The Huddle - Episode 109 - Strategies for Scaling Up Your Flooring Business

In this episode we explore effective methods for expanding your flooring company responsibly and sustainably. This episode discusses the importance of strategic growth rather than growth for growths sake. We cover how to identify the right times to scale, ways to improve operational efficiencies, and techniques for enhancing customer service and satisfaction. Additionally, we look at investing in staff training and adopting innovative technologies to maintain high standards as your business grows. Tune in to discover practical strategies that can help you scale your flooring business thoughtfully and successfully.

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

what's up team welcome to the Huddle your weekly Playbook where we strategize not only on playing the game but

changing it from mastering the fundamentals of the craft to distinguishing yourselves in the

marketplace we're here to give you the installer a voice and ensure you're

equipped with everything you need let's band together and Forge a new Legacy in flooring this is where you belong

welcome to the team everyone how's it going look at you like

a robot just getting that thing down like

that well you know You' think after about 400

episodes you get it down but uh thanks for

noticing Nobody seen hook go up sponsor our

show the chaos three seconds before you w on air

yeah help help it's all it's all part of uh doing

a podcast folks it's it takes a uh a small tribe and a lot of teamwork

between these talented folks on here that try to keep me in some type of line

but um all right well guys how's it going welcome welcome

the audience to the Huddle I'm Paul Stewart I'm the founder and CEO of go Carrera also I'm the president of Stuart

and Associates with me as always is Mr Daniel and Jose Gonzalez a preferred flooring out of Grand Rapids Michigan so

if you're up in that neck of the woods looking for some high quality commercial flooring providers both materials and

labor sometimes labor sometimes materials whatever you want these guys whatever they need whatever you need

these are your guys Michigan got a solution for that there's an app for that that's

funny what's up Jorge um so today's topic kind of flows along with some

previous topics we had about niching your business uh we also have had a

discussion about expanding your services this is about scaling your business so

this is strategies uh on scaling your business which to be clear

offering more services doesn't necessarily equate scaling and when we're talking about

scaling we want you to think about finances and and the supporting

Personnel that you're going to need if you are say a $500,000 company and you want to go to

five million that's scaling growing um you know you can grow slow

and steady keep with the keep a ahead of inflation on your growth and profit and

you can run a sustainable business you know nice sweet spot if you can find

it I guess to kick us off I was going to ask a

question when should you scale up your flooring business when meaning uh don't

are you and why those two questions you know really should be

um so I think it's worth asking yourself the question of why do you want to is it

because you uh just want a bigger business because uh I can tell you from because

bigger is better right yeah and I think that's that's sometimes the

um that's a lot of times the thought and you know we're just kind of I think a

lot of people are built that way men and women to you know you do something you

build a business it's going well and you want to grow it bigger you want to see how big you can take this

thing I have had experience where I actually made way more money with a lot less headache and less

employees not that employees are always a headache but just less employees less payroll less of everything and there was

a time when I made more money at about you know half the size and we had to

grow through that but those can be challenging times scale doesn't always equal to profit in fact if you're

scaling truly growing your business at a rapid Pace it will eat up your cash flow

so I guys wanted to talk about a few things that you got to think about and maybe we can start in the commercial

space first since we're all got experience there and then I want you

guys to talk about the residential space uh I'm a little less uh knowledgeable in that retail residential but um in the

commercial space you uh you have to really start thinking if you're going to

grow your business big uh you really have to start thinking about banking

relationships tax attorney relationships and contract attorney

relationships those three things are Paramount to you staying in

business what I heard was More Money More Problems that's what I heard

you got it Diddy may be in trouble right now but he had that

right yeah yeah he he got too much money so much money that he forgot that

he could actually create his own problems yeah he thought it grew away from the problems and they came knocking on the doorstep but it is it is there is

a lot to be said about it dude like so so you said something um when you when you're were making the introduction

about the the subject today about making more money right so let's uh you

know you get bigger and this is from our personal experience right revenue generated is greater right like you are

generating more Revenue because you could kick out more work but the profits are the thing that shrunk so that's why

the less people made more money was more profit it was there's more profitability and and keeping

things smaller and cleaner right because now you don't have to watch 50 things you're only watching you're only

watching 10 it's easier to keep track of and know when you're Los you don't have to you don't have to have as many

specialist you know what I mean like in the early days we had a PM that was also

the estimator which was also the warehouse guy that they that's that's us

right now we're you know what I mean the everything guy maintenance maintenance what's today Tuesday main maintenance on

