Want a Loyal, Motivated Team? Start Here.

Elevated employee motivation in residential service starts with pride, recognition, and simple systems that make your team feel valued from day one.

KickStart: You can make money working your craft on your own. You can make buckets of money (and achieve the ever-elusive “Personal Freedom” with a motivated team!

I’ll be straight with you here—I think about employee motivation a lot. Some folks (including my long-suffering wife, Sioux) might even (unfairly in my opinion) accuse me of being OCD about motivating residential service workers.

They might be right! 🙄 But if you’ve ever had to hire, train, and manage people in any of our home service industry sectors, you get it.

Here’s the deal, folks! You can make decent money running solo—just you, your truck, and the tools. And if you’ve got systems, discipline, and good skills, you can do really well.

But here’s the honest, straight-from-my-heart truth:

You can’t grow a real business alone. (Much less cash out for a luxurious retirement down the road.)

Let’s use a plumbing service for today’s exercise.

I don’t care how fit (or driven) you are. Eventually, if you are all alone, you WILL “hit a wall”! The phone rings while you’re crammed under a sink. You're pulling 15-hour days and then staying up late doing paperwork. Something’s gotta give. (Your health, your marriage, your sanity, etc.)

So, like most of us, you start hiring.

And that’s where things get messy. Why?

Because most of us in the residential services industry sort of “slide into hiring” without shifting how we think about our company- or worse, ourselves. You see...

We’re still stuck in “owner-operator” mode—trying to run a growing company the same way we ran our one-man operation... and this literally can become your personal “hell on earth”! 😥 (Trust me- I've been there!)

Here’s What I Learned... the Hard Way. (Don’t be me!)

If your goal is to build what I call a Critical Mass Business—a residential service company that keeps running smoothly with you OR without you being onsite screaming at your employees 24-7—you MUST change roles.

Suddenly, you’re not just doing the work anymore. Now you must become:

• A coordinator of people and processes

• A planner who thinks ahead and sees the big picture

• A bit of an amateur psychologist (because people are complex)

...and honestly? The above list is just the start. (I never said building and managing a Critical Mass Business is for the “faint of heart”!) 😮

Need Help Finding the “Right People”?

Hiring the Very Best! is our 3-hour online HFS seminar packed with hundreds of ideas, tools, and systems for hiring in the real world (not fantasyland).

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First Step... Get People to Care About the Work They’re Doing

Here’s something I figured out early in my business journey:

The best employees—the ones who go the extra mile, show up on time, and care about your customers—feel emotionally connected to the company.

They’re not just showing up for a paycheck. They feel like they are part of “something great”! Why?

Because my managers and I made it a priority to recognize and appreciate our people and especially our techs—genuinely, consistently, AND publicly. Simply put, we built a culture that made people feel good about what they were doing.

Now, I won’t lie—the cash bonuses helped too. We didn’t just slide them an envelope and say, “Thanks.”

Nope, I made a thing out of it. Recognition, a little fanfare, and a “here’s why we appreciate you” moment. It made a HUGE difference. Employees (and their spouses) remember this stuff.

But wait! Let’s get back to today’s example- you're running a (very small) plumbing company!

So, What If My New Hire Isn’t Excited to Be a Plumber?

Let’s face it—not many people dream of becoming a plumber! After all, kids don’t go around excitedly telling their friends, “My dad snakes sewer lines!”

So, it’s your job to change the story.

You’ve got to help your team feel pride in what they do and where they work. It’s all about building identity, confidence, and a sense of belonging!

Here are some easy ways to do that:

5 Simple Ways to Boost Pride, Morale, and Loyalty

1. Day-One Business Cards (With a Twist)

Give new techs their own business cards on their first day—with their photo on it. Why?

It’s official. It’s personal. Being gifted their very own business cards tell them, “You’re not just a helper—you’re a pro now.”

Your new hire will hand out their new cards to their friends, their family, their high school shop teacher and even strangers at the grocery store! GREAT!

💡 Bonus Tip: Make sure the card looks sharp. No cheesy clip art or cheap paper. Get professional help to develop your logo and a business card template.

2. Photo I.D. Badges for Every Team Member

This one is a win-win.

Nervous 1^st-time customers love it. They feel more at ease when someone shows up with proper I.D.

Techs love it. It’s just another way to feel like part of something bigger than themselves.

💡 ProTIP: Print your employee’s first name big and bold so customers can easily remember and call them by name. “Hey Mike, thanks for your hard work!” builds an instant connection and trust.

3. A Initial Welcome Aboard Ceremony

No need to roll out a red carpet. Just have coffee and donuts on their first day. Have their co-workers waiting. When your new hire walks in- BIG APPLAUSE! Introduce them. Let them share a bit about themselves.

Give them their gear. Their I.D. badge. Their personal business cards. Make it a moment. Their fellow employees can introduce themselves. (And HOPEFULLY explain that this is a great place to work!) 🙄

It doesn’t take much—but it shows you care, and it sets the tone.

🗝️ NOTE: New hires will subconsciously decide whether they are going to stay long-term with a company in the first two weeks of their employment which means you must...

4. Assign a Mentor or Trainer

Don’t just throw new folks into the deep end. Assign a go-to person—a tech who knows the ropes. Then guide the two of them through the first couple weeks with a daily structured Fast Track Training system.

It helps the new hire get up to speed faster, and it gives your experienced team members a leadership opportunity.

💡 ProTIP: This also helps identify weak techs—because if they can’t teach it (even with a structured Fast Track Training system) they are probably struggling in the customer’s home too. 😯

5. Make Positive Recognition a System and Not Just a Random Act

Praising people shouldn’t be something you “try to remember to do.” Build it into your culture.

Set regular check-ins. Shout people out in team meetings. Celebrate wins—big and small.

You really can’t overdo Sincere Recognition. People are starving for it, and when you consistently deliver, they’ll run through walls for you. 😁

Now That You’ve Got a Solid Team—Keep ‘Em Booked!

You hired the right people. They’re pumped to work. Now what?

You’ve got to keep those trucks rolling, and that means converting leads and booking jobs—even at your much higher prices. (Remember, MORE money is better than NO money!)

That’s why we created: Winning Over Callers at Higher Prices!

This is 3-hours of intense, practical training course packed with real-world strategies to:

✅ Convert more leads from phone, text, email, chat, or social

✅ Stop selling on price—and start selling on value

✅ DRAMATICALLY boost your booking rates while holding your margins 💲💲💲

👉 Click HERE to learn more or register online...

The KickStart Line

Motivating employees isn’t some fluffy, HR thing. It’s about building a resilient Critical Mass Business where people love to come to work—and customers love to call... all because both groups LOVE your residential services company! 💖

You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be consistent. Show your team that they matter. Give them something to be proud of. Celebrate their wins. Lead by example.

The world’s changed. But good old-fashioned values still work—especially in the trades.

Let’s keep building businesses we’re proud of. You in?