Latest / The Growth Class with Phil Masiello / Home Exterior Solutions: Scaling Demand Through Specialized Franchise Systems with Edward Terry

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Home Exterior Solutions: Scaling Demand Through Specialized Franchise Systems with Edward Terry · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Growth Class.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Phil Mastiello, and this is where we talk with founders, operators, and growth-minded leaders who have built businesses the right way with strategy, execution, and a real understanding of what it takes to scale.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Today's guest is Edward Terry, an entrepreneur whose career has been built at the intersection of technology operations and business growth.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Edward started out as a software developer and IT manager in the financial world, but with a background in business administration and MBA in accounting, it didn't take long for him to turn that foundation into something bigger.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: So early in his journey, he stepped into a manufacturing business in the window and shutter industry, where he ran sales operations of technology and held double revenue while tripling profits in just five years.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not theory, that's real execution.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: So he went on to found a global distribution company, serving architects, builders, building supply yards around the world.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: He served as CEO for 20 years.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: And in 2022, he co-founded the Shutter House Franchising, which with Eric Grimes creating the world's only franchise focused on exterior and interior window treatments.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a conversation about building scaling and seeing opportunity where others see a niche.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get into it.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Eric Edward, and thanks for taking the time to come on.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Phil.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, why don't you uh explain a little bit about your background, how you got to where you are, and then we'll talk about the business you have now.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I appreciate that.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I I did start in manufacturing, uh, which was probably pretty helpful.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I I ended up stepping out to distribution kind of to solve a problem of I had customers that that I saw in the market that needed multiple options when it came to materials.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh single manufacturers don't usually offer that, so it's really up to distributors to do that.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um I built a distribution network globally uh for the next 20 years.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and during that time saw another need in the market, which was to have that white glove full service, um, and it didn't exist.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: There weren't any franchises that were offering that.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so started planning about eight years ago um to build a franchise model.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we started by building a prototype, operating it locally while we ran our distribution network, and uh, and then took about 12 months to build the model based off of that prototype that we ran for four years.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so now we've been franchising or offering franchises for a little over two years.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how we got to where we were.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I tell everybody when they come to us, I say there's a need in the market for this, and every franchisee so far uh has seen that themselves and come back to me and they go, Everybody I talk to says this has been needed.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, they've needed this solution in the market.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's really great validation for those franchisees that bought into the system.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: So can you can you explain it a little bit uh in uh of what what it is that you sell?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what it is that we do is we're we're a franchise that focuses first on exterior window solutions.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So while while you have plenty of options for interior uh window solutions such as blinds, shades, plantation shutters, um there's nobody that focuses on exterior shutters.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh exterior shutters are used as accents to create curb appeal on the outside of your home.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: They also can be used to um manage temperature.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people will use Bahama shutters and cover a window to block out the heat from the sun, especially in coastal areas, but also inland.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they're also used for storm protection to protect the outside of the window.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but more often we see them to uh bring historic aesthetics and architectural value to the outside of a home, and that's in uh in pretty what pretty much anywhere inland.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: One of the myths is that we're just a coastal company and that's where most of our business is done is along the coast for storm protection.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually not true.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um less than 10% of our business is storm protection, most of it is historic uh restorations, or simply people have shutters on the outside of their house that are wood shutters and they're tired of replacing them and painting them, and so they want to go with some other material options, is where we really excel.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have over 15 different materials to choose from on the outside of the house.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Are you manufacturing?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: We don't manufacture ourselves.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: We have relationships with manufacturing facilities that I've had for 20 years.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're building new relationships now just so that we'll be able to handle supply issues as they come up as we grow as a franchise.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we currently have over 15 facilities and distribution centers.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: So so what what does a franchisee get from buying the franchise?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: What they get is they get a system.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um we know how to go to market, we know how to establish in in their area, we know the connections that need to be made, we know how to advertise, how to market in that area.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we show them basically, as any franchise system will, how to manage a business, how to build a business, how to locate their customer, how to target their customer, how to go very quickly and efficiently to that customer.