Buying a $1.7M Electrical Business With No Experience

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Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh!

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Unknown
Oh!

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Speaker 3
Welcome to the Blue.

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Speaker 1
Collar Startup, the podcast where hard work meets big ideas. This is your home for real talk, real stories and real strategies from the frontlines of life in the business of the trades.

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Speaker 2
One of your hosts, Derek Foster of Bagel Cleaning.

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Speaker 1
Systems here in Albany, New York.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 4
And I’m the other host, the plucky comic relief, I guess, Mike Nelson from Five Towers. Five towers media. Holy moly. I forgot the name of my company for a minute. Let’s see what’s up, man.

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Speaker 1
Oh, it’s been, I feel like I haven’t been on, an episode here in a little while between vacation and,

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Speaker 4
Your your mishap. Well, yeah, I know, I we’re trying to we’re trying to talk Mike into,

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Speaker 1
Retiring from jujitsu.

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Speaker 3
Not doing it. Oh, I.

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Speaker 2
Just want to get into it. I heard good things about it, I love it.

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Speaker 3
What’s going on?

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Speaker 4
Oh, I just always get hurt.

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Speaker 3
It seems like it’s literally.

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Speaker 4
Like the last. I don’t know, probably the last 3 or 4 years. Like, I keep getting put out for large quantities of time, like eight months. I popped the rib. And then I went. I was out for a bit, came back, popped the same rib, was out for a bit, came back, hurt my shoulder was out, came back.

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Speaker 4
And then literally, I went back last. It was two weeks ago, and, snapped my bicep tendon like, last two minutes of class. Oh, and, trying to muscle my way through bad technique and being an old man. Apparently. And, Yeah. So that’s put me out for probably a good 12 weeks anyway. But I’m, I’m, I’m like, I’m moving.

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Speaker 4
I’m, I’ve got no strength in my right arm, but I’ve got, I’ve got the most of my range of motion and mobility going on. So I’m doing pretty good. See what I did there with with the gray I go by though?

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 4
I did when I was younger, I got it backwards. I did the the easy stuff in my 20s and 30s. And then I got into my, got into my late 30s and said, let’s start doing the hard things. Now, I know my body does not want to tolerate it, but that’s about right. But I’m not letting it. I’m not letting them beat me.

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Speaker 4
I’m I’m going back. So glutton for punishment.

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Speaker 3
And the resilience.

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Speaker 4
That’s it. It’s. But, I love about me. Let’s talk about our guests here. Zack. Welcome.

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Speaker 2
Thanks, guys. Appreciate you having me.

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Speaker 4
Yeah, absolutely. And, Zack, can you just. I don’t want to screwed up. Say, I know that your email is Jeff Masters electric, but it looks like on your website you guys maybe did a brand change there. So I don’t know. I don’t want to mess that up. So why don’t, why don’t you give us kind of a quick rundown of, who you are and what you do?

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Speaker 2
Sure. Sure thing. Well, first of all, thanks for having me on, guys. Yeah, Jeff Masters electric is right. That’s the business that I bought last year. It’s a weird transition right now, right? We’re much electric now. This is the rebrand. So we have both emails work, but it redirects to my new email. I, my name is Zach, and I own a southwest Florida electrical contracting company.

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Speaker 2
Bought it last year with my wife. We quit our jobs over in Fort Lauderdale on the other side of the state. Sold everything. We moved over here, bought a house here. New. Nothing new. Nobody still kind of don’t. They’re later still. Still getting our grounds here. I’ve never worked at an electrical company. She’s never worked on an electrical company.

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Speaker 2
I’ve never technically been an electrician. My background is industrial. I was in the military. That’s kind of where I got my start. I wasn’t a the. I was a gas turbine electrician in the Navy. So for five years, I was on a destroyer fixing anything and everything that makes a ship move. So I was a mechanic and an electrician.

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Speaker 2
And then I got out, I went home, Florida started working on generators. Diesel generators for, Centurylink. You did that for a couple years. Amazing job. Amazing people, great company. I get paid well, but just wasn’t mine. It just wasn’t I don’t know, I got every everybody was calling me crazy for wanting to leave because it was like the dream job, man.

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Speaker 2
But, it just wasn’t mine. And ultimately I wanted a business my entire life since I was a kid. Since I.

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Speaker 3
Don’t know why, I.

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Speaker 2
Don’t know any entrepreneurs.

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Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 2
You know, I, I, I’ve never met my grandpa, but he was not super nerd, so maybe it’s genetic. You know, he had hardware stores, so it seems like it runs in the family. And so here we are. My wife is in the other office next to me, and we run this thing. We have.

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Speaker 3
Ten now.

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Speaker 2
12 employees, including us. But we’re growing. We’re just got, like, three more vehicles. It looks like it’s it’s it’s working. I’m adding generators on because that’s kind of my thing. Okay. That’s been a pretty big addition. And then this upcoming week for starting home maintenance, I think that could be an interesting addition. That’s a whole new venture.

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Speaker 2
So we’ll see how that goes.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah, that’s one little truck.

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Speaker 4
Yeah, I want to dig into that, too. I love hearing about, a pivot or service edition. At first of all, thank you for your service.

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Speaker 3
Thank you.

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Speaker 4
Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate that. The, but let’s let’s step back. So I, I one of the things that Derek and I often ask guests about is that transition from your you’re working for someone, and then you’re going to go and you’re going to start your own business. And there’s, you know, a lot of different ways that people do it.

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Speaker 4
Right. Some people kind of do like a side hustle side gig until it takes over. And and the other people, just kind of jump right in. And where do you fall in that spectrum?

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Speaker 3
I think I’m.

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Speaker 2
I’m a little unconventional. The more I talk to people here, it seems like the normal path for contractors is working as a tradesman, working for your journeyman, becoming a professional, kind of seeing the business a little bit and then and then getting in for yourself. Right. You got a little side work going on. It picks up, it picks up.

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Speaker 2
Now you have employees. That seems like the common thing. I just jumped headfirst into it. I bought a business with an SBA loan. It purchased it for 1.7 million.

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Speaker 2
Brought 5% of the table. Yeah, the seller brought 5%. So it’s fine. It’s 90%. No large overhead in this business. But it was it seemed like the the best path for me. So I can kind of skip a couple of years, the learning curve. And I can just dive into something that’s functioning and I can learn as I go.

