EP# 129 - From Military to Building Mastery with Marc Arnett's Inspirational Path

Imagine navigating the aftermath of a hurricane and transforming it into a business success story. That's exactly what Marc Arnett, the savvy founder of Sunset Builders and Maintenance, did. In a candid discussion, he walks us through his fascinating transition from bucking the system as an unconventional employee to establishing a thriving construction company. Marc's expert insights into picking the right contractor post-Hurricane Ian are gold — particularly his advice on why licensed and insured professionals trump the alluring, but risky 'chucks in a truck'. And for those of us intrigued by the digital revolution, Marc sheds light on the dynamic ways technology is reshaping the construction industry, from first client interaction to project completion.

Let's also take a moment to appreciate the intriguing backstories that shape our leaders. Marc's journey from military life to the sunny paths of Southwest Florida isn't just about building structures — it's about constructing a life with purpose, and sometimes, that includes skydiving! Through our conversation, we underscore the vital role of straightforward communication in cementing contractor-client relationships. It's the secret ingredient for realistic project estimates and stellar outcomes. So, if you're on the hunt for a contractor who can turn your vision into reality, you won't want to miss the practical tips we share for making that perfect hire, coupled with how to forge a personal bond with your contractor's team that's built to last.

Sunset Builders & Maintenance, Inc
Marc Arnett
15271 McGregor Blvd, Suite #3
Fort Myers, FL 33908
(239) 236-9646
info@sunsetbuilders.net
WEBSITE

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.

Speaker 2: 0:10

Welcome Good Neighbors. Episode number 129 of the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Marc Arnett from Sunset Builders and Maintenance Marc, welcome. Good morning Cabo. Yeah, pleasure to meet you, excited to learn a little bit more about what you guys do over there, absolutely yeah. Why don't we start off? Why don't you share a little bit about what you actually do over there?

Speaker 3: 0:35

We've been in business for 14 years and we have been taking care of the residential and commercial construction customers of Southwest Florida had a focus primarily on the Sanibel Island and, thanks to a little storm called Hurricane Ian, our complete business model changed drastically.

Speaker 2: 0:56

That changed a lot of people's business plans and futures around here, but hopefully we're all rebuilding and getting back on track. So how did you get involved in this industry?

Speaker 3: 1:09

I'm a horrible employee. I kept trying to reinvent the wheel for a lot of Fortune 500 companies and I found out the hard way that they don't really want to reinvent their wheels. They like people to comply with the way they have things set up. And I kept getting fired, quite frankly, and I finally just said you know what. I'm going to set out on my own and see how this goes. The rest, as they say, is history. And I might add, be careful, what you wish for, you just might get it Right, and then that's the thing, what you wish for.

Speaker 2: 1:45

You just might get it Right, and then that's the thing. You know, sometimes you've got to follow your passion, follow your heart. What you thought you were meant to do is something quite different. You know, I was an art school major, you know, back in college, but then I got into business. So it's, things have kind of evolved and changed and you go with the flow. So, talking about that, everybody's had some type of challenge or obstacle along the journey. You mentioned a couple.

Speaker 3: 2:09

There Is there something, maybe, that you can look back at now and say you know what? I'm in a better place because of it? Well, just about every day in business, you're presented with an obstacle or a challenge that will require you to examine your soul in great detail, because you can take the easy road out a lot of times, which will come back to haunt you eventually, or you can, you know, stick to your guns and do the right thing, and that's probably the hardest part of being in business is to continually and persistently enforce that rule of doing the right thing.

Speaker 2: 2:53

And it's getting it's tougher and tougher. Nowadays, A lot of people aren't doing the right things.

Speaker 3: 2:58

It seems like the deck is stacked against you from regulations to uh gosh. You know I I make a joke about it, but being in business would be so much fun if it weren't for customers and employees. You can just do everything yourself.

Speaker 2: 3:16

It'd be great yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:18

Yeah, you know, we, we try our best to uh educate along the way and you know there's there's still a select few out there. That just you know. I'm going to do it my way and I wish them well. And you know, probably just say we might not be the best contractor for you.

Speaker 2: 3:35

Absolutely, and that's better. Sometimes it's tough to say, but it's better in the long run for a lot of things. So are there any maybe myths or misconceptions that we could clear up for our listeners surrounding what you guys do?

Speaker 3: 3:50

You know, construction is one of the very few industries where, if you have a pickup truck, a skill saw and a tape measure, you can go out and sell your services as a quote, unquote, carpenter or, you know, contractor. There's a lot of differences between people like that and myself. Licenses, insurances, warranties, you know. A lot of times I tell people, you know, my price is what my price is, so that I'll be in business in four to five, six years. If something should go wrong with something that I did, god forbid, knock on wood. Hopefully that doesn't happen. But if you walk up and give uh, we call them chucks in a truck, if you walk up and give chuck in a truck a five thousand, ten thousand dollar payment to remodel your bathroom or kitchen and they're gone, your money is too and that's then.

Speaker 2: 4:48

That's happened quite a bit since ian as well, too. We got the people that come in kind of swoop in and promise all these services, take the money and run yes, there is a very simple process to validate any state licensed contractor.

Speaker 3: 5:03

you can go to, uh, the department of business and professional regulations uh, forgive me, I didn't have that website handy but it's DBPR something. But if you just type in Department of Business and Professional Regulations it will take you to that website. You can look me up by Sunset Builders and Maintenance Zero on my chest. I'll get them looking at it backwards you can look at. You can look me up by my personal name and that. Or you can look me up by my license number and any state certified contractor can be discovered. In that way You'll see if there's been any complaints lodged against me. You know we have to bear our soul to the world when you hold that state license and if you can't find that information, that should be a flag.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Right, yeah, so when you can't find that information, there's something going on there. So, getting back into the industry, are you noticing any, let's say, trends going on recently changes?

