The Small Business Safari

How Justin Hatcher 3X His Ticket Size in Home Services

• Chris Lalomia, Alan Wyatt, Justin Hatcher • Season 4 • Episode 117

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 47:30

Send us Fan Mail

Justin LAUNCHED his business in 2023 and has been signing up new contractors ever since. He started in home services installing windows in Minnesota. Justin quickly realized, while he loved the industry, the FREEZING winters of Minnesota made the job not a great fit (I don’t blame him!). He moved on to build a foundation of skills in the mortgage business. This moved him into the TOP home improvement company in Wisconsin. There he implemented a financing program that gave him leverage to WIN MORE SALES! Jump in (but don’t slip on the ice!) and make it to the end when he covers how he implemented that WINNING program! Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

-----

Justin’s Links:

•  LinkedIn | @Justin Hatcher

•  Website | https://oneandfund.com/ 

-----

GOLD NUGGETS:

(00:00) - BRUTAL NFL Weekend

(03:01) - Exploring Financing Options For Business Growth

(16:48) - Increasing Sales With Financing Solutions

(29:11) - The One&Fund Entrepreneurial Story

(39:58) - Book Recommendations, Home Features, & Customer Service

-----

Books Mentioned:

•  The Art Of War | Sun Tzu

-----

Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

-----

If You Loved This Episode Try These!

• Inventing Uber for Landscape Services | Bryan Clayton

• Maximizing Business Valuation and Exploring Growth Strategies with Rob Macklin

• You Should be in the PeopleWare Business Not Just the Software Business | Mark Herschberg

-----

Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!

BRUTAL NFL Weekend

Chris Lalomia

And so it'd be so quick bang, and there was nothing, and it would be a total.

Alan Wyatt

So you're offering financing that you can't actually offer.

Chris Lalomia

Right, the instant funding was so bad that I had customers go Oscar, I'm just gonna do payments. I mean, I'm just gonna pay cash. So or you know what I'm so ticked I had. It was a heart doctor. I literally had to get on the phone with a heart doctor. And he gets on the phone with me and he says Chris, you know, I had the money. I said, and I never met him. I wasn't the guy doing the sale. I said I understand he goes, he goes. I don't know what's wrong with your financing company. I said you know I'm, and I did. I said I used to be a banker and I don't know either. I said I know they look at certain parameters and it's a quick approval. I'm sure if you walked into a bank you'd probably be fine. He goes. I just want you to know I can afford this. I said I know you can, he goes. All right, well, we're gonna go forward and I'm just gonna pay cash. I said okay, thank you for your business.

Alan Wyatt

Like that's how the call ended.

Chris Lalomia

And he actually turned out to be a great job. Welcome to the small business safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountain top of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from any of your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountain top. It's a great adventure.

Chris Lalomia

Welcome back to the small business safari. We are gonna go on an adventure today. We're gonna know where we're gonna go, but we're gonna go somewhere and we are in the middle to be topical, which I just heard that you're not supposed to be topical because people could listen to this thing two years from now, but we are in the middle of the Braves playoff run in 2023. So I'm sporting a braveshirt and I got my Tomahawk chop bourbon that you got from the Georgia liquor barn Sponsored by the Georgia liquor bar.

Chris Lalomia

So there we go. So we're gonna have that front and center, because right after you done podcasting I'm gonna go listen to them whip up on the Phillies. I hate the fleas. I do too, boy. They're noxious people. They're good, though, you know people in Wisconsin are really nice.

Alan Wyatt

I've heard that.

Chris Lalomia

Yes, and I can prove that, because I was an asshole when I went to the Detroit Lions Green Bay game and they stuck it out with me, I think they put up with you. Well, I did get a note after from Lambeau Fields saying would you like to see yourself on jumbo truck? Because we caught you on security cam. I'm like uh-oh, no, they didn't, but it was some. But they were all really cool, very welcoming, great environment, philly whole different story. I'm wearing my Braves, uni here. I would never wear that if I went to Philadelphia to watch the game, because it would be brutal.

Alan Wyatt

Yeah, I don't like that about modern sports, but whatever. It's nice to the Midwestern folks are still quality people.

Chris Lalomia

That's right, and that's who we've got on the episode today A good Midwestern folk. We have Justin Hatcher from One and Fun. Welcome, Justin, to the show.

Alan Wyatt

Thumbs up from Justin, Thank you. Thank you Appreciate it.

Justin Hatcher

And my twins are also in the playoffs for the first. I mean, they always make to the playoffs but they're actually in that kind of second first round of the playoffs, which is a first.

Chris Lalomia

All right, so you're a twins fan. That's gotta be exciting, because it's the first time in a long time for that team to make it to the playoffs and win a series. First it was can they win a game. Then it was can they win a series? Oh my God, they won a series. Now what? So? Now everybody's getting greedy up there, aren't they?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, I mean everybody in Minnesota. Their hopes go up really high and then the playoffs just shoot them right down. So it's quite nice.

Chris Lalomia

You know that's. One team I've never actually hated is the twins, because I was a Tigers fan growing up and now I'm a Braes fan, but I just never hated the twins. Who was the guy that was a.

Alan Wyatt

Kirby Puckett. Kirby Puckett, yeah right, it was just a grunt-solid dude.

Chris Lalomia

Puckett, how could you?

Alan Wyatt

not cheer for that guy.