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Speaker 3
Okay. Yeah.

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Speaker 4
And when you bought it, what was the service offerings that they were doing?

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Speaker 2
It was probably 80% residential service work, 20% residential new construction, a little bit of commercial sprinkled in there, little service work. But mainly it was just, you know, time material. The guys go out. The guy, the guy that sold is 72 years old. He’s run for 40 years, started it in 1985, and he’s ran it the same way ever since.

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Speaker 2
Just old school. Like on to work. And yeah, it’s we’re switching a lot of those things too, you know, now we’re going flat rate and it’s changing a lot, and we’re adding generators. We’re adding a lot of things that he wasn’t comfortable doing.

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Speaker 2
I am a fairly bold person. I’m down to. I’m down to do a lot, man. Like, we wrap our vans and it’s kind of crazy and loud and, I’m, you know, I’m down to try a bunch of different services and see what sticks. Especially if we have good people, like, put them, put them in a spot where they can shine.

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Speaker 2
And, but you see what happens, you know, so we’re adding a lot of stuff that he never did.

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Speaker 4
So no experience running a business?

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Speaker 3
No,

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Speaker 4
No real experience, outside of, you know, being, a man of many trades, it sounds like on on ships in the Navy, which I’ve got a couple of buddies that are similar to that where they’re in the Navy and they. I mean, there’s some of the handiest people I’ve ever met in my entire life. So I don’t know if maybe that’s just a testament to Navy training, but, they seem to know a lot about a lot of different kinds of systems.

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Speaker 4
But no formal business training, no formal business degree. I don’t think in there anywhere.

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Speaker 2
You know, I’ve got a nice little I tried to go to college. Didn’t work.

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Speaker 3
That for everybody.

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Speaker 2
Kept coming back. Yeah. It seems like a kind of thing with us. But I went for originally for business. And then. And then when that didn’t work out, I tried to go for electrical engineering. And when that didn’t work out, I just went into construction, and then I went into the Navy. But, no, no, no formal experience.

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Speaker 2
When I was in the Navy, however, I got into real estate. So I purchased, eventually got up to six properties.

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Speaker 2
And so that gave me a little bit of, like, financial understanding of, like how to keep your books straight, how to, you know, just kind of like the basics, how to set up an LLC, stuff like that. It was not complicated stuff, but it got me more comfortable with bigger numbers and financing and stuff like that. So when I saw this, it wasn’t that crazy.

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Speaker 4
Yeah, that $1.7 million nut wasn’t, wasn’t that scary to me because I’m like, no business for like, I’m going to I’m going to buy businessman 1.7. Yeah, let’s do it. Right. Like that’s a, that’s a big nut to crack.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, I don’t know I think I’m at, I’m a little over 3 million in debt right now.

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Speaker 3
But it’s okay. It’s good I don’t know I just go.

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Speaker 2
On about it. Like most people I think I get I think I guess it makes sense. You know, people are scared of that does seem risky, I get it, but I just doesn’t really bother me.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 4
I mean, Derek and I have had a whole episodes on having that conversation about when it makes sense. That often does make sense for businesses, provided that it’s allowing you to grow and bring in revenue and, and do all the things you need to do.

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Speaker 2
Yeah. Make sure you can cover that debt though. It’s it’s it’s a lot, you know. And if you don’t if you don’t pivot and figure it out, it could swallow you pretty quick.

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Speaker 4
So you guys are a year and a half of the year or a year and a half in.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, we bought it last March. So about a year and a half.

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Speaker 4
About a year and a half. What kind of changes have you made since you’ve, you’ve bought the business. So obviously you added generators as service. Did you update internal systems and things like that?

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Speaker 2
Yeah, we were on carbon copy paper. So it was those three sheets and the guys would give one to the customer for one year. And it just it wasn’t great. There was no QuickBooks. So right now we still have it transitioned to QuickBooks online, which we’re planning to do soon. One we have started jobber. So we’re off the paper.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 2
The jobs I mean, I’m sure you guys are familiar. It’s not the most extensive program, but it does. It does what we needed to do. Yeah, I’m not a very techie person. So as of now, that’s that’s the gist of it. For the most part, we don’t really do too much.

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Speaker 3
Okay.

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Speaker 4
And then, so to unpack that, the, the service that you’re about to start offering, right. The what what did you call it?

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Speaker 2
Yeah, it’s like a home service. So the way I see it is we can start by utilizing our current customer base. Now, they trust us, they know us. And it’s it’s a good service that I mean, I would pay for it. We come in. It’s going to be a semiannual thing. So we come in twice a year every six months and change your AC filter.

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Speaker 2
We clean your your coils, we clean your refrigerator coils, we drain your water heater. And then there’s going to be kind of different packages. So we can pressure washer driveway and your trash can we can clean your gutters, all these things here. Nobody wants to do it. It’s not it’s not cheap, but it’s also not it’s not really crazy expensive.

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Speaker 2
It’s if you didn’t want to do it. And there’s a lot of retirees here. There’s a lot of people that don’t or can’t do it right. And this this seems like a good alternative. And there’s a lot of snowbirds, people that don’t live here half of the year, but they still want to maintain their home, still make sure that it’s functioning and good when they come back, you know?

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 4
What gave birth to this idea?

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Speaker 2
I don’t know. It’s just been in the back of my mind for a couple of years. I just think the great, like, reoccurring stream of income. I want more reoccurring income. I think that’s like the golden goose. Right. And generators are a nice little entry into that. We have the, the, the maintenance plans for those.

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Speaker 3
But this is.

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Speaker 2
It’s just another way to capitalize on our customers by doing something pretty simple. We’re not adding HVAC or plumbing right now. Maybe later. Right. But that’s another avenue because when I was in, in, Virginia, in the Navy, I had a guy that was HVAC, electrical, plumbing. He was a handyman. He did everything. So all I had to do is call this guy.

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Speaker 2
I don’t have to think about who I call.

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Speaker 3
And who’s great.

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Speaker 2
I like the guy. Why would I care about calling anybody else? So that’s kind of how I see it here. If you like us, why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t you use us if we’re going to use somebody?

