Customer friction is a huge part of running a biz.

How hard is it to engage a company to work with you?

Data-driven companies obsess over reducing this friction.

Mom-and-pop operators SUCK at this and it’s costing them millions.

Here’s what I’ve learned 👇👇👇
1985 companies have a lot of friction.

Call them. Leave message. Wait. Guy may or may not call you back. Quote by phone or email. Scan signed contract.

A self storage facility we purchased recently had a lot of this.

Drive across town M-F 9-5. Spend 20 mins. Sign paper lease.
Get a physical key and lock. Drive back. Get your unit. Mail a check each month or stop by office with cash.

Owner charged $52 a month for a 10x10. Completely full.

We instantly setup software for online rental.

No phone call necessary. Rent a unit in 4 mins from your browser.
Sign lease online. Pay online. Upload photo of DL on phone.

Go straight to your unit 24/7. Type in gate key that was sent to you by text. Lock and key waiting in unit.

We can now charge $77 a mo for the same unit. $25 more. And we rent MORE units faster.
How significant is this?

That $25 increase per unit across the board turns out to be a 35% increase in revenue.

That takes revenue from $14k a month when I buy it to $18.9k a few months later.

An extra $58k to the bottom line over the course of 12 months.
Valued at a 7.5 cap that’s $784k in value added to this piece of real estate.

By making one simple change.

The property goes from being worth $1.3MM to $2.08MM.

And I can refinance out all of my initial cash 12 months later and keep the cashflowing property.
Another example.

One of my coaching clients runs a pooper scooper biz in Minneapolis.

The first thing I noticed was his signup form was clunky.

No language to help get customers to finalize the appointment. He also requested a credit card off the bat.
We changed the wording. Made it simple. And offered the first visit for free with no credit card off the bat.

Since we made that change new signups have DOUBLED.

Less than 10 clients have taken advantage of a free yard clean without paying and staying on.
He went from 500 customers and $220k a year in profit to 585 customers and a projected $300k in profit in 5 months.

With one change that took 10 minutes to make.
So what can we learn from this?

It’s a bigger deal than you think.

How hard is it to become one of your customers?

Facebook and Twitter obsess over the user experience. Reducing friction on things they want you to do. Spending millions to speed up the app by .001 seconds.
Get serious about reducing friction with customers on things you want them to do and it’ll pay off.

Mainly, make it easier to hire your company, buy your product or pay for your services.
This thread could positively influence more small business owners in real dollars than any other tweet i write in 2021 and it’ll get less hearts than the one about snowmobiling with my wife.

Funny how this place works!

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More from @sweatystartup

3 Jan
I’ve gotten a lot of bad advice in my career and I see even more of it here on Twitter.

Time for a stiff drink and some truth you probably dont want to hear.

👇👇
College isn’t worthless for everyone.

All of the successful folks who tell you college is worthless went to college.

What does that tell you?

It’s not about the learning, though.

It’s about growing and learning how to sell yourself and your ideas.
Miami isn’t the next tech hub.

It’s surrounded by a swamp.

Construction costs are insane because of hurricane codes. Vacant land doesn’t exist.

Property insurance has risen on average 20% per year for 5 years.

Plus it’s hot AF. Ever been there in July?
Read 117 tweets
2 Jan
A lot of entrepreneurs fail because they are selfish.

"I'm passionate about x"

"I've always wanted to do y"

"I want to be my own boss"

"Its my dream to own a restaurant."

"I want to build wealth through real estate"

Its all about THEM and what THEY want.
The people who win look at the market unemotionally and look for ways they can serve others and add value.

They know it might not be fun or sexy or a passion of theirs.

They are passionate about BUILDING A BUSINESS.

What can I do that has the highest probability of success?
How can I carve out a piece fo the pie?

How can I compete against folks who make great money but aren't spectacular at running a business?

How can I minimize risk from a time AND money standpoint?

How can I make decisions with my head and not my heart?
Read 5 tweets
30 Dec 20
I act like a know-it-all on here but let me make one thing very clear.

There are many people hanging out here who own one building worth more than my entire portfolio.

And many more who have built, bought and sold 8 figure businesses.

Take all this with a grain of salt!
I talk the talk and stir up the pot on here all the time.

But we're all just figuring it out as we go along!

And the truth is...
Learning in public, teaching through the podcast and on here, its really doing something special to me.

Its making me more confident and a better businessman.

More open-minded. And I'm learning a TON really quickly.

And our business is growing fast because of it.
Read 4 tweets
29 Dec 20
My brother made $100k in profit this year as a 24 year old working 32 weeks (35 hrs a wk).

He does lawn care, weed control and landscaping.

No marketing. Has been profitable since day 1.

But the media overlooks this type of entrepreneurship so you wouldn’t even know it exists.
What he does differently?

He answers the phone to new clients or calls them back within a day or two.

All of his competitors get busy and stop answering around May 15 when their schedule fills up for the season.
He just sent me a Snapchat from his fishing boat in the Keys. I’d say he’s not doing too bad.

Read 4 tweets
27 Dec 20
90% of deals model an exit and have a plan to sell an asset at ~3-5 yrs.

Family offices chasing IRR for their clients love it. GPs who crave liquidity love it.

Most HNW individuals would prefer tax efficient cashflow forever.

Big opportunity for sponsors here IMO.
The problem:

As a sponsor if you are chasing fees and a 20% carry it’s impossible to make any money unless you exit.

The cashflow is a blip and not enough motivation.

That’s my beef with the preferred equity structure folks are most familiar with.

https://t.co/MDFRKx6ShR
So what happens is you have sponsors who need a market that allows for liquidity to make any cash.

Rates go up, prices go down, debt gets tough and sponsors starve for years.
Read 10 tweets
27 Dec 20
Choosing WHAT you work on is 10x as important as how hard you work.
Out of college I could have got a job in NYC like everyone else for (relatively) good money.

I never would have left corporate america.

Instead we bought a $1500 cargo van and traded our time for money doing work that was “below” most of our Ivy League buddies for a few years.
Not saying it’s always a good call to do manual labor vs join a growing company.

But we saw value where others didn’t, delayed the gratification and I paid off.
Read 5 tweets

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