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Tailgate Talk
113 Plays1 month ago
Kyle and Nate Shoot the Breeze...but how about that Intro!
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Transcript
Episode Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
We are back with Under the Vinyl here.
00:00:17
Speaker
with under the vinyl here No guests
Industry Challenges and Team Motivation
00:00:20
Speaker
today. Kyle and I are going to do a little tailgate talk and get into some hot topics within the industry and some things that you guys have brought to us that ah that we're going to talk about. So how are you doing, Kyle?
00:00:30
Speaker
I'm good. March is just depressing in the Northeast. There's no jobs going on. I'm just feeling the blues, man. It's a tough time a year in this industry, and um we're trying to figure out what we got coming up, booking new jobs, keeping everybody educated, and keeping everybody involved, I guess.
00:00:47
Speaker
I know on our end, it's kind of a struggle. keeping people motivated in the warehouse that haven't been out in a while and that don't like to be in the warehouse because they're not used to it. That's the hardest part is, you know, all the guys I keep all winter are installers. We run a pretty thin warehouse crew in the summer and they're all seasonal H2B guys. So when they leave and the installers got to pick up the slack, they don't want to do this stuff.
Warehouse and Off-season Management
00:01:09
Speaker
How many guys you got in the warehouse now that are just kind of hanging that are usually installing? 13. 13. thirteen Yeah. So I've got about 10 up here in Nashville that are, I don't want to say just hanging, but it feels like just hanging. I mean we're getting stuff done in the warehouse. We're getting things prepped and ready and cleaned up.
00:01:27
Speaker
But um it's almost like, you know, you're trying to find chores to do This time of the year in March, I don't know about you, but I feel like most of those chores are done and the floors are probably the cleanest they've ever been.
00:01:39
Speaker
I'm very blunt with them. I'm like, look, guys, I know washing chairs sucks or sanding tables, standing tables. But all i ask is that when I walk by, you're not just sitting on your phone. Like, just show me that you're doing something because otherwise I'd rather you just go home.
00:01:53
Speaker
Don't make me feel like I'm wasting money, which I am because you're finding little tasks for them to do. So you're just throwing money at them to keep them employed. Or you lose them and then have to restart. Exactly. And some of those guys, you know, you don't want to do that.
00:02:06
Speaker
You guys guarantee the amount of hours that they get in the winter?
Flexible Scheduling and Employee Motivation
00:02:10
Speaker
I'm guaranteeing them 32. They're working in a four day week. Okay. If they leave at one o'clock on a Wednesday, I'm not going to pay them the full day. That's their choice. They could have stayed.
00:02:19
Speaker
I give them the option to work 32 hours a week. However many hours that works out to you can work a 10 hour day, one day, five hour day the next, you know, yeah you just have, you just get your 32 hours and that's it.
00:02:30
Speaker
So wherever yeah however you you want to get them, they had to work last Sunday, unloading tractor trailers, coming back from a job out of town. So those guys all left early on Monday. They're like, well, screw it. We'll leave early. I'm like, all right, that's fine.
00:02:41
Speaker
I don't care. There's nothing going on. I get that. So how are you keeping, um how do you really keep them motivated at this time of the year? it's hard. It is so hard to keep them on task is the hardest part.
00:02:56
Speaker
I'm just trying to motivate them by telling them like, Hey, look, we just got this job. Like I'll walk out there and share the good news. Cause you know, it is always good when you find out you just want a new job or like I sat down with two of the project managers the other day and I was like, Hey, we just got this new job. Let's start thinking about how we're going handle it now. Yeah.
00:03:14
Speaker
but Yeah. and that's a, I'm getting ready to do that today. I'm going to have to, have to start breaking some things down just so they can see the light at the end of the tunnel because it it feels like it's really getting daunting for our guys.
00:03:25
Speaker
In Chattanooga, that office, you know we have a lot more employees and then a lot of those guys, those road guys coming in that are not really used to being in a warehouse, that are used to always being on the road. And so finding things for them while also keeping the normal warehouse staff busy as well so they're not stepping each other's toes.
00:03:45
Speaker
Things kind of get heated a little bit here and there. Once in a while, when you start taking people's jobs and works, and you know you're not usually in the warehouse. but and Luckily for me and Nashville, these guys are yeah know they kind of do it all. they they don't Not one person is better than another, but it's they're doing it all in the sense of they're localized team, not like Chattanooga that travels. The the Chattanooga office travels, so they're constantly in and out. but This team here in Nashville, they're a local business, local company here.
00:04:13
Speaker
They're used to being in the warehouse here and there, but Yeah, I mean, I had a little scuffle this morning with one and just maybe not doing what he was supposed to. And it's like he gets a little snappy. I get a little snappy because I'm like, hey, you're not supposed to be doing this. You know this. And he's like, yeah, but what am i what do I need
Staffing and Recruitment Strategies
00:04:30
Speaker
to do? And it's like, ah let me go paint stage and pull staples. Yeah, well, and they know they have the upper hand.
00:04:38
Speaker
They're not dumb. They know they can go get another job somewhere else. And they know you need them. That's the worst part about it is they know you need them. And for our employees that are listening to this or anybody that we do need you guys, but you also got to remember that we need, it's a give and take situation here.
00:04:57
Speaker
So, you know, help us help you. So, what's ah What's your staffing looking like for this year? How you guys coming? I heard you say you got your HUB. They'll all be here in two weeks, which is little early, but there's nothing I can do about that. them when I get them. more projects.
00:05:12
Speaker
Got to find more projects. Yeah. I was talking to Brian in the other day. like, so ah how much work you got to do around your house? Yeah. I mean, anything that you can do at this point, you know. Gotta keep them busy.
00:05:23
Speaker
But with H2B, you gotta take them when you can get them. That's the... Staff is looking good then? You guys looking pretty strong? Yeah. I'm worried I'm gonna be overstaffed, to be honest with you Really? Well, you can send some guys our way.
00:05:34
Speaker
We can always use them. I got a couple new hires coming into Nashville.
Business Challenges and Projections
00:05:40
Speaker
Really looking for more Chattanooga travel guys. So anybody out there that might be listening that wants to join the team and travel, apply there. But Got some good guys coming in. I'm doing some moving around in some different seats in Nashville.
