The Huddle - Episode 107 - Expanding Your Services

In this episode we explore the benefits of broadening the range of services offered by your flooring business. This episode discusses how diversification can open up new revenue streams, attract a broader clientele, and differentiate your business in a competitive market. By adding services such as custom designs, eco-friendly options, or restoration services, you can meet more of your customers' needs and enhance your business's growth potential. Tune in to discover how expanding your service offerings can lead to greater business success and customer satisfaction.

The Huddle was created by Paul Stuart of Stuart & Associates and Go Carrera, alongside Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring. Aimed at helping you maintain forward progress in your flooring career, they cover topics from personal and business growth, to installation tips & tricks and everything in-between.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

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https://www.preferredflooringmi.com
https://www.stuartandassociates.com

hey what's up everyone welcome to the Huddle Paul isn't here to do the intro again so we have to say this yet again

because he's the best at it and we can't even even we can't even try to come close to how good he is at it so we're

just not even going to attempt it welcome everybody to the Huddle your weekly updates of other stuff that Paul

usually says and he Wings it pretty good thanks for joining us today we have

Daniel and Jose with preferred flooring oh wait as always there got you

Paul So today we're going to be uh discussing expanding your services I know a couple weeks ago we talked about

you know focusing on on one and you

know niching down right and how can you focus and become good at that and

really that's what we did and made our name in the resilient side of things but

I think the fact of the matter is is that if we only did resilient uh we were just talking about this before we went

live here is we'd be sitting around for six months out of the year because uh

although yes we are pretty good at it and it's what we like to do it's not

always you know it's not always there so what can we do in order to to stay

afloat and and keep our guys busy and and still

keep on moving so I mean not only that we didn't even in

start in resiling we started in carpet really yeah carpet and vinyl base man

some broadloom and that was uh what we started I just found something that very few

people did and decided to attack that um that was all and Daniel's right

there's a there's a lot of a lot of downtime flooring is seasonal we found out long ago that

flooring is seasonal different types of flooring are seasonal uh in the commercial industry let's let's get that straight commercial wise this is us

talking about that I and and and and I do know now that it applies somewhat to

residential but commercially speaking um you got Seasons right you

have uh let's start with the flooring season you have school season you have Hospital season you have

uh uh industrial season like there are are times of the year when

um these places kind of ramp up and you you know you have your the fiscal year um where a lot of places are ending uh

and but June 30th something like that and they're trying to Bury Bury funds uh

School season is got to keep the budgets right yeah School season is

um during summer break you know you have very small Windows of opportunity to get

a lot of work done um but that's that goes back to what we

started talking about and uh she had mentioned uh what Paul note had said and

I don't recall what that was Daniel about uh um making sure that you get get

training right and and set budgets for yourself when you're looking at expand

in your services um just talking about I mean I've talked to guys that were like

hey I'm going to start concrete polishing and it's like okay you know

that that'd be pretty good are you going to be taking some classes because that's something that

not you can't just go out there and think that you can polish concrete you

know there there's guys that are very good at it and you got to learn from some of these guys and there's classes

for it but not only that you're looking at equipment I mean the the guys that do

our concrete polish and their their equipment is ridiculous I mean they're they they drive around with two grinders

that you know upwards of $30,000 and that's just for the grinder that's not the vacuums that's not the the

generators so it's like how much are you going to actually spend to try and get

started expanding your services and concrete polishing

probably I mean could it be one of those absolutely but you're going to have to start small are you going to start just

doing concrete polishing in garages right in basement something like that

but because you're not going to be doing these huge jobs where it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars

worth of tooling to go in there and do right off the bat so it definitely Paul

is right you got to set your budgets and make sure that you're you're setting yourself up for success by getting the

training right we're all about training on the Huddle so there's no surprise there but yeah you have to get

training educating yourself um to what steps you need is very important and uh

you know you mentioned the buffers like or the Grinders I'm sorry the grinders at $30,000 for one unit and that's on a

very small scale um that's not a it's not a very large uh unit at all and I

think uh long ago when uh I back in my day when I first started doing flooring

um there was a a place down the street from where our office is actually located now called uh Bay Area interiors

and I remember they were doing terazzo they were the only company doing terazzo on this side of the state for a while

there and I remember asking him hey do you want to learn how to do this you we can teach you we can teach you and I was

like uh uh maybe um they like yeah first first you're going to have to get

$100,000 worth of equipment just to start uh yeah nope sorry I'm not I'm not

at that level not right now I was just I was just working with a with a sub at

that time and I remember them trying to sell us on that uh back when the mall was being built and no one around was

doing it I mean you look at the airports and it's very prevalent in airports I talked

