Welcome And Who Pavel Is

0:30

my name is Pavel, and, uh, name of the company is basementremodeling.com. And, uh, you know, we service homeowners who have basements throughout DMV. Cool. All right. For those who may be hearing your story for the first time, can you share your journey from moving to the United States to becoming the founder and CEO of basementremodeling.com? Yeah, I mean, it's a long story, but I'll try to make it shorter. So I came to America in 2006. I just came for summer as a J-1 student, and, uh, literally, like, after a week I knew, like, I wanna stay here and find the ways to, uh, stay in America. So I found my ways, you know, I stayed and, uh, first, uh, day, maybe second day, like, after I arrived, um, I ended up being in construction as a helper, and that's pretty much how I

Moving To America And Starting Work

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like, got pulled into the industry. And, uh, so from that point on, it's just a lot of hard work, and I registered my first company in, uh, 2009, about three years after being here. We started working, like, for ourselves, like, a little bit before then. And I started the company, just it was me and my partner at the time. Uh, we split ways about a year later, and, um, uh, just from that point on, you know, a lot of hard work and dedication and, uh, I never really had a plan that, like, I'm gonna start a company and, like, I gotta become a CEO. It was never a plan. Uh, for me, it was just all very natural, uh, just one step after another. Uh, maybe seven, eight years into it, I-- and, uh, being in America, like, you know, for, like, you know, eight to 10 years, I just kind of started to realize that, you know, this b- this is, like, my real home. This is, like, wh- where I'm, where I'm at and where I'm from for now, from now on, and, uh, just started building the business and, like, started having a vision. You know, I, I would say, like, when in my 20s, I did not have that. I probably had, like- I knew that I'll be successful and I'll be like, I'll, I'll work hard, but at the sa- at the same time, I was not what's called like... I was not like a visionary or anything, you know? Just the, the vision came like a lot later. Uh, yeah. Yeah. So building it as you went along. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly, yeah. Not there is like, no some... it's just, yeah, boring story of, uh, working hard kind of, no, no, no, not boring at all. Yeah. Yeah. And you came into the construction industry really quickly after arri- arriving in America. What initially attracted you to this line of work, and when did you realize you wanted to build your own company? I mean, I was always handy. I was helping my dad when I was little, just doing things, you know, around the house, doing things la- at our summer house, doing things like in the garage. So I was always handy. Uh, I was never like a really good cook. So when you're like 20 and you don't really speak English, you really have like couple options out there. Maybe like, you know, go work at the restaurant or like, you know, moving company or construction. There are like not that many options out there. And, uh, the way I ended up in construction is

Early Construction Reality Check

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just like we, we arrived and like we met someone, "Hey," like, you know, "Do you guys wanna go work tomorrow?" And we just like ran and worked, and we were shocked, I'll be honest with you, because like we came here, uh, as we were just college students, you know, college kids, and we didn't really like do anything like that. And we just ended up in this situation when we are on a roof in Philadelphia. Like, and I'm from Russia, like we don't know what is like 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Like, the, like, the, the, the hottest I've ever experienced like was 80 probably. And, uh, we are just out there like, you know, third day in America, we are on that roof and it's 100 degrees and it's like crazy humid. We also do not know what is humid because it's like Ri- like the part of Russia I'm from is like very inland. We just we don't know h- we don't have humid. So I was quite shocked. So I never went back to roofing. Like, you know, one, one, one, one week, one week, uh, like, uh, a- as, as the roofing helper was enough. But then, you know, just you build connections, you know, meet some people here, some people there, and we just ended up like working for that company that, um, was doing hotels. And we traveled with them. And then when, uh, we were done with that company, that's when I decided, "Okay, I wanna work for myself." And obviously at that point, you know, I like, I mean, I had like, you know, a year or two experience in construction, so I just like started doing little things, you know, by myself. And then those things got bigger and bigger and bigger. And then at this point, like, uh, I mean, it maybe, it might have been like, you know, four or five years since I've been to the construction site myself. But yeah. Oh, that's awesome. So you went from being on site and then now you're kind of working behind the scenes? Yeah, probably. Cool. Yeah. And you talked a lot about systems, automation, and building strong teams. Why has creating structure within the business been such an important focus for you? That's because that's the only way to build a business. Because if you wanna be self-employed and you just wanna have like, you know, three or four people, uh, who you're gonna tell what to do, that's one thing. But if you want to build a business that will, uh, that, that can flourish like without you overlooking and, uh, managing everyone, uh, structure and the systems is the only way. So I realized that, uh, maybe

