Welcome, everybody to another episode of the handyman success podcast. The goal, the mission of this podcast is we bring on successful owners of Home Improvement businesses, and dig into their business, dig into their story, also to inspire you from their story and what they’ve done. And also for you to take away real actionable business tips that you can apply in your own home improvement business. I am one of the co host Jason call with handyman marketing pros. Today is a unique episode actually, because I am joined solely by my other co host, Alan Lee, with the handyman journey and honestly, handyman services. So on this episode, I’m actually interviewing Alan about honestly, handyman services and his journey, which I’m sure everyone’s super excited to hear. I know I am. To hear it again. So with all that being said, Alan, thank you for coming on the show.
Dude, thank you for having me on my own show. I appreciate it. It’s a rigorous application process. It’s fantastic. Man, I’m super excited to be on here. And, you know, anytime I get to talk to you, it’s a blessing. So excited. Yeah. So if you don’t mind, give us a little lay of the land as far as let’s talk about where you’re at right now. And then we can jump back to you know, the origins of how you started. So, you know, give us a background right now of where you are, you know, how what your employee, what your staff looks like, if you’re comfortable sharing your your annual revenue, you’re kind of the average are Oh, dollar per Aro, just kind of the metrics there. So we got a place where you’re at now, and then we can go back to where you started. Alright, yeah, awesome. So right now, let’s see, we are a company, I got to do the math because we just hired a new guy. So we are a company with five employees, including myself. So we have a I’m the estimator, soon to work out of that, because we are training a new guy to become that. So we got me as the estimator, we got a technician assistant, we got a technician and a CSR. And then we just hired a new guy, which will be our new technician assistant, and our old technician, Assistant technician assistant will be transitioning to be our estimator. Okay. And basically the thought on that is because I’m having, you know, a son born in November here, which I think this might come out. After that, I don’t know, whatever. In November, I’ll be having a son. So basically transitioning myself out of the business for at least a month so that it can run without me saga. And currently our business is making, I think, this year, we are projected to hit about 260,000. In gross revenue, our goal is to hit about 300,000. So we got some stuff to make up, although we’re, you know, way better than we were last year. So awesome. Yeah. So I want to ask, before we kind of get back into the origins of how you started a little bit about this, the technician assistant role, and then he’s transitioning to the estimator. So if you could kind of open up on, you know, why is it? Why are you deciding to move into that role? Like, how long has he been on board? Now? Have you done any training like in that yet, or just kind of shed some light on why you’re making that transition for him? Definitely. And there’s been a lot of failures that have led to this exact decision. Because I’ve taken some time off my daughter, she was born some health issues. So we’ve taken, you know, a few months off here, there. And when we’ve done that, it’s only been really a three person company, meet myself, our technician, and our CSR. And every time I left, the technician was left to do everything, right. And I explained, we work in like a dog, right. And it never turned out, he always did a fantastic job. That guy, he’s a killer. Frank is so awesome. But it’s not it wasn’t fair to him by any means, right? It worked him like a dog literally. So what I’m trying to do now is trying to learn from those past mistakes, because life is made up of failures. Anyone who says that they’ve never made a failure is full of themselves, right? You have to make failures in order to get successes. So
we basically, we kind of created this position of the technician assistant with the main thought of taking some workload off of our technician, because our technician, even as much as a year ago, was in charge of picking up all the materials, doing the job, and then taking things to the dump, right and keeping his truck clean. This guy for poor Frank man, he’d be waking he’d be leaving his house at like 7am Going Home Depot picking up materials. And then if he needed any materials during the day, he’d have to go to Home Depot, get the materials, come back to the work. And then at the end of the day, he throw all his debris in the back of his U haul which when you throw debris back there, you can’t get to any tool so it’s miserable. He’d get home at night, sometimes five 530 sometimes six unload everything from his U haul, put it in his driveway. And then he’d have to go to the dump on Saturday, you know, which is a day that we’re not open, right? So that’s not fair, right? That’s completely unfair, we were treating him poorly. So the whole thought of creating a technician assistant came about someone that maybe, you know, they don’t necessarily have to have all the skills in the world, they can be a guy with or girl with a driver’s license, you know, they, their main job is to pick up materials from Home Depot or Lowe’s, and then deliver those materials to the client’s house, and then take all the debris from that job, put it in their truck and haul that to the dump. And then in the meantime, they assist the technician. So it’s a pretty simple role. But it takes a lot of responsibility off of the technician, and really makes this job a lot easier. So that’s to answer your first question of like, what the technician assistant does. And then the second question of why we’re deciding to move into the estimator is, the second thing is a technician assistant. Well, at least the way that our business is created, my I’m always thinking about legacy and what’s next and what the next step is. So when we hired a technician, Assistant, I’m like, I don’t want to just have a technician assistant for the whole rest of that person’s life. Like I would want that technician assistant to move up or move laterally, I guess, to either a technician or an estimator. So I want them to have a like, I always want to have a goal for my technicians to get to. And so, so you don’t want to hire a technician assistant that just wants to be a technician assistant forever, it’s there as like a landing pad or like a launch pad to move into, like, promotions. Yeah, different. It’s an entry position that has steps forward, you know what I mean? Because if people aren’t moving forward, they get bored. And they ended up not performing. Well, you know, so this guy, when we hired him, both me and my technician, were in the interview, and we hired him, and we felt like he would be a good personality to move into the estimator. Okay, you know, and, you know, by and large, she has been a great, you know, personality move that way. And so, we’ve done a lot of training part time training in October, now that we’re hiring this new technician, Assistant, it’s going to allow me to work one on one with our technician, Assistant rich, in, you know, training him on the ins and outs of estimating and scheduling and all that, that that entails for the month of October to get ready for November. Okay. So in a, in a sense, like, he was already being like groomed from the get go of the estimator role. And that was something that you had discussed with him, and he indicated interest in potentially filling that role. Yeah, I mean, even during the interview, you know, we had talked about because he’s, you know, a little bit of an older guy. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But he had mentioned, you know, I don’t really want to be out digging fence posts, you know, for the rest of my life. And I think it was that day, or the next day, we had conversations with him then of like, Hey, I think you’d make a good estimator, is that something you’d be interested in, and he was, you know, so that we’ve kind of been working at that since the get go. Okay, which I think he’s been on staff for about three months now, going on three months. So time flies,
