Can you start a business when you carry heavy debt?
This week’s guest proves that you can.
Tommy Mello started A1 Garage with $50,000 in business debt. Today, he’s about to cross the $40 million mark in revenue with over 200 employees in 10 states. He has worn all kinds of hats from sales and marketing to hiring.
Tommy also built a lead generation company in the real estate industry, which is also a 7 figure business. He has authored a book called Home Service Expert: How I Went from $50,000 in Debt to Over a $30 Million Business in 7 Years.
His advice has regularly been featured in top publications like Inc Magazine and Forbes. Tommy Mello also hosts a weekly podcast called Home Service Expert.
Tommy Mello joins John Corcoran in this episode to talk about growing a home service business. They talk about tips to make a business stand out from the rest, his best recruitment & marketing practices, and the importance of using Google to grow a company.
In this episode, we also talk about:
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- What inspired Tommy to start a garage doors business
- Switching from having a business partner to going solo
- Tommy’s approach to building a good team & keeping them motivated
- How Tommy makes his company stand out
- Recruiting in today’s market with a low unemployment rate
- Tommy’s performance pay formula & how he handles underperforming employees
- Tommy’s approach to marketing his business
- Mentors that have helped Tommy grow his business
- What podcasting has done for Tommy’s business
- The challenge of using revenue to fuel growth
- Tommy’s passion for helping entrepreneurs & homeowners
- How reading books helps Tommy’s team
- The importance of Google to a business
- Who Tommy thanks for his success
Resources Mentioned:
- Home Service Expert: How I Went from $50,000 in Debt to Over a $30 Million Business in 7 Years
- Home Service Expert Podcast
- Tommy Mello on LinkedIn
- The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes
- The E-Myth
Sponsor: Rise25
Today’s episode is sponsored by Rise25 Media, where our mission is to connect you with your best referral partners, clients, and strategic partners. We do this through our done for you business podcast solution and content marketing.
Along with my business partner Dr. Jeremy Weisz, we have over 18 years of experience with B2B podcasting, which is one of the best things you can do for your business and you personally.
If you do it right, a podcast is like a “Swiss Army Knife” – it is a tool that accomplishes many things at once. It can and will lead to great ROI, great clients, referrals, strategic partnerships, and more. It is networking and business development; and it is personal and professional development which doubles as content marketing.
A podcast is the highest and best use of your time and will save you time by connecting you to higher caliber people to uplevel your network.
To learn more, go to Rise25.com or email us at [email protected].
To learn more, book a call with us here.
Check out Rise25 to learn more about our done-for-you lead generation and done-for-you podcast services.
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Episode Transcript
John Corcoran 0:40
Alright, welcome, everybody. John Corcoran here I’m the host of the smart business revolution podcast where I talk with CEOs founders and entrepreneurs of companies and organizations like EO, YPO, Activation, Blizzard, one the world’s largest video game companies lending tree Open Table x software and many more also the co-founder of Rise25, where we help connect b2b business owners to their ideal prospects and referral partners. And I’m very excited today because my guest is Tommy mellow Tommy started a one garage with $50,000 in business net today, he’s about to cross the $40 million market mark in revenue with over 200 employees in 10 states. He’s also built a lead generation company in the real estate industry, which is also a seven-figure business. And as he’s grown his business, he’s done everything. He’s at all kinds of hats from sales and marketing to hiring. And he has also authored a book called home service expert how I went from $50,000 in debt to over a $30 million company in seven years. Gotta have to update that title there to add on there, and so his advice is regularly been featured in Tom publications like ink magazine, and Forbes. It’s also hosts a weekly podcast home service expert I always like connecting with other podcasts or so before we get into this interview. This podcast is brought to you by rise quantified media which I co founded with my business partner, Dr. Jeremy Weiss, and our mission is to connect you with your best referral partners and customers and clients. We do that through our done for you podcast solution. I believe if you have a business, you should have a podcast period. And clearly Tommy agrees with that it’s one of the best things I’ve done hands down since I found in my business. It is such a great tool that accomplishes so much at once. It allows you to meet great people like Tommy here today, and allows you to connect with referral partners and strategic partners. It’s networking, business development, it’s personal professional development, which tells us content marketing, it’s all of those great things. And I’ve been to people’s weddings been a vacation together with people. And I know that is one of the best things that I’ve done. And I encourage all of you to do as do it as well. It’s really about leaving a legacy for yourself and for your guests. In fact, my business partner was actually inspired to podcast because his grandfather was a Holocaust survivor, and the Holocaust foundation captured his personal story with an interview s podcast on Sunday. tremendous, tremendous, amazing. So yes, podcasting has a tremendous business benefit, but it also helps you and your guests leave a legacy of knowledge. If you want to learn more about it. Go to Rise25.com or email us at support at Rise25media.com Alright, so as I mentioned, our guest is Tommy mellow and Tommy, no one gets started with garage doors. What What inspired you to, you know, go into this particular niche of all the different areas you could start a business and why garage doors?
Tommy Mello 3:21
You know, that’s a great question. I had an opportunity. I had a landscaping company, and one of my buddies got a job answering phones at a big rostro company and he was doing pretty good. He was making about 60,000 this is 2005 and six and then another
John Corcoran 3:36
fails or something to not just answering the phones.
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