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Building A Referral Only Remodeling Business Takes Relentless Standards with Jessica Lichvar, Red Saw Remodeling · Epic Entrepreneurs

0:45
SPEAKER_02: All right, everyone.
0:46
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: I am Cliff McCray with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth.
0:57
SPEAKER_02: Today I'm excited to be joined by Jessica Lickvar with Red Saul Remodeling.
1:01
SPEAKER_02: Jessica, how are you doing today?
1:03
SPEAKER_02: We're excited to have you.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great, Belle.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for asking.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to be here.
1:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: We're definitely excited to have you.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: You know, a little bit about Jessica and her business.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: She's Pittsburgh Area Interior Remodeling Company, known for working with older homes and for creating bathrooms, kitchens, basements, and storage solutions that emphasize comfort.
1:21
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, Jessica, we're very excited to have you.
1:23
SPEAKER_02: So thanks for being here.
1:24
SPEAKER_02: Let's go ahead and jump right into it.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
1:26
SPEAKER_02: All right.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, Red Saw talks about being, you know, old home experts.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: What does Pittsburgh's older homes teach you that newer construction never does?
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Wow, I think that it's it just speaks to the fact that like really nothing is perfect in an older home, but that's what gives it its charm, its livability, and it's usually what draws people to those types of homes.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: People that are choosing an older home are doing it for that nuance.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: And whenever they come to us, they want to be able to maintain that aesthetic, but you know, modernize it, make it their own, maybe, you know, make the wall straight, make the floor level.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Older homes make you appreciate those things that you just expect to find in a newer home.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: So the older homes can give you the best of both worlds whenever you're willing to remodel them.
2:23
unknown: Okay.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: Now take me back to the moment you first realized, you know, this red saw remodeling could become a real business.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, when I realized it was a real business.
2:35
SPEAKER_02: That it that it could become a real business.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that it could become a real business.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna answer that in a more long-winded way, I guess.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Whenever we started the business, it's 10 years ago this year, coming up here in October.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: We had done so after moving to Pittsburgh from Denver.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: And I had always lived, I had been from Pittsburgh before, but lived around the country.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: My partner's from Connecticut.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: And after we had our daughter, we decided to move back to Pittsburgh to be by my family.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Two months after moving back and having a newborn, both of us not working.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: He decided he was startling starting Red Zaw, or the remodeling business.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't called Red Zaw at the time.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I I'm a very practical person.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what, what?
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Like, who does this?
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Who starts a remodeling business when there's no other income?
3:31
SPEAKER_00: You have a newborn baby, you're in a totally different place.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: But those are the kind of people that we are.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: So I guess in that being, it made sense.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: So once we got it off the ground, I really saw the momentum that John was able to pick up.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: I knew his knack for older homes.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: People loved working with him.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: We've built our business purely on referral.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: So people were coming back to him time and time again.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: And at that point, I was still in the corporate world and, you know, doing doing my thing on that side, always having a hand in the business, but you know, not necessarily participating on the day-to-day.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: But once I saw him drowning, so to speak, knowing that he really couldn't keep up with running a business, making sure the taxes are paid, making sure our contracts are tight, manage, you know, customer service, building proposals, and oh, by the way, actually doing all the remodeling work.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what am I doing in corporate America?
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I need to jump over here and really go full bore into the business so we can make sure that we scale this thing, do it effectively, and you know, we can both keep all our hair in the meantime.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
4:51
SPEAKER_02: Now, what did your path look like before redstall remodeling and what pushed you towards business ownership?
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: So I have always been in sales or relationship building type roles.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: I've worked my entire life.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: And I always had a natural knack for being able to build relationships with people, communicate with them clearly, setting and managing their expectations so that at the end of the day, like everyone walks away from the table happy.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: So I spent about 10 years of my career working in wealth management.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: And I manage the relationships in wealth management with all other areas of a bank.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: I worked for a bank doing wealth management.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: And I really enjoyed that.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, when you work with people's money and see the way millionaires and multimillionaires think about their money and the emotion that goes into that, you know, it really was a great foundation for any kind of customer service, customer experience type of situation, and the importance of making sure that communication is clear and that again, those expectations are set.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: After wealth management, I went into technology.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: So it was an industry switch, and I applied, I was able to apply everything I learned, but then I really got into how important all the technical aspects were.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: It was funny, when I worked in wealth management, even though I would explain what I would do, people would automatically ask me about, oh, well, what stock should I buy?
6:27
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, what should I do with my checking account?
6:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't know.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: I manage the relationships.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't do any of that, any of the specificity of wealth management.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: I work with people that do that.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: And then so in technology, it was the same thing.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: I managed those relationships and I worked with partners that really knew the nitty-gritty of those technical systems.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: I became more involved in the details and I saw how the details played into the bigger picture, but I still got to, you know, handle my side of the world and then make sure that I was able to bring partners in that were specialized in their areas.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: So then once that I had that sort of light bulb moment of wow, I could really take, you know, these two totally different industry experiences, but yet having the same type of role and then move into yet another industry, I really see how I can apply these skills.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And so that was the confidence booster, I guess, I needed to be able to make the leap to being an entrepreneur.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: I've also always been the type of person that one does, I don't fit into like a box very well.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: So like corporate America didn't really work out for me for that reason.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Like they really like a black and white sort of person answer, and and I am anything but that.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I also always sort of like went to my own, you know, went to my own beat, and that was just how it was.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: So entrepreneurship, like I was not afraid of the hustle, I was not afraid of the learning curve, I was not afraid of like any of the things that most people are afraid of that keep their cheeks in the seat of a company for 30 some years.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just didn't have that.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: I I guess I had more ego than that.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I was just like, you know, I've always been able to figure it out.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: I've always been able to, you know, just hunker down and make things happen.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if why wouldn't that be true over here?
8:35
SPEAKER_00: So, so I was really able to leverage, you know, those 18 years of experience really in the corporate world, let alone, you know, the years of like management experience I had in college and managing a bar and restaurant, and bring it into this atmosphere of home remodeling.
8:52
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: All right, Jess.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: All right, so now we're gonna get into the real nitty-gritty, kind of what people really want to hear.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: Because we have a kind of a kind of a large uh entrepreneurial audience that kind of listens to the podcasts every week.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, what would you say right now is the biggest challenge your business is facing right now?
9:09
SPEAKER_00: The biggest uh finding quality employees it is, and and you know, for the longest time I was in the employee seat, you know, I wasn't I wasn't the one running the business, I was the one showing up and doing the work.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: But there's just this I think there's a couple different inflection points happening right now where people need and expect a certain amount of money to be able to live and and be able to live well and within their means and and all those kind of things.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: But then there's also like an expectation that comes with that kind of a salary.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Happy, you know, we're definitely people that we feel like we pay well, we offer, you know, everything that we can to our employees.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: But with that kind of with that kind of payroll comes the expectation that, hey, you're gonna show up to work on time.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: You're going to treat our customers with respect.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: You're going to understand that you are inside someone's home.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: This is their most private, peaceful state.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: You are there to only add to that because what you're doing is already disruptive.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: So if you're going to come into one of our customers' homes and be disruptive, we cannot have you as a part of our organization.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Our customers tend to be families with young kids and pets, or they're taking care of an older parent.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: We need people that can come in and act professionally and be polite and bring that level of understanding to the table.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: And that's baseline, you know, that it's amazing to me how many times you I have to explain like baseline expectations to adults, you know, just just like, hey, yeah, you you told us you were gonna be here at nine o'clock.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: We agreed that you would be here at nine o'clock, and you're calling me at 11 o'clock telling me you're tired.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: Well, like same.
11:14
unknown: Like, I don't know what's happening.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: I'm always tired.
11:17
SPEAKER_02: Like, get over it.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: You gotta, you still gotta like if you want me to give you money, I'm gonna need you to come to work.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, so uh, you know, you're always trying to find this balance of, you know, this sort of like Machiavellian mentality of it's if it is it better to be feared or to be loved.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Like you wanna treat your you of course, your employees are your best customers.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: You want to treat them well, you want to do right by them, you want to, you know, share in the success of the business with them, but they have to come to the table, not only like meeting those baseline expectations, but then with the willingness to grow, to learn, to want to improve.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And that is just cool, that's tough.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: And then you throw on top of it just the nature of overhead in this industry of like, holy crap, workers comp.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, need I say more, anyone else in the industry, I totally get why so much of the work is subbed out and it's hard to bring on actual full-time employees because otherwise, you know, otherwise you're passing, you obviously have to pass that expense off to the customer in some regard of your overhead calculation.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And the cost is just so exorbitant.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, obviously there's other insurances and things like that to play into it.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: So I think that yes, it's employees, but it's employees that like it trickles into all these other areas of your business that, you know, if you're not gonna show up and do the job that we're paying you to do, then this is not the place for you.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's time for us to part ways.
13:00
unknown: Yeah, yeah.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: Now, what do you believe is pretty you know, uh let's let's get into that a little bit more.
13:08
SPEAKER_02: What is that challenge costing you in time, money, or missed opportunity or stress?
13:12
SPEAKER_02: Would you say?
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's honestly uh it's hard to uh it's hard to even calculate, right?
13:20
SPEAKER_00: Because it's there is like the hard dollar cost of okay, whenever I did this estimate, I worked in the number of hours that we expected that they would be on the job site.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, a half an hour here and two hours there, and you know, a half a day here.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: That all really adds up and lengthens the job, therefore changing your margin on the product on the project at the end of the day.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: But then there's also like the reputation management of that experience.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: We come to the table.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Why we have been able to grow over 10 years purely based on referral is because of how we operate our business.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: We communicate, we show up, and we not not just show up, we show up every day, we clean up after ourselves every day, we protect your home every day.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: And uh and that's all very intentional.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: So whenever we have an employee that's either showing up and a not doing that, like disrespecting a homeowner's home or just or disrespecting everybody by not even showing up or showing up late, like it's that is an intangible cost that is just hard to articulate, you know, and you can do all you can to apologize to the homeowner and make it right.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: And you know, all you could do is hope that they understand and you know, and they go on from there.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: But that's why, like with if employees like that just don't have a place in our business.