Wednesday as you grow and you get bigger now you need an estimator maybe two

estimator that just estimate uh you may need you know we

have four or five six six project managers so you got to have specialized

people that do that specialized thing uh as you get bigger and the other thing is

as you get bigger you get bigger jobs and bigger Jobs means your the bulk of

your profit is in retainage in commercial and that is held in until the

project not until you're done but until the project is done and the owner has

paid the general contractor his retainage then he'll pay you their your

retainage and that can be I mean I've had that be well over a year you know you do a million and a

half dollar flooring project and even after we're done with our flooring it takes them six months to open the

facility another month to get through final punch list and then another three

four five months for for the GC to get paid his retainage and then you finally

get yours that means all the profit if you got 10% retainage and I tell you

what if you're netting 10% in the commercial business you're doing pretty dog on well especially if you're bigger

if you're you know netting 10% and you're smaller where you have those multiple roles in one person uh it's

it's a little bit uh a little bit easier to obtain those kind of numbers but the

as you grow and you hire employees and you're doing all these things you get Warehouse guys and then warehouse

manager with a warehouse guy and then you get another truck and you get three more trucks and you got Vans and all

this growth eats up your cash flow and when you do that fast you can

run yourself right out of business if you grow too fast so I would ask you to consider why you want to scale if you

are wanting to and if you've got a good set of systems and processes yeah

really well there you go that you can then grow to the next level uh I always

you know I've grow we've grown really fast before and we've grown steady I've

picked steady every day with been in this business since

99 I'd pick steady you know 5% over inflation growth than you know scaling

it 60% a year yeah because it's a lot easier that

way too right like because now instead of having to create uh positions to sustain that

you're slowly understanding what is needed instead of saying I gotta go grab this right now boom okay you're in

charge of this this is your spot and then you grab somebody else throw them in another in another bucket that's your bucket This is Your Bucket This is Your

Bucket when you're slowly growing you can say you know what I can split this one into two or three

buckets that's that's it right because we talked about EOS before and about the

entrepreneurial operating system and how you have to kind of start breaking down the roles

that you do into everything and then start

delegating and that's the the first step right start breaking down down everything that you do and I think

that's one of the issues with um just the installers in general is that we're

always like no one can do it as good as I can do it so that means I'm just going

to have to continue to do it but there there's if you do want to scale there's going to be a point where you you have

to say Okay I need someone to do this so that way I can focus my time on something

else well one other thing to consider what do you love to do

right a lot of us got of us we start a business and we love the installing

maybe we like selling to a customer you get to a certain size

and the problem is is that you will get drug away from doing that stuff that you

love you possibly love doing and tradeoff you're meeting with your Banker

all the time trying to keep money flowing you're trying to get project maybe you're you're trying to set up

lines of credit per project or a major line of credit for your entire company

um you're meeting with attorneys on contracts and you're trying to get through contracts all the time like you

can end up doing a whole different side of the business that you are maybe not

capable of doing at a high level right and maybe which I certainly was not I went through a a Terri terrible Growing

