Contest Time🚨Win $100 in Thumbtack credit!

[Meckell]

Hey pros, Happy New Year!

If you’ve been in the Pro Community, you know it’s a great place for pros to share inspiration, best practices, and connect with each other. We want to hear from you and what better way to start 2020 than with a chance to win some Thumbtack credit!

To enter, respond to this post with your answer to the following prompt:

The start of a new year is always a time filled with excitement, energy, and momentum. What are your best tips on kickstarting the new year successfully? Do you implement new business tactics or practices? Test out how emerging trends can increase your bottom line? Make any changes from the year before? Or just stay the course?

The contest will be live until Wednesday, January 22 at 12pm PST, and winners will be announced on Friday, January 24th.

We will be selecting 2 pros to win:

The first winner will be the pro whose post received the most kudos so if you see a post you like, give it a thumbs up! This pro will receive $100 in Thumbtack credit. 

The second winner will be the post of our choosing that we feel has a particularly inspiring lesson that other pros can learn from. This pro will receive $50 in Thumbtack credit.

Happy posting!

Fine Print

• Stay within the Community Guidelines
• Make sure your post is just about the contest (posts that stray into different topics will be removed and you will not be eligible for the Thumbtack credit.)
• Only one post per pro. If you have multiple lessons to share, we’d love to hear it as a community discussion topic!
• If we have a tie for ‘most kudos’, each pro will receive $50.

[BITB]

Happy New Year!

As I rang in the New Year with family and friends, I reflected on the last 12 months; the successes, the disappointments, the good weeks, and the tough days. There were many tools I utilized to help my business this year and I cannot think of any that had been as instrumental to my success and helped overcome barriers more than Thumbtack.

When thinking back on what helped make the use of Thumbtack a success in 2019 things like quicks replies, use of templates, and requesting reviews stood out. These are activities that will be kept in my 2020 strategy as it builds the base for this portion of my business plan.

To complement that plan, I also started the year by:

- Sending each 2019 client a Happy New Year / appreciation card - a quick way to welcome the year and reintroduce myself to clients
- Reviewing and updating my Thumbtack profile
- Benchmarking my services with others across my region and across the country - knowing where I stand compared to others is critical to recognize competitive advantages to highlight with my clients or gaps that I may need to overcome.

Finally, as it relates to something I am doing differently for my business this year, I decided to be more involved in the Thumbtack Community. Thumbtack provides a significant portion of my leads and I want to be able to learn from my colleagues and take full advantage of the benefits it offers - Happy 2020!

Leah Rowan
Back in the Box

[Gaddyair]

Happy New Year Thumtack Community!!!

This will be our companies second year in business and we have finally made top pro status! Our best tip with starting the new year is having a vision board for the year and continually knocking out goals that are set. We have found this to keep the motivation up and the drive to stay strong no matter what time of year it is there will always be another goal to reach. We plan to do a lot more digital advertising this year on different platforms. Yes we do test out emerging trends to see how well they work for us and if they do great if they don't great. It's always worth the try to work with the new trends and see if they can help grown your business. We look forward to another great year of building with thumbtack and our other vendors.

[Doaulin]

Happy New Year everyone!
One or the things to do to start the year successfully is to always make a plan and make sure to write it down with as much details as possible, (all the little ideas that can help you improve your business). Make sure to go back and read it every month to keep track of what you accomplished and what's yet to work on to finalized the plan (or idea).
I always say: "my business today is in competition with my business from yesterday". This helps me encourage myself to think about, what could I had done better yesterday that I can try on doing better today! There always room to improve your business with a better version of your idea from last year, but you can either keep on trying the idea from last year with a different approach or go back to the drawing board and come up with a refreshing new idea to make your customers want to use your service again.

[Creativeguru]

Thank you!

[Meckell]

Hey there @Creativeguru! For a chance to win $100 in Thumbtack credit, be sure to answer the following prompt: 

The start of a new year is always a time filled with excitement, energy, and momentum. What are your best tips on kickstarting the new year successfully? Do you implement new business tactics or practices? Test out how emerging trends can increase your bottom line? Make any changes from the year before? Or just stay the course?

[DebWhite-Palmer]

January 13th 2020 I TOOK THE LEAP!  Leap Year 2020 seemed to be the right time to take my side hustle full time!  2019 was a fabulously busy year .... and one I am very proud of, most sales in the last 20--for my employer!   Why not use all the contacts and relationships I've made and use them. From making all those sales for someone else to making those sales for MYSELF!  Wish me Luck.   Wishing all of you Good Luck as well!  

[Gomobilegroomin]

Happy 2020 is a exciting new year and I am excited to start the new year for my business Go mobile grooming I groom dogs and cats and I am hoping to grow my business more and more this year and hopefully get new clients and this is how I run my business I only do one house a day that way I will have time to groom one on one with each pet no rushing just taking it easy and slow and relaxing for each pet that way they can feel comfortable and happy if they are all happ that’s the most important thing for me for each pet to be comfortable and relax throughout the whole grooming process have a happy new year to everybody

[AVHandyman]

The beginning of the year is a slower time in my industry, so I use this time to review the strategies I used in the year prior. If they rendered positive results, I will continue with them or expand upon them. If they didn’t work out so well, I will reduce or eliminate that tactic.

“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be” – John Wooden

Good luck to all in 2020!!

[JBoogie462]

This is set to be my first full calendar year in my new home state of Texas. After relocating to the Lone Star State in 2019 and finally pursuing my dream to own and operate my own company, I made the jump and became self employed. I started off in the later part of the year but am off to a great start. 3 out of every 5 new customers I perform services for are referrals from a previous client. The two best practices I can attribute this to are 1. Treat every customer and their home like they are family (the family you like), and 2. Dont be afraid to ask for a referral when they are satisfied with your work. People like to be treated fairly and when you charge a reasonable fee for the service they need as well as exceed their expectations it's hard for a client to say no to referring me to their friends and family. The easiest way to get a referral from your customer is to simply ask for it. You dont need to discount future services or give away free product or service, people are more then willing to praise you and your services from the rooftops if you have given them the opportunity to do so. My other best practice is to know your field, not just what you do and charge but what others in your field are doing and charging. I run a carpet cleaning company and I steam clean carpets (hot water extraction), but there is also bonnet cleaning, encapsulation cleaning, dry cleaning, and the list goes on and on. I not only know the ins and outside of the method I use but also the other methods that are available. This makes it easier to answer or address a clients concerns or questions about what method or combination of methods will suit them best, even if it means the best solution for a clients needs is another company. I would rather be honest then make a few bucks. Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. Handing a customer off to my "competitor" does not mean a loss on my side. It's an opportunity to forge connections and network with others in my industry who can just as easily become allies as opposed to adversaries. Just because we are in the same field doesn't make us enemies, it can be very beneficial to have a strong support group amongst peers in your field. Who else are you going to be able to ask for help or advice when your problem isnt outlined in the training manual of your skill set or field?
If you've read this much thank you for your time. I hope all of you are as successful and happy in 2020 as I plan on being. All great adventures start with a single step, keep your eye on the prize, and whatever other motivational quote lights a fire under your @as. Let's not let this be the year of hindsight but that of forward thinking.
Jason Freeland
Freeland Floor Care