14:59
unknown: Yeah, yeah.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Because the cost really is something that is can be incalculable.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that.
15:06
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: Now, oh, I love that answer.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: Now, what do you believe is preventing the business from reaching its next level?
15:13
SPEAKER_02: Would you say honestly?
15:17
SPEAKER_00: What's preventing us from reaching the next level?
15:19
SPEAKER_00: I don't, you know, I I don't mean to sound arrogant, but like we really like what we have been able to do just over the course of the last two years, the amount of growth that we've had is really extraordinary and invigorating for me and John.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: It's something that we're super excited about.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: I guess, I guess the challenge would be just like being able to bring in those people that are gonna help support that effort, or being able to find those partners that are gonna support that effort.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I brought it up earlier about having the right like sub, you know, subcontractors or or partners in your business that, you know, where you support each other's business.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's just key.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: It's finding those other business owners or those other leaders in those complementary businesses that have that same mentality and that, you know, know that, hey, if we're both rowing the boat the same direction, we're both gonna get there faster.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not gonna tell you I'm gonna do, you know, there's some people that like they tell you they're gonna do that, and then they just kind of go rogue and you're like, oh my gosh, like, no, not only are you now not gonna get the business, but you've now hurt my own sales cycle.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's it's stuff like that.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Like, we definitely need to be able to bring in more part to have more partnerships, to be able to hire more employees and just continue, you know, being aggressively adamant about what we do well.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I don't think it's changing what we do, I think it's just doing more of what we do well and helping and getting those either employees or partners to buy into that and be like, okay, yeah, we're here to support, we're here to support how you do business.
17:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
17:19
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate that.
17:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I appreciate that thorough answer.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: Now, uh Jess, what would you say is something people assume is easy about running, you know, a red saw remodeling type of business that is actually very difficult.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: They uh they think that like, oh, well, you know, someone just comes to you with like an idea.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: People know what they want to do to their house, and you know, you just make it happen.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: You get to just make their make their vision come to life.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you know, I think people think that that part's very easy, and that part actually can be the most challenging, especially depending on the room in your house.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: I get a kitchen, I think, is a primary example of that.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: And just it comes back to that topic of like expectation setting and this idea of like, you can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want, you know.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to have a full custom kitchen with 20 cabinets and pull-out shelves and a spice drawer and pay$10,000.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's just that's completely unreasonable.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: So I think walking through that process and helping customers, you know, take their vision of what they want for their home and refine that vision into what is realistic within their time frame, within their budget, within like what are your must-haves versus your nice to haves.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, like some people get really hung up on one specific detail, and that's okay, but then that's your must-have item.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe you have to make a concession somewhere else, or maybe you have to change your expectations around time or budget.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's walking through the nuances of those projects with people because at the end of the day, we all know the devil's in the details.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's gonna be that one little thing that ends up driving a homeowner crazy six months, 12 months down the line, and they'll never work with you or your company again because of one teeny tiny little thing that had you just addressed that up front, it would have saved you so much time, effort, and energy.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: And you would have had a customer that's gonna come back to you time and again.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: Gotcha, gotcha.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: Now, how do you design a space that is safer and easier to use without making it feel clinical or institutional?
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think colors are a really big part of that.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: I was just having a conversation this morning actually with a yeah, with a kitchen designer.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: And uh, we were talking about subway tile and the, you know, we were both kind of surprised of that that's still something so prevalent in design that people really love subway tile and really want to use it.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: But the difference of using white grout versus a darker grout goes a really long way.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: A white, white subway tile with white grout can come off as feeling clinical or commercial even.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: You know, that might look great in a restaurant, but it's not really gonna work in your home kitchen.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Or if it does, you should be aware that that white tile or that white grout that's on your white subway tile, it's gonna get dirty if it's behind your stove and you know, you're cooking pasta sauce every Sunday.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: So it's one of those nuanced details that you could talk to a homeowner about and say, hey, if we just change up the color of the grout, you're still gonna have the subway tile that you really like.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: You're still gonna get that aesthetic, you're gonna get that differentiation and contrast in terms of the grout.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: And oh, by the way, it's gonna be easier to keep nice one year, five years down the road as compared to like white on white.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
21:13
SPEAKER_02: Love that, love that.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: Now, what is something about you, you know, and this may be something you have to dig down for a little bit, but you know, as far as your personality type, have you had to change anything about your personality type or anything in your personal life to make your to have your business grow?
21:30
SPEAKER_00: No.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, it's such a short answer, but I can't.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: I am not one of these people that can be a chameleon and change my personality.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: And I I I lack that ability.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: But that said, my authenticity is what people I think like about, they either like or don't like about me, right?
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm not gonna not gonna lie to you.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna tell you something you want to hear just because you want to hear it.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: I I truly don't have that ability to be able to shape shift.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you kind of know that up front about me, and you'll either want to work with me because of it or you won't want to work with me because of it.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: So, so no, I have not changed my personality at all.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: I accept that I'm not for everyone.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: Get it?
22:28
SPEAKER_02: Now, about how many hours a week are you are you saying right now that you're putting into the business, would you say?
22:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: From like physical working behind my computer screen, meeting with customers 40 to 50 from a strategy perspective, talking to my partner about things, ideating, I mean, much, much more than that.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: It's every day.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, I when you're a business owner, there isn't this delineation of time or personal life.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: Like it's all one big mishmash of things.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, like today is a perfect example, just like any other day.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm I was working on things when I got up this morning after I had my coffee, and then I took a break to make lunches for my daughter and for John to get them out the door for the day.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: I threw in a load of laundry, I responded to some more emails, I met some customers at a at a cabinet, uh, at a cabinet place.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, I came back, I made some lunch, and here I am doing a podcast, and it's not even one o'clock.
23:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you've already had a filled day.
23:43
SPEAKER_02: We're only halfway through.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: It really is, you know, it's in this modern day with technology at our fingertips and and the positive and negatives of that.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: There really isn't, oh, I'm working these hours, but I'm not working these hours.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm just always some version of working, and it's either on my personal life or on or on the business or some combination thereof.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: So we could have whatever balance, you know, the mythical beings say exist.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
24:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I like that honest answer.
24:18
SPEAKER_02: Now, what would you say, Jess, is your greatest strength as a business owner right now?
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it's my ability to say that I don't know something and uh to ask questions.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Like I am, I am very much not too proud.
24:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Like you can't, I I you can't be the master of everything, you know?
24:40
SPEAKER_00: And people like puff their chest and be like, oh, I, you know, I do these 10 things.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, then you're not doing nine of them well, you know?
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Be good at one thing.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: And and that for me, I think like my ability to just ask those questions and dig in, especially when my customer is like standing there making a face, like I could tell that they're not fully grasping what another contract, like contractor might be saying, or so I'm not afraid to jump in and ask the question and be like, hey, can you know, hey Bill, can you break down that thing you were saying about, you know, drawers?
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Can you break that down a little bit more?
25:19
SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure that I am understanding it the way you are describing it.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people are so hesitant to just like get clarity.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's I don't know, some people are good communicators, some it's just like a perception thing, some it's a general knowledge gap.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: There's so many reasons why people hesitate to do it, but I'm not afraid to just like kind of ask the question and dig into my lack of knowing.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
25:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's good.
25:48
SPEAKER_02: That's actually a really good thing.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: Now, what is one leadership or business skill you know you still need to improve?
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I think thinking about the that's that's a really great question.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, very much from my his my career history, I was I was an operator, right?
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Like I was the person that the CEO or the head of sales or the executive manager turned to and said, Jess, we need to get this thing done.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: You're the person that can do it, go do it.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, I knew how to, I was like the engineer in the fact like I knew how the machine worked, I knew the parts that would break down, I knew how to get the output we all needed.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: And so it's it's a mentality shift, right?
26:38
SPEAKER_00: From like going from an operator to being the owner of a business.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: My partner has that same challenge, right?
26:45
SPEAKER_00: He's like the artist of the business, he's the creator, he's the craftsman.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: And so going from that mentality to business owner, it's just a different mindset.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: It's just a different, like, yeah, you can still do all those things.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: I still have to operate the business.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: He still has to be the craftsman, but there also has to be this additional layer, this umbrella of hey, we're also the owners of this.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: And we have to think about how this functions as a whole and the and the the sum of its parts, essentially.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: There's there's been a book I've been reading about that.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: It's called The Road Less Stupid.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: And the author of the book, whose name I don't remember, but he talks about this a lot.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: And that sort of like that mentality shift of like, hey, just because you're a great doer doesn't mean you're like automatically a great business owner.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: You is is a mindset shift, and it's making sure you're focused on the right things for today, tomorrow, and a year from now.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't think about it like that, you're you're just you're gonna be too short-sighted.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna see the things coming down the road, and you're gonna get tripped up on something that you know you could have been prepared for had you just looked up.
28:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, no, I like that.
28:09
SPEAKER_02: All right, so remodeling requires sales, design, estimating, production, and communication to work together.
28:17
SPEAKER_02: Where is the handoff most likely to break as volume grows, would you say?
28:21
SPEAKER_00: I think handoff is the key word.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: So earlier in the conversation, you had asked about, you know, the business scaling and what's preventing that or what could be preventing that.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: And I talked about partnerships.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: So in any one of those areas, you as you expand, you're gonna be handing off any portion of that business to either a subcontractor, an employee, whoever the case might be.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: And when you don't have the right employees and when you don't have the right subcontractors or partners in place, that is where the breakdown happens.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, as a as a business owner, especially when you're like a sole owner in the seat that John was in, you know, really up until a few years ago, you hold everything so close to the vest, right?
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Like this is your baby.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: You created this from the ground up.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's hard to hand over your baby to someone else to help raise, right?