Pains um but that you know I'm a hardheaded nerd that kept thinking that

growth equaled you know was my my goal in life just being bigger is better

bigger is better and that's just wanted to be the biggest Nate says right here

you know because he's from Wisconsin with a dairy analogy a farmer can handle

75 cows but if he doubles the herd he only gets a 10 to 20% increase in income because the bigger herd cost

more and that that yeah that's true I mean across the board I mean the more people you pull in the more labor you

gotta dish out right labor expenses more labor hours you gotta watch I mean if you think

about it this way think about uh if you have employee installers

and they're they're good guys but we all know you may get a 10 minute little uh

rip from the time here and there uh you know we try to limit it by mobile timee

keeping and hiring right but still I've had it happen you have that happen with three

employees that's one thing right 30 minutes a day call it 30 bucks an hour you're

losing 100 bucks a day on wasted uh either way and maybe it's not even nefarious maybe it's just wasted time

cross talking too much whatever but let's say that's three employees equals 100 bucks a day you're losing take that

times 10 or 15 or 20 when you I know grow your team right now you're talking

,000 doll a day you're losing in Lost productivity or maybe stolen time I mean

it's all this stuff matters you really got to track it you know and it's kind

of like tracking your job site and there's a lot of tools out there in the world for tracking your job site but

none even compareed to flor Cloud as you guys know floor Cloud's a

great sponsor of the Huddle here and I want you to discover how floor Cloud can

transport your project side conditions right to your fingertips right there on your phone you want to talk about

increasing efficiency and profitability you can do so if you're growing your business with floor Cloud floor Cloud

will enable realtime monitoring of your job site conditions via desktop or your mobile device so if you're out on

another job site you want to know how one of your other projects site conditions are you can do it right from your mobile phone no more manual checks

for temperature humidity or Doo no need for these big base

stations uh you know or because of Wi-Fi this is all based on cellular so it's

simple you scan the front of the uh device with QR code and you're up and

running with the most accurate and Innovative site monitoring system in the flooring industry you can dispatch your

Crews with confidence now because you don't have to wonder what the site conditions are no more crews going out

turning around and coming back because job site ain't ready I'm a huge believer in floor Cloud technology the easy setup

and simple interface makes it a no-brainer guys so many of our projects are hours away we're in Kansas it could

be four hours away and still be in Kansas so being able to get a sight condition and moisture readings here at

the office is a real savings technology mov fast and being on the front line with Flor cloud is a real game

changer thank you to flor Cloud for sponsoring this episode I know you guys are big Believers and uh have mobilized

their technology so uh that's another thing staying on the Forefront of that when you grow you are now competing when

you're you have a scaled business and you're growing and you're getting bigger and bigger you're now competing with

more sophisticated companies as well I'm not trying to talk you out of growing or scaling your business I'm trying to make

you think and ask yourself the right questions so you can ensure that you

actually want to go through that yeah we we've got um florer Cloud

on one project now and it's already been huge in like because this architect is a pain

but having the you want to scale up you gotta get used to that at the fingertips

and just being like here here is the site conditions right and it it's actually nice because

the architect wants things done right so they're like okay and then they go back to the GC and they're like do something

about this then I'm not fighting it yeah yeah I mean that the not only floor

Cloud um but in technology in general I know you guys as you grew started

looking at different technology different ways to be as effic as you

could possibly be and you know as people coming into the business or you're wanting to grow your business maybe

getting into the commercial world uh you're going to need to uh you know really start investigating that kind of

stuff too so I just don't want it rose buds and and you know flowery rainbows

and stuff as when we start talking about scale when you're talking about scale in your business sounds sexy but to be

honest with you it there's if you're not properly prepared it can be a real hard

thing to do and to do so profitably I should say I know I've had my uh my uh

bruises and scratches and cuts and um so

that's what I would ask everybody if you're talking about Skilling is should you and when should you and why do you

want to I will I will add this too just for like the um the single installer who

thinks that that scaling is actually employing people and and maybe getting uh brick and mortar um you know and

trying to go that way but you know investing in yourself in making sure that you have the right equipment the

right Transportation um the right tooling the right knowledge that is one of the the

things that you can do just to help you scale up organically right like people

like to see someone investing in themselves and they notice it and uh it would help you as well so it it doesn't

necess scaling up to me doesn't necessarily mean you know getting a big going from five to 50 right it might

