The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 54 - Bumble Bee Blinds: Innovation in Window Treatments
Kyle Williams never imagined he'd own a blinds company, but after 15 years in consumer product sales, he recognized an opportunity to disrupt an industry that hadn't seen meaningful innovation in decades. As founder of Bumble Bee Blinds of NWA, Kyle joins the B-Team Podcast to reveal how window treatments have become his unexpected passion project.
The conversation takes an illuminating turn when Kyle demonstrates the technology that sets Bumble Bee apart - an augmented reality application that allows customers to visualize different window treatments in their actual space before purchasing. For homebuilders Matt and Rob, this solves a persistent pain point: helping clients understand what premium options like motorized blinds actually look like versus standard two-inch blinds that often end up being replaced.
What began as a franchise exploration during a mid-career reflection has evolved into a thriving business offering everything from basic blinds to sophisticated motorized solutions with solar charging capabilities. Kyle explains how their laser measuring system eliminates human error, while their same-day, down-to-the-penny pricing approach removes the frustrating wait times typical in the industry. For windows without nearby power sources, their solar charging options solve problems many customers didn't know had solutions.
Though the conversation reveals the challenges of balancing entrepreneurship with family life and full-time careers, Kyle's disciplined approach demonstrates that passion projects can flourish alongside professional stability. By creating efficient systems and hiring exceptional staff, Kyle and his wife have built a business that operates smoothly without requiring their constant presence.
Ready to transform your space with window treatments that combine form and function? Mention the B-Team Podcast when contacting Bumble Bee Blinds of NWA for 10% off any product through April, and discover how this locally-owned, nationally-backed business is changing how Northwest Arkansas thinks about blinds, shades, shutters, and exterior screens.
Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, Josh Safran, with my co-host, Matt Morris, and our permanent guest, Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business. The B-Team Podcast Be here. Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Safran, along with our permanent guest, Rob Nelson and our co-host Matt Morris.
Speaker 2:I threw him first. I saw that he was on his gear, I was sitting there, I was waiting, I was ready to speak, and then you threw it a different way and he did good. Yeah, I was expecting that. He wasn't even on his phone, like he was listening and engaging. It was crazy. Guys, like it's the new rob over there, I mean we got a podcast.
Speaker 1:Yes, these guys are here all about their business. And to pull out your phone in the middle and be like I'm just gonna sit here and have my cocktail.
Speaker 2:These guys are being a bunch of cocks.
Speaker 1:Well, we are here every Thursday for all things Bentonville, business and bourbon, and today we got Bumblebee. More B's in our name tonight, but my good friend Mr Kyle Williams, Thanks for having me Well, well, appreciate it, guys. So first off, I know you a long time You've been in the CPG supplier community. You've done a lot of things. You just decided with your wife six months ago, 12 months ago, that you wanted to become a small business owner and start your own thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, certainly, maybe not as abrupt as you're suggesting. But had you know, as you mentioned, I've been in consumer product sales my entire career. Love it, it's a ton of fun. I had an opportunity as Josh and I were talking off camera for a second Like we worked. An opportunity as josh and I were talking off camera for a second like we worked together for a few years and it was greatest boss you ever had.
Speaker 2:Matt why I don't know the answer to that. I would, I would. He said that he said he was your boss.
Speaker 3:He said yes, yes, I said he said, he said he worked with me. I think I think it's better to say uh, he said I worked with him. I would say he worked with me. Yeah, for for you, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, some days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dependent, yeah, but you know from a pretty early age. You know I started in this business in New Jersey in a distribution center at like in North New Jersey for Coca-Cola, packing out shelves, taking pictures, shout out to Coca-Cola, shout out to Coke. Rob did that too. There it is. You were at RC, I mean, you know.
Speaker 2:I had a fight. Yeah, I guess that all the budget money. Build relationships.
Speaker 3:It was nice to have a little checkbook, that is, that is true. But you know it's it's easy, it's tough work. So I did that, you know, for the first five, six years of my career and really early on I realized I was like this kind of sucks.
Speaker 3:It doesn't take long I was like the glamour wears off fast, it's a great gig, um, and actually pretty early in that I was interested in becoming an entrepreneur, um, and I ended up, uh, going like without any information.
Speaker 3:No research, went very deep and actually got a franchise offer from a golf franchise, um, who hilariously is in town now called Golf Tech and Josh knows this. I'm a big golfer, my wife's a big tennis player, and the unfortunate part was I had absolutely no capital and I had no reasonable plan to raise any capital and it was a pretty steep cost. So it was a great learning experience. But at 25, I had to pass, so you kind of fast forward 25, now 40, I decided to take a little career break and really think about hey, what do I want? The next kind of 15 years, you know, I think my first 15 years in the industry look like and that very much involves some degree of entrepreneurship and that's kind of where franchising came in, but definitely an interest. For quite a while, just like many didn't pull the trigger, but now we have it.