29:13
SPEAKER_00: So when that happens, in no now we have this brand and we have this reputation of being good communicators, of being trustworthy, of all these great qualities that we've built up.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: We have to bring other people in to help continue that.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: But if they aren't thinking the same, if they aren't aligned with our business and how we operate, that's where the breakdown is gonna happen.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: And not only is that gonna be painful for us, it's gonna be painful for our customer.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: So keeping that pain away from the customer at all costs is absolutely paramount.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, for the most part, people are understanding that things happen.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: And especially in remodeling, you never know when you're gonna open a wall and find all kinds of insanity, especially in older houses.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I think again, like if you have the right partners, if you have the right employees, that doesn't hit as hard for a homeowner, you know, because you know you have the right people there that are gonna address you calmly and be like, okay, yes, this is a terrible thing, but here is the solution, or here's the pro here's the problem we face or the hurdle we face, but I have a solution for that.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: You just don't ever want to leave your customer in a spot where you're bringing them a problem and then like you're hitting a period at the end of the sentence.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just like it in my that's just a terrible customer experience.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: And I have to have the right partners and employees to avoid that at all cost.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree, I agree.
30:50
SPEAKER_02: Now, what is your biggest challenge, would you say, when it comes to hiring, leading or retaining quality people?
30:57
SPEAKER_02: That's always the big thing.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: Because you can hire and retain, you know, people that aren't great, right?
31:01
SPEAKER_02: But quality employees, basically.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, ask the question one more time.
31:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
31:09
SPEAKER_02: What is your biggest challenge when it comes to hiring, leading or retaining quality employees?
31:14
SPEAKER_00: I think it's just finding them, you know?
31:17
SPEAKER_00: A lot of it, a lot of people will like sell you their bill of goods and and they might be great for like six months, right?
31:25
SPEAKER_00: Or a year.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: But then over time, they just really sort of don't bring the same value to the table.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: There's that old adage of hire slow, fire fast.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: And I think that, you know, that's something that I've really tried to adopt in our business as we move forward.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Like there, you know, there's people that show up and man, they really sound like they are gonna be a great fit, and then they get in and it's just havoc.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: And uh those people need to be dealt with swiftly, you know, like they as long as they know the expectations up front and like you've been clearly communicating them, if you've done your part as an owner, a manager, whatever, uh if your employee isn't acting accordingly, if your partner isn't acting accordingly, they have to go.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: You've got everything to lose and nothing to gain, you know?
32:19
SPEAKER_00: You've got to move quick.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: And then you gotta just find someone else.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: I think referrals are really the best possible way to that we have found quality employees, or and even I have in the past.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I think that's the way the corporate job market is so tough because there's no shortage of finding people who claim that they want to work.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: It's very different to find someone that is going to be the right fit for your business.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: And so if you have a network of people that you can turn to and say, hey, I'm looking for someone with these skills or this level of or these qualities.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you know anyone like that, send them my way.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: That's been our my best bet, regardless of industry that I've been in.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
33:09
SPEAKER_02: Now, you know, I appreciate you answering those questions here.
33:12
SPEAKER_02: Now we're gonna head into what's called the this or that section.
33:15
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going to give you this or that, you two two things that you can pick.
33:18
SPEAKER_02: Pick one, and then kind of give me like a small blur, like a small paragraph on why you chose that.
33:23
unknown: Okay.
33:23
SPEAKER_02: This is a great way to kind of show your personality off to the audience uh and kind of make you a little human, right?
33:28
SPEAKER_02: Ahead from the bit.
33:29
SPEAKER_02: There will be some business stuff in here, but most of it will be kind of on the personal side, I'll be honest.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: All right, perfect.
33:35
SPEAKER_02: So coffee or tea?
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh, coffee.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: No contest.
33:42
SPEAKER_02: You'd be surprised.
33:43
SPEAKER_02: We've got a lot of people that pick tea.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's fine.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: That's you know, there's uh there's a drink for everyone, but for me, coffee.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: Like, there's a drink for everyone, but no, coffee.
33:54
SPEAKER_02: That's not even not even a question.
33:56
unknown: Yeah.
33:58
SPEAKER_02: Beach or mountains?
34:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Beach.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Beach.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: And I say that because John and I lived in Fort Lauderdale, and we've actually met in Fort Lauderdale.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: We met in the ocean on a boat, which is pretty crazy.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: And then we moved to Denver and we moved into the, you know, we spent like every weekend up in the mountains.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's just the beach always has my heart.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
34:26
SPEAKER_02: That's always interesting.
34:27
SPEAKER_02: So I I gotta ask why, why, what, what, what happened?
34:30
SPEAKER_02: Did Denver just not it's just not as great, or what what happened there?
34:34
SPEAKER_02: Why did you well?
34:35
SPEAKER_00: That's when I got pregnant.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: So I got pregnant.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: We had only lived there six months whenever I got pregnant, and we knew no one, and we had no, and it was like right when everyone, like the Denver housing market was exploding, which is why we moved there.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: We moved there.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: So John, John had an opportunity to work for a property investor out there, and you know, I was like, I'll find a job, which uh I did, you know, because that's just when you hustle, you will.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it was like everything we moved there for, like it just wasn't our our life just changed.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, that's just what happened.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: It was nice to go to the mountains and you know, check them out and walk around, but like I don't know, there's just something about the ocean that like it just draws me there all the time.
35:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
35:25
SPEAKER_02: Especially with this heat lately, that's for sure.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: It's been a little hot, so yeah, and like every winter, I'm like, I must touch the sand.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: Like, like whatever I need to do to uh like even if it's just for a weekend to get down to Florida or anywhere warm where I can just you know be one in the water, like that's what I want to be doing.
35:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I I I totally agree with that.
35:51
SPEAKER_02: And and luckily the flights to Florida aren't too bad.
35:53
SPEAKER_02: It's like you know, two hours away.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, yeah, exactly.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of direct flights, you know, and then like you get one of those like weekend deal kind of things.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know, pack a backpack, let's go.
36:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, seriously, yeah.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
36:06
SPEAKER_02: Sunrise or sunset?
36:08
SPEAKER_00: Hmm, where am I?
36:11
SPEAKER_00: You know?
36:12
SPEAKER_00: Um no sunset, like sunrise.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: I like, you know, if I was a better person that like got up and you know, I'm not.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: I want to be on the couch in the morning with my coffee, playing on playing my game on my phone, playing a sudoku on my phone.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, unless the sun's rising at a reasonable hour, like I just give me the morning.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: I need to start my day peacefully because I know it won't end that way.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: So the sunset is a nice way to peacefully end your day.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's why I appreciate it a little bit more.
36:48
SPEAKER_02: Dogs or cats?
36:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, every bone in my body wants to say dogs because John and I we grew up with dogs.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: We had a dog that unfortunately like he passed.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: We found out that he had cancer on like a Sunday or a Monday, and then he passed away six days later.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Like it was truly devastating for us.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: But a year later, John found John was working at someone's home, and in the backyard, there was two little kittens living in a groundhog hole, and the mother had died.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: The mother had been like hit by a car or something in the neighborhood.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we our one employee, our one employee at the time, he took the one kitten home, we took the other kitten home, and I've I've become a cat person.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: No one saw this coming, Bill.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Me especially.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: But me and this cat, like I had to close the office door because when I'm on the computer, he like he just wants to be right where we are, you know.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Like no one told him he's a cat.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I love about cats, you know.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: Like they don't really know.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: They're they just like view themselves as superior beings, and you get to like live in their presence.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: And you also can't beat the fact that when you do run away to the ocean for a weekend, like they're pretty much okay.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can have a family member stop over and check on him, and he's doing just fine.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: He's happy to like have the house to himself.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Whereas, like a dog, you know, you're either boarding them, or you know, there's just a lot, there's a lot of responsibility that comes along with the dog.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I feel like I have enough responsibility right now.
38:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: Dogs are more hands-on than cats.
38:32
SPEAKER_02: Cats kind of do their own thing, and dogs you dogs are kind of like kids, they're like babies.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it really is like having a kid.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I totally agree.
38:39
unknown: Yeah, yeah.
38:41
SPEAKER_02: Summer or winter?
38:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, now that I'm in the heat of summer, as we were just talking about earlier.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: No, I'll still say summer over winter.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: Like it depends on the winter.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: Like, I have Pittsburgh winter, and Pittsburgh winter is the worst winter, in my opinion, because it's usually not cold enough to snow.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: It's like usually a degree or two above freezing, and the sun doesn't come out.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, like winter when I lived in Denver was so amazing.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everywhere you looked, it was a postcard, but Pittsburgh, it's just like sloppy, slush, and gray skies.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: You don't see the sun for six weeks at a time.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: So I guess summer.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: Give me the bugs and the humidity.
39:32
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay, okay.
39:33
SPEAKER_02: Netflix or YouTube?
39:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh YouTube.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: I like, I, you know, I think it's oh gosh.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: That is tough because I love my algorithm for Netflix right now, it's like all true crime documentaries, which I do love.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh yeah.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: But you know, sometimes you need to turn off the murder and you need to watch a little Bob Ross, or you need to put on, like, you know, you want to learn about the 25 exotic fruits that you never heard of.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's just the the rabbit hole of YouTube is delicious.
40:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I I agree.
40:13
SPEAKER_02: Totally agree with that.
40:15
SPEAKER_02: Phone call or text when it comes to running your business?
40:18
SPEAKER_00: Text.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: Because I can refer back to it, you know, and I like I live in my text messages, I live with my phone in my hand.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: And it's not like I'm trying to be rude and not call somebody.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: I just like I'll remember that I talked to you, but I won't necessarily remember the conversation.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: So if I have it in writing, it's fantastic.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times when I do talk to customers on the phone, I intentionally say to them, hey, that, you know, at the end when I'm wrapping up, hey, this conversation has been great.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put a summary in an email to you.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: If I've missed anything or if I misunderstood or misheard you, please respond and correct me.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, because again, it just comes down to like nuance of conversation, right?
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Or like you, I was in the car and I thought I heard blue, but you said green.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: So, like, if I heard that wrong, if it's in writing, I can refer back to that and and know for sure.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: Or I could forward it off to John or or our other employee and be like, hey, this is exactly what the customer's looking for.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, text.
41:24
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
41:25
SPEAKER_02: Early bird or night owl.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Early bird.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: I know I said sunset, but like I I am up early.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: I just don't want to be like, I don't want to chore for a second.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I'm up.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm a business owner, I'm a mom of like a young kid, you know.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: We got the cat, he's demanding to eat.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: So I'm uh I'm up.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: It's six o'clock.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to be sleeping past six, but I can't.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm up.
