EP #223: Raul Trestini with Superior Fence and Rail: Forging a Family Business and Conquering the Fencing Franchise Frontier
Mar 28, 2024
Jeremy Wolf
Discover the blueprint for entrepreneurial success as Raul Trestini of Superior Fence and Rail joins us to chart the company's remarkable journey from a modest enterprise to becoming a trailblazer in the U.S. fencing franchise arena. You'll be captivated by Raul's candid recount of the trials and triumphs they faced, and the essential role that well-oiled business processes played in their growth, far surpassing the simplicity of just putting up fences. We tackle the complexities that homeowners encounter, such as HOA guidelines and the unavoidable maze of permitting in South Florida, and how Superior Fence and Rail's customer-centric approach ensures a seamless experience from the first phone call to the final panel installation.
Strap in for an intimate look at the inner dynamics of a thriving family business where blood ties and shared passions intertwine. We discuss how the Trestini family manages to weave their love for soccer into the fabric of their company culture, promoting teamwork and unity. Raul shares the secret sauce behind maintaining transparency and honesty in every transaction and the ongoing effort to educate the market on the necessity of proper fencing procedures. As we round off the conversation, we underscore the importance of a team that stands together, ready to support each other through every project. If you're seeking inspiration or considering a fencing project of your own, tune in for a wealth of knowledge, and learn where to find superior resources to guide your next steps.
Discover the blueprint for entrepreneurial success as Raul Trestini of Superior Fence and Rail joins us to chart the company's remarkable journey from a modest enterprise to becoming a trailblazer in the U.S. fencing franchise arena. You'll be captivated by Raul's candid recount of the trials and triumphs they faced, and the essential role that well-oiled business processes played in their growth, far surpassing the simplicity of just putting up fences. We tackle the complexities that homeowners encounter, such as HOA guidelines and the unavoidable maze of permitting in South Florida, and how Superior Fence and Rail's customer-centric approach ensures a seamless experience from the first phone call to the final panel installation.
Strap in for an intimate look at the inner dynamics of a thriving family business where blood ties and shared passions intertwine. We discuss how the Trestini family manages to weave their love for soccer into the fabric of their company culture, promoting teamwork and unity. Raul shares the secret sauce behind maintaining transparency and honesty in every transaction and the ongoing effort to educate the market on the necessity of proper fencing procedures. As we round off the conversation, we underscore the importance of a team that stands together, ready to support each other through every project. If you're seeking inspiration or considering a fencing project of your own, tune in for a wealth of knowledge, and learn where to find superior resources to guide your next steps.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy Wolf. You know I say this often Sometimes the universe tries to tell you something and I think our meeting today or our guest today can be serendipitous, if you will. We have Raul Tristini with Superior Fence and Rail, and he was on the calendar to come do the interview. And the other day I got a letter from my association saying that I needed to replace some rotted pieces of my fence. And I said to myself who do I know that does fencing? And here we go, sitting here with a fencing company. Raul, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3:
Thank you for the invitation, Jeremy.
Speaker 2:
Of course, of course, and thanks to our listeners for tuning in to learn more about our great community and the businesses that serve us. So let's get into this. Tell everyone a little bit about Superior Fence and Rail.
Speaker 3:
Well, superior Fence and Rail. Well, superior Fence and Rail. It's a franchise, the first successful fence franchise in the United States. Many tried before, many are trying now, but Superior Fence and Rail started franchising well, actually started as a brand in 2000, I think six or one by an entrepreneur lawyer that bought a fence company in Orlando. He started as a licensing agreement, expanding and got eight or nine brands open in Florida. Then, in 2016, he partnered up with one of these licensee holders, zach Payton, which is currently a franchise president. Because of the model, he had to turn into a franchise. That was back in 2016. They franchised it. It's been great. We actually were the fourth franchise to buy the fourth territory. They sold Broward County. We covered all Broward County in 2018. And they have expanded since then. We have more than 100 physical locations. Right now. We cover everything from California, seattle to New York, florida, michigan, utah. We have more than 300 territories, 100 physical locations Utah.
Speaker 2:
We have more than 300 territories, 100 physical locations, millions and millions of foot of fence installed every year. So you guys, since 2016, Superior Friends of Rail has reached over 100 locations in that period.
Speaker 3:
Correct. Let me just put an important note there 100 successful locations. Right, because that's a tricky point. Right when franchising in construction. There's a reason why fences has been there way before you and I were born, but nobody was able to successfully franchise it at that level. There's a lot of big companies for sure that cover extensive territory.
Speaker 2:
Why do you think that is? What is it specifically or what is it unique about the fencing industry, fencing business that makes it difficult to scale up and franchise a business like that?
