In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by guest Brian Alexander to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover what can help you grow and expand a company.
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Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses!
In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by guest Brian Alexander to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover what can help you grow and expand a company.
Connect with us on social media:
- Facebook: Thomas Bennett
- Instagram: @Thomas.mbennett
-YouTube:@SmallBusinessMoneyConnector
- LinkedIn: Thomas Bennett
Subscribe to "Small Business, Big Moves" on Your Favorite Podcast Platform for more inspiring episodes on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses!
Welcome to Small Business, Big Moves, the podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Tom Bennett, and we'll explore all things business growth from business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses. Welcome to the show. My guest today is Henry Suari. Henry, I'm excited to have you on the show. If you could introduce yourself. Hey, thanks, Tom. Yeah. So my name is Henry Suori. I've been in a service industry for 20 plus years and been able to grow the company to what I once thought was just a dream. But you know, with just keeping at it and learning from some failures and going through what a lot of entrepreneurs do, I've been able to like push through some of these. Terror barriers, as you call it, fear and indecision and things that keep you awake at night. And I've been able to to level up in sales and I'd love to share that with your, with your clients. For sure. Absolutely. Yeah, I know. I'm excited to have you on and then kind of piggybacking off that right today. Today's episode, we're going to really jump into, growing and expanding companies. And I think that's something that a lot of listeners out there will be able to get some value from. So, so we'll jump right into that. But I really wanted to kick it off with kind of where your journey started. I know you said you've been in the service industry and roofing industry for about 20 years. Let's take it all the way back. What got you into the industry and realize, hey, this is something that I Can really help a lot of people out with, of course. Yeah, that's a good start actually because you know, it goes back to when I was like in seventh grade in school, by the way, I grew up in a very plain community called Amish and we worked very hard and milk cows by hand, but my dad on, on the side, he would work for his brother. And we would paint roofs, like, with a big old brush and a handle we would climb, and mostly what he would focus on, on the roofs was, Pennsylvania, it was these big old hay barns with the metal roofs. And we'd go up there and on ladders, put the ladders on the peak and have a bucket of paint. And I just enjoyed it. I don't know why, I just enjoyed it. I loved, absolutely loved it, even though I grew up on farming. And then when I went on my own, after about a year and a half after I married, when I was In my early twenties I went on my own and I couldn't get along with the boss. So here I was trying to do everything myself. So like a lot of others, they said, I'm going to do it myself. Absolutely. And then, so you, you branched out on your own. Sounds like started your own roofing company, obviously. And then just went all in from there. Yeah. So what happened was I didn't really know a whole lot, but I had like one, I had two people that really believed in me. So I took that leap in within well, just my first job I did by myself. I was going to be a solo entrepreneur. Didn't really know, know much about business. Cause my dad really didn't teach me anything like that. And so agreement company fast forward to five years. I decided I don't want to do business anymore. Cause I said, I hated this business life. It's always on the phone. I was a guy trying to work everything out myself. I like four or five guys and I was doing actually pretty good financially or so I thought I was making decent money, I mean, for the time being, you know, what people were making So I sold my company to my brother and you know, pennies on the dollar really, and went back into farming. But within two years, I started back up again because I just quote and hacked up farming. It just wasn't me. So I started in the company again. And within one year I had reached the level of income that I had left off with prior, and that was like, Oh my goodness. Did I just do that? Like, how can I scale that fast? It took me five years to learn the other. so I joined a roofing group where I bought into like a membership. Then I started going to some of their seminars and then I started reading books and it just, it just went up from there really. Absolutely. I love that. So was, was there one thing specific that really, I know you just kind of going back to what you just said, right? You you were taking like five years, Trying to figure out sounds like trying to figure out how to scale it. And then all of a sudden, I just kind of figured it out how fast that could happen. What were some of the things that made you realize how fast you can really grow and scale a business? I think one of the main things in the very, very beginning was structuring, like I didn't know how to structure a company, I didn't know there should be a department, like we do repairs, we do replacements, and I didn't know how to actually I didn't know how to duplicate myself, really that's how I was, I didn't know how to I didn't know how to hire someone. I would, I would hire someone, then I wouldn't get along, we'd get in arguments, and then they would leave. And then I'd hire another person. And I couldn't figure out how to scale. And so that's what this big, the biggest thing for me was when I learned how to replace myself and be okay with just having it good enough. You know, it may not be