I was at a meeting a few weeks ago um and met the the guy that does the

buying for the airports and that's what he was talking about he was like that was his first question to me oh you do

floring do you do do terazzo I said Noe you want terazzo you have a choice of either and then he did he named two

companies I said that's all you got he said yeah I know I said and that's all

you're GNA get unless you go out of state he said there's one more company over by Detroit that does it but other

than that yeah that's there's two companies in Michigan three companies in Michigan and

then that that's basically all you get for trazzle but I mean it is very labor intensive

so not not just that it's the equipment right and the knowhow it's probably very

easy to mess up so just make sure you're you're staying within your budget and

know what you're getting into when it comes to expanding so now that we we

talk about that I mean there's other things that you can expand into so if you are doing carpet which a lot of

people start with you want to get into the resilient side um a lot of guys are

are scared to do it because it is you know we talk about it all the time it's one cut you're done if you cut that 30

foot piece of vinyl short guess what there is no fixing that like you can with carpet

so there is um training out there for it and uh I just seen rodon bush from CFI

posted a couple trainings today that are happening over I I think in uh his area

of Kentucky or something like that and uh the NCT um we're going to be down at

America's Floor Source in October for some heat Weld and Flash Cove stuff so

the training is out there make sure you're you're taking advantage of it this is how you can do it and get your

foot in the door without come come use our equipment come

get your hands on it you know and and see if you can actually see if you even

like it before you start doing it because the last thing you want to do is accept the job and then try and scr

around for all this these tools and and and just go out there and start messing

stuff up right away I mean that's kind of what what we did but we weren't the ones in charge at the time it was uh the

guys that were getting the the projects for us that we worked under at like um

so do you think that you can do this um I'm I'm sure I can do whatever you guys

got uh have you done it before nope are you scared nope just give me some

literature I'll figure it out um but you know you gotta you got to give yourself

a chance to be hands on before you you get thrown out there and I think that's where this is coming from is um you know

don't don't limit yourself to one to one Niche right like if you're good at one

thing chances are you're good or great at another as well and it's just a matter of going to some of uh

educational classes trainings U certifications or just going and hanging out with a group of floor nerds and

getting your hands on something that you typically don't touch just as to to get a feel for it well that that's the other

thing too right is hanging out with and going to these events that that's going to be where you can talk

about things and where you can meet people that are very good at something that you may want to do or job that you

want to take on uh Jim Jimmy called me up and was like hey I got this foro

thing going on asking me a bunch of questions and then when it came down to it he was like Hey I still don't feel

comfortable can you come down and help me out and I did I went down there and helped him out for a day it's because he

put himself out there man he he's a great guy you know we hang out at the events all the time and it's like of

course you know he's a he's a fellow CFI guy um nfic so hey when when your

brother's in need you go help them out and I know that one day uh if if we're ever in that position he'll come and

return the favor and it's all about that networking aspect of things and knowing that hey I might want to get into this

so let me go hang out with the people that are into it already yeah and it's um I know maybe I

was a little bit of a different person too like whenever I wanted to learn something new I really honestly this is

my Approach I offered my assistance for free an evening or a weekend to go learn

something new and it I knew that um I knew that I was just going to be

there asking a bunch of questions and I was going to end up being a gopher but that's totally fine I don't I don't care