Speaker 3:
Because most of the fence companies are run by great fencers, great fence installers, right, and they're great at what they do. They build fences beautiful, but they're capped at what they can do, right. What Superior Fence and Rail did is they put a business. This is a business, it's a corporation, it's a multimillion-dollar business with a significant amount of employees and it's run like that. So the process to run a fence business is like, probably similar to many other industries, right, and then you have people in your team that are specialized in building the fence, that are trained and guided to be experts when it comes to building fence. But I think that's the difference process to be followed, and every market is a little different, right, we'll get to that through your questions. But our market down here is a little different because of what you said in the introduction. Your HOA demands you to fix some things, even if you want it or not.
Speaker 2:
I love when the HOA they send out a notice to fix something and then you have questions about the notice and you can't reach them. They don't answer. It's like what's wrong.
Speaker 3:
Well we do all of that and that's what would separate Superior, especially here in South Florida, to most of the defense contractors is that we do that right. We get a lot of calls. People like you, jeremy, that are busy, got a letter, say hey, figured it out. So we go there and we take off all the pressure. We like to tell our team to always refer to the process as headache-free. We are a service business, all right. So when we talk about our business it's not offensive. So when people ask me what I do, I don't say I insult offenses. That's not what I say, because that's not what I do. We are in the service industry. We service people that require Home improvement and the industry of fencing and we do that, but it's more. The time we probably take. An average will be 60 days. Every account is open for about 60 days on average, someone so longer, some months are shorter. And when we do the service then we go one day and install. So the installation is not the bulk of the process.
Speaker 2:
Are a lot of the jobs requiring permitting to do fencing, replacements or no, it's just All of them. Did you hear me? Okay, we're connections are a little spotty. So, like every job requires a permit, every fencing project.
Speaker 3:
All of them in South Florida, broward and Miami. It's where we are, it's Broward. We have a lot of HOAs too, so they have their own rules and then the city have their own rules, right. But that's the tricky thing with the cities right and the market, especially new homeowners they haven't gone through the city process, they've never replaced a roof, they've never put in new windows or fencing, so they think it's easy, it's just a front, just come replace it and be done in three days.
Speaker 3:
Like well, we cannot do it, unfortunately. You know, uh, there's a process we got to go, we have to have a license, we have to be insured. Um, I would say most of the of the fence contractors, uh, should have a license. Most of them do I do. Um, we have to have a license, we have to be insured. Because, to be honest, when we started five years ago, what we realized is that in the past, many, many years ago, the reason why there are a few companies that has been over 40, 50 years is because a lot of the other ones were. They weren't set up to honor their agreement. They started, so they sold a lot of fences, but then they couldn't honor it. So that's why the city started. Okay, we need to have a license. We need to regulate this a little bit. So in the fencing industry there's a lot of conversation around the united states if there should be regulations for every state. Most of the business owners do not want regulation right um, but in south flor we need a permit.
Speaker 2:
So what license is are you talking about? Like a GC license, or is there a specific license under the GC umbrella for fencing or for that type of construction?
Speaker 3:
Right, it's not a GC, it's called Certificate of Competency. It's kind of a special trade license.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so 2018, you got involved with this franchise. How did that happen? Tell us a little bit about your journey leading up to that, what you did before and then how you transitioned and ultimately made the decision to kind of buy into this concept, this franchise with Superior Fence and Rail.
Speaker 3:
Well, my family we were at that point, we were living in Panama. My parents were looking to invest into something different. My dad has been all his life in construction. He used to do construction projects for private and public projects in South America. So when they decided to move to the us and look for an investment opportunity we're still looking at options and somebody, uh that we knew refers to say, hey, there's a this new business that are they're starting to franchise. A few months ago. It looks interesting when, when we met with, uh that time time, chris Johnson and Zach Payton, who were the franchise source, my dad just said this is the business we're going to do, this is what we're going to do. And at that time there were obviously only Florida, because the headquarters of the franchise are in Oviedo and Jacksonville, so we were only Florida. The options were a little small and, due to our uh latin america background, my uh, my dad decided that south america will be will be easier due to a lot of, uh hispanic culture than here south florida would be easy.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, right, so so you, your whole family, up until the point when you came over here with this business, were we're all living down in panama. Were you already up here, or was all of you down there?
Speaker 3:
well, well, I was actually personally I. I was studying uh college in spain, uh, at that time, uh, you said when they came it was a nice did you say oh nice, yes, barcelona, spain.
Speaker 3:
It was it great, a great time of my life. But when they opened up, when they decided to start this business, we saw it as a great opportunity and I moved back here and I started running the business for them. It was great. It was a great experience. It was a great experience. I've always had the mentorship from the franchise, solo especially, and he walks us through the process, and we managed to sell over a million dollars in the first 12 months. So it's been a long journey. We're probably, at this point, installing about 500 to 600 projects every year and we're only doing residential. We were only doing residential up to last year. We're starting doing some commercial job to, but our focus is residential properties.
Speaker 2:
Right on. So always nice to get a look under the hood from local business owners. And when it's a family run business and you have the whole family putting their heart into it with a story like that, you really can't go wrong. So it's your father, I think you mentioned your brother Thomas yourself. Anyone else? In the family involved in the business and my other brother, alex.
