ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode Will and Josh talk about the importance of tying anything you do in your repair business back to sales. Focusing on profits in every activity of your business is key to outgrowing and outpacing your “competition.” They also answer an audience questions
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
Discover several mistakes beginning and novice repair store owners make regarding pricing, repair services, and marketing. You’ll learn how to avoid these common mistakes while at the same time keeping a focus on customer experience and service.
AskWill+Josh 008 EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Will: Let’s have a conversation. Let’s talk about it.
Josh: All right. What’s been going on, man? It’s been – it’s been, it feels like a month but you know, well you know…
Will: Obviously, really hasn’t been a month yet.
Josh: Well, you know we’re fresh off the holiday.
Will: Yeah,
Josh: So happy Memorial Day! Happy post – Memorial Day to everybody.
Will: A Post Memorial Day.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: Yeah, I hope you guys had a great Memorial Day. I did. We had a good time.
Josh: Yeah, and I had a great time.
Will: We actually – yes.
Josh: I left off, went on vacation for a week for my son’s birthday, right.
Will: Oh, what did you do?
Josh: Just turned one, went back to Arizona State with my in-laws. They got 40 acres up in the mountains of northern Arizona. So…
Will: Nice. What’s the weather like in Arizona this time of year?
Josh: Where we were at, it was awesome, man! It was 80 degrees.
Will: Ooh!
Josh: Just perfect every day. Cold at night…
Will: Whoa.
Josh: …bonfire weather.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Man, it was just – it was nice. It was nice to get away.
Will: Yeah, you got a –
Josh: I let the kids play out on the mountain, hope they don’t get that – by rattlesnakes or something but… [Laughter]
Will: Right. Yeah, yeah.
Josh: Man, it was nice. It was good to get away, gave me some good perspective.
Will: Oh yeah.
Josh: You know I mean? Sometimes you need that.
Will: Yeah, you do. Yeah.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: That’s great. And you know, my holiday was – it was pretty good. We had a little cookout with the team.
Josh: Yup.
Will: And that went really well. But it was kind of a downer because my daughter got a little sick.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: Right. She got a little – I had to just the heat – the heat came in Dallas a little early.
Josh: Heat exhaustion, man.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: It’s serious. Yeah.
Will: It came in Dallas a little early this year. It was about 100 and you know 100 plus degrees.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: Not even officially summer yet.
Josh: And the humidity.
Will: It was hot.
Josh: Right?
Will: It was hot.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: So she had a little issue but we got it under control. So I think she was just a little dehydrated. We got some fluids and she’s doing good.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: But all in all…
Josh: That’s good, man.
Will: It was a great weekend, bro!
Josh: Yeah.
Will: So we’re back at it.
Josh: Back on the grind. Back on the hustle.
[Laughter]
Josh: Back here to talk to you guys, we missed you.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: So in case you don’t know…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: This is the Ask Will and Josh show.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Here to answer questions and fulfill your minds and hopefully, leave you better than we found you.
Will: Exactly. Exactly.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: And we better get in. You know we always do this. We kind of stretched out the beginning a little bit. We’re already three minutes in. We’ll try to keep it at 30 minutes, so we’re losing time.
Josh: Nah, that’s all right.
[Laughter]
Josh: That’s all right because we’re here to share. We’re here to share, man.
Will: Exactly. Exactly. If we go to 40, 50 minutes, I’m sure you guys will be OK with it. You’ll be…
Josh: Yeah, well as long – as long as you’re getting something out of it that –
Will: Exactly.
Josh: And I know, you know obviously, our goal is to always make sure that we bring something to you. So…
Will: That’s –
Josh: It’s an interesting day too, man to kind of talk about what was going on with us today.
Will: Right.
Josh: You know as we had a big site visit, right? We had a – we have one of our Carrier clients on site today.
Will: Yes, which was very exciting.
Josh: Which was big, big – always exciting. You know, get all the staff, all – you know, a buzz and everybody fired up about it, you know. So that’s always fun…
Will: That is always fun.
Josh: …when we get the on-site visits, especially for the tail end of the pilot.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: So you know, good work to the team, everybody for coming through and you know all putting the…
Will: Yeah, shout out to the team.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: Did an excellent job.
Josh: Excellent job, put another nail in the coffin on that one.
Will: It was beautiful, beautiful. Excuse me.
Josh: So, yeah, so for me, I’m – you know, it’s always kind of nice when we get to close out, start the week by closing out something really big and important that we’ve been working on for a long time.
Will: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Josh: And now, we get to roll right into this and hopefully, transfer those positive energies, and positive vibes, and positive experiences right into you.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? So, with that being said, what’s today’s show topic, Mr. William?
Will: Today’s show’s topic is what we often call TTM.
Josh: I mean we talk too much.
Will: We talk too much.
[Laughter]
Will: That was a good idea. You know what, you got me on that one. I didn’t…
[Laughter]
Will: Oh, on a podcast, that’s great. TTM, talk too much. No. Actually, it’s Tie To Money.
Josh: Right.
Will: Right? Tie To Money. And, Josh, I’ll go ahead and let you explain kind of what that means. Because you know, we talk about this…
Josh: All the time…
Will: …all the time.
Josh: It’s one of the things we were just talking about. And that’s actually why I mentioned even you know, the fact that we had the Carrier visit on site today.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Which is not an – it’s not an anomaly.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: And we do that at least once a month, right?
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: …with one of our Carrier clients come through –
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: …kind of see what we’re working on.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: But the fact is, whenever we’re vetting a project, a program, or even with our staff…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: What are you spending your time on?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right? The conversations always come back to TTM.
Will: TTM.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Like OK, you know, what kind of work are you doing right now? We got to tie it back to money, right?
Will: You know, and let’s make it make sense.
Josh: Right.
Will: Let’s make it make sense.
Josh: And that’s what it is.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: So, in a nutshell, it is everything we do and what we would propose for you to do too is anything you knew in your business or that your staff does…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: You should measure by the return that you get.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: Finance – and it’s not always financial returns, so TTM is used loosely.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: But there should always be some sort of return on what you’re doing.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Bottom line.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Now, TTM specifically does mean Tie To Money.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Because at the end of the day in a business, it’s all about the money.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Now, I say that you know obviously, not trying to sound crass…
Will: Right.
Josh: Because you know, service and all these things are an important part. I don’t make it sound like it’s all about money.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: But at the end of the day, if you’re running a business, it’s all about money.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right?
Will: I mean honestly, the definition of a business is to profit, make a profit.
Josh: Yes.
Will: At the end of the day, like if you’re in business…
Josh: Unless you’re a non-profit.
Will: Unless you’re a non-profit.
Josh: Right?
Will: Right. Right.
Josh: But even non-profits need money.
Will: Yes. Exactly. But usually, the goal – not even the goal, but the objective for any business that considers himself a business is to have a profit at the end of the fiscal year.
Josh: Right.
