StormSurge-Ed1-FINAL-LINKS

A RAINBOW INTERNATIONAL ® PUBLICATION | EDITION 1: 2017

TEAM RAINBOW

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FRANCHISEE SPOTLIGHT: CHRIS &MARIA SLAY

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CONTENTS Edition 1 2017

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It’s a Great Time to Be a Part of Dwyer Group®

President’s Message: The Rainbow International® Difference

Life’s Defining Moments

CONTRIBUTIONS: Do You Know the Pulse of Your Business? 10 Best Practices from Scoping to Completion of a Water Loss 13 Leading with Values 16 Getting the Most Out of Your Marketing Team: SMART Marketing 19 Top 10 Wins for Marketing Your Restoration Business at a Low/No-Cost Level 20 Basic Responsibilities of a Business Development Associate (BDA) 21 Planning Ahead for the Day You Sell Your Business 22 How to Get the Most Out of a Site Visit 23 Considerations for Adding New Territory: When Is the Right Time for Me? 24 Franchisee Spotlight: Chris and Maria Slay 25 Commercial/Property Management Opportunities 26 Getting Started in Reconstruction 28 Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining Employees: Becoming an Employer of Choice 33 The Importance of Job Cost Reporting 34 ProTradeNet® Update: Making “Dollars & Sense” 35 People Like You

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President’s Message By: Mark Welstead

DWYER GROUP, INC. Mike Bidwell, President, CEO Dina-Dwyer Owens, Co-Chair Mary Kennedy Thompson, Chief Operating Officer Brandi Kloostra, Vice President of Brand Management Robert Henley, Brand Manager Brittany Hann, Local Marketing Specialist RAINBOW INTL, LLC Mark Welstead, President Marla Mock , Vice President of Operations Jack White, Vice President of Technical Services Bruce Jensen, Director of Business Development and Strategic Initiatives Jeff Bennett, Franchise Consultant Rick Smith, Franchise Consultant Craig Cox, Franchise Consultant Darrell Lopp, Franchise Consultant

Cameron McBurnett, Franchise Consultant Alex Braig, QA Reviewer Jose Bridges, Senior Franchise Consultant Jack Gaston, Franchise Consultant Jeramy Sibley, Franchise Consultant/ Sure Start Coordinator Sandi Taylor, Senior Franchise Consultant PROTRADENET LLC

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Getting the Most Out of Your Marketing Team:

SMART Marketing By: Robert Henley & Brandi Kloostra

Kathleen Seaman, Communications Specialist PRODUCTION Michael McCullough , Creative Manager Cody Peterson, Freelance Graphic Designer Kimberly Denman , Senior Communications Manager

LinkedIn.com/Rainbow-International YouTube.com/user/RainbowIntl Facebook.com/RainbowIntl

Twitter.com/RinbowIntl RainbowIntl.com/about/blog

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Franchisee Spotlight: Chris and Maria Slay By: Jose Bridges

Send Storm Surge ideas to Kimberly.Denman@DwyerGroup.com

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OUR VISION

OUR MISSION

To be a world class company admired for the excellence that customers, franchisees and associates experience with Dwyer Group .

To teach our principles and systems of personal and business success so that all people we touch live happier and more successful lives.

It’s a Great Time to Be a Part of Dwyer Group ®

By: Mike Bidwell

W e are at the dawn of a new day at Dwyer Group®. With great anticipation, we have launched our new overarching brand, Neighborly™ (known as Neighbourly™ in Canada), that we conceived prior to Reunion last year. This is a bold step forward to realizing our long-standing vision that we all benefit from being members of a common family of franchised brands. We have experimented over the years to find ways to expose customers from one brand to other Dwyer Group brands. However, each proved to be too burdensome, too inefficient and too expense. In retrospect, we had to wait for technology and how people use technology to catch up – including the Dwyer Group ecosystem – to be able to execute on this vision in an effective and sustainable way. As the marketplace has evolved, the full breadth of Dwyer Group’s service brands’ offerings has become more meaningful to homeowners. The dream was initially to leverage our individual customer silos that each of you have in your perspective local markets and expose those customers to other Dwyer Group brands. Since they are buying services from you, they are likely using many of our other service offerings as well to meet their needs. Unfortunately, our data says that less than two percent of the time they are using more than one of our brands. I suppose this makes sense when you consider market share in each market, and the fact that we do nothing to make it better. What nowmakes this possible is: • Our Dwyer Group Culture • Single Point of Sale (POS) system used in each brand, with API connectivity • Centralized data warehouse at Dwyer Group to consume all POS data • Universal customer surveying system (reviews and rankings)

• Dwyer Group Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and strategy • Our consumer content library • Robust brand consumer websites • Find a Neighbor (FaN) mapping system • Talent (internal and external) to orchestrate • Capacity – 2400 North American franchisees in 11 service verticals

• Evolving consumer shopping preferences • Financial capacity to make the investment • Vision and leadership to make it happen