Speaker 1:So Kyle's calling me and he's the owner of the franchise and he's walking me through it. He's talking about the blinds business. Now, this is not in my wheelhouse and you guys are both in the home building, and so Kyle's telling me there hasn't been innovation in this space for a long period of time, and I love your guys' are on the blinds process as you guys are home building, because he's got some really cool stuff he was sharing with me about, uh, the industry he's in now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is when you guys kind of well, like, I think I think the hardest thing for well, me looking from the out, from what I've dealt with, is most of us builders need it quickly yep, which I know is sometimes hard when you get the more intricate powered blinds and all that. So a lot of us settle for the standard two-inch that they can bring out in four days, but I think everyone wants the other. It's just sometimes, you know, there's so many things happening when you're building a new house, yeah, that you know a lot of times no one looks ahead to be like, hey, I need blinds and it's a big deal, so it's an afterthought. Well, because more people redo them later and and that's you know. Yeah, so, like, I mean to say exactly, basically, you know, to put on top of what Matt's saying, I would say, like, as a builder, we got two avenues right.
Speaker 2:We have our spec homes where typically we don't put blinds on because we know they're going to ask for them when they put the offer in, right, and then we just do the basic blind package Basic, basic. But then we have the custom houses that Matt and I do, which those are a little bit more planned out and they don't want those standard lines. That's where I'd think Shutter. Yeah, again, I have no idea about your business yet and we're going to learn about it, which is kind of cool, and I think that's like coming from a builder, right. Those are the two things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I would add you know for you guys and tell me I'm wrong, but it's really important. I built a custom house with my wife, which is an amazing blessing. We did that actually in shadow valley over three years during covid, which I wouldn't suggest, but we did it um and it's and it's great um. But going through that process I began to understand your subcontractors are truly an extension of you, right? They represent you. So, while having a great offer and a great price, of course matters having someone that you trust is going to do a great job for your customer, because that reflects on you. That very quickly, when we were looking at kind of the blind business came to the forefront for my mind because I said, well, gosh, I can, we can create value there, which maybe some do, some don't, I don't know Right, but that that for me me and you guys are nodding, so it sounds like that's correct. But you need an easy button and that's something that we do have the ability to provide. Yeah, you need that.
Speaker 2:And then you need obviously, like you said after the sale hey, so-and-so's blind is binding on this one, and you need someone. That it's just done. And I mean that's really all. You need someone that it's just done. And I mean that's really all you need. I mean I've wanted those power blinds for years. I just haven't ever. You never found it.
Speaker 1:I have never found someone.
Speaker 2:I have never found someone that does. Look at this we're matchmaking.
Speaker 3:We do all sorts of motorized blind, from very basic all the way to a wall mount or something that can be integrated into your phone as well. So, and then all come with different, obviously, price points. Yeah, but yeah we have.
Speaker 1:But so you'd be like there's the guy in town, that's the budget guy, right that like they're the lower end, and then you guys are more in a freemium or it all depends so.
Speaker 3:So something that's really cool with us, right? So we are locally owned, but we're nationally backed and franchised, and what that does is it gives us a wide assortment, so we can do everything, residential and commercial. We can do motorized, josh, that's your premium Shutters motorization. Right Now, you're in the high end. Okay, we can also cover down more on the value side.
Speaker 2:And we actually have our own private, private, what we call white label. That allows us to compete, you know, on, you know, pretty aggressively in pricing. I mean, wouldn't you say, I mean, nine out of ten conjures, that's yeah, yeah, that's just the normal. It's like you say you leave them off so then they can feel like they got something well, I'll share my experience.
Speaker 3:Just building our house, it was a line item in the budget and we weren't. I mean, I remember we got our first quote back. I was just like we're out Close. I think we budgeted 4,000. The next thing came back at 12,000 and I had a panic attack because I was like you know, because you're all typically builds go, I don't know, 10,000.
Speaker 1:Well, and by that time you're so a newspaper, no a newspaper. Throw a sheet over the window, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we no, but you're like we were like I was pretty close, tip oil's expensive, just a sheet.
Speaker 3:So, like you know, like Matt was mentioning, hey, like there was, like you know, two inch faux wood blinds right.
Speaker 2:Guess what's in? Most of everyone puts them there and then they hope, one day you can, you can graduate too, and what a lot of people end up doing right is after they move and live in a little bit, then they're like, oh, we need to redo everything and they'll bring an interior decorator which that would probably them call you as well too.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, so we and we do work, like, for example, we just did a brand new build um and I think it's it's technically in bentonville, but it's near the highfield area and it's a really great community to end up over there. And that's exactly what happened. We have an interior design department that called us and said, hey, you're going to work with me, and then we kind of worked jointly with the homeowner and did some shutters, a cool golf roller shades.
