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Tents, Trends & Tough Weather: Episode 67
102 Plays16 days ago
Nate and Kyle kick back and talk shop — from tighter timelines and last-minute demands to unpredictable weather — we know many of you can relate.
This episode is brought to you by Anchor Clear Span Tents & Structures, learn more at www.anchorinc.com.
PS, if you want to join ARA and you tell them you heard about it from Nate and Kyle, you'll get 25% off your membership! https://ararental.org/join-ARA/promo/Podcast25
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Transcript
Clearing Up Last Week's Absence
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Under the Vinyl, a rental management media podcast. Kyle, how you doing, buddy? Okay, I want to set the record straight right now, Nate. I was there with Mike Cruz last week.
00:00:30
Speaker
Mike, yeah, Kyle was there, but Kyle was on a job site. it didn't We had some technical difficulties, so I just ran with it myself. But um overall, great episode.
00:00:42
Speaker
um Mike was very knowledgeable of a lot of stuff.
Collaborating on Vixen Projects
00:00:45
Speaker
The fun part of that was right as soon as we got off that call, I was ah the following couple days I was in the warehouse in Nashville, digging through all the Vixen stuff that we own and trying to figure out parts and pieces and blew Mike up all day. So it was actually really helpful for me.
00:01:04
Speaker
so it was the weekend like for you? It was the week of Mike. Uh, it was the week of Mike. Biff was sending me diagrams and somehow I'm in sir jumped in there and was calling, uh, Blake. So we just had everybody at anchor on it.
00:01:16
Speaker
It's weird. I got Vixen emails flying back and forth in my email today. Uh, it's, it's the week of Vixen, I guess. Yeah. You got a nice new project coming up with that. So that'll be fun.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah. You know, but it's not a Loesburger. It's not a Loesburger. It is not a Loesburger.
Sponsor Shoutout: Anchor Tents and Clear Spans
00:01:34
Speaker
uh we won't get into that one yeah that's for another time this episode of under the vinyl is brought to you by anchor tents and clear spans a fifth generation family-owned company making tents and clear span structures right here in the usa anchor isn't just about selling the best products on the market they share decades of experience and stand beside you as you grow your business anchors craftsmanship and engineering give you a peace of mind and will allow you to use the equipment for years to come season after season
00:01:59
Speaker
For the next generation of rental owners and installers, Anchor aims to not just be your supplier, but a trusted partner helping guide you into the right products to grow your business. Call to be connected to your sales rep today. 1-800-544-4445 or visit their website at anchorinc.com. I just want to get on here and a quick tailgate talk and just kind see what's going on. So what you got going on right now? What's whats what's kind of dominating your
Weather Challenges in Event Planning
00:02:22
Speaker
season?
00:02:22
Speaker
It is... a About to be the weekend of our biggest event of the year right now. So the weather is going to crap, it looks like. I just checked the weather before we started this.
00:02:33
Speaker
So right before we started, I got the text that they're probably going to add 300 or 400 feet wall. with And then it ended with, but I'd bring extra. So I'm going to guys just run around for the next four days trying to keep our customer happy, which is never fun. But part of the game, it's never good when it's going rain on a holiday weekend.
00:02:54
Speaker
yeah we Yeah, we have our member guest golf tournament this weekend, and it is supposed to rain all weekend. And then we have one of our biggest events, too, one of our NASCAR races that we're doing, and it's also supposed to rain all weekend next weekend. And really, for the next 10 days, it's supposed to just pour down rain. And so I'm already trying to plan a week out on everything that's been being set up past two weeks, but just kind of You know, ah tense tents are tents and not permanent buildings. So as much as you do to make them not leak, you're always going to have something it seems like. So I'm just ah prepping my mind for that at this point.
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah. At some point you realize there's nothing you can do except just stand there and watch it. it's um Have you seen an increased demand lately or have you guys been kind of
Trends in Client Behavior
00:03:40
Speaker
leveled out? You know,
00:03:42
Speaker
It's funny because I hate admitting that Darren's kind of right about anything. And I was talking to him on the phone last night. The last minute stuff just flows in the door now all the time. And it's, and they're not small jobs, which is crazy.
00:03:56
Speaker
Yep. ah It's people are planning. It's, it's kind of strange. And it, I love the stress and the chaos of that stuff, but like at some point it does get old.
00:04:07
Speaker
We do. Operations doesn't, unless you are operations. And so that becomes that becomes the problem. We've we've been taking a lot of last-minute stuff here and there.