Speaker 3: 6:01

Trends.

Speaker 2: 6:04

New technology, yeah, new technology.

Speaker 3: 6:07

Technology is definitely helping our business. Technology technology is definitely helping our business. You know we're getting contracts from from the day I meet a customer to the day we're turning over a hundred thousand dollars or better. Contracts is much shorter because of all of the electronic devices, uh, that are available to us from. You know, nowadays you can take a picture of a room and it'll plot it out in a map for you.

Speaker 3: 6:30

Where you might, you might have to wait a week or two to get that done longhand in the old days, the cell phone just the capabilities that that one little device gives us, compared to. You know I'm fortunate because I've been in this business for 26 years and when I first started everything was longhand. You know. Know you had to, you had to write a letter, you had to make a phone call, you had to send a fax to get some of this information, and now it's. You know, punch a couple of keys on the keyboard and it's, you're sending, you know, large data files to an engineer and back in a matter of seconds. So it's faster, but it also opens the door up for more errors if you're not on your toes with what's going back and forth.

Speaker 2: 7:19

Absolutely. Technology is a wonderful thing, but sometimes can cause a headache for us. So are you from Southwest Florida originally.

Speaker 3: 7:28

I'm originally from Eastern Kentucky, kentucky, and around the age of 17 I joined Uncle Sam's Traveling Roadshow, otherwise known as the US Army. I've lived in a lot of different states South Carolina, north Carolina, georgia, new York, a bit overseas for a little bit. I've lost my accent pretty much, unless I call somebody back in Kentucky. Then I can get it back pretty quick. I I've lived in Florida since 2000.

Speaker 2: 7:58

Wow, what brought you down here?

Speaker 3: 8:02

My ex-wife. She was originally from Buffalo, new York, and she decided she wanted to live in the sun and the sand. And I said, you know, I don't have any family in New York, so I'm like, well, I can stay up here and shovel snow or I can go live on the beach and shovel sand.

Speaker 2: 8:17

I'm like, seems like a good trade there you go, so you can't blame the next wife for everything there you go, she got you down here right.

Speaker 3: 8:25

There you go. Yeah, it's been a life-changing endeavor. I'll give it that.

Speaker 2: 8:31

I bet. So what do you enjoy doing? I know being a business owner is very demanding. You probably have very little free time, but what do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Speaker 3: 8:45

My passion is skydiving and jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. Been doing it now since 2016. I actually did that in the service I'm an airborne knucklehead, if you will and I jumped with a couple different groups here in Florida and currently I call Skydive Denel in my home Central Florida. Skydiving Nice.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Very cool. So what is one thing you wish our listeners knew about? What you guys do that maybe they're not aware of or wouldn't know?

Speaker 3: 9:18

Okay. So this one is a passion of mine. The more forthcoming you are with me about your project, the better price, the clearer the picture of the price that I can give you. What does that mean? Everybody looks at contractors like we're used car salesmen in some ways. And no disrespect to used car salesmen, because I think there's probably some good ones out there. I just haven't met them. No disrespect to used car salesmen, because I think there's probably some good ones out there. I just haven't met them.

Speaker 3: 9:47

But if you have an idea about your project, you know I would like to do granite or quartz, I want to do full plywood cabinet boxes or whatever that may be. If you'll share that information with us when we go through the discovery process, we will put in front of you a much more accurate estimate, if you will, and you're going to get a much better product at the end of the day. So I see a lot of customers treat this whole process in an adversarial situation. It needs to be more of a collaboration. We're here to help you get what you want. We're your partner.

Speaker 3: 10:22

And yeah, unfortunately we have to make a profit to stay in business. Nobody likes to talk about that word, but it's got to be there. And if you'll, if you'll, if you'll, take one thing to heart if my prices are so far out of line, I'm not going to be in business Either. If I price something too low, I'm not going to be able to stay in business. If I price too high, I'm not going to be able to sell new business. So 14 years I've been doing this, so I feel like we've got a good price. Can you beat me? Yeah, anything's possible when you pick a contractor. You're trying to make a personal connection with the staff. My staff you rarely are going to see me out there, you know, hammering nails and so forth, but my superintendents, my project managers, you're going to be dealing with them on a day-to-day basis. So you should have a good working relationship with those folks. And if you don't feel it, don't sign the contract.

Speaker 2: 11:26

Absolutely and, like you mentioned, it is about the relationship and knowing that those people on the other end are going to be taking care of you and, of course, being upfront with their information as far as the customer is concerned, always helps the situation, because it's a little hard to go back after the fact and say, oh, by the way, I wanted to do this instead, or that's not what I wanted, so I get it. I get it. So how would our listeners go about contacting you if they had any questions or concerns that they need to address?

Speaker 3: 11:49

Well, I guess the simplest way is to visit us on our website at wwwsunsetbuildersnet. We can also be found using a very similar name on facebook and instagram, and our main office phone number is 239-236-9646. And, last but not least, if you want to shoot me an email directly, that's marc m-a-r-c. marc@Sunsetbuild. net, and I'll make sure somebody takes care of your questions.

Speaker 2: 12:24

Marc, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor. And I hope to see you on the community here soon, Jim thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpestero. com. That's gnpestero. com, or call 239-296-2621.