Epis0de

Growing A Home Service Business That Can Run Without You with Michael Kaplan and Tommy Mello

Michael Kaplan

Michael Kaplan is the former co-owner of Zerorez Carpet and Living Services Care in Minnesota, where he successfully grew the business to over 170 employees with over $15,000,000 a year in revenue. Today, he’s an angel investor at Red Hook Investments, helping businesses build strong leaders and realize their potential.

In this episode, we talked about Leadership, Hiring, Business Growth…

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Show notes

Introducing Michael Kaplan. [1:07]
His career path, and how he got started in the industry. [1:45]
The operations, org chart, and structure of his business. [4:37]
The differences between franchising, ownership, and licensing. [7:28]
The concept of the “bus number,” and why business owners should adopt it. [14:00]
His experiences in working in the carpet niche. [16:37]
The biggest mistakes that newer or inexperienced entrepreneurs tend to make. [20:10]
How to get top-quality people in the company. [22:40]
What it typically looks like to really help out a small business at the beginning. [26:05]
The biggest objections in the carpet cleaning industry, and how to respond to them. [32:42]
How Michael brought in the right people and avoided the wrong ones. [40:47]
His thoughts on 1099 employees, and why there’s a time and place for them. [47:25]
Why he loves Raving Fans, and what he learned from it. [50:59]
Why he has given money back to customers, even when he’s in the right. [56:42]
How he persuades customers to come back more often. [59:56]
His thoughts on exiting his business. [1:14:00]
His favorite books for beginning entrepreneurs. [1:17:30]
His thoughts on last-minute KPIs. [1:21:15]
Michael’s most important piece of advice to home service business owners. [1:25:00]
How to get more information about Michael. [1:29:21]