I absorb things fairly quickly and I wanted I wanted to see if if something

was in in in my in my if I could understand it if it

was going to be in the realm of something I wanted to try or or do or invest my time in um and and that that

applies to more than just flooring right it applies a large variety of things um

not saying you guys have to do that but you know if uh if someone around you is good at something and and they're

willing to bring you on and show you and you're willing to go learn for eight hours U just by being a helper go do it

and do whatever you can to get a little piece of that knowledge information to see if it's something that you would

like to pursue yeah and there's been plenty of guys that have reached out to us and it's like can I just come help

you guys out for a day or two and it's like man if again if we did sheet vinyl

every single day it'd be no problem like yeah come out here come and help us out but to have the schedules align and for

everything to match up perfectly is is so hard that I can't just be like you know what come help out because it's

like man it could be two three months from now where we'll be have a sheet vinyl project and then even then it's

you know a bathroom yeah like like the one we're doing this week yeah just I mean very

small and then scheduling wise what just happened something happened can't be

there now for a little bit so um scramble mode fill the fill the schedule

um I'm just wondering like um so so I can we can only me Daniel whatever we

can only talk to the area over here there's there's a lot of guys around uh in our local area that um do gravitate

towards one discipline um and they they do team up with other installers to

adopt another discipline um because that's a lot of what

uh the projects entail are more than just one type of flooring um

and I think that's a great way to go about it that's a great way to find out if you'll have a um have a liking to

another discipline but um it's also another way way to avoid learning if you

invite someone to help you out with a project and you're like that's yours over there do not cross this line this

is mine over here uh be uncomfortable for a little bit go help out ask some

questions and vice versa uh to the person who's going to help um I mean

there's a there's a reason why there's multiple materials on on a single project right

and and if you can offer if you can offer more than one discipline to a client they would rather

deal with one person than multiple people it does make things a lot easier um on the back end uh but if not totally

understand um and if you're one of those people that are comfortable offering a service that you have no no knowledge on

man you better keep your fingers crossed and good luck um I will will give you that little

bit of advice right because even going from commercial to residential or

residential to commercial it's completely different world I mean

we know residential guys that will only do Residential and you know commercial guys that will only do commercial

because residentially you that's where you make your money and then you go to Commercial and you're like how can you

even make money here and that's what commercial guys say about residential it's like it's a comfort thing and um you

know I we keep talking about in installations and and Hands-On stuff but you know you're um you could always

expand your services in the industry to to Beyond just being an installer um you

know there's if you're good at something you can go help train you can I mean is is

it is there a lot of money to be made in that probably not the best money but how about we say not yet because that's

something that needs to be talked about in the industry too is that needs to be

something to where you can make a living at training once you can't be your knees

anymore because there's too many guys out there that are great at what they do that are great at teaching that that

should be a career path that people should be able to look at and be like yes I do want to train I mean look at

what John styr is doing that dude is ridiculous when it comes to what he's doing with training right now I mean if

he were to make as much money installing and just focus on training how many

people he could have coming up in the industry would that that's really what we need so how can

we how can we expand not just services but the industry to accept that that's

what we need in here so we can have that option as well that is a a great and

valid point onto that you know you um that's a teach a guy how to fish uh type

scenario right Styer is teaching a lot of individuals how to fish that's for

sure they're going to be feeding a lot of families that's that's worth uh that's worth this waiting gold in my

opinion Kevin says he was always told it's better to be a master of one than a

hack of many back then it was much different time for flooring and the crazy thing is is that I thought it was

different back then where a lot of guys did everything and did it well I mean look

at just like for instance John Namba where he's got certifications and basically anything that you could do he

can he can do ceramic he can do wood he can do carpet what whatever you want to do he can do it right and that's really

how I thought guys back in the day were it's like I'm going to do everything and I'm gonna do it well I think it was a a trade-off too

right like um back in the day they they probably helped a lot with the other ones but there was a trade-off is um

people stayed in their lanes and they understood that there was a lot of work for everyone um and and they worked well

together nowadays it's everybody's competition we're training our Replacements and you know what hell yeah