as good as I did, but I realized that when I had somebody working for me. He was duplicating me, and then I could, you know, generate income from them. I think that was one of the biggest things, really. I know that's huge, right? And a lot of people struggle with that step. Pretty much, I think we all do, right? You're, you get something good going with yourself, and it's hard to kind of let go of that, pass some of that on to someone else. Do I trust them? Can they do it as good as me? And it's good to look at right? If they can do even 70 to 80 percent of how you can do it. That's a, that's really a short way to just build that trust and let the company grow. So I'm excited to see how you've done that and hear a little more about that. Yeah. as, as I continued, of course I had ups and downs, all companies do, I think, but I didn't realize that, like they say in the service industry, like your first Breaking point is like somewhere between 700, 000 to a million. What that means is you got to learn to duplicate yourself and, and then you can't grow past that point. And so a lot of people are stuck there. And then the next one is 3 million. And it's not with always how it's like, who, who are you going to help? But it takes systems and procedures. And what I learned. Is breaking down a company in four, maybe five parts. So this is a really, really helped clarify in, in different areas of business. And I think this is for everybody. First is marketing, right? You gotta have your marketing or if you can't market, you don't have business. Then you got to sell, sales. If you can't sell it, then of course you don't have no money. Then is a service industry. You got to be able to deliver the goods. So if you can't manage your projects properly and get it delivered and do a good job people won't be happy and they have a hard time growing. And then it's finance. So the finance is how much debt do you have? How much debt load do you carry? Can you get a loan? Because do you have cash flow? And then, of course, there's the people. If you don't get the people side right, you ain't gonna grow, really. You can't scale. Those are all all great points. And, I mean, it's true, you're gonna have all, all those pieces together if you really wanna grow and expand. Obviously, then you kinda get into the financing, right, once you're starting to grow and actually have a solid thing going. Once you know, you're going to actually use those funds to grow the business, then it's a different conversation. But when you, like you said, you're just kind of starting out Hey, I need a hundred thousand and this is going to be a million dollar company. It doesn't, doesn't normally work. Yeah. I think the hardest part is to to learn to work with others. Like you need to learn to recreate. We need to learn how to hire someone and inspire them to recreate. Also, like, I don't need to come up with all the ideas, but I am a visionary. I'm a dreamer. And then, so I have these ideas and it's throughout my key people. And then we need to figure it. They need to figure out how to make it work, you know? So also an organization is unable to grow if, if the people aren't willing to grow themselves as a leader, because every person needs to model themselves, you know, model and then mimic. And then they need to duplicate. And so first we need to have a model of who we need to be. And so that's why systems and procedures need to be in place. And that's why standard standard operating procedures need to be written out for each person. So they know what to expect it. Mimic you you, you start duplicating yourself. And then you transition out to the next thing. Definitely. Yeah. No, that's huge. I agree with that a hundred percent. And then I know you touched on it briefly, right? We talked about how it's up and down, up and down, right? It's never just, you start and then it's up the whole way. Right. I know that's what it looks like online and what we, what we see obviously with all the wins and all the good things going on, but walk me through some of the downs that you've had, some of the. struggles or the hardest parts about kind of starting a business and then get into where you are today. Goodness. the downside, I guess it's not something that we love to talk about and we all get them. Right. And so it started from the very beginning. I was, I had such a hard time to get started with hiring people and then Either they weren't honest or I didn't give them clear direction or I didn't hold him accountable And then so I just went through a lot of people and let me see the biggest second biggest was Oh, there was a few years ago when I had to completely replace the office of like three four people And it was just coming down to I didn't have the right people. So here's the thing I think we all get stuck on we think the person that we hire should be with me with us the next 20 years And it reminded me of that book that's called What Got You Here Won't Get You There. And so every one of us has a strength. And then so, some people are only willing to go this far and that's it. So you need to replace them to go from where you are now to the next level. And so on. And so that really helped me once I seen that. Yeah, I know those are big, big lessons that like you said, you don't want to go through, but it's good to good to get them out of the way earlier and learn from them. And then kind of the reverse of that, what's something that's helped you move faster in the business or really throughout the whole journey, something that you can kind of credit a lot to get into where you are today? I think if you learn how to sell it, it's huge. Not just, I was going to say get along with people, but that's just average getting along. Like we need to be able to read people. And so the one thing I did, I used to hire people based on their personality. I do have a company do that for me. So I could get a person that was, you know, the personality was for bookkeeping or was for