Speaker 2:It was very cool. It was a very fun project. So Rob and I both want the powered blinds. What we're thinking is maybe we could spec it into the new gents and put a little extra fluff in there to try to help our deal. I like that.
Speaker 3:I like that Something to consider.
Speaker 1:I like that Emily.
Speaker 2:It's funny because, you know, if you look at the front of my house, I would say, like we designed the front of our house for no blinds, but our upper windows definitely need blinds and actually have power there.
Speaker 3:So yeah, which is huge. That's actually and honestly we we have a two-story. Great Wayne did not put power in the second story. People forget, we forgot, and so now we have to charge those once a year. There's ways around that. We have solar panels you could put behind it, which I't know about, and actually really, that's yeah, that's yeah like solution. There it was really. It was interesting, like you know, because josh kind of when we were going through this, he was like why are you, why are you buying a blinds company? That's fair. It's a fair question because I think if you even asked me a year ago like would you, would you own a blinds company, my answer would have been like no, but it's it's huge but it is Well, and there's so much that you don't realize.
Speaker 2:You'll be in restaurants now and as soon as the sun gets down they just automatically go up and it's like your house. You can probably set it on your phone that every day at 3 o'clock not the whole blackout but part of it comes down, and it's those little things that you know nowadays they aren't brain damage. You know to control a lot of stuff with your phones, like it was even two or three years ago.
Speaker 1:But at Bobby's house. You don't want to see him in his underwear sitting on the couch having coffee. I want those blinds going up first thing in the morning.
Speaker 3:Well, you probably do, josh, but maybe not. Maybe not the neighbors.
Speaker 2:Josh, this isn't just the Valley. That's a good joke.
Speaker 3:That's a good joke. I have no response.
Speaker 1:I live across the street from him. I can see into his house. I need blinds for that reason. He lives right across the street from me.
Speaker 2:I mean we should have had you in here right before Valentine's Day, because there is not one of our wives that wouldn't love to have some nice blind yeah, and I mean it's huge. It's bigger than than I think all of us realize as as men no, like that's.
Speaker 3:I mean when we were, you know, taking a step back. You know I ended up talking to six different brands, all all very different. But you touched on something exactly where I was like, if I'm going to buy a new brand, it's got to be a need, not a want. That was step one and then from there, as I started kind of educating myself and you guys in this, home services it's always a need, not a want, and they tend to be relatively profitable. Right, you know, for blinds it's not probably reoccurring, meaning you're going to, but you can certainly get this, you know, work with the same customer multiple years and then get a referral Right, or they move Right, or you know. So there's opportunity there as well. But once we started looking at the business model for me, that's where I was like it was hilarious. My wife and I were doing this together. All the six brands we talked to originally started at number six. We were just like, and we had a franchise coach helping us do this, so that that was partially the introduction. And then we met with the brand and they're owned by a company called horsepower brands and they own nine different home services brands. This is all they do, which is really cool. So they own, like, I think, hvac, um, they've got a couple here, they've got one here called gatsby glass shout out to jesse uh, they've got, uh, mightyoofing Think of all those running vehicles right, that's all they do is home services.
Speaker 3:And for us, once we talked to them and once I started understanding a home services business, it got exciting. Where it was unique for me it was I was like hey, you know, I'm not passionate about blinds, like I'm passionate about business, for sure, right, but once You're going to be now, no, so it got um, once you're going to be now no, this work got really interesting and josh does as well. With you, I tend to be kind of land on the more creative side, I like, I like kind of all these creative techniques and events. Holy cow, is there a lot of blind and a lot of options. And me, just in a very basic level, my wife let it going through the process for our house and then me starting to understand all these intricate details that are really vital to bringing the customers home to life. It it actually was like, oh wow, I'm son of a gun.
Speaker 1:All of a sudden I'm like I'm enjoying this was it mel's decision to do the blinds, or yours or both um?
Speaker 3:and I'll ask her the same question. You can ask her the same question. I would say we both both of us just on gut feeling. I'm not that interested in blind started at six. We met with horsepower. It instantly dropped, jumped the top two with another home services brand, not in blinds, so separate um. And through that process, um, we started really thinking about do, do I want phone calls late night, early in the morning? No, I don't. We have two young children and we need, we need a family-friendly business. Um, there we started kind of looking at those two brands and wines kept. Can you share with us what the other one is? Absolutely that one's called Voda V-O-D-A. It's like emergency cleanup, which is super lucrative business but you got to get paid from insurance companies If you don't pick up at 2 am right they'll call somebody to us.