It is a great time to be a part of Dwyer Group , now our Neighborly network. Our research and pilot test indicate the market is ready for Neighborly , and we are now ready to execute and deliver. Its purpose is to lower your customer acquisition cost, increase your customer count, shorten your customers’ purchase cycles, and reduce customer defection or attrition. All of this helps enhance your profitability. There is another reason as well. While this reason did not exist when we envisioned this dream, as market dynamics have evolved, it does today. If we don’t do this, someone else will – and they are attempting to do so now. Now, our motives are also protectionist. The good news is nobody has what we have. Nobody is better suited to execute and deliver the customer experience than us, so let’s get on with it… Neighborly,

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THE RAINBOW INTERNATIONAL ® DIFFERENCE By Mark Welstead

• How do you reinforce the Code of Values at your franchise? • Do you recite them at company gatherings? • Do you display them on a wall? • Do your personnel know the values are YOUR values? • Do you live the values daily for all to see? • Do you keep the need for ethics as top of mind? M ost of the new franchisees who come into the Rainbow International® franchise family tell us that the Code of Values was one of the major tipping points during their due diligence. That means all other things were basically equal, but they wanted to own a franchise that respected the franchisee. They wanted to be a part of an organization (you and me) that operated with Respect, Integrity and Customer Focus. Knowing that ethics and values are at the forefront in determining our new franchise owners is humbling and so encouraging. So, how do we show it? How do we live it every day? How do we reinforce the need for positive values? For me, the starting point is focusing on the first item listed on our list of Code of Values… “We live our Code of Values by treating others as we would like to be treated .” It seems to me if you do this one value well, the rest of the values seem to take care of themselves. That sounds pretty simple actually. If you were to always apply this one filter to your decision making, perhaps doing the right thing wouldn’t be difficult to do. This reminds me of a quote by Norman Schwarzkopf. He says, “The truth of the matter is that you always KNOW the right thing to do. The hard part is DOING it.” Role playing is a good tactic to practice to help make our values “real”. Create a few scenarios where values come into play and discuss it with your team. Ask your team what they would do and why? Discuss the thought process of how you, as the leader, feel about a situation, what you recognize as potential dilemmas and alternatives (good and bad), and how you would resolve the situation. Here are some tips to help you lead a code of values discussion at your next team meeting: • Don’t go first. When you give the answer first, discussion can be stifled and you may get canned answers. Stress openness and honesty as you

discuss how to handle the scenarios. Emphasize the code of values that may come into play in the scenario.

• Don’t criticize the responses. If you want open discussions and ideas in the future, your team must feel safe sharing their opinions and know that what they share has value and is taken seriously. If you criticize the first time, the next time you ask a question, the only feedback you may hear will be silence. • Don’t limit the scenarios to drying a structure. Potential ethics issues are within the entire organization from top to bottom. Discussions over time can be on subjects like time clocks and payroll; personal expenses with company resources; accuracy and quality of paperwork; preparing accurate estimates; managing relationships with insurance personnel; responding in a timely way to internal or external requests, and so on. As you can see, the list is endless, and you aren’t singling out a group. It’s important to remember that what we all do as individuals affect all of us. • Emphasize the thought processes used to achieve the right answer. You can’t be in the room for every difficult decision every day. In the role- playing exercise, make sure you ask “Why” and “How” a lot. Every person does not have to answer every question correctly, but every person needs to be listening to what the right answer is and consequently “Why” and “How” the individual arrived at the right answer. Now, the hard part: As the owner, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. YOU have to walk the walk. Just like little kids, all of your employees are watching, learning and ready to imitate your behavior. In the words of H. Jackson Brown, “Live so when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you.” Living daily may seem like a lofty goal, but this goal is part of why a lot of people choose Rainbow International over other restoration franchise opportunities. Our Code of Values are the differentiator when making the choice. Before you beat yourself up over not being perfect, remember, “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2), but we must remain steadfast and keep striving to do the right thing… and the rest will take care of itself. See you at Reunion!

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LIFE’S DEFINING MOMENTS By: Mary Kennedy Thompson

H ow we offer services to our customers can be one of those daily actions that over time becomes the defining moment that makes us great. At the start of my career, each time I met a successful person, I would ask what they did to get there. I always expected to hear them say it was some significant occasion that created the change and growth toward excellence. It took my asking about 10 really successful people before I saw the real pattern. It was not a big decision nor a clear moment where a special event occurred that created the defining moment for achievement. I learned, instead, it is consistently practiced daily habits that help us grow into successful businessmen and women - and in doing so, we grow successful businesses. For our service brands, the defining moments happen each day on the phone and in our customer’s home. It includes all parts of our frontline service, a quick and friendly greeting when our customer first calls, and even doing the small things on each service call. It’s the basics – that’s why they’re called the basics - that grow a company. Ask yourself, “Are we using the basics in building everyday actions to create success?” Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning is a habit. Watch your thoughts, they become your beliefs. Watch your beliefs, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your character.” I believe great companies are built by great people who think “How can I improve my interactions with my customers?”