call taking because they're way different. And now I learned that myself. And so I do the reports myself and I teach others how to do it also or do it for other people. So I guess to answer your question, what was one thing that really helped me grow through that? I think one of the biggest things was sales because I didn't have a structured sales system in place. And then when I got that after I restarted after my first company, that really helped me to train others then. When I hired new sales guys, for sure. that's huge. And I know, I know we've been talking about that a little bit, but I wanted to open that up a little more too, right? I know we talked a lot about kind of growing and expanding the business mastering sales and really understanding that yourself makes it a lot easier to. Hire a sales team, grow a sales team train a sales team. When was it, I when you realized, Hey, I can really, I really got this figured out when it comes to hiring and growing sales teams. You know, I'm not sure if I'm there yet. What I mean is I still make, you know, we still make mistakes and we hire people and it's not always the right person. It seems like, you know, like for the, on the hiring side, you take a chance and cause everybody comes in with a great talk and a great resume. And so I'm still working on, I guess I'm still working on that as far as that best move for finding that right person. You really just have to go through a lot of people and be okay with it when it doesn't work out to, to fire, like let them go and then just, you know, rehire, you know, that's expensive, but make sure that you have a, an onboarding plan. That's what really helped me is write out a plan for onboarding. And a plan for retaining. See most people, when they hire someone, they go around, they show the office and they say, well, here's your job and yeah, okay, there you go. You can start working on that. And they have nothing written out for them. Like the next 30 days should be steps. They need to follow. They need to have at least 60 steps, probably as far as from payroll role set up, what to expect, maybe a book to read that you need to test them in the first two weeks or 30 days, at least. You know, how competent are they? Are they, are they willing to do what it takes to go to the next level for you? when you figure that out and crack the code on Hiring most, almost always getting the, getting the right fit. I mean, it's something that every business owner struggles with. Right. Obviously we get the systems in place, the whether it's core values, KPIs standard operating procedures, whatever you have in place, obviously you're still going to come around. Those reps that just aren't, cut out like to back to what you said about the interview, right? I mean, anyone can come in and look like a rock star and a closer. in the interview. But then once you get them in and it's time to actually put the reps in, it's not always, what you expected. So I, yeah, I definitely hear that. Right. Yeah. And going back to the roofing industry. Right. I know it's kind of an industry that obviously is a required industry. I mean, there's a lot of people that. need roof repairs or new roofs, right? Anything that that you guys have been able to do to separate yourself from? The competition or maybe something that you guys have adapted. That's a little more unique in a way. Well, there's a couple of things that we do. That's a little bit different. And so what we do, we do a drug test and a background check before we hire people. And then we subcontract out quite a bit and they have to agree to our terms also that if we see someone on their team. That's in question that we're allowed to drug test them. And so that just kind of helps us separate, you know, us from the competition from that. Cause you know, drugs are really a problem these days. And one thing we do is all the phone calls that come in get answered. So I've for years had a live answering service. So if we don't get it on like the third ring or something like that, it rings out to a call center. They take the call. It almost sounds like my office that you should be able to call 24 seven. A myoplasm and somebody says, Hi, thanks for calling Panda Roof. How can I make you smile or some standard greeting? That's great. You know, that is a huge concentrator. So glad to hear you guys got that going on. Is that something you've adapted early on? Or is that something more recent that you said, Hey, this is something that could really take us to that next level? That's actually one of those things that I have learned like years and years ago. I didn't like voicemail. I hate it when I would call a company and they would just put me in voicemail. You know how many times you actually call another company because they don't pick up the phone? If somebody just picks up the phone and says, got it, he's not here, he'll call you back. I can wait a day, right? I know he's got me. I got their number, but if it just goes to voicemail, I'm like, dude, you know, so next time I have a problem with my roof, he's good to waste. No, I mean, I'm trying to get someone to do my roof for 30, 50 grand, you know, maybe need siding on a house, maybe any new home, which we're doing right now. But you gotta have, you gotta have some good phone etiquette, you know, answer the phone. That's the biggest thing. I think it is. You think in the In the service industry in the industry that you run and you think it'd be a no brainer, right? I mean like people do everything they possibly can to to get leads and customers in the door But I mean i've seen it firsthand. I've had I actually had a flood here. A couple years back It was like negative 18 degrees, right? I had a height burst overnight and obviously i'm sourcing contractors to come in and it was amazing how many people just don't answer the phone or get back to you. A couple people I called two, three, four times, voicemails, emails, nothing back. I said, you know what, this