I remember when he came on. So we’re gonna get to your story, I’m about to ask you about your hiring, since we’re on the subject. But first, I want to commend you. Because, like, you’re very compassionate for Frank for your employees. And like, you aren’t, you don’t shy away from what, what you put, but put on them. And so for you to kind of say, you know, admit, like, we worked him like a dog. And, like, just admitting that man, I just commend you for that. Because, you know, you really care for your staff. And I’m sure that’s why Frank is still here. Because he knows that you do care. So I want to commend you on that. And then also, I’m sure we’ll dig in more of this in the story. But, you know, Alan kind of briefly touched on your daughter and you having to, you know, take quite a bit of time off, you’re, you’re pretty, you know, modest with it, but you’ve taken a lot of time off to travel and take care of your family. And so for you to still to be where you are now and setting yourself up for that next stage of growth, but to have taken that time to take care of your family, but still keep your business going. I commend you for that, because I mean, most most, I think would fail to balance the the trials with family and then also running a business. So for you to be able to keep that up, keep estimates out, you know, sales coming in Frank out in the field, your your customer relations person, you know, answering the phones while you can go take care of business with your family, what’s most important, so I commend you for getting through that and still getting Thanks, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, thanks. I think it’s a testament to really paying attention to you Your business and having it set up in a way where, you know, it’s probably not a point where it can run without you 24/7 365 For a whole year and, you know, take off for a year, but to still have that flexibility to, you know, leave for weeks. And it’s it’s a it’s awesome. Yeah, it’s been a blessing and I couldn’t have done it without the people around me. You know, I mean, we could not have done it without Frank. Yeah. And April in our in the office or CSR? Like, couldn’t have done it with it with without those people, you know, yeah, really held things together. I think that’s, that’s a huge benefit to have. You know, being not just a solo business owner, whenever you have those unexpected trials, like, what are you going to do? If you’re everything? You just have to close the business for months on end? Right. So for you to be able to keep that open? Is, is awesome. That’s a ton of work. Yeah. But you prepared for in a way? Yeah, I can do it or not? I know. Yeah. Cuz if I was a solopreneur, and by myself, I would have had to close my business down for that month, month and a half in 2019, and four weeks in the beginning of 2021. You know, but luckily, I was able to keep things going, you know. So, yeah, so I want to commend you on that. Because I just admire I admire you for you know, that those couple things and taking care of your staff, and then they take care of you. I mean, that’s that’s how we’re after me. So, we talked about you hiring this technician, assistant. So if you don’t mind walking us through, like what’s your hiring process? Like? Like, what what platforms did you use? What platform Did you find? What’s the technician assistant, same mica, mica, the new guy, oh, the new guy, I was even talking about the new guy, not the new new guy. So the three month old guy, he’s rich, that rich, okay. And then you kind of alluded to, there’s some pre qualifications there of like, gauging their, their motivation, their aspirations to be more than a technician assistant. So I’m sure there’s something that you could shine some light on the interview process and how you nail that down to identify cuz I think that’s important, too, then that someone that’s going to perform well, and the technician assistant role, they are gonna have something in them where it’s like, I don’t want to do this for forever. This is just I want to learn, but then I want to take it to the next level and advance myself advance my my career, get a promotion, whatever it may be. So walk us through your hiring process, man.
Yeah. So So for instance, or for starters, I use zip recruiter to find my guys. Oh, no. And I don’t really have any reason why I use that rather than something else. That’s just what I’ve started using. And that’s what I had success on one and done or right. So, zip recruiter, you know, created some ads and got a lot of people that, you know, like when we were looking for rich, we he was actually our we actually hired a guy a week before we hired him. And that guy didn’t even show up to his first day at work, you know, zip recruiter. Yeah, it was offset recruiter. Okay, right. And we got, I think, 20 applications off ziprecruiter. And, you know, the guy that I hired before that didn’t show up on his first day, he was the only one that called me back out of those first 20 people. And then I put it put it up again. And Rich was like one of three. And I called him that day, and he started the next week, like it was, it was quick, you know, so you think that’s a trend, like, with the people you’ve hired now that are responsive? Yeah, responsive? People definitely should. That’s one trait they go, they’re ready to go responsive people, okay. And but the other thing is responsive, people are ready to go. So if you’re not the first person to get to them, they’re going to go off on someone else, you know what I mean? So you got to be as responsive is what you want. You know, a lot of people will say, oh, I want these qualities, but they don’t exude those qualities, like you need to be the first one to exude that in order to attract it, you know. So, so, so what was your question entirely? So one quick question before you flush it out more, just for how much does it cost like zip recruiter? Like, what is the pay per like position? Or is it kind of a campaign they set up for you? That’s a good question. And I wish I had some time to prepare before this podcast, but I didn’t. Yeah, this was spur of the moment thing. But so I don’t have exact figures. But I think it’s you pay per day. So per ads, yeah, per day that your adds up. So and I think they don’t they don’t send you a bill or invoice you until you’ve accrued $200 or, or maybe it’s $400. But I think it’s like, maybe 10 or 20 bucks a day, you know, so it can it can get pretty pricey. But but it’s worked for you. It’s it’s worth it. Yeah, it’s all worth it. And at the end of the day, when you get to that point of hiring, if you’ve done the rest of the steps correctly, hire you’re going to have the money to invest in that hiring because it’s an investment. Right? And so if people you know, shy away from that and say, Oh, I don’t want to spend 10 or 20 bucks a day to hire a guy, um, you know, then are you really ready? Are you in a position is your business in a position to hire someone? So you have to it takes money to make money. You know what I mean? Okay, so hiring right. So when we, you know, give them the first phone call, you know, we asked a little bit about their technical aptitude, we asked a little bit about why they want to work for our company, have they looked at our website, and then through that, what I’m looking for mainly is like, I’m a, if you guys know anything about me, I’m a big core values guy. So I’m looking for core values, right? Like, our core values are like timeliness, professionalism, honesty, respect, right. So as I’m talking to them, I’m trying to face like, phrase, the questions I asked them in that realm, or in that light. So I can kind of get a good feel of what kind of person they are, you know, and invite them vitamin, the office for an interview. That’s another thing, we have a we have an actual physical location that they come down and meet us in. I think that’s huge, rather than just meeting someone in your house, it does, it’s a different vibe, you know, it’s like, hey, come down to our office, you know, it’s this suite number. We interview him. And we have a whole list of questions, you know, questions about, hey, if the client did this, how would you respond? And these are all questions to try and flush out any character defects that they might have. Because I’m looking for core values, right, of honesty, respect, you know, honor, things like that. And if they respond to a question that I give them in a dishonorable way, then automatically that disqualifies them, okay. Just like, so you’re pretty rigid? Yeah, on on, we’re looking for a specific person, especially I’d imagine, you know, a technician role even as assistant they’re shut off people’s homes. And that’s a sacred place for people. That’s where they raise their kids. All the memories. So that’s, I think that’s, yeah, valid to be rigid on that. And just to, just to clarify, do the in person in the office interview, that’s after like a phone interview? Okay.