Systems That Let A Business Scale

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like about 10 years ago, like I said, you know, maybe like seven, seven, eight years into being, being in America you know, that's when I started doing it, uh, because I knew... And like I said, it just all came naturally, you know? Like it's not like... I might have read some stuff, you know, like I started reading books about entrepreneurship and and, and, and everything, but just, you know, all those books, they talk about different things because everyone gives, uh, their own perspective. And, you know, my perspective was that, you know, I have to build a structure, I have to build, uh, systems, uh, so people know what to do without like me being present. And, uh, there is also some kind of guardrails so they don't go-- They, they can go this way. They like they have to kind of follow the, the, the, the, the process. And to build the process you have to build the software. That's h- when I started build- building, you know, our own software and it just like, you know, right now pretty much my job is more of like a, my job is more of a CEO of a tech company rather than the CEO of the construction company. Okay. Yeah, because all, 80% of my time is dedicated to building software. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. So you mentioned working on a software company based on systems your team has developed internally. What inspired you to create technology solutions from your own business experience? I just know that, uh, what we've built works. And, uh, I just, I ne- I, I know that, uh, I mean, I know we can, like, you know, commercialize it and make a lot of money. We can just get rich off it, you know? But at the same time, you know, it's, that's, like, one perspective, but, you know, like, probably somewhere on a deeper level, I'm pretty sure that I just believe in the product because I can see, uh, how

Turning Internal Processes Into Software

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it helped me get, uh, where I'm at because it's obviously, you know, the people, like, without the people, nothing would, would happen. But that's kind of obvious, right? But then, you know, you have the people, if you want to grow the company without being constantly involved, that's why you need the structure and the s- I mean, the, and the software is pretty much the structure, like, because everyone does everything from their computers right now. So you have to give them the tools, uh, to, to do that. Yeah. You know? I think that's awesome. You found something that works for you, and now you're helping other people. Yeah. Yeah. So basementremodeling.com has become known for transforming underutilized spaces into beautiful living areas. What do you enjoy most about helping homeowners reimagine their homes? I mean, honestly, the transformation, like the word that you've mentioned the transformation, just getting the project from, And honestly, like, we do a lot of work, like we do s- some of our projects like in a very older homes in DC and, uh, the things that we do out there. So one thing, yes, like, you know, if it's a huge basement, like, you know, somewhere in actually Loudoun County, we can do a lot of cool things out there, but a lot of companies can actually do that. We

The Joy Of Basement Transformations

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can do something Uh, really nice and beautiful in terms of design. But the transformation from like, you know, having like, you know, a tiny little basement that is like, you know, this tall and turning into like a beautiful, uh, space. Uh, complex projects, uh, structural projects, underpinning projects where we're basically digging under the house and just building a basement where it wasn't... Where, where, where, where, where there was no like real basement. That those things are really cool. But transformation, just taking it having a conversation for 30, 40 minutes doing the f- I mean, like, that's what our design team does. Uh, doing the floor plan and then converting into a proposal, and then taking this proposal and converting into a, a, a plan and just having everyone knowing what to do and, uh, just and getting to that result and the transformation is like that's the most satisfying part. And obviously customer satisfaction, you know, like when people leave reviews just, you know, it's always like, uh, makes everyone's, everyone's day better when we like, you know, got, get a new, get a v- a new review and we always send it to the company, uh, group chat. We always share and we always like thanks the team. We always thank the team for the hard work and everything. So yes, it's transformation and, uh, just having like a happy customer. Yeah. Yeah. Being able to give them that good experience. Yeah. Yeah. And customer service is a huge priority for you. Why do you believe the client experience matters just as much as the finished product itself? Yeah. I think it might even matter more because in the end, I always say that, uh, you can give someone a perfect basement, but if you're gonna come back to that basement a year later, it's gonna like, you know... When we work with our clients, they wanna be like s- I would say majority of them, they want everything. Maybe like, you know, majority of them, they want it normal perfect, like there is a little percentage that that who want it ultimately perfect. And the thing is like we'll give them perfect walls and that's fine,