Chris Lalomia

You gotta cheer for that guy. You gotta cheer for all of them, you know. So that's good, Justin. We could talk baseball all day long, but this podcast is about helping us get better at being a business owner, getting scaling up, figuring out. If we got a good business plan, let's go figure out what's going on. Justin, you've got a great story, but just give everybody a quick thumbnail on who you are, where you grew up and what your first job out of school was.

Justin Hatcher

First job out of school. Let's see so. Obviously I'm from Minnesota, but I now reside in Wisconsin. Let's see my first job out of school. Actually, I installed siding in Windows, so I was in the field and then, shortly after working, one winter in Minnesota.

Alan Wyatt

I was gonna ask him, that was just a summer job.

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, well, it turned out to be a summer job because I wanted to be a radio DJ.

Chris Lalomia

Oh, get out of here.

Justin Hatcher

I did so. I was gonna go to Brown Institute, which I think is now like Brown University it's a big broadcast in school and I was not excited, you know, at the time not to date myself but I think I would have made like $13,000 working in like Topeka Kansas not that there's anything wrong with Topeka Kansas but I didn't wanna. You know, I'm like oh, I'm making $15, $20 cash, you know siding houses, so I'm gonna do that for now. Then the wear time came and I surely realized that was not my path to success.

Alan Wyatt

So the doors were closing. Oh, good point I like that.

Justin Hatcher

So, we closed that door, closed that door and then that led me to selling siding in Windows, which was a much better fit for me. So at that point I sold siding Windows in the early 2000s and I did that for several years and I got into the mortgage business. So that's where my financing background comes into play. So I worked for several brokerages, a couple of big banks, all the way through 2011, every take. And then my beautiful wife dragged me down to Oshkosh, wisconsin, where I was actually working for Wells Fargo at the time and they don't have a big footprint where I live now. So that brought me to renewal by Anderson Windows. So then I went back to selling Windows. I did that for a little while, switched to a different company and then a guy by the name of Brian Gottlieb I don't know if you two have ever heard of him, but he We've had him on the podcast Our biggest downloaded episode.

Chris Lalomia

if you haven't listened to that one after you listened to this one, go listen to that one.

Alan Wyatt

He's my hero, he is awesome, yeah, so Brian Gottlieb is he the one so?

Chris Lalomia

did he entice you to come back, or did you? How did you end up in the Brian Gottlieb sphere of influence, as it were? I think?

Alan Wyatt

Brian chooses you. You don't choose Brian. You go to the fountain.

Chris Lalomia

You say I choose you. You have been chosen like the hat in Harry Potter, Okay.

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, so oddly enough, when I actually didn't want to go work at Pundra Land because I was, they were always a competitor of mine.

Chris Lalomia

So I'm like You're inclined to hate them, not aside, he was the dark side, yeah, so, so I could mute you. I could mute it again and flip. You say you want to flip him off. You're like, dude, he's the dark side. I'm not going to that guy. I've heard nothing but bad stuff. I always sell against him and I beat his pants all the time. I kill him, right, right.

Alan Wyatt

That was a little insult, joe, because last episode, chris, we've been podcasting for a couple of years now and he muted himself to flip me off. And I'm like why did you have to mute that?

Chris Lalomia

is great. I did mute her because I didn't want everybody to hear me say F off. And I didn't even say it, I just flipped him off. He goes, did you really?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, I hear, I like it.

Chris Lalomia

I like it All right, so let's go back to this. So he's a competitor. Did he reach out to you and recruit you?

Justin Hatcher

No, he did not, so he had a. There was a posting for a finance manager, so which was a perfect. It was, oddly like the most perfect job description for me, which is my background in home improvement and my background in finance. So I, a couple of my buddies, were over there. So I'm like is it, is it okay? Can I go work there? Like, is it, is it what I think it is? So, lo and behold, long story short, uh, sat down Brian woman, I hit it off and uh, I ended up working there until he sold Thunderland.

Chris Lalomia

So, uh, a finance manager position in a home, in a home services company. Talk a little bit about what that is, Cause I don't think a lot of people understand exactly what that is. So what, what did you do?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, so it was a. It was a lot. So I would negotiate with lenders pick out the programs what are you know, what are popular programs, what are cost effective programs to be able to offer to your customers and still make them attractive but still not make you spend all your money on financing programs. Um, so I actually really enjoyed that part of beating up on lenders and then also involving training sales reps how and when to introduce financing into the sales presentation, giving the overall knowledge, um, you know, and then chasing customers, for if they financing wasn't taken, taken care of in the house, I have to chase them down to get the loan documents signed or chase any stipulations that they have any and just making sure if the customer questions if they don't understand their financing, explain that. So it was quite a few things.

Chris Lalomia

So that that's why I'm excited to have you on the podcast. I think a lot of people, um, and I just left a conference, uh, where they talked about it. Uh, at a certain price point, you got 90% cash buyers, and so that is for me and the handyman business, 90% of my people are cash buyers. You know, $50,000. Unless they got the cash sitting there, they don't have to bother with it. But as soon as you start getting up in those higher range items signing windows, doors, you know all that financing starts to become more prevalent, and I don't think I think a lot of us don't understand how financing can help us. So where's that number? So that's the question I'm going to ask Justin where do you think the number is? So I ask you and you ask all the questions now?

Alan Wyatt

Well, because I'm going to ask Justin.

Chris Lalomia

That's fair, you know what I'm going to allow you to ask Justin a question. Yeah, thank you. Hey, justin, where?

Alan Wyatt

is that Allen has a question for you. All right, go Allen. Where's the number where financing makes sense? Or you know? Like Chris, you said 90% are cash buyers at 10,000 and less. Right, but you weren't offering financing.