00:05:54
Speaker
Hopefully get another and the guy up here in the office as well as ah two more guys out setting things up. I think we're looking pretty solid. It's going to be good. How's your year looking? You guys pretty full?
00:06:07
Speaker
My spring's full. The fall's looking a little light. I think some people are actually kind of looking to see what's going to happen in the world. and We're not going to get political or anything, but I mean, weird.
00:06:19
Speaker
Yeah. It's getting weird. My account doesn't look great. So. no I think there's a lot of forceful stuff happening in the, in the political world right now that hopefully we'll level set at some point because it might hurt us now, but I'm hoping it balances out in the future.
00:06:36
Speaker
I mean, it's no secret, maybe not so much with the smaller end companies, but the larger end, you know, that's disposable income to people who are spending big dollars with you, big dollars with me. And that disposable income is most likely coming from investments and things like that. So if they're not doing well, they're not going to spend the money with us.
00:06:54
Speaker
That's kind of hit me on the corporate side this year. i got a couple of big projects that we usually do. Hundreds of thousand dollar projects. I feel like the $20,000 to $50,000 range is great because you know those are always going to be there and there's not much cutting in that.
00:07:09
Speaker
You start to get over $100,000, you get anywhere between $100,000 $600,000. And I feel like there's a lot of budget cuts in there. I've got a couple of big ones specifically that might've cut $200,000 off this year.
00:07:21
Speaker
And just because either it's being revamped in a way that new management has come in, they kind of didn't do so good last year. it was a good style of how they did it. And I don't want to disclose too much information, but it was a good style on how they did everything, but they got new ownership and new management in there and they're kind of revamped it. And I think a lot of this has to do with the political mindset of everybody right now.
00:07:44
Speaker
And they're worried. So hopefully that comes back, but, we are losing a couple of things this year, but the calendar starting to fill up. I got work, but you know, I wish it was, i think you always wish it
Peak Time Management and Tent Company Considerations
00:07:54
Speaker
was better.
00:07:54
Speaker
Well, can always fill your calendar, you know, and perfect example. I think right now we could take on some more in September and September is usually one of our busiest months of the year. It's not awful, but it can definitely be filled up a little bit more with some things.
00:08:09
Speaker
I think that those things are going to start to trickle in as the year goes on. And it has just in the past week, I've got some really good jobs that have come in, but I think that everybody's kind of just slow rolling the process at this point. And maybe those September jobs start to come in in May.
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Would you rather see them come in now? Cause you have more time on your hands to deal with them. Well, you can prep for them. You can get your mind right. I mean, I am prepping my mind for May currently right now, because we didn't think that it was going to be a really good May. And then all of a sudden we're pulling in some really good jobs and, and, and they're big jobs that are going to be ah couple of week long jobs.
00:08:47
Speaker
And so figuring out the labor now for all these other little jobs that keep popping up and that's the good stuff. But now I'm trying to mentally prepare myself ahead of time, just thinking what's, what's coming in, what my life looks like in May now.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Get the wife prepared now. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we've got some questions here. You want to hammer out some of these? Let's just start with this one. If you had to start a tank company today, what do you think you would do?
00:09:16
Speaker
I think that I would probably, i had a talk with a good friend about this the other day. ah think that I would look for, it depends how deep you want to get, you know, I think that, yeah, well, I mean, not necessarily that deep, I mean, deep in the industry.
00:09:30
Speaker
Let's start it at the forefront of this. And the forefront of this is people start in their garages, people start in storage units, people start in the smallest warehouse you can think of and moving up into something that is a going from maybe $500,000 or $200,000 up let's say, a million or two million, right?
00:09:48
Speaker
I think that you just have to plan your avenue.
Growth Strategies and Industry Dynamics
00:09:51
Speaker
Where do you want to go and where do you want to be? Like Tico Steve said, and find your why there and where do you want to be and how you want to how do you want to get there but don't want to lose everything in the process. So I think if I was to personally start over and just start from the bottom up, I would probably go buy at least a million dollars worth of inventory. and big Big dive in.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, I know that sounds really like crazy to dive into, but also I think I'd do it with a partner. Looking at it now, the burnout rate in this industry because of people who've come in without any help or support is a lot tougher.
00:10:28
Speaker
Financial burdens on families, burdens on time and energy. i think that if you get ah get a good partner in it, go in for a million dollars, you can take it on. Or my other theory would be probably to look for companies to buy out.
00:10:45
Speaker
I think that I would look to buy out. If I was really wanting to get in this industry right now, I think that this is happening a lot too, as you know. I think a lot of these smaller companies are getting bought out by these bigger companies. But I think that what's cool is people like us who've been in it a while,
00:10:59
Speaker
you know if we weren't in it for a while, but you didn't want to kill the integrity of a business. And I'm not saying all these bigger companies are killing integrities of businesses, but it's it's kind of going... There's a place for the family vibe, but not to say, hey, your family make it weird.
00:11:14
Speaker
But then there's also the corporate. So finding somewhere in the middle of that is great. And I think that you could buy a company out and still keep their integrity. And maybe they're a $2 million dollars business and you have the ability to take it to four. I think the sweet spot in this industry, i mean, everybody wants to make more money in this industry, but I think the sweet spot in this industry is somewhere under the $5 million mark.
00:11:36
Speaker
If you want to be able to have to not sacrifice as much and not have to take on so much worry at the end of the day. I think a lot of the smaller companies struggle with, let's not lie.
00:11:49
Speaker
If you were to go to all our social media pages, we make this look glamorous. Life is great. It looks easy from the outside looking in. So if you're looking to get into the industry from the outside, it looks great.
00:12:01
Speaker
Seems like everything is easy. You set it up on a Friday, take it down a Monday. That was simple. But once you get in it, you realize that there's a lot more to it.
00:12:13
Speaker
And I've talked to some of the guys who've gotten in and they will admit, hey, I didn't know this was going to be so hard. I think, honestly, there's a lot more competition on the bottom range of companies, but they're all fighting in the wrong direction.
Inventory and Profitability Focus
00:12:25
Speaker
you know There is, but you can partner.