Why Experience Beats Perfect Finishes

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you know, like that's just like I would have the same expectations. But at the same time, uh, getting there it's more important because a year later that basement's gonna, you know, the walls gonna have scuffs, the floor is gonna have like, you know, some marks. Uh, like it's just like, you know, like wear and tear. So the basement's not gonna be perfect like, you know, after someone being there for three, three, four month. But, uh, the process of getting there, because if someone's gonna go through this experience of like having a painter come back like 10 times to get the walls and the ceiling to the paint work like to the point where they want it, uh, I mean like that'll just stick in there. And like, you know, that, that whenever the people have like other basement or if they need to get their bathroom or kitchen done, uh, they're not gonna call you. But if you're, if you're if, if, if, uh, the expectations are like standard and your basement is not absolutely perfect, uh, but the experience is great, You will, uh, you know, uh, you will get a repeat customer. Like, the, the, the people will come back to you because in the end, experience is more important than, than, uh, than, um, e- experience is more important than the final product. Final product is just as important, but if you like-- If I would weigh them, I would just say like, you know, this is, th- this is like, experience is just a tiny bit more important than the, uh, final product, assuming that the fi- final product is already A quality, yeah. I'm not, I'm not saying like you can give somebody like, you know, C quality and just be satisfied with that. I mean, I'm not even like looking at, like I'm not even looking at that situation. Yeah. So giving them, giving them a good experience so that, um, you can build like a long-lasting relationship with them. Th- for that reason and just for the reason is because that's what they deserve. Yeah. I have like very high expectations myself and, uh, I totally get like, you know, when we have customers like who have the same exact expectations and delivering for them and, uh, is like, is, is, is very important. Yeah. And what are some of the biggest misconceptions home- homeowners have when starting a basement remodeling project? The big- the biggest misconceptions I don't know. Honestly, what are the biggest inc- misconceptions? Some of them may think that it's easy and like they, they, they start to do, they try to do it themselves. If you run into this, those situations relatively often. But, uh, just based on our experience, I mean, like, you know, we have the best customers, like, and, uh, I think we

Misconceptions And The DIY Trap

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try to educate them so by the time, like, you know, uh, by the time we- they're signing the contract they just have no misconceptions. But in terms of like, you know, what regular people think of, you know, like of, of, w- w- I mean, just maybe just they think that it's easy and it's not. You know, like doing 100 basements a year, uh, is like throughout, uh, you know, uh, three s- like throughout two states, uh, uh, plus DC and, uh, throughout like, you know, five counties in one state, throughout like seven counties in the other state is harder than building a 100-story building. Like, I mean, it's just, it's like logistically the amount of... Because you have like 50 people who are spread out, uh, through you know, 60 square miles, like, or like, no, like probably what is 60 by 60 is what? Uh, 3,600 square miles, you know? It's what way harder than just having them like, you know, come to the same place for a year, uh, building a high-rise. So, uh, it, it is a complex process. But, you know, it's complex for us. Uh, we wanna make it easy for the homeowners. But those who think that they can do it themselves, they, uh, in 95% of the cases just, uh, unless like, you know, they have experience and they have resources, they have subcontractors, and they can do the right job, you know, by pulling the permits and the, the do the right thing by pulling the permits and stuff, like, you know, that's 5% of those who try to do it themselves. The 95, uh, percent fail. I mean, like try to build a car. Yeah. It's kinda hard. And you've built a company that continues to grow while maintaining strong systems and processes. What have been some of the biggest lessons you've learned as a business owner and a leader? I would say, you know, while you are a CEO, you just always have to keep your, uh, hand on the pulse. You know, just while I might not be at the office, you know, every day but just, uh, you know, having consistency with checking in with, you know, the people who are your direct who respond to you, uh, that's