41:51
unknown: Yeah, yeah.
41:53
SPEAKER_02: Delegate or do it yourself?
41:55
SPEAKER_00: Do it myself.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: I need to delegate better.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: That's what comes in with like the owning the business, right?
42:00
SPEAKER_00: And scaling.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: You have to be able to hand things off, but it just needs to be the right person.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: So oftentimes I'll just end up doing it myself, and then I kick myself in the ass and be like, someone else needs to be doing it.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is this is not the right use of my time.
42:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree, agree.
42:17
SPEAKER_02: Kitchen remodel or bathroom remodel?
42:20
SPEAKER_00: Bathroom.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: Love a bathroom remodel.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: Kitchens, I mean, they're beautiful and they're they're just they oh man, they really it is usually with the homeowners that we work with, right?
42:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so like for most people, their home is their biggest investment.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: When people are doing a remodel, a kitchen is going to be their most expensive remodel.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot, a lot of decision points that come along with the kitchen, a lot of feelings that come along with the kitchen.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of like upfront work and education.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: And that's all great.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I shy away from that.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: It's just with a bathroom, like bathrooms can be super fun.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: A lot, a lot of people are way more willing to like take a risk and like do a cool wallpaper or fun color, or you know, like you could talk to them about a few different projects, and they you can also like the turnover is much quicker.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: So from an owner's mindset, you know, I could pump out a lot more bathrooms than I can kitchens.
43:24
SPEAKER_02: Higher for skill or higher for attitude?
43:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh attitude.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: I could teach you a skill, but like if you can't come in with the what right frame of mind, like I just can't work with you.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: And we're going back to your earlier question of like what how what about my personality has changed?
43:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, not and I said nothing, like you will know very clearly that I cannot work with you.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: I I go from like peach pie to like mean pretty quickly.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I just can't I can't tolerate someone that's like can't show up with the right kind of framework.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: Fast decisions or careful decisions?
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Fast decisions, god, it depends.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: That's a tough one.
44:15
SPEAKER_02: Um situation, right?
44:17
SPEAKER_00: What's what's that?
44:19
SPEAKER_02: I was saying it depends on the situation and very situational.
44:23
SPEAKER_00: Like what bank am I gonna move all my business banking to?
44:26
SPEAKER_00: That's a careful decision, right?
44:28
SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure they have all the all the bells and whistles that I need to be able to operate my business smooth smoothly.
44:36
SPEAKER_00: But like, you know, something else I can like turn out a quick I can turn out a quick decision most of the time, but I'm very conscious of the things that you need to choose carefully.
44:47
SPEAKER_02: And the last one is dream home or vacation vac or sorry let me do that again.
44:52
SPEAKER_02: Last one is dream home or dream vacation.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: Dream home or dream vacation.
44:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: Oh god that's tough.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: Dream home, I guess.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: I I mean that's where you are all the time.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: Like a great vacation who doesn't who doesn't love a great vacation?
45:13
SPEAKER_00: Who doesn't want to be able to do that?
45:16
SPEAKER_00: But like you're in your home every day.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be what you want it to be because again like it's those it's the littlest things that are going to drive you absolutely out of your mind.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: And uh like I have I keep thinking of this guy in my in the one networking group and he ever like every time you talk he tells me about his kitchen remodel that he had like three years ago.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: And he all I know about the his kitchen is that he spent six figures on it and the guy that laid the floor tile the one is like a fourth of an inch higher than the rest of the tile and he trips on it every single day.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: And could you imagine like I get that I get why that annoys him so much.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: Like you spend all this money and this one little what's a seemingly little thing is such a thorn in your side so you know and you could he he's been all over the world he goes on great vacations but like it still doesn't change the fact that that tile's a fourth of an inch too high and he trips over it every day.
46:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
46:24
unknown: Yeah that's true.
46:25
SPEAKER_02: Right.
46:26
SPEAKER_02: All right so I appreciate you getting through that this and that that was really great.
46:29
SPEAKER_02: That was fun to see a little bit of more of your personality so yeah those are tough questions.
46:35
SPEAKER_02: Oh good ones yeah so where do you see you know I know we've kind of talked about your business and everything you you know got a nice great thing going with your remodeling business but you know where do you see your company heading over the next couple years?
46:47
SPEAKER_02: Let's say by 2030 you know it's when you hear 2030 and you think oh that's that's got to be quite some time away no it's actually only three and a half years away yeah it's three and a half actually this one's already halfway through this year.
46:58
SPEAKER_02: So uh we're getting ready to start hanging I mean I I thought I saw Halloween decorations up oh god they gotta calm down that's what I'm saying I'm like my god it's the middle of summer and we got Halloween decorations and then it happens all have Christmas stuff out and I'm like what's happening yeah yeah so yeah it's it's they're jumping the gun a little bit but that's kind of what they do now.