00:04:20
Speaker
um I've actually got a call to today with a pretty good-sized one. um That is going to be quite last-minute. And actually, Mutton called me the other day, and we were having a conversation about that. It just felt – it feels like everything – I mean, we continue to talk about everything's last-minute, but it's like – real last minute like a month out like a month out it's ah yeah and i don't know how people don't see it coming you know there's that and there's a lot of price shopping happening like uh there was a project that i had set a price in on and i was going to bring darren into work with us i think i was talking to you about this in the group text yeah and then all of a sudden darren calls me he's like hey what's that job you were you were uh
00:05:01
Speaker
You having me come in and do the floor for it. Well, they had called Darren. They called a hundred people, it seems like, all to quote this job. It's after they tell you that they're going to go with you. There's no loyalty anymore.
00:05:13
Speaker
No, I feel like there's a lot of shopping. And what's really kind of comical that now that you say that is like, Like how we talked in the group chats the other day, the eight of us or whatever. and and we're all doing the same thing for the same client in four different places around the country. Right. Yeah. And just the and also the difference in prices between all of us. Right. So.
00:05:38
Speaker
It's just been really interesting to see um how much it's being price shopped and how many different companies being brought in. I think, like we said before, we're going to see a lot more of this, especially with FIFA coming up.
00:05:50
Speaker
I think that you're going to get a lot more of this price shopping. There's going lot of people calling. You know, I just wish that there was a little bit more loyalty in that aspect. And you try and have those conversations to, you know, try and get them to be loyal and things like that. But it's like,
00:06:06
Speaker
It's like the end of the day, anywhere else in life, a handshake doesn't go nearly as far as it used to. um so I mean, luckily, you know who your people are, right?
00:06:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's a definitely challenging. And I mean, like if we had all known, we were quoting those jobs that we're all doing starting next week across the but yeah so Honestly, the whole group chat probably kind of handled the whole country.
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah. You know, we had a conversation about that. Um, I actually said that, uh, you know, we could broker that deal. And the problem with brokering that deal is you have to have one dedicated person taking that whole thing on the entire time yeah and then do it literally doing nothing else. Right. Yeah. Um, I learned that a lot from Rob at 24 seven back in the day when he used to do all, all the things he was doing. And, um, and They had one person, Stacy at that time, that was that worked for him, that she was brokering all that stuff out and that was her only job.
00:07:07
Speaker
And that I mean, that is very consuming. So I think in a perfect world, stuff like that would be nice to be able to do, but I just don't know if the if the bullshit's really worth it at the end of the day to try put somebody on that.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah, to make 10 or 15%, maybe, if you're lucky. Right, right. what's ah What's kind of been some important things that you've found during this you know kind of mid-season
Crew Morale and Communication Improvements
00:07:30
Speaker
so far? you know We're in the thick of it over the month of May, as you can hear in the background, month of May and June.
00:07:37
Speaker
So what's kind of been good for you guys and what's been important for you guys over this over this past couple months? Well, it'd be nice if you know those bosses put the orders in and don't call you at 2 o'clock on a Tuesday and tell you that you're short 200 tables because they didn't put an order in.
00:07:52
Speaker
uh i'm sure everyone can guess who that guy would be yeah um you know honestly i've been just trying to keep crew morale good i think we've worked one saturday this spring which is incredible um i'm lucky i got a great crew they all know what they're doing we roll up to a job site i'm truly blessed with that i'm not working with new labor every year i have the same guys year after year so that does help a lot and every year we get better at our jobs Uh, the weather has sucked this spring. I'll say that we didn't have a spring. I don't think we had winter and some.
00:08:29
Speaker
It's, it's jumped right into the busy, it' jumped right into the rain too. I mean, it's, it's, uh, the month of may, it always rains, but I feel like it, we've just hit it hard, hard recently.
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah. And it's never at a good time. can't it rain on like a Wednesday. Why is going to rain on Friday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Every time. what's been What's been kind of the communication like between your operations, sales and just overall cruise um during the busy time?
00:08:55
Speaker
I feel like it's actually been a lot better than it has been in the past. um Now, a lot of our work this time of year is recurring. So at this point, my leads know the jobs. yeah I send them to a site. They know exactly what has to happen already. So it kind of cuts out that communication needed.
00:09:10
Speaker
um yeah I've been forcing the hand on sales, making them go out on any big project and get the tent laid out with the crew lead or me the day before things like that. Just cause that does save so much time and it avoids the client having to talk to the crew, um, which there's nothing wrong with clients talking to the crew, but so there's a lot of confusion. Yeah, exactly.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah. Like yesterday I had The client wanted to move the tent, not based on the drawing I gave the lead. And the lead called me. He's like, what do you want me to do? And i was like, well, she's always right. But let me call the client and make sure that everyone is on the same page here. Well, because at the end of the day, the crew doesn't want to disappoint you as a salesperson or you as the operations person. They want to make sure overall their company is on their back at that point. And they want to do what the customer wants. But that customer, what the customer wants might cost us a thousand dollars, yeah um you know, or a couple thousand dollars. And I think that's that's the tough part.
