Latest / Epic Entrepreneurs / From Second-Generation Electrician to Strategic Partner: How Thomas Fleming Builds Trust, Talent, and Cash Flow Resilience

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From Second-Generation Electrician to Strategic Partner: How Thomas Fleming Builds Trust, Talent, and Cash Flow Resilience · Epic Entrepreneurs

• 0:28
  Bill Gilliland: Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs.
• 0:31
  Bill Gilliland: I am Bill Gilliland, your host.
• 0:33
  Bill Gilliland: I am the principal of Action Coach Business Growth Partners and one of the founders of the Asheville Business Summit.
• 0:39
  Bill Gilliland: I am super pumped today.
• 0:41
  Bill Gilliland: I've got a really cool guest.
• 0:44
  Bill Gilliland: He's joined the Action Coach community.
• 0:46
  Bill Gilliland: We got Thomas Fleming from Strategic Electrical Solutions.
• 0:51
  Bill Gilliland: So Thomas, tell us who you are and a little bit about yourself and your company and you know how you serve the community.
• 0:59
  Thomas Fleming: So again, Thomas Fleming, and I'm the president and owner of Strategic Electrical Solutions.
• 1:05
  Thomas Fleming: Been in this industry for close to 30 years now.
• 1:09
  Thomas Fleming: So second generation of electrical contractor.
• 1:12
  Thomas Fleming: Spent a lot of time in the field, spent a lot of time educating myself along with others.
• 1:20
  Thomas Fleming: We've kind of taken this on as about, well, we're in year three now, so we're at that hump, as everybody would say.
• 1:30
  Thomas Fleming: It's make or break time.
• 1:32
  Thomas Fleming: Just really serving our customers with exceptional service and the best value that the market's going to let us allow right now to do everything.
• 1:43
  Thomas Fleming: Just um focusing a lot on our trying to help our customers in not just their needs, but also the education of what is actually behind the scenes in their electrical system is something they use every day without even knowing.
• 2:06
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, so so Thomas, I want to dig into that a little bit.
• 2:09
  Bill Gilliland: You said you're second generation, you've been in this 30 years, and then you said three years.
• 2:13
  Bill Gilliland: Tell us a little bit about that.
• 2:15
  Thomas Fleming: So my my father was licensed.
• 2:18
  Thomas Fleming: I believe I saw his in 1980-ish.
• 2:21
  Thomas Fleming: I know he was in business in the 80s.
• 2:24
  Thomas Fleming: Um, so I was young, wanted to go with him, spent a lot of time with him out in the field.
• 2:29
  Thomas Fleming: Loved doing it, loved the aspect of harnessing something that nobody can see, but you can definitely feel it whenever it's uh not done properly.
• 2:41
  Thomas Fleming: Um and really just took took to that.
• 2:47
  Thomas Fleming: Um the I don't know what it is, don't know why.
• 2:52
  Thomas Fleming: Some days I'm going, why did I do this?
• 2:54
  Thomas Fleming: But other days, you know, I actually enjoy I enjoy what I do, and and it helps me every day to keep pushing through.
• 3:01
  Thomas Fleming: Um him and I were in business, I tell everybody, three weeks before prior, if anybody remembers 2008, what happened then, and we survived through about 2013 when uh had an um offer come along that I just couldn't turn down.
• 3:21
  Thomas Fleming: So he was at the age of retirement, and we kind of parted ways, let him do what he wanted to with it, went on later on with various companies, grew from uh you know, foreman to superintendent, project manager, estimator to pretty much running everything with it, and got laid off about a little after 2020 when everything happened on in that session and year, and said, Well, I might as well just try it again.
• 3:54
  Thomas Fleming: So um went back and got my license after all those years, opened our doors, and here we are today, just trying to hump along.
• 4:05
  Bill Gilliland: Perfect, perfect.
• 4:06
  Bill Gilliland: I love it, I love it.
• 4:07
  Bill Gilliland: It's a it's a great background.
• 4:09
  Bill Gilliland: So, who do you serve?
• 4:12
  Thomas Fleming: Uh is North, we're we're North Carolina, unlimited license for for the state of North Carolina.
• 4:18
  Thomas Fleming: Our real area that we focus on is the Piedmont Triad.
• 4:23
  Thomas Fleming: Uh, we're based out of Winston-Salem, so Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point, surrounding areas, Stokes County, Yadkin County, Davy is a big one.
