533: How Contractors Should Actually Offer Financing - Mike Hafeman & Shawn Peterson

Roughly 40% of the average contractor's business gets financed. If you're not offering it, that's the share you're handing to someone else.

Build the systems to scale on the back of it. Grab the free Business Playbook: https://ownersos.com/business-playbook?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=ownersos&utm_content=how-contractors-should-actually-offer-financing

On the D2D Podcast, James Edwards sits down with Mike Hafeman and Shawn Peterson of Time Investment to break down how contractor financing actually works, and where owners lose money without realizing it. They explain why leading with promotional "no interest, no payment" offers quietly trains your reps out of selling, why the homeowner's ego means they'll never raise their hand and ask for a payment plan, and the simple opening question that puts affordability on the table without pressure. They also get into cash flow, why getting funded the day the job is done beats chasing a homeowner for the balance, and why approvals matter more than chasing the lowest rate.

Mike Hafeman is the CEO of Time Investment, which he founded with his father in 1982 out of their family basement with $100,000 and the house as collateral, bootstrapping it into a lender serving contractors nationwide. He's joined by Shawn Peterson, the company's director of business development, who came up through 20 years in collections and lending before joining the team.

Questions this episode answers:

• Should contractors offer financing to homeowners?
• How do you present financing without pressuring the customer?
• Is promotional "same as cash" financing actually good for your business?
• What should you look for in a financing partner?
• How does financing improve a contractor's cash flow?

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The "path of affordability" opener: cash, credit card, or financing, asked before anything else
• Why the homeowner's ego means they'll never volunteer that they can't pay upfront
• The promotional trap, and the old rule that 15% or more promotional sales means a sales training problem
• Lead math: at $600 to $700 a lead, a weak close rate pushes your real cost per sale toward $2,400
• Why a 240-month term averages out to about 36 months in practice
• Aggregators versus a real human to call when a deal stalls at the kitchen table
• Price or approvals: which question actually grows your business

The whole conversation comes back to one thing: knowing your numbers well enough to run the business instead of react to it. That's what Owner's OS is built for: https://ownersos.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=ownersos&utm_content=how-contractors-should-actually-offer-financing

Learn more about Time Investment: https://www.timeinvestment.com

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