Yeah, I mean, we’ll talk for 10 or 20 minutes or so yeah, quick, quick little phone interview, just to make sure that we want to move to the next level. And then in that original phone interview, which I think it’s probably good to note is I also am upfront about what we what we pay, right? So on the actual ad on zip recruiter, it says how much we pay, right? So for a technician assistant, we pay, you know, x to x, right? So on that first phone interview, I tell them, you know, we’re hiring for a technician assistant role, and it pays from here to here was that extra x on technician assist? Right now we’re at 15 to 19 bucks an hour, okay, in this area. And that’s based solely on experience and kind of aptitude and things like that. And we’re in Northern California, just young listening, I know, wages, pricing, it’s varies by your location. Right. And I mean, I’ll say up front, right, that’s, that’s a fairly low pay, right. But this is a starting position, you know, so as you move up in the company, things Excel pretty quickly, you know, and as the business grows as you help the business grow, so we bring, so that really qualifies them, because I’ve had one guy that I told him that and he’s like, Oh, no, I’m looking for at least 25 bucks an hour. Yeah, it’s like, okay, well, then there’s nothing wrong with that, I think you’re a great guy, but I don’t think this position is gonna work for you, you know, and that’s fine. Just because you have to know where your business is at and what your business can afford, you know, so we bring them in for an in person interview, and I ask them questions geared to get the information I want. Like, one question I really love is it’s a common interview questions, what is your greatest strength? And then what is your greatest weakness? You know, and the greatest weakness question is always the hardest to answer. Because it’s like, oh, you know, you want, I’m in an interview, and you want me to tell you something I suck at, you know, but really, that’s what I’m looking for. I want them to be honest with me, even if, if they suck at time management, I want them to tell me, and if they tell me, it really isn’t a negative thing. Like, I’m glad that they’re that self aware that they know they struggle with that, because that’s something that I could help them with. So I’m not looking for someone who’s 100%, like, got their stuff together, because that’s never gonna happen. I’m actually looking for someone who maybe is a little flawed, maybe doesn’t know, everything, but has the aptitude and the energy to see to the next level. You know, that’s what I’m looking for. Yeah, I think that’s, I think that’s an awesome thing to identify and, like actively pursue, which, which I think that’s a great thing that you do is you ask questions to find out what you want to find out. And that specific one, if someone’s honest and open about their faults, then that also would naturally kind of indicate a willingness to like, learn and get better, right? Because most the time, people that don’t get better, they don’t think anything’s wrong. Yeah, yeah. When we all certainly have some things that are wrong. Yep. And that’s the biggest thing is to get that transparent transparency in your business and for employees to trust you and come to you when they screw up or have faults. You need to be the first one that admits your own faults, right? Like, I’ll admit some guys all the time, like hey, man, I’m, I’m struggling with this or I don’t really know, you know, a whole lot about this. And that’s why I brought you on the team because you’re really good at that. And I suck at this, you know, and usually be honest, because at the end of the day, a lot of times men you know, with egos we think, Oh, we can’t we can’t show any weakness. Right. But really, when you show that weakness, and when you show that weakness and that you’re not afraid to admit it, like, really, it’s a strength, because you’re saying, Hey, I have a weakness here, and you have a strength here. And together, we can rock this thing. So let’s do it. You know what I mean? And you might get that person who says, Oh, you’re weak, you know, I don’t want to work with that person, either. You know what I mean? Like, if they’re, if they’re gonna point their finger at me, and just call me weak, that’s fine. You know, they’re, they’re not the person for my company. So cool. So this this in person office interview is whenever they nail that, like, you kind of get them scheduled for the first day and start the training process.
Yeah, so after their in person interview, we talked about everything, as far as you know, pay, we talk about benefits, we talk about when they would want to start, we go through our whole job description. So we go through all our core values, what’s expected of them, who they who they respond to, you know, the service manager, or whoever. And then basically, after that, you know, say, Okay, I’m going to work up an offer letter for you, and send it to you in the next, you know, day or two, okay, and then I send them an offer letter via email, and they can sign it, send it back, and then we’re go ahead, and the offer letter has everything detailed, exactly what their benefits are, exactly what their sick leave is, exactly how much out how much per hour they’re making exactly what days they’re working. And then exactly what day, their start day is, you know, so when they sign that paper, they’re accepting everything. Yeah, you know, and it’s just, and then at that point, when I get that, it’s on me, order uniforms, get credit card ordered, you know, like, you know, get the email address set up, get them set up in Mark eight, like, it’s all that logistical stuff. Yeah, you know, before their actual start date. Awesome. So I want to quickly cover cuz I know, I see this question asked quite a bit is insurance benefits paid time off sick vacation? Can you drop a little insight on, like, how you figured that out, or what what systems or anything that you use that might point people in the right direction? It’s a, it’s tricky. And that’s something that I get questions about all the time. And at the end of the day, it’s one of those things, it’s kind of like pricing, you can do your best to figure it out, right, and all the calculations, but you don’t really know until you do it until you put into practice, you know, so I, I looked at all these calculations and figured out, you know, it’s gonna be 4%, or bla, bla bla, like, I don’t even know all those figures off the top of my head, because we’ve done it. And we actually have somewhat concrete figures now. But you just do it, you throw a number out there, and you hire your first person and then see how it works, you know, but I can tell you, by and large, are, you know, if your payroll is about $5,000, a pay period, you’re going to be paying about $1,000, in Social Security and things like that, from an employee standpoint, or from an employer standpoint. So was that 1/5, I guess, is you could say, that’s kind of a good rule of thumb, but that that doesn’t really cover worker’s comp, or anything like that. But it just covers like Social Security, and, you know, live, you know, unemployment and all that stuff that’s in California. So where would you say the advice for someone to start if they’re navigating? Like, I want to give my employee like health care benefits? Mm hmm. Like, as far as finding that, or what? Um, yeah, I think just reaching out to medical providers and asking questions, because at the end of the day, it’s like, yeah, I don’t know, I don’t even know how you would start that people would think like, I don’t even know how you start medical benefits for your employees, I’d just call someone out, call an insurance provider up, call the person who provides your general liability insurance, call them up and ask them, you know, because they probably won’t do it, but they probably have referrals. Yeah. Like, or if they don’t know, they might call one of their other clients who’s a contractor in the area and ask him, you know, like, someone will know. And that’s the biggest thing about wisdom is wisdom is not having all the answers, but it’s knowing who to ask to find the answers. And that’s, that’s really how you do it. So you know, so you don’t have to know all the answers. Just know who to talk to. Yeah. Be okay with asking the question. Yeah. You don’t have to be okay with looking dumb. Yeah. Because you, you might call someone and ask them what they’re like, that’s a dumb question. But it’s like, yeah, sorry. I’m stupid, like, inform me, you know? Because that’s what business is. It’s just learning. So 100% Yeah. So switching gears a bit. Let’s, let’s get back to the beginning. Okay. The original honestly, story. So if give us give us a like a background of, you know, what prompted you to start your handyman business where you’re at? And kind of, you know, an overview of your, your journey in the firm. I mean, you’ve been in business now, what, five years? Five years. Okay. Okay. So, so kind of give us a rundown of, you know, mostly fleshing out the very beginning because I know a lot of our viewers, a lot of our listeners, you know, they’re, they’re either brand new or they’re, they’re, they’re navigating, like, Can I do this, which I think we’ve proven before From the podcast so far is that you certainly can 100% can and you should, if you feel that in your heart, so walk us through the beginning story and how you’ve gotten to where you are.
