn't get before. So I know that our marketing is working. And so yeah, it's its growth point launching off into 2023. Because that, I mean, I was going to double revenue this year, well, I'm not going to double revenue this year, I'm going to hopefully make at least what I made last year, just being realistic with all the struggles we had, and then hopefully double for next year, because everything is hopefully coming together. How about you?


Dana Dowdell  36:45

I'm definitely focusing on online presence, that my business coach is really pushing me to do a lot of that on LinkedIn. And really, in addition to what Emily who does my social media is doing me myself getting comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling of like, of my, my thoughts, like my like being a thought leader from the HR in the HR sphere. So definitely focusing on that. And then we are working on a project. This is actually inspired by one of our podcast guests, Nicole oden, the attorney, but we're looking at rolling out downloadable forms and documents. So if somebody doesn't want to pay what it costs to work with us one on one and get customized documents, there will be downloadable documents on our website that they can use and purchase.


Russ Harlow  37:58

That's a cool idea like that. Because at some point, like a guy like me, who's you know, still needs that you bring on an employee, you still need to have those things. That's still revenue that you can get. And it's, it's not continued work, you've already done the work, you know. So that's kind of a really good idea like that.


Dana Dowdell  38:20

Project will number one, but that also requires probably updating my website. So that's going to be I would say between now and the end of the year, that that's the primary focus of what we want to roll out.


Russ Harlow  38:34

You know, and it's interesting, you mentioned kind of being known as an expert in the field, because that's something I started, I've always kind of tried to do dabble that I guess I wrote a couple of LinkedIn articles and, you know, have them LinkedIn, you know, LinkedIn, my profile, and everything else, I share them every now and again. But I've started, I'm a total nerd, I started following some things that we really love doing mold, for whatever reason, like it's my favorite. And a lot of restoration companies hate it because it's scary to them. And I love helping people who just we run into situations where people are feeling sick, their house, or their building or their offices making them ill. And so I started thinking, I don't want to be a doctor, I don't want to be in you know, get into functional medicine. I don't want to do big assessments, but I want to understand it more. So I started watching YouTube on mold illness and some functional physicians who are do functional medicine and getting to the root of the problem and getting in there and mold assessors, and I'm trying to learn more so that I can be more of that and I'm thinking now regionally, how can I start linking with people who are doing similar things? And so I want to be seen as the guy who just knows everything about mold just called Ross or reliable remediation or whatever and and so it's funny you mentioned that because I started to kind of formulate a plan to start doing that within my own business too. And I Um, that can be really great.


Dana Dowdell  40:02

Yeah, huge opportunity there. So Well, it sounds like so many exciting things, uncomfortable changes and, you know, states of flux, but that the next quarter should hopefully be a big one for both of us.


Russ Harlow  40:16

Yes. And let's just declare it. Right, it will be some woowoo stuff. Let's just declare it. You've heard it first. So at the end, when we're doing our third quarter and 2023, you know, just go ahead and say, it did a rust, did you double that revenue? Like you said, you're gonna because you hold me accountable, because I'm working at it, I promise. And so I just want to thank everybody for taking a little bit of time, I believe that there's value here to listening to the stories and the struggles. As we continue, Dana and I continue to grow our businesses, I know there are people doing the same thing. And I hope that there's at least one thing that you can take out of this and say, You know what, I'm going to do that, or oh, I hadn't thought of that. I'm going to make a change like that in my business, or I'm going to stop treating this like a hobby. So we want to thank you for being here. And if maybe you found something of value and you know someone else who can find value in this. Do us a favor, share it. Like it leave us a great review. Leave us a bad review. I don't care at this point. Tell us what we could do better. I'm okay with that. Because honestly, it's not personal. It's just business.