mean going from one to one plus some good amenities um that that is needed

and that could help you organically scale up and you might see some attention that you haven't or normally

don't see which might open up more doors and make you start thinking about taking the next next steps as

well yeah that's a that's a great point because you know know um there's plenty

of installers out there that let me say this the most profitable

guys I know in the business are the self- performers with a really good team

great equipment a small storage space or a nice shed at their house that has

their equipment and they take care of their equipment they take care of their people they have a great team of four to

four to eight guys those those guys who still get out there and do the work they

get their crews out they got their little crew leaders little they got their crew leaders they get out there

and handle a little guy and they talk on the phone a little bit but each when

when that smaller team is well oiled I know guy bluecollar millionaires man

that have done fantastically well for themselves installing floors running a

good installation business and being smart about it having high trained guys

and investing in their team both morale wise as well as uh training uh you know

skill-wise those are probably the lowest headache most profitable guys I

know I agree Hugo a tile team here in witto we we one year paid them well in

excess of a million dollars and those guys knocked out of the Park want to thank all the little peeps out

there but it's it's um there there's a great deal of of uh pride and and

frankly money to be made running a business that way I think uh I think you're right on

and and those guys are are the ones that like you said they they have a team right like they might not necessarily

have employees but they have a team of people that they're trusted or that they trust that they've acquired over the

years and they might have a team of Builders or contractors that trust them

and their team and they don't have to go out and bid they just get a phone call the best ones actually have at least the

best ones I know actually have employees it's usually a a set of brothers or a

cousin and a literally it's like those two guys

hire people by the hour make sure they're trained care about their equipment and have an accountant that

takes care of everything for them a third party they just drop everything in off once a week and like I said Alex and

Hugo that team they did well in excess of a million dollars for us one year and

they had a team of them two and three other guys and they ran it out of a

garage at their house where they kept all their equipment and they just cared about that and doing great

work building that's um that's that example of you know like some people say

becoming complacent right like being stagnant that's not stagnant that is a

very controlled very very strategic way to go about having a business model it's

no we can't do that guys we're we're still here look it we've just learned how to control this let's see if we can control this and maintain this this line

this control line uh for as long as we possibly can and then once we get to a a good point where we can invest

comfortably then we can make the next jump that's a good way to go about it I like the way that uh you put

that yeah it was an example of a couple of guys brothers that just cared about

having a good time at work they were never up like very rarely they get bent

out of shape but they always got they you know until uh they ended up kind of

going their separate ways one wanted to scale back and even get smaller and do

Residential only um and the other one wanted to stay in commercial to so they split ways from that aspect but they

they it was a amicable split and they they just decided when they were

together they just decided that we're going to have a good time the did break

up Jorge but they they are still uh they they still love one another but it was

it was just a um it's just a testimony of when you can double down they they

could scale their profit uh but they didn't have to scale their growth they could make really good profit make

really good uh you know find better ways to uh you know more efficient saws

more efficient grinding equipment this kind of thing to increase their profit

without necessarily having to do a ton more Revenue so there's two things there

that you want to think about and revenue at the end of the day revenue is pretty

but profit is what gets the you know so what keeps the doors open that's what

keeps the doors open and keeps the lights on and allows you to live the lifestyle that you

want yes sir so what else do you guys we talked about this been really a lot

about commercial you know when when you're talking to a retail um a retailer

maybe a small retailer who's wanting to grow or a you know a

residential uh installation shop wanting to grow that's more in your guys's realm of

expertise what do you guys you know obviously there's like you can open up another store across town or in another

small town outside but um what do you guys res when you're thinking

residentially right and we're focused on um just like the installer base just talking about like maybe being a a one

crew type thing and then you're trying to to to scale up and just trying to maybe sell start selling material it's

what do you got to do in order to store that material it's looking at just like getting a warehouse or um looking at

maybe inventory or something or get partnering with someone that will hold that inventory for you

uh what about quality control you know because you you know what you can do and

maybe what this other guy can do but as you start growing maybe you catch wind of some Builder starts loving you and