Okay. All right. Yeah. So first off, you know, in high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, you know, and but I got involved in metal shop. And through that, and then I got also involved in automotive classes and stuff like that. And my teacher there recommended that I go check out automotive, college or trade school, you know, so I went to Universal Technical Institute in 2009. And got certifications in for diesel, auto mechanics, everything. So I was a trained auto mechanic. And at that point, through that school, I was working part time as an auto mechanic. And then after I graduated, that auto shop didn’t have any full time positions available. So I went worked at a farm, and I was the head mechanic, and then I worked into managing all the, you know, planting, harvesting of that, but that’s kind of a Yeah, that’s a side story. So, um, and then after that, I ended up going to work for an auto shop, and then come about 2016. You know, my wife had been involved in, in, in, in a at home business, basically selling product and stuff like that. And we were told by people from that business that we should go to this personal development seminar. And we’re like, we don’t need that we don’t need some rod telling us how to live our life. Like, we don’t need that, you know, develop a personal self developed, all right, you know, I got a career, like, you know, what I mean? Like mortgage, go, I got a mortgage, like, I don’t need that, you know? And so we kept telling him, no, no, no, no, no, we don’t need that. You know what I mean? And, but really come down to it. Like, since we’re being real, we couldn’t afford it. Right? We just couldn’t afford it, you know. And so I remember it was the summer of 2016. And we’re like, man, we should just shut these people up, because they just keep asking for us to go to this stupid event. So I’m like, Okay, I’m just gonna buy the dang tickets. I bought them on a credit card, because we couldn’t afford them. And, but part of that was like, Okay, now that we bought these tickets, we got to figure out a way to pay him off, you know, because I don’t want to have credit card debt. So that is ironic. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the best word. No, it’s, it’s, it gets more ironic. Just wait. So I’m like, looking at my skills on okay. How the heck can I make more money? Right, like, I don’t have a pretty face. So I’m like, I’m using the iPad. Okay, well, that’s awesome. Okay, well, good. Um, yeah, so I, my wife, I can like change out dishwashers and stuff like kitchen faucets, because I’ve done that question. Yeah. How much were those tickets? Oh, like 400 bucks each? Huh. I don’t know. I’m just trying to put it maybe perspective when you’re done. I’m thinking it was probably 200 bucks apiece, I think it was probably 400 total 100. But then we had to fly there. Then we had to fly there and get the hotel and it was in like Texas or something guys, you know, it’s like, you know, 1200 $1,500 Right. Yeah, probably would have been 12 bucks. Yeah. That’s good. Good perspective. I like that. Okay, so I’m like, I can offer handyman services. So I create this horrible looking ad, you know, of like, Go handyman services, right? Hire me, you know. And then I started doing all this work in the nights and weekends and for like, super cheap, though, you know, but I was loving it. It was so fun. Like, it was fantastic working for people and making my own money. And, and soon enough, I started making more money in the nights and weekends, and I did it my day job. So I’m like, Well, this is kind of interesting. You know, it was funny. Now I’m, I’m actually good friends with my old boss now. He’s actually a distant family member, but we joke he jokes with me. He’s like, Yeah, you know, I remember you would, you know, bring a uniform into work and change right there in your stall, and then you’d be off in your handyman work. But pretty funny. And so I fell in love with it, just fell in love with it. And so soon enough, and then I went to the business seminar or the personal development seminar. And it was more like a business seminar, you know? And it gave me the aptitude to start this thing, you know, and I remember leaving that. I went to that seminar not even thinking about doing this thing full time. But I left like, wanting to run it full time. Oh, yeah. So you started that you bought the tickets? And it was like coming up, say in like a month and so between then buying the tickets and actually going to the seminar, you started the handyman part time? Yeah. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. And then I just, I, she gave me the info I needed to start this thing full time. Okay. And really, most of it was just mindset, you know, it’s like, Hey, you can go do something on your own. You can make a living, you know, you don’t need to be working for someone for the rest of your life on a job that you hate. You know, and it’s really funny because, you know, I was also in a Bible study at that time with this guy named Jason call. And I told him like, man, you know, I want to start up this handyman business and Jason, who is you will just put the cat out of the bag. I
was like, Oh, and you could call it honestly handyman. And we’re like, yeah, that’s an awesome name, you know, but then I was going back and forth between like integrity handyman or lease integrity or honestly handyman and I ended up going with honestly. And so it’s the origin is with you. And then you, I asked you to create a handyman website design and SEO for me and you knocked it out of the park. And then I started this thing full time. And then you started your thing full time. And it’s just like, it’s been fantastic, an amazing, crazy journey. So yeah, that’s kind of the origin of me like ice. So I remember, December 30 was the last working day was a Friday of the year. And I’m gonna go Yeah, I’m going to quit on December 30. And to go full time, January 1, or whatever day, January 1 a second. And so now is January 1 of 2017 17. Yep. Is when I went full time go. Yep. And so I quit December 30. And went full time in January. Okay. And when did you start on the side? How long was it was August of 2016. Okay, so four months, and you were screaming ready to go? Oh, yeah. Well, I was I was making more money than my day job. Yeah. And that was the biggest, the biggest thing for me. Okay. I was like, I can do this. Yeah, you know, awesome. And I had the support of my wife and my friends. And it was cool. Awesome. Yeah. Well, I would say it’s great. Like you have such good support. Spoiler alert. For a lot of guys, if you start your business, a lot of people will not be, you know, they’ll have hesitancies like, oh, well, you’ve got the security and the paycheck. And so you might not have as much support as you might want. But you have it in you to do it. So I remember being so nervous, like when it came down to it like December 28, or even that weekend after I quit my job before I started hitting me like, I was so nervous. Like I remember, I was just up in the attic at my house because I had installed some cam lights. And I was just like, moving around the insulation. Like I wasn’t even doing anything up there. But I was just like, so stressed. I remember my friend came over and they said, what’s going on Allen, I’m like, I’m just I’m, I’m stressed out. Like I literally just left my job for a hope. You know what I mean? Like it’s stressful. Like, it’s, there’s a lot of emotions, like it was awesome. And looking back, like, I’m so glad I did it. But in the moment, it’s very stressful, even when you have support. Well, now this year, you’ll create $300,000 in revenue out of whereas if you didn’t it, it you created that value. Yeah. So that that’s awesome. Yeah. So I want to ask about, we’ll talk about like a little bit of pricing journey about your pricing journey. And, and also, I want to ask too, about, like, if you have any goals, like to, like if I have this much work booked, or if I start making this much money, I’m going to leave my full time job. I want to ask that next, but before so $1,200 for that first trip, would you say for the personal development that you just only bought out of spite to share your friends and colleagues? All right. So how about how much would you say that you you’ve spent on coaching and training and Oh, in 