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Company Ethics: Choosing the Right Contractor with Larson Home Services · Ask The Experts

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  Speaker 1: And joining us this morning is mister Andrew Larson from
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  Speaker 1: Larsen Home Services. Andrew, how you doing this morning?
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  Speaker 2: Fantastic? Like always, He'll pick me up song there.
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing really, really good, And I'm really happy about
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  Speaker 1: this morning's conversation because it's something that I've worked with
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  Speaker 1: you in the past, and obviously I know you, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: this is something that's really near and dear, not just
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  Speaker 1: to your heart, but in practice as well. Let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about this week's conversation. We're not really necessarily talking about products.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking more about culture and service and the people
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  Speaker 1: that you serve.
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  Speaker 2: That's correct, you know, I wanted to talk a little
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  Speaker 2: about a little bit, I think I said, company integrity, ethics.
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  Speaker 2: There's a whole lot of stuff we could talk about,
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  Speaker 2: and honestly, choosing the right contractor to do whatever it
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  Speaker 2: is you know you're looking to do. And what really
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  Speaker 2: really spurred me wanting to talk about this is something
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  Speaker 2: that happened here this past week two. A friend of
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  Speaker 2: mine in Lodi, and she reached out to my wife
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  Speaker 2: and asked if she could call me. She calls me
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  Speaker 2: up and she having a problem with her contractor. She
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  Speaker 2: hired a contractor to uh build her a deck, and
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  Speaker 2: they worked on it for a couple of weeks and
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  Speaker 2: they showed up one morning and just said we're done.
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  Speaker 2: They left, and she had already paid them all of
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  Speaker 2: the money she was supposed to pay them. And now
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  Speaker 2: she's sitting there, left high and dry. Single mom saved
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  Speaker 2: up all of this money and now now she's got
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  Speaker 2: to figure out what to do. And and it comes
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  Speaker 2: down to company ethics, and it comes down something that
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  Speaker 2: we talk about talk about a lot. And so so
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  Speaker 2: we have what's when we come over to somebody's house
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  Speaker 2: to give them a price on, you know, a roof
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  Speaker 2: for gutters or insulation. We we we we talk about
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  Speaker 2: our company and we we we have a company story.
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  Speaker 2: And I hear my reps a lot going all yeah,
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  Speaker 2: people don't want to hear it, which to me is
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  Speaker 2: insane that you don't want to hear about the company
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  Speaker 2: that you're thinking about possibly giving thousands of dollars too.
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  Speaker 2: And here's why. When it comes to shingles in a roof,
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  Speaker 2: I mean the type of roof that we put on,
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  Speaker 2: anybody can go buy that material. Sure most don't, but
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  Speaker 2: anybody can go buy it. Anybody can put those type
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  Speaker 2: of shingles on that we use. Our warranties are a
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  Speaker 2: little better because we're a master elite. But in the end,
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  Speaker 2: anybody can go get it. The insulation that we use,
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  Speaker 2: anybody can get that. It's just the way that we
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  Speaker 2: do it and the way that we'll only do it
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  Speaker 2: is what makes it better. Now, our gutters are proprietary,
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  Speaker 2: but there's lots of companies that do gutters. But what
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  Speaker 2: separates us to me is our company story, where we've
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  Speaker 2: come from, what this company is, how many employees this
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  Speaker 2: company has helped, how many homeowners our companies helped. It's
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  Speaker 2: very very important, and here's why. Stories like I just
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  Speaker 2: found out for my friend here getting a deck, and
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  Speaker 2: I asked her upfront, I said, listen, did you get estimates?
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  Speaker 2: And she said yes, And I said, do you mind
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  Speaker 2: sharing with me what those estimates were? And she said.
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  Speaker 2: One of the estimates was about thirty one thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 2: I said, did they tell you about the company as
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  Speaker 2: the company bent around? She said, yeah, they did. Actually
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  Speaker 2: a company went around for a long time, like sound
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  Speaker 2: like a great company. Okay, how about the next one?
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  Speaker 2: The next one was about twenty eight thousand dollars. How
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  Speaker 2: about that. Did they talk about the company? Yes, the
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  Speaker 2: company's been and I'm not going to name the companies,
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  Speaker 2: but ben in business for a long time. Great And
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  Speaker 2: the company that you went with, did they talk about
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  Speaker 2: the company? Well, no, no, But but their bid was
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  Speaker 2: only eleven thousand. I said, so you got a bid
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  Speaker 2: for thirty one twenty eight thousand and eleven thousand, and
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  Speaker 2: you went with the eleven thousand dollars estimate. And I said, unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: I think this one might be on you. Now. I'm
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  Speaker 2: not I don't want to throw blame on homeowners for
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  Speaker 2: hiring a bad contractor, but I'm going to give this
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  Speaker 2: contractor the benefit of the doubt, saying that they probably
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  Speaker 2: had all of the best intentions in the world. The
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  Speaker 2: problem is is that she did not vet them properly.