00:10:01
Speaker
Well, and like the sales guy in that job isn't here this week. He doesn't come back till Friday. So on Friday, if he goes there, he's going to go, well, hey, why didn't they put the tent where i I gave you perfect CADs with measurements off the corners of the buildings? Like we're 100 feet off here. What's going on? yeah So it's just you got to make sure everyone's on the same page at all the times.
00:10:21
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And are you guys creating timelines to pass out from the sales out to the operations to the crew then? Are you doing anything like that? Once the salesman makes ah the sale, it gets passed over to me and then I'm making the timeline for them to go back to the client and say, this is our... Operations making the timeline. Yeah.
00:10:40
Speaker
Obviously, if sales knows, okay, you only have three days, they'll tell me that in the beginning. Or if I only have two days, things like that. But I typically am making the timeline for the crews. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Currently right now we're doing it where the salesperson does it. um It's a lot on the salesperson, but it's more so because the salesperson knows exactly what's going on and then passing it over to operations, kind of look everything over if they need to, or if anybody, if any, for the most part, this our salespeople are just like you. I mean, we're, we've done it. We're in the field. some There's some new salespeople that'll ask some questions um on their timelines and kind of go over it with somebody. But for the most part,
00:11:19
Speaker
We pass ours straight from sales to operations. Yeah. we We run off a ah Google calendar. Yeah. So that's where, like, if I want to move an install, I'll move it on the calendar and send a notification of the sales so they can see right away in real time.
00:11:33
Speaker
Hey, something came up. We got to move this install. Does that work for you? um Just because it's easier than going into party track and changing the delivery. So they all get real-time notifications of when I want to install and when I want to dismantle every job.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, for me, I love to see the crew have the timeline, and like the physical timeline that says when you're putting what tent up and where and and every detail through the whole job, through the whole contract, just because they own it then. you know a lot A lot of the time, I feel like you could send them out and say, hey, this is this project. It has 210s on it. Start here.
00:12:04
Speaker
And they're going to like, okay, and then what do I do? what Then what do I do? And then you're getting calls more and more where if you could put the timeline in their hand with the details, I feel like that's given them the responsibility. They own it. They know what to do. And they have ah they have it all in their hand.
00:12:17
Speaker
The only thing I've realized with doing it that way is they will work the 14 hours to get the list done because that's what you wrote. So was going to, yeah. So like I'll downplay what I want them to do that day. And then I'll end with, if you have time,
00:12:35
Speaker
You can start this just because let's yeah I don't want, obviously I want to cut the overtime. That's where we lose all our money. Well, it's funny you say that. I want to dive into that. So 14 hour days. So typically what do we consider like a normal day? A 10 hour day, right?
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah. we're We try to be six to five with a lunch. 6am to 5pm with a lunch. Okay. So let's say we call it a 10 hour work day, eight to 10 hour work day, right? You give them a timeline.
00:13:00
Speaker
They go out. They're setting this job up. And you say it needs to be done in this amount of days. But now they're working 14-hour days, right? They're working 14-hour days, but it gets done on time.
00:13:11
Speaker
Do you take that as they were mismanaged or you didn't have somebody there that should have been managing that 14 hours because you know it could have got done in this amount of time? Or do you feel like, well, they still got it done in that correct amount of time?
00:13:25
Speaker
so Well, that's my issue with timelines. You're telling them they have four days. Well, what if they work now? They know in their head they have four days. What if they could have done it in three?
00:13:36
Speaker
So are you going to force the project manager to be out there to kind of watch over them? Are you to force somebody to go out there and check in on them to make sure everything's okay? My leads kind of double as the project managers. I mean, obviously, you know, uncle Kevin, uh, you know, Ramon who works for me. So those are my two number one project managers.
00:13:53
Speaker
They know. that I'm going to hold them to a strict, you know, let's get this done. Good talent, especially uncle Kevin and anyone who knows that guy, he's the energizer bunny. He just wants the project done as fast as he possibly can.
00:14:08
Speaker
But like, obviously you have to take it. It's been 98 degrees every day this week. so they're working a little bit slower. Yeah. Yeah, it's been bad. i mean, it's been the humidity for us hit pretty quick and it got hot fast. But I mean, that's another good point that takes us over to like flooring and and the increase in flooring and climate control.