• 4:34
  Thomas Fleming: Iredale, we've done some work in.
• 4:36
  Thomas Fleming: We've we've even traveled as far as uh Raleigh, Durham, and Lenore.
• 4:41
  Thomas Fleming: So that kind of gives you a big wide advance of of what our coverage is and and the people who find us who want us to do the work.
• 4:50
  Bill Gilliland: So we're so are you mostly residential, or are you doing commercial or both?
• 4:55
  Bill Gilliland: We do a little bit of both.
• 4:57
  Thomas Fleming: Uh my background is primarily in commercial, and as much as I love it, there are times that the commercial does do some issues with our cash flow.
• 5:09
  Thomas Fleming: Um we're all the guys that I have worked for me, they basically have a background in commercial, so we try to stick a lot with that.
• 5:19
  Thomas Fleming: However, now that we're um with the way the market and everything is, and we just got to be multifaceted.
• 5:28
  Thomas Fleming: We're looking for uh good custom to semi-custom home builders.
• 5:34
  Thomas Fleming: Get in, help them to actually, yes, they have a great design team on the finishes and counters and everything else.
• 5:44
  Thomas Fleming: Our expertise can come in.
• 5:46
  Thomas Fleming: Helping with the lighting design, have help to actually make some of that pop whenever we're we're looking at those design considerations they pick out.
• 5:56
  Thomas Fleming: Um smart homes, uh, access control alternatives, uh security, not so much as far as the burglar alarm, but close uh CCTV or premise video, so that you know everything is attached to that customer.
• 6:15
  Thomas Fleming: So they they can monitor what's going on in their house.
• 6:18
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, no, I got it.
• 6:19
  Bill Gilliland: I got it.
• 6:20
  Bill Gilliland: Well, let me ask you some business questions.
• 6:21
  Bill Gilliland: I think we got the idea.
• 6:22
  Bill Gilliland: I mean, basically, you're you you're most you're like an electrical, you're like just an electrical subcontractor in a way.
• 6:31
  Thomas Fleming: And yeah, we're we're a contractor.
• 6:34
  Thomas Fleming: We do a lot with uh general contractors, but a lot of service calls with homeowners and upgrades.
• 6:40
  Bill Gilliland: So yeah, we work with everybody.
• 6:41
  Bill Gilliland: So you do both.
• 6:42
  Bill Gilliland: You got so you got service and subcontracting.
• 6:45
  Bill Gilliland: Oh, yes.
• 6:45
  Bill Gilliland: Absolutely.
• 6:46
  Bill Gilliland: If it's electrical, you can do it.
• 6:48
  Bill Gilliland: I love it.
• 6:49
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:49
  Bill Gilliland: No, I love it.
• 6:50
  Bill Gilliland: I love it.
• 6:51
  Bill Gilliland: So let me ask you something.
• 6:53
  Bill Gilliland: I mean, if you had to start over again, what would you do differently?
• 6:59
  Thomas Fleming: Oh, I would I would probably have a little bit more money in the bank um to to make sure that we have everything together, a little bit more cushion on the entrepreneurial end of where we're we are in the you know, cash flow crunches at times, and and sometimes that does affect everything.
• 7:20
  Thomas Fleming: Um really doing anything else over again, I don't even think I would open my company up any sooner than what I have, just because of the knowledge that I acquired over um throughout the years.
• 7:35
  Thomas Fleming: Um, another fun fact is I'm actually instruct uh an instructor at the community college here, and I have some of my students ask, well, what about my license?
• 7:45
  Thomas Fleming: What about my license?
• 7:47
  Thomas Fleming: And and the answer to that is yes, the license exam is is difficult, but that's actually the easiest part of the business in itself is having that license.
• 8:01
  Thomas Fleming: Um without the business knowledge, without knowing how business operates and cash flows, and making sure that you have everything there.
• 8:12
  Thomas Fleming: I've I've seen a lot of people who have gotten gotten their license, opened up a company, and failed within a few years just because of the business aspect.
• 8:24
  Thomas Fleming: So probably one thing I'd do differently be get a little bit more business-minded courses behind me and and take it in that realm.
• 8:33
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, got it.
• 8:34
  Bill Gilliland: No, I like it.
• 8:35
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, business, yeah, got to get the knowledge, gotta get you got to get the learning before you can do the earning.