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Speaker 4
Do you find. I know you’re just rolling it out, or do you. Have you seen already, or do you foresee that, recurring service that you’re offering also bearing fruit as far as larger jobs. So, like, you’re, you’re there and then all of a sudden they need a new service, or they need a new room wired or whatever.

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Speaker 2
100%. I’d see that 100%, because we’re including in all of the packages we’re going to include, like an electrical inspection, you know, test, your test, your main valves and stuff like that. So there is going to be, general, a whole home inspection every six months, and we’re going to give them a home report every time. So we’re going to be using software similar to home inspectors that they use.

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Speaker 2
And so they can have all this information with pictures. And you know, this is this is your water heater. This is how your AC looks, blah, blah, blah.

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Speaker 2
So it’s also good for insurance purposes. If anything happens, they can say, hey, here, look, we have this company that came out. We documented all this periodically. But I think I think I’m sorry. It was a question.

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Speaker 4
I do know that you’re you’re answering it is I just, you know, as soon as you started talking about it, I was like, oh, that would be like a perfect way to go in on on, like, what we call a monkey’s paw with like a small offering that, you know, at some point is going to lead to larger jobs, right?

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Speaker 4
Yeah. I was wondering if that was part of your intention with that.

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Speaker 2
It was. Yeah, it’s definitely a way to to get into customer’s homes, not in a, in a, in a weird, like, seedy way, but in a way that’s like, if you have this thing that’s messed up, like, we could fix it. We’re the professionals. We could do it. You trust us already? So yeah, it’s definitely, definitely something on the back of my mind.

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Speaker 2
That’s hey, we can we can probably get more work from this for sure.

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Speaker 4
Yeah. I mean we have multiple services and products that we offer as a company that are in similar fashion. Right. Like we’re going to go in, it’s a low dollar amount. There is value to the customer in it. But we that helps us build that relationship. Right. That it sounds like you’re talking about so that when something bigger comes along, you’re the first.

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Speaker 2
Call. Absolutely. Yeah. We’re in their home every six months, so they don’t forget about.

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Speaker 3
Us, you know? Yeah, yeah. For sure.

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Speaker 4
Well I’m curious I not being an electrician, buying an electrical business. What are you in the field like? What is your day to day look like? Are you mostly you and your wife are running the business or.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, my day is behind. This computer screen.

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Speaker 3
Is for the.

00;15;19;24 – 00;15;25;12
Speaker 2
First month to two months, I stayed. I was in the field with my guys because I just wanted to get to know my guys.

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Speaker 2
I did a little bit of work in the field, but I now I don’t, I don’t really do any, any work here and there. Maybe like, I went to a cruise ship, worked on some of these and a cruise ship because I’ve seen fun.

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Speaker 3
But yeah.

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Speaker 2
I don’t really do that stuff I need to focus on, like, you know, growing the business, making connections, stuff like that. That’s like 90% of my days.

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Speaker 4
And what does that growing the business look like for you, like art? Do you are you doing networking or are you out in the community or.

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Speaker 2
It’s a little bit of everything. It doesn’t seem like there’s a silver bullet. It seems like, I’m just doing a little bit of everything. I’m doing a lot more social media now. That’s helping a lot significantly, especially finding talent, finding electricians. It seems to be really, really beneficial, which I didn’t expect. I didn’t really think about that when I started.

00;16;09;10 – 00;16;30;06
Speaker 2
But I’m also going to networking groups. I and we, we actually a couple weeks ago, we went on a cruise with a bunch of property managers and HOA board members. And yes, it was funny. It was kind of crazy, but those are the things that we’re doing. Like, you know, if I’m just going to make sure that I’m trying as hard as I can be, meeting is shaking as many hands as they can.

00;16;30;08 – 00;16;43;24
Speaker 2
And it’s it’s a numbers game, really. You never know who’s who’s going to do what, but social media is a big one. I think I’ve been taking a little bit more seriously. A lot of people, I’ve made a lot of contacts through there. Yeah. Business owners.

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Speaker 3
Employees. It’s pretty cool. Yeah.

00;16;46;23 – 00;16;53;12
Speaker 4
And we say social media. You talk on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. I mean, there’s a zillion of them these days. All of them.

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Speaker 3
All of them. I’m not doing.

00;16;54;23 – 00;17;07;13
Speaker 2
Twitter or X, whatever it is, I, I it’s Instagram, TikTok. Those are the two big ones that I do. I post on YouTube here and there. Facebook, just monetize that. So I’m an influencer officially.

00;17;07;19 – 00;17;09;20
Speaker 4
Yes. And

00;17;09;22 – 00;17;13;16
Speaker 2
LinkedIn. Yeah. All that good stuff. But I’m not really like I’m not big on the LinkedIn.

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Speaker 3
It’s not saying.

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Speaker 4
No, that’s cool. I and are you doing like all your own content creation and doing it all like you’re going out where whatever it is, right? You’re going out and shooting it and editing it and exactly.

00;17;26;14 – 00;17;37;27
Speaker 2
Yeah, I don’t, I don’t have like a, like a creative team or creative teenage girl to follow. Like I see all these companies that have the guys like doing dances and stuff and I’m like, dude, there’s no way my guys are going to do that.

00;17;37;29 – 00;17;38;21
Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 2
They don’t even want to be on camera. Like there’s no like, so it’s all me, basically.

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Speaker 4
So in the in the year and a half that you and your wife have been operating the business, what what do you think you’re like biggest challenges that you’ve seen have been.

00;17;54;07 – 00;18;16;05
Speaker 2
I would say employees being being in the Navy I was kind of mid management. I had some guys under me, directly under me. I probably had like five guys, maybe a total of 20 in my division, but it was different. It it’s hard to describe, but when when you’re in there in the military it’s like, get your stuff done, let’s go home.

00;18;16;05 – 00;18;35;23
Speaker 2
You know, shut up. Like, do you think I’m gonna take you something to do? You’re going to do it. We’re going to respect each other afterwards. We’re going to hang out. And it we’re we’re we’re all really cool. You spend 24 seven with each other, right? So you figure out how to work with each other in this civilian world, it seems like there’s patterns and it seems like, I don’t know, it’s a little bit more drama.

00;18;35;24 – 00;18;39;21
Speaker 2
There’s a little bit more like, that’s not my job.

00;18;39;28 – 00;18;43;10
Speaker 3
Or there’s just certain.