Climate Control Trends in Tenting
00:14:28
Speaker
Right. um You know, we've been doing raised level floor TF for a long time.
00:14:33
Speaker
I know you you got into it pretty deep here recently that you've been doing it a lot. um Have you felt like the there's been quite the influx of climate control and overall? um Just flooring jobs as a whole.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, obviously I got into the TF. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, but I did it. And I'm shocked with how much work I've gotten more than what I thought I was going to have. Um, and I got bunch more leads coming in. So there is definitely a market for it. Um, climate control wise, I'm still not doing a bunch of it. Uh, I think people around me get shell shocked when you give them that price.
00:15:11
Speaker
So that's really your high-end budget. And, you know, I've learned a few lessons along the way on the jobs I've done climate control. You know, you don't go through the floor anymore, um dress up those wall-mounted units, things like that.
00:15:25
Speaker
But, yeah, I do see a trend going towards climate control, level floors, fully enclosed, hard walls, glass. All that is more and more prevalent as time goes on.
00:15:36
Speaker
And I don't know how long it's going to last because the budget is a huge budget driver for people. Well, the AC is, the AC is the roof. Now, I mean, I love all my AC guys. Shout out Brandon from United and, you know, everybody over there. They are amazing when it comes to all my installs and, you know, I pay the premium.
00:15:57
Speaker
But at the end of the day, i know what I'm getting and I know the quality that I'm getting. So i'm not too disappointed in it, right? um Where... Trying to sell that, though, is damn near impossible, especially in a clear tent nowadays, right? So, like, last weekend, I found an alternative. I did find an alternative. So, client at last minute wanted on a Monday. Event was on ah going up Thursday. Event was on Saturday um in our Arkham, clear Arkham, black frame.
00:16:26
Speaker
And... They didn't want to pay when I said the price over. They didn't want to pay for that AC price. And the load in was going to be pretty substantial. But we what I end up doing is United now has these fans. There's stand up ones called Vector fans. ah They're nice black units and they can either they can miss to the regular fans. Right. They're probably about five foot tall, four foot tall. I think they're about five foot tall. um And.
00:16:51
Speaker
They're just a large fan that um that blows a good amount of AC in there. You can put some water in them to cool them, but they look good for high-end events. So they kind of disappeared. they put them i had them install them um around the tent.
00:17:04
Speaker
We put 17 of these bad boys in the tent. and If you find the pictures or see the pictures on Instagram, they disappear in the tent. You don't even see them. And just so happened that the CEO of Vector, the fan company,
00:17:18
Speaker
was at the wedding. And so it kind of, yeah. And so like he was over the moon, excited that, that that was going on there, that those fans were there. The client was happy and it was actually a really good alternative to AC. And now my client's been bragging about it.
00:17:33
Speaker
um And it's, it was a fraction of the price. I mean, an absolute fraction of the price. And it was fully enclosed. No, it wasn't fully enclosed. I had them keep, ah they kept the sides open all the way around. At one point we talked about leaving two sides off because it was right off the lake and have a nice breeze blowing through there. But it, I mean, it was hot at night, but with the fans, nobody complained at all. said it was amazing. and Everything was great. So.
00:17:57
Speaker
Nice alternative if you're out there looking for something. Contact United and looked into the Vector fans. But they were a great alternative to the AC. Not in a way that it's going to be absolutely freezing cold, but you get what you pay for type thing, right? Yeah, exactly.
00:18:14
Speaker
So, um well, anything else going on? Nothing crazy. Awesome. Well, I know I got to get back on the road here and i know you got things to do. um Just want to give another shout out there that we are holding the boot camp on August 18th and 19th in Nashville for safe tending.
Nashville Tenting Boot Camp Announcement
00:18:35
Speaker
Look at you really talking this thing out, man. We're going to have, i'm trying to get quite the crowd so far. i talked, I had Brian Bolton the other day. We did a little walkthrough on everything and discussed how it was going to go.
00:18:46
Speaker
um ah think we've got ah some pretty cool stuff that's going set up. A lot of good people coming in that I've talked to. um But yeah, anybody in the country want to come out, get on the safe tending.
00:18:57
Speaker
i would love to have you. Drink on Broadway with me and Nate. Drink on Broadway with us at some point. um But yeah, I think it's going to be a blast. So get on the ARA's website. There'll be more stuff coming out about that. But just get on there now. Get signed up so we can kind of get a head count and see who's coming. We've got some time ahead of us. But ah yeah, think it's going to be good. So all right, Kyle. That's a wrap. yeah That's a wrap. It's been another episode of Under the Vinyl, a rental management media podcast.