That thought becomes the belief that outstanding customer experiences will drive the business. And cheerleader customers become the character of the organization that help us recruit the right people. Exceptional customer interactions define the relationship, which builds the company. Below is a good place to start. • Cheerfully and efficiently answer the phone using a script to stay on point and build a great service call. • Offer convenience to our customer (such as a clear appointment time). • Conduct ride-alongs and randomly check up on our service providers when they are on service calls. You are the quality control manager for your business. • Coach invoices to help your service providers to see opportunity and follow up on customer needs. • Closely read the customer surveys to see how you’re really performing.

Let’s win!

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Vice President - Sales | susan.kothe@AssuredPartners.com

DO YOU KNOWTHE

By Marla Mock

OF YOUR BUSINESS?

W hen exercising, it’s imperative to maintain a target heart rate. Your Beats Per Minute (BPM) is the number of times your heart beats per minute - simple enough, right? While exercising, you should maintain a certain level of BPM. If too low, you are not burning enough calories to achieve weight loss. If too high, that’s dangerous as you push your body past its fitness level, putting your health at risk. You can go down to any sporting goods store or Best Buy to buy a gadget that will assist in measuring your BPM; however, if using it improperly, there is not much good it will do. Or worse, if using the tool properly, you ignore the signs as you think you are immune to the consequences. What do you do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to track the health of your business? Ray Kroc joined McDonald’s in 1955 and built it into the most successful fast food corporation in the world. He would say “When you’re green, your growing. When you’re ripe, you rot.” Currently, is your business green or ripe, and what tools are you using to measure it? Are you only monitoring increased revenue dollars, and if those are increasing year over year, do you consider your business healthy? How about employee turnover? If your employees have been with you long term, is this always a positive? What about your customer mix? How long have your customers been with you, and when is the last time you added a new, recurring customer to your revenue stream? How long have you had your equipment, and when is the last time you have invested in maintenance, or upgrading? Successfully running a business can be overwhelming, or, with the right tools, it can be fun and exciting. I cannot tell you how many times business owners, when asked how the business is doing, tell me GREAT!! But, when taking a closer look, there is cause for concern. Not because of one single thing, but because of a variety of items. The number one cause for concern is when the deny factor has set in, and monitoring of the business on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis has ceased. How can you fix something if you are not aware there is a problem? This occurs because they are afraid of what they will find, or when they do identify there is a problem, that means they will have to address it.

Let’s look at revenue for a moment. Since your business has begun, what is your year (YOY) over year revenue growth percentage? Has your revenue trended in the right direction? Has your profitability trended at the same rate? Are the profit centers you are investing your most sales and marketing dollars in yielding your highest return on investment ROI? If not, do you know why? Let’s drill into employees. Ray Kroc also said, "You're only as good as the people you hire.” Have you ever settled on hiring an employee because you had to quickly fill a position, or worse, kept someone on the team who no longer fits the culture or added value because you didn’t have someone “on the bench” ready to hire? Long term, what has this cost your business? Customers were always an item I enjoyed tracking. I tied them directly back to sales and marketing dollars, as well as revenue growth and gross profitability. Why? I needed to know if they were worth it, and if they were, how could I drive more revenue dollars from them? What about equipment? If my equipment was not well maintained and ready when needed, I was sunk. No matter how well I marketed, how many new customers I signed, or how well prepared the staff was, if my equipment was not ready, I might as well not have gotten the job since I was ill- prepared to perform. If any of the questions above are difficult for you to answer, you need to make one phone call to your Franchise Consultant (FC) and say, “Please assist me in tracking the pulse of my business.” But, may I remind you, we can only assist if you allow us. Michael Jordan, arguably one of the best basketball players who has ever played the game, had coaches. Were they people who could beat him on the basketball court? Absolutely not, that wasn’t their role. Their role was to observe from the sideline and point out what he couldn’t see while he was on the court playing the game. Your FC is your business coach, available to help in reviewing all available tools to reach your personal and professional goals.

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“How can you fix something if you are not aware there is a problem?”

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BEST PRACTICES FROM SCOPING TO COMPLETION OF A WATER LOSS By Jack White

The questions and answers in this article are based on Best Practices per the ANSI/IICRC S500-2015 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Water Damage Restoration 4th Edition. This standard is made up of two documents: the actual standard and the reference guide.

I n the future, the standard and reference guide will be two separate documents. Example: Air mover calculations are a part of the standard. Dehumidifier calculations are part of the reference guide. Throughout the documents, the terms “should” and “recommend” are used to compare the different levels of importance attached to certain practices and procedures. Review these terms to better understand meanings as you follow standards: • Shall: When this term is used, it means that the practice or procedure is mandatory due to natural law or regulatory requirement, including occupation, public health and other relevant laws, rules or regulation, and is therefore a component of the accepted “standard of care” to be followed. • Should: When this term is used, it means that the practice or procedure is a component of the accepted “standard of care” to be followed, while not mandatory by regulatory requirements.