00;18;43;12 – 00;19;05;18
Speaker 2
Cultural things, like certain people that wouldn’t fit, like we inherited ten employees or maybe eight employees. And there was a most of them weren’t really a good fit. The last owner was, kind of a little bit of a micromanager. He had everything tight and everything was tight, but it wasn’t how I wanted to operate. I didn’t want to spend my days doing that.

00;19;05;23 – 00;19;23;29
Speaker 2
And I told him that. Right. So I kind of let the leash go, and it wasn’t, conducive to a lot of them. They just didn’t, they jive with it. I think they needed more structure. And I said, that’s, you know, it’s not really the place. This isn’t really the place. I need a place where you can be a little bit more independent and.

00;19;24;06 – 00;19;37;22
Speaker 2
Yeah, just just culturally in personality wise, like a lot of people came and went, it’s just been a little bit more drama and a little bit more like hands on managing than I thought. I was just going to be like, oh, Excel and checks, you know.

00;19;37;22 – 00;19;41;10
Speaker 3
What I mean? No, you show this like business.

00;19;41;10 – 00;20;01;10
Speaker 2
Advice where it’s like, it seems so easy and obvious and high level, but we get into the nitty gritty and you’re small business owner, you’re doing everything. Everybody’s doing everything. There’s no like everybody. Someone takes the trash out like nobody has a direct role. And that’s it. The small business. There’s so many nitty gritty late nights that aren’t spoken about.

00;20;01;13 – 00;20;07;14
Speaker 2
That’s really what it is. And I didn’t really expect that. But I would have no idea until I, until I did it.

00;20;07;16 – 00;20;22;20
Speaker 4
Yeah. It’s that well what I hear you saying is that you had some team members that still wanted to be told, go here, do this thing, come back to the office, then go here. And really wanted to just be given that.

00;20;22;22 – 00;20;36;18
Speaker 2
Yeah. Just you given spoon fed. But it was also like if you did something wrong, I’m going to monitor you minute by minute. Call you. Hey, why have you been sitting at the gas station for three minutes? I’m not going to do that. You know, if you want to go get a Red bull, we’ll get a Red bull, I don’t care.

00;20;36;25 – 00;20;44;13
Speaker 2
Get your stuff done it. I don’t I think they kind of would stir crazy a little bit. A couple of them and they didn’t know how to handle it.

00;20;44;16 – 00;20;45;08
Speaker 3
Yeah. But as.

00;20;45;08 – 00;20;49;03
Speaker 2
Okay. You know, I’m sure they found some good stuff. Some good place to work.

00;20;49;05 – 00;20;49;19
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;20;49;26 – 00;21;09;10
Speaker 4
I mean, I’m sure Dee can speak on this, too. I certainly have seen that because I’m similar to you. I just here’s the job. We got to get it done, do whatever it takes. Let me know how to support you. Go make it happen. Right. That’s that’s my quote unquote management style. And, but we have found over the years some team members really needed more.

00;21;09;11 – 00;21;21;20
Speaker 4
They needed like, A to Z list of everything they’re going to do that day. And which just wasn’t going to work for us either. Didn’t sound like it worked for you. Did you see that?

00;21;21;23 – 00;21;42;16
Speaker 1
I just had this conversation actually, this week with with our team. I won’t get into the details, but we’re we’re down. You know, we had taken on, a company whose, owners wanted to to exit last year. And fast forward a year later, and I think about half of them are still still with us.

00;21;42;18 – 00;21;56;23
Speaker 1
You know, we have a pretty strong culture and values. And I was going to ask you, Zach, if you spent, you know, any time developing those and, and you know, doing some of that to provide that direction at a higher level for your guys.

00;21;56;25 – 00;21;58;15
Speaker 2
What do you mean specifically?

00;21;58;18 – 00;22;03;04
Speaker 1
As far as like creating like, mission vision values and sharing that with the team.

00;22;03;06 – 00;22;18;07
Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s actually something we we are still in the process of rebranding and I’m still hammering away at our core values. I had it, I have it for the most part, but I just want to make sure I’m actually on. On Monday we have Monday morning meetings. I’m going to pitch it to the guys because I kind of want to build it with them.

00;22;18;09 – 00;22;31;06
Speaker 2
So here’s my values, here’s how I’m thinking I see it. Do you guys align with this? Do you see it? What do you see for this business? And it’s not like I need to do anything anybody says. But I love to hear their opinions on everything.

00;22;31;09 – 00;22;32;01
Speaker 3
But.

00;22;32;03 – 00;22;48;26
Speaker 2
I like to set a strong culture. I want, like, I miss the camaraderie out of the Navy when I got out. And you just don’t have that. You move home and there’s nobody. You got to figure it out. So it kind of sucks. It’s, it’s something that I wanted to bring into whatever business that I operate.

00;22;48;28 – 00;22;50;01
Speaker 3
I.

00;22;50;03 – 00;23;05;05
Speaker 2
I just think it’s a better life when you enjoy working, when you like the place you go in the morning. I’ve had so many jobs where I just wake up and don’t want to get out of bed because I don’t want to go do the thing right, and I don’t want that. I want people that work here to enjoy working here.

00;23;05;09 – 00;23;20;24
Speaker 2
I want them to be excited to work here. They’re working with their friends. They’re doing a job they enjoy. That’s another thing is, hey, guys, do I tell my guys, do you have anything, any kind of work that you want to do specifically? Do you want to do more batteries? I want to do more whatever because we can look into that if you’re interested in that.

00;23;20;27 – 00;23;37;22
Speaker 2
I find that if someone’s interested in something, they do it well. So let’s look into that. Right. So I just I really try to make a place where people enjoy working and we’re doing more things, barbecues and go to different pastures and stuff. And none of it’s mandatory. But I just want to create a place that everybody’s comfortable.

00;23;37;22 – 00;23;40;20
Speaker 3
Really? Yeah.

00;23;40;22 – 00;23;59;02
Speaker 4
Yeah. The, I mean, Dee and I have certainly spoken about the vision mission value stuff, and there’s so many great ways to use them for that communication and doing exactly what you’re doing. Bring your team in. I know, we’ve had a few companies on that. I’ve talked about like the EOS. Have you, have you come across the EOS system?

00;23;59;04 – 00;24;05;09
Speaker 2
I have, and I’ve read traction and and. Yeah, from my bed. And I just like to do anything with it, but it seems good.