Speaker 3:
he runs our installation department and my parents function more in a CEO perspective. They also run my mom runs the accounting part of the business and my brother, tom, is more involved in what the sales process would be. But it's as any other small business it's all hands on deck, right, you got to be doing Vegas. It's a small business at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, that's impressive Anytime you have a family that's able to operate a business like that and not get down each other's throats all the time. I know if I took my family and tried to put a business together, I don't know if it would be very successful, so my hat's off to you guys for creating a successful business with your family. I mean, obviously it means a lot to you guys and the passion shows in speaking with you. So, raul, what do you like to do for fun when you're not working, brother?
Speaker 3:
When we're not working, I like to play soccer. Soccer is my hobby. Choosing like going to the stadium, especially now, of course. In Miami Although we don't win, but yes, in Miami.
Speaker 2:
So you must have been excited when Messi came over here. I was just talking to somebody the other day. I was at a poker game and soccer game up and I talked about how the transition that's going to occur over the next five years, 10 years in this country because Messi came here. I mean, in the past soccer has always been kind of a second rate sport in the U S right, it's, it's the most popular sport everywhere else. But now, with Messi's presence here, the youth are just going to take it and run with it and it's going to become such an unbelievable presence in the US.
Speaker 3:
It is great. I think there's with all the international tournaments coming right. The World Cup is coming, the Cup of America is coming. I think the US will be one of the most important countries for soccer related in the next probably 10 years. They'll get their spot. They want it and they'll get it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, couldn't agree more. So, sitting here today, looking back through your journey, is there something that comes to mind, a life hardship, a challenge, something that you struggled with along the way? Maybe it's a defining moment, something that you drew a valuable life lesson from, something along those lines, what do you got?
Speaker 3:
As a challenge in this business transparency. Transparency, it's something hard, uh, because and and I understand when a lot of, a lot of small business owners struggle because they want to do things the right way and um and and and at the same time, they want to earn the job right. So it's been, it's been a challenge for us to train our people to always be honest and transparent, regardless of what's out there right um. Give you an example that we've come to, uh to situation. Let's say, you and me call the office and and the guys go and, and then you say, well, but you know, you're the third company that comes and you're the only one that asked me for a permit. So I'm not going with you guys because you want to, you want to, you know, you want to get me for my money. I'm like so it's been a conversation with all our staff. It's a it's a constant conversation and and has been a human, human resource hardship to find people that understand and they want to do the right thing, because the end it's like uh, you know, mr wolf, unfortunately those are the kind of regulations. We do require permit, we have a license, we do everything for you, but you gotta be willing to, uh, to do the things proper way, um, so I think that's a hardship.
Speaker 3:
What we've challenged mostly is is educating the market, um, letting them know that we're not saying that they're not people out there that are great. There are good companies out there that do good things, but you got to follow the process, you got to follow the rules. You know we're here to help, we're here to do it for you and in that note human resources. It's the most valuable asset of our company. We've been very lucky and blessed to have great teammates, great people in the office, even the people that are not longer with us in the company it has packed through. The business in the last five years has been great, and I think that's the most important for any business, regardless of their size, right, having good people in it.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely so for anybody out there right well, like myself, that maybe they just received a letter from the association. Maybe they've been staring at their fence for the last five, 10 years and they've been thinking to themselves subconsciously I need to change this thing. They just haven't done anything, but they are listening to this now and they want to go do something. How could they reach you guys? Let us know how we could find you and how we could learn more.
Speaker 3:
Sure, you can just give us a call, 954-280-0407, or look us up online Website. I love our customers going through our website, superiorfenceandrailcom, because they'll be able to see everything that we offer. They're going to be able to see pictures, they're going to have information. There's a lot of education resources there to know about the fencing process, right, and they'll also look at our financing options, which sometimes a lot of people say like, oh, I can't do it right now because I got a budget for it, but I want to know a price, and that that's great. Right, that's, that's smart.
Speaker 3:
Um, but at the same time, we we are telling look, if what you want is do it in small steps, we, we can offer you a zero percent zero percent even in this crazy market for 12 months. So the same as cash. You know. So, you know, so you know you're going to be paying what? 200 bucks a month, depending on the fence. You got right Two, three, 400, whatever it is. But look us up online. We do have some social media, we're improving our social media and you can look us up in the Good Neighbor podcast too.
Speaker 2:
Right, absolutely. And we will, of course, us up in the Good Neighbor podcast too right, absolutely. And we will, of course, link in the description to all of your contact information to get the word out into the community, because I know there's quite a few people out there like me that are going to need to do these projects and it's good to have a resource available. So, raul, thanks for joining us today, thank you, jeremy. No, it's our pleasure, and thanks to our listeners for tuning in, and we will catch you all next time. Everyone, take care, have a wonderful day. Bye.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's gnp coopercitycom, or call 954-231-3170.