Episodes

In another installment of "fighting traffic by dropping knowledge" Neel shares some thoughts on how to deal with seasonality in your business, whether that's a season of the year or a financial season, like a recession. Neel discusses: - How the challenge in high season, like summer, is often lack of supply to meet demand, which is why businesses need to be hiring now - Why you can't count on a recession to make hiring easier: you need to be focused on optimizing your recruiting funnel ...

In this episode Neel has a conversation with Bunty SomRoy. In 2016 Bunty left the US to try to find a way in to the digital marketing world and spent three years living in Thailand and Indonesia, nose to the grindstone, trying to build his business. As it grew he's been able to travel a lot more and he's "making up for lost time." Some interesting parts of the discussion include: - Regrets: Bunty wants others to enjoy the journey more and not be as heads-down in their businesses as he w...

Even though the word "remote" is part of a "remote local" business, that doesn't mean you have to start it remotely. In this episode Neel makes arguments for both sides, for starting a remote local business in your hometown and for starting it completely remotely. He covers things like: - Why sometimes a local presence can help you win, particularly with community marketing - Why sometimes a local presence can slow your growth — Neel shares how he could have systematized remote hiring f...

In this episode Neel interviews PJ McGeary of Arbor Trail Cleaning. PJ has had a lot of success using Facebook groups to get the word out about his cleaning business and shares his tactics and ideas, including: - the power of city-based groups, which post about all sorts of topics, not just those related to home services - the cadence you can use when posting — and why copy/paste works fine across all the groups you are part of - the type of post to use (always use photos!) and what ...

In this episode Neel and Johnny discuss what they've been seeing on the ground for Remote Local Businesses: - What's happening with Google Local Service Ads (LSA) and how to guard against big swings with them - The power of what Neel calls "community marketing" which can include some tedious — but rewarding — work - A "we're in the neighborhood anyway" tactic that can help you pick up new customers You'll also hear Neel share a story of a woman in Australia who is doin...

As Google tweaks its algorithm and its Local Services ads to deal with AI-created content, you might need to find new ways of reaching customers. In this episode Neel shares five avenues he's exploring right now (and are working). Some include: - Hypertargeting local Facebook groups using discounts, testimonials, and tagging - Using B2B cold emails in your niche - Getting on the ground with flyers and door-knocking in neighborhoods where you already have clients (or want to) To ge...

In this episode Neel offers five different side hustles with low barriers to entry and low cost to startup. While he understandably gives a plug for residential cleaning (hey, if it works, it works) he also shares: - Vending machine routes (get started for around $2500) - Mobile rim repair (he found out about one company doing $20,000 a day in repairs!) - Knife sharpening (door-to-door still works) But wait, there's more. Weekend puppy training! Enjoy the episode.

In the episode Neel sits down with Daniel Thompson of Salt Water Digital. Daniel has been in SEO for many years and took some time to share some insights into SEO for local services businesses, like: - Why Google My Business is harder to get verified now, and why some legitimate reviews are getting flagged and hidden. - The proof of work your agency should be showing you. - Whether local service businesses should be using Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram ads. Enjoy the episo...

When you pay for someone else's experiences you can move farther and faster than you would have on your own, allowing you to leapfrog the competition. In this episode, Neel shares a few of the key practices he's gotten through business coaching (see more here), including: - The need to delegate, automate, and systematize (he sets aside time every day to do all three) - Why proactive planning helps you start working on your 10 year goals now - How its often the small effort on key lev...

During a break from the Conquer Summit Neel took a few moments to share some tactics he plans to implement to push his sales up at the MaidThis location in California this year. One of the pain points driving this change is an increased cost of labor, which Neel had not kept a close eye on. In the episode he discusses: - The difference between recurring customers and re-occurring customers (and why he'll be chasing more of the latter this year) - The ideal ceiling for labor costs in a h...

In this episode Neel and Johnny talk about the different hires you need to make as you grow your remote local business. They discuss: - the first hire you make and what areas they need to help with - how roles have to change as you move past $100k to $500k in annual revenue: people need to be more specialized - why the biz owner should be a marketing strategist, not a marketing executor You'll also hear them discuss margins and how many team members you'll need to hit $1M in annual r...

On this episode, Neel sits down with Weh'yee Barkon of Internally, a firm that helps connect organizations with talented people in Africa. Neel and Weh'yee discuss: - the lack of opportunities available to well-educated, multi-lingual workers in Africa - the consumer education necessary to overcome the bad "brand image" of the continent - the absolute bargains to be had for workers (a full-time 40-hour/week worker can cost $500-$1000 USD a month!) Even though he w...