Will: Right? Hopefully those…
Josh: Or every month you know.
[Laughter]
Will: Hopefully every month exactly.
Josh: Right?
Will: Exactly. And so that’s what it is. So again, we don’t want to sound crass in what we’re saying about tying it to the money but we know, sometimes having that money conversation is a kind of a sticky conversation sometimes. Because some people are a little weird about –
Josh: Well, some people get weird about it, right?
Will: They get weird about tying it to the money.
Josh: So, as a reminder…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: This is a business podcast, right?
Will: [Laughter] exactly, exactly.
Josh: Which means that you know, if you’re here as a hobbyist…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: … you know, I salute you but at the end of the day –
Will: There’s nothing wrong with being a hobbyist.
Josh: No, absolutely not.
Will: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: That’s what I’m saying, I salute you, right? I mean, add to the movement of…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: You know #RepairRight.
Will: Yes.
Josh: You know, and just furthering the repair industry.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: But at the end of the day, this podcast and what we do in the information we share is about teaching people how to change their lives…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: By creating businesses that generate revenue.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: So they can live the lives of you know their dreams…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: … and flip or whatever op – you know whatever they want to do.
Will: Because at the end of the day, well, we do understand, guys and it’s – honestly, it can be about the money but it’s not about the money, it – really, it’s about the time, right?
Josh: Yes.
Will: Because what the money allows you to do is –
Josh: Reclaim your time.
Will: Reclaim your time.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: And so everybody, I think would agree that time is one of the biggest, probably the top three most important things for you in your life, right? And what you do essentially, is you buy your time back.
Josh: That’s right.
Will: Right? And in order to do that, you got to have the what?
Josh: Some money. Yeah.
Will: [Laughter] some money to buy your time back.
Josh: Right.
Will: So at the end of the day, yeah, we’re talking about tying to the money, but the money actually allows you to free yourself so you can do the things you love doing like spending more time with your kids, spending more time with family, and spending more time with people you love, really enjoying life. So yes, you have to have and you need money in order to buy your time back.
Josh: Right.
Will: Because everybody has that universal principle or a universal thing that ties us all together, which is we got to pay the bills.
Josh: Right.
[Laughter]
Josh: Yeah, unless you got a farm, right? Where you’re farming your own milk…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: …and meat…
Will: Right.
Josh: … and vegetables.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right? Then you maybe don’t need money because you can live off the land. But for the rest of us in the developed world, right?
Will: Yeah, we the money.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: So we got to tie it to the money. TTM.
Josh: That’s correct. Yeah. So bottom line is, again, obviously, this is a repair business podcast.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: So why are we harping tie it to the money? Number one, the biggest mistake I see in this industry…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: …is people do not focus on the fact that this is about money, right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: So you’re doing things that are wasting time, right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: …that don’t give back money, right?
Will: Exactly.
Josh: When you invest your time – now, I’ll encapsulate this conversation a little bit.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? Because I’m going to say some things that sound very hard line and I know that there’s rules…
Will: Yeah. Yes.
Josh: …around that. I’m not telling you, you have to be like this all the time.
Will: Right.
Josh: But the bigger picture is if you keep investing way more time and not getting a return on your money…
Will: Yeah, you’ll…
Josh: …you will be going out of business.
Will: Yeah, or you’ll be a hobbyist –
Josh: Yeah.
Will: Pretty much – I mean…
Josh: Or you’ll never hit your goals.
Will: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Josh: Right? You’ll never hit your goals of – unless your goal is you know, to just scrape by, you know.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: And you know, be able to just fix everything that you see.
Will: Right.
Josh: So, again…
Will: And probably, most of you guys are led – probably 95 percent of you guys…
Josh: Again, if you’re on this podcast, it’s not what this is about.
Will: Yeah, you’re not listening to us through and to be a hobbyist, right?
Josh: Yeah. There’s thousands – yeah, there’s thousands of channels out there for the guys that want to be a hobbyist, right?
Will: [Laughter] Right, exactly.
Josh: This is, again, this is about how you can turn this exciting thing that we do, which is cell phone and mobility repair.
Will: Get the life changed.
Josh: Turn that into something that empowers you in your life to do everything that you want to, to get your time back to spend time with your family and friends…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: And just you know, do things to change the world, right? So again, the reason why this is important is because time and time again, what I’ve seen throughout the years is people spend time doing the wrong things.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: So let’s talk about some examples about that. Will, you start with – what’s the first example that comes to mind for you as far as someone being a hobbyist and not TTM?
Will: Well, that’s a great question and I think it’s you know, we like – yeah, you guys know, you’ve been listening to us, you know we started in the business of repair, right? And at…
Josh: The retail side.
Will: And on a retail side. And our objective was obviously, to make money, be successful, and grow. And in order to do that, we had to learn, right, the strategy at which to do that in terms of turnaround time and repairs and how long –
Josh: Upsells.
Will: Upsells.
Josh: Right, and how to do services that…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: …people would normally give away for free.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: And charge for our time.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right?
Will: And time is a very, very important part of that. For example, you know diagnostic. I do believe it’s something that people really –
Josh: That’s a good one.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: That’s a good one.
Will: Diagnosing is really the thing that people struggle I see the most in this business is understanding exactly what the problem is very quickly. And the benefit of that is – it’s a few things. Number one is, you’re able to respond to your customer quicker, right?
Josh: Hmm.
Will: It allows you to be more communicative to your customer, which is going to give you a better relationship between you and your customer, and your business, which is going to give you better – a better feedback and responses from your customer, which is always great in this world we live in, a social media where you can be blown up for not communicating properly, right?
Josh: Right.
Will: So with that being said, understanding how to get back to your customer faster is a benefit of turnaround times, right? What else? So, spending time. You know that is something you definitely want to –
Josh: I want to dive into the diagnostic one you know, man.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Because you know, that goes back – that goes right back to day one of the store, right?
Will: Uh-huh.
Josh: What we did when it was myself…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: …in the store.
Will: Right.
Josh: And Frank’s still in the store.
Will: Yeah, right.
Josh: What we did is, we were definitely doing diagnostics for free for a while.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right, because why? Because we were learning.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: That was how we were getting our education.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? But it quickly transitioned into us having the ability to say, OK, right, I see this problem.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Now, what’s going to have to happen – and this is not – definitely not this refined smooth sales pitch, but I just want to give you an idea, right?
Will: Right, right.
Josh: This is the way you do this.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: But we always charge a bench fee for our time.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: So anytime we did anything with any customer’s phone…
Will: Right.
Josh: …we always charge the bench fee.
Will: [Laughter] right.
Josh: Always.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Always, right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Now again, we didn’t in the beginning, and some of your competitors might not.
Will: Right.
Josh: And that’s OK.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Just because your competitor doesn’t charge, doesn’t mean that you can’t.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: If you are more knowledgeable, more professional, more refined…
Will: Right.