2021? Oh, a crapload? a crapload? I mean, in my whole since 2016. Shoot, I’ve probably spent 40 grand, you know, 50 grand, maybe even doesn’t go on the credit card now? No, no, it’s, uh, but it’s worth, it’s so worth it, it pays off dividends, you know, because like you said, it’s created that 300 grand of revenue this year, right? Out of that first $1,200 decision, or whatever, you know, yeah, awesome. And I just want to point that out, because, like, you know, the, this the story of it of, oh my gosh, like, we got to put this personal development seminar on the credit card, I don’t even really want to go and then it’s totally transformed your life and you’ve continued to, you know, invest in yourself. And that’s something I know, we’ve talked, we’re both obviously passionate about you attaining a journey, like coaching as as part of your job, but there is certainly a a correlation of, of people and business owners when they invest in themselves invest in coaching, they are successful, and they’re growing, and they’re meeting their goals. And their mindset is right, because it takes you know, it takes a tribe it takes you know, surrounding yourself with people that are believing in you being your best self so yeah, I commend you for that. And I just want to bring that up because $1,200 in the credit card is so stressful and now you know, you’ve spent considerably more on on on that kind of Avenue, which certainly has fueled growth and and yeah, just your your way of being
and that’s what I always teach people to is like, if you feel stuck, or or scared even the best thing you can do is invest in yourself in one way or another. I remember we’ve hired some high And, you know, coaches throughout the years, and they’re expensive, you know, like 1500 $2,000 a month, you know, and it’s, but it’s stuff that it’s needed to get you to the next level, it’s stuff that I could not have gotten to where I want where I am now without that, you know, so if you are dissatisfied with how quick your business is growing, or maybe even just don’t know what the next step is, the best thing you can do is hire a coach. Because like we said before, wisdom is not having all the answers, but it’s knowing who to ask. And even me, I’m bringing in, you know, 300 grand this year, hopefully, that’s our goal. I got five employees. I still need, I still need to hear from other people. Yeah, I still need thoughts from other people. It’s funny, it’s kind of like a, like a trickle effect. Like, you know, there’s all this huge line of coaching. So you pay for the high end coaches, well, they’ve got their own high end code, right? And then like, all this knowledge has been passed down through the years. Yep. through the decades, generations of entrepreneurs of knowledge. And well, now it’s obviously a business. Yeah, back in the olden days, it was just like, yeah, right, people, I bet it leads back to Jesus Christ. It’s got a, you know, he’s the ultimate coach. So that’s, that would be my thought. Awesome, man. I love that. So let’s, oh, this, this is my question for you. So we talk with a lot of guys about that jump from part time to full time. What did you have any goals set? Or was it a gut thing when you went full time are kind of walk us through that, that that decision that kind of like if there was a certain trigger that or goal that you met that led you to leave your job putting that resignation? And jump into it full time? Yeah, that’s a good question. I am by nature, a very spontaneous person, I just do things right. My wife is very much someone who thinks about something before does it I just do it and and think about it afterwards, you know, which has gotten me into trouble, you know, in the years. So I remember, I don’t even remember who it was. It was my favorite financial advisor. So I was telling him about this handyman business. I was starting in January. And I’m like, and he’s like, so what’s your what’s your day one plan? And I’m like, Oh, my day one plan is just knock on doors, I’m gonna go around and knock on doors, see if people need handyman work, you know, and he’s like, that’s a terrible idea. And again, this is like when when you have people around you that aren’t afraid to tell you the truth, that’s what you really need. And so he’s like, he’s like, Dude, you need at least a week’s worth of work booked out for that first week in January, you need at least that, like, I would not go full time without having a full week’s worth of work. So me not being a planner. At that time I’ve gotten I’ve gotten a lot better at planning and goal setting now. But at that time, I had really no goals, my only thought was I make more doing this than my full time job, somebody will do this. That became my new goal of getting a week’s worth of work in January. And then when I got that I felt more secure about going on full time. So that was kind of my Okay. Around about a goal. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. I think overall, it’s good to like have what we’ve identified, and in all our conversations with guys and gals is that, you know, having some kind of benchmark that yeah, you hold yourself accountable to is important. Yeah. And I think a lot of where I am right now, and a lot of what I teach comes from my mistakes. Like, I think I maybe should have done a little bit more planning. When I first got into it. I should have had more benchmarks, I should have, you know, I think I could have, but it’s completely, it’s like comparing, you know, apples to oranges, because my mindset now is completely different than my mindset back then. So, you know, if I had to go back, you know, I probably would have wanted to save, you know, X amount, whether that’s a month or two or three in the bank account, before I go full time, make sure I have at least a week, I think that’s a really smart metric, have at least a week worth of full work, if not two, if not three weeks, you know, but also, on the adverse side of it is don’t let that stop you because people will they get the analysis of the paralysis, where they are waiting to hit that benchmark, and they’re never gonna hit that benchmark, and they know it, but they’re throwing that benchmark out there as an excuse to not do what they think they need to do. Yeah, you know, so I think you can have those benchmarks. But don’t set ones that are higher than, than what you can get, just because you don’t want to do it. You know, I mean, like, there’s a time when you got to, you know, you know, there’s a few different analogies, but you gotta man up and do it. You know what I mean? Yeah, that’s, that’s the that’s what you got to do. Yeah. So like, be on Be honest with yourself. Be honest with yourself. Yeah. Yep. Cool, man. So let’s see what was the other question I had? That was piggybacking.
Let’s see we talked about the threshold. Let’s talk about your your, your pricing journey. And, you know, how how did you price an estimate? Let’s let’s find all those because they’re there. intertwine right? So how did you price an estimate jobs, you know, out of the gate, and then talk about your, your journey with with pricing and estimating how that’s that shifted and expanded to and then let’s dig into how you how you estimate and price a job today. Yeah, yeah, wildly different the way I do it now than when I did before, I remember I just pulled a number out of thin air, you know, and I’m like, I’m currently making 20 bucks an hour at my job. So I want to make 50 bucks an hour. That sounds good. That sounds a lot more than 20. So I started charging 50 bucks an hour in my business, which sounds like a lot of money, right. But at the end of the day, which I didn’t know, then that I know now is there’s a whole lot more expenses when you run a business than when you just take a paycheck, you know what I mean? You have, you know, general liability insurance, you have business license, you have a truck to run, you have tools to run, you have gas to put in the tools like or gas to put in the truck, you have to feed yourself, you have to feed your family, you have to pay your mortgage, you have to pay medical insurance. Like there’s all kinds of stuff. So that 50 bucks an hour gets whittled down. And it might even it ended up less than 20 bucks an hour at the end of the day. Right? So yeah, just savvy real quick there. Because you mentioned