• Recommend(ed): When the term recommend(ed) is used in the document, it means that the practice or procedure is advised or suggested, but is not component of the accepted “standard of care” to be followed. In addition, the terms “may” and “can” are also available to describe referenced practices or procedures and are defined as follows. • May: When this term is used, it signifies permission expressed by the document, and means that a referenced practice or procedure is permissible within the limits of the document, but is not a component of the accepted “standard of care” to be followed. • Can: When this term is used, it signifies an ability or possibility open to a user of the document and it means that a referenced practice or procedure is possible or capable of application, but is not a component of the accepted “Standard of Care” to be followed.

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10. Upon initiating the restorative drying effort, restorers should install ____ air mover(s) in each affected room. In addition, add one air mover: a. For every ________ F 2 of affected wet floor in each room (to address floors and lower wall surfaces up to approximately 2 feet). b. For every ________ F 2 of affected wet ceiling and wall areas above approximately 2 feet c. For each wall inset & offset greater than ___ inches 11. When using desiccant dehumidification in a Class 3 water loss in an area that is 35’ long, 67’ wide with 10’ ceilings, using the simplified calculation, how much CFM is required? 12. When using desiccant dehumidification in a Class 3 water loss in an area that is 35’ long, 67’ wide with 10’ ceilings, using the detailed calculation, how much CFM is required? The build-out is average with standard construction. There is a HVAC system available and the building tightness is moderate. The outside GPP is 75. 13. When using LGR refrigerant dehumidification in a Class 3 water loss in an area that is 35’ long, 67’ wide with 10’ ceilings, using the simplified calculation, how many pints are required? 14. When using LGR refrigerant dehumidification in a Class 3 water loss in an area that is 35’ long, 67’ wide with 10’ ceilings, using the detailed calculation, what is the adjusted pints per day? The build-out is average with Standard Construction. There is a HVAC system available. The building is moderately tight and the weather impact is unfavorable with 70 GPP. 15. When using LGR’s on a Class 2 Water Loss in a building that has a affected area that is 50‘ long, 35’ wide, with 8 ft. ceilings, using the detailed method, what are the adjusted pints per day? The building construction is standard with a working HVAC system. The build out is average and the weather impact is moderate with 50 GPP. 16. When using desiccant dehumidification in a Class 4 water loss in an area that is 35’ long, 67’ wide with 10’ ceilings, using the simplified calculation, what is the required CFM? 17. A water damage in a newer commercial building caused by a ruptured sprinkle line that is attached to the public water supply is what category of water damage?

Test Your Knowledge on How to Scope and Complete a Water Loss

1. Which Category/Categories of water damage warrant the use of antimicrobials (biocides)? 2. After all safety concerns are addressed and the customer agrees to have an antimicrobial (biocide) applied, what is the first step in applying an antimicrobial (biocide) on a water loss? 3. On a Category 1 water damage, when should cleaning occur? 4. On a Category 2 water damage, when should cleaning occur? 5. What is the best indicator that Category 1 water has deteriorated to Category 2 water? 6. Water damage in a basement caused by a sump pump failure would be considered what Category of Water Damage? 7. Water intrusions where wet, porous materials represent more than 40 percent of the combined floor, wall, and ceiling surface area in the space would be what Class? 8. Returning materials to acceptable moisture content levels can be accomplished by setting a drying goal that returns materials to a close approximation of their dry standard. In the case of solid hardwood products, the drying goal should be within _____ percentage points of its normal moisture content or dry standard. For all materials, it is recommended the drying goal be within ___ percent of the dry standard. 9. What do the following abbreviations stand for? a. CMU –

b. IEP – c. MIP – d. NAM – e ACM - f. CIH – g. AFD – h. ANSI – i. SDS – j. PACM –

1. Category 2 and Category 3 2. Clean prior to application 3. At any time during the drying process 4. Prior to drying efforts 5. Odors 6. Category 2 7. Class 3 8. 4 percentage points and 10 percent 9a. Cement Masonry Unit 9b. Indoor Environmental Professional 9c. Materially Interested Party 9d. Negative Air Machine 9e. Asbestos Containing Material 9f. Certified Industrial Hygienist 9g. Air Filtration Device 9h. American National Standards Institute 9i. Safety Data Sheets 9j. Perceived Asbestos Containing Material 10. 1 10a. 50-70 10b. 100-150 10c. 18 11. 1173 12. 1095 13. 586 14. 938 15. 330 16. 1,172 17. Category 1 ANSWERS:

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LEADING WITH VALUES

By: Dina Dwyer-Owens

I n September 2015, Dwyer Group® Chief Operating Officer, Mary Kennedy Thompson and I had the pleasure of meeting U.S. Representative, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, at the International Franchise Association’s Action Network meeting to talk about the most pressing issues facing franchisors across the country. We were excited to meet the highest ranking woman in the Republican Party and - wouldn’t you know it - our discussion turned to living and leading with values. How Dwyer Group Leveraged Values to Build a Billion-Dollar Company It’s been a little over two decades since Dwyer Group implemented its operationalized Code of Values and a series of principles that support our organization. Live R.I.C.H (Respect, Integrity, Customer focus and Having fun in the process) guide our business decisions. We strive daily to keep these values front-and-center ensuring that everyone in the company, from the leadership team to our franchisees on the front lines, know and embrace them. After a record year of historic growth in 2016, our organization now includes 16 consumer brands, more than 2,800 franchises and over $1.4 billion in annual system-wide sales that stretch across 11 countries around the globe. People routinely ask, “How can we create that kind of successful growth for our own organization?” The common thread behind our growing, collaborative and collective success is the Dwyer Group Code of Values . It’s a topic that speaks to my heart and one of the reasons I wrote my last book “Values, Inc.” I wanted to provide insight for organizations interested in what we are known for at Dwyer Group - helping businesses stay the course as they grow. In addition, I wanted a road map to help small business owners, including franchisees and their teams, navigate their business through the use of their own Code of Values. Helping others define a Code of Values that can live and breathe in their organizations is a passion of mine and it has been a privilege to share the journey of Dwyer Group with other franchisors, businesses, the public and yes, even government.

A Code of Values Can Energize Any Workplace - Even Our Government At that first meeting with Cathy, our Code of Values message really resonated with her, so she invited me to return to Washington, DC, later that year to give a “Values in Business” seminar to her entire congressional staff. The end result of the workshop was that her office wrote out their own Code of Values…something they have begun following over the last year. Taking a page from our Live R.I.C.H message, Cathy’s office now has a message to S.E.R.V.E. Cathy wrote a guest column for TIME Magazine, in which she shared a little about her team’s Code of Values: “On Capitol Hill, which is often the epicenter of partisanship and egos, my team and I established a system of values, a motto called, “Have Fun While We SERVE” — Seek Excellence, Everybody Matters, Responsibly Own It, Vigilant Integrity, and Embrace Change — and at staff meetings we talk about how we are living these values, and where we fall short.” In the last year, since having their own values, Cathy’s office has found several ways to put them into practice. In doing so, it has helped the team reflect on how their actions impact those around them and how they can strive to be better public servants, teammates and citizens. Other leaders on the Hill have asked for copies of her Code of Values to begin implementing in their own offices. Additionally, because of the reputation and culture created by their values, her office has attracted resumes of people seeking to work in their environment. Value Truly Knows No Boundaries All of this is music to my ears. Living and leading with values knows no boundaries. It can serve a small business, it can serve a large organization, and it can even serve our country’s highest offices. For any organization, a strong code of values, put into action, provides a roadmap to the future. The bottom line (and a profitable one, too) is that a company that lives and leads with values will always outperform, outshine, outdo and outlive competitors who put ethics on the back burner.

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HOW&WHEN TO YOUR INFRASTRUCTURE By Jeff Bennett and Rick Smith

A s a business owner, infrastructure may be one of those things you think about only when confronted with a change in staff or considering your business plan. While some may review their business plan more often than others, I want to encourage you that infrastructure should not be a once or twice a year consideration. The infrastructure of your business will determine the success of your business. As a past business owner, I (Jeff) fell into the same trap of feeling that I could not afford to hire the proper staff at times. As I continued to grow, it became apparent that hiring the staff needed to run the business efficiently was an absolute necessity. I would look at my numbers and decide I needed to grow by a certain percentage before I could hire that next employee. Where I was failing is that I would not take into consideration what I was losing without that person on staff. I also failed to see that when you hire correctly, and you allow that person to be creative, new ideas for increased revenue and reduced costs can be realized. We all have ideas and dreams when we start our business. Once we get started, the grind of the business everyday can dull those ideas and dreams. To remedy this, take a short vacation or a long weekend with those close to your ideas and dreams. Review what it will take to get you where you want to be. If you don’t seem to be able to get off the truck, you are working too many hours. Or, if you are feeling the financial pinch, look to the system for correction. Let the numbers be your guide. Review the suggested benchmarks with your Franchise Consultant (FC), but also consider your goals in light of the bigger picture. I (Rick) am reminded of the importance of having clear job descriptions. Michael Gerber, author of The E Myth, suggests that even when wearing multiple hats in your business, it is important to have clear job descriptions for each “hat.” That way, when you do add a new staff member, you can take one of those job descriptions and assign it to the new employee. I have experienced running a business with and without clear job descriptions. I have a feeling that I don’t have to tell you which way is much less stressful. So, let’s dig into a few possibilities where growing your infrastructure may be very apparent. For starters, if you are still on the truck every day, who is selling that next job and keeping your pipeline full of jobs? If you are on KAP accounts or tied to a TPA that is sending you work, that’s great – but what happens if those go away? Your business could be in great jeopardy of failing. Rainbow International® recommends that you have a Business Development Associate (BDA) to help build the 5/20’s of your business organically. The BDA position can at times be a tough position to fill. By using the RAREtoolbox, including Predictive Profiles, this will help reduce much of

the time involved in finding the right person and reduce the chances of finding the “wrong” person for the position. Hiring an additional technician or office professional might be the best step for you. If you are not on the truck every day, you will have time to job cost, check your benchmarks and break even. Tracking these numbers could lead to finding leakage that could allow you to make these additional hires grow your business and increase profit margins. In other words, they could more than pay for themselves in a short period of time.