Josh: …more smooth, more systematized…
Will: Right.
Josh: Or systematized, more communicative, it is very easy…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: … to charge for the value of your time.
Will: Right.
Josh: Because that at the end of the day, repair service business what that – what this is, this is a service business.
Will: Yes.
Josh: You charge for your time.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right?
Will: Exactly.
Josh: So to me, that’s a bomb diggity example.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Because that is one of the first places that we always teach people. Yeah, it’s OK to charge for – you know not charge for a while, while you’re learning.
Will: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: But you need to learn how to transition that quickly.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Because otherwise, you will spend a lot of time…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: …doing diagnostics that never turn in because even then, the customer just might decide. You did everything you – you were supposed to do…
Will: Yeah, sure.
Josh: But they decide, this isn’t a flip for me.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Now, I’m not here to tell you whether you feel that’s fair or not fair to charge for that, that’s up to you.
Will: Right. Right.
Josh: but I’m going to tell you, in the world of business, right?
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Here’s how it works.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? In my business, when it was not me doing the diagnostic…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: I had to pay a technician. So if that customer left and I had my technician spend 30 minutes of their time doing that diagnostic or 15 minutes, right?
Will: Right.
Josh: That cost me money.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Because that technician was making at least $15 an hour, right?
Will: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Josh: So if it was 30 minutes of time, that was a $7.50 invested.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right, not mentioning all the overhead to keep my facility open.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? But that time was invested that I lost.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: So if I let that customer walk out in the repair business and not charge them anything, that was a disservice to myself.
Will: Right.
Josh: Because I was losing money.
Will: Right.
Josh: So again, I’m not going to tell you what’s right or wrong for you and your business.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: But that’s one of the biggest problems that we see in this space…
Will: Yeah, I’m –
Josh: …not valuing your time, right?
Will: Yeah, I think people, and just from a – from an instructor’s standpoint, what I saw when I was doing and when I was instructing and teaching from – well, you know week-to-week, day-to-day, what I saw a lot of the times when we actually taught this concept is that people are very uncomfortable about doing that, about charging people for their time, especially in the space of a repair.
Josh: Right.
Will: And…
Josh: You know it’s a pure service business.
Will: Yeah, it’s a pure service business and so people felt very uncomfortable because the nature of our society is you only charge people when you give them some type of…
Josh: Value in return.
Will: …value in return. So a lot of times, people see that value as an actual product or an actual service that is the ideal result…
Josh: Hmm. Mm-hmm.
Will: …of what the customer expects.
Josh: Right.
Will: And so it’s kind of a – it’s kind of one of those – it’s a gray area for a lot of people when they think, “Well, what did I really do?” And that’s really valuing, it’s really understanding yourself, your business, what your objective is, and valuing your time and value on what you do. It’s really you know being confident. And here is where it gets sticky too. Because it’s a lot about being confident and what you do in the diagnosis.
Josh: And that you actually are adding value.
Will: That you’re actually adding value.
Josh: Right.
Will: And that’s where a lot of people actually missed the mark. Because if you don’t really understand how to diagnose if you’re guessing and doing guesswork when it comes to diagnosis…
Josh: Right.
Will: …then you can see why that feeling of not being comfortable with charging people for what you did not accomplish ideally, can be a problem.
Josh: Right.
Will: They can be an issue.
Josh: For sure.
[Laughter]
Josh: Because at the end of the day –
Will: Right.
Josh: You know why nobody ever had a problem paying us our bench fee?
Will: Why is that?
Josh: Because they paid us for information.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right?
Will: And we were confident in that information.
Josh: We were confident in the information.
Will: Right. Yes.
Josh: If we told you this was – is what it was…
Will: Yes. Yes.
Josh: Then that’s what it was.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right? Now, the way we always did it is we would apply that bench fee to the repair…
Will: Yes.
Josh: …if you did the repair.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: but if for some reason, you decided you didn’t want to do the repair…
Will: Yes.
Josh: Then that was OK, right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: But you’re still going to pay me for the time.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Obviously, certain things are straightforward.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Like if you’re bringing in a phone with a cracked screen and everything else is working good…
Will: Right.
Josh: I don’t have to charge you a bench fee for that…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: …to tell you that the screen is broken.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: It’s these other weird things, right?
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Another one, liquid damage, right?
Will: Right.
Josh: People only charge liquid damage, if it’s successful.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Well, man you invested time.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Why wouldn’t you at least charge a diagnostic fee or a bench fee?
Will: Yes. Yes.
Josh: Right? Again, that’s one aspect of it. One of the reasons why I really want to be, again, TTM, man.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: And you guys really got to think about this, right? It is – you know on the service side of it, one of the things that we see every day right now that’s huge is all this deep level board repair.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: I mean it’s been like this for years, but now, it’s like a whole different level where this is a really big deal.
Will: Yes.
Josh: You got a lot of chuckleheads out there.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: You know, teaching things – and there’s a lot of great information that I’m not saying, you know.
Will: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: There’s some garbage and there’s some good stuff like anything else.
Will: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: But at the end of the day, if you’re wasting hours and hours and hours, right, trying to fix something on the board, you got to think about what you’re doing. TTM.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right? How do I – how would I TTM it if it was me? OK, I’m spending time right now learning.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: So to me, that’s valuable. That is TTM-ing.
Will: Yes,
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: Once I am in a place where I know what I need and I know these common repairs…
Will: Yes.
Josh: Then you need to be getting to a place where you say, “Look, this is what we do.”
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? We do these types of repairs, right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Now, that I’ve seen this, right? I’ll give you an example. So let’s say you got customers – you know, you’ve had several calls or several devices that came in this particular device, and something happens to it, and boom! You end up with a boot loop [0:17:29.1] [Phonetic] or something weird, I don’t know, just an example, right?
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Maybe you get to a place that was like you know we’re starting to see enough of this.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Maybe we need to invest some time to actually invest hours to figure out what’s actually going on here.
Will: Right, do some R and T.[0:17:41.9] [Phonetic]
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Boom! You figure out what it is, you figure out how to repair it. Now, you could TTM it.
Will: Right.
Josh: You can charge for the repair, right?
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: So yeah, sometimes you have to put that free time in to learn it, right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: Still, I would still be charging a bench fee, to be honest with you.
Will: [Laughter] Right, right. Yeah.
Josh: Right? On a couple of the units and of course, you always disclose #RepairRight.
Will: Yes.
Josh: You always disclose to the customer what it is you’re doing…
Will: Right.
Josh: And that they are going to be charged a fee and you allow them to make that decision.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: But that’s how I think it should be handled, right? Is – some customers – yeah, spend the time to do it because it’s important to me. Boom! That’s a perfect example of when, OK, let’s invest some time into figuring this out.
Will: Right.
Josh: Because now, we can add that as an additional service and now once I have it…
Will: Right.
Josh: Guess what?
Will: Yeah.