earlier that you’re making more on the side as a handyman than at your day job. So did you find out when you started that you’re actually were you still making more even when you factored in? No, I was I was making less you’re making less than that. But that’s a common issue. Right? That so anyone starting or think about starting? Look at the numbers in detail, don’t just look at your billable like what your $15 an hour, you got to dig a little bit deeper, because you don’t want to leave, especially if you have a family to take care of and live but financial liabilities and things like that. Don’t don’t, you know, catch yourself off guard with that. So yeah, and with that I got I got to throw it out there that we’ve created a course to help people actually figure out what they really need needs to be honest, I call it an hourly need, because that’s that’s really what it comes down to. And a lot of times is higher than what you think you know. And that that platform is called handyman journey one to one. That’s basically the basics that I think if I had to go back, I would have wanted to take any men journey one on one, it didn’t exist at the time. But that’s like, that’s what I that’s what I would say to people looking to start businesses. You got to take handyman journey one on one, figure out your numbers, write a business plan, and figure out a marketing strategy. So important. But yeah, and there’s the book too, I’m just gonna go ahead and plug, you know, the handyman journey stuff I have, like I have I have no incentive to do it. But Alan, I’ve just all my conversations, the the knowledge that the insights that’s gained from the one on one. I mean, lately, I’ve been hearing about the pricing, the pricing book, that’s a whole handbook that goes into the pricing. So you know, I just encourage people that and Alan to and honestly, YouTube channel, a handyman journey YouTube channel, what is it? Honestly, honestly, is it now the handyman journey is the title of the YouTube channel. There’s tons of free content, just tons of it. So educate yourself and watch some YouTube, check out the book, check out the course, so that you can get off on the right, the right footing. And, you know, like Alan mentioned, it’s basically to me, and I love this, I try to do the same thing is giving other people exactly what you would have wanted. Right? You didn’t have Yeah, and you started out because there’s so many issues and problems that could be overcome if you just had the right if you just watched that video, read that book. You know, they’re like, Oh, I wish I knew that. Yeah. So I commend you for you know, along the way, not only, you know, a handyman business is going to do $300,000 This year, but along the way, creating helpful content and material for others on the same journey, the same path as you are. It’s, it’s awesome. It’s awesome. So sorry, I we sidetracked from pricing. So $50 an hour, you had no idea what you’re doing, you’re actually making way less than $50 an hour. So yeah, how and then go from there. In one,
I just want to share a quick story about the estimating side of things, right? Estimating is all about the verbage you use you know and really, I right now I use Mark eight you know, which is a handyman CRM and right highly recommend that because it you write an estimate in a way that everything’s documented. There’s no questions about anything and the client signs it, give you a deposit whatever. But back then when I was charging 50 bucks an hour and just starting out I had no clue what a CRM was, you know. And so I remember this one job that she needed her gutters cleaned, and then one downspout fixed and I told her at that point. I decided to do a two hour minimum right like I was, I was gonna come out for 50 bucks an hour, but it’s a two hour minimum. And so I told her, you know, I’m 50 bucks an hour, two hour minimum, right? That’s all we talked about. And so I do the job. And I finish in about an hour and a half. And she says, Okay, what’s the total gonna be? And I’m like, Well, you know, $100, you know, because it’s two hour minimum. She says, Well, you said 50 bucks an hour, and you’re here for an hour and a half. So I’ll give you 75. So it’s very interesting, right, you have to be you have to have right estimates, you know, yeah, and, and writing them up and having them sign it is the best way to do it don’t get taken advantage of like I did, but and market makes that easy. They do. So after that, I really, I’m like, I’m not making any money. This sucks. You know what I mean? Like, I’m loving the work, but I’m not making any money, you know, and I’m struggling. So I really sat down and I what I recommend doing, you know, a little bit a, you know, glimpse into the book, you know, of the the handyman pricing handbook, but there’s obviously more info in there, I recommend printing out three, three months of your bank statements, and getting highlighters different colored highlighters and highlight different things. Make a highlight a color for fast food, a highlight a color for groceries, a highlight a color for mortgage, a highlight cover for materials, you know, so you’ll have all these different colors. And you’ll be able to figure out exactly how much each category is costing you. And exactly. And what you might find is that you spent $300, every month at McDonald’s. That’s your first thing, cut that out, right, and you’re gonna save a whole crapload of money. But that just really helps you figure out what your expenses are. And then you divide that by how many hours there are in a month, and then you can figure out what your hourly need is. And then obviously, you add things on top of it, like breakeven and profit and things like that. So then, after that, I started started charging 75 bucks an hour. I remember I did, the first hour was 100 bucks. And then every hour after that was 75. You know, that’s how I did it at that point. And I worked predominantly by the hour, you know, at that point, and then it progressed further from there were 75 bucks an hour $100 A first hour, $100 per hour? And is that the model that you use to get to the point where you brought on Frank was what I guess, let’s put to put it in the realm of time here of time and grow. Yeah, so $100 a first hour $7.75 An hour after that, is that the price that you had up until Frank and the change when you know, so technician, we we did another pricing, I’m trying to remember here, we did another pricing change where we went from 75 bucks an hour for 100 bucks for the first hour and 75 bucks. After that. We just went to a two hour minimum. So it was 150 bucks, for a minimum. Okay, and then it was 75 after that. Okay, so that I think at that point we brought Frank on as a independent contractor, he started as an independent contractor, I want to say at the beginning of 2018. So we were in business for about a year. And basically it was I send him leads, he goes estimates that job sells the job does the job gets the check written out to honestly handyman. And then we cut him a check for the certain percentage that we had discussed that we give him. So that’s kind of how we outlined independent cost. So you just bet you just did everything, but the sales and the work and kind of gave the platform right. Do you mind sharing, like what kind of percentage that was? I think, I think we started out at 6040. So honestly, it was getting 60 He was getting 40%. And then I think after that we moved where it was even the opposite 6040 yoga. I can’t quite remember the exact details. But that was kind of a progression over two years because we hired him full time. Was it July of 2019? Okay, we hired him as the actual w two employee. Yeah. Okay. So after about a year and a half of the subcontract. Yeah, arrangement. Yeah. And then through that he was working his own job, like he would work in the days. Okay, not at he was an auto mechanic. And we actually met at the auto shop. And then he would do work for me in the nights and not really weekend. We didn’t work the weekend, but in the nights, so So whenever Frank was on doing the subcontract subcontractor thing, you were still out in the field. Yes. Yeah. So I was out doing either technician or one full time technician in one part. Yeah. So I was either doing the work with him, or I was doing a separate job. He was doing a separate job.