Chris Lalomia

I uh, I have financing.

Alan Wyatt

Well, I'm about to offer financing, yes you are Somebody who might be on the phone podcast with us. You know, you know a guy.

Chris Lalomia

I do know a guy. So for me in the handyman world it has been hard to offer financing and usually when people say I can't afford it and I'd like to see financing, it's probably been a low probability that I can get actually get them financed with. I did have a finance company I worked with, but very loosely in the past, so I'm looking forward to using it more. So 10,000 and less 90% cash buyers. So what's the number above? I mean what number do people start like 50-50 or 75-20?

Justin Hatcher

That's a great question and it's it's really. There's not a direct answer. So, alan, that's a great question.

Alan Wyatt

Thank you, justin. This is my favorite, damn it. He saw right through you, I did too.

Chris Lalomia

I tried to grab All right. So what is it?

Justin Hatcher

So the industry standard? I'm going to start with not answering the question, but answering the question. So industry standard for financing. They tell you you should be around 60 to 70% of your overall jobs financed, now most so the average ticket that I, you know at Tunderland, you know for for one day bath, you know it was like 13, 14,000, right, gevartake might be a little bit more. Now, you know, for renewal, by Anderson window you might be closer to mid-20s for an average job Right Now. With that being said, we work with a lot of contract, like a lot of concrete floor companies where their average tickets vibrate and they finance 70% of their jobs.

Alan Wyatt

So there's really not that's where I was thinking we were going to be going with this Chris. Oh, did you really?

Chris Lalomia

Yes, I did, so you have to leave any questions, just to stick it to me. Yes, 90% Actually.

Justin Hatcher

well, alan, we called him up earlier and we had this all planned out, so you just kind of fell right into it.

Alan Wyatt

I've been freaking ambushed Well, and I did talk he said earlier and I wanted to jump on it. You know he taught the salespeople when to introduce the financing Right, so you don't lead with it, I'm assuming.

Justin Hatcher

So this is a fun debate I've had with lots of home improvement sales managers and owners of when to bring up financing. So I love bringing up financing. I should say I love bringing up the idea of financing really early in the conversation.

Justin Hatcher

So, when I would train my reps, when they sit down with Mr and Mrs Jones, they would ask their discovery questions, you know, kind of figure out what they want in the project, all those really good questions, and then before they even do anything, any selling, any walk around you can give them like a hey, here's our seven steps to a successful appointment. And then you're going to break down everything you're going to do and at the end it's as simple as hey. You know, when it comes time for our customers to pay for their projects, they usually fall in one to three categories. Some are cash or credit card, some like to take a hybrid approach and use cash and finance, and some like to be fully financed. Which category do you think you'd fall into? So you're not asking them to buy, you're not doing anything, you're just hey, what bucket?

Chris Lalomia

are you in? It's all about positioning and that's why Justin's on in talking about this. It's all about positioning early, because usually it goes like this I say, yeah, the bathroom you're looking at, you know, because we do remodeling as well you're looking at 25 to 30.

Alan Wyatt

Oh, that's too much?

Chris Lalomia

Well, we offer financing. What did I just say? Well, obviously you're too ported to afford me, so let me offer some financing.

Justin Hatcher

So clearly in opposition, to correct me, let me save a sale right now. Yeah.

Chris Lalomia

Let me kill it right now, and I've done that. So that's one of the things with Justin's company one in fund that it really, really attracted me to them is his approach, and we're actually going to put our guys through sales training here shortly, just for our listeners. How do you spell one in fund? So it's the number one, the ampersign and sign, and then fudcom one and fund. That was a good question, wasn't it? It was because I tried to look for their other emails. I go is it O-N-E-A-N-D-E-O-N, is it owned? Well, let's go back into this again, because in business, if you position it correctly, like Justin just did, that's not offensive at all.

Chris Lalomia

You position it like Chris did really offensive oh, that's great, as you train your guys on this and you find it. So you found that that has helped and it gets people involved in it. Now let's talk about how to give them financing options. So how did you do that?

Justin Hatcher

So there's a couple. Let me go back to my Renewal by Anderson days really quick. So when I was selling Renewal by Anderson, I had complete autonomy on the entire rate sheet and there was like 60 plans and with different prices, different fees, everything involved with that. So the whole idea is to keep it simple. So with that we give our reps three, or we used to give our reps three plan options a deferred interest, a deferred payment and then a five-year term and then a longer, 10-12-year term. So the reason we would do that is it keeps it simple for them.

Justin Hatcher

And it all comes to the pricing standpoint, right? So when it came time to presenting price, you know we would. Our list price would be the five-year option, so it would show the large picket item price, the MSRP, before any discounts, and then it would show a five-year option, so a higher payment. So that gives you a couple different ways to drop that price without giving way too much, right at the end of the day. So whatever the monthly discounts are hey, you're wearing a Lana Braves t-shirt, that's 10% off and you know, free install for the month of of October, right?

Alan Wyatt

Did you, mr Disco?

Chris Lalomia

I have a time to hook chop.

Alan Wyatt

But I know this is what.

Chris Lalomia

Justin. Here's what Justin just said, and this is the thing that again attracted me to them, because I'm going to train my guys a better on this. So we just said is look you, you've got a $20,000 job. You take 20, you show him a five-year aim, you show him what the financing number looks like. Now you have a starting point and now you can have them back down from that. That's, and that's nothing I've been able to train my guys on since I started at 15 years ago, because I just Obviously I'm the one trained on the way. Oh, you can't afford me. Well, here I'll offer financing the checkmate close.

