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Episode 7 Tailgate Talk
120 Plays1 month ago
Nate and Kyle Take some Viewer questions!
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Transcript
Introduction to Tailgate Talk
00:00:11
Speaker
All right, we're back with a new episode here, but this is going to be something that we're going to try and implement in between some of our guests and other episodes. Just a little tidbit of information here and there. it's been We've got a lot of requests for questions to be talked about on the show.
00:00:29
Speaker
So I think we're going to introduce this segment as the tailgate talk with Under the Vinyl in between some of the segments that we dropped. So I've
Weather Challenges in Chattanooga
00:00:36
Speaker
got Kyle on here with me today. are you doing, Kyle? I'm good. are you doing today, Nate?
00:00:40
Speaker
Doing good. It's a little snowy here in Chattanooga. I'm supposed to be in Kentucky today and forced me to stay stay down here. So I know how you guys do it up in the north and you guys are prepared, but down here in the south, everybody has lost their minds. So we are we' in survival mode today. no No school, no nothing.
00:00:58
Speaker
Were you heading out to a site visit or an install? Yeah, actually, I was going to go up there for a site visit and get a couple things knocked out for this year. And then, actually, we were supposed to go to the Kentucky Vandy game tonight while we were up there and then swing on back. So we ended up postponing that, which is nice. I don't mind a non-travel week this week. I was on the road already once this week, but it's nice to stay home, just not when your kids are out of school for a day or two.
00:01:21
Speaker
So I'm guessing you went to the office office today and left the wife at home with kids. So I am in the office, but my wife also had to go to the office. So scrambling to find a babysitter at the last minute at 7 a.m. m when they decide to cancel after they said there was only going to be a two hour delay is always
Work-Family Balance Amid Disruptions
00:01:38
Speaker
fun. So that's the challenges we face as parents in the working world. And you just adapt.
00:01:43
Speaker
I'm sure a lot of listeners can. They feel your pain today, I'm sure. Yeah. So what's what do we got here? What's what's one of the first topics we to nail down?
Listener Questions from Eric Larkin
00:01:52
Speaker
So a first question, this came in from Eric Larkin, Sperry Tense, New Jersey. Eric, we appreciate you listening.
00:01:59
Speaker
He sent us a list of 11 questions. We picked three we're to talk about today, but Eric, just you know, we're going to get to most of these questions.
Charging for Tentox Machines
00:02:07
Speaker
First all, we want to talk about the money-saving economic advantage of the Tentox.
00:02:12
Speaker
Do you charge for it on a site? How are you justifying it? Absolutely. You have to charge for the Tentox. I mean, you guys charge for it, right? Yeah. And I charge for every one. So we own seven. So like, if I know I'm going to send two, I'm charging the fee twice. It's not a one-time fee and it's by the day.
00:02:30
Speaker
Some of that I get pushback sometimes, but my response is always, how about you go to Sunbelt and rent me a 5k telehandler then? And typically my price is much cheaper than that.
00:02:41
Speaker
And you got to come up with the money to pay for the machine somehow. They're not cheap. Yeah. I've heard people say they don't look at it as CapEx expenditure. They're looking at it as a payroll expense, which I agree with that 50, 50%. Yeah.
00:02:53
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I think it could go either way. But now we're going to get into the tough part
Cost-Effectiveness of Tentox Machines
00:02:59
Speaker
of this. Do you save any money by owning the 10 ox? And we and Scott Woodruff have debated this for years.
00:03:07
Speaker
Oh yeah. Well, what yeah go into what you guys have talked about and then I'll kind of give them my two cents. So I do think we save money, but the flip side is I don't know that the jobs get done that much faster than it's making that much of a difference on the money savings.
00:03:23
Speaker
I'm looking at the savings from the employee standpoint. My guys are happier. They're not burned out. They are working less and the job is much easier. So it's easier to find employees. Absolutely. I would agree with that.
