IQ Plus

Why Industry Leaders Use IQ

In 2021, we surveyed hundreds of Business Leaders and were rewarded with great feedback that is universally applicable. This IQ Plus page is dedicated to their comments, fears, concerns, and advice. 

Whether you think you want to use IQ or not, this page has information that is thought-provoking and invaluable.  Put down your phone, close your email, and read this.  Share it with your management team. Discuss it and take the time to act.  Your future self will thank you.

On this IQ Plus page, we pose a number of "Purpose" topics to help you understand that we at IQ are about much more than selling software.  We are about the Purpose of software and, more importantly, about the Purpose of why you started your business in the first place.  Our Purpose is to help you achieve the Pride and Joy of Success while avoiding the fear and pain that are the result of a struggling business. 

Your Ultimate Goal: Retirement

As Stephen Covey wrote in 1989, "Begin with the End in Mind."

Most business owners started their business with the goal of making money by applying a skill that they have to an industry they know with the end result being a level of Achievement and Success to Realize their Dream of a solid and enjoyable retirement.

The only way this goal can be achieved is to build a business that is Profitable to the point that the business can not only meet the obligations of payroll and expenses, but to have enough left over to put away for the future. It’s a form of Retirement Planning that no Financial Advisor can do for you, because they only get involved AFTER you have money. 

Let us help you design a process and implement a system that accomplishes these goals so that you can have the level of profit needed to achieve your retirement goals.

Preparing Your Company for Sale

It has been said: “The only reason to start a company is to sell it”. 

If you ever plan to sell your company, the buyer will value you much higher if you have documented processes, a system to back them up, and a way to replicate your success after you're gone.  Implementing an industry-specific process and system will prepare you for such a day; and that day is getting closer by the minute.

Your Profitability is Critical

Nothing is more critical to your success (and retirement) than your profitability.  There are 2 ways to improve Profits:

1) Make More Money, or 

2) Reduce Expenses.

It is common for business owners to invest in more people rather than investing in better business processes and supporting systems to maximize what they get out of their existing employee investment. And nothing is more expensive in your business than your employees.  But you need them to administrate the business you've created.  Equipping your current staff to do more so you can avoid the next  employee hire will result in lower overhead which means higher profits.  

The bottom line is this: Good Processes lead to Higher Profits.

Let us show you how. 

Stop Accepting Low Margin Projects

The most common mistake in the labor world is to get a quote request and immediately look at the job as ‘What will the Customer Pay?’ vs ‘What will this Project Cost?’. Estimators then back into the Sell Price based on what they think the customer will pay, a common and costly mistake.

Industry Leaders have found that the best way to run a profitable business is to avoid low margin projects by first calculating the predicted cost of a project, then and only then determine a Sell Price by putting a margin on that projected cost; not the other way around.

This is the classic: "Risk vs Reward" concept.  Focusing on the Reward before calculating the Risk is a recipe for disaster. It makes little business sense to take on a project without projecting its profitability, yet it happens every day; jeopardizing the long-term success of your business. 

You can INCREASE Profits by Bonusing Employees

Does it seem Impossible to Increase Profits by giving more money to your employees?  We promise to show you how to accomplish this by using our Incentive Program method on Quoted Projects.

You'll draw the best talent in town to work for you and make more money by doing so.  This, alone, will cover your investment in IQ.  Don't miss the opportunity to understand this business philosophy.

CRM is NOT just
"Sales"

CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management”, not just “What is the next sale?”.

Managing a Customer Relationship means being aware of ALL of a customer’s needs and activity, past, present and future. It’s “What is going on with every aspect of my customer?”. 

Your Business System needs to provide Dashboards that show all team members all activity at all times, from future Sales Opportunities, to Active Orders, to Outstanding Invoices, and even the when the next follow-up phone call is scheduled. 

THAT is CRM.

Reduce Your Struggles with Payroll and AP

The #1 challenge for all business owners is making payroll and paying vendors. The factors that go into meeting these obligations are many including:

  • Ensuring Projects will be Profitable BEFORE they start

  • Providing accurate Job Costing to make course corrections along the way

  • Timely Invoicing (Getting invoices out quickly to start the Due Date clock ticking)

  • Collecting Accounts Receivable (Ensuring all parties are aware of outstanding invoices)

Your business system is the only tool that can do these things for you.  Your accounting system can't help because it often doesn't know until it's too late.

Fix what you don’t know is Broken

What?  How is it even possible to address something you're not aware of?  Exactly!

Your business system must be intelligent enough to inform you of things that you would not typically know.

Has your staff ever flat out forgotten to send an Invoice? You’ve performed all the work, paid the employees and expenses, and then your staff makes the mistake of closing the job without invoicing it. Who knows? How do they know? This has happened to you and you didn’t even know it! 

We have a real-life story of an IQ customer that was invoicing outside of IQ. Their chosen process did not utilize all of the tools at their disposal and invoicing was unknowingly falling through the cracks. We helped them discover over $350,000 in un-invoiced orders that, had they adopted IQ’s Best Practice, would have never happened and/or would have been on an automated report that provided visibility to the situation on Day One. 