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we train them in the products, um, you know, how to how to explain to a customer the difference and what the advantages are of one product over the other.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then probably the most important thing we do is we teach them um how to install uh and the proper way to make sure that they're installing the exterior shutters in an appropriate way, using appropriate hardware.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it it it's not, it it seems like exterior shutters would just be this simple thing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're just taking shutters and putting them next to a window and and nailing them to the house.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's not what we do.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're we're servicing a niche client.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and those clients want it done a particular way.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They have an architect that wants it done a particular way, and uh that's where we excel and deliver.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: What who's the niche client?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it restorations?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh majority of what we do is is not new homes.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh although we do do new homes, we do you know large custom homes.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's kind of uh our bread and butter, although it's not all that we do.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we do plenty of jobs where it's just somebody's replacing the shutters on their house.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said earlier, they they add wood, uh the shutters are falling apart, they don't want to deal with them again, they want a permanent solution, and so we'll come in and a lot of times we'll fix mount you know, four pair of shutters, but in most cases, our larger jobs are gonna be ones that are on historic hardware.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they're gonna be remodels, they're gonna be restorations, uh, or they're gonna be in areas where maybe there's golf courses and things like that, and there's you know huge mega mansion houses and and the shutters are what they use for their their final statement on the outside of the house.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: So how did you get into this?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's funny, actually.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh I was a software engineer out of college.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um I did get an MBA because I felt like I probably was gonna be in business for myself one day.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I got tired of the corporate environment and having meetings to discuss having more meetings.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so I decided I was gonna go out into business for myself and start a software business, uh delivering software solutions to small businesses.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the first person I met with uh was in manufacturing, shutter manufacturing.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: He offered me a job uh on the spot.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: I said, no, obviously.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not looking for a job, I'm looking to work for myself.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but he convinced me to go work for him and his dad.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: They had started a manufacturing facility in 1964.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I went to work for him, and after three or four years working, uh helping run his company, I just fell in love with shutters.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've been in it ever since.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that was what he was doing, shutters?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: They were they were manufacturing interior and exterior shutters, which is kind of an anomaly.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time, uh people who specialize in interior window treatments, they stick to interior window treatments.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's all they do.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I I came into the business learning both sides of the window.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm very comfortable with both sides of the window, and uh that's what we do.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we do exterior window treatments, but we also go inside the house and do inside.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: So uh so inside, inside shutters, interior shutters on the windows?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, interior shutters on the windows, uh, interior shades, uh, motorization is real big these days where you'd wire the house and everything's motorized and smart controls and uh and uh we do all of that.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: We do drapes and curtains, which are still a thing, believe it or not.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh yeah, so we do anything that's an accent on the inside of the window or the outside of the window, that's what we do.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, that makes sense.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say shutters would be kind of limiting, but uh if you could handle the entire thing.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I do know that drapes and curtains are back in style.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're uh we just went through a remodel in our house, and uh, you know, for some reason we had a house and we had rooms furnished and had drapes and curtains, and we took them down so that they could do the remodel, but for some reason we don't have any of that anymore, and we had to for some reason get all new stuff because the stuff we had just doesn't for some reason it doesn't work anymore.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: I uh that works.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: That keeps people like me in business.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: I I thought the sofas were comfortable, I thought the chairs were comfortable, but for some reason they don't work anymore.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the uh the the what do you call it?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: The uh uh the drapes and the curtains and the curtain rods, for some reason they didn't work anymore.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I uh you know, I might as well just have uh built a new house.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just went through something similar myself.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing, but you know, these things happen.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so um so yeah, so so that that's it's not a usual uh path, I don't think, for a software sort of engineer to go from where you were to shutters and and uh and window treatments.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: When I when I was when I was telling my colleagues that I was leaving, I was an IT manager and I was leaving to go work for a shutter manufacturer, they all tried to give me tape measures and you know they were joking on me pretty hard.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but um Yeah, I'd I I what I enjoyed about uh being in the shutter industry initially was the fact that I didn't have to have meetings uh to incorporate software enhancements.