00:03:35
Speaker
Going back to the charging of the 10 ox thing, I do charge for 10 oxes. We do charge for 10 oxes. The issue we're running into now is figuring out how to charge, like you're just saying, by the day, by the ox.
00:03:47
Speaker
I think we're charging, definitely charging by the ox. um But there is, mean, let's just throw round numbers out there. You say you charge $800 10 ox and you're charging $3,000 for a low mean,
00:03:59
Speaker
you know i mean It's essentially doing the same thing. You're just either pulling it or you're not pulling it to the job site. And the benefits of the ox, you know, we're able to get in tighter spaces. It's better on the grass and things like that.
00:04:10
Speaker
So I think you ultimately have to be charging for it. I don't know. you know, that's but something that when I was at Bryant's, we did not charge for the 10 ox. We considered it a labor source and that we could take off two guys and charge for and and send the 10 ox out. And now we're saving on labor.
00:04:27
Speaker
Right. So it's more of a labor line item. Now here at Chattanooga Tent, we charge for it and we send the guys, but it's just an extra tool now for them to use. And we charge it out as a ah tool sales item.
00:04:40
Speaker
So it's at the bottom line and not in the rental item. um So that's how we're charging. And I do agree that with charging. I think that, you know, that's the only way to these machines are not going down in price, just like everything else in this industry.
00:04:54
Speaker
And I think that if you're not charging for these machines, the price is only going up and you're losing out at this point and you've got to charge for it. It's no different than charging for labor. So, Going back to your labor savings, I think absolutely you're saving on labor, but I think sometimes you're going to, you may have a crew of five and you might only need a crew of four, but you're still not going to break up the crew for that day if they have to go somewhere else or whatever.
00:05:19
Speaker
So it's almost becomes just a tool in your toolbox at that point and not a labor, a labor item. I think those are all great points. I think at some point we need to have Scott Woodruff We've talked about that. So yeah, he can really dive into that and Eric, we'll get him on here.
00:05:37
Speaker
Yeah, but I would say as far as the 10X goes, there's ah there's a size for every person in this industry. from from We've talked about this on the last episode but with Tico Steve. And you know it's it's one of those things where you everybody needs it, I feel like. Even if you're that company that's only doing you know under a million dollars, I still think it's beneficial to
Tentox Machines for Small Companies
00:05:59
Speaker
you. I know a certain company that is doing under a million dollars and they have a 200 series and they have...
00:06:05
Speaker
It's a husband-wife team with maybe two other employees. And that is a labor savings. That is a labor-lined item. So I think it really depends on the size of your company on how you line out labor versus a tooled item.
00:06:20
Speaker
Yep, would agree. All right, the next one. Now, Nate, you deal with a lot of wedding planners, so I'm going to have you start this one off.
Industry Kickbacks and Pricing Strategy
00:06:28
Speaker
Kickbacks. Yeah. So kickbacks, we don't like them.
00:06:32
Speaker
we And it's not to be in any planners listening out there. It's not to be a jab at you all. But it's my just blunt point about it is I think that you need to charge more.
00:06:46
Speaker
I think that nothing is to your to the point about the 10-ox, nothing becomes cheaper. Now we have to buy a $80,000 machine right to do the to do the work. And now we got to buy more tent products. We got to buy, find more labor and labor is not becoming any cheaper than, than it has been. I mean, it's becoming more and more expensive and harder to find.
00:07:04
Speaker
And if you are finding labor and you are finding the good guys, you're paying them a whole lot more, which something we'll get into, but we can't afford to give a 10% off the top to somebody because there might be times we're not even making more than 10%.
00:07:19
Speaker
You know, we might not be making more than 15%. Now we get five and they get 10. That makes zero sense to me. So, you know, I don't even mind that, you know, it it it's like some of these tables and chair companies that, you know, we deal with that.
00:07:33
Speaker
I said, you know what? Don't worry about giving me a 10% off the tables and chairs. That's fine. I'm good with it. I'll just upcharge mine. I don't care. But the planners got to understand if you need to charge more than you charge more, you can't come to me and ask me to go down on my pricing because you're not charging enough.