00:12:27
Speaker
Well, yeah. Like, you know, partnering. Nate, you and I are working on a job together. I think I'm going to get that signed and sealed, hopefully, by the end of this week. And that's awesome. I know I better. I'm sorry, Nate. Stop yelling at Yeah, i mean, but also, like, tech companies like us, like, but we don't necessarily like in Nashville, I don't stock tables and chairs and dishes and linens and all that stuff.
00:12:50
Speaker
Partnering with a company that does that stuff and being able to add a little bit and make some money, i don't have to deal with the headache of that. Now, would I probably be more profitable if I took some of that stuff on? Yeah. But then you got to look at the labor aspects and the trucking and everything else. And You can wait out, but if the business isn't consistent enough, it doesn't make sense to have that inventory.
00:13:12
Speaker
Well, like down the road, i always say you got to rent a lot. You got rent a lot of forks to bring in a hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, you do. But what do you think your most profitable piece of inventory is?
00:13:22
Speaker
Concrete. Okay. That's a good one. I wasn't thinking that. I did this math when I was at Bryant's and when I, when I, when I ran Bryant's, my most profitable piece of equipment was an eight foot table. Really?
00:13:33
Speaker
Eight foot table. And that was, I mean, if you think about it, it's easy. I mean, I could rent 600 tables to somebody and I could palletize them, put them on a truck, forklift them on, forklift them off.
00:13:45
Speaker
If we set up, man, that's an extra, how many dollars, you know, for setup and labor in that too. yeah So it's profitable, but I think if you're starting a new business, not to beat around the question here, but if you're starting a new business,
00:13:59
Speaker
Maybe you don't want to dive in headfirst on the tables and chairs aspect. Maybe you don't want to even dive in on the tables or the tents aspect. do You know what i mean? You start in a way that you pick. I think if you're going to start something, you have to pick an avenue.
00:14:11
Speaker
What do I want? What product do I want? And what do I want to start with? Do you to start with tables and chairs or do you want to start with tents? Then you got to lay out your avenue from there. And honestly, think if I started over, I would try to decide what branch of the business I want to go into. Meaning, do I want to do commercial work?
00:14:27
Speaker
Do I want to do weddings? Do I want to do backyard? Where do I want to land? And I want to be the best at it. If that means I'm going to start out in backyards, well, I enjoy saying I'm not the cheapest.
00:14:37
Speaker
So I'm going to find the middle of the range companies. And im want that's where I want to be. Say I send 10 quotes out a week and I was closing nine. Well, if I raise my prices 25% and I only close five, well, you're still making roughly the same amount of money and your labor is going to be less.
00:14:55
Speaker
I think a lot of guys focus too much on revenue and it is kind of like an ego driven thing because I get that way sometimes too. I like to flaunt big numbers out there. Well, I mean, let's be realistic.
00:15:07
Speaker
I've done this where I've seen, you know, maybe I did. my jobs were no more than
Pricing and Client Relations
00:15:12
Speaker
$10,000. Then you come to a totally different ballgame and get in a totally different pool with different people that now all your jobs are $50,000 to $500,000.
00:15:22
Speaker
to five hundred thousand and now you're like, I will never forget when I put my first million dollar quote out for a long term. It was $1.1 million and my job about dropped. And I walked out of the office and ah was like, and Mike was sitting in the other room and was like, man, i just put a $1.1 million dollar quote together. And he was like, yep, won't be the first, won't be the last.
00:15:46
Speaker
And I was like, man, that's weird. I mean, he's right. And it's the truth. But you know you start seeing those bigger numbers and you get attracted to them because it looks like you're making a ton of money.
00:15:56
Speaker
And it very well could be depending on the circumstances, whether it be long term or anything else. But I mean, sometimes those smaller jobs, if you're looking at it, make more money than the six figure jobs.
00:16:08
Speaker
you know i was talking to Brian today. said, I think we need to stop focusing on revenue and start focusing on profit. That's the only number that matters at the end of the year. You never hear anyone saying, oh, I did a 40% margin last year.
00:16:21
Speaker
And that's what we should all be bragging about. I ran 40% or yeah whatever the number is. Yeah, there was somebody I just heard the other day that was doing 50, 52%. yes d fifty two percent You think it's real? is um you know I don't know, but it's pretty damn good.
00:16:38
Speaker
for this industry. I always thought i hear different numbers and different things, but I always thought if we were right around the 48 mark, 48%, I always felt like that was pretty good, but I mean, everybody varies and it fluctuates. I mean, anything over 50 is really phenomenal for us, right?
00:16:53
Speaker
47 to 48 is really, I feel like a, is, is realistic, but you might not hit that number all the time. Yeah. So anyways, veering off a little bit here, but coming back, I think to go all in for me,
00:17:08
Speaker
I would try and figure out a way to get a million dollars worth of inventory, but I would also try and make a lot of contacts and things before and really hone in on exactly what my jobs were going to look like and forecast out on what the realistic customer was going to be.
00:17:20
Speaker
And then I would buy that inventory. It might even not meet a million dollars. I might go under a million dollars, but I think I would at least go somewhere in there to really figure it out. And then I'd probably have... I think if I had to do it, I'd probably just have ah me and maybe ah another salesperson, maybe one other person, and then try and hire hire out some labor to start to really figure it out.
00:17:45
Speaker
And then once I could figure out where I'm at in that first year, then I would hire in you know some people. but I got you got a hot tape right here. You ready? What you got? I would go knock on a the door of a company like you.
00:17:57
Speaker
Or me. I send so much work over to... I never thought of this, but I tell people the time to call ah local small guy. i can't afford to have guys go into someone's backyard unless they're going to pay... My operating costs are a lot higher than someone working out of their garage or storage unit or a smaller warehouse.
00:18:15
Speaker
That's just the way it is. So unless the client wants to pay top dollar for something, I just can't afford to do it. But I tell people all the time, hey, call this guy. He's going to take care you. He's great.
00:18:27
Speaker
And if he doesn't have the 10 and he has the time to do it, he then calls me and says, hey, can I borrow 20 by 20 or I need a 20 by 40 this weekend? And we have a great working relationship now and it works. Now, the downfall is I don't think it's going happen with him, but you have to be careful as the larger company that you are not assisting in someone growing too large.
00:18:50
Speaker
Now that sounds horrible to say. No, it doesn't because I've got some comments on that. Go ahead though. So I have a bunch of stuff I want to sell. Now, it's hard because I don't want to sell it locally.