• 8:41
  Bill Gilliland: So, yeah, it's good.
• 8:43
  Bill Gilliland: So speaking of that, what have been some of your bigger learnings as an owner and an employer?
• 8:50
  Thomas Fleming: Oh, what uh payroll actually cost and involve.
• 8:55
  Thomas Fleming: Man, that is that is a fun topic.
• 8:57
  Thomas Fleming: Workman's comp and understanding how all that's billed, how all that does affect all the bottom line, uh, just the taxes, keeping up with everything, just making sure that all of those items that Uncle Sam and the state want to make sure that you have, uh making sure those considerations are made.
• 9:21
  Thomas Fleming: So, you know, outside of what our pricing is for a project, making sure that we we have enough in there.
• 9:31
  Thomas Fleming: You know, again, it is a business, and I tell people that I should file as a nonprofit sometimes, but it is a business, and it is a delicate act of you know, what what do we charge as a business, and what should us as the entrepreneur, owner, and the the qualified person, what should we actually we don't want to disconnect with our customers of the customer going, wow, this is an astronomically high price for a service where again we are providing a service and we are doing exceptional quality to make sure that in the end we are protecting the lives and property of those individuals.
• 10:20
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, a lot of people don't actually understand what all has to go into it.
• 10:24
  Bill Gilliland: I mean, I don't even think they understand the licensing.
• 10:27
  Bill Gilliland: I mean, you guys you gotta have a lot of hours of experience before you I mean, you can take the exam, but you you you can't get your license until you have till you've put in the hours.
• 10:37
  Thomas Fleming: So that's it.
• 10:38
  Thomas Fleming: It it is 7,000 hours for the state of North Carolina.
• 10:41
  Thomas Fleming: Other states have 10,000 hours on the job.
• 10:44
  Thomas Fleming: And honestly, there's there's still a lot of people out there who they cannot pass the test on the first, second, or even third attempt at times.
• 10:54
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah.
• 10:54
  Bill Gilliland: Well, I mean, 7,000 hours, you can do the math.
• 10:57
  Bill Gilliland: I mean, that's that's over three years.
• 10:59
  Bill Gilliland: It's it's about four years is what it averaged into.
• 11:03
  Bill Gilliland: I mean, the average the average thing is, you know, on a 40-hour week, it's 2,080 a year.
• 11:07
  Bill Gilliland: So you know, that's that's you gotta have you gotta have 7,000, you gotta work four hours.
• 11:12
  Bill Gilliland: That's a tough profession to get licensed in.
• 11:15
  Thomas Fleming: It's it is it and the the exam and the the math and everything else that we have to go through, and it is it is a daunting exam.
• 11:26
  Thomas Fleming: Um kind of one of the reasons why it took me so long.
• 11:29
  Thomas Fleming: I was honestly, I was scared of it.
• 11:32
  Bill Gilliland: So Yeah, well, I mean, it's certainly that can be done.
• 11:36
  Bill Gilliland: It's just a matter of uh of you know putting yourself into it.
• 11:39
  Bill Gilliland: But you know, you gotta want it.
• 11:41
  Bill Gilliland: If you if you if you really want it, you gotta do it.
• 11:43
  Bill Gilliland: So and then and then the business side of it that you talked about, I love that.
• 11:47
  Bill Gilliland: So uh what are you what are some common misconceptions about running a business?
• 11:53
  Thomas Fleming: Uh that that us as the owner has has it made.
• 11:59
  Thomas Fleming: Um the biggest thing, and and I again I go back to educating my customers with it, especially some of the my service customers, you know, our bill rate is is kind of in line with with a lot of the others.
• 12:16
  Thomas Fleming: You know, it's it's anywhere between 130 to 150 an hour.
• 12:20
  Thomas Fleming: Well, when when we talk about that, you you kind of think, wow, you're making 130 to 150 an hour.
• 12:28
  Thomas Fleming: Well, not exactly.
• 12:31
  Thomas Fleming: You know, I've got to pay my employees, whoever are going out to there, you know, they're gonna make a good living because part of this is that employee-employer relationship, they're relying on me to make sure that they have what they need.
• 12:46
  Thomas Fleming: You know, I can't underpay them.
• 12:48
  Thomas Fleming: So, you know, when we look at $30, $40 an hour for for a technician to go out, take that off the top, you know, now we're at $100.