Josh:Rose Repair Shop [0:18:30.3] [Phonetic] down the street, you’re probably seeing the same problem.
Will: Right, right.
Josh: So either I can go and share my information with you or I can repair your devices for you.
Will: Right. Yeah.
Josh: Right? You can outsource those to me because you’re probably not repairing them.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right? So I think that’s another example that I see is people waste 3, 4 hours…
Will: Yes. Yes.
Josh: …on these board repairs that are you know cheese list, man.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Who moved my cheese, bro?
Will: Right.
Josh: Like you’re going down these – you’re you’re chasing these holes that are fruitless at the end of the chase.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: This is not a hobby, guys.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: You need to figure out how to TTM everything you do, same with your marketing.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: When you spend time marketing, when you – well when we do this podcast, do we do this podcast for free?
Will: No.
Josh: Right? I mean yeah, we do, right?
[Laughter]
Josh: There’s no cost for you to listen.
Will: No.
Josh: But, to Will’s point, no.
Will: I wouldn’t do anything.
Josh: There’s some TTM.
Will: And just to be honest with you, I don’t anything for free. [Laughter]
Josh: Right. Exactly. It’s TTM.
Will: I mean I’m – I’m just being honest like yeah, it’s one of those things where you know – and money is not always the value, right?
Josh: Right.
Will: Sometimes it’s what you’re going to learn, it’s what you got to do, it’s the return on the investment, right, is what we’re talking about, right? So it is the return on the investment that can eventually turn into money sometimes, right? So that could be learning, that could be the experience, that can be things like that. So yes, sometimes you are doing things for free but at the – and the – for free in terms of the immediate gratification of money. But sometimes you’re investing in the knowledge in order to turn that knowledge into money down the…
Josh: That’s right.
Will: …right down the line.
Josh: That’s right.
Will: You know, that makes sense. And so one thing I want to talk about also is, it’s very important – just to piggyback on what you’re saying, it’s very important. When it comes to TTM, it’s very important for you guys to understand what your capabilities are.
Josh: Right.
Will: Right. It’s very important to understand who you are and what you do, and at what level you do it, right? Because the TTM is going to be directly – directly adjacent or whatever was the word. Directly…
Josh: Related.
Will: Related…
Josh: Right.
Will: …to what you do, right?
Josh: Right.
Will: And that may be at a different level than what somebody else does. You may get to a point where you’re BER, Beyond Economic Return. If you don’t understand what that means, it’s Beyond Economic Return…
Josh: Repair.
Will: Or repair, right?
Josh: Yeah.
Will: Beyond Economic Repair, which means for you that maybe here, right? Whereas – or – and maybe at a lower point, then another shot who has a different level of beyond economic repair. And a lot of that means basically, just at what level or how much time.
Josh: Yeah, because it not make sense anymore.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right?
Will: You’re going to spin on doing that. And when you get to this point of diminishing return… [Laughter]
Josh: Right. Man, I think that’s awesome too. Because you know that’s the term that we use a lot in this industry…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Especially with the tier one and tier two clients in BER.
Will: Yes, you’re right.
Josh: Right? And I think that’s so awesome because you know, it’s a good point. Because you know what, your BER is different than my BER.
Will: Right. Yes.
Josh: Because maybe my systems are set up to handle things that you are not.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: So for you, it is beyond economical return.
Will: Exactly. Exactly.
Josh: But for me, I have certain skills sex – sets in certain processes…
Will: Exactly
Josh: …that makes it very easy…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: …to make this a very good economic return.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right?
Will: So when we talk about TTM, a lot of that is really understanding where you are. It’s a reflection of what your capabilities are, the resources you have, the skill set you have, the ability you do you have, right, to shorten the time or shorten the resources or whatever it takes for you to achieve whatever the goal is. Your TTM is going to be different about your skill set and your ability to provide the service or the product that the customer wants.
Josh: You know what it is?
Will: It’s a moving target, right?
Josh: You know what it is, man? . I don’t know why it just hit me. Karate Kid. [Laughter]
It’s Karate Kid, bro.
Will: Explain.
Josh: Because you remember?
Will: Explain that.
Josh: You remember it. And so this is –
Will: You got the craziest analogies man, right?
[Laughter]
Will: It’s the Karate Kid. Go ahead, explain what it is…
Josh: Right. So it is going to show our age level
Will: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: Because – well, this is ‘80s babies, right?
Will: Yeah. Yeah. Ralph Macchio, what’s his name?
Josh: Macchio, yeah. Ralph Macchio. Yeah.
Will: Macchio. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Josh: So by – and Mr. Miyagi, right?
Will: Mr. Miyagi.
Josh: Right. But it is what it is, right?
Will: Wax on, wax off.
Josh: It’s your level of knowledge, right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: Are a beginner, a novice? Are you intermediate…
Will: Yes.
Josh: …expert or advanced?
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right?
Will: Exactly. Exactly.
Josh: Because each one of those requires a different skill set.
Will: Exactly. Exactly.
Josh: And it’s going to take different effort based on where you are.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right? That’s why I say Karate Kid.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Because what most of the movie, what the Karate Kid doing.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right? Wax on, wax off.
Will: Wax off, right.
Josh: Right? Paint the fence.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right?
[Laughter]
Josh: You know, he’s doing all that stuff. He’s painting the fence. He’s doing all these and say, “Man, why am I doing all this stuff?”
Will: Yeah, he got mad at Mr. Miyagi.
Josh: Right? Mr. Miyagi, he’s like, “Dude, you ain’t teaching me Karate.”
Will: No, you don’t.
Josh: I’m doing all this work around here that you don’t want me to do.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah, for sure.
Josh: And then what happens? Right? Miyagi, Miyagi’s [0:23:18.0] [Indiscernible] right?
Will: [Laughter] right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Right.
Josh: He’s like, he throws a punch and he says, you know, “Wax on.”
Will: Yeah.
Josh: And he whoo! He waxed it.
Will: Yeah. Right.
Josh: Right? Paint the fence. Boom! And he blocks it.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right? So it’s the same thing.
Will: Right.
Josh: Because what was happening is he was learning very academic skills, right?
Will: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Josh: But through repetition, he was becoming an expert.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: And because of that expertise…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right? Same analogy for you guys, depending on where you are in your growth path, if you’re a white belt or if you’re a black belt.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: That level of expertise is going to determine where your time should be invested and how you TTM things.
Will: Uh-huh.
Josh: Right?
Will: You have –
Josh: That’s a growth path for you.
Will: Yes, yes.
Josh: Right?
Will: And you guys –
Josh: I don’t know if that made sense.
Will: It makes sense. It makes total sense. And what guys have to be is you have to be comfortable with where your TTM is, right? You have – sometimes, you have to be comfortable with saying you know, “We’re done.” “We’re finished.” “We’re done with this.” It doesn’t make sense for us to go on.
Josh: Right.