Safety and Client Demands
00:19:01
Speaker
Why would I want to help my competition be able to compete against me on the same jobs? Yes, I want the industry to do better. But competition is good. Competition is good. But there's some competition that just doesn't understand you know business. They have jobs. They don't have careers in the industry. That's what I like to say all the time.
00:19:18
Speaker
They're still working every day in the field. At some point, you got to work on the business, not in it. Yep. And we we we reiterate that over and over again in this podcast. But now going back to what you would do and how you had started, I think it wouldn't necessarily all be about the inventory and it wouldn't all be about the employees and everything. I think it'd be about the education.
00:19:38
Speaker
I think that the people that are coming into this industry, and I keep referring back to that couple at ARA that were sitting behind us. And if they're listening out there, keep doing what you're doing.
00:19:51
Speaker
And go to go to the seminars, go to the classes, and invest in the membership for ARA, ATA, MATRA, whatever it is. Invest in those those platforms.
00:20:03
Speaker
Because what that's going to help you do right away If you're you know like that couple, that I think that they said they were doing it another of their garage or something, maybe, and they still had full-time jobs. But go to these places, get educated on the industry, get educated on concrete versus water barrels, get educated on anchoring, everything like that. Because these smaller companies that are coming up,
00:20:26
Speaker
A lot of them just look at it as a paycheck. And I'm not saying that that's what this couple was doing. This couple is very smart. And I'm, I'm, I'm a Dave Ramsey had advocate. I would love to get out of the rat race.
00:20:37
Speaker
And I think that what they were doing, they want to get out the corporate life and that what they were tired of, and they wanted to try something new. that they said would free up their time more. Now, their time might be a little bit more consumed in this industry right now, but they can figure it out later.
00:20:51
Speaker
But they're educating themselves as they go through in the the necessary ways where some of these companies don't educate themselves. They will start advertising on Facebook Marketplace and say that they're going to gump put up a tent.
00:21:03
Speaker
It is a junk PVC Amazon tent, and it will be sandbags or 10-pound concrete weights. And I can't tell you how infuriating that is for me to see because all I can think about, there's quite a few stories in this industry of people getting killed by you know tents And I mean, that happens anywhere though.
00:21:26
Speaker
Right. I brought, I brought this up the other day to someone I was speaking to. I wish we could all just be honest with ah each other and like talk about all the bad stuff that happens. We all try to hide.
00:21:37
Speaker
I've had blowdowns. I'm sure you've had blowdowns. I don't care. I'll talk about it. Right. So many, so many people want to hide it and they don't want to actually talk about it, that it's not doing the industry any good. No, because they think it's going to, they think it's going to kill their, uh, kill their relationships. And it's not, it's,
00:21:54
Speaker
you know just educate yourself on that because what you're doing is you're putting families and lives at risk. You're putting this industry in jeopardy as a whole. I mean, the permitting process is so monotonous now.
00:22:08
Speaker
And I understand it's for a good reason. We need to permit even the permitting services and the, you know, fire marshals got to educate themselves. And, you know, like I got a call for a job that wants to go up on Friday, right in Nashville.
00:22:23
Speaker
And, They want a 40 by 60. And so I was going to give them a 12 meter by 18 meter structure. But guess what? Now it's got to be weighted. Okay. Now it's got to be out by 10 o'clock on Saturday night.
00:22:36
Speaker
and Okay. Now the event doesn't get over until eight o'clock. Okay. And this is also a St. Patrick's day party. Let me just preference that. So how quickly do you think the drunks are going to leave let her in the tent are going to leave after you fed them alcohol all night. And now this has got to be out by 10 o'clock.
00:22:54
Speaker
Okay. I'm not jeopardizing my client and any of his clients underneath there by putting less concrete on it to save time. Right. So now I'm, I'm still doing it the way it needs to be done, even though it's not to be up that long, even though it's a short amount of time, I have to do it the correct way possible.
00:23:10
Speaker
Just being upfront and honest with them. I said, you know, I can't have it out of there by 10 o'clock if you can't have it out. and You can't have your people out. Also, is there going to be adequate enough lighting at night to be out there for my guys? Because if there's not, then we have to rent lights and we have to get that involved.
00:23:25
Speaker
And also, hey, by the way, i can't permit this tent that quick. I mean, what you're asking me to do is is put something up on ah on a whim and risk your event getting shut down. And what I had to tell them was,
00:23:38
Speaker
I don't mind to come in and do this, but you are signing off and you're paying for every piece of equipment that is there. But you're signing off knowing that you're doing an event without a permit so that I have documentation for that.
00:23:50
Speaker
And that also, also that, you know, if they come and shut you down, you're not getting a refund and everything is paid in full. Just about the time I sent over the contract with the line item that says sign here to read, relieve us from all liability and everything's paid in full.
00:24:05
Speaker
There never became a response after that. But that to me, I mean, and don't get me wrong, that's, that job would have been $20,000. Right now at this time in the month of March, When there's not a lot going on, $20,000 keeps the lights on.
00:24:18
Speaker
$20,000 pays bills. Because it covers payroll for the week or two. Correct. Exactly. And so $20,000 would have been great, but not at not at the risk of everybody else around me. Not at the risk of losing a reputation and everybody getting hurt or losing employees. And so that is my advice. Let's talk about that job real quick. Teach yourself that.
00:24:38
Speaker
So you got to take it out at 10 o'clock. or you're going to be out by 10 o'clock on a Saturday night. Someone said something to me the other day that really has stuck in my head and I can't get it out here. And, you know, he was right.
00:24:50
Speaker
And he's like, clients don't look at us as humans. And I've used, he's like, Kyle, you need to humanize all of this stuff to a client. And I did it yesterday. They wanted me to come in at 6 a.m. and have something out by 8.30.
00:25:03
Speaker
Doable? Yes. They didn't like what I charged. so So they're like, I don't understand. I was twice as much as another quote they had, but my pricing for everything else was pretty comparable. And they said, why is your Sunday so expensive?
Starting a Business: Planning and Education
00:25:14
Speaker
And I said, well, I'm asking my guys to get up on a Sunday morning when their kid could bring them breakfast in bed because that's their only day off no matter what. And she went, okay.