Let us make sure this never happens to you!

Find Your Money Leaks

Every business, including yours, is leaking money. Profits are slipping away and you’re not aware or you would do something about it. 

Implementing processes and reporting to identify these leaks will allow you to retain more of the money you’ve already earned; increasing profits and making your life just that much easier.   

Examples? Showing that one of your Estimators is consistently underbidding projects, or that a Job Lead's installations are consistently missing the estimated hours can be the difference between making money or going out of business.  You need to know that so you can plug the hole in the dike today.  Your business system must provide this type of information.

How Do You Replace Your Retiring Estimators?

Your experienced Estimators aren't getting any younger. It's not uncommon for Estimators to be your oldest employees.  Of course, they have the most experience and you want them bidding your projects.  

But what do you do when they need to take a vacation, or flat out retire and are gone for good?

A "Changing of the Guard" is coming… Many companies are losing their most tenured estimators to retirement and the new generation is coming in. This new generation EXPECTS software that is intelligent enough to help them estimate and your customers want to know that your estimate is more than just an educated guess. Implementing a system that will help you raise up the next estimator, provide the details that substantiate your quote, and even do your estimates for you is a business decision you cannot put off.

And... if you want help with quoting during peak load or vacations, IQ offers a Professional Quoting Service where we perform quotes inside of your system for you with no training necessary.  Contact us for more information on this cost-saving service.

Keep up with Your Competition

Minimize the Impact of Weather and Pandemics

Your competitors are taking advantage of technology and the majority are moving forward with IQ Coordinator as it is now the Industry Standard.  If you are still using your accounting system and homegrown spreadsheets to manage your business, you need to catch up.

Regardless of your size or revenue, there is a version of IQ that will fit where you’re at now and is prepared for your growth. 

Stop leaving money on the table and losing jobs to your competitors because you have resisted change. You worked too hard to build your business to lose jobs to a competitor that is using IQ Coordinator and looks more professional than you.  Don't let a smaller competitor beat you because they’ve adopted technology that you haven't.

The whole world experienced the effects of not being able to go to the office because of Covid-19. Businesses without Internet-based business systems had to scramble to implement processes to overcome this situation.  But this topic isn't limited to Pandemics.  There are many other reasons why employees may not be able to physically get to the office to perform their duties such as:

  • Inclement Weather

  • Child Care Issues

  • Traffic

  • Car Problems

  • Another Covid Variant

  • And the next thing you don’t see coming. 

Whatever the reason, you need a Business System that is fully internet-based so your office staff can work with 100% efficiency remotely regardless of the reason they can’t get to the office. 

You Need to be the Hero

There is NEVER a good time to implement software.

Like it or not, You are your employees’ Hero. The one that they look to know that everything will be alright when things are shaky and that they will have a job and paycheck next week. 

Every good story has a Hero. Luke Skywalker in Star Wars or Frodo in the Lord of the Rings.  But what is often overlooked is that every Hero has a Mentor, like  Obi-Wan Kenobi or Gandalf, that stands to the side providing advice and direction when called upon; allowing the Hero to make the ultimate call but helping them avoid pitfalls and boosting their confidence in taking the risk to do what the Hero knows they need to do. 

That is EXACTLY what an IQ Consultant’s roles is… the Mentor that helps You do what Hero’s do; Save the Day, Every Day. 

We coined a phrase 20 years ago that still holds true today:

“There is never a good time to implement software. You’re either too busy, or you’re too poor.” 

When sales are good, your time is spent taking care of customers. When sales are down, you’re too nervous about payroll to invest in improving your business.

It’s an endless cycle. 

This will sound "salesy", but you really can’t afford not to do it today. Choosing not to improve your business will eventually stop you from being busy and make you poor. Make the Smart decision  and begin investing in your business process today. 

If you choose IQ Coordinator, we’re ready. Just know that your involvement is very limited during the implementation. After the 2 initial business process calls, you simply need to provide some base business information and the ball is in our court until training. 

If you want to better understand the process, contact us and we answer your questions.  And if you've read this far on this page, you've invested more time than our call will take.  We look forward to speaking with you!

Why are You NOT Moving Forward with IQ?

We hear it all the time... "I don't have time."..."We're too busy right now."..."IQ Costs too much."..."I don't have the money"..."I don't know what is going to happen with my business".

Talk to any Business Owner using IQ and they'll tell you they don't know how they ran their business without it.  It's costing you money NOT to have IQ. 

As a business owner, you need to work ON your business as much as you work IN the business.  Implementing a better process and business system to support it is the best thing you can do for company today.

As for cost?  IQ is about 1/2 the cost of 1 office employee.  Business owners don't think twice about hiring a new person when things get a little busy but they'll put off improving the business because it takes some effort.  Don't do that to yourself!
Implement a system, make your staff more productive, get the tools you need to succeed, and avoid the next hire.  

Get started with IQ Today!