• 12:59
  Thomas Fleming: Government's gonna get their cut of it at 30%.
• 13:02
  Thomas Fleming: So out of that $100, we're gonna have another, you know, $30 uh or more out of there with that cut.
• 13:09
  Thomas Fleming: So now, you know, each one of these steps is is kind of dwindling us down.
• 13:15
  Thomas Fleming: So, you know, at the end of the day, it's I look at a lot of these companies now who, especially some of the the ones who have gone to these price books and this flatten rate pricing, and I look at those and I'm going, yes, they're out there to make money and they're making good money at it, but at what expense to who?
• 13:38
  Thomas Fleming: You know, is the customer doesn't understand what all going on and what all it costs.
• 13:45
  Thomas Fleming: We do on there, but at the same time, again, it comes back to to my biggest balancing act is what can what can I do for a customer to make sure they're taken care of and not break their bank also.
• 14:00
  Thomas Fleming: And and it all comes back to the full circle of what we're talking about is the what an hourly rate actually includes in it.
• 14:11
  Thomas Fleming: There is not really a whole lot, us for the ones who are bearing the burden of the insurance, the workmen's comp worrying every night of what is what could go wrong or what will go wrong to really make sure that at the end of the day that we're we're providing for our family also.
• 14:32
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, well, you got yeah, I mean you didn't even talk about taxes, you didn't even talk about um overheads, you didn't talk about insurance, you didn't talk about rent, you didn't talk about uh you know trucks aren't free, fans aren't free.
• 14:46
  Bill Gilliland: But you know, you got you got those payments.
• 14:48
  Bill Gilliland: You got you know, so there actually when you sit down and think it's it's interesting to me.
• 14:52
  Bill Gilliland: Well, that's high.
• 14:53
  Bill Gilliland: They don't know what they you know, it's it's it's not.
• 14:56
  Bill Gilliland: I mean, what we what what's what's right is it's gotta be a win-win.
• 14:59
  Bill Gilliland: It's gotta be fair for the customer and fair for you and fair for your team.
• 15:02
  Bill Gilliland: Exactly.
• 15:02
  Bill Gilliland: So it's gotta it's gotta be yeah.
• 15:04
  Thomas Fleming: So what do you attribute your growth to?
• 15:07
  Thomas Fleming: Uh networking.
• 15:09
  Thomas Fleming: So we we really do not rely a lot heavily on um marketing to the masses, um, such as you know, Google, Facebook, any of those advertising overhead expenses that we were just talking about.
• 15:26
  Thomas Fleming: Our growth has really become from the networks that we're involved in.
• 15:32
  Thomas Fleming: So with the chamber, um other networking groups that we're members of, and just the where we have educated those people inside of those groups and they understand that we are actually here to not just perform the task, but to also educate and make sure that those things at the end of the day that those other customers of customers are you know really taken care of.
• 16:06
  Thomas Fleming: Um that's what most of our growth has come from.
• 16:10
  Thomas Fleming: We've met a lot of con uh general contractors and other subcontractors throughout this, and we work hand in hand together.
• 16:18
  Thomas Fleming: They have something come up, they give us a call, we have something, or with a customer, we're we're giving, we're passing those back and forth to each other and going, hey, we this is a trusted source.
• 16:31
  Thomas Fleming: Um so we've really become that trustworthy person in our realm.
• 16:37
  Thomas Fleming: Um and then what a little bit does we do have the web presence and everything else.
• 16:43
  Thomas Fleming: You know, we have contractors that are Indiana, Ohio, um, other places that you know they want us to bid on jobs, and we've been very successful with them to be able to perform their task whenever they're coming into towns.
• 16:59
  Thomas Fleming: So I love that.
• 17:00
  Thomas Fleming: We're trying to keep, again, it's for the customer, keep the overhead expense down for the advertisement, but we we've got to keep things rolling too.
• 17:10
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, gotta make it.
• 17:11
  Bill Gilliland: So, how do you balance personal life with the demands of running a business?
• 17:16
  Thomas Fleming: Uh ask my wife, and she's gonna say, probably not very well.
• 17:20
  Thomas Fleming: Um ask me, I'm gonna say I am overstressed most of the time trying to get things done.
• 17:27
  Thomas Fleming: Again, the the biggest the biggest thing that's really come around is this uh role of the educator also at community college.
• 17:36
  Thomas Fleming: So four days a week, we're I'm teaching at night.