00:25:25
Speaker
I said, and not only that, I feel so guilty that they have to work on Sunday. I'm going to pay them the whole day. Because I'm sitting at home, by the way. Yeah, because I'm not there. And she's like, oh, well, I guess I never really thought of that. I just assumed that's kind of like what you guys did.
00:25:39
Speaker
That is the issue with the industry is no one understands that we are also human. But we've also made it that way. Well, for so long, we just did it. Right. Also, with the bigger you get, the more days you work.
00:25:51
Speaker
I mean... There's times where our guys could work. I'd argue the smaller you are, the more you work. but I mean, consecutive days. If you think about it, our guys that go out of town and travel, they could work 15 days straight. you know Away from their families, on the road.
00:26:06
Speaker
They might have a down day in there, but they're not at home. they don't get to be They don't get to be with their family on their down day. I just think the bigger you get, the more you look at the sales calendar and say, hmm, okay, I got a nut to...
00:26:18
Speaker
bust on this ear and I gotta, I gotta make sure that I take care of this. And if they have to work that Sunday, i mean, it is what it is and we'll just, you know, charge more. And I get it. I mean, this job, this $20,000 job, I was charging $4,000 just for the takedown on Saturday.
00:26:36
Speaker
What I equated that to is sending 10 guys out there at 10 30 at night and, or 10 o'clock at night and getting it down in two hours and charging $200 hour per per me But then also trying to figure out how to compensate them in a way that, oh, hey, I can't just give you hourly pay. got to do something for you, like bonus you in some way to make this worth it as well for you.
00:26:59
Speaker
And this time of year, it's not so bad. But you start doing this in May, June when you're busy. Those late night installs or removals, you pay for that for three or four days after. Because it's not like you're going to say oh, come in at noon tomorrow.
00:27:12
Speaker
I'll give you an extra hour of sleep. Can you come in at 830? eight thirty Right. Exactly. And so i think to wrap up that conversation there, starting out, what I would do differently I was going to be an owner is I would partner up with somebody figure it out so that you have two heads on it and you're not just one burning yourself out.
00:27:34
Speaker
I would figure out what the market holds for me as far as what product I need to sell. do my research on exactly what company I want to use, what's going to be my return on investment the fastest, but also what I'm going to use for the future. So if I'm going to spend all my money on one product, then I don't want it to just be something small that I can't use for the future and I'd have to sell off and buy something new.
00:27:57
Speaker
So investing in the right product upfront and figuring out the labor for all of that product demand hours ahead of time, and then just diving headfirst and then setting a goal on where I want to be.
00:28:10
Speaker
How many hours I want to work a week? How many hours I want my guys to work a week? What is feasible in that market? And just, is it $4 million? Is it $2 million? What's going to... Or is it a million?
00:28:22
Speaker
There's no reason it couldn't be a million. Correct. Exactly. What's going to give me the lifestyle I want? Is $500,000? Is $1 million going to give me the lifestyle that I want to live? And I can work on the business and not in the business all the time. Because I know some of you guys out there that are under $1 million, dollars maybe $500,000,
00:28:39
Speaker
You're working yourselves to death in the business so bad because it is creating a lifestyle and it's a lifestyle business. But now you're so consumed by this business that you set out after to build because you wanted to get out of the rat race of whatever you were doing before.
00:28:55
Speaker
But now you're becoming so miserable and burnt out. Now you end up wanting to sell off to something so someone. So don't do that. Figure out a way to... set yourselves apart in a way that you can hire some people and forecast that out ah ahead of time and plan ahead. Don't just dump in head first because you want out of something else.
00:29:12
Speaker
yeah Yeah. You brought up a good point a few minutes ago. You said you would get yourself educated. And I think we should touch on that a little bit because I did some rough numbers based upon membership numbers I know of the three main rental associations.
00:29:27
Speaker
I'm guessing that only 18 to 20% of the industry as a whole is a member of one of the three. Yeah, I can see that. There's all obviously crossover, like ah member of all three, you're a member of all three, stuff like that.
00:29:41
Speaker
So pull those numbers out. I think we represent 18% of all companies in the country. Now, what does that mean? In my head, that means 18% of the companies are the only ones getting the good education.
00:29:55
Speaker
I'm trying to tread lightly here. Well, this scares me, Nate. Cause what if we're looked at as education now? I want to be education. And you know what, if anyone wants to learn something, I'm going to be honest. I'm going to tell them what I feel about it or how I think it should be done.
00:30:08
Speaker
But so many people think highly of themselves that they are like, they're doing it a different way than say we are, but that might be because they just don't know all the facts. I'm trying not to get myself in trouble here and tread lightly with people that have that, um,
00:30:24
Speaker
I'll just dive in. Forget it. um So you keyboard warriors out there on the Facebook pages that I love to see the participants on there. I love to see people interacting.
00:30:35
Speaker
But some of you out there that just belittle people and beat people down on the pages and that you think that you know more than them, why don't you go ahead and educate yourself too?
00:30:46
Speaker
Because there's some people out there that I see on there that don't do what they say and they will, I'll do my research. I've done my research and seeing these people hating on others on there.
Training and Certification Benefits
00:30:57
Speaker
And don't get me wrong. There's some stuff on there that I'm just like, Whoa, that's wrong.
00:31:01
Speaker
But you know, it's like, I get it. Maybe they're not doing it the right way, but let's educate them and help them to get them to the best way. Send them a message, a private message and say, Hey, look, I see this and I see what you're doing. And I, I applaud you for doing what you're doing, but Hey, maybe you could try this and maybe this will help you a little bit more because,
00:31:20
Speaker
The person that is belittling people and almost Facebook bullying people in on these pages are also the people that are doing the same damn thing that they are. well They're just not getting caught, and it's not being shown and coming to light in the public.
00:31:32
Speaker
And it also stops people from asking questions, and that's what we want. We want the participation. you know i have i'm a I'm a proponent of that. I don't participate.
00:31:43
Speaker
in a lot of the conversation on there. Well, me either. And it's for exactly what you just said. I don't want to get myself in trouble. It's not even getting myself in trouble. I don't mean to bring everything in there, but I just, I know some of the, well, I guess it would get me in trouble. I think it's some of the things i want to say is probably, and if anybody knows me, they know that I'm very open and honest and I'm going to tell you how I feel.