Did you like how, what would you say your experiences with with that kind of it was it was a time it was very fun. It was fun, but it also profitable? No. It was profitable when we worked on separate jobs. But when we work together, it wasn’t very profitable. Okay, you know, because I still did the same amount of work, but only got 60% Yeah, you know, but it was very fun, but it was not good for my marriage. Because I remember I would be out in the weekend, the nights, right? Because Frank work during the day, and he’d worked at his automotive job during the day in the work for me at night. And so I’d be out at night and it created a lot of problems because I wasn’t there for my wife. You know, I had fun because I was hanging out with a good friend and At night, yeah, but when you grew up, and you know, you start adulting, you have to start, you know, taking care of your wife more than your friends. Yeah. So that was another lesson. That’s a, I think that’s a good point to that isn’t really talked about much. But you know, everything sits on, you know, I mean, there’s layers, but I know for us, it’s like our faith. And, and then it’s family. And if you don’t take care of those foundational pieces, we’re then you know, on top of those summers business, yeah, if your foundation is cracked below that your business is gonna fall through those cracks. And so being mindful of spending a good what it takes to take care of your family, and make sure that that that piece of your life is is grounded, and everyone’s happy is so important. And not that there’s not a time and a phase of that hustle and working 6080 hours a week working the weekends working in the evenings, there’s, there’s, for most business, for most entrepreneurs, there’s a phase of that, right, but it’s not, it’s not sustainable, long term, right. And I think it all comes back to your pricing, you know, because if you are charging correctly, and enough, you can afford to take care of those priorities before your business. Like, you know, a lot of people and even me at one point, if you looked at my priorities, business was number one. But really, like, you know, I believe priority should be you know, God, and then yourself, and then your spouse, and then your kids, and then business, you know, so business is actually the fifth priority there, you know, but oftentimes, people put it at the number one, because they’re like, I’m not making very much money. So if I work harder and longer at this, then I will make more money. And that’s not how it works, you know, and they end up sacrificing everything else for the business. And it just, it gets worse, you know, you know, it’s, there’s this resounding majority, like, within my own coaching of within marketing. People often I’ll see in our mastermind, I’m so burnt out, I’m working all the time, and like, I’m not meeting my goals financially. And all of the very experienced, you know, successful business people all say the same thing. raise your prices. Yes. Yes. Right. It cuz it’s just, for some reason, it’s one of the last things instinctually like, you know, especially new business owners would look at, but I love that I love that the conversation went here, man. Because yeah, it’s, it’s so important to take care of your faith, your home life, your yourself. Because if you’re not taking care of those things, you’re not if you can’t take care of your wife, how are you going to take care of your customer? Right, right. Yeah, or your employees? Like your employees? Yeah. And at some point, you got to ask yourself, did I create a business? Or just did I just create a job? You know, and you got to be real with yourself. And if you, for me, I created a job. Back in the day, right now, I feel like I have more of a business than job, which is good, right? But there takes some, you know, some gut checks to get there. Yeah. And you got to be real with yourself. Yeah, for sure. And, and I know to just, there’s, there’s some, there’s guys, I know that they’re just solopreneurs. But they’ve, in my mind, they’ve created a business that can they can take that time off and be flexible to the life things, but
it’s all about one of the big factors is pricing, because you’ve got to price high enough. So you can take two weeks off around the holidays. Yeah, you have to look at your priorities, and what do you want out of life? You know, what do you want out of your business? Like I know, I talked to a big plumbing and heating company in the area few months ago. And they were saying, and this was started 3040 years ago. And so the guy who started is no longer the he’s a part owner. He owns so many shares in the business, but he’s not the CEO anymore. And he was saying that when Mark, Mark Bonny created the business, like, he had very thin, very distinct things in mind, right? Like for one up until he got up to 100 employees, he wanted to take all the employees and their family to Hawaii for one week, every year. That was that was one of his dead set goals. So he had to add that into his pricing. You know what I mean? He wanted to buy a cabin and allow each family you know that that’s his employee to basically have that cabin for two weeks out of every year. Wow, you know what I mean? Like, that’s nicely he had to build that into his into his pricing, you know, so it’s like, what do you want not only for yourself, but for your employees and build that into your pricing? Yeah, and that’s why we’re the most expensive Handyman in this area, you know, because we don’t want to just be like striving, we want to be thriving, you know, I want to point out and man I feel like it’s the up so I just come in down and leave but like I hope you don’t mind. But I do this to point out you seeking knowledge and counsel from a it’s like the biggest H fac plumbing home service company in the Sacramento region. It is by far either everywhere and and you took the A time and you have the boldness, that’s a bold move, reaching out, I don’t even know how you’d reach out to a CEO of this kind of company, Instagram, baby Instagram. So Alan reached out to just a massive Sacramento region company, Matt, probably one of the biggest small businesses in the area, and, and was able to talk to the CEO and I believe like an operations CEO, the marketing and the sales guy. So you you took the priority, the initiative to seek counsel and wisdom from someone who is absolutely, you can’t say crushed it, right. Like they take the honor plus people to Hawaii every week. I don’t even know what word that is. They own business. They just right. They owned it. Yeah. So I think that there’s something there’s a takeaway there for someone listening that I would not be afraid to reach out to local contractor, your businesses and not only just seek some maybe some advice for like what Allen did, but a specific pricing, I believe. But there’s relationships there too. Bigger contractors that don’t want to do small jobs. I know it’s a piece of advice that I give new businesses, forge relationships with other contractors in the area that you know, you have that relationship, well, they don’t do the small jobs, they don’t do drywall, they didn’t do painting, whatever it may be. And it’s a good referral source. But I commend your boldness to do that. And you actually got to meet with them. That’s think that’s really sweet. Thanks. Yeah. And another note on that is when I first was starting out before I started out full time, I called all the Handyman in my area. And there was only one guy that actually called me back because you probably people don’t really want to talk to competitors, right? Was it? You know, I don’t even remember his name, but his name is still on my phone. So I’ll have to look him up after this. Okay. I don’t even know if he’s in business anymore. But super cool. We had a great conversation. We just talked about what things cost in this area. And we had an open conversation about, you know, what things cost, how busy you are, what can I expect, you know, and if you call 10 people in your area, you’re bound to get at least one person call you back, you know, and if, if none of them call you back, call 20 people, you know, like, just keep trying until you get because that’s the best source of market information is called people in your market. Yeah, you know, they they’re doing it. Yeah. Don’t be afraid to look stupid. Don’t be afraid. Yeah. That’s something that I’ve, I’ve always been good at just not afraid to look stupid. I asked a stupid question. Yeah. I whenever. I mean, this makes me think there’s this. There’s this proverb that says, Don’t fret, it only causes harm. Don’t worry, don’t be scared. Like, it literally will cause harm. It’s not even just passive, like thing. It’s like, gonna hurt. It’s gonna hurt so right. Don’t just and it takes practice. Just do it. You know? Yeah. So well, we’ve got we’re pushing the limits here. Well, I would like to go for five more minutes here. And cover as much as we can in five minutes. Okay, let’s do. Let me see here. Let’s talk about, I want to hear your biggest, let’s hear your biggest struggles. But biggest business struggle, since you’ve been in business? And then in this business, like, what’s been the biggest personal struggle in the last five years? Hmm.