starts wanting to throw you all the work that they can all you can

handle how do you quality control that like you know that's one of the one of

the interesting quality control starts with you understanding your limitations

and being transparent with your clients or potential clients that's one way to start quality control don't promise

don't promise the Stars when you can't even make it to the moon you know what I'm saying just uh go you you you got to

be comfortable telling someone I'm uncomfortable with that and this is why but I can do some research

and find out if in my network I have somebody with those strengths and attributes that you're looking for and

if so then we can do work um that's that's the hardest thing to do

right because uh most uh entrepreneurs business owners or anyone trying to grow they're like yes I can yes I can and the

uh just dive in we'll figure we'll figure it out later just say yes and then we'll figure it out right like

uh we're pretty good at that but I'm not gonna go and tell someone

I'm gonna do you know the a bathroom renovation and and pretend that I am

the best that they're ever going to find at doing some custom showers and floors and patterns I'm not going to go do no

um uh no stuff like you see on tiktock or or like U what's his face does all

the time um corge on carpet well him too but on the tile side like Ken Bon

or yeah I'm not I'm not gonna promise anybody like they say that I'm gonna

go I'm GNA connect you with some other people right um now being okay saying no yeah that

that's that I think that's the first that's a hard thing to do I'll admit that it is and I went and measured a

house and the reason why she found us was actually because of the podcast and

she she was moving you know from across the country and she was like I want you to come measure this I found your

podcast you guys are certified I found you on all these sites and then she you know measured her whole house and she

was like and this is this restroom right here I want tile tile shower the whole

works but it's not going to go yet and I said I can do everything else as far as

this bathroom goes I'll put you in touch with someone that's gonna take care of

you yeah well as long as you buy the material for me she probably appreciated

that too humility goes a long way that transparency yeah humility transparency

goes a long way with with people that uh have values in common um with

the yeah so another way though is um and

shout out to some my guys you know that are nfic um you know is getting more

specialized we did talk about that in the previous podcast but when you're one of the few that can do specialized tile

work work or carpet work you can scale the not only your

Revenue but your profit for sure uh because there's just not that many

people that do it I mean even you know here in wiah like I said we're probably

six or 700,000 in the Metro and the there's a very few handful of guys that

do really specialized work like that and you get outside of that

and you have the guys that want to do carpet tole lvp and you know that's it and in the

commercial World The Flash Cove sheet vinyl heat welded stuff is a h good example of work

that is special more specialized now um back when I first started the company I

worked for had we had three or four people that could Flash Cove heat Weld

and it was a much smaller company than what we are and I only

have three crews or three people that I would

send out to do a flashco heat welded cheap Vel project so if you guys are looking to

get trained on some flash code flash cove and heat weld uh NCT is doing a

class in October over at America's Floor Source FYI

where's that up in your neck of the woods yeah it's in Ohio so how about you say it like this if you guys want to get

trained and certified by Daniel himself this is a class you're not gonna want to

miss I might go to that I don't know that makes that makes

me nervous now yeah right might have to go to that too that would be sweet to tell that's

that's a great opportunity if you are an installer that does like carpet tile lvp

and you do good floor prep you know how the floor needs to be for lvp your 2 millimeter thin stuff you know

then learning those sheet vinyl skills man I'm telling you what that is in the

commercial world that is where we are constantly I mean it's one of the

questions we ask every installer comes in to interview you ever do flash cove heat weld no dang you know because those guys

are hard to come by um yeah we've uh we've had to trust

people um to come on job sites and help out I don't say job sit come on projects

to help out when a schedule was laid in front of us that was nearly impossible you get a handful of people they say yes

we do and then you have no choice but to trust them and then next thing you know you're like I need you to get off my job

site what's up leave just leave

please yeah and if you come with you know the

receipts the certifications and the actual training show me the receipts you will I gotta take off I

gotta get my son up to the school all right my man you mean you gotta be a dad I gotta go be a dad for

