The live webinar, Why 2011 is the Year to Profit from Flat Rate Pricing, took place on March 23, but for those of you who missed the live showing last week, wanted to watch it again, or wanted share with co-workers, you can access the recording by clicking here or on the link below.

Why 2011 is the Year to Profit from Flat Rate Pricing

The webinar, hosted by our partners at Callahan Roach, shows you how to use the power of flat rate pricing to propel your business forward through 2011 and beyond. Watch it and you will learn what flat rate pricing is, why you should consider the switch, what’s in it for you, what’s in it for your customers, the bottom line impact, and different ways to implement and incorporate it into your business.

We also have the slides used in the webinar available for download here.

The recording lasts under an hour. The first 40 minutes is the presentation by Mike Hajduk (president of Callahan Roach) and Jeremy Lowe (Database Administrator of Callahan Roach). Following their presentation is a Q&A session between the listeners of the live webinar, Jeremy and Mike of Callahan Roach as well as, Jonathan Frei and Dean Schreiner of dESCO.

If you have any questions about Callahan Roach’s flat rate pricing solutions, call 800-528-0212 or visit Callahan-Roach.com. If you have any questions about using flat rate pricing with ESC, call 800-226-7529 or visit our flat rate pricing page. We are very happy to answer any questions you have.

dESCO also has many more free webinars you can view at your leisure. Our webinars cover variety of topics for using ESC effectively. We cover everything from effective quoting, dispatching to marketing and inventory control, and much more. Check out our webinar page for more.

If you have an idea for a future ESC webinar, please send it to jonathanf [@] desco-soft [dot] com.

If you are just getting started with maintenance agreements and want to make sure you get off on the right foot…

If you are stuck – selling and renewing about the same number of agreements each year…

If you want to exponentially grow your maintenance agreement base to have less seasonality, more replacement sales, and a more stable business….

Then join our live, exclusive program tomorrow, Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11 AM Eastern time.

You’ll learn:

• The one simple thing that will exponentially grow your sales
• How to run a contest so that everyone wins
• Why commercial agreements are a critical component of your plan

Call in or chat in questions for Ruth King, the presenter who has helped thousands of contractors increase their maintenance agreement bases.

Here’s how to participate:

On Wednesday, February, 2, 2011 at 11 AM Eastern time:
Go to the HVACChannel.tv Program Schedule
Fill out the form and use the password, esc (all lower case letters)

If you miss the live session or want to watch it again:
Go to the HVACChanne.tv Library
Click the link for 5 Easy Ways to Grow your Maintenance Agreements
Fill out the form and use the password, esc (all lower case letters)

In addition to the free broadcast, you’ll also get the opportunity to participate in the 2011 Grow your Maintenance Agreement Challenge at reduced rates as an ESC user.

I hope you can make it tomorrow!

Here at dESCO we are always looking for ways to provide you with the resources you need to grow your business and make it more valuable to you.

We’ve discovered that one of the most effective ways to increase the value of your business is through maintenance agreements. Growing a maintenance agreement base, whether for HVAC, plumbing, or another type of service company, is critical for profitability.

With that goal in mind, Ruth King, a well-respected industry consultant and Channel Manager for HVACChannel.tv, is leading a 301-Day challenge for ESC users to grow your maintenance agreements.

You can find out more information about the 301-Day Challenge and sign up for the program by clicking the link below.

301-Day Maintenance Agreement Growth Challenge

If this program sounds like what your company needs to take its maintenance agreement program to the next level,  download and print the registration form.

More and more field service companies are turning to GPS vehicle tracking to lower vehicle fuel and maintenance costs, protect their assets, and provide better service to their customers.

However, companies thinking using this technology to build their business need to get a grasp on what kind of return on their investment to expect. As with any capital improvement project, you need to know what kind of return on your investment you should expect before investing.

The math for calculating ROI is simple, but determining the realized benefit and total investment cost to getting there is challenging. SageQuest’s ROI guide will help you know where to start, show you what numbers you need to know, and share stories of businesses that have benefited by using GPS vehicle tracking. You can download the guide at sage-quest.com/roiguide or by clicking the link below.

Download the 4 Steps to Understanding ROI for GPS Vehicle Tracking

SageQuest’s guide takes away the guessing game that comes along with deciding if a GPS vehicle tracking system is right for your service business. The guide offers the key information that demonstrates both the potential savings and added values a vehicle GPS system can produce.

