For many in the skilled trades, building a five-year plan takes a backseat to the daily grind of managing technicians or paying bills. However, if you have thoughts of retiring or possibly even establishing your organization as one of the premier home service companies in the country, you’ve probably considered a long-term plan to help you achieve those goals.

Maybe you’ve established your company in your local area but would prefer to make the leap from a smaller organization to one pulling in $10 million or more a year. Or maybe you are considering retirement and have an heir who will be taking over the business.

It also could be that you’re trying to build up your business so it will be attractive on the market should you decide to sell.

Whatever your goals may be, you need to develop a plan to get your business noticed so you can write your own ticket to the next level.

However, this isn’t done with the snap of your fingers. It takes planning and training and then some public relations (PR) to leap to the next level or into a change in ownership.

Your SWOT Analysis

If you haven’t done it already, take some time to consider your company’s Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). You can’t truly know the impact of your five-year plan if you haven’t looked at how your decisions will affect your business, your employees and your customers.

The goal of a SWOT analysis is to help you develop a strategic plan to take you from $2 million to $10 million or help you retire — whatever your goal may be. You must be honest and ruthless with yourself for this to work; it’s an unpleasant task that must be done before you can start positioning yourself for growth or change.

Not only will you learn things about your business you probably didn’t realize, but you can also use your SWOT to help you create a PR plan to catapult your business into your next set of goals.

What PR Can Do

It’s not unusual for a client to come to me with a goal but no idea how to achieve it. Many home service company owners have experienced some success through hard work and knowledge of the industry.

However, they don’t know how to reach the next level; that’s where a good PR strategy comes in.

Public relations is the action of a company or individual in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, community or other stakeholders it serves. It is the art of telling your story to the public and promoting your positives to media and trade outlets.

You need this goodwill to position your company for its next big adventure.

With so many home service brands emerging every day — many in your local market — it’s crucial that you establish and differentiate yourself from your competition.

With public relations, you can:

Increase your brand awareness.

Promote your credibility.

Bring in new customers.

Impress investors.

Improve your community engagement.

These things not only build your reputation for success by increasing your visibility locally, but they also get you noticed by larger organizations should your goal be to sell your company. Good publicity adds value to your business and prepares it for next-level victories.

PR is not a direct sales tool and shouldn’t be used that way. However, it is beneficial in drawing positive attention to your business, making it easier for you to reach the goals you outlined in your five-year plan.

Crisis Management

You’ve done your SWOT, you’ve developed your long-term plan and you’re working with PR professionals to make your business more attractive for the next potential owners.

However, the best-laid plans of mice and men don’t always turn out the way we hope. Sometimes a crisis develops through no fault of your own, and you need to be prepared to weather the storm. 

If an employee is accused of a crime or a customer complains about you to your local consumer protection reporter, you need to know the next steps.

If you’ve been following the advice of your PR agency, you’ve likely developed a lot of goodwill throughout the community so that one bad apple won’t spoil the whole bunch. However, you still need a plan to ensure the crisis won’t bring down all the hard work you’ve put into your company throughout the years.

And you’ll need someone who knows how to get you through the tough times.

Don’t DIY

Good PR is about repeated visibility, public awareness, getting the media’s attention and promoting your company’s brand. It sounds simple but, too often, people who aren’t trained in the art of PR try to do it and fail miserably.

Don’t be one of those people.

Instead, look at it this way: Would you want an untrained technician working on your HVAC system?

People who have worked in PR for years have developed contacts in the media and proven techniques to get your press release or your company’s story in front of the right reporters in the right markets.

PR professionals know the right line to toe between marketing and news. If your press release reads too much like an advertisement, the reporter you contact may be far more likely to turn you over to the publication’s ad representatives than listen to your story.

This is not to say that you should always keep your PR at arm’s length. You should take media training from your public relations agency and learn how to talk with reporters, podcasters and other communicators in the skilled trades space. You also should work with your agency to ensure everyone from your company who might talk with a reporter gets this training and becomes familiar with your PR and crisis communications plans.

PR requires the right approach at the right time and, when it’s done correctly by a professional, it is one of the best avenues to help your business reach its goals.