8 do’s and don’ts for home service success: setting prices, saying no, and becoming profitable

Photo by Ian Samkov

A longtime contractor, Joe Crisara is uniquely qualified to know what works—and what doesn’t. “I’ve been in the service business for 48 years,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to do it about 24 years the wrong way, and 24 years the right way.”

Joe Crisara

Joe thrived as a technician in the heating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical trades but quickly became overwhelmed when he took the leap into entrepreneurship. Six years in, facing $471,000 in debt, a candid conversation with a client became a turning point.

Joe recalls the client asking: “How’s it really going? I can tell something’s not right.” That moment of honesty helped Joe open up and reflect on his business—and start communicating better. He was able to turn the business around by asking friends for help, clearly conveying his worth to customers, and setting boundaries around prices and jobs.

Today, Joe pays it forward by helping other service providers achieve success through Service MVP, a podcast and membership community providing sales training for home pros. “The contractors, the blue collar people in this world, are the people who are in the crawl spaces behind the walls and the attics and the places nobody wants to go,” Joe said. “You’re sacrificing so much to give to other families… I want every contractor to have the best resources they can for their family.”

Below, Joe shares the most important do’s and don’ts of his career, from setting prices and saying “no” to jobs to hiring your first technician.

How do I become profitable as a service provider?

Don’t: Be in it just for the money

“When I go on a call and I’m thinking: ‘How much money can I make from this call? Or how much can I get from these people?’ That’s the wrong mentality… because people can smell the motivation you have. You have to correct yourself and have a motivational talk with yourself in the car or the truck before you go into an opportunity.

“The thing I always say is: These people are gonna get care, respect, and support. For me, that’s my first goal. My second thing is: I’m not gonna have a need to be accepted. So if they don’t want my [service], I’m not gonna be sad or let down or angry; I’m gonna say, ‘That’s okay, they’re just not a good fit for me.’”

Do: Charge what your service, time, and expertise is really worth

“Profit takes courage. Whenever somebody tries to nail you down with: ‘That part couldn’t cost more than $5’… you gotta remember that in the service industry, parts are free. The person [who installs the parts], the people answering the phone—that’s what customers are paying for. That’s the product.

“I think you have to give [30-second] economic lessons to the consumer as if they were a 5-year-old. Because they just think, ‘How much do the parts cost?’ as if that’s all you’re doing. Remind the consumer: What you’re paying me for is my service. And that starts when I answer the phone with the insurance company, the truck, what I’m wearing, my uniform, my 20 years of expertise, and then to be here after the job is over.”

How do I navigate difficult situations with customers?

Don’t: Settle for substandard work or a cheaper price

“I really believe that most of the time when a service provider does things the wrong way, it’s because the client, more or less, is dysfunctional. They don’t know how you operate, and so they start pulling you down a path that’s not gonna be productive. But it’s you—the service provider—who has to have the boundary, to sometimes say no, to or say, ‘I really wanna do it the right way instead of the wrong way, so I’m gonna shoot straight with you.’

“That boundary is where profit begins, right? Because I’m refusing to do things wrong. I’ve already made a decision. I will do things right before I start. I’m gonna make sure the customer knows why it’s better for me to provide the right way of doing it rather than doing it a cheaper way, or things like that.”

Do: Show empathy while educating customers

“If the client tries to tell you that they wanna do something the wrong way, you have to create empathy first and say: ‘You know what, I know what you’re asking me to do, and I appreciate you doing that. I know it must be hard going through the fact that you have no hot water or no power, or nobody’s taking care of your lawn. But if you’re asking me to do this the wrong way, I’d rather turn you down than let you down.’

“I tell people, ‘I’d rather turn you down than let you down’ because if you’re asking me to do it in a way that’s not gonna work long term, I wouldn’t be doing a good service… There’s plenty of people you could call, and I would definitely not stand in your way to do that.”

What should I do when my business is struggling?

Don’t: Isolate yourself

“There’s a lot of dark days in these kinds of businesses. There’s some days where it’s very obvious why we went into business and why we love doing what we do. There’s a lot of other days where we wish people would be calling us. We wish we were charging the right price and we had money in the bank. And there’s a financial struggle that’s real. I’d say it’s a day-to-day struggle.

“The biggest tip I can give you is when you feel like not making your problem transparent and isolating yourself, that’s not the answer. The answer is to find help by somebody else who is doing better.

The contractors, the service providers, the blue collar people in this world are the people who are in the crawl spaces behind the walls and the attics and the places nobody wants to go. And I really feel in my heart that they deserve the best.

—Joe Crisara, Service MVP

Do: Ask your peers in the industry for advice

“[When I was struggling,] what I didn’t realize is that the people who I thought were my competitors, if I had walked into their shop and just talked to them like real people, they would’ve invited me in and been happy to give me tips or advice on how to get better.

“If you’re struggling and in the darkest period of your life as a contractor, which is more often than the public sees, my advice is to find a regional non-competitor that you can go visit to get a boost of enthusiasm and new ideas, and a new paradigm—which means a new way of looking at your trade.”

When should I start expanding my business?

Don’t: Expand before you’ve perfected the customer experience

“Where a lot of people make a mistake is they don’t research what the client in-home experience should be. If you’re stuck as a solopreneur, most likely you’re in a dysfunctional communication customer experience situation where you’re not able to sell enough work to sustain employing somebody else. The outcomes are not good enough. You’re closing 20%. The amount you’re selling is too low to sustain two employees—yourself and somebody else.”

Do: Hire once your profit outpaces your availability

“Once you perfect the customer service experience, now you’ve got something that works. You’re making 25% net profit on every call or more; the customer’s happy and giving you 5-star reviews. Pretty soon, it becomes popular and people buy more of it.

“The time you hire your first person is when selling too much work prevents you from taking on new customers. Because the best ability of any service business is availability. So if you’re not available because you’re having to stop your business to get the work done, that would be the first employee you hire.”

Bonus tips from Joe

• Invest in the way you communicate. Practice answering the phone with customers, or write a script if it helps you feel more confident. Ask ChatGPT for help creating greetings for your specific service business. Joe leads with: “It’s a great day at Service MVP. How can I make you smile today?”
• Bad reviews help you improve. “You could pay a consultant like me $12,000 a day to go out to your place and tell you what’s lacking in your company, but the customer will do that for free. For the cost of one bad review, you’re gonna learn a lot… [more] information about how you can improve.”

These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear from Joe, or visit the show homepage to learn about the show and find more episodes.