Will: You really have to be comfortable with that so you can – and still, because it’s like we talked about before with the diagnostic, right, and charging for the diagnostic.
Josh: Just like you got to be comfortable saying, “No, you got to pay me for my time.”
Will: Yeah. You got to pay me for my time.
Josh: “My time isn’t free.” Right?
Will: Exactly. So it’s important. TTM is important, guys. And I tell you there’s a – the difference between being a hobbyist, which is totally cool. Josh and I are not knocking people who love to do…
Josh: At all.
Will: …this just for the – just for the…
Josh: For the sport of it.
Will: …for the sport of it.
Josh: Right.
Will: That’s right. If you like to take things apart…
Josh: Yeah, man.
Will: …or you like to fix things, that’s wonderful but that’s not really who our target audience and who we’re talking to is, and who we’ve been serving. Because what we do is we teach people how to change their lives in regards to getting their time back and making money. And in order to do that, we have to focus on this acronym call, TTM.
Josh: Right.
Will: It is to the money, right?
Josh: Yeah. Bottom line.
Will: Baseline. [Laughter]
Josh: Yeah, bottom line.
Will: To the money.
Josh: Three initials that change your life, right?
Will: Yeah. Exactly. How should people come to us for.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: So we’re – you don’t see us a lot on social media teaching repairs that take 2, 3 hours and things like that because what we do understand, we know how to do that stuff but what we do is we put…
Josh: We TTM it, man. Right.
Will: We TTM it, we TTM it. We go, “OK, at this level, does this make sense to do?” Now, what we do – do is we like to simplify a lot of the process.
Josh: Right.
Will: That’s what we do, that’s what we are, which is why a lot of clients we work with are actually like working with us. It’s because we take on pretty big clients and we simplify processes…
Josh: Right, we take very complex ideas and break them down into manageable chunks.
Will: Exactly. Yes, that’s the difference between us and all – and lot of what you probably see on the social networks and social media.
Josh: Right. Right, no matter what level, right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right. No matter if you just learn how to wax the car.
Will: Right, exactly.
Josh: Or if you’re in tournaments, man.
Will: Right. And simplified.
Josh: In simplification. Shout out to Ralph Macchio.
[Laughter]
Will: But hopefully, we you know kind of gave you guys you know some good information on TTM, right?
Josh: Yeah.
Will: And how that applies without really you know bashing anybody, right? Again, it’s just what we like to focus on because a lot of our clients are just that. They – they’re about making a return on the investment. So…
Josh: Yeah. Because there’s expenses involved, man. And at the end of the day, right, do you remember this conversation we had a while back to a – I’ll leave you with this on this topic.
Will: Right.
Josh: And then we’ll go into our questions for today, all right?
Will: Yeah, because we’re almost 30 minutes in.
Josh: Yeah, yeah.
Will: I’ll tell you… time flies.
Josh: But you know, again, when you think about a business, remember this thing where it’s like you know how do you measure how much good a business does.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Good. Yeah.
Josh: Right? And it’s kind of a definition of – now, we’re in a service business, right?
Will: Right.
Josh: But at the end of the day, business to sell goods.
Will: Right.
Josh: When you think about what the definition of goods are…
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? Goods,
Will: Goods.
Josh: Right? That means it’s good, right?
Will: Yeah, you feel good.
Josh: So businesses are measured by the good they do.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: And the more good you do…
Will: The more your reward.
Josh: The more you’re rewarded and that good, those rewards that money…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: …trickles all the way down your business and it funds all of the expenses, your overhead, your staff…
Will: Right.
Josh: Your marketing…
Will: Right.
Josh: All of those things to finally settle down…
Will: Yes.
Josh: …at the bottom for what is your profit as the business owner, right?
Will: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Josh: That is the definition of how a business should operate.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: That is the definition of doing good business.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: So that’s why we put the focus on TTM.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Because TTM always makes sure that you’re looking at that top of that funnel.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? So you can analyze, “Am I doing busy work?” Right, because when in businesses, there’s definitely two types of work you got to do.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: You got to do lie tasks, you got to do deep work.
Will: Right.
Josh: Deep work is that 20 percent we always talk about…
Will: Right.
Josh: … that moves the needle 80 percent of your success.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: Eighty percent is what fills your days.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Checking the mail…
Will: Right.
Josh: Checking the email.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Answering phones, blah blah blah blah, right? That’s the busy work.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: But all of that stuff…
Will: Right.
Josh: Whether it’s a small lie test…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Or whether it’s deep work, all of it should ultimately be tie back to the money.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right?
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Because that, boys and girls is what ends up as profit at the end of the day.
Will: It is. Yes, yeah.
Josh: Right?
Will: And it extends your ability to actually do what it is you love to do. Because at the end of the day, you might not be in a place where you can just do this if you can afford to do this, even though you love this.
Josh: Right.
Will: So it’s important to understand how you can make money doing this and how you can tie it to the money and how you can be prosperous in doing this so you can prolong your ability to do this. Otherwise, you don’t get to do good for people.
Josh: Right.
Will: And at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.
Josh: Definitely good.
Will: So we want to see you guys do good, and we want to see you guys have success, and we want to see you guys understand what the TTM is. And I’m just going to finish it up with his one more point, right? A lot of it goes back to understanding and being – and this is very important. All right, because I want you guys to understand this. It’s being confident. It’s the confidence in what you do. And the only way you’re going to be confident in what you do is to be knowledgeable. Be fully knowledgeable and competent about what it is you do. That’s where you get the confidence. The confidence comes in having the knowledge and being competent, and being secure, and being very sure in what you do.
Josh: Hmm.
Will: Once you have that confidence, then your TTM is going to come through. Actually, you don’t even have to chase the TTM, the TTM will follow you because you know what your value is and you’ll have no problem charging for your time. You have no problem charging for the diagnostic because you will know, you would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you did for your service and your customer was the best you could do and the best – almost anybody could do because you’re informed and you know the information forward, backwards and you’re confident in your ability to diagnose and to show your customer what that result is.
And once you do that, then you go, “Hey, this is my – this is what I charge for this service and this value, right? And you have no problem doing it. It is all about confidence. The problem I see so many times in this space is that people try to participate without going through the learning to be confident in what it is they do. And they’re trying to do T – TTM and charge people, and they’re not even confident in what they do themselves, right? So it’s very important. And that’s what me and Josh, Josh and I bring to this is we help understand how to be confident, right? And that comes by way of good training…
Josh: That’s right.
Will: Good tools and equipment.
Josh: Good support.
Will: Good support.
Josh: Right.
Will: It’s all of those things that you so need. It’s what we provide to our clients, so our clients can reap the benefits and returns that we actually live through.
Josh: You know, all you did was just –
Will: I’ll wrap it up.
Josh: Just…
Will: I’ll wrap it up. I’ll wrap it up.
Josh: But you made my Karate Kid…
[Laughter]
Josh: You made my Karate Kid analogy fire. Because all you do was say yeah. You know, at the end of the day…
Will: Was he right?