00;24;05;11 – 00;24;13;21
Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah. But I mean, it’s it’s all that kind of stuff though. It’s, it’s one way to do it. It’s it, you know, it’s not the only way to do it, but it certainly is, is helpful.

00;24;13;23 – 00;24;28;25
Speaker 1
Scott said. New ski. He was on, a few weeks ago from SLC. Take a look at that, that episode, because, they spent a lot of time on that and it’s it’s helped them out a lot. Yeah, I think they’re on the plumbing and heating side of things, but,

00;24;28;27 – 00;24;31;28
Speaker 4
Yeah, those guys are great.

00;24;32;01 – 00;24;34;02
Speaker 3
Interview. Great. What?

00;24;34;04 – 00;24;51;02
Speaker 4
So I’m just curious as far as, with the turnover and the challenges that you’re facing with your team, I, you know, it sounds like one of the ways that you’re combating that is by trying to really have a strong company culture and camaraderie. What other things are you doing to try to overcome that?

00;24;51;04 – 00;24;52;11
Speaker 3
Well.

00;24;52;13 – 00;25;05;23
Speaker 2
We have we got one of my guys, Ryan. He’s kind of like my number two. He’s he’s more like a like a big brother. A lot of these guys, they go to him for a lot. They come to me a lot less. And I like that way, I like it. You guys are all in the field together.

00;25;05;23 – 00;25;11;20
Speaker 2
Like, look at it. Look at it like your team. It’s okay, I can I can be here. It doesn’t matter.

00;25;11;28 – 00;25;13;26
Speaker 3
Not in the field.

00;25;13;29 – 00;25;18;03
Speaker 2
But are you are you saying, like, in terms of logistics of, like, operations?

00;25;18;05 – 00;25;18;26
Speaker 3
Yeah. Or.

00;25;18;26 – 00;25;41;26
Speaker 4
Anyway, I’m just wondering, you know, hiring and retention and management and team members is a problem for every business. You know, no one avoids that problem. And everybody kind of has a different ways of dealing with it. So I’m just curious if there was, other things that you did, you know, did you change your hiring practices or your onboarding practices or you know what what kind of things you’re doing?

00;25;41;26 – 00;25;42;17
Speaker 4
Yeah.

00;25;42;19 – 00;25;45;08
Speaker 2
Yeah, for sure. We’ve we’ve learned a lot.

00;25;45;15 – 00;25;45;29
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;25;46;03 – 00;26;09;01
Speaker 2
Yeah, we’ve learned a lot. Hire a lot of people, a lot of people that said, they can do a lot of things. Right. I’m sure you guys are familiar. And it’s not just the know how. It’s it’s like like the culture, like they fit in, you know, a lot of, a lot of issues we’ve seen is like people, someone will come in and they’re just kind of, like a victim or they complain or something.

00;26;09;01 – 00;26;13;09
Speaker 2
And it just it makes the day drag and it makes people a little bit sour.

00;26;13;12 – 00;26;30;26
Speaker 2
Nothing anybody needs. Right. It’s it’s just not, it’s just not how we roll. And eventually they kind of like roll out because it’s, it doesn’t work. You know everybody is pretty happy and content here. You know we we have a good solid group now. And if someone comes in and it’s just a little sour it’s pretty quick at this point at this point.

00;26;30;26 – 00;26;33;29
Speaker 2
But it took a long time to hash this out or get there.

00;26;33;29 – 00;26;34;22
Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah.

00;26;34;22 – 00;26;46;20
Speaker 2
You get four guys in once good. And then three eventually go right. And it’s like this. You guys are you know, the turn is crazy, but it takes time to find the good ones and the ones that want to stay.

00;26;46;22 – 00;26;55;07
Speaker 4
And are you finding that most of those folks are self filtering themselves out the door, or do you have to come in and intervene quickly now they’re self filtering.

00;26;55;08 – 00;27;07;12
Speaker 2
Yeah, I have I mean I’ve, I’ve fired people and stuff, but it’s more often than not even the day off. And I’m like, man, I really got to let this guy go. He’ll call me back. Yeah, it’s not working out. And like.

00;27;07;14 – 00;27;12;07
Speaker 4
Oh no. Oh, love that look. That for both of us. Sorry to hear that.

00;27;12;10 – 00;27;27;21
Speaker 2
Yeah. But it’s it’s a little nice to know that, you know, I’m not crazy. We are. We both saw it. You know, it wasn’t like, Hey, you’re doing this thing wrong. You don’t even know it. We was not like we had to talk, but, like, it just didn’t. It wasn’t. It wasn’t right.

00;27;27;24 – 00;27;40;01
Speaker 4
Yeah. I’m curious to hear about what type of lessons from being in the military that you pull into your business and your work ethic.

00;27;40;03 – 00;27;58;22
Speaker 2
So Monday morning meetings, I make sure everybody has a notebook when they write down the one thing I found annoying in the Navy, but it’s it’s important, I think I go over, you know, dozens and dozens of things every week. And it’s a lot to remember. I don’t expect anybody to remember it. So make sure they get the notebooks.

00;27;58;24 – 00;28;14;18
Speaker 2
We’re having new uniforms. Everybody’s going to be tucked in the button down, shirt tucked in, clean shaven. You don’t have to, you know, you can have a beard, whatever. But just make sure you’re clean, right? Make sure you don’t, you know, make sure you’re on time. That’s a big one for me. I it’s one of my biggest pet peeves that people are.

00;28;14;18 – 00;28;31;06
Speaker 2
It’s okay to be late once in a blue moon. It happens. So am I right? But if it’s consistent, it’s, It’s a huge pet peeve of mine. It’s just a little bit rude. That’s how I feel, right? And it’s the military. If you’re two minutes late, you’re screwed. Like you’re. If you’re five minutes late, they’re calling you.

00;28;31;07 – 00;28;43;13
Speaker 2
You know, they’re they’re not or. Yeah. So that’s that’s something that has been ingrained in me. So yeah. Kind of the, the order of things. Not, I think crazy, but just, I guess I have you some expectations for sure.

00;28;43;16 – 00;28;44;05
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;28;44;07 – 00;28;49;00
Speaker 4
How’s the adoption with those changes that you’re making with that regard?