I want to train a replacement if you're crawling around why why wouldn't you want to someone to take your place on

the floor if you have other uh opportunities and you're strong at something else train your replacement

find some growth um and you know and and everybody's scared of people leaving

their them and going and working for other companies and you know what it's okay that's going to happen regardless

um you know and if they're not a fit for you they they will leave if you're not a fit for them then you leave uh it's just

that's just the way of the world man it's the same way every every career every every job every whatever you want

to look at is like that just uh right we got a comment on uh Instagram they said the correct trained guy will help

increase profits for their employers or themselves and yeah like you you got to

train them so that way you you can't hold anyone hostage right

yeah they're they're going to do whatever they want to do and we we've we've kind of seen people come

full circle a couple times and it's like it's the same thing every single

time when they're like I had to go see what what was out there

and you know right now I'm kind of kicking myself because what could have

been if I would have stayed but it's like man sometimes you got to go see what's out there and you were at a point

where you were like hey I can do this myself and that means that 100% go do it

like I don't think there's been many people that have left um us where it's

like I hate this guy or anything like that it's like if you're gonna go do it go do it

like if you're gonna go be all in go be all in right we we understand everybody's got a family um everybody's

got um dreams everybody's got goals um just just know that there's a lot of

behind the scenes that even we're still learning um that go on for being a

business owner yeah we're still learning 100% we still you know take classes to

learn how to do some things we're in you know um not necessarily like we we did

masterminds with Kyle Haden uh we we're we're in programs with that we learn

through our local chamber and some of the organizations over here where it's like no I'm not you know I'm not 100% at

what I do I'm I still need some help and that's how it always should be throughout your career you should always

be asking for help because there's always something that you can do better if it gets too easy and you don't need any help then you should probably find

something else to do and hand that off um

that's and I think besides like um

training which is a huge one that's something that you can look into because

we're we're definitely lacking a lot of people that that want to get out there and like you said it's not lucrative and

you're not going to make a bunch of money but you do meet a lot of cool people yeah all the time every

day um what other what other um things in

the industry what other um I don't say Services what other careers have kind of popped up that that you didn't know

about Daniel since we started getting really involved I'm looking

at just like moisture

testing um since we got certified for moisture testing like if you haven't thought

about it start thinking about it way what's that I gota redo Mine by the way

oh yeah they have you can redo it at um you can redo it online but if you wanted

to wait you can do it at CFI convention I think there's an amount

amount of time that you have to do it in between though so you got to see when it expired and then yep so but I mean just

just moisture testing in general the the amount of if you really went all

in and just pushed out there that you did moisture testing and went to all these gc's and was like this is a

service that I offer everyone needs it whether they want to believe they do or not everyone does um you get your name

on that list I we get call I got calls

from a job in Ohio and then you you throw out pricing and it is it's not

cheap because that that travel time right but I mean we've I've done a couple jobs for a

contract I don't remember if they were out of of state or if they were in state just on the other side I think they were

over by Detroit somewhere but like doing um big chain stores we're talking you

know 20,000 square feet and they're like we need you to go do some moisture testing I shoot them out of price

they're like all right go do it I'm in and out in two days and I mean it's it's a good chunk of

money that can be made it and I'm doing everything myself it's not like I have you know a couple guys there or anything

I mean helps don't get WR come a long way on that too I mean there's other like you just mentioned the east side of

the state which when we talk about that we're talking the two and a half hour drive minimum um there's there's a lot

of collaboration going on between uh different manufacturers and their teaming up to make things a lot easier

um in the flooring industry too and just happens to be uh one of those one of

those people one of those companies here Flor Cloud 100%

floor cloud is uh actually we just put it on one of our projects and it's doing

a great job I'm able to go to the GC and the architect and say hey man we're monitoring things in real time and this

is what's going on and you have to get these numbers down or else these products are gonna fail and to have um a

credential behind your name that's like like I'm not just doing this to tell you this is what's happening like I'm trying

to make some extra money no I'm trying to tell you these things so I don't have to do anything extra and things aren't

going to fail you know essentially protecting their best interest the

client's best interest the the flooring company's best best interest

um that's one thing you can you can spiral into that people go I'm only gonna do moisture testing I'm only going

to do recently it went and got uh took inspection um class um with nfct um a

few weeks ago down in Georgia for for a week um I mean it's just things like

that because I know that you know getting older and you can't be in denial right

it's it'll be nice to have options as

your career progresses right and and that goes with the discipline and what you what you know little or a lot about

for installation and what you know about uh running a business what you know about

uh helping a business um people management there's a lot of different

things to to think about but honestly man like if you are going to think about something moisture

testing is one of those things that you should be thinking about right now and especially partnering with Flor Cloud

