I know I have said it before (probably several times) and will definitely say it again, but no job is too small. It may take a while, but eventually some of those smaller gigs pan out. About five years ago we helped a new client with hiding her cable box in the closet that was right behind the TV. It was a real quickie with just some HDMI cables, labor, and an IR kit. Fortunately, things worked well, and we had not heard from her since.
A few weeks ago, her neighbor was having some AV issues and asked Client #1 if she knew anyone. She had our number saved and gave it to her neighbor. Since she was a referral, we took on the work. Two weeks ago, we went over and did some quick troubleshooting. She had recently switched to FiOS and was having problems with her AV setup that is a good six years old. She had a Sonos system that had fallen offline (someone had been working in the closet where the router is and plugged the line to the Sonos into the WAN port of the FiOS router, which was on MoCA, so she still had internet. This left no signal to the Sonos.
She also had an issue with her AVR. The HDMI output board must have failed, as she was getting audio through the speakers for all inputs but no video to the TV over an HDMI cable. We solved the Sonos issue quickly and put together a proposal not only for a replacement AVR, but also a new control system since her old RTI system was out of date and an upgraded router and WAP to support the control system and provide better overhead for her streaming needs.
It turned out to be a pretty small job, around $5,000, but she approved it less than 30 minutes after sending the proposal, and we did a quickie half-day install last week. So, a couple-hundred-dollar job from five years ago turned into $5,000 this year.
But wait, there’s more! While speaking with the new client at the installation, she was very curious about my background and how I started the business and how we marketed. When I told her marketing was almost all referral based, both from clients and trade professionals, she was impressed that we could maintain a business of our scope and scale without any marketing. Then she told me that she runs a travel blog and a Broadway newsletter. She was so impressed with our work and professionalism, and we had such a great report that she is including us in her Broadway newsletter this week that goes out to hundreds of high-net worth individuals, mostly on the Upper West and Upper East sides of Manhattan—exactly our target market. This is type of referral that could turn into dozens of valuable projects.
Then, to top it all off, her neighbor (Client #1) stopped by while we were there and was so impressed with what we did for the network, that I just wrapped up another $4,000 proposal to upgrade her network, too!
I’ll keep you all posted about how things pan out from the newsletter and when we get work from the inclusion and recommendation. In the meantime, I would love to hear from some of you who have seen smaller jobs lead to bigger and more profitable work.