00;28;49;02 – 00;28;51;18
Speaker 3
You know, they don’t want to,

00;28;51;20 – 00;28;54;22
Speaker 2
Well, I don’t I wouldn’t say that. We have we have great people now.

00;28;54;25 – 00;28;55;26
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;28;55;28 – 00;29;02;20
Speaker 2
So we do. People are adopting these things. But historically it’s been. Well, this wasn’t how we’ve done it.

00;29;02;22 – 00;29;03;01
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;29;03;07 – 00;29;08;12
Speaker 2
You know, this wasn’t a thing. And he ran it just fine. So why do we have to do this now.

00;29;08;14 – 00;29;10;13
Speaker 2
Oh because that’s how I want it.

00;29;10;15 – 00;29;13;21
Speaker 3
I like it. Yeah. That’s on time. Like.

00;29;13;23 – 00;29;19;10
Speaker 2
Yeah I’m your boss now. Sorry. But like that’s you know that’s that’s the new golden standard.

00;29;19;12 – 00;29;44;17
Speaker 4
Yeah. It’s, it’s I was curious about that number one the adoption of the change but also like any anyone that I talked to in the military, you know, it’s essentially like, hey, like, I these are the things you got to do. Like, you got to follow your chain of command. You got to follow orders. You got to do what you’re being told to do, whether you want to do it or not, which then you get into the private sector and people.

00;29;44;19 – 00;30;05;18
Speaker 4
That’s not how it works. Right? So like that’s a big change there. And then when you’re instilling some of that structure into a company that didn’t have it, I was definitely curious to see like, you know, did people rebel? You know, why why are we doing it this way? Like, or the note taking thing? It’s funny you say that too, because I’ve tried to do that so many times in my company.

00;30;05;18 – 00;30;20;12
Speaker 4
And and I’ll sit there and the notebooks are opened and the pencils down on the notebook, and nothing’s getting right. I’m just looking. I’m like, you going to write a is down here, guys. Like you had to have that conversation with your team as far as getting their ideas set down.

00;30;20;15 – 00;30;21;21
Speaker 3
Yeah, it’s it’s frustrating.

00;30;21;22 – 00;30;42;06
Speaker 2
I have I’ve had a friend of mine who sold his company, but he’s a little bit of a mentor for me. And he says, you got to be the chief repeating officer. You got to say over and over and over in, which is like, for me, from coming from the military, it’s frustrating because if I tell somebody to do something, they should do it, and I shouldn’t have to say it again, like, it, it it just blows my mind.

00;30;42;06 – 00;30;57;21
Speaker 2
I have to repeat it over and over for someone to do it once, which it’s just so frustrating. But it seems like, you know, that might be the norm when I might have to get used to it. I just might have to be the chief repeating officer and, you know, do it.

00;30;57;23 – 00;31;01;24
Speaker 4
I think Derek and I can attest that your company is not the only company that.

00;31;01;26 – 00;31;02;23
Speaker 3
I love internet.

00;31;02;25 – 00;31;14;22
Speaker 1
But every week it’s the same thing over and over again, and it becomes habit after. And then eventually they start saying it to other people, and then it’s like, okay, it’s working the yeah.

00;31;14;25 – 00;31;15;28
Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s the win.

00;31;16;01 – 00;31;32;11
Speaker 4
Yeah. And it’s always it’s it’s the funniest thing to you because it’s not that any of them are bad people, it’s just the nature of people sometimes. Right. Like and especially I, you know, I can’t speak for, for your company, but I know, like, we run the smallest team we can possibly run for the amount of work that we have.

00;31;32;14 – 00;31;54;27
Speaker 4
And so everybody is slammed. Everybody’s got a zillion things coming in at any moment in time. So it’s like trying to be patient and, you know, and give them a little grace, I guess. Right. That like, hey, like no one could keep up with that amount of constant onslaught of requests and tickets and, you know, it’s yeah.

00;31;55;00 – 00;32;11;16
Speaker 2
I have to I have to remind myself of that too. And it’s similar with, with customers. If I, if I knock on a guy’s door and I give him something and say, hey, here’s here’s who we are, here’s a mug and uses, that’d be my head over. Why haven’t they given us work? It’s like.

00;32;11;16 – 00;32;12;05
Speaker 3
Well.

00;32;12;08 – 00;32;30;09
Speaker 2
Go 20 times and then see, you know, like, it takes over and over people. You’d be friend of mine. They have their own lives. Everybody has things that are going on in their family. The they’re not thinking about what’s important for you. You have to tell them over and over that this is actually something that I’m going to be, you know, I’m going to be looking at.

00;32;30;09 – 00;32;40;17
Speaker 2
It’s not just something that’s fleeting and that’s up to you. I understand that it’s not everybody’s my priorities is not everybody priority. And yeah yeah, definitely gotta definitely gotta go over and over and.

00;32;40;17 – 00;32;41;25
Speaker 3
Over.

00;32;41;27 – 00;32;54;10
Speaker 4
I’ll keep repeating. Yeah. What’s a from a selling front. So obviously you’re, you’re probably the chief sales officer it sounds like right. Getting out being the face of things and getting out into the community.

00;32;54;12 – 00;32;57;29
Speaker 4
Do you ever have any kind of selling background before jumping into this role?

00;32;58;02 – 00;33;14;14
Speaker 2
Not really. I’ve had some retail, like I worked at batteries plus stuff like that, but it wasn’t, like I’ve made commission on things and I thought I was pretty good at it, but I had no proof of like, large scale, you know, I never it was a door to door salesman or anything. But, you know, I guess I guess it worked.

00;33;14;14 – 00;33;33;13
Speaker 2
But. Yeah, I guess I’m right. I’m pretty good at it, I gotta admit. I love data and my metrics, and I love seeing numbers. And you could see, you know, the conversion rate and low, you know, stuff like that. And I compete with my guys internally who’s become crushing on this guy. And you’re like, hey, like a healthy competition.

00;33;33;13 – 00;33;34;14
Speaker 2
But,

00;33;34;16 – 00;33;35;25
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;33;35;27 – 00;33;56;05
Speaker 2
I try to get out of the field including like estimates. Right. So I’m trying to not do those anymore. I’m trying to put this off because eventually my goal is in 27 to open another location back home in Florida, where we’re from. Now, I need to I need to be out of it. And I haven’t figured out exactly how I’m going to do it.