Leadership Lessons And Company Culture

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probably, that's probably like, you know, o- one of the most important things. So like if you, if you build the company, don't think that it's just... You know, I st- I talk about the system, I talk how, how autonomous it is, but the management part, the leadership part, and the culture part is still important. So I would just say like, you know, if you, to give you a quick answer, you have to, uh, continue encouraging the culture. Yeah. Yeah. And the things like I didn't talk much about the culture. I think just once again, like it just came naturally. But I think, you know, if you talk about the culture, it is extremely important for the long-term, uh, growth and for the retention of the people. Yeah, because you can't build a company, uh, w- without a good culture. You're just gonna have like people, coming and leaving. And in our case, our subcontractor, my like m- our, the subcontractor, the subcontractor who was with us the longest, uh, has been with us like f- for, since like I started the company. And, uh, my second employee is still with us, and, uh, he basically started out from, uh, uh, um, uh, from being a helper in construction and, uh, right now he's a senior project manager, basically taking over like on the most complex projects. Uh, and all of this is just because of the culture, because, you know, just build a culture of, uh, uh, build a culture of excellence, build a culture of, uh... What is the word? Like when you're responsible for, you know, for your actions. There is a word for it, I don't remember. Yeah. Uh, accountability. The accountability. Yeah. Yeah. The culture of accountability. Yeah. Yeah. So making those connections with the people that you work with. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And you mentioned that trust is becoming, becoming even more important in today's world. Why do you think that personal connection still matters so much in an industry that's becoming increasingly driven by technology and AI? Yeah. Uh, I mean, our industry, I would say, is probably not, not as driven by technologies a- and AI. Uh, but yes, I mean, like I, I see, I see a lot of those products, uh, where, uh, you know, they advertise like, "Send us the photo and, you know, we'll generate the estimate and stuff." But, uh,

Trust And Face Time In A Tech World

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I mean, you may sell, you know, a $3,000 job like that, but if you're trying to sell a $100,000 job, uh, i- in the world where most of the meetings are happening through Zoom companies are being managed and built through Zoom with AI employees and everything you, uh- Like, you know, we just have, like, less personal interaction, and it makes it even harder for some people, you know, to, like, find the right, the, the right person. And, like, doing it without the personal interaction, like letting-- Like I said, you know, I can talk about, like, our industry, which is kind of like, you know, a higher end, you know, large remodeling projects. Whether it's a kitchen, master bathroom, addition, or anything like that you are letting someone into your house for the period of anywhere between three weeks and, in some cases, 12 weeks. You have your family out there. You have your kids. M- just, uh, the personal interaction, uh, especially at the point of, like, you know, uh, making, uh, an initial meeting, like, you know, having an initial me- initial meeting, having, um, going through the design process and, uh, contract preparation process, that is, uh, uh, extremely important. And obviously doing the job, I mean, like, I always tell our project managers, "You have to be there. You have to give our clients face, uh, face time even if you don't have to." Yeah. Yeah. So being there for your clients and not just doing everything with AI. Yeah, with AI or- Yeah like Zooms or anything. Uh, like Zooms help, but, uh, yes. I mean, like I said, in our, in our case, y- in order for you to build a basement, you have to have people on site. But yes, the admin side of things and the communication side of things, I encourage more of a... I used to encourage less of a personal touch, and I would say like, "You know, you guys need to be more at the office," and, you know. Right now, I actually tell everyone, you know... Like, because AI makes everything you do at the office is a lot easier, and you free up the time, and I want them to use AI so they actually can spend more time, uh, uh, talking to customers and make sure they're, m- making sure that they're happy. Oh, cool. Yeah. And AI and automation are rapidly changing business operations. How do you see technology positively impacting the construction r- construction and remodeling industry while still preserving the human side of business? Uh, I, I mean, the tools definitely help you stay more organized. Uh, just, I mean, it's, it's, i- in our, in our industry, it's all about the project management, obviously. So like I said, you know, uh, we, we, when it comes to construction, there are two side of things. There are people who are actually doing the work. AI