LET THE NUMBERS

BE YOURGUIDE.

How do you know when it is the right time to hire? One indication is when you start to see that overtime is increasing. You will need to determine if the increase is just a temporary spike in the business or true growth. The use of temporary or part-time help could be employed to get you through a temporary spike. If it is true growth, knowing your financial numbers will help you determine when it is time to bring on that additional employee. Temporary labor, although necessary at times, is much more expensive in the long term. Bringing in the right person can help meet your increased labor needs while reducing your current labor costs if he/she reduces the need for the temp laborers. As you consider your long-term plan for your business – whether that is retiring, selling, or passing it on to a family member – a rock solid infrastructure must be in place. If your plan is to retire and leave the business running, how can that happen if you are the business? If you plan to sell your business one day, a clear organizational chart with the appropriate infrastructure will make your business much more attractive to a potential buyer. If you plan to pass it on to a family member, the transition can be accomplished much more seamlessly if your infrastructure is in place and ready for transition. If you have questions about building or tweaking your infrastructure, please reach out to your FC and start building a plan together. Remember, this is your dream and you have invested a lot to be where you are right now. Don’t fall short of your dreams due to fears of building the proper infrastructure around you.

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By Robert Henley and Brandi Kloostra

Getting the Most Out of Your Marketing Team:

T he below 2017 MAP fund investments are straightforward and follow the SMART model: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based. With our new SMART marketing approach, we’ll provide you with updates on the below MAP fund investments on a quarterly basis. 1. Full adoption of the Happily. Even After. Campaign Visit BrandBuilder to see the new marketing pieces that coordinate with your local marketing plans. This campaign is based on solid research and sets Rainbow International® apart from its competitors. While most of the competition emphasizes disaster or cold efficiency, Rainbow International takes an approach that says, “Things will be alright again, and we can help.” Stay tuned for results of video advertising with our new Happily Even After commercials. If you’re nterested in testing local video pre-roll, please contact me at Robert. Henley@DwyerGroup.com .

2. Marketing Educational Webinars There will be three marketing educational webinars held each year. These webinars were designed to inform and educate you on marketing activities and best practice. We hope you were able to attend the webinars thus far and will join us for the one in the fall. If you missed the webinars, visit FranConnect to listen at your own pace.

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Our goal for Qiigo this year is to have 75 percent accuracy across the brand, so it’s important to reach out to Qiigo to helpmanage your listings and reviews if you haven’t already done so.”

months after Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Lisa Zoellner announced the umbrella brand at the 2016 Dwyer Group® Reunion. Having a platform to unify Dwyer Group’s 13 U.S. franchise service brands was a long-standing dream of the Dwyer Group’s leadership team, and the ability to cross-market, drive consumer sales, compete more effectively and fill in the white space in un-serviced areas is now possible. The Creation of Neighborly Today, only 2.8 percent of our customers have ever used more than one Dwyer Group brand. There is tremendous opportunity for growth by increasing usage of all of our brands across our customer base and Neighborly is this first step toward welcoming new and existing customers to our neighborhood. At the time of Rainbow Round Up, the Neighborly email database consisted of 950,770 email addresses for Dwyer Group customers active within the past two years. Rainbow International’s customer emails represent 25,839 less than two percent of the total. Leaving the opportunity for Rainbow International to get in front of 924,031 potential customers to amplify our brand exposure. Here’s How You Can Help. To complement the national efforts, you can get involved locally. Four easy ways are to: • Send a postcard to existing Dwyer Group customers in your market! • Collect valid email addresses from every lead and customer to ensure they receive CRM email communications. • Update your vehicles by adding the Neighborly decal. • Utilize the new Neighborly cross-branded advertising pieces, which have been created for you to use for co-op and shared advertising events such as trade shows. To work with fellow Dwyer Group franchisees in your area, I recommend referencing the following website https://www. dwyergroup.com/find-a-neighbor/ to get a list of businesses in your area. Also view the local Marketing Playbook and contacting your brand’s marketing team to get started with the programs outlined. The Neighborly launch has been an amazing journey and we have just begun. Now, the work begins to make Neighborly all it can be to fuel our growth! As you can see, there are a lot of exciting things happening in Rainbow International marketing, and we’re keeping it SMART !