I'm actually going to go ahead and play their video right now because they're they're 100% they're

great realtime monitoring of your job site conditions via desktop or mobile

device no more manual checking for temperature humidity or even dupoint no

need for base stations wifi or external power sources simply scan the QR code on

the front of your sensors and you're up and running with the most accurate and Innovative sight monitoring system in

the flooring industry dispatcher Crews with confidence and reduce your climate

related installation issues floor Cloud now you know now you

know and uh over here on Instagram they're they're saying that it doesn't have to be just specialized training for

certifications they feel that uh everyone needs to be trained on fundamentals and

specifications and when I was in you know one of my first certifications

that's kind of what I was saying it's and I I'll never forget I just talked to him the other day it was

William thoron with um tarat Sports and you know just going into it

and a lot of it was the certification and he he kept on going over things and

he's like you know it it had to do with concrete moisture testing and all this stuff and

he was like but you guys don't need to know about this but you guys don't need to know about this it's like 100% we need to know about this man it's like

we're the ones that are on the ground we need to know about all of this and I think that's the issue is that people

think that you're just a flooring installer you don't need to know about any of this when really we're the ones

that need to know about everything so we're one of those areas where we're just

undervalued and they don't I don't want to say they

right like listen you should know about everything you should know as much as as you possibly can about whatever career

you you choose about every aspect that you want to know about um anytime that

uh a lack of information can hurt you you should

know but getting back on the topic of inspecting you know I've been to um and

especially with the NCT you know Paul's an inspector so I've talked to him quite a bit and he's so he's talked to me and

has talked about you know going that route when it comes to expanding Services too and you know even Chad

bookie is a a local inspector here he was a flooring installer and now his focus is on inspecting

and that's something that you can do too and you're actually kind of ahead already um from

what I've gathered because you just took that inspection certification and you kind of knew a lot of the things that

were going on it's just a matter of how do you put everything together after you're done inspecting right right so

you know and and I'll be honest like um whenever I'm going to a class or going to training certification I'm always a

little like what are we what are we talking about what are we studying do I have do I need to study any literature

right because I'm not I don't do it every day anymore I'm not on the floor every day and I don't know what I'm

missing um I don't know if I'll miss anything but I was uh I'm always a

little nervous going there and went down there and it's just like they started talking and videos and and all the

information everything was like click click click and I was like oh oh okay

yeah guess I have been doing this long enough to retain some

information now after you you went through that class do you think that it's feasible for

someone like pretty new to go through it and come out like knowing what to do or

should they be in it for a while I would

is feasible from a a document standpoint right like they have all the

questions uh or all the answers to all the questions listed somewhere in someplace but if if you have a little if

you have some knowledge on how to navigate through the industry that's going to help you out way more than a a

textbook I mean you have you don't want to say this is what I do this is what I specialize in but

you're going to need six months to write a report right because you don't know the information

that's that's where that's going to be and that's one of those things that we talked about too right it's when you're

talking about expanding your services make sure you're expanding not only

into like these things but making sure that you know how to use a

computer I will say I will say it gets easier I mean

even uh Andy McWilliams uh went from installing to a technical role and he

was like the the hardest part is learning how to use a computer learning all the programs and you know how to put

documents together so I mean that is down the line it it's gonna have to

happen you only got so many miles on your knees guys so what what are you going to do to to offset this thing