Justin Hatcher

Exactly so. The other nice thing about that, chris, is you know you can ask him what their opinion of the prices, right and it's. You know, usually you're gonna hear it's too high, right, do you very rarely ever hear it's too low. So at that point you can ask them well, what number is too high? Is it the, the overall project amount or the overall payment? Right? So so that way you can kind of adjust what numbers you need to adjust at that situation, right?

Justin Hatcher

So if you they're fine with the numbers, but the payments too high, you can then at that point pivot from a five-year to a 10 or a 12-year and you can pivot it as a flexible payment option For that homeowner, right? Like our admission, mrs Jones. Well, we can get you set up with the flexible payment option and you can still give them the monthly discount. So here's what you know you actually qualify for this, the, the brave shirt discount and the free install, so that drops your price, whatever percentage you want it to be. Then whatever your numbers call for, so you can lower the overall price.

Justin Hatcher

But then you can set them up to the flexible payment option with a longer term. So then you could just it kind of seals a deal and at that point you know you can always. You can Give it the or present the flexible payment as all right. We all have tight cash for months, mr Mrs Jones, right? So the nice thing about this flexible payment option is it gives you the ability to have a nice low payment and if you have any extra cash flow you can put it towards a loan and pay it off early because there's no prepayment penalty.

Alan Wyatt

Nice. So I'm Chris, I start with one and fund and I do my first deal. When do I get my money as the contractors?

Justin Hatcher

Great question so.

Chris Lalomia

That's a layup question Anyway no, and I'm going somewhere.

Alan Wyatt

All right, go ahead, and so we actually work with.

Justin Hatcher

We work with several lenders, so we are not the lender to be transparent. I don't think we even got that for you, but so we are not the lender. We work with several lenders on our platform, but all of our lenders pay you, so most of those lenders will have what's called stage funding, where you can get up to 50% of that overall project paid you prior to even doing any work on that project.

Alan Wyatt

So, and so the lender is actually servicing the loan Right, so the contractor doesn't have to get involved in collection anymore.

Justin Hatcher

Correct, which is huge ding, ding, ding ding.

Chris Lalomia

All right, hang on. Yeah, you made some points, but let's go back to it so you get 50 up and get 50 in the back. Yeah, made some points. I just I just so 50 in the back. That comes from a customer saying I approve this to be funded. Yeah.

Justin Hatcher

It. Once again, it's the lender dependent in that scenario most of them. So with our platform, we usually take most of those verifications for you, so you would just click like funds and then you would get paid within 24 hours, and that's why I'm now.

Chris Lalomia

If there's a Right now, the one I'm with, I have to have all kinds of signatures, sign-offs and proof, and I'm like, yes, and, and they're like, and you can only draw twice. And I was like, okay, well, on a longer term, you know, kitchen remodel, that could be. At that, I could be there for two months.

Alan Wyatt

Well, and I would assume that there's those customers that drive you crazy, that they're always slow paying you or they're dragging out at the end and then they're holding it over you. They can't do it anymore. No, I know this part.

Chris Lalomia

That's the beauty of this. So that's the beauty of this. So with me that's, I've had this. This one fun, this not.

Alan Wyatt

That's not the one that I'm on Because I'm trying to steal my thunder.

Chris Lalomia

Hey, I'm stealing because because I'm watching. Here's what happened I. So I went with while calm, it's green sky and they're horrible. They're not so much for their sponsorship. Yeah, they're gone, long gone. Because if the customer doesn't get the signature, they don't release the funds If and so I've got to get the customer to say, yeah, these guys completed the project. But the customer says, oh good, I've got something over on them, right? No, I have one piece of, if, one piece of shoe molding you guys didn't put in on the backside of my Bathroom and you got to put that in, or I'm not letting you get to all the more, aren't you putting in the shoe molding? Well, I'm trying to cheap them out. I mean I'm trying to, you know, cut corners. That's what I do. I'm a, I'm a cheat-ass contractor. I mean that's what I do. I Mean no scruples, I have none.

Alan Wyatt

I have your vetting process, like that's been Adjusting.

Justin Hatcher

So ours is probably a little bit easier than the lenders, you know, but we have a certain yeah. So anything professionally installed would qualify for the lending that we do right, or that were that our platform does right. So you know, our kind of sweet spot is the, you know, kind of the one call close home improvement contractors. You know, five million plus. You know somebody that understands, understands the business, not, you know, we can work with definitely work with newer contractors. We have the, the ability to kind of help train them from Inception to their growth period. Right, we're set up for that. But where we work really well is going to be, you know, five million plus. You know that 10 to 20 million we can do a lot with just because of. You know, I've fortunately been involved with some large growth with home improvement company. So there's some really big growing pains in that 10 to 20 million range and then even 20 plus. So we can Not only help them out with their financing but we can help them out with some processing stuff as well.

Chris Lalomia

So, yeah, I think that's solid. So, uh, back to uh, the ability to. If you don't offer a financing option today and you thinking about putting it in, what do you say? The average close rate goes up. What's the increase? By being able to position this thing correctly, like you do and not like I do.

Alan Wyatt

So and I'm asking for a friend as I'm imploding in like company hypothetical.

Justin Hatcher

So we uh one of my partners, rob macklin, who I believe was also on another podcast of yours. So him and I reverse engineered the numbers one day, so surround yourself with good people, by the way. I thank you and that's the, that's the goal, right you?