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  Speaker 2: They ran into some things that were over their head,
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  Speaker 2: and so rather than lose their tails, they just had
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  Speaker 2: to stop and go away. And it happens all It
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  Speaker 2: blows me away that it still happens all the time,
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  Speaker 2: because there's the Internet now and there's so much free
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  Speaker 2: education out there on what to look for, who to
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  Speaker 2: look for, how to vet a contractor. I mean, if
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  Speaker 2: you're hiring a contractor and they don't have a Google
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  Speaker 2: page with Google reviews, that's a red flag to me,
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  Speaker 2: that's a red flag. And honestly, honestly, Sean, it's not
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  Speaker 2: even that easy to get like Dave really made it difficult.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you can't just say, hey, I'm a company, yep,
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  Speaker 2: give me Google reviews. Google has a vetting process. So
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  Speaker 2: if a company has it and they have a bunch
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  Speaker 2: of great reviews, you know they're probably a pretty good company.
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  Speaker 2: So when I talk about integrity and ethics, it goes
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  Speaker 2: both ways. Though homeowners have to be able to listen.
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  Speaker 2: We've all heard you can't go with the cheapest estimate.
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  Speaker 2: There's a reason it's the cheapest. Why would one estimate
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  Speaker 2: be eleven thousand and the other two be about thirty
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  Speaker 2: There's a reason for that because those two companies that
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  Speaker 2: were up around thirty thousand bet in business for many years.
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  Speaker 2: They know how much to charge so that they can
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  Speaker 2: finish the job on time and the homeowners happy in
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  Speaker 2: the end, and they have enough profit to continue to
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  Speaker 2: stay in business. When you get an estimate that's a
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  Speaker 2: third of the price, that's not even a third of
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  Speaker 2: the price yeah, is that a third yeap just about
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  Speaker 2: little about a third of the other ones. They are
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  Speaker 2: throwing a number at the wall and guessing, and they
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  Speaker 2: have no idea what they're doing, and as soon as
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  Speaker 2: they run into one little hiccup, they're done. You know
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  Speaker 2: what happens all the time.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Andrew, And when we talk about this stuff. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: for all of us, money is important, and I think
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  Speaker 1: that that you sometimes we see these things and we
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  Speaker 1: get very excitedly, Oh, it's a great opportunity to get
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  Speaker 1: a great deal. You know, I'm going to get this thing,
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  Speaker 1: and then we hear these horror stories of what unfortunately happens.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you talk about the deck that that's not completed,
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  Speaker 1: or a company that that may not do the best work,
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  Speaker 1: or when it comes time to for follow up, they're
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  Speaker 1: just not around. And I think one of the great
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  Speaker 1: things you talk about company integrity, There is nothing better
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  Speaker 1: than one you put your name on the business. People
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  Speaker 1: know exactly Larsenal Services, who is Larsenal Services, They know
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  Speaker 1: who you are. But there's also something to be said
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  Speaker 1: for for feeling good about that project in the long term.
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  Speaker 1: Is like some of the stuff like that immediate gratification.
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  Speaker 1: It's cheaper, so you feel good. But in a week
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  Speaker 1: and a month or gosh forbid, if the project never
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  Speaker 1: gets finished, how are you going to feel? Then? I
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  Speaker 1: think of, you know, the work that you guys have
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  Speaker 1: done for us and what we've done in the past.
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  Speaker 1: I just feel like, you know, you're always very confident,
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  Speaker 1: you always feel very good about it. You don't feel
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  Speaker 1: like there was, you know, like anything, any shenanigans or anything.
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  Speaker 1: It's an important it's an important feeling and it comes
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  Speaker 1: really from from respect and understanding of what you got
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  Speaker 1: a really good product for what you paid for in
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  Speaker 1: really good service as well.
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  Speaker 2: Correct. Listen, what's the old adage? You know, I know
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to screw this one up, but you know what,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna give it. Here's the bottom line
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  Speaker 2: is when people make when people are looking to get
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  Speaker 2: their homework done right, they want three things. They want
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  Speaker 2: the best product, they want great workmanship, and they want
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  Speaker 2: a great price. And you can't have all three of them.
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  Speaker 2: You can pick two, but you're going to give up
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  Speaker 2: one or the other. When it comes of the price,
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  Speaker 2: you get a cheap price. They're going to skimp on someplace,
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  Speaker 2: the materials, the labor. However, so and I'm not saying
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  Speaker 2: that you always need to buy the most expensive thing
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  Speaker 2: in the world. But at the same time, what's happened
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  Speaker 2: to the contracting industry over the past twenty thirty years
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  Speaker 2: is that contractors themselves have actually finally gotten good at business.
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  Speaker 2: Whereas back in the day, it was a lot of
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  Speaker 2: you know, a couple of guys and a truck and
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  Speaker 2: going around and just doing what they could, and a
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  Speaker 2: lot of them would rob from Peter to pay Paul.
