Growing your business

Three ways to grow

Your fee is the same on every hour, $2.00 per accepted hour, with no end date. So every way to grow comes down to one number: accepted hours.

Fix acceptance first

Raising acceptance costs the least. The phones are already out, the crew is already recording, and the sites have already said yes. A company with low acceptance that adds recorders just gets more rejected video.

• On Monday, look for companies whose recorded hours grew while their accepted hours barely moved.
• Find the one most common problem, usually the camera angle, and get the owner to fix that first.
• Check the next week's numbers. One good week convinces a crew more than any talk.

• Helping crews improve

Add recorders where it's working

A company that records well is your best place to grow. The owner trusts the program, the crew knows the setup, and the sites have said yes.

• Ask on a good week, not a bad one.
• Ask who else on the crew wants to record. Each person says yes for themselves.
• Ask about more sites too. A new site needs its own OK before anyone records there.
• Tell Colby early. More phones than the company's contract covers means a change to its Order Form, which Colby handles with the owner.

Asking for phones from your portal is coming. For now, the owner or you tell Colby.

Pick a niche or a town

Owners talk to other owners in their trade and their town. When you focus, each yes makes the next one easier, and you get faster at answering the same questions.

• One trade. You learn its work, its schedule and its objections. Hotel kitchens, auto detailers, HVAC shops and janitorial companies each work differently. Check the trade on the accepted tasks list first.
• One town or area. You can meet owners in person, stop by the places they buy supplies, and come back when something goes wrong.
• One network. A language community, a trade group, a church or a league where owners already know you.
• Work that records well. Hands-on tasks done for long stretches, in good light, at sites that will say yes.

• Industries and tasks
• Which companies fit

Use your own name

Owners say yes to people they know and trust. That part is yours, and Colby can't do it for you.

• Introduce yourself and your business first, then Colby.
• Your link's page already tells the owner they were invited by you.
• Be clear that you run your own business. Don't present yourself as Colby staff.
• Stay the owner's first call: after setup, after the first feedback, after the first good week.
• Your own name and logo on the materials you send owners is coming to your portal. Until then, send Colby's owner guides with a note from you.

When to say no to a company

A company that can't record well costs you time, and it can cost its crew their accounts. Say no, or not yet, when:

• Its crews don't do work on the accepted tasks list.
• It can't get an OK to record at any of its sites.
• The owner wants to record staged or repeated work to pile up hours.
• The owner would push crew members who said no.
• The owner wants a promise you can't make: a higher rate than your limit, a set number of hours, or money from you.
• A recorder who was removed by the recording app wants back in under a new account.

Say it plainly and kindly. "This isn't a fit right now" keeps the door open if things change.

How to use your time

• Most of your hours should go to owners: new ones, and the ones whose companies are just starting.
• Don't spend an evening fixing a phone. Send it to Colby support.
• Pass contract and money questions to Colby. The split of who runs what is in the overview.
• Keep notes short and in People, so nothing lives only in your head.

If you run a crew yourself

Your own company can record too. Colby pays it at the rate in its own contract. Your partner fee of $2.00 per accepted hour comes from the companies you bring in, so your own company's hours don't earn it. In Companies, your own company shows on its own, with no fee.

Questions

Read next

• What moves your earningsYour accepted hours come from how many companies you have, how many recorders each runs, how many shifts they record, how much is accepted and how long companies keep recording. Here is which ones you control.
• Earnings examplesWorked examples in accepted hours: a small crew, a mid-size company and a book of ten companies. Multiply any total by $2.00 per accepted hour to get your fee.
• Which companies fitA company fits when its crews do hands-on work from the accepted tasks list, on steady shifts, at places that allow recording, and its owner can say yes. Check these before you spend time on a pitch.
• Where to find ownersStart with owners who already know you, then work outward: companies you subcontract with, supply houses, trade groups, online groups, Spanish-speaking networks, your audience and events. Each channel has its own manners.