00:32:04
Speaker
And sometimes I got to handle people with kid gloves and that doesn't necessarily work. But It's like, I want to respond to this comment, but I would just rather send a private message to somebody and say, hey, look, man, forget the haters.
00:32:15
Speaker
Let me help you out here. yeah Let me see if I can help you out or good for you for what you did or ah or hey, man, that might be need be done a different way. So education goes a long way. But the people that are educating are also miseducating because they don't have the education.
00:32:30
Speaker
And I'm not saying I do either. You know, and yeah, I don't know at all. I've been in this industry now for 21 years, right? And I'm still learning every day. And I tell my kids the same thing. Like, if you're not learning something new every day, you're not living.
00:32:45
Speaker
You need to be learning something every day. I probably call you once a week. i'm like, hey, what would you do on this? but ryan and you need you need those people in your life. Even if you feel like it's a stupid question or I feel it's stupid question, i'm going to ask it because um might know the answer, but you might have a better way to get to that answer. And it might make more sense for me to try and explain or just to reassure myself.
00:33:05
Speaker
And that's why, like right now, just perfect example, I've got three, four, four guys that are taking the essentials of tenting within my office here. They all have been doing tents for a while now.
00:33:18
Speaker
And, you know, the new guy, he got 90. You know, and there's three other guys have been in it for a while. And two of those guys got in the 80s and another one got a 70. Okay.
00:33:30
Speaker
okay know That's exactly how it was. My new guys all did really well because they didn't know anything. Same thing. The guys who've been tenting their whole life, they did horrible because they think the way in their head is the right way.
00:33:40
Speaker
Correct. Exactly. And so one of the people that got to 70 is one of my guys that is a foreman and is one of my crew leads. Does that mean he doesn't know anything? No.
00:33:52
Speaker
No, no, no. And that's not it at all. He said that there were some words in there that were confusing. And I will say, It is a great test, but there is some things in there even that I missed on. Oh, they tried to trick us.
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah. Like, ah, you got me there. That was a trick question. And so slowing down it. But my, my point in that is he's leading the guys. He's out in the field and being a ah mirror of us here.
00:34:18
Speaker
Well, we're not there. Okay. So in order to lead those guys, I want him to have those certifications in that knowledge. Now, Now you're looking at it as, okay, you have to go into something like that, into these educational things in in there and think, maybe my way is not the best way. Let me just open my mind up and try and be educated here and not think that I know more than the test.
00:34:40
Speaker
The test was built by people, for four people. Yeah, that that course is great. We actually were going to talk about this. So this is a good segue, Nate. Great job. Staffing, we're going to get into that.
00:34:51
Speaker
All my new hires, I force them to take that. Now, only reason? They come in on day one. That goes over the parts and pieces, gives a ju ah general synopsis of what we're going to do.
00:35:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's not everything. They know when they come in something. and it's easier to teach them after you can go okay well remember in the course they talked about this here is that in real life it's a great training resource for new people it's great training resource for people who've been in it a long time like i learned some things i didn't know the frame tent i'm gonna get this wrong that year it was made but i learned that i didn't either uh i honestly got that wrong too But yeah probably yeah, or like the difference between a tension tent and a pole tent is different.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yeah, that is the, that's the deep dive into it that they don't really know, you know, and even 10 year guys in this industry may not know, but they can go out and put up anything that you want and they can know the parts and everything else. And that's fine, but this is more general knowledge that they need and they need to understand it. And so the education behind this is there for a reason. And, you know, so basically what I'm saying is I had to go back and tell him, Hey,
00:36:03
Speaker
I know you got a 70, but I want you to go back and take this till you pass it. I want you to really open your mind up because you may not know the words and everything else, but take notes, jot things down. And I want you to pass it because I want to say as a person that represents this company and leading others that you were able to do this and you pass this and you understand it all.
00:36:22
Speaker
Maybe you don't know this. I think you were in the meeting we sat in together, but that course is going to be the beginning of like a 10 step process for someone to become certified. You should get it over with now if you can. If you have the time, I suggest you get your employees through it. It's free through ARA, ATA, or MATRA.
00:36:40
Speaker
That's a plug for all three of them. None of one can complain to us that we didn't plug them, Nate. If you have any questions about it, I'm happy to get you set up or get you in touch with the right people. Reach out to me or Nate. We can figure something out. But yeah, it's a great thing for the industry that these organizations are trying to do because Nate and I feel the same way. We want this industry to be better. And the number one way to do that is education.
00:37:02
Speaker
This is such a small piece what Nate and I are doing. But that's our goal with this is that if we help two people and we do this for a year or two, I'm going to feel great about what we did. But two people tell 10 people too.
00:37:14
Speaker
yeah And that's how this industry works. It becomes a word of mouth industry. Real quick. Okay. Word of mouth. Let's go the next one. Marketing and get new
Marketing and Client Acquisition Strategies
00:37:25
Speaker
clients.
00:37:25
Speaker
What doing? Honestly, this sounds the really old school. I think this is a lost art too in our industry. And I don't know that It was ever really something that wasn't art in our industry, but it it was at some point a little bit.
00:37:42
Speaker
And that's some cold calling. I do do cold calling. I do market research and look ah look at different avenues and different people. And I also use social media to find those things, find different planners, find venues, find country clubs, find anything that I think a tent is going to look good at or be at.
00:38:04
Speaker
And you start cold calling those people and you call on them. One of my biggest jobs of the year was and here in Nashville. It took me three years to get that job. And in order to get that job, I am i was doing... i called on them several times and they are huge, right? So I called on them several times. Couldn't get any calls back. Hey, we have a contract for three years. Okay.
00:38:28
Speaker
Hey, I'm going to keep calling you though. ah So kept calling. Finally... After two years of calling them, they finally said, hey, company that we have can't take on everything. I've got some little stuff. I'm going to go ahead and throw you. So they threw me some little stuff, right?
00:38:42
Speaker
Started working on some little stuff. Year three, same thing. Got some little stuff. Then the day before the thing started, trying not to give it all away. year three before Year three before everything started.
00:38:56
Speaker
It was the day before the event. And they said they called me and said, Hey, I know you're doing some stuff out here. You're finishing up some stuff for us. This company came out and put this tent up. It looks like a starry night inside the tent.