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so we actually used software like you said earlier.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: We we were able to make things more efficient using software, we were able to make the business more profitable, and uh we were able to increase revenue.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always really enjoyed the sales side uh of business.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was kind of a perfect marriage where I could use technology, sales, my marketing background, I could use all of it, and it's led me to where I am now.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I I like delivering solutions.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And back when I was in manufacturing, um, one of my responsibilities was sales, and I had 27 sales reps across the country, and I would ride with them and train them, and and uh, you know, I was able to identify through that things that the market needed.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things it needed back then, 25 years ago, was people locally that could do the measuring and install on the outside of the house.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody knew how to do it.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know how to do it properly, they didn't know what the rules were, what you should do and shouldn't do.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and when we found somebody who could do that, who was just a local guy, we like flocked to them.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we we sent all the business we could to that guy because he was the unicorn.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're we're you know putting uh a series and network of unicorns all over the country and they're having fun being unicorns.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh it's all come full circle.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and we're still I'm still using technology.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still using my technology background, uh, what I learned when I got my MBA.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm able to do that every single day of my life.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm having a good time.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think the biggest obstacle to scaling further is?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're real slow.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we've we've taken everything slow.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've stopped, uh, even though we've only been franchising for over a little over two years, we have 17 uh territories that we've sold, uh, which is really a lot for that time period, considering that I've stopped three times.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've stopped when we sold our first one, we stopped when we sold our second, and then when we sold our slew of the next 15, we stopped again for 90 days.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: We've opened back up, and now we have eight people that are in the process of, you know, signing agreements and opening franchises.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we're about to have you know 30 to 35 of them by the end of this year is what we're projecting.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying, you know, I'm I'm very conscious about growing slow and adding the right people, uh, getting our team in place, getting our processes in place.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think probably the next uh place where we're gonna look for bottlenecks is gonna be on the supply side.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so because we know that maybe in 18 months we're gonna have issues on the supply side, we've already started working on adding more facilities and more distribution centers just so that we have backup.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that you know, if we have to go from one facility to another short term, you know, we have we have that backup in place.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the products that we sell are private label, you know.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we're we're the ones that they make them for, they make them to our specs, they make them to our uh quality.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, just adding more facilities, I think that's probably because our process, you know, you probably know this about franchising, but if you have a good system and a good process, um then all you're doing is looking for you know additional people to implement that.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, once you have that in place, adding franchise locations is not the issue.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: The issue is supporting them.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: What type of uh what what does a franchisee look like?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: What's that what where does that background come from?
• 16:04
  unknown: Right.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: We like independent uh owners.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: We like people who are gonna jump in with both feet at least initially and build their first territory.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, you know, if they if they want to scale out and uh put a team in place and and build out territories, we certainly like that because you've only had to train one person.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're training their people as they build their territories out.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have people right now from all different backgrounds.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have we have a couple guys who are owners that were attorneys.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a couple owners that were in the financial sector.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: They were financial guys.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have a couple guys who had a construction background, and having a construction background is is certainly a plus.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, it's it's a no-brainer that if you've been in construction, you probably needed the same person that you're becoming.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: You needed somebody to do the exterior shutters so you already understand half the battle.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, it's been interesting to see that you can come from law enforcement and you can come, you know, as an attorney or a financial guy, or or like me, a software engineer, and um and you can still be successful doing what we do.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a very simple uh business model.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure the business model is simple.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I doubt if the um the understanding of how to measure correctly and and do that part of it or understanding the construction part of it would be uh and the installation would not be so simple.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's the secret sauce.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like that that's what makes us unique and that's what makes the barrier to entry difficult, and that's probably why nobody's ever done it.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's why, you know, we were able to start a franchise and nobody else had had attempted it.