I wish there more people interacting today because I would like to know their thoughts on that like um you know where

have they found success and I'll go to uh to Ken Balon right like's good at what he does but he's also spun off he

done a couple things of his own that that um you know we don't know how it is but hopefully it turns out to be very

lucrative for him right um he's sharing information sharing knowledge um and you know there's uh

there's other installers that are out there doing their thing for social media they're getting a lot of

uh a following I would say and they're showing off their work and and now they're also um advertising for for

tooling companies and and and all that and I don't know how much of that is pro bono how much of it is is uh being

reimbursed but it just goes to show that if you find something that you're good

at there are other ways to use that one thing or to use your brain and your skill set to make more money in more

than one Avenue right look at Reuben from uh Flores by Southern bories right that dude has his own like store on his

website now he's going around that dude is now he's setting up his uh his canopy

that he's got with his logos everywhere and showing people you know advocating for training yeah see I mean there's a

lot of different things you don't always have to be the first uh that's for sure it's just uh add to what's already

there but I definitely uh wouldn't recommend just going out

there and again just try to start something that you have no idea about do

your research don't just go out there and I'm just G to like I said go start

some polished concrete and I had to have a conversation with that person it's like I don't think you understand the

amount of stress that you're going to put yourself under I can I can give a quick rundown

on expectations of it but I can't give instructions on it right I only know

what I know because I it's the limited I know from from what it's

supposed to fit what it's supposed to look like when it's done how it's supposed to be and how it looks at from the literature standpoint but I can't

give you step-by-step process on what you're supposed to do but that's what they have YouTube for right yeah yeah

whatever jesusa said he's got signal from the storms in Houston didn't even

uh realize that the the storms were that bad over there hopefully everybody's all right

down there yeah hopefully you're good man let us know uh if you need

anything I don't I don't really know what else to

add to to that I mean everybody's got to find their their own Niche everybody's got to find out what else they're good

at if they're trying to expand to something well yeah but I mean just just like people ask us like why don't we do ceramic right

why don't we expand into ceramic and my answer is I'm already good at what I do

and we've already expanded our services to include other things like we're already good at carpet we're already

good at resilient ceramic is another Beast wood is another Beast I'm I don't

want to be an all-encompassing that just gives you um areas where you can partner up with

people there's somebody out there that's got the years of experience and training and certifications required to do a

phenomenal job for you with you however you want to look at it um you know

and if they're expanding they want to learn what you what you know then help them out and I'm sure they'll help you out yeah and like it don't have to be

anything huge what what we're talking about is you can get in in Spectre kit and I know Chad said that he drives

around in a Tesla so he doesn't you don't need anything super huge or you know a huge amount of

tools or anything uh when I go do moisture testing it's basically in a box in a few boxes that I

can fit in the back of my truck and they look pretty cool because

they're all Milwaukee boxes not bias or anything like that but pretty sweet setup packout

Nation but definitely uh it's always worth researching expanding what what

you're going to what you want to expand into before you actually do it ask people questions come to us ask us

questions um to be honest with you we've probably got 20 $30,000 worth of heat

welding equipment did that all that happen overnight no that took years and years

to collect yeah I dude I still remember the first time we we bought that thing we went we were so excited we went both

to the same job and did a three-foot door seam one three-foot door seam with

the he because we're just excited to have it I think that that's the thing U when

you're finding out how what to expand into if you're excited about it chances are you're going to do whatever you can

to make make sure you have all the right information training and tooling for it so find something to be excited about

don't just jump into it because someone tells you you have to dive into it because you know you

want to and start doing mockups that's what we did to teach ourselves when we

just think about um when we first got the sports floor groover we were in the in the garage on some

underlayment what are we going to do in order to to learn how to use this thing let's let's go use it y notice he said

in a garage that was legit I mean we started in the garage

so now we just have a bigger

garage but definitely uh reach out we wish Paul were could be here he he

definitely can uh lead a conversation and ask questions he's he's way better at it than we are we're definitely uh

just co-hosts yeah just just Co

so uh we appreciate you guys for uh for joining us all the time if you have any questions reach out um if you like the

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but they don't know yet so share it so uh we'll see you guys uh next week

and we appreciate everything you guys uh do for the for the show and we can't

wait to to keep on going if there's anything you guys want to talk about or know about or bring up I know that

there's a a link or an email address uh that you guys can use to contact right

there the aut forward progress gmail.com go ahead and use that I mean we always

want to know what subjects are on your mind what are you guys experiencing right now um

you know that's goes across the the US not just here in Michigan we want to

know what is going on in the flooring [Music]

world and until next time see you