00:39:08
Speaker
And the walls and everything you're are junk. And it's bad. And can you come out here and swap their tops out and fix these walls and you know everything else? And I said, You want me to come put lipstick on a pig?
00:39:24
Speaker
and And they said, they kind of laughed in the background. They said, yeah, that's what we're asking. Then I said, okay, let me make you deal here then. I will come out.
00:39:34
Speaker
I will do this for you. No questions asked. All I want is the opportunity next year to bid this job. And they said, absolutely. So went out, put lipstick on a pig, made it work, looked great.
00:39:47
Speaker
Following year after the event was over, probably a couple months after that, called them and I said, hey, that contract's up for bid, right? Yep. And I said, okay, what do I got to do? They said, ah you got the job.
00:39:59
Speaker
And I said, what do you mean? They said, you saved our ass. You made everything look good. i know you've been coming after it for a while, but the the customer relations and everything else, you know you got the job. but Here's the numbers.
00:40:12
Speaker
That job has now grown significantly every year since then. And it's because of the different avenues we show them and bringing new stuff to the table for them, being the quality and service. So What I'm trying to say is go do some cold calling, search around, find some clients.
00:40:28
Speaker
I also think branding. I'm a big advocate of branding. and I know I have no branding. I know you are too, Kyle. And I just got some new merch and stuff that for us and the guys, and I'm pumped about that stuff, but just showing off your brand, you know, rep the ref the brand.
00:40:43
Speaker
So I'm struggling with this right now. We just had a meeting about this the other day. We spend money for an online presence. We do a bunch of stuff marketing wise. I spend a lot of money on social media. If any of you follow us, that stuff's not cheap to put out those videos in the reels. And I got a guy that's his full time job.
00:41:03
Speaker
And it's expensive. And then you go and look at last year. And we just pulled out The number one biggest job we did for the year. Residential job.
00:41:14
Speaker
How did we get that job? Word of mouth. That's it. So then you start to like scratch your head. Why am I spending all this money on social media and web and all that stuff when I got the biggest job of the year because I did a great job on a job five years ago?
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah. And our industry is word of mouth, especially with us and how we travel. I mean, and you travel some too, but... if we didn't If it wasn't for word of mouth, we wouldn't have ah half the traveling jobs. And it's because we travel and we do a damn good job in that area.
00:41:46
Speaker
And then people call us back or the event planner takes us around after that. But that's why you know word of mouth is great. Customer relations is the biggest thing.
00:41:57
Speaker
I think you can pay all these marketing companies. And this is not a hate on ah any marketing company at all whatsoever. I just think we are a very niche industry along with everything else that we do. And marketing is hard.
00:42:09
Speaker
This new age of reels on Instagram and Instagram posts and Facebook and TikTok and everything is huge. But how are those posts getting put out there?
00:42:20
Speaker
Well, you can't I can't take pictures of every dang job and send it to somebody. Now, I do take pictures of most of the jobs, or my guys will take pictures of most of the jobs.
00:42:31
Speaker
But at the end of the day... I can't take pictures of every job and then have to send them somebody else and then do something like, you know, I don't want to, don't want to doing the work for them, but I'm essentially just handing it to them saying here, post this, make this look good, write something.
00:42:44
Speaker
Well, now you have chat GPT and all that stuff on there, AI that can create your post for you. You put the picture on there, but I don't also don't want to do that either. I want somebody to do that within our business. And so it's almost like you're,
00:42:57
Speaker
I don't know feel about this, but I feel like you could cut out a marketing company within your business other than a website. Somebody can make your website for you and things like that and update it. But other than that, all your socials and everything from there on out could be somebody that is either an intern or a part-time person that does something else that does this half the time and that half time and get your social out there. Marketing on social is where it's at right now. I mean, I'm looking at my Facebook right now and I had somebody just send me a link and it was Heather from Fred's.
00:43:27
Speaker
that I didn't even know was out there on a job that I did back in November that was my best job of the year. And this is the coolest video I've ever seen of this job, and I've never seen it. And it was just floating out there in the socials.
00:43:39
Speaker
And you didn't even get credit for it. but My name is not currently on it. That is for sure. but so i'm going money i will find that out, but that's what saying. that we got The marketing is there. We got to figure out how to utilize it. So now I got to reach out to them and say, hey, tag me.
00:43:53
Speaker
Put me on this so that I know. My contract was up with my guy who does all the reels and all that stuff. I called him. i was like, so contract's up. What are we going to do? And he's like, well, you know, it's a new year. I might have to raise price. I said, well, just so know, I can hire someone if you raise the price anymore full time to work for me.
00:44:10
Speaker
They'll do other stuff. And he's like, all right, well, I guess we're keeping the price the same. And like, that's the issue is I'm to the point where I'm spending enough money. I could just bring it in house. And that person could also do other stuff for me.
00:44:21
Speaker
I think SEO is dying. Maybe we're going to have to get Luke on here to talk about it. Yeah, I think it is. I think it's... I had a girl that I hired from the University of Kentucky.
00:44:33
Speaker
She was hired in as an intern and her job was basically to do social media and marketing. She was kind of my assistant that she would... If I went out and site visit, she'd put the orders in.
00:44:44
Speaker
Everything that I did on the job site, I would send back to her She'd put the orders in. Then her and I would go over them all. I would figure figure out the details of that or anything like that. And that also helped her then later to become a full-time salesperson and marketing. So it was ah there those jobs are there for those people. and i think that But it has to be my point on that is, I almost feel like it has to be somebody within the business because they got to be ingrained in the business, know the business, see the business every day maybe go out to the job sites, take pictures.
00:45:13
Speaker
You can send that person out. I can take the pictures of the job site and I can do that kind of stuff. But you and I both know we got a hundred different things going through our mind. The last thing I'm going doing is taking a damn picture. i can barely, mean, my wife,
00:45:26
Speaker
yells at me a lot
Work-life Balance and Sales Persistence
00:45:27
Speaker
of the times because we go to a lot of events and things like that or we'll go on vacation and she'll go you know we didn't get one picture together oh jesus like she talking to my wife right and i'm like damn as much as i wish we would have got a picture together so that we could remember this moment it's also nice because i feel like i'm caught up in the moment where in the business you're so caught up in the moment on the job site with everything you got going on the first thing you want to do is get the job done.