Chris Lalomia

say thank you, I wasn't looking at you chris oh shit, all right, all right, so reverse engineered.

Justin Hatcher

First engineers numbers. So as far as closing percentage, it's a little bit tougher to pinpoint that. I mean, that's gonna go up, right. You know but what the biggest thing is when you offer a payment to somebody, your average ticket is higher, right? So your average ticket goes up 20 to 25.

Chris Lalomia

There you go, you literally that's a, that's a number you can take away.

Justin Hatcher

Yes, you literally can give yourself a raise by not even raising the prices, just offering a payment, because it's going to allow you to Sell bigger projects or sell those upgrades. Right, we're not looking at the kitchen, right, you know? Oh, you know, we're only working with $25,000 for this remodel. So, okay, we really want a nice countertop, but we're going to churn out on the finishes. So now, hey, those finishes are only going to cost you $15 more per month. So you're saying you can't afford $15 more, isn't it right?

Alan Wyatt

So what you're saying is if you've been in business for 15 years and you're doing over 5 million and you're not Financing. You're a big dumbass. You're not doing over 5 million and you're not financing. You're a big dumbass. You're not doing over 5 million and you're not financing. You're a big dumbass.

Justin Hatcher

I made yes, sure, if you are.

Chris Lalomia

Thank you, oh, that's awesome, like I've not been called a dumbass tangentially ever before. I usually get called a dumbass right to my face. But thank you, Alan, the answer is everybody. Yes, I have had a relationship in financing and it didn't work and I did not sell it correctly After I listened to these guys Didn't you used to be a banker. And I used to be a banker, I know it's usually worse, I know.

Alan Wyatt

I'm not like Adam no.

Chris Lalomia

I know, I know you can keep beating me over the head with it. So when I found these guys, here's what I liked, because with the green sky and, of course, the way I position it, what I found is, with their instant approval process is it really was instant unapproval and so it'd be so quick bang and there was nothing and it would be a total so you're offering financing that you can't actually offer.

Chris Lalomia

Right, the instant funding was so bad that I had customers go Oscar, I'm just going to do payments. I mean, I'm just going to pay cash. So, or you know what I'm so ticked I had. It was a heart doctor. I literally had to get on the phone with a heart doctor. And he gets on the phone with me and he says Chris, you know, I had the money. I said, and I never met him. I wasn't the guy doing the sale. I said I understand he goes. I don't know what's wrong with your financing company. I said you know I'm, and I did. I said I used to be a banker and I don't know either. I said I know they look at certain parameters and it's a quick approval. I'm sure if you walked into a bank you'd probably be fine. He goes. I just want you to know I can afford this. And I said I know you can. He goes. All right, well, we're going to go forward and I'm just going to pay cash. I said okay, thank you for your business. But like that's how.

Alan Wyatt

that's how the call ended and we actually turned out to be a great job.

Chris Lalomia

So, going back to what you guys have is you have multiple relationships. So if a company, like you said, five million and above is a good sweet spot which which I am and that's why I liked it so in your approval process, what? What is the percentage of approvals versus disapproval? Or what's written by the bar? Rejection, the rejection. Rejection, yes.

Justin Hatcher

So we are so with all of our, you know, because we have multiple first, second and third look by options. So we are hitting right around 85% approval rate right now, which is huge.

Chris Lalomia

That's awesome 85% approval rate. I mean, just look what you can do if you, if you start to offer this, so one in funds platform, tell us how it would work with the company. I'm a contractor out there. How do I use your platform?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, so it's a easy, easy lending application.

Chris Lalomia

I'm sorry I didn't get myself. Yeah, do they say that out loud? Okay, go ahead.

Justin Hatcher

It's a universal credit application, so you can either have it filled out on your, your device, whatever it is tablet, computer or you can email it or text it to the customer. As soon as that's filled out, that gets sent to us, we're going to do a soft credit check and we have our own proprietary back-end utterment that we do, and then what's going to happen then is we direct it to the right lender the first time. So if it's a situation where it's not the strongest credit customer, it's going to go directly to a second or third look lender for the approval. So that way you're not going to have that uncomfortable. You know a Mr and Mr Jones, you're declined by the first lender. Let me go check with the next lender so it just automatically will get routed to the right lender the first time. Then at that point, once it's approved, you pick your appropriate plan that you're looking for and then you sign low documents right on the right on the platform, and then you can manage all the different lenders on there as well, which is nice.

The One&Fund Entrepreneurial Story

Justin Hatcher

From submission of the application to approval is how long I'm going to say 60 to a couple, two, three minutes if it's a not so strong customer.

Alan Wyatt

So how about that? So, by the time you're done, making a sandwich out of the fridge, chris right?

Chris Lalomia

Let's go back to one of my favorite closes. If we're cooking, we're closing baby. That's a shop in the past, a long time ago, in a podcast and I actually I know Justin knows that guy too Paul Brolinson Brolinson.

Justin Hatcher

Yeah.

Chris Lalomia

He talked about the window and siding closes back in the day. If you're making a sandwich in their fridge, you know you got them. Yeah, If you're cooking, If you're cooking for your kid, you know you got them.

Justin Hatcher

So if they offer you a drink, you always say yes, because then you know you got a deal Right there you go Well, how about that?

