Service Industry Success
Service industry business expert Brian Harding draws upon his many years of experience to share insights, strategies, tactics, and ideas to help business owners in service industries (like contractors, home and auto repair services, IT providers, CPAs, and B2B businesses) overcome challenges in their businesses. Brian takes on a wide range of topics small business owners face with growth, delegating, customers, employees, and processes, as well as the internal struggles and fears small business owners must overcome to build the business and lifestyle they dream of.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 20 minutes
- Episodes
- 200
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
120. The Three Types of Employee You Need to Know How to Fire
Firing an employee is one of the absolute worst parts of managing people.
The only thing that can make it even worse – for everyone involved - is doing it incorrectly.
In this episode, I’ll cover the 3…
119. A Critical Sales Skill That is Rarely Talked About
There are more books written on sales than just about any other topic.
And, almost certainly, you know how to sell your service better than I ever will.
So, it’s rare that I talk about sales. But there…
118. The Costly Assumption We Make About Our Leaders and Managers
Getting the right leadership team in place is crucial if you want to be able to step away from your business – whether for a long weekend, a vacation, or permanently.
More than any other, there is one…
117. Which Costs More: Insufficient Skills or Misaligned Values?
Which is more expensive – a lack of experience, knowledge, and skills or misaligned values?
Tune in and we’ll break it down!
Come check out my new group, Service Business Academy, where you can ask, an…
116. When is a Procedure Appropriate?
Of the many popular ideas that have emerged over the last 25 years in business, it would be hard to find one that has been more helpful and confusing than getting our procedures in order.
In this epis…
115. Perhaps the Biggest Obstacle to Delegating Decision Making
We all know that ultimately, to grow a company that can run without us overseeing every critical detail, we must get to a point where we can delegate decisions.
Sounds easy. And of course, it’s not as…
114. Five Rarely Discussed Understandings We Should Have About Our Customers, Part 5
Do our processes, training, and marketing really align with what our customers care about most?
In this short series, I’m covering some concepts I think are sometimes forgotten, but are critical to ad…
113. Five Rarely Discussed Understandings We Should Have About Our Customers, Part 4
Do our processes, training, and marketing really align with what our customers care about most?
In this short series, I’m covering some concepts I think are sometimes forgotten, but are critical to ad…
112. Five Rarely Discussed Understandings We Should Have About Our Customers, Part 3
Do our processes, training, and marketing really align with what our customers care about most?
In this short series, I’m covering some concepts I think are sometimes forgotten, but are critical to ad…
111. Five Rarely Discussed Understandings We Should Have About Our Customers, Part 2
Do our processes, training, and marketing really align with what our customers care about most?
In this short series, I’ll cover some concepts I think are sometimes forgotten, but are critical to addr…
110. Rarely Discussed Understandings We Should Have About Our Customers, Part One
Do our processes, training, and marketing really align with what our customers care about most?
In this short series, I’ll cover some concepts I think are sometimes forgotten, but are critical to addr…
109. How Often Should You be Working 'On' Your Business Rather Than 'In' Your Business?
Among the many things most of us have heard over that last several years is that we need to be working 'on' our business not 'in' our business.
What does working ‘on’ our business mean, and how often …
108. The Pendulum is Reversing
It’s becoming more common to hear people talking about their phones ringing less. Some business owners are getting concerned about the volume of work they have.
Things are changing. What does that mea…
107. If I Give up Control, What Will be My Identity?
Giving up control is hard.
Removing ourselves from this role in our company that is deeply associated with our entire identity can be nearly impossible.
Unless…
Unless what?
Tune in to find out!
Learn mor…
106. The Path to Holding People Accountable
Many of the business owners express a frustration with not being able to hold their employees accountable to the degree they would like.
There’s no question, the current labor situation has created so…
105. How Much Training is the "Right" Amount?
In this episode we will talk about another of the more common questions I get asked: “How much training is the right amount for non-technical skills?”
I am referring to training on the skills that red…
104. Two Things That Will Fix Most of Your Process Failures
Everyone gets tired of facing the same process-related problems over and over again.
We fix a problem, and then weeks or months later, it pops back up as if we never addressed it at all.
Today I’m goin…
103. Following Up On Revenue Opportunities
There are still some companies with more work than they can get to, while others are beginning to see a slowdown.
Nobody knows when the next recession will come, or to what degree it will negatively a…
102. Some Solutions to Your Hiring Problem
Hiring continues to be a massive challenge for many service businesses.
Today, I’ll talk about a few things that we can do to simplify this challenge as well as increase our chances of finding someone…
101. I See Your "Building Trust" and I Raise You
What if I told you that I think how most of us are explaining and teaching “building trust” is all wrong.
Well.. I really do think that, and in this episode, I’ll explain what I mean.
Learn more about …