In this episode Neel and Johnny share three books that they enjoyed reading in 2022. — They both show love for Alex Hormozi's $100M Offers, which they've mentioned multiple times on the pod this year. — Johnny mentions his tendency to reread books, one of which is Scaling Up. — Neel mentioned Prisoners of Geography, a book that's helped him see the world a bit differently on his travels. You'll also hear both Neel and Johnny reflect on Russell Brunson's Trilogy of books ...

Neel recently moved a lot of stuff into Notion. One of those things was an ongoing list he keeps of business ideas. In this episode he shares a few of them and why he thinks they might be good bets, including: — Drone window cleaning — Full service mancave setup — Snowbird homewatch services — Hoarder/crime scene/meth house cleanup (seriously!) Believe it or not, there's even a real estate play in those hoarder/meth home examples.

In this episode Neel and Johnny discuss in detail what it's been like for Johnny to scale Home Services Academy. They chat about: — The importance of marketing and sales being in sync, particularly in the early days of the business. — How appointment setters can help drive a greater show rate for prospecting calls (Johnny also shares his pay rate). — How Johnny and his team learned by doing when it came to qualifying leads. Johnny also shares how his dramatic growth over peers who...

Some years ago Neel met Itamar Marani, a former Israeli Special Forces soldier, who in the course of conversations shared risk analysis and mitigation tactics he had been taught. This includes looking at the magnitude, immediacy, and probability of an event happening, as well as mitigating tactics that can be used to deal with that event, like: — distance — barriers — deterrence — countermeasures Neel walks through these using a hypothetical "man has a knife and wants to hurt y...

It's a bit of a switch up this week, as I get interviewed by Chase Warrington of the About Abroad pod. For those who get my newsletter or listen to the pod regularly, this episode will be a great summary of the last few months and what I do at MaidThis Franchise, but also serves as a great conversation between Chase and me, covering: — Some of the most important lessons travel can give you. — Sustainable remote work and creating community (something Chase works on every day). — When ...

In this episode Neel shares his experience of hiring and working with dozens of remote team members since 2013. He shares: — Which platforms you can use to find remote talent (Upwork, Dynamite Jobs, We Work Remotely) — What countries he's had great experiences with (South Africa, Honduras) — Which countries have talent "on sale" because of inflation (Venezuela, Argentina) — Why all great hires start with solid job descriptions (learn more here) Enjoy the episode!

In this episode Neel and Johnny answer the question: "Should everyone go into entrepreneurship?" (Short answer: No.) Entrepreneurship has been so glamorized lately that it's made to seem that everyone can and should be an entrepreneur. Neel and Johnny offer some thoughts on why that's a bad idea: People with low risk tolerance won't do well — every day involves some kind of risk in entrepreneurship. People who have a 9-5 for a very long time (though a franchise might be a good fit in t...

In this episode Neel sits down with Jon Matzner to talk about his journey to small business ownership and eventually a type of franchising Jon calls "affiliating." Jon bought a garage upgrade business and grew it really quickly but when he looked at the franchising landscape he didn't like what he saw and didn't want to create a scenario where franchisees had to come to him with "may I" requests all the time. So, instead he created lots of resources and allowed others to leverage his knowled...

In the experimental episode (literally recorded on the road), Neil discusses the differences between being a business builder and a business investor. Neel has long tried to do both, but has recently realized that means he's only doing half as well in each field. He thinks it makes more sense for him to pick one and make the other more passive. Since it's rare to find someone who can excel in both building and investing, it makes more sense for people to pick, and either is good, but it pr...

In this episode, Neel gives reviews of software he has used to run his remote local businesses in a more automated fashion. Neel starts by breaking down software into core vs. spoke. Core software includes companies like Launch27, BookingKoala, ZenMaid, Jobber, and Housecall Pro. Neel shares what he likes and doesn't like about them and also reminds listeners to consider whether they want a more industry-specific or industry-agnostic platform. Neel also discusses Slack, Zapier, G-Suit...

In this episode Neel and Johnny tackle the question of how entrepreneurs feel about what their business does. While Johnny delves into the idea of what your goals/endgame are and how that can create different answers at different times in your entrepreneurial journey, Neel unapologetically says that you do not have to like what your business does, as long as you don't hate it (people who don't like donuts shouldn't open a donut shop). They also discuss: how sometimes working in your bu...

In this episode Neel and Johnny welcome Sergio Silesky and Chris Munn to discuss different ways to deploy cash. Sergio is a business partner of Johnny and is in "cash stack" mode so all the income they are earning is getting reinvested into the business. Chris has often used his active income to invest in more passive businesses like real estate or already-running businesses doing between $1-5M in EBITDA. They also discuss: Why buying and renting out a single family home is a terrib...