daddy duties daddy duties well thanks for joining

brother and uh thank you as always for being a staple I try I

do stop stop talking already just leave

bro there he goes all right um so anyway when we when we're

all talking about scaling the business and doing those things that considering

whether or not it's time if you have your resources together and do you want the extra headache I think those are the

the big things just to consider fully before you just start jumping in and growing your business like crazy and you

turn around and you're negative in your bank account you ain't got a the line of credit you got all these like problems

and issues that you're trying to deal with and they all stem from not having enough Capital to run the company um so

stand back ask yourself is it time to grow do I want the extra headache and if I do if I believe that I'm built for

that make sure that you're getting that your personal you know development is

high up on your radar it's something you're going to have to learn to be good at if you're not already good at I had

to learn how to be a business person and I was terrible at it for so long I'm I'm

I would say I'm ashamed but at the end of the day it it it made me better but I had to learn the hard way on a lot of

stuff and it wasn't it wasn't fun I still learning you and us both brother

like yeah still learning the hard way in some things yeah so you made a good point too as far as like you

know you could do your best to to kind of uh dot your eyes cross your tee if you will

but is this my strength I guess is that like am I mentally prepared for for scaling up

and if you are for that next step where is your roof you know you go I think

that's where you know we didn't we didn't game plan at all we just kind of let it all happen and

um I think game planning might have scared us a little bit or made us

rethink our approach um and we might not have had some of the um negative

experiences as far as uh the scaling portion um but I will say like um it

always can't go back to education it always goes back to education you know that's just one of the things you got to learn about it right

uh experience and education it's the only two ways you get good at yeah so before we started doing like um

entertaining the idea of bid work um Daniel and I took a um an advanced

estimating class um we just kind of Dove right in we wanted to understand what we

were looking for on these larger commercial jobs we wanted to understand how the contracts were structured um we

wanted to understand all that so that's a one of steps that that we took in

preparation um probably one of the only steps we took in preparation for our next that's better you know that's

better than nothing at least you took a technical step um yeah I think you know

kind of like I mentioned earlier one and Roland just uh commented said first thing you need to do is look at yourself

and be ready to harder work for the first year work harder for the first year I would venture to say that

if you're starting a business that first couple years going to be the hardest you ever worked in your life to

make um first off secondly um and that shouldn't scare you away just you got to

be ready for it um and secondly you know any time you're growing a business

especially when you hit these big uh like thresholds I'd say three

million then five then 10 then 15 those big thresholds are and it can

be in smaller increments in that but it's these big next steps kind of thing

where your systems that got you to be able to do 500,000 will be obsolete to do five

million yeah it just will be and you have to be willing to consistently

educate yourself and grow and be willing to ask for help and get involved with

the industry and get to know people like the Gonzalez Brothers up there in Michigan

come and get to know some of the people that are on this podcast and uh the some of the experts we've had on here

and understand what it takes to grow your business um and see where they're

at ask them questions and you know get curious and and and grow your mindset

and your your skills and abilities from a business perspective did you see see that comment

from Nate uh being responsible here I'm G put it back up up there um being

responsible for the income of another person or a family keeps me small um

yeah yep you're you are right a lot of responsibility brother and a lot of respect to you for

recognizing that you don't want to be uncomfortable right um well on too much

to where it might affect their family it's a lot dude yeah I mean it's a lot

of pressure to make sure the payrolls met every week and that you're growing

to a sustainable level and uh that you

you know always have the cash flow coming through that you can reinvest in your company business is tough but the

number one stressor uh especially on the early days for me was making payroll 100% and it

was more than just that person's going to be mad at me that person put their faith in me

that they was going to have a job that was going to give them a weekly paycheck that would put food on their table and

that's an immense amount of stress um to have to go through

and know that if you fail you're failing them in a major way and they may not be

able to pay their rent that month because of you yeah and that's that's not

that I I'll second what you said it's admirable that you stay where you you

really love to be and if Nate obviously loves to be where he's at and do the

excellent work he does and do the trainings he does and do those things and not have to have that responsibility