Josh: Right? What he was able to do was, man, he got all this knowledge by waxing the car, and painting the fence.
Will: Paint the fence. [Laughter]
Josh: So, exactly. So when he was in the tournament, he broke – even with the busted knee, he took the dude out Cobra Kai. Exactly, that’s what we do dog, right?
Will: Exactly. Exactly.
Josh: So guys, remember…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Cobra Kai.
Will: Cobra Kai.
Josh: That’s who we after.
Will: Wax on, wax on, baby.
[Laughter]
Will: All right, let’s get into this question.
Josh: All right, man.
Will: So the TTM, guys
Josh: The TTM. All right, so today’s question actually comes from of our students, one of our current students and alumni.
Will: Right.
Josh: His name is John Schenk
Will:John Schenk.
Josh: John asks, he said “Hey, I completed all the coursework.”
Will: Right.
Josh: “…graduated, just need to get my diploma that there was a glitch something with Chaplain …” OK, I appreciate this, John. Yah, we’re going to have you taken care of.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right, we’re going to make sure that our staff gets this all followed up on you so you can get fully graduated.
Will: Right.
Josh: He goes on to say, “Done with the courses, I’m an official graduate, really love the training, everything is top notch. Right?
Will: Congratulations! John, shout out, Congratulations, John! Good job.
Josh: “Here’s my question. My business is strictly buy, refurbish, and sell online due to my schedule and work demands until I retire.”
Will: Hmm.
Josh: “Biggest roadblock I face is margin squeeze.”
Will: Right.
Josh: “As everyone experiences in any business, the squeeze I feel is from two areas. The cost of parts, especially OLED LCDs and cost of sales for sites like eBay. The first is pretty much a deal killer when comparing typical prices, 190 bucks or so for a later model of Samsung LCDs versus folks selling wholesale on eBay for not much more. By the time you take into account cost of sales, you’re doing it for free. Pretty much, I have to stay away from LCD replacement, which is ironic. And on the other side of it, I have seen parts only devices on eBay with apparently working displays for about half of what parts sellers are trying to get for new LCDs which presents a workaround/opportunity.”
Will: Hmm.
Josh: “What insights do you guys have been into this or common issues that I should be aware of?” It’s a great question, John. Thank you.
Will: So just do us a favor because that was of a long way.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah. I’m going to sum it up.
Will: So let’s sum it up and then let’s hit the point.
Josh: Yeah, so I’m going to sum it up. What John is asking basically, he’s saying that he’s and F&F, he’s a fix and flip, right?
Will: Yeah, sure.
Josh: Which is a great business model for guys that you know, if you don’t want to do service work, right?
Will: Right, right.
Josh: If you know how to do service work, you can buy devices, fix them.
Will: Yes, yeah.
Josh: Flip them online, right, which allows you to do it around your schedule and your time frame.
Will: It’s actually a wonderful model. [Laughter]
Josh: Fantastic model, right? But what he’s saying is as he’s approaching the Samsung’s, he’s noticing he’s having a hard time.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: So the cost of getting a new Samsung screen is close to what he can sell the device for by the time he’s done with it.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right, where he might end up upside down or breakeven.
Will: Breakeven that…
Josh: Right, which is why he said, “I’m kind of doing it for free.”
Will: Which is not TTM, by the way.
Josh: Right.
[Laughter]
Josh: On the other side of it…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: What he’s noticing is that he can go on to eBay and these platforms, right? And offer up in places like this.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: And he can find basically, donor form – phones.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: …part’s harvest devices…
Will: Yes.
Josh: …for about half of what he could buy the LCD for.
Will: Oh.
Josh: Right. The new LCD…
Will: Savage.
Josh: Right.
Will: Salvage, salvage, salvage.
Josh: So – yes, salvage right? So he – the question is. Right, what should I be aware of? It seems like a good opportunity.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: What should I be aware of?
Will: Right.
Josh: And what are your thoughts?.
Will: Hmm. That’s interesting, Where are we going to start with that? Because that’s kind of deep. Where do you want to start? Do you want to salvage…
Josh: Well, we start at the top. Right, you know and it’s very insightful fantastic question.
Will: I love the question.
Josh: Right, fantastic question.
Will: It’s quite heavy because it’s full. It’s full, I love it.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: Fix and flip by the way is one of the best models. I love that model because I think – I don’t think enough people actually do flip.
Josh: They don’t. Yeah, everybody focuses on the service side of it.
Will: Yeah. And I understand why. I think it’s a lot of risk in terms of – because of the lack of information for fix and flip.
Josh: Mm-hmm.
Will: So a lot of people don’t really understand a lot of information we know, right?
Josh: Right.
Will: Because we have – we are privy to a lot of information in regards to grading and the quality, and how things should be bought because you’re making money when you buy stuff, right?
Josh: That’s right. So…
Will: So fix and flip is all about buying.
Josh: That’s part number one.
Will: Right.
Josh: Part number one, right, to dive right in – good job on that – is all your money – back when I was in the real estate business, right? We had this analogy and it would play true. I mean, I bought almost a hundred homes, right, during my time. And for me, that’s what I did as I bought homes and I fixed them and I flip them.
Will: Yeah. Right.
Josh: Right? Some of them, I would fix them and I’d keep them as rentals.
Will: Right.
Josh: But the way it always worked, is you know your exit when you buy.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: So I knew when I bought, I knew what my target buy price…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: We called it a strike price.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? I knew what that price was and then I knew what I was going to do with it.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? Either I was going to sell it…
Will: Right.
Josh: Or if I couldn’t sell it, you know I was going to rent it.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? And I would buy it at a price that still made sense for me to rent it while I still made a profit on the rent.
Will: Got you.
Josh: So it was a can’t-lose, which meant that I made my money when I bought that property.
Will: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: And all I do was cash my check when I sold it.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Got you.
Josh: And that’s exactly what applies to an F&F…
Will: OK.
Josh: And the phone refurbishing space.
Will: Right.
Josh: When you buy the device, you make your money on the buy.
Will: Right.
Josh: You have to already know what your exit is.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? If I know that I can move this phone to either the type of customer that I like to sell it on, whether it’s eBay or whether I go international, maybe I get a little more money international. Boom boom boom!
Will: Right.
Josh: That allows me to move my strike price. I can change what price I buy these at…
Will: Right.
Josh: …to be more aggressive or less aggressive.
Will: Right.
Josh: I don’t have to get every deal but when I do get a deal, I know it’s money.
Will: Right.
Josh: TTM.
Will: Yes, TTM.
Josh: Right?
Will: Right.
Josh: Made my money when I bought it, now all I got to do is execute everything. Now, the other thing that always happens in the repair business of homes…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: …is a lot of times, you end up with I don’t know what’s in the house.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Right.
Josh: Which is the same problem you have when you buy devices, right?