00;33;56;08 – 00;34;04;27
Speaker 2
So like one step at a time for me right now, it’s like, okay, let me delegate this thing and then this thing, and then maybe eventually I can be basically removed.

00;34;04;27 – 00;34;06;20
Speaker 3
Right. Well, yeah.

00;34;06;23 – 00;34;08;09
Speaker 2
Work in progress though.

00;34;08;11 – 00;34;27;18
Speaker 4
And all is it all is you know I’m as you’re talking I’m thinking about you mentioned the where you guys move from. And it reminded me that earlier in the conversation you had said that you guys completely uprooted and moved across the state essentially to almost the other side of the state. Right? Yeah. And and you knew no one.

00;34;27;18 – 00;34;51;01
Speaker 4
And it’s you and your wife. And I know every business owner, you really never punching out and going home. You’re always working. Right. And you have the added, we’ll say benefit that it’s both you and your wife that never get the punch out and go home. How do you guys manage that?

00;34;51;03 – 00;35;07;16
Speaker 2
I think I think to a certain extent we enjoy it. I think we have to. And I’ve thought about this a lot. If I, if I ran a Beanie Babies business, like it would be terrible because I just wouldn’t care. I just would be interested. And we are I think we were interested in the people in our in our community and our customers.

00;35;07;16 – 00;35;25;22
Speaker 2
So it’s not that bad, but it does. I mean, it does get in the way. You know, it’s it’s always on the front of your mind. I’m sure you guys know even when you’re not working, you’re working in your mind about some problem, some resolution, something. And it’s it’s been a conversation we’ve had many times of, hey, you’re on your phone again.

00;35;25;25 – 00;35;26;15
Speaker 3
Or.

00;35;26;17 – 00;35;44;22
Speaker 2
Get off your laptop like we’re at my parents house, right? Like I’m still working on that. There’s been times where it’s like, no, I’m sorry, but I do have to do this thing. And it’s. But you have to I have to tell myself, like, is this an emergency? Is this something that needs to take priority over my family?

00;35;44;25 – 00;35;50;06
Speaker 2
And a lot of times it’s a no, right. So I do have this slap my wrist sometimes, but.

00;35;50;08 – 00;35;50;23
Speaker 3
Yeah, I don’t know.

00;35;50;23 – 00;35;55;01
Speaker 2
If it’s ever gonna stop. I don’t know, I, I do love the game. I’ll have to say that.

00;35;55;03 – 00;35;55;26
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;35;55;28 – 00;36;09;12
Speaker 4
Well, I know Derek and I talk about it all the time. The late nights on the laptop, on the couch. You know, it’s 11 p.m.. 12 what? I think it was a few months back, but it was like 130 in the morning, and him and I are emailing each other back and forth about work stuff like, I like.

00;36;09;12 – 00;36;14;14
Speaker 4
I just sent an email and not even thinking that I was going to get. And all of a sudden a response comes back. I’m like, oh, all right, well, that.

00;36;14;17 – 00;36;19;26
Speaker 3
Makes you both you and it. Yeah, have it.

00;36;19;29 – 00;36;43;08
Speaker 4
It happens for sure. Yeah. What as far as, like advice that you would give to someone that’s going to be going into a business and having to sell for the first time in the fashion that you’re so, like selling a service business, right, is a very specific type of sale. What would you tell people that are like, how do you be successful in that role.

00;36;43;10 – 00;37;04;13
Speaker 2
Sir? I would say first and foremost, it sounds cheesy, but we are a couple books, read a couple of books on communication. It’s not about electrical work, you know, it’s about the relationship you make with people. And I’ve always been pretty good about that. I’ve been pretty good about meeting people, making friends, making relationships. So it’s not that far removed from sales.

00;37;04;13 – 00;37;20;06
Speaker 2
You know, it’s really just making friends because people want to do business with their friends. Hey, are you licensed? You know what you’re doing? Cool. But do I like you? I think there’s a lot of people that can do, an outlet change, right? There’s many people that can do the work. But do you want to work with that person?

00;37;20;09 – 00;37;40;12
Speaker 2
How to Win Friends and Influence People is a great one. I read that, like, four times now. I think it’s. Yeah, it’s again a little cheesy, but it’s it’s true, man. I mean, talk about them. Don’t talk about you. Like just the basics of like, hey, man, shut up. Ask them questions. Just little things like that I think works works wonders and just be genuinely interested in the other person.

00;37;40;15 – 00;37;56;19
Speaker 2
Other than that, if you’re if you’re really kind of, you know, it’s it’s harder for you, I would say find somebody that’s done or doing a thing you want to do, how you want to do it. Ask them if you can take them for a coffee. Ask them if you can have a phone call. Just just shoot your shot and say, hey, do you have a couple of tips for me?

00;37;56;27 – 00;38;23;10
Speaker 2
What do you think? And it’s social media is good tip I follow. I follow people on social media that are contractors and salesmen, and they have great tips, they have excellent advice and I’m like, oh, that’s brilliant. Like, I would have never in a million years thought of that. And and phones do it on TikTok. And, you know, it’s it’s just, put it in the forefront of your mind, make sure the sales and the communication is, is something that you’re always working on, because that’s something I’m always trying to get better at, for sure.

00;38;23;13 – 00;38;37;14
Speaker 4
What about, if you were going to give any piece, one piece of advice to an aspiring business owner in the trades, maybe they want to do it or they’re thinking about doing it, what would what would that be?

00;38;37;16 – 00;38;39;10
Speaker 3
One piece of advice.

00;38;39;13 – 00;38;57;09
Speaker 2
I’d say find the people to work with, like to to work day to day with me and my wife, love each other. Obviously we work great together. She’s she is good at the things I’m bad at and vice versa. I am the worst organizer in the world. It is chaotic all the time and she is amazing at that, right?

00;38;57;09 – 00;39;16;26
Speaker 2
So she fills in the gaps where I have them and vice versa. Have have good employees and good teammates and stuff, which is obviously something that that comes in time. But when you’re looking for partners and you’re looking for even like an accountant and a lawyer, like find good people, get to know these people on a personal level and they’ll move mountains for you.