of another person's livelihood on your shoulders that's a big deal it's a big

deal and not everybody should do it um not everybody um can do it or should do

it and that's not to boast those who do it is just the mere fact that not

everybody should be doing that and um you know to back to what n

said too is um you know before we hired our first employee we had it was our

goal to make sure that we had enough money in the bank to cover a Year's wages for them um and that is only

because I was and Daniel was at one point one of the people that experienced a bounce check

right right and they never come at the right time it's always the time when you need it most and it's just like I don't

ever want to tell someone that they can't eat after they worked this hard for me I don't ever want to tell someone

that I worked for a company uh my first my first company in

floring and oh sh he five

paychecks that we held we used to race luckily I had a friend that that ended

up I started my first business my first flooring company with his name was Steve and he was a PM there and he'd call me

this was when cell phones just came out and you played Snake was the biggest game on

the when you had when you when you had a text like this yeah hi hi yeah yeah um

but he'd call and tell me like like got a check and I would go get in

my car and we and as soon as you seen someone else going to their car at 10

o'clock in the morning or 2 in the afternoon everybody went to their car if

you pulled out of driveway everybody's racing to the bank I had five checks at one point uh that I held the problem I

had was the job I had before I made $4 dollar less an hour

and so I was like I'm making better money even though I'm not actually getting the money eventually they always

would clear I eventually but at one point I held five checks man and making better

that experience is also another reason why when I got into business I did Ne I

never wanted to put an employee through that now my Subs I'd talk to them hey you're a sub you're in your own business

too sometimes you know pay gets delayed Subs that's that that is the that is

what you sign up for that's the nature of the beast but uh I did not want an employee ever going without a paycheck I

think that um we've been fortunate enough to to be able to take care of our subs as well um within how wise are you

guys for what in a year of I never even thought of that dude I tell you what man

that's incredible that's really that was hard that was hard to to see money in

the bank and to say I'm broke that but it gets easier it gets

easier over time right you see you see dollars and cents in there you're just that's not really mine I mean my names

on the account the business is in our name but really that's not really mine um and that's that's how we had to go

about it I do want to that's really mature for the time frame you're talking

early days that you guys decide to do that's a business maturity that is that

is uh Next Level so Kudos that was awesome that's awesome to hear you guys

approached it that way I wish I would have man well I didn't that was the only

way it motivated us as well right like it was motivation yeah it helped

motivate us right um another thing is what you said about holding the five checks and that is that is the thing as

a as a a sub too right like when you're getting into the game and when you go from when you start your business you're

already scaling up that's already you're already taken that couple steps more than than a lot of people but you also

have to make sure that you're surrounding yourself with good reputable people who aren't going to be giving you

checks that you have to worry about for larger dollar amounts and larger

projects um and and we experienced that one as well and I mean it was bad like you said you're holding five checks it's

bad when I go pick up a check and and in front of the guy I call the bank check number blah blah blah is there enough

there to cover this like well as usual Roland may have the uh record on

certifications he certainly may have the record here he says I have 23 checks

sitting in my desk from the last company I worked for that's why I have the store I have

now as as in that was motivation like they're not cashed

and yeah did you end up cash and rolling to start your job I took it as uh or start your business I took it as that he

got fed up with yeah not getting paid and started what I want to know is is

how do you have 30 or 27 checks that you didn't cash and still able to start a business we need to get you need to

write a book bro no doubt you got you need a whole new business book because you made a

work yeah yeah yeah you know it's funny we're talking and there's a lot of comments about uh store that uh or you

know like Jorge says here back in his day as pops had to chase down his employers at the local bar bilard to try

to get their weekly pay that's crazy yeah I mean that's a

real thing the key here is you don't want to be that guy none of us you know we don't want to be those those kinds of

guys we want to propel this industry through our businesses into a new uh

Frontier like I say in the intro that's a real thing like we want to improve the industry and the way you can do it is