00:45:52
Speaker
the next thing you want to do is get the hell out of there. Yeah. I was just somewhere with a bunch of 10 people. And someone went, can I see a picture of your wife? And I pull up my camera roll. i had to scroll. Now Alexa, if you're listening to this you know, I don't take pictures.
00:46:05
Speaker
I just go pretty far back. Yeah. And so it's like, that's what I said. i was like, well, if you want to see a picture of a tent, I got a bunch of them. And yeah I can barely keep my camera not cracked on my phone. Like I'm not going to take a good picture.
00:46:19
Speaker
I'm not going to carry a nice camera around with me. I try and go get drone shots because I keep a drone in my truck because I use it more for when I'm laying tents out, I get overhead shots and then I can lay the grade out based on that.
00:46:30
Speaker
But I love taking drone own shots of job sites when they're done and everything, but they're not necessarily what I would say always the best. like I can say I'm a full blown drone flyer connoisseur. You know what I mean? But I do do some good drone flying and I've get, I get some good pictures, but I want somebody that's going to out there and do it and spend the time on it. And that's what they want. Well, the other thing is we're never there that day and that's what no stuff needs to be taken.
00:46:55
Speaker
Right. So this job I'm talking about back in November, I took some good drone shots of this and I posted this job. But now I'm seeing it in a totally different light after. And I'm like, holy hell, they even got us putting tarps on that I don't even remember seeing anybody doing. So yeah it's really cool stuff. So marketing wise, I think we the marketing has got to go to that side. And we're struggling with that and trying to bring that to light as well and really find our feet on the marketing side currently.
00:47:23
Speaker
And hopefully we have a solution for that coming up. But for now... Do you want to share your secret? No, I think that the secret is everything I just told you. That's what we're trying to do. That's what I did before.
00:47:35
Speaker
I'm not saying that's the right method, but it's an avenue that we've talked about and that we're looking at that maybe the next person is an admin person. person that helps out putting data and entry data entry in and also does social media or is part-time sales, downtime social media.
00:47:51
Speaker
And even if you got your stuff to buy in, you could get so much more done because your show staff should be out checking in on the jobs. Well, if that's the case, they can pull out their phone and take pictures. Or they're more likely to keep it. If you buy them a nice camera to share in the sales office, they're much more likely to keep it but well maintained and not broken.
00:48:08
Speaker
Yeah, you would think. You would think. So yeah, so marketing, I think that's kind of where we're at. And then that rolls into the new clients. I mean, really, that's that's how we find the new clients is word of mouth, social media and cold calls. But going back, I would highly encourage everybody We took a sales course at Chattanooga Tent back in 21 or 22.
00:48:30
Speaker
And he was he doesn't necessarily know our industry. And so it was a sales course based on just normal and being a normal salesperson and cold calls. I don't think a lot of things resonated with me in that. other than sales pitches and stuff But it was basically stuff that I was already kind of doing, but just kind of helped you sharpen your tools in your toolbox.
00:48:47
Speaker
But one thing I did take a little bit from that was cold calls. And especially being in Nashville, we had been in Nashville forever. right We'd been doing business in Nashville forever. It wasn't up until three years ago that we put an office here, physical office here that I'm sitting in currently the and hiring in a staff. So we weren't running the interstate in two hours back and forth every day or every week.
00:49:08
Speaker
But With that, we were taking jobs and making good money running the interstate. But now when you have a physical presence, you have to make more money. In order to make more money and keep the lights on and keep the guys paid, you got to start finding more business. So what do you have to do?
00:49:22
Speaker
Well, you start making cold calls. And sometimes you just show up to people. You just show up there and say, hey, look, I think a tent would look good here. I think the tent would look good there. I mean, Jonathan just called, man, probably he sent out 10, 15 emails and calls last week just on a bunch of different things in the area and we got one big one in the works and I'm hopefully knocking on wood that we get next week.
00:49:44
Speaker
That's had a really good time. So even if you make 15 calls and you only get one, i mean, it pays off eventually because then word of mouth shows your true colors and what you can do in the business.
00:49:55
Speaker
And then the quality and service you're, you're providing that maybe the other person wasn't provided. And maybe, maybe it's not the right time for you and them to become partners. But later on, just like what happened with me, two, three years down the road,
00:50:07
Speaker
They might circle back. It happens to all of us. I think that's great. It's the inevitable pick three or pick two out of three service price quality. You to get to Yeah.
00:50:20
Speaker
I think, yeah. But with that, I think it has to be your service and quality though. yeah i mean, hands down, I mean, you got to make money, but if you're not an approachable person and they can't have a conversation with you, that's why I feel like I'm old school in a way where you walk up to somebody and you shake their hand and you look them in the eyes and that gets you the the job over maybe the guy that just gives you a call or looks at you through Zoom.
00:50:45
Speaker
It's like I took a customer, I sold the customer a tent for a venue long-term here. They wanted to see what that thing looked like and how many pictures did could dick could I send them. I could send them a lot. I could send them all kinds of literature and everything.
00:50:59
Speaker
Finally, it became the thing where they were like, they really wanted to physically see it and put their hands on it. Right. So what did I do? I flew out of Chattanooga at 6am on a flight up to Boston, showed them a structure They physically put their hands on it, saw it. We were there for all of one hour.
00:51:16
Speaker
And I turned around and flew back to Chattanooga from Boston that same day. And I know that sounds crazy. And a lot of you might think that it's crazy, but that's what got me that $200,000 sale. Yep. Sometimes what you got to do.
00:51:30
Speaker
If it was $800 in plane tickets and my day was spent... It was spent... Home run. if If my day was spent on a plane all day traveling... And I got that over $200,000 sale on $800 worth of plane tickets.
00:51:45
Speaker
Them showing or me showing face and them seeing the product. It's worth it. So yeah just take all the avenues and, you know, be personable, be personable and approachable.
Conclusion and Sign-off
00:51:55
Speaker
You have to be.
00:51:56
Speaker
So do what you say when you say it and do it better than you said you were going to do it. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Kyle, I got to get some things done. I've got some guys knocking. So I think that ah this has been under the vinyl tailgate talk.
00:52:10
Speaker
We are out of here. See ya.