• March 29 - Brand Builder best practices and a review of the Quarterly Brand Update. • July 19 - Benefits of and best practices for Qiigo, your online listings and reputation management partner. • October 25 – How to utilize the seasonal promo calendar with Marketing plans and budget. 3. Improve Online Visibility and Build Brand Awareness Our goal is to increase website traffic 13 percent year over year (YOY), and improve listing accuracy to 95 percent. Our partner, Qiigo, helps us maintain consistent listings across a diverse array of online directories. This means they help make sure that your business name, web address, physical address and phone number are consistent. Eliminating inconsistency makes you more recognizable to search engines and increases your search engine results ranking. Our goal for Qiigo this year is to have 75 percent accuracy across the brand, so it’s important to reach out to Qiigo to help manage your listings and reviews if you haven’t already done so. Not having brick and mortar store fronts makes website traffic crucial for Rainbow International . With this in mind, we set a goal for 2017 to increase organic traffic (organic meaning not paid) to the corporate website by 13 percent YOY. We’re achieving this through a large-scale search engine optimization project. This includes content optimization at a national and local level. These efforts should lead to higher visibility online for Rainbow International core services. Currently we are tracking well above our goal and traffic has increased 32 percent in Q1. 4. Launch of Seasonal Promotional Calendar We’re currently in a pilot phase with this initiative that includes coordinating monthly marketing plans and budgets of local campaigns. Project Specifics: North America is comprised of different seasonal regions. For example, franchisees in California may need to begin promoting fire restoration services, while franchisees in Maine Franchisees would only need to do this in an emergency situation. The regions vary and so do the customer buying patterns. We are developing a services promotion calendar for both residential and commercial services. The Marketing Department knows the optimal timing to begin promoting services in the various regions. The marketing specialist will be able to coach accordingly. The calendar will coordinate with the best marketing tactics for the Franchisees area which will align with their monthly budget. 5. Cross Marketing & Neighborly™ – Welcome to the Neighborhood The Neighborly launch on March 27 happened six short

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TOP 10WINS FOR MARKETING YOUR RESTORATION BUSINESS AT A LOW/NO COST LEVEL

By Brittany Hann

1. Join associations and use the resources they provide. These resources will include local networking events, online forums and job boards. The more people you know, the more customers you will have. Don’t just join the group – strive to be the leader of the group. 2. Build a referral network. Referrals and word of mouth is the most powerful tool for marketing. Work to build relationships with professionals and other businesses you would happily refer your customers to and they’ll likely send referrals your way in return. 3. Be a people person. Never stop networking, following up on all leads and participating in conversations wherever you find them. Don’t be afraid of the phone, internet, email or face-to-face meetings. 4. Send handwritten holiday, birthday and thank you cards to past and current clients, valued partners, vendors in your referral network and connections who have helped you. You want to send these to everyone you can think of. This lets your customers and networking partners know you care about their business. 5. Ask for testimonials and reviews. This includes (but is not limited to) online reviews/recommendations on websites like Yelp, Facebook and LinkedIn. 6. Join groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. Whether it's cooking or B2B marketing - your audience is there. Go get them and stay active in the group! 7. Share your expertise freely. Let the public know what you’re an expert at and use that to boost your credibility and value. Publish tips, share your expertise through public speaking and even try pitching the media. Show your area that Rainbow International is known as an expert in the

restoration industry. Write Q&A columns on your area of expertise for your local newspaper and social media followers in exchange for a link to your website and business name. Readers will become interested in your columns and look forward to seeing them. 8. Inspire customers to call you instead of a hard copy newsletter. Send self-printed post cards – they can cost less than 46 cents each, stamp included! Make it fun and colorful with a strong “Call to Action” title, like, “100 reasons to call us.” List out 10 to 20 reasons that include your skills, talents and services. Give your customers a coupon as a bonus or something fun to inspire them to call. 9. Use images that reflect the quality of your service. Images are a shockingly underutilized tool in online marketing circles. Having a memorable, powerful and colorful image can do wonders for your website, content strategy and brand, which improves your chances of turning a visitor into a lead. In the case of Rainbow International, your service is focused on quality design, so your images should be reflective of this. Potential customers are looking for someone that will turn their disaster into a memory and the images on your website need to reflect this. 10. Hold safety seminars. Disaster restoration companies can reach potential customers by holding regular safety seminars on topics like "How to Prevent a Fire," "How to Survive a Tornado," and "Keeping Your Family Safe from Natural Disasters." Providing free workshops and educational opportunities are additional ways to position your Rainbow International business as an expert in the field and will provide outlets for your staff to build relationships with members of the local community.