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: They don't really understand it.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: They don't understand how it works, they don't understand the potential of it, they don't understand the uh un you know unearthed demand that's out there.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people simply just don't do these exterior projects because there's nobody there to do it for them.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so they go out and they do things inside the house when they would love to do something outside.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, who wouldn't want to increase their curbapill?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: But if there's nobody doing it locally, then you know they're not going to.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: But once you know the brand awareness is there in their territory and they see, oh, there's a company that does exterior shutters, honey.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh can we call them and get an estimate?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: I hate these shutters, you know?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of a sudden there's demand where there wasn't demand before.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: But you're right in the fact that uh, you know, one of the barriers to entry is just understanding what the options are, what materials are available, what are the differences in the materials.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when when I went to work for the manufacturer, uh the owner's son asked me, he said, you know, how long do you think it'll take you uh before you know everything there is to know about exterior shutters?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And being young and very young and naive, I said, uh, yeah, give me till next Friday.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be fine.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and I remember sitting there um and I was working on a quote for somebody and something came up and it was almost 12 months later, and the light bulb came on, and I was like, okay, I get it.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm someone who learns quick.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, in this in this business is both what keeps it fun and exciting, but also makes it a little challenging if you don't have somebody there with you that's done it for as long as I have, um, is you're learning things constantly.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're running into something and you're going, aha, that's why they do it that way.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: I understand.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I never really thought about that before.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a pretty big, it's you're up and running pretty quick, but you're still learning for about 12 months.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell the franchisees, and and it's been funny that every franchisee after 12 months, we have this talk, we have this conversation, and they go, I know what you're saying, I see it.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like I can see it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: You were right, and I go, Well, now you're a weapon.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're a weapon, and you got a job for life because nobody else is gonna see it.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it is funny.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: We have houses on where we live, and there are some old ones, and they have real shutters with those um uh I don't I don't know what you call them, but they're they hold the shutter in place when they're open.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: You turn them and then you can close the shutters, and the shutters are on hinges.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so they're real shutters.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can close them and on the outside.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: And those are the older houses.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then the the newer houses, the houses that were built in the uh you know the eighties and the nineties, don't have they have just stationary shutters.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the people, because the houses are nice, a lot of the the owners want to put real shutters on because it looks very good.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: The um I again I don't know what those things are called that are shutter dogs.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Shutter dogs, S curves, ass holebacks.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them are very ornate and they look pretty and people want them.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: And there's it's really difficult to find somebody who understands how to do it.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody there's a million guys out there that can take shutters that you get that you can buy at Home Depot or wherever, put them up, you know, even if you have to get them custom made, and they can put them up and nail them up, and that's easy to find.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: But trying to find somebody who can actually install real shutters with hinges and that can close and open almost impossible around here.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, you're right about that.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but even even the shutters that are just fixed mounted and for decorative purposes.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Purposes, it's hard to find those because, you know, the the traditional distribution is through lumber yards or Lowe's or Home Depot.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if you go to Lowe's or Home Depot, you can get vinyl shutters and you can only get them in certain sizes.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: But in some of the locations, you can actually order them to some custom sizes, but there's still limitations and they're plastic.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people don't want plastic shutters.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: They end up putting them up because that's all they can find.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have we have we have vinyl to custom sizes because we have everything, but we also have pine, we have cedar, we have red grindus, we have mahogany, we have aluminum, we have PVC, we have Extera, uh, we have composite, we have fiberglass.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so uh and I'm leaving out some materials.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then on the hardware side, you talk about the hold opens, but we go a little farther.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: We have a blacksmith and a blacksmith that makes forged hardware, so it's period style.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've got something you want matched, um, like a beacon, he'll, you know, hold back, he'll he'll make those by hand for you still, which is unbelievable.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's uh he's awesome.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: But some people want grapes.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some people want a grape holdback.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's grape holdbacks, believe it or not.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And some people want uh, you know, uh rat tails where they curl up as a rat.