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  Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is I have to
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  Speaker 2: start the next job just to get enough cash flow
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  Speaker 2: to finish the job that they're on because they had
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  Speaker 2: no idea what they were doing. When it came to business.
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  Speaker 2: There were wonderful crafts people, they were really good at
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  Speaker 2: what they did, but actually running a business they weren't. Well. Nowadays, again,
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  Speaker 2: with so much education out there on the internet, contractors
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  Speaker 2: have gotten good at business. And what that means is
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  Speaker 2: not meaning not saying that they just know how to
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  Speaker 2: charge more and sell better. No, they know how to
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  Speaker 2: charge appropriately so that they can have profit and they
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  Speaker 2: can grow and they can employ more people and they
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  Speaker 2: can do more jobs and they can stay in business.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, there is a stat that was put out
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  Speaker 2: by the Small Business Administration. This was probably about twenty
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  Speaker 2: years ago that ninety four percent of all contractors that
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  Speaker 2: started in business today would be out of business within
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  Speaker 2: twenty four months. And that's not because they are bad people,
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  Speaker 2: that's for the most part, but it's because they don't
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  Speaker 2: know how to run a business. They don't know how
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  Speaker 2: to charge appropriately, and they get into problems where they're
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  Speaker 2: mid job, they run out of money, run out of material.
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  Speaker 2: Instead of going back to the homeowner and saying, my gosh,
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  Speaker 2: I screwed up, or even if they did, the homeowner
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  Speaker 2: might be like too bad, too sad, finish it, they
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  Speaker 2: just leave and once that happens a few times, they
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  Speaker 2: just close up shop. So it's really, really, really important
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  Speaker 2: to listen to the company story, know where that company's
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  Speaker 2: been and know where they're going, Know where they're going.
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  Speaker 2: Are they growing, Are they you know, actively looking to grow?
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  Speaker 2: Are they just maintaining you know, Yeah, it's up to you.
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  Speaker 2: But it's it's very very important because this story and
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  Speaker 2: honestly breaks my heart. It's so bad for her.
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  Speaker 1: Well and Andrew. One of the things too. Is is
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  Speaker 1: I think we've talked about this is the folks that
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  Speaker 1: work at Larson Home Services, and we've had quite a
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  Speaker 1: few of them on the air over the years. These
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  Speaker 1: are people that these are not obviously Larsen Home Services.
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  Speaker 1: You're here for the long haul, but the team around you,
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  Speaker 1: these are people when they get hired, these are career jobs.
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  Speaker 1: These are folks that will start, you know, start day one.
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  Speaker 1: They'll start out maybe being on site labor, hauling around
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  Speaker 1: some of the heavy stuff for the other guys. And
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  Speaker 1: in twenty thirty years, these are the guys that are
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  Speaker 1: managing the projects and they're going to retire with you
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  Speaker 1: as well. And it's it's always great to see that
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  Speaker 1: that level of professionalism that you're going to get throughout
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  Speaker 1: top to bottom, no matter who they are. These are
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  Speaker 1: people that I know you do a lot of work
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  Speaker 1: vetting and finding really really good folks to work at
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  Speaker 1: Urst Home Services. And you mentioned, of course the importance
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  Speaker 1: of kind of telling the story and explaining to people
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  Speaker 1: when you're when you're meeting with them the homeowner about
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  Speaker 1: about who you are and what your priorities are and
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  Speaker 1: what you're about, and a little bit about that company integrity.
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  Speaker 1: That stuff is important and it does. It means a lot.
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  Speaker 1: If if you're if you're the team around you is
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  Speaker 1: happy and satisfied. There's a reason because they know that
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  Speaker 1: the work that they're doing is good. They know that
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  Speaker 1: when they go to sleep at night, they can rest
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  Speaker 1: easy knowing that they've done the best by the homeowner,
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  Speaker 1: done the best by the home and that's pretty amazing.
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  Speaker 1: That's one of the great things about working with Andrew
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  Speaker 1: and the team at Larsenome Services. It's a fantastic day
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  Speaker 1: to have them come on out. I know we've had
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: tis the season for storms and other things. If you've
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: got questions about your roof, questions about your gutters, great
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: day to have them come on out. Take a look
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: from Larsenome Services, no pressure. You'll learn a little bit
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: about Larsenome Services. You will learn a lot about your
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  Speaker 1: home as well. All I got to do this morning
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: is pick up phone game McCall six oh eight five
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  Speaker 1: three five forty three forty three. That's five three five
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  Speaker 1: four three four three. Of course you can learn more
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  Speaker 1: online larsen Home Service Verus dot com. That's l A R.
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  Speaker 1: S O N Home Services dot com. Andrew, it's always
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  Speaker 1: great chatting with you. You have a great day and we'll
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  Speaker 1: do it all again real soon.
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  Speaker 2: All right, we'll see you and again that.
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  Speaker 1: Website Larsenhome Services dot com. Kevin ham Haamsarbacare comes your
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  Speaker 1: way next year on thirteen ten wu i v a