Chris Lalomia

I like it. I might start doing that. All right, so one fun it's all web enabled. It can be on your device. You could do it right in your house, I think you know. Got to go check this out. I love that you guys have this option. So let's go back to the entrepreneurial story here, though. So you were at Tunderland and Brian came in and said hey, I'm selling, I'm out. Did you immediately go oh, that's awesome. Or did you go hey, what about me?

Justin Hatcher

I mean a little both at the end of the day, right, don't worry. So I stuck with Tunderland through that acquisition of Leaf and then I stayed on board for roughly about six months. At that point I so my wife Jen, I had our own, you know, prelude to one and fund. We had a company called simple choice lending where we had relationships with multiple lenders and just set companies up directly with those lenders. So we kind of already had this business model. So yes and no, I guess the answer question.

Chris Lalomia

Gotcha All right. So you, you work with Tunderland for six months and then you had this idea for one and fund. Did you guys build a business plan? Did you put it? Was it a team? Is it a partnership? How'd you guys structure all this?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, so so, jennifer and I, my wife so I actually reached out to Brian and you know I said, hey, I got this idea because we were going to, we wanted our own platform, right. So there was a company that we were going to build a plan or like white label their lending platform or just have it be our own, and it was a really good deal that we had. So my beautiful wife wanted me to just have somebody else's eyes on it. So I reached out to Brian and said, you know I'm like, hey, that's opportunity. You know, here's this deal, take a look at it. So he called me super excited. So whenever Brian gets super excited, you should be super excited, just to let everybody know.

Alan Wyatt

I'm excited just to hear about Brian being excited. Thank you, Ellen.

Chris Lalomia

There's a lot of excitement going on here in this podcast. Hang with us everybody.

Justin Hatcher

So at that point he's like hey, I want you to talk to my attorney, rob Rob Macklin, and I'm like, okay, so he's going to help us structure the deal. So we met in Nina, wisconsin, at a coffee shop on a Saturday afternoon, which was, you know, my wife was not happy with the potential. You know prices for a meeting with an attorney on a Saturday.

Justin Hatcher

But, so, wherever coffee, we're telling him what the opportunity we have, but halfway through Rob starts pitching us on him. I'm just like going on here, right. So I was super confused and I'm like wait a minute, he likes our idea. So, lo and behold, you know, rob's obviously a super smart dude and he understands business, and the three of us formed one in funds shortly after that meeting. So he left his law firm and, you know, as of February 15th of this year, all three of us have been solely focused on growing one to fund together.

Chris Lalomia

Beautiful. That's an awesome story about how you do that. There are two things, though. They're not so awesome, but I love that you he said lovely wife a couple of times, so I love that you're in partnership with your wife. There's no way in hell by the way over.

Chris Lalomia

here she's on to her own thing. That's important for all of us. So I do not have a way, partner, but that's awesome. You guys do that. You have the three of you. You started February 15th. Here we are to timestamp it. You know we're talking about October. How has it been going?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, it's a really good question. So we we had several tech partners, alan, I had to throw them one ball. Thank you, I really appreciate that.

Chris Lalomia

I mean, I thought it was just funny because I was actually I got. I just got back to the microphone because I did a victory lap.

Alan Wyatt

Say why you got one. It's such a weak question but anyway, it's great.

Justin Hatcher

So we we had a several tech partners that we were going down the path with. They just they another deals felt right because we didn't own the platform. We already wouldn't have owned it and it was expensive. So, oddly enough, my neighbor who works for Amazon and the cybersecurity department you know, I was telling him what we're doing and he's like well, I can, you know, that's my space, I can help you know, consult on it. So we actually hired him as a consultant to interview with all these different platforms and he's like these guys all suck, they don't know what they're doing, they're making it over complicated. I'll just build it for you, like okay.

Alan Wyatt

What a good neighbor to have.

Justin Hatcher

What a good neighbor to have. You know, I take back every time. I egged his house too, so I will you know I apologize.

Chris Lalomia

So I did not toilet paper your house.

Alan Wyatt

That was the other brands. It was Brian.

Chris Lalomia

I did not call the cops on you guys, because your music was too loud.

Justin Hatcher

That was right.

Chris Lalomia

I'm sure he was right, exactly.

Justin Hatcher

Who wasn't me. So we got super fortunate and blessed to have him build our platform. So now it's ours, we own it. It's been a real amazing situation.

Chris Lalomia

And so how many clients have you guys signed up, and how do you go about trying to find clients?

Justin Hatcher

Yes, so we have about 70 different contractors nationwide I work with today. So we recently just hired a gentleman by the name of Sean Peterson who used to be at another lender, so he's our VP of sales. So he's kind of our we're not kind of. He is our kind of out on the streets getting you know his database and you know our main point of contact. So we were at a lot of shows. We're just at Neri. So, chris, down there last week in Las Vegas, did you listen to his speech? Yeah, it was great, it was amazing, he looked down.

Alan Wyatt

Does that mean?

Chris Lalomia

I think he's lying. I think looking up is lying. I think down is embarrassed or something, or I thought it was really bad. He just said oh, I got it in the spot and I'm going to say it's good.

Justin Hatcher

No, I had a text message come across and it was like you know. My screen went blank for a second.

Alan Wyatt

I had to see what it was. Okay, my phone rang.

Chris Lalomia

Nice, Nice to flex. See people from the middle of us are so nice.

Alan Wyatt

I know.

Chris Lalomia

So I think we just found out what he thought about my speech.

Justin Hatcher

He's going to send you a character role.

Chris Lalomia

Hey, I was excited, I still. I actually got some good feedback after so it was really good so yeah, so I had fun with it.