The guide includes:

• The 4 easy steps to understanding ROI
• Key ways you can save
• A complete example with real numbers
• A fill-in worksheet to calculate your own ROI
• Examples of customer savings

Download the 4 Steps to Understanding ROI for GPS Vehicle Tracking

SageQuest, an ESC integration partner, provides GPS fleet tracking and management solutions that improve the efficiency and productivity of mobile workforces. Unlike other providers, SageQuest focuses on delivering true business insight and the personal service you need to maximize your potential return. The award-winning product, Mobile Control, provides a comprehensive set of tools and the flexibility to fit the needs of virtually any mobile workforce.

Service Roundtable has shared a PowerPoint presentation by Linda Couch, Chief Operating Officer of Parish Services. She gave the presentation at Comfortech 2010 in Baltimore, MD.

The presentation shares 10 ideas for making your service technicians more productive. You can get it from Service Roundtable’s website or by clicking the image below.

Linda’s 10 tips are:

1. Clearly define and prioritize “productivity” for your techs
2. Define and manage productivity goals
3. Equip your techs with productivity enhancing tools
4. Equip techs with a proper, organized inventory
5. Train your techs: Technical
6. Train your techs: Advising
7. Use supporting customer service and dispatch strategies
8. Use supporting warehouse and purchasing strategies
9. Use supporting sales and marketing strategies
10. Use IT to increase productivity

She goes into much greater detail within the PowerPoint presentation, which also includes her speaking notes. Implementing all of Linda’s tips will take a great deal of time, focus, and dedication. But the effect her tips will have on the profitability of your business will be profound.

For those of you who hate writing business letters, Service Round Table has provided an extensive resource will ease the burden.

The Service Roundtable obtained a special license from Eshinesoft Corporation to make these ready-to-go, easy-to-modify standard business letters available online for our members and potential members. Cut and paste any letter into your word processor.

Why Free? Why is the Service Roundtable making this letter library available for free when others charge for it? Simple.

The library is accessible here for both SRT members and non-members. There are tons of letters here, but the search field makes it easy to find what you’re looking for. Once you find the right letter, you can paste it into a Word document and fill in the blanks.

You can use these letters in your business correspondence, and if you’re an ESC user, you can save the templates you use regularly right into ESC. If you’re not an ESC customer, you can sign up for the 30-day free trial to see how ESC can make your correspondence with your customers more efficient.

Most of you in the service industry, especially those of you in HVAC, know who Ron Smith is. Many of you have probably heard him speak or have read his book HVAC Spells Wealth, which is now in its eighth printing.

HVAC Light Commercial Service Agreements

The book is recognized as the definitive ”How To” book of the HVAC service industry.

In addition to his book and speaking engagements. Ron Smith also has a website that’s packed with useful articles and information for owners and manager of HVAC companies.

On his website, Ron Smith has also recommended a handful of products for HVAC professionals including dESCO’s ESC. We’re proud to be among the few companies that have made the cut.

dESCO and its owner, Dean Schreiner, has had a long standing relationship with Ron Smith. Ron Smith got his start in the HVAC industry with the company he founded, Modern Air Conditioning.  He Started Modern Air in 1961 in Fort Myers, FL (which happens to be where dESCO has its headquarters).

Since then Ron has owned, grown, and sold several HVAC companies as well as companies like Ron Smith & Associates  Service Experts which work to help HVAC companies reach their potential.

Now Ron consults and coaches contractors and distributors. He is also the author of the bestselling book HVAC Spells Wealth and the book HVAC Light Commercial Service Agreements.

We’re happy to have Ron’s support and to have him as a partner in our business.

Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks announced in a recent press release that they believe small business employment is rebounding.

Small businesses are showing signs of an economic rebound. This is the main finding of the just-released Intuit Small Business Employment Index, a new, monthly report that provides unique, near real-time insight into employment trends of the smallest of small businesses.

via Intuit Press Release – Small Business Employment Showing Signs of Rebounding.

This is good news for many of the nations unemployed as they seek new jobs.

However, the Intuit index indicated hourly compensation has been mostly of the past several months and has actually declined recently.

About the Index

The Intuit Small Business Employment Index is based on online data from approximately 50,000 small business employers with fewer than 20 employees who use Intuit Online Payroll. Intuit reports data for three categories: small business employment, compensation and hours worked. Intuit will analyze and publish the data at the beginning of each month.

We’re curious. Is your company hiring again? Are employees working more hours? Leave your feed back in the comments.