That’s good. Biggest business struggle is probably just been pricing, just getting my pricing, right. You know what I mean? And it’s, it’s a mindset thing, because it’s always the fear of, oh, my price should be here, but I’m afraid no one’s gonna want pay it. You know what I mean? And then see, you lower it, and then it’s like, you’re never charging enough. You know what I mean? And so you kind of just, at some point, got to just do it, you know, and what’s your minimum now? Right now, our minimum is $300. And that covers about two hours. So we’re at about 150 bucks an hour. Okay. Which we don’t charge by the hour. So, only by the job? Yeah. By the project? Yeah. And my biggest struggle, personally, hmm, has probably been well, I mean, I guess I’d say that again, mindset, you know, it’s just, I struggle with taking other people’s criticism, too, you know, close to my heart. Right. And so that was one of the biggest things is I started up a YouTube channel in actually 2016. You know, I think it was like, November, December or something of 2016 before I started full time. And that has been a really fun journey, like that created all this, like, I would not be here today, if I didn’t do that. But there’s been a bunch of haters, you know, and that’s been probably the hardest thing in just my own career is like, getting over that and not taking that so personal, because haters are gonna hate. You know, but at the end of the day, all I can do is keep striving forward for what I know and what I want in life. You know what I mean? And not everyone’s gonna believe in that and not everyone’s gonna follow along. And so that’s probably the biggest thing is, you know, take criticism, constructive criticism, and don’t be afraid had to change. But don’t take it too heavily that it makes you not want to continue. Because I’ve wanted to quit this business so many times, you know, just because I’m like, What’s the point of all this? Like, I’m just getting ridiculed from every direction. And when you put yourself out on the internet, you get ridiculed more. Yeah, but can be a rough place. I’m glad I didn’t give up. So um, keyboard warriors, keyboard warriors, yes. Something that consoles me, you know, with criticism. I believe this is true that most criticism, it comes from actually a selfish perspective, where you know that that person that’s criticizing has something that they’re, they’re having a tough time dealing with, and it kind of out pours to, you know, what seems bad to say to you, so, to me, it helps kind of be a little more empathetic of, you know, not taking it to heart and being like, more compassionate for others makes me trying to rainy online makes me think of something that we talked about last week was Key and Peele, you know, I’m gonna keep it PG here. But one of their skits was the honest bully, right? Did you see that one and know where this, you know, this, this kid is reading a book after school, and this bully comes up me putting, you know, kicks the book out of their face? And he’s like, man, what’s your problem? And the bullies like, well, you know, I struggle reading and it you know, every time I see someone reading, it makes me feel sad inside. So I take that out on other people. And yeah, and then the dude’s like, You’re so honest. And he’s like, No, I’m not. It’s just like, but that’s really what it is, you know, it’s our own inward struggle. And where I think the champion mentality comes from is understanding that we all have that inward struggle, we all suck on the inside at something. And just be honest about that. And just go with it, you know, and surround yourself with people that don’t suck at that thing that you suck at. And you’ll be alright. Yeah, you know, so, yeah, businesses are not what you don’t grow businesses, you grow people. That’s something that resonates with me, especially as you bring on help, yeah, missions and things like that, you’re really just trying to build them up so they can build you up. So conversely, here, we talk about struggles. biggest win in business, and then biggest win from your business like that you’ve experienced personally, biggest win would probably be
just, I, well, it hasn’t happened yet. The one that I’m thinking about, but when I went, I’m gonna take this month off to be with my son like it, I’m really excited about that. And the reason why I’m so excited about it is just because we’re doing things, right, it feels like we’re doing things, right, we were creating systems in place where we’re not putting all the load on one guy. But we have a full team that everyone knows their different place in the team. And they all do different things and to make to make it happen. So I’m thinking, that’s probably just my biggest win, I think maybe even just the thought process that went into that, because it’s, I’m wildly different than I used to be where I just jumped into it. And don’t think about it, I’ve actually put thought into this, which I feel really good about, you know, and I put thought into it, the pieces are starting to come into play, and it looks like it’s going to be successful, which I’m really excited about. So I would say that’s probably the biggest win is just seeing myself think about something before I do it, you know, is really cool. So just a little backstory here to anyone listening in case they didn’t know. But Alan is having a son in November, and he’s prepping to take the whole month off. And the estimator role is going to be trained up this this upcoming month, and you’re gonna be able to kick back and spend some quality time Yeah, new addition to the Yeah, and I’m stoked because this will change the fabric of meaning and the business forever, because it’s going to get me out of the day to day, you know, so which I’m excited about, because I really love the business side of things. And I’m really excited about growing the business more and actually being able to look at my employees and what they’re doing, what they’re being offered and being able to give them more and provide structure around them and provide systems and processes in ways to make their jobs easier. I’m really looking forward to that. Yeah. And like I guess a little for it kind of relates to something we’ve been working on is Alan and I were creating some like framework and some steps that any business handyman business owner can follow. That’s it’s just a framework of what to look at in certain stages of business. And you’re you’re in this you’re about at the tail end of hiring, getting the right team in place, and then from there grow baby. Yeah, yeah, maximizing the leads and putting the system to work. And so I’m really excited for I’m really excited for your business this next year, especially because you’ve put so much work into the systems, the hiring the processes, and I feel like you’ve made not a bad way but you’ve made tons of mistakes and learning Yeah, you know, to, to now like you have things are coming together where you’re going to be able take off a whole month and spend time with you. Yeah, a new addition to your family. So that’s, that’s awesome. I’m super excited for you. So of course we went over the five minutes originally but I’ve got to ask because we it’s as, as custom. Any last tips, or advice to somebody that’s thinking about starting or the or they’re new and they’re struggling and trying to figure it all out? What would you say to them be real, you know, with yourself, you know, and with what you can do, and we can’t do and how much you want to make and how much you are making, and this and that, like, just be real. Because the more real you are with yourself, the more or the easier it is for you to accept change. Because you’re like, Yeah, I recognize that I suck in that situation, you know, and it’s a hard place to be. It’s, it’s so hard to be real with yourself. Because like we talked about before, you know, a lot of people have huge egos. And this is almost like the opposite of that. It’s humility, you know, so just be humble. Be willing to change, be understanding that you don’t have everything together, and you need help, you know, and seek that help. You know, like we said a few times before, like wisdoms not having all the answers, it’s knowing where to find the answers. So, I would recommend, do some research, find the answers, you know, that you’re looking for. If you’re struggling with something, ask someone you know, anyone, even if it’s your mom, or someone will point you in the right direction to find the answer you want. Yeah, unfortunately, there’s a ton of resources now, especially obviously, the handyman journey. So if you’re not a part of the handyman journey mastermind group on Facebook, there’s also a new one that we started alongside this podcast. That’s called the handyman success. mastermind groups are both on Facebook, the successful and the handyman successful is all about business and marketing. So if you’ve got business marketing questions, advice, everyone that’s been on this podcast is in that group, and you can tag them you can tag Alan, we’re in there, really just to help you. So, you know, Alan’s last tips and advice for those people. Like we’re here to help you so during the groups and let us know how we can help.
Yeah, and seriously get on that Facebook page and tag us. Seriously, you start asking us questions, because that’s where the that’s like the after party. Right here. We’re talking but when we get to there we are all going to talk together and it’s fantastic. There’s already been some it’s pretty new, but we’ve had some good conversations on there already. I love it. It’s the after party. Yeah, the after party, the handyman after party. Awesome. Well Alan, this was awesome. And I’m really excited that we’re gonna do part two next year to check in on you know, the the growth and scaling process once your systems are all in place and we put the pedal to the metal so thank you for for coming on and sharing you know your story, your tips your real hard learned advice on on starting handyman business. I know you know, just because the handyman journey man like you are blessing the lives of so many people and you know, seeing those comments have finished my first year in business and I left my job and I can’t believe this is what I do now. Thank you Alan and the handyman journey like people you’ve been doing this long enough now the handyman journey that Yeah. You know, some people they watched your videos, what, four years ago and they’re like in their third year of business or fourth year business. So it’s incredible. So I commend you for that man. Keep up the awesome work. And thank you for coming on the podcast. Thanks for having me, Jason. Yeah, I think I’ll see you next time on the next episode I think I think yeah, well thank you everyone. for tuning in. I like we said the handyman success podcast or handyman success mastermind group on Facebook, handyman journey mastermind group on Facebook, drop us a comment, hit that thumbs up button. You know the drill I’m filling in for Alan here on the social savviness. So, truly, thank you all for tuning in.