Chris Lalomia

We're doing it All right Back to the one and fun Beat the streets doing trade shows, trying to get your name out there. Obviously, you're on this podcast, so we're definitely going to push this out to everybody and make sure that you check out one and fund If you're in the biz and you want to do this. It's not just for home services people, though. Right, I mean it could be for anybody, anybody.

Justin Hatcher

So anything that's professionally installed. Like I said, we work with home service companies, like yourself, chris. We work with roofers. We work with a lot of you know we have a deep ties to the one day bath business. We work with a lot of shower companies, a lot of window companies. You know, like I said, we've we've tapped into the concrete flooring network quite a bit too, so that's an interesting lot of opportunity there. We also are. I'll give a plug to one of our main you know partners, which is engaged. So we're actually engaged as premier financing partner, which they've never done that before, which is super cool, that they were super honored to be chosen for that. So if you are an engaged user, we actually have customized slides that you can put right into your presentation and have us basically do the financing conversation for you, which is awesome.

Alan Wyatt

You, you. So when you sign up a contractor like Chris, do you actually offer training?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah.

Alan Wyatt

So that's a big.

Justin Hatcher

You know, a big part of our platform and the way we're growing about the whole consumer financing aspect is we built this for home improvement people because we're home improvement people, right. So we didn't build it from the aspect of a lender, right, cause lenders build it. They want you to fit inside their box and it doesn't fit inside the box. I don't want it. Where you know, my whole goal was I wanted to level the playing field with contractors and lenders, cause there's a weird power dynamic I'll call it just for PC version so I wanted to level that playing field. So contractors have just as much power in the say. So that way, if a lender is not performing guess what they're off the platform and there's a new lender. That's kind of fulfill what you need at that point. Yeah, it won't change the process, though.

Chris Lalomia

Yeah, it definitely is user friendly, easy to use. The training part is big, especially if you're a company that has not tried to do it. So we're leveraging that and the and the training options that they have as well. So I'm looking forward, especially again time stamping this we're looking at. You know, we're in fourth quarter, 23, going into 24, you know, and that conference. We just talked about an area. I listened to two economists on the second day which was really interesting. Their outlook right now is that it's going to be down. You know, what do they know? They don't know anything. And don't worry, we're in Atlanta, we're going to rock it.

Justin Hatcher

That's an easy thing to predict.

Alan Wyatt

That's an easy thing to predict.

Chris Lalomia

Yeah Well, in fact, one of them even said that don't look at my old predictions, because I can show you where I'm wrong. I can show you where Jenny Yellen spent a while. I can show you where Ruben spent a while. It was funny. But the point is, people are going to start checking up on their wallets and I've always found that that you know, in the election year especially, people start to check up going. Well, you know what? I can't do it now. But if you offer financing, you can say, well, look, you're spreading your, you're spreading your risk out over a number of years and you're giving yourself the opportunity to improve your home and have a home that you can enjoy and pay overtime. So there's a lot of benefits to having and offering this financing option. So I'm thrilled to have met these guys, looking forward to seeing how we can implement it and get some wins out of this as well. That'll be a fun thing to follow. It will be. I'll make sure I keep you guys up to date on that.

Book Recommendations, Home Features, & Customer Service

Chris Lalomia

So, justin, this has been amazing. I love the story. You guys are just getting started. This is one of those things where and Alan has talked about this before in a number of podcasts. You were in the home improvement industry. You were there and then yet you found another way to start another business in that same. So we are looking for people. If you're listening to this and you are still hung with us, we're looking for people who are in the same space, who started another business in that same space using a different tact or different angle. So, justin, kudos to you, and that's why another reason I wanted to have you on because you're able to think of another idea and think out of the box, if you will, to create a box, as it were.

Alan Wyatt

Like that. That's good, you can hand yourself into the corner of that box. Okay.

Chris Lalomia

All right. So, Justin, if you could get everybody the details, how do we find you guys at One and Fund?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, so you can go to. You can email us at info at number one a-n-d. Fund dot com or just go to our website one, but I did it both ways. You can either put the number one a-n-d, f-u-n-d dot com or you can spell it out o-n-e one and fund dot com. Nice.

Chris Lalomia

There you go, we'll find it all the way around. All right, this has been amazing. Thank you for coming along the journey with us. I knew you guys have stuck with us. We got to go to our famous four questions. What is a book you would recommend to our audience? Would be entrepreneurs or small business owners looking to scale.

Justin Hatcher

So would be. I would say my well for new entrepreneurs. Starting, I would say the Art of War is my favorite book. Just to kind of give you that fighting, you know, just to give you that really good theory. I love the Art of War.

Chris Lalomia

So I got the art. It's the Art of War, sun Tzu, right, and the Art of War by Business. So I could understand what Sun Tzu was saying, and so we put this out there. We put it on YouTube, right, and you are allowed to comment out there, right? And some guy goes why would you listen to this podcast when they talk about dismemberment and death of people?

Alan Wyatt

Because I brought up the Art of War book before I was like you. You are awesome.

Chris Lalomia

Sounds like an AI troll. Oh, I love that, though. That was awesome, so it's a great book. Thank you, that's a good one, all right, and a book for a scaling entrepreneur Book for a scaling entrepreneur. Man because he said he was thinking that way. I was thinking I'm going to go with it.

Justin Hatcher

Yes, I actually was Great question Chris, so yes. Alenber 2 for 2, baby.

Alan Wyatt

It's not 2 and 2. What, who's counting?