47:18
SPEAKER_02: But but anyways but where do you see you know your particular company by 2030 yeah so we are actively leaning into the nomenclature of the aging in place market.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: So you know being that we're in Pittsburgh with a bunch of older homes we also have a much older average population.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: And what's great about let's just let's just like use the baby boomers and I as an example right like the baby boomers are entering or well within their retirement years.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: They've likely lived in their home for decades and that home is also likely paid off and they want to be able to stay there as long as they possibly can not only because they have a paid off home filled with a lifetime of memories but because these facilities that they can move into are cold and commercial and if they're not there it's a you know five figure monthly expense and they don't they don't want to deal with that.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: And who could blame them?
48:21
SPEAKER_00: And even if they move into this a facility and even if it's everything they dreamed it could be, it's still not their home.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: They still can't personalize it and you know they they again they would just much much rather be in their house.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: So we want to help people stay in their homes as long as possible.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: And that means having design and features and materials that lend themselves to that.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: So and it goes far beyond you know people automatically think of like grab bars in the shower and of course that's a part of it but you know it comes down to floor material lighting countertop height so many different things widening doorways is a great example like if you're using a walker or a wheelchair you can't necessarily get through some of these old Pittsburgh doorways.
49:10
SPEAKER_00: So we got to come in and make the doorway wider.
49:12
SPEAKER_00: And maybe because you're in a walker or because you're in some version of a scooter you can't open the door.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: So automatic window and door openers we're we're really just starting to dip a toe into that market and it's just it's become a light bulb moment as our customers have come back to us and a lot of our customer base are older individuals and they just need these little nuanced solutions and they just know John's their guy and they call John and they say hey John this is going on in my house and you know then me and John are off to come off come up with a solution.
49:48
SPEAKER_00: And luckily there are all of there are really great companies with that are fully focused on accessibility and they are really looking for partners in in construction that can take their products and and make them into solutions for homeowners.
50:06
SPEAKER_00: And in some instances there is assistance by means of like Medicare government grants that can help do that.
50:15
SPEAKER_00: So we are we are at the tip of that iceberg but I really see it being something that I I don't want to use the word capitalize because that sounds cold.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm not driven by the monetary aspect of it although that is second but like just serving our customers you know this this is really what our customers need.
50:38
SPEAKER_00: There's such a huge benefit for them to have these solutions and yeah it would be really nice to continue to like financially grow our company and be able to like feed our family and send our daughter to college one day.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: So that's where I really see our business going.
50:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay okay all right so what is next for Riss all right well you kind of talked about that a little bit but you know is there anything else coming up in the near future that people should be excited about coming up with their business no I think just like more of the same I don't I don't want to like keep evolving who we are as a business.
51:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to like try to become a business that wears a whole bunch of different hats because going back to what I said earlier like if you're doing that you're not doing anything well.
51:21
SPEAKER_00: I think like what you can always expect from Red Saw is consistency in craftsmanship and communication.
51:30
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't mean to alliterate but it happened right and the final question you know if you know I don't want you to be as candid as you can on this answer the next question but you know let's say if there was one thing you could change about your business in the next 90 days and I guess that would lead us up to almost about Halloween like we were talking about earlier.
51:51
SPEAKER_02: So if there was one thing you could change about your business before Halloween, what would it be and why?
51:57
SPEAKER_00: Bringing just bringing someone else in bringing in another employee or another like a reliable partner.
52:04
SPEAKER_00: And like there's plenty of people that want to partner with us but they're just not most of them haven't been the right fit.
52:11
SPEAKER_00: And like I I say fit intentionally because it's just like they're they're right for somebody but they're just not right for us.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: And we are it is what July 21st right now we are booked until November.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: So getting another like getting just another set of hands would be paramount for us.
52:31
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
52:32
SPEAKER_02: All right perfect perfect now you know kind of following up on that a little bit a little bit more if we spoke again let's say if you had came back on the podcast again in 90 days or by by by Halloween what would you want to be different by then?
52:45
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a difference between what do you want it to be and where what will it actually be so what do you think you think that differs a little bit or what would I want to be different I would want to have like some I would want um some of our like operational muck to be cleared up like I I want our we have a lot of like disparate backend systems and technology and I want to streamline that because you know having to like log into one thing and then log into a different thing and they're supposed to talk to each other but they don't talk to each other it's like it ends up you know something that's supposed to make your business run more efficiently and it just it really has become a huge time suck.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: So I'm in the process of doing that right now.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: And so I would like for all of that to be behind me if we were to talk at Halloween.
53:41
SPEAKER_02: Gotcha gotcha all right perfect all right well thank you again for coming on Jessica it was great having you on talking about your business talking about your story with red cell remodeling any last words you'd like to give the audience before we go ahead and sign off no just keep you know keep fighting the good fight okay keep fighting the good fight all right perfect well yeah well thank you Jessica again for coming on thank you for sharing the role behind the story of behind the scenes of your of you know of your story on building red cell remodeling and you know I appreciate some of your really candid answers.
54:11
SPEAKER_02: I really feel like some you know any entrepreneurs that listen will take some nice nuggets from today's episode.
54:17
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much Bill I appreciate your time.
54:19
SPEAKER_02: All right thank you