• 17:39
  Thomas Fleming: So it's run the business, uh, you know, eight to five, teaching from five to eight, getting home, seeing the kids, everything else.
• 17:50
  Thomas Fleming: We keep going just for that reason.
• 17:53
  Thomas Fleming: Um, you know, I I look at the future of the company, and I've got two kids that may or may not, do not know yet.
• 18:04
  Thomas Fleming: Eight and five years old, do not know whether they're gonna take it or not, but that's part of the contingency and and plan of it.
• 18:12
  Thomas Fleming: If they want it, great, they're gonna have to work for it.
• 18:15
  Thomas Fleming: Um if not, then you know how do we how do we do succession plan in the company to make sure that the name, you know, here again, I'm building a brand um and wanting to be a leader in in this in this field and trade.
• 18:35
  Thomas Fleming: So, you know, succession plans of that.
• 18:39
  Thomas Fleming: How do we balance it?
• 18:41
  Thomas Fleming: Well, you know, we're the dedication that we're putting to our customers and and trying to make sure that yes, they realize life happens at times and we're not always there, able to be there within 24, 48, even two, two to three weeks later, you know, that's that's all what it is.
• 19:02
  Thomas Fleming: We're trying to be as uh transparent as we can of what's going on in our life so that that way they can play in around theirs.
• 19:08
  Thomas Fleming: Right.
• 19:09
  Bill Gilliland: I love it.
• 19:10
  Bill Gilliland: Well, I love building a brand, and you've got um I mean the business is going to be sold one way or the other, whether it's sold to family or sold outside the business.
• 19:19
  Bill Gilliland: Either way, you the the path to build the business is the same.
• 19:22
  Bill Gilliland: So that's pretty exciting that you're already thinking about that.
• 19:25
  Bill Gilliland: Most people don't think that far ahead, so well done on that.
• 19:28
  Bill Gilliland: So what so what qualities do you look for in employees?
• 19:34
  Thomas Fleming: Uh dedication if they want to show up.
• 19:37
  Thomas Fleming: Um everybody says has the same thing.
• 19:41
  Thomas Fleming: I can't get people to show up.
• 19:43
  Thomas Fleming: Well, how do we fix that?
• 19:45
  Thomas Fleming: You know, one of the ways is we've got to make it worth their while to show up.
• 19:51
  Thomas Fleming: Um so may not always be the highest pay, but we've got to offer them something, you know, flexibility.
• 20:01
  Thomas Fleming: I've got problems that come up, you know, life happens again.
• 20:05
  Thomas Fleming: I need to take my kids to the doctor.
• 20:08
  Thomas Fleming: My mother has whatever issue.
• 20:11
  Thomas Fleming: You know, I I as a person, and especially being a principal of, I'm very understandable that take care of what you need to.
• 20:19
  Thomas Fleming: You know, yes, we're we have a job to do, but at the same time, um my philosophy is, you know, I'm not trying to live to work.
• 20:30
  Thomas Fleming: I am trying to work to live a little bit.
• 20:33
  Thomas Fleming: So, you know, I want flexibility myself.
• 20:36
  Thomas Fleming: One of the reasons why I became an entrepreneur.
• 20:38
  Thomas Fleming: If I if the kids need to go to the doctor, I need to pick them up early, and my wife's not able to, you know, we have that's that flexibility.
• 20:46
  Thomas Fleming: Um, I think a lot of employers have gotten away from that, that you know, the employees are people too, and without those employees, they really are nothing.
• 20:58
  Thomas Fleming: Um, I I see that a lot, which is why I strive for not just to hire a body, but hire the right ones that they go out and do do what they need to do.
• 21:09
  Thomas Fleming: They have the flexibility of doing what they need to do, and we all work together as a team with it.
• 21:16
  Thomas Fleming: Um some of the other aspects that I'm seeing with it is just the training that some of the the skill set trainings and the knowledge that that the that even some of the so-called foremen, I will call them, or technicians who have been in the field for five, six years or more, some just still don't have the full skill set of finding a problem.
• 21:46
  Thomas Fleming: Um, yeah, I run a lot of service calls because I've seen a lot of it and I can process.
• 21:53
  Thomas Fleming: I have I have a way that I process a service call.
• 21:57
  Thomas Fleming: And instead of just going to the leaps and bounds of I can't find it, let's just re- tear it all out, replace it, do it all this way.