Justin Hatcher

I would say how the Mikey fall is an amazing fall.

Alan Wyatt

How the Mikey fall. Yes, the Crystal Alamio.

Chris Lalomia

Actually, how do the people who think they were Mikey fall? The guys who think they were Big Deal fell, and nobody even knew it, because he was just a deficit of tea cup. All right, that's. Those are two great books. We'll get those in the show notes for everybody so you can check it out again. All right, next question Give us a oops.

Alan Wyatt

I just thought we're on question B. Chris B, I'm on.

Chris Lalomia

B. What's the favorite feature of your home?

Justin Hatcher

Oh, so that's, that's the easy one. So we just poured a. We have a. We just purchased a swim spot and we poured a big patio in our backyard that we get to use two months out of the year in Wisconsin.

Chris Lalomia

So all right, is a swim spot nice? What is a swim spot? Yeah, it's going to ask, is that a small pool?

Justin Hatcher

So it's like it's a 17 foot hot tub that has seats in there, but it has, like this, michael Phelps swim jets.

Chris Lalomia

Right, all right. So first year you've had it right. How many times have you used it this year?

Justin Hatcher

A lot, so our six year old loves it. She, she. You know she wants to go in like every day, so you know we can pull times a week. We use it quite a bit.

Chris Lalomia

Nice. Yeah, I first year we had the pool, I mean couldn't stay away from it, and lately it's been. I go out there and just sit next to it. I don't even go with it, even in Atlanta, where we can use our pool year round, and and the two months we can't use it is the middle of July and August because it's 150 degrees outside, the water is 92. So all right. Next question what is the customer service pet peeve of yours when you're out and you're the customer?

Justin Hatcher

That's really, I would say, not being paid attention to, and I'm not a needy person, but just like kind of being the having just never been asked if I want to refill or anything like that, or just when I actually want to want a customer like attention, you know or not, I should say that. But like when I want like help from somebody and they ignore you, right, I'd say that's the biggest pet peeve.

Chris Lalomia

All right. So if you're out with a group of people and you probably have been with one of those guys because I'm not this guy, if I'm being ignored, I'm not the one who gets up and goes and gets somebody I'd rather just sit there and say, okay, it's all right, I'm just going to let it go. But I have a friend who is always that guy and he gets up and next thing you know, the entire restaurant is going to know and that's got to be tough. All right, which guy are?

Alan Wyatt

you. Well, I'm just thinking how can anybody ignore you, because you're usually dancing around the restaurant and high five and everybody.

Chris Lalomia

That's probably. That's actually more than what I do, but I don't get up and go. Can we get some service here please? I mean, that one just makes me feel so awkward, yeah.

Alan Wyatt

I'm the same, I'm the silent assassin.

Chris Lalomia

Yeah, yeah, I'm the gregarious assassin. I'm the hey man hey, buddy, thanks for that water. Hey, while you're doing the water, you think you can get us some drinks. You know what he's thinking. Okay, can we do that?

Alan Wyatt

That's I'm that guy.

Chris Lalomia

So there you go.

Alan Wyatt

Don't ignore me. You got the dollar bill kind of tucked between your fingers.

Chris Lalomia

Right, hey, snappy snap, slip it in there and slip it in his coat pocket for him, all right.

Alan Wyatt

So that's the last question here.

Chris Lalomia

We got Subway coupon, so I clipped this out of yesterday's paper buddy you want a mattress here? Yeah, here's a sale of mattresses here. Go check this out. All right, so now we figured out how Chris tips. All right, so we're in the home proven industry and you've proven that you worked in it and actually been pretty handsy. What is a DIY nightmare story?

Justin Hatcher

Yeah, why? Well, I would say Well. So I, in our basement I just put a new vinyl flooring for Chris. We were hosting Christmas that year, so I finished the floor and I did all the walls in the basement. I get a panic call from my beautiful wife saying our basement just flooded, so literally two weeks after it was done and so I had to rip out that. I mean I guess it's overlining. The dumpster was still there. At least I could remove all the wet floor and have to go install new floor.

Chris Lalomia

You know, that's what I tell some of my guys in our system when you're writing quotes and sometimes you forget to hit save and it's, and you lose like an entire 30 minutes worth of work. Oh geez, yeah, we've all done that Right, everybody's been there. I said here's the good news and, justin, good news is you probably put that floor down a lot quicker the second time.

Alan Wyatt

I was going to ask if you put the same, put the same color down. Yeah, Like yeah.

Chris Lalomia

Oh man, Justin, this has been awesome. Guys, if you haven't learned anything, ladies, if you didn't pick something up here number one if your husband's not seeing beautiful whites by you, you might want to go hit him over the head, because he's really cool, or?

Alan Wyatt

his wife Find yourself a man from Oshkosh.

Chris Lalomia

Right, well, he's from. Oshkosh. He's from Minnesota.

Alan Wyatt

He lives in Oshkosh he does now.

Chris Lalomia

Yeah, he's from Minnesota. I can say it Come on, yeah, I can say the whole thing. Oh, the boat.

Alan Wyatt

Yeah, it was one weekend in the lamp.

Chris Lalomia

Suddenly you're in Oshkosh. Yeah, that was four years in school. That's why I got it All right. That's been great everybody. Keep that momentum up, keep that energy up, keep going to attack in the day. Let's go make it a great day. We're out of here. No-transcript.

Head Shot

Chris Lalomia

Host
Head Shot

Alan Wyatt

Co-host