00:07:51
Speaker
So we need to make it an industry standard. I do believe that we cannot be given all these kickbacks. And the problem with that is you get these bigger companies. And I say these bigger companies, companies with yeah multiple locations across the United States that buy and sell companies and they sell out in five years, they're able to give these kickbacks because they're not looking at the bottom line on one job.
00:08:12
Speaker
They're looking at the bottom line on a year-long job. So it makes it a lot tougher for us to give that kickback versus them.
Upfront Agreements on Kickbacks
00:08:19
Speaker
I'm with you. i hate them. That being said, say a planner calls me and says she's having a party at her house locally.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to take care of her. I'd much rather do things like that than cut them a check. You can't cut it. No, I don't. I don't believe in the check. If you are going to give a discount now, all that to be said, I'll be a big bad wolf and huff and puff right there about how I don't believe in it. But at the end of the day, if there's one certain one that really, you know, we feel like, hey, this is the only way we're going get this job and we figure it out.
00:08:51
Speaker
You know, if we need to, that's fine. we'll We'll we'll do it. But cutting the check on the back end is not good business to me. If you want to if you want to take the 10%, if we take 10% off our bill, you add the 10% on your bill, go ahead and do that or whatever the percent is.
00:09:08
Speaker
But I'm not doing it. I don't want to do a check at the end of That that becomes too convoluted and messy. Yeah. And that, I feel like that ends up happening. I, I noticed a lot locally where the planner will come to us, but they want to get us to get paid by the client direct.
00:09:22
Speaker
So us taking 10% off does nothing for them. So they always, you know, after sometimes they'll come with their hand out. go You didn't tell us that before. Sorry. Yeah. and and And to that point, if you are going to give a planner a kickback, I'm not saying don't be like, you don't have to be like me.
00:09:39
Speaker
Like I said, I might give it. I might not. But everybody does business in a different way. You know, if you need to up your prices by a little bit and then give it 10%, you know, do something like that. But make sure that you, what I've learned in this industry is it's all about setting the expectations, whether it be with the client the the planner with anybody. You have to set the expectation up front. If you're not setting the expectation up front, you're setting yourself up for failure.
00:10:03
Speaker
So if you would like to do a discount or a kickback, then make sure you get that established up front on the front end so that there is no hurt feelings on the backside. Yeah, 100%.
00:10:14
Speaker
All right. Next question from Eric.
Logistics and Employee Incentives at Events
00:10:17
Speaker
On-site attendance, how often are you doing? Are you charging? What are you giving your staff for it? ah This is a little complicated one for us. I'll let you go first on this. I've i've got a couple things on this, but go ahead.
00:10:29
Speaker
So we have a set structure. I don't remember what the exact hourly rate is, but the typical event, we're telling them we have someone on site for five and a half hours to six hours.
00:10:41
Speaker
It's a flat fee. Whatever the price is, The company gets 25% and the employee is getting 75% of what we're charging no matter what. And that goes into a separate payroll check for them.
00:10:53
Speaker
It's like a bonus that they get to do. We offer it to our employees on a seniority basis. ah So we just go down the list and whoever wants it first gets it.
00:11:03
Speaker
So the guys who've been here the longest, they get first crack at it. And then we work our way down. Typically it's the same four or five guys taking every attendant job. Anything with more than four heaters, we are requiring an attendant because you know for a fact you're going to get the call.
00:11:19
Speaker
But in the summer, we're not doing too many of them. We're guilty of the fact that we probably have a lot more on-site attendants that we don't charge for just because myself and Brian and Steve will just show up on a Saturday and make sure everything's good and then end up staying for a while. We never bill the client.
00:11:36
Speaker
But these are clients who are spending large dollar amounts, so it's kind of built into the price no matter what. And it's also clients that are local in your area, correct? Yeah. Yes. Right. So that's the issue that we run into a little bit. and So we also, you know, let me just, let me start with the Nashville side.