• 22:06
  Thomas Fleming: Yeah, my my biggest thing is you we want to we're trying to repair, we're trying to make sure that everything is safe as a repair and not just a replacement.
• 22:17
  Thomas Fleming: Um, so you know, just understanding the concepts and logic, especially in the electrical realm, of what does it take?
• 22:28
  Thomas Fleming: Because again, I one of the biggest sayings is a plumber knows where his problem's at.
• 22:33
  Thomas Fleming: It makes a big mess on the floor.
• 22:35
  Thomas Fleming: We don't know where our problem is at.
• 22:37
  Thomas Fleming: We have to be able to actually see it, smell it, harness it, find it, touch it, whichever, to know where our problem truly is.
• 22:46
  Thomas Fleming: And I think that makes a lot of us stand out.
• 22:49
  Thomas Fleming: And a lot of people just don't have that anymore.
• 22:52
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah.
• 22:53
  Thomas Fleming: Yeah, I love that.
• 22:54
  Bill Gilliland: I love that.
• 22:54
  Bill Gilliland: So what words of advice would you offer other business owners who are looking to grow?
• 23:02
  Thomas Fleming: Finding find your niche.
• 23:04
  Thomas Fleming: Um find your niche in not just so much one realm, but find a niche in what your service really is.
• 23:15
  Thomas Fleming: You know, you've got to look at yourself of while business itself should not be a hobby, there are a lot of people who are, especially smaller businesses, that act like a hobby.
• 23:30
  Thomas Fleming: Um, you know, if you're going to grow, you need to have those proper things in mind of how do you grow.
• 23:39
  Thomas Fleming: Um explosion is nice, but it also creates a lot of different headaches on the back end of if we have a lot of jobs going on, well, we've got to get vehicles, we need to get people, we need to get everything in place and in order.
• 23:57
  Thomas Fleming: You know, we've got to have our suppliers who are giving us competitive prices so that we can compete in prices with the bigger box stores from their shelf.
• 24:08
  Thomas Fleming: Uh it it really you really just need to sit down and it may not be a plan on paper, and it's like I tell Jason a lot, you know, I'm the principal of it.
• 24:20
  Thomas Fleming: Everything I have is up here.
• 24:21
  Thomas Fleming: It's my job to get this out on the paper so that you can help understand what's going through my mindset.
• 24:28
  Thomas Fleming: But you've got to have a plan somewhere.
• 24:31
  Thomas Fleming: Um, whether it is growth, succession, how am I going to make sure that things are taken care of?
• 24:38
  Thomas Fleming: How am I going to make sure that even in slow times, because there will be slow times, you know, make sure that cash flow is still there so that you can still live also and not become one of the statistics.
• 24:53
  Thomas Fleming: Yeah, no, I love it.
• 24:55
  Thomas Fleming: So what's the next big thing for strategic electoral solutions?
• 25:01
  Thomas Fleming: We're hit again, we're we hit our three-year mark.
• 25:05
  Thomas Fleming: So I the biggest thing that we're having on the horizon now is now that I have gotten in my head that this is a viable plan and and it will continue to grow and does grow every day, is is now just trying to find more partners to work with.
• 25:24
  Thomas Fleming: Um, and it it's it's not just any partner will do.
• 25:29
  Thomas Fleming: We are looking for the the right people to work with who want to who have the same kind of um thoughts that we do.
• 25:38
  Thomas Fleming: We're trying to serve a customer.
• 25:40
  Thomas Fleming: We want them to be able to serve a customer.
• 25:42
  Thomas Fleming: We want to work hand in hand with them in a relationship with their customers, whether it is design, what's coming out, what's new on the horizon, what can we do to future-proof and make sure that, especially in the in the residential realm of everything, you know, there's so many changes that have happened in the past 10 years that what can we do to make sure that those customers have everything that they may need going forward that that they're not having to do an upgrade or expansions or anything else, you know, in the next three to five years while they're still trying to pay off their investments on that.
• 26:26
  Thomas Fleming: So, you know, that's what we're really looking and gearing towards is we're trying to become pardon the pun, we're becoming strategic partners with others who were trying to serve their customers um to the best of their ability, also.
• 26:44
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, I love it.
• 26:45
  Bill Gilliland: I love it.
• 26:45
  Bill Gilliland: Strategic partners.