one company at a time doing the best business you can possibly do now we're all you know I feel it necessary to say

we're not perfect no one's perfect we make mistakes but at the end of the day doing the best work you can the best

quality you can and giv back to your to your industry through getting certified

that is a way of giving back getting your certifications you know get involved

with your local CFI chapters uh getting trained in sheet

vinyl if you're going to go down that route uh being highly trained in tile

work and gauge porcelain panels all this kind of stuff that is giv back to your industry because having the highest

quality Workforce we could possibly have will start to get us recognized again as a real trade I don't know how we ever

lost that it takes more skill to do this business I've said this a thousand times

than any other skilled trade in my opinion you don't need the hand skills that you need in flooring whether it's

in painting maybe in finished carpentry high-end finish carpentry but outside

that like painting acoustical ceilings drywall mud and taping I'm not saying

they don't take skill I'm just saying not the same level of hand skill uh electricians I mean you got to have the

knowledge but it doesn't take that you know great hand skills to strip wire

pull wire like it takes a lot of Mind skill

um if we want to bring our industry to the continue to increase our industry

standing in the construction industry at large it means us giving back and giving

back does look like us getting certified it does look like us getting educated it

does look like us running good businesses and good Crews and good people so yeah so I guess

uh that Circle that Circle of yours right keep it small and tight when you're when you're trying to scale um

I'd say that would keep things a lot simpler and ask advice ask

information um do I look anything that we're saying today on the podcast we're

we're just giving you uh information from our experiences that we're not saying this is GNA work for you this

isn't a template and a how-to guide at all right this is what what we found

worked for us and this is what we've experience experience and what didn't work for us at least the pitfalls

Yeahs if I could go back in time and tell tell our younger selves a little bit of advice it would be keep that

Circle small and tight um only Scale based off of your

strengths and if you have the right crew make sure you scale according to what

they're showing you or who they're showing you they are not what they're telling you they want to be because what

they want to be um for your crew or for your friends and your family that are joining you to help you grow a business

what they want to be is successful for themselves as well um and sometimes

you're not in that future so don't don't put all your eggs in one basket or put

all your eggs in five people's baskets and let them carry them around you gotta you gotta take them eggs back every

night and incubate them a little bit make sure they're dusted off and clean um say about that well I I uh I'm

catching what you're putting down or I'm picking up what you're putting down I think that the big thing that um in

closing here I would say is that a lot of

people uh if taking the same thought process you just had if if I was to go

back to my younger s and and say hey here's a word of advice kid it would be

find The Sweet Spot it's okay like you don't need to be the biggest uh many

times in my business I've we've been the largest flooring contractor in Kansas and in some cases with with uh the

largest in the entire Midwest and so

the the that that's all ego- driven I I would have you know I've I've scaled it

back a little bit and it's it's way harder to do that than it is to uh just

grow steady and as long as you're outpacing inflation you can kind of use

that five to 10% of uh uh post inflation number so if inflation's at growing at

five five eight% you know you need to be growing at 18 to 20% um when inflation's down you don't

have to grow as much to stay nice and profitable but I had some times in my

career in business where we had Hit The Sweet Spot and profits were really good

we had the right siiz team everybody was working together really well every very

few headaches it was like almost like magic and then there's times when every

contract felt like just clawing up a mountain with spikes man you know so I

would tell myself it's okay find The Sweet Spot and that it's okay to be there to stay there and have sustainable

growth sustainable growth that's uh yep why didn't we just say that in the first

five minutes we wouldn't need to be on here for 55 minutes well we gota we gotta fill H we

got to fill up our time too you know we gotta tag them along and drag them along so guys thank you so much for joining us

today thank you for all the comments if you're catching Us on YouTube we'd

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crazy ran you're you're my hero now you were my hero

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are always on here you guys rock yeah you're you're the rock of this podcast and we really appreciate that so

everybody out there have a great week and we will catch you next week 3M

Central Tuesday adios [Music]