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um then you got your traditional S's.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a lot of uh stuff that you can do with the hardware, just again, to put your personalized stamp on the house.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all stuff that we do.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: We show them what the options are and and uh we get in that high level.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: But but just to make a point again, even people who have them fixed mounted to the house, we do that too.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: They they can't find them anywhere else.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: They have to either buy them off a website online and then they have to do the measuring themselves and find somebody to install them.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um but they can call us now because we're local and we do that.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's one um company I I live in Maryland and and uh there's an Amish uh group that will build custom shutters for your house, but they don't do all the ornate stuff.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: They just build wooden, primarily wooden shutters and then install them fix-mounted, you know.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Which is but yeah, again, like I said, there's a lot of people that want to make their house look a little bit, I think, unique and different or uh up against some of the older houses that are on the uh on the block.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it it's it's also funny, I didn't mean to interrupt you, it's also funny that you know I I didn't know this when I started out, but I would say 98% of the people who put their shutters on hardware are never gonna close them.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's just it's just it's just there's two there's two positives to putting them on hinges.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is it preserves the shutter.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you when you nail it up on the wall, now you're gonna trap things between the wall and the shutters.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So having it on hardware does extend the life of the product.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the other is they're just doing it to have that historic look, to have that architectural uh look on the outside of the house.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it does make a difference.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I it it it was I'll I'll the reason that it stand it stood out to me was when we first moved into this neighborhood.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, there are some older houses, and I would look at them and I'd go, oh, those are real shutters.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and they do they they do close them when they clean the house.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like people get their houses uh uh pressure washed around here just because we we live in a a um mature neighborhood with trees and uh trees hanging over your house, so you can get uh uh you know stuff on your house on onto your your exterior.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So people do get their houses power washed and they do close the shutters when they're doing that uh to get behind them and stuff.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: But it was it was so unusual to me that they actually had real shutters.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh a couple of folks that I know on the on the street were saying, yeah, we're trying to find somebody who could do that for us, to put it on, you know, they changed their windows and they couldn't find anybody to put real shutters on.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: They could find great shutters and they could find mock what what we'll call mock shutters, right?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: You put it on there and you could even put some ornate thing on it, but it's just not the same as as having a real shutter that actually closes.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, it's quite unusual.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Quite unusual for modern houses, let's say.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, so we're we're we're just about out of time.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh how do people get in touch with you?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: How do people find you?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: How do people use your service?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: How do people find a uh a service in their area?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: They can go to our website.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um name of the company is The Shutter House, which is uh pretty simple.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um but T-H-E-S-H-U-T-T-E-R-H-O-U-S-C.com, and there's a 1-800 number there.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a section for franchise locations where you can actually look and see where we are now, and you can keep an eye on it uh to see where we're gonna be in the future.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: But we're expanding at a steady rate.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like I said, I I expect us to have 35 locations, and we're really focusing on those areas initially that are rich in in history.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: They have historic architecture, you know, those are the areas that are gonna be and coastal areas.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've pretty much almost got a territory everywhere in Florida.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, those areas you're gonna probably find us.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't find us there, we handle um, you know, we handle requests for people outside those territories.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: We'll help you even if you're outside the territory.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you're interested in being a uh franchise owner, you can call the 1-800 number and ask for me, and I'll be glad to kind of lead you in that way.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, great.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh thanks.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we have historic uh coastal in uh here.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: We've Annapolis and then on up, you know, you've got all the way up the coast, all the way to Boston and and Maine, et cetera.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm sure that there's plenty of guys out there listening that maybe think, hey, I want to do this for a living.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, thanks for joining us.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for taking the time.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, to everyone watching, thanks for being part of the conversation.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if you got value from the episode, make sure to follow it, share it, maybe share it with another entrepreneur, and uh keep showing up to grow smarter, scale better, and build an intention.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh thanks, Edward, for taking the time.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Phil.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you having me.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.