• 26:46
  Bill Gilliland: Well, that's a good name, then.
• 26:49
  Thomas Fleming: It was kind of how it all came around.
• 26:51
  Thomas Fleming: Is we were it it was it's was about a month and a half long debate of what name do we call it.
• 27:00
  Thomas Fleming: You know, do we call it Fleming and Sons?
• 27:03
  Thomas Fleming: Do we call it Fleming Electrical?
• 27:05
  Thomas Fleming: Uh go back with when my my father and I were in business, he called it Wayne Fleming Electric Company.
• 27:11
  Thomas Fleming: And one of the first things I looked at him is I said, Well, when you retire, what does that do for me?
• 27:16
  Thomas Fleming: Because my name's not Wayne.
• 27:18
  Thomas Fleming: So it it really became something I did not want the company named after me, but it's at least still has what our goals and and what we're looking to do.
• 27:36
  Thomas Fleming: We're strategic partners.
• 27:37
  Thomas Fleming: We come in and we're we're doing a strategy whenever we're looking at your project, whether it is new construction, existing construction, service, you know, there's all a strategy involved of how do we approach the problem in front of us.
• 27:55
  Thomas Fleming: So, you know, simple troubleshooting.
• 27:58
  Thomas Fleming: No, I love it.
• 28:03
  Thomas Fleming: Yeah, and then the solutions, you know, we're finding a solution to your problem.
• 28:08
  Thomas Fleming: So it it really all became put together in all that once we go, what is what's our ultimate goal that we're trying to do?
• 28:19
  Thomas Fleming: So, you know, what better way to name a company, I guess.
• 28:24
  Bill Gilliland: No, I think it's a very good name.
• 28:25
  Bill Gilliland: I I you know, I think one of the worst things you can do is name your company after yourself because no one actually cares.
• 28:32
  Bill Gilliland: It doesn't, it's like a waste of a word almost.
• 28:34
  Bill Gilliland: No one actually cares except maybe your mother and your you know and your family, yeah, your family if it'd been named like Thomas Electrical Solutions.
• 28:42
  Bill Gilliland: I mean, but you know, strategic electrical solutions is a great name.
• 28:45
  Bill Gilliland: It's a great name.
• 28:46
  Bill Gilliland: So how does somebody get a hold of you?
• 28:47
  Bill Gilliland: Like what if they want to get in touch?
• 28:49
  Bill Gilliland: How do they do it?
• 28:50
  Thomas Fleming: Well, the biggest thing is, and I tell people, please text me.
• 28:54
  Thomas Fleming: Um, my it's it everything comes to my phone, which is a blessing and a curse.
• 29:03
  Thomas Fleming: Um, you can text me 336-312-4199.
• 29:09
  Thomas Fleming: Um, that's the best way, because with all the spam calls and everything else, go to voicemail, leave me a message if you do want to call.
• 29:17
  Thomas Fleming: I will get back with you.
• 29:19
  Thomas Fleming: Um email us.
• 29:21
  Thomas Fleming: Um right now it's Thomas at SESolutionsonline.com.
• 29:29
  Thomas Fleming: Uh, you can visit our website, and I believe that we should have some of that active that you can get a hold of us there.
• 29:36
  Thomas Fleming: Um SESolutionsonline dot com.
• 29:39
  Thomas Fleming: You know, find us on there and let us know what your problem is.
• 29:43
  Thomas Fleming: Let us know what you're thinking or doing, and you know, we'll we'll work you in the schedule as best we can and and make sure that you have all the options and and knowledge to go with it.
• 29:55
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 29:56
  Bill Gilliland: Hey, thanks.
• 29:57
  Bill Gilliland: Yeah, I really appreciate it.
• 29:58
  Bill Gilliland: That's a fantastic interview.
• 30:00
  Bill Gilliland: Uh, thank you for being part of this community.
• 30:02
  Bill Gilliland: Appreciate all you're doing out in the world.
• 30:06
  Bill Gilliland: And uh yeah, you know, we're gonna blow this thing up.
• 30:09
  Bill Gilliland: We know I know you're gonna be continued growth and success.
• 30:12
  Bill Gilliland: So uh really appreciate you being part of this.
• 30:15
  Bill Gilliland: We're gonna give it the best shot we can.
• 30:17
  Bill Gilliland: Thank you, Bill.
• 30:18
  Bill Gilliland: Hey, and until next time, all the best.