Will: I don’t know what’s going on.
Josh: I don’t know how many times I bought houses that had a budget on.
Josh: Right.
Josh: Right, that I was going to say OK, we’re going to put $25,000 into fixing and flipping this house.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Well, you know, you have to have a contingency plan.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Also, because there was a lot of houses we ran into that once you start to open the walls and you got mold, you got plumbing problems.
Will: Termites.
Josh: Yeah, I got to do a way deeper repair than I thought.
Will: Right.
Josh: Maybe I got some fire damage that we didn’t see.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Who knows, electrical needs to be changed out.
Will: Right.
Josh: And, these are all from experience. I’d have to do all of that.
Will: For sure. Absolutely.
Josh: Right? But a lot of times, you don’t know until you take the shell…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: … out.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Same thing with phones. A lot of times, you don’t know.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: The phone will show up when you open them is when you start to discover what you bought.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Right.
Josh: So when you buy, you also have to build in a contingency plan.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right, to make sure that you’re buying with the right exit strategy, and you’re buying at the right price…
Will: Right.
Josh: …that allows you to run into some hiccups.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right? So that’s part one.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Part two with John’s question is, the parts.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: The parts are cost prohibitive, right?
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: So, what I would say, John is in this instance, especially it’s a great example, right? Because one of the differences between Samsung and Apple…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: …is Apple has a very strong after markets – aftermarket part market.
Will: Right.
Josh: Now, we’ve addressed that a little bit, we’re going to address that more that you know there’s a lot of crap in that market, right?
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: It’s a crappy parts market.
Will: Right.
Josh: But what it still allows at the end of the day…
Will: Right.
Josh: …is it allows for very aggressive F&F’s.
Will: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Josh: Because you’re not dropping $190 on the screen.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? You’re dropping 20 bucks. Even if you’re buying an – a good OEM spec refurb screen…
Will: Right.
Josh: You can get those at a pretty reasonable cost…
Will: Right.
Josh: …if you’re buying the device right.
Will: Right.
Josh: Samsung is a unique opportunity. So, how do we get around that problem?
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? It really comes down to one of two ways. Number one, you do the work yourself…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: …to refurbish the screen.
Will: Right.
Josh: You can refurbish the Samsung screen for probably, if you’re doing the work yourself or if your staff is doing it. I’m not going to include the cost of your labor.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: But, using good quality materials, you can refurbish the Samsung screen for about 30, 35 bucks.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? Not counting your labor or your staff’s labor.
Will: Right.
Josh: Not – probably less than that.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? Depending on as how much it costs as to do it.
Will: Right.
Josh: Depending on what your set up is, it can be less than that.
Will: Mm-hmm
Josh: Right? So instead of 200 Bucks…
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: 30 bucks.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? So boom! There’s upside right there.
Will: Right.
Josh: Part two of the upside is what John was asking about is, “Is there an opportunity to buy parts harvest phones?”
Will: Right.
Josh: Well, is there an opportunity to buy parts harvest phones, right?
Will: Absolutely.
Josh: What should John be aware of?
Will: John should be aware of grading, correct? He should be aware of how to grade the parts harvest phone.
Josh: That’s the problem, right?
Will: And the condition of the LCD. Right. Yes.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: Which is actually, I think one of the things we talked about in our last episode is because especially with AMOLED screens, right? AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic LED.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: We go into this in really in-depth in several of our courses.
Will: Yes. Yes.
Josh: Especially the course that we gave away if you did the #RepairRight.
Will: The RepairRight that you know –
Josh: Shout out. And you still get it today.
Will: Yes. And you can see the first three parts of the 47-part.
Josh: Oh, did we post that?
Will: We posted that.
Josh: Very cool.
Will: That’s on our Facebook page.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: If you want to see that first three to understand, to connect this.
Josh: Right.
Will: What you’re talking about, you can go see that for free right now on our Facebook page.
Josh: Right. Right. Right.
Will: Cellular Repair School, Facebook page by the way.
Josh: Very cool.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: So yeah, that’s one of the things that’s different, right? That’s an AMOLED screen…
Will: Yes.
Josh: …versus a LCD screen.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right? So that, in its nature, presents a different set of issues. Because with AMOLED, you have what’s called burning.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? That’s what causes the screen to not be worth as much because you don’t know the level of the damage to the screen.
Will: Right. Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? So, all the same stuff that happens with a TFT screen…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Right, happens with AMOLED screens.
Will: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: Which means, you can still have you know pixels, you can still have lines…
Will: Yes. Yes.
Josh: You can still have all of these issues except for anything to do with the backlight because there’s no backlight on Samsung.
Will: And again, you’re going to learn a lot of that stuff if you get the free training.
Josh: Right.
Will: With that – what Josh is speaking to are the defects that we actually find in the different types of screens whether you’re talking OLED or whether you’re talking LCD.
Josh: Right.
Will: What you need to be aware of are the defects. So what he’s talking about such as the burning…
Josh: Mm-hmm.
Will: It’s just one defect of many types of defects. So it’s important to know that kind of stuff. And again, it’s information, right, in the fix and flip.
Josh: Right.
Will: That’s why a lot of people actually don’t play because they’re kind of iffy about the information. Once you educate yourself, it becomes a great…
Josh: You’re new in the matrix, man.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: You’re new in the matrix…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: …so we do ones and zeros, right?
Will: [Laughter] exactly.
Josh: So yes, John, I would tell you, you are absolutely right. But just like when you buy the devices, the problem of buying parts harvest devices, you don’t know what you’re getting.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? Now, the great thing is there’s some refunds and different things like that. But a lot of times, when you’re buying parts units…
Will: Yes.
Josh: ..they’re kind of as is.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right? With – I would tell you, with Samsung screens, it really depends, man. Like it’s much harder on the Samsung screen because of the additional step of the burning.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right? But, one of the great things, again, now we’re kind of – I’m getting into the weeds a little bit.
Will: Yeah. Yeah, and we got about two minutes left so and…
Josh: Yeah, I’m getting into the weeds because what you’ll see is that there’s levels of burning.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: And depending on what price point you’re trying to sell it for…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: You might be able to use some burning that I can’t use. I can’t use any burning in my business.
Will: Not at this level.
Josh: Not at this level to what we do.
Will: Right.
Josh: But, I can move it into other markets where burning is more acceptable and there’s that – we call them shadows.
Will: Right.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yes.
Josh: So burning is when you get the – you know, whenever the…
Will: Yeah.
Josh: …the icons in your screen are left there because they literally, the LEDs are – excuse me, the – yeah, the –
Will: It’s burning.
Josh: Yeah, they’re burning in because they’re not functioning as well.
Will: Right.
Josh: So you know, there’s different levels of the intensity of how much burning you get.
Will: Is acceptable.
Josh: Right?
Will: Yeah.
Josh: And some of that, you might hit some gems out there that still give you that return on investment that TTM…
Will: Yes. Yeah.