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W hether you are a new owner trying to perform Business Development Associate (BDA) duties on your own, a new BDA, or a seasoned owner with a BDA on staff, the most frequently asked question is, “What exactly are the duties of a BDA?” The first and most important responsibility of a BDA is to bring in revenue and keep the crews working. In layman’s terms, sell jobs! As easy as that may sound, however, it can take on many faces. Selling a job or getting a referral can be as simple as being in the right place at the right time. It can also mean: Basic Responsibilities of aBusiness Development Associate (BDA)

By Craig Cox

• Two percent of sales are made on the first contact. • Three percent of sales are made on the second contact. • Five percent of sales are made on the third contact. • Ten percent of sales are made on the fourth contact. • A whopping 80 percent of sales are made between the seventh and twelfth contact! Remember, it takes repetition and persistence to develop professional relationships and to gain trust. After you have made a contact, enter that contact in your FUSION CRM using the FUSION App. If you’re not sure how to effectively use FUSION, first refer to Next Gear University and the how-to videos inside the FUSION Help tab. If after those trainings you need more personalized assistance, reach out to your Franchise Consultant. There are some very easy- to-use shortcuts in the FUSION App that can make keeping a good diary of contacts simple. By saving your notes from your meeting with a potential client, they will always be there to review before your next meeting with them. Detailed, quality notes on each visit will also help you discover what entices that client to refer you work and help you to establish a relationship. Getting Back to Basics • Create and maintain contacts (between 264 and 440 per month). • Keep your FUSION Contact Manager accurate and up to date with quality notes. • See people daily and tell the Rainbow International story. • Sell jobs! There you have it, the secret to success: Keep asking questions, keep solving problems for clients, keep learning and keep selling. Go forth and prosper!

• Spending time researching potential contacts • Learning the hierarchy of a company • Figuring out the referral process • Identifying the person with the correct authority • Determining the needs of a potential client • Deciding out how to provide for those needs.

The most basic task is to see people! Speak to everyone you meet. Tell the Rainbow International® story. Share the “Code of Values.” Tell them about being the “heart specialists of the construction industry.” An effective BDA will use FUSION to route their clients and potential clients and to keep notes from those meetings and conversations. The goal is to see between 12 and 20 people each working day of the month to tell the story. At 12 people per day multiplied by 22 working days per month, you should have a list of 264 potential clients you see each month. If we boost that number up to 20 people per day, you’ll have 440 potential clients. Remember, sales is a numbers game – the more potential clients you see, the more jobs will be produced. Don’t forget – it’s not all accomplished on the first visit. Statistics show 48 percent of salespeople never follow up with a prospect. Twenty-five percent of salespeople make a second contact and stop. Twelve percent of salespeople make three contacts and stop. Only 10 percent of salespeople make more than three contacts. Let’s follow that up with these facts:

“Remember, it takes repetition and persistence to develop professional relationships and to gain trust.”

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Planning Ahead for the Day You Sell Your Business

By Darrell Lopp

Whether you plan to sell your business a year from nowor 20 years from now, an exit planwill keep you on track toward achieving your goals.” Your exit plan starts by determining your ultimate goal for your business. Is it a legacy, or a means to an end? If you are like most business owners, you probably hope to sell the business someday to fund your retirement. If this is your goal, then your first step in creating your plan is to determine how much you will need for retirement. The answer is not always clear and you may want to consult with a financial planner. I t is often said that the best time for a business owner to create an exit plan is either the day they start their business, or today. In other words, it’s never too soon to start planning for the day you sell your business. Whether you plan to sell your business a year from now or 20 years from now, an exit plan will keep you on track toward achieving your goals. Unfortunately, many business owners don’t see the need for an exit plan or take the time to create one. They are too busy dealing with the daily grind of running their business to worry about life outside of their business. Ideally, they should focus as much energy on maximizing the value of their business as they do on running their business. These activities are not mutually exclusive, however, operating a profitable business while demonstrating solid sales growth will also help maximize its value. Any business broker will tell you that debt, divorce, and death are never good reasons to sell a business. If an unfortunate event occurs and there is no exit plan in place, the business may be forced to liquidate for less than asset value. Having an exit plan in place, however, will help provide options as circumstances change.

Do you know what your business is worth? While other factors play a part, such as the condition of the equipment, location, market, client base, history and longevity, the true value of your business is based on its profitability. An approximate value of your business can be calculated as a multiple of earnings (EBITDA + SDE). When seeking to maximize valuation, you should focus on factors that are within your control. Maximizing the contribution margin, either through increasing gross sales or minimizing variable costs, will make a significant impact on your profitability. Other ways to positively affect the value of your business include keeping updated and accurate financials, operating according to Rainbow International® systems and procedures, minimizing debt and properly maintaining vehicles and equipment. Since most transactions involve an SBA guaranteed loan, which requires a seller note for a portion of the total transaction, you should expect some seller financing in order to close a deal. Regardless of the structure of the transaction, you should be prepared to provide the bank with a minimum of three years of financials along with tax returns. The bank will do their own valuation based on the financials that you provide. This means, in essence, that the bank will be the true arbiter of the business valuation. This is why it is so critical to have updated financials and accurate tax returns. Whether you plan to sell your business to fund retirement, pass it on as a legacy, or just move on to something else, an exit plan should be a part of your overall business strategy for success. Think of business ownership as a journey. Financial statements are like your GPS showing your current position, your long- term business goal is your destination, and your exit plan is the roadmap to show you the way. Start today by creating your exit plan and chart your course to achieve your goals.

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