00;39;16;29 – 00;39;20;12
Speaker 3
Yeah. Love it. Yeah. Well done. The,

00;39;20;15 – 00;39;37;22
Speaker 1
Electrician side, Zach Wood, after working with, your staff now for about a year and and seeing some of their development or transitions, new people coming into the business. What advice would you give to somebody who’s looking to get into electrical work or become an electrician?

00;39;37;24 – 00;39;45;29
Speaker 2
Becoming an electrician for themselves, I would say, have your ducks in a row before you do anything. Don’t don’t just jump into it.

00;39;46;02 – 00;40;05;16
Speaker 2
I would make sure you got your brand on point. A lot of people don’t do this, you know, a lot of people slowly roll into it. They get the side where they get the thing thing, then boom, boom, boom. But for me, I would personally, you know, have like a wrapped vehicle, have a uniform, have contacts, have a supplier, have all these things lined up.

00;40;05;16 – 00;40;24;26
Speaker 2
So you look you look professional when you show up to a job because that person can be lifelong customer. Right? You can, you can. It can go one of two ways. They can never work with you again. They can work with you forever. Set that expectation that, hey, I’m legit. I’m I know what I’m doing because you’ve done it for years.

00;40;24;26 – 00;40;34;10
Speaker 2
You know how to do it. You just got to look the part. So invest a little bit into the perception, the perception of your business. I would say.

00;40;34;13 – 00;40;42;21
Speaker 1
How about, kids that are looking at, electrical work or getting into it in, their adult years? What advice do you have?

00;40;42;24 – 00;40;59;20
Speaker 2
Fantastic. I was so bogged down when I was younger because I figured that it whatever I wanted to do, whatever I chose to do for work would be the thing that I have to do forever. And so I would jump from thing to thing because I was never in love with anything. But what I’ve learned now is it’s always going to change.

00;40;59;27 – 00;41;15;18
Speaker 2
You could do electrical now, and you could be you could be a doctor in 30 years. Like it doesn’t matter. But electrical is an amazing foundation for a job. Even if you don’t know if that’s what you want to do in the future, like that is going to be always valuable. I think trades are becoming more and more scarce.

00;41;15;20 – 00;41;34;20
Speaker 2
As you guys know. The electricians are going to think it’s like 300,000. We’re in a deficit. People are retiring and people are coming in. So supply and demand, right? You’re going to make pretty decent money. All these jobs are going away from I. And that’s not happening anytime soon with electricians, maybe eventually with robots, but no time soon.

00;41;34;23 – 00;41;42;10
Speaker 2
And I think it’s just it’s just a really good career. Look, you can always fall back. You can always make money on this.

00;41;42;12 – 00;42;01;10
Speaker 2
I don’t know, honestly, if I fully recommend, like, a school for it, at least where I’m from, because you, you can get your license with, experience. But it I know there’s people that we send people to school like, I still pay for people to go to school because. Just because I don’t like education, formal education doesn’t mean I should stop somebody else.

00;42;01;10 – 00;42;04;07
Speaker 2
Mom. So if that’s what you want to do, 100% do it.

00;42;04;10 – 00;42;04;28
Speaker 3
It’s.

00;42;05;00 – 00;42;25;21
Speaker 2
You know, super valuable. It’s still valuable. It’s not something I want to do, but it does teach you things that you don’t learn in the field. It teaches you the codes. It teaches you like the business aspect of it. Which which is it’s work, though you’re willing to do the nights and workdays, you know, that stuff. But yeah, if you’re young, grind your time.

00;42;25;23 – 00;42;27;29
Speaker 2
Grind.

00;42;28;02 – 00;42;29;10
Speaker 3
Love it. Yeah.

00;42;29;12 – 00;42;41;20
Speaker 4
Zach, if, I know we’re getting shorter on time, if people want to, find out more about your business, what you guys are up to, maybe get a hold. Yeah, maybe they’re in southwest Florida and they’re looking for an electricians job. How do they find you guys?

00;42;41;23 – 00;43;04;03
Speaker 2
Sure. Where much can you get? S lightning bolt s, electric. We’re in Puna. Go to Florida. My Instagram is much electric. Facebook as well. TikTok is big body official and still kind of like my personal. And that’s my nickname in the in the Navy, big bodies are kind of a thing. But you could find me there. You could call us 941575 8300.

00;43;04;03 – 00;43;08;03
Speaker 2
We’re always going to answer, you know, even if you just want to see what’s up. So,

00;43;08;06 – 00;43;08;21
Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s.

00;43;08;21 – 00;43;09;26
Speaker 2
My little plot.

00;43;09;29 – 00;43;11;01
Speaker 3
I love it.

00;43;11;03 – 00;43;12;29
Speaker 4
Zach. Really appreciate you. Come on the show, man.

00;43;13;01 – 00;43;14;06
Speaker 2
Hey, thanks for having me. I think.

00;43;14;06 – 00;43;15;09
Speaker 1
That good is with.

00;43;15;09 – 00;43;33;01
Speaker 4
Great. Yeah. Appreciate it. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Of course, you can find us at Blue Collar Startup Audio. Check us out. You can find every episode that we’ve had here over the years. I don’t even know what number we’re at. We’re in the 100 and something, somewhere, maybe 120, 130. I don’t even know. But thanks for listening.

00;43;33;02 – 00;43;45;25
Speaker 4
Check us out. You can also find us, YouTube like and subscribe. Spotify, Apple Rumble. Leave us a five star review. We only accept five star reviews, guys, so only five stars. And, appreciate everybody. Listen, thanks a lot.

00;43;45;27 – 00;44;13;27
Speaker 1
And that wraps up another episode of Blue Collar Startup. A big thank you to our sponsors, Five Towers Media, Daigle Cleaning Systems, Daigle Fire Solutions, The Michaels Group, Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio Construction People, and Catamount Consulting for making this podcast possible. And thank you for tuning in. If you learned something or felt inspired. Connect with us on our website at Blue Collar Startup Bio or email us at hardhat Dot CSU at gmail.com.

00;44;13;27 – 00;44;26;21
Speaker 1
We’d love to hear your questions and topic ideas. Help us spread the word by sharing the show and following us on social media for updates. Until next time, keep on building. Keep on dreaming and keep hustling like your future depends on it.

00;44;26;24 – 00;44;35;27
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh!

00;44;35;29 – 00;44;37;05
Unknown
Oh!