Josh: …to where it’s still acceptable.
Will: Right.
Josh: Boom! You can pop that bad boy in and turn around and sell it, and get the upside that you’re looking for.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Plus, you’ve got the rest of the device left for additional parts harvest. Those boards, and components, and all these things are worth a lot of money.
Will: Yeah. And a lot of it you just spend to all of your customers.
Josh: Right.
Will: And they’re willing to tolerate or not tolerate.
Josh: Right.
Will: Man, and like we said at our level, we have a very high expectation of almost close to, if not OEM…
Josh: That has be “Damn, you’re perfect.”
Will: Yeah, damn, you’re perfect.
Josh: Right.
Will: So you know, it doesn’t work for us and we serve a lot of times but you know, and that what we call secondary market or you know, maybe even tier two market. A lot of times, it’s acceptable.
Josh: It’s very acceptable.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Especially because it’s like buying a used car.
Will: Mm-hmm.
Josh: Right? Like you know, maybe I don’t want a car with that big dent in the fender.
Will: Right. But somebody’s going to think –
Josh: But this guy over here, he’s OK with it for the right price.
Will: Right, exactly.
Josh: Right? So it comes down to that where you still might have that additional upside price lift.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Because you can – it’s a scratch and dent.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Right? It’s still a beautiful functional phone.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: It’s just got a little burning on the screen. Boom! Bam! You’ve discounted 40, 50 bucks but you still made the lift.
Will: Yes.
Josh: Because you bought it for you know a fraction of what it will cost you for a new phone.
Will: Yes.
Josh: So yes, there is a ton of opportunity in that. But yes, make sure you educate yourself well…
Will: Guys.
Josh: …on the traps of AMOLED screens and you know LCD grading.
Will: Yes. Fix and flip is all about education.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: But it’s a great opportunity, it’s a great model, there’s great margins and fix and flip but it’s all about education. It’s just like real estate, it’s just like buying automotive, right, and buying and flipping and fixing and flipping, it’s just like anything that you would buy, put a little bit of effort and a little bit of you know labor and parts into and flipping for higher prices, the same concept. And so it works but at the end of the day, you got to know what you’re buying, right? And you got to know where you’re getting your stuff, you know resources from.
Josh: Right.
Will: And you got to understand you know, you really got understand the science of it.
Josh: Exactly.
Will: Like how much you’re putting into it versus what you can move it for, where you’re moving it, all of that stuff that Josh has talked about.
Josh: Right.
Will: Very important, you have to understand that. But if you do understand that in a whole new world, it’s…
Josh: Yeah.
Will: And it’s a great opportunity. So…
Josh: Sky is the limit.
Will: Yeah, which is why may ask the question, why don’t a lot of people actually do fix and flip? And that’s the answer.
Josh: Risk.
Will: Right, it’s risk. Right.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: But what you need is risk mitigation, right?
Josh: Right.
Will: The better you mitigate the risk, the more successful you’re going to be, right?
Josh: Right.
Will: If you don’t have the information, then chances are, you’re going to fail.
Josh: That’s right. You think we cover that one pretty well?
Will: I think we covered it pretty good. Yeah.
Josh: John, hopefully, that helps you out, man. Hopefully, you get some knowledge you know and little gems out of that. You know obviously, if you have questions, you are a student, right? So feel free to reach out. Hit us on the does on the forums, you know send us some shout out. There, you can reach out to me directly and we can talk more about that.
Will: Thanks, John. That was a loaded question, John. That was a great question.
Josh: Fantastic question. Fantastic question.
Will: I really enjoyed answering.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: Well, that was deep. I wish we got more questions like that…
Josh: Yeah. Actually, that is exactly what this show is for.
Will: Yeah, yeah.
Josh: Those types of questions because it’s directly related to business and the cell phone repair business specifically, right?
Will: Exactly.
Josh: These are the unique problems that we face in our industry…
Will: Exactly.
Josh: …that are different than any other industry.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Right.
Will: So with that being said, I think it’s time to wrap it up, Josh. We’re wrapping…
Josh: Man, we’re wrapping up?
Will: It’s 40 – we’re 47 minutes in, bro.
Josh: I feel like I got a lot to say still. [Laughter]
Will: You probably do. We got all of that to the next one. That’s good. We want to say a lot but we want to split it up a little bit.
Josh: Yeah, yeah.
Will: So, we’re going to split it up, we’re going to go ahead and call it a night for this one. You guys, thanks for joining in. Again, this is Ask Will and Josh. You can go see us on our social sites. We got the Instagram popping.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: We got the Facebook popping. We got the YouTube popping, right?
Josh: Yeah.
Will: We got the podcast popping.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: So guys, we just love the – you know, entertain you guys.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: And if we got the information you need, so you know…
Josh: Yeah, make sure you subscribe. Right, check us out, give us a Like, hit the subscribe button. And obviously, if you have questions, this is the Ask Will and Josh show.
Will: Absolutely.
Josh: So be sure to go to our site.
Will: Yes.
Josh: On your podcast and fill out the form.
Will: Yes.
Josh: You know, and we do go through and curate the questions that we think are going to be the right ones that answer questions from the majority of the audience to add a lot of value.
Will: Exactly. #RepairRight. Hey, Josh. Do we have any actions for these guys to take? Or, what are we doing with the action – actionable like telling them to go do something.
Josh: We don’t – yeah, we don’t have that in the meantime besides you know, just keep it #RepairRight.
Will: keep that #RepairRight.
Josh: So again, you know obviously, it’s still an extension of what we talked about last time, hit us on the socials.
Will: Yeah.
Josh: Hit us, you know, post something…
Will: Go with the hashtag.
Josh: … #RepairRight. Give us a shout out. Doing that will give you free, 100 percent free access…
Will: Yes guys.
Josh: …to the quality control, the grade, the LCD and AMOLED grading course…
Will: Yes, right.
Josh: …that we have, 100 percent free. No obligation, except for hitting us with the #RepairRight.
Will: Exactly.
Josh: Use it, show us you used it, right?
Will: Yeah. And we’re just trying to build this community of people who want to do things the right way.
Josh: Yeah, hit us – just hit us on our Facebook page and let us know, hey, I’m checking for you guys and I want the free – the free training, right? And then give us a way to send it to you.
Josh: Yeah.
Will: And we’ll send it right to you, guys. And if you want to check out the first couple of training on that before you actually do that, go check it out. It’s on our Facebook, Three parts, and go ahead and get the information. And with that being said, we’re going to go ahead and sign off.
Josh: All right, man. Enjoy it as it is useful.
Will: Enjoy it, man.
Josh: Good to be back in the saddle one more time.
Will: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Absolutely.
Josh: All right guys, hope we left you better than we found you.
Will:Ask Will and Josh show, guys. We’ll see you next time. Have a good one.
Josh: Sayonara.
Will: Peace out!
[End of transcript]