AI In Remodeling Without Losing People

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is not gonna change anything out there. You still have to train, you still have to do a good job, like nothing's changing out there. But, uh, the, uh, project management part, like the ad- administrative part of the project I think it just makes, uh, the quality of everyone's work higher. And it's like, you know, it's, it's kind of interesting because on one end, AI helps a lot to make everything look really good on the screen. And then like, you know, people can actually build this, uh, with AI right now. Like you can build like this presence or a- an illusion of like, you know, really cool company, but then you don't have the people. Or even people who are starting out, like, you know, they may be really good like with AI and like admin things of s- of, of, of, uh, admin things of, uh, admin side of things. But, uh, I mean, in the end, all of that is important. But just having the right people go out there, show up, and do the work. We can, we can, uh, we can easily finish the basement without AI, uh, and without computer, but we cannot finish the basement without the electrician, plumber, a drywall hanger, a painter, and the flooring guy. Like, you know, th- those things. Yes. So I, I always say like our industry is as fine as it is, like our industry is just gonna be unaffected by the technology for the next like, you know... Like the way like, you know, the, the, the, the, the construction side of it is not gonna affected by technology for the at least like, you know, next 30, 50 years. We have to build the b- the houses differently because I cannot see... I mean, I can see the robots do the s- do, do, do, do certain things, but, you know, just, uh, uh, I can see robots invading the, uh, industrial and commercial construction. So everything like high rise, uh, robots are already replacing certain, cert- certain people. In our industry, remodeling, when you go into the house and you have like even just getting into the house sometimes, even getting into the basement sometimes, uh, is a challenge. Like, you know, getting the drywall into the basement is a challenge. Yeah, yeah, that, that part's gonna stay unchanged. Uh, so yeah. Yeah. So using it, using it as a tool rather than letting it run the whole thing. Yeah, absolutely. 100%, yeah. And as someone who spent years building and scaling a company, what advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are trying to create a sustainable long-term growth in their business? Um, I would definitely say you have to read and learn and watch podcasts because, uh, we all live in a bubble. And, You know, we can only lear- learn so much from the surrounding, you know, environment and, uh, especially if you're like, you know, not in San Fr- in not in San Francisco, uh, you know, where everyone's like breathing technology and AI and everything else. Uh, you just have to, and it be e- even

Advice For Entrepreneurs And Learning

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just the inter- you know, the culture of the, uh, entrepreneurship is just stronger, you know, in some, in certain areas. But, uh, yes, you just have to constantly educate yourself. That's 100%, and you have to believe. Yeah. You know? So constantly learning and taking in new information. Absolutely, 100%, yes. Yes, that's what I do every day. That's why like this drive here was not, was, was, was, was easy. And for anyone considering remodeling their basement, transforming their home, or wanting to learn more about your company, where can they find and connect with basementremodeling.com? They just can, they just go to basementremodeling.com. It's very easy. Schedule a consultation, get an online quote, or just give us a call. Cool. Yeah. As we wrap up, is there anything you'd like to add that I haven't touched on today? No, I don't think so. Thank you so much, Pavel, for joining me on the podcast and sharing your knowledge, creative passion, and inspiring story with us. I wish you the very best

How To Reach BasementRemodeling.com

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in all that comes your way in the future. All right. Thank you.