00:11:55
Speaker
So Nashville side, we're locally, pretty much locally around there. The the furthest we, I mean, we we travel a lot further if we have to, but most of our business in the Nashville office is within a two mile rate or two hour radius, not two mile.
00:12:10
Speaker
That would be impressive, Nate. That would be awesome. Mostly within a two hour radius. So we're, you know, we're mostly in town, same as you. What I'll do, like I did example, like this past weekend, we had a small job, but I knew it was a heater job. I knew it was supposed to rain. It had gutters, you know, gutters work all the time.
00:12:28
Speaker
And so with that, we told one guy that he would be on call for the duration of the party on Saturday. Now, the thing about that is if he goes in for one hour, we pay him for four.
00:12:40
Speaker
If he goes in for 20 minutes, he gets paid for four. So we kind of have it set to where it's like that. Now, if I do need a guy there all day long, that's got to on the event all day long. He's getting his hourly pay nine times out of 10. It's a, it's overtime pay anyways.
00:12:56
Speaker
So he's getting some good pay out of that, but I will charge ahead for that. Now, and is it up for debate at this point? We're looking at doing a couple different things of giving a percentage. When I was at Bryant's, I would charge the customer and then i would give a kickback.
00:13:11
Speaker
I wouldn't charge hourly. I would give a kickback to the employee that worked that that day on that event and he would get a percentage of whatever we charged the customer. um And it was also by seniority.
00:13:23
Speaker
It was also by who answered their phone the most. If you turned one down, then you may not be on schedule for another month to get that that opportunity. That's what I believe in. And I think that that's what we're going to start trying to go to is try and figure out something like that, because I think that these guys need to be incentivized after working a 60 hour week. Now, they're not going have to do a lot by being out on site and just kind of babysitting, as we call it.
00:13:45
Speaker
And they're mostly just sitting in their vehicles for 10 hours. But at the end of the day, they're not getting to do what they want to do. And I think they in order to that- They could have been home with their family, which goes back to the work-life balance thing. Correct. So you got to incentivize them a little bit. Now with the bigger jobs as Chattanooga Tent travels on the national side,
00:14:04
Speaker
We nine times out of 10, we'll have somebody there. There's usually always somebody that will babysit very large job. That's out of town. I did have one job that I learned a lesson on that was out in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the vinyl for the ceremony right before it was getting ready to start, the heat hit the vinyl and it went from cold outside, real warm and hit the vinyl and started bubbling right before the event. And I had nobody there.
00:14:26
Speaker
And as you know, Jackson Hole and Tendigo, Tennessee are a little bit of a distance from each other. Um, so I did end up having to play, pay one of the staff from the floral companies ah to go and fix my vinyl for me and save the day luckily. But yeah, lesson learned anything out of town like that, any big job, you always have an attendant on site.
00:14:46
Speaker
Now we're just going to throw this in real quick. You're talking vinyl floor. Mobile. Mm hmm. nightmare yeah that's all i'm gonna say that's something we need to jump into as well and have a conversation about just some different things because there's i love the vinyl look i just i don't think anybody's really found the way to do it and you know we've used the floating tape that 12 by makes and that that has helped a ton shout out tim but you know there's just it depends what the floor it's on it depends what the heat's like it depends if it's a clear top a white top what the conditions are outside i mean it is so weather dependent
00:15:24
Speaker
more than anything. yeah So we'll jump into that on another episode. But yeah, so on-site attendance, that's I think that's a key factor. Also, it's going to keep your customer coming back when you have that quality and service on-site right there when you have an issue. so think that's, that's what I do.
00:15:42
Speaker
All right. Well, that wraps up our first tailgate talk. Thanks for listening. We're going to try to drop these, you know, sprinkle them in there sporadically for you guys. If you have any more questions, shoot them to me or Nate.
00:15:52
Speaker
We got a nice Google docs going right now with a bunch of questions in it. Absolutely. Thanks for listening.