isn't a company that I'm going to work with, right? And then even with large jobs, like I looked into a couple remodel projects and even the same thing. I mean, you have large jobs and people just Just aren't willing to take it or aren't willing to return the call. So it's pretty interesting what you see into that point is, I can't draw that home enough. If you just, just answer the phone, return the calls, and then find out if, then maybe find out, okay, we can handle this job or not. But it's, that's always been interesting to me seeing customers be left out in the dark with With the service industry. So I'm glad that's not, not an issue for you. Yeah. I mean, that's the biggest thing because you'll know the next phone call, what it's going to bring you in. And if you don't answer the call, like what good is everything else that I'm doing, you know, that builds confidence too, when you answer the phone. I know. And that's exciting stuff with the with the call center that you talked about. I love that. I mean, I know that's something that a lot of businesses are starting to adapt to, but that's, I don't know. I get maybe I don't know the industry in and out, but that's that's something I haven't heard of too much in the Like roofing or service industry so that that's exciting stuff for sure And then you can set it up where if it's an emergency Like they can call you after hours or text you it's eight o'clock at night. You don't want the call They'll say hey, let me see if there's a dispatcher or a dispatcher to see if some like Let's see if there's a tech available and they might just go to me or whoever's taking the calls and I could say yeah, just give me the call and we'll talk and it's like You know, it's awesome because I don't need to answer all the calls. We close at 5 or 4 p. m. So the call just go to the call center until next morning. That's great. And then how does I'm sure it varies too, but how does your process typically work with like if a customer reaches out to you, obviously you get the, you got yourself, a staff, the the call center team they're reaching out and then that's getting routed to the right person. And then will you guys go out and look at the property or kind of find out what their needs might be? Yeah, so it's, so so they leave a message and then in the morning the call taker gets these messages and calls the people back and then sets up an appointment for one of our technicians to go out. And then on that call they do like a discovery, you know. Find out what's going on. Do you guys need a repair? Is it an emergency leak? Is it a commercial roof? You know because different technicians, we have different technicians for different fields. So some are skilled in this more than others You know, is it an insurance lead, you know, do they need insurance? Claim filed like do they need help, get the tree off the roof like just whatever and then so we put it on our schedule immediately and go out there and we try to get out there within usually 24 hours. If it's an emergency, we'll make room for it. Right? Otherwise we schedule out three, four days typically. Good stuff. Well, yeah, it sounds like you get a get a solid business going and get get that all mapped out. So I love hearing that. I love talking to business owners in different industries that are doing big things for the business in the community. Anything else that we didn't cover or jump into that you wanted to touch on? Leave the listeners with.Today. Well, you know, I think it starts with, you know, knowing your, why, know which direction you want to go. And then you got to have a clear, crisp plan. Like who are your customers? Who are you trying to sell to? That's one, right? And then that depends on how you market to them. How do you find them? And then need to be persistent, don't give up, you know, you got to be willing to make mistakes, not allow your own people to make mistakes, but you know, get into a habit, get into a groove, like have have something going on every day, like phone calls a certain time or whatever. Behind me, I got airplane just pretend propeller and I got motivation and habit. So, because that's huge for me because I I took my Aviation course. I've been like flying now for four years and I got my ratings to fly in the sky, got my own plane now, small plane. But it was a huge, huge win for me and it was so hard for the first year when I practiced. it was just terrible. It was hard for me. I was so scared of flying, but I wanted to. But the thing I learned is Our unconscious mind needs to drive sometimes, like driving a car. There's so many things to do in an airplane, so many things going on at the same time. Like, we are taught to multitask. If you think multitasking is hard when you text and you drive, it's double that when you fly. You have to multitask because you're flying the plane, talking to the controller, and you and you have to make quick decisions sometimes, as you're in the middle of everything going on. And so, that just comes into your business perspective. You've got to have a plan, and you've got to have a system, right? And then you got to have accountability. And so you need to have a something you can measure success with like you need to see your numbers and all that. So it really just had quite a few things coming together right there. Definitely. No, I mean, I'm glad you connected that. Cause when you were talking about that plan, I knew where you were going and I was going to say there's so many. Lessons that can tie back to business with that. That's awesome. You did that in exciting stuff. Congratulations. Yeah, so that that's going to be a wrap on today's episode of small business, big moves. If you enjoyed today's episode, what would really help us as if you shared this podcast with someone you think could get value out of it. You can also hit me up on all social media platforms at Thomas Bennett. And in the meantime, we'll look forward to seeing you guys on the next episode.