Speaker 3:Not not good, we got it. We have a one and a half year old and a nine year old and it just doesn't fit our lifestyle. But awesome company, great business, love those guys, they were great. So every everything kind of pointed us towards blinds and you know I don't want to share this with Josh. I finished Discovery Day and he knew that and we talked for a good hour and a half in the car. Josh has always been there to pressure check me on major life decisions. This was obviously his place.
Speaker 1:I don't know enough about blondes. That's kind of scary. Perhaps he turned out okay.
Speaker 3:Are you going through my circle, perhaps, perhaps.
Speaker 1:Let's start. He's turned out okay, but he'd be like my little brother the blind is only the product, right, it's everything else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly yeah, you're buying him Really.
Speaker 1:But you guys know the blinds more. Again, I didn't know enough about it to be able to say is it? As I said to him?
Speaker 2:I don't know if you really have any big competitors here in town do?
Speaker 3:there's? There's some, there's some great people here that have been, had been, doing it. Um, I think, and you kind of mentioned like all right, what's what's a differentiating factor? Right, need not a? One was one. And then I said, hey, we need to be a disruptor if we're going to be behind into a business model. That's where bun will be begins to separate so tell us more. Yeah, exactly, that's good yeah, so there's a couple things we're going to do very different.
Speaker 2:He's there he's ready yeah, yeah, he's looking at the clock.
Speaker 1:The phone's not going off, the first thing we do. He needs a stress ball, stomach stress. He needs a stress beat.
Speaker 3:That's our first difference Give them all. We've got to do stress.
Speaker 1:Kyle, just to be clear. Bobby's been traveling. He's been out of town all week. He's got a lot of stress right now.
Speaker 3:A lot of stress from a window plant, believe it or not?
Speaker 2:okay, which you want to talk about, like puts you into reality. You're like man. We make a lot of windows. This is just one plant. It's one plant.
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, yeah, um. So we'll do things a little bit different than what I would consider, like the normal blinds experience, and that's really our value. So, step one we are always going to laser measure when we come in. Not we will hand measure, of course, like to double check it, but we're going to get a laser measurement that's going to completely eliminate human error. Second, that information goes straight to the iPad, so we're not writing stuff down, because you can measure correct and write down wrong and it's still wrong, right. So it's not to say it's always perfect if that laser does miss or hit something wrong, but most of the time we're going to catch it, or if we miss it, it's going to be a very, very small mistake. You're trying to avoid those big mistakes, right? The second part which I can show you is not only did go ahead Josh.
Speaker 1:No, I was going to say take out that thing, because it's super cool, yeah, and we'll show it up into the camera right here. Yeah cool, yeah, yeah, industry. So the second part we're going to do is Don't poo-poo it if you don't like it.
Speaker 3:It's okay, you can poo-poo it. I'm not going to be offended here. And yeah, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. So the second part we'll do is, if you stop watching before, you usually are going to have like a couple, like you'll have a couple of yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, see, it's like babysitting for me I apologize, we don't.
Speaker 3:What surprised you. You've got to buy these at like a couple hundred. Yeah, yeah, jamal, earth, space man, right, podcast. So once we're done laser measuring, that's kind of where you're now designing that like custom solution for the customer. So typically, you're going to have like a bunch of different design books and at that point a good design consultant which ours is is now kind of already zeroing in on what your interests are.
Speaker 3:But typically, if you guys are really visual like me, I will struggle on these appointments. I'm not sure what I'm looking at. I can see a little sample card. I think I know what you're talking about and that that's where we can really like create a point of difference. So this is pretty cool. It's my daughter and, uh, and our dogs. That's pretty cool, adorable. Yeah, cocoa, shout out, shout out to cocoa, right.
Speaker 3:So what we can do is and this is pretty neat, let me see this is a good spot. So this is actually that's that window right outside. Okay, so we can come in with our iPad. We're going to snap a live photo of your space. You didn't see me do this, but then I'm going to kind of box this window, so I'm going to get it down like very close to the square edge, and then from here what we can literally do is show you exactly what it's going to look like in your space by blind. So, for example, for here, I think I've got some cellular up right now, which is a personal favorite of mine.
Speaker 3:But if you're like man, I love aluminum blinds nobody says that Josh does, right I can hit that, change it and then it gets really neat because we can show you how it's going to open, how it's going to close, that one may not open and close. Well, that's okay. We'll go to, like a cool Roman shade here, right, and that's going to there, it is, there it is. That's really cool, isn't that neat, right? And if you're like I hate this color, that's okay, right, we're not going to have all the colors. We're going to have enough to get you really close, right, there you go, isn't that neat? So there's some cool bamboo shades right there. This, with the samples, just creates a whole different experience for the customer, right? Because at the end of the day, these are all custom window treatments for their specific space. They're all custom-ordered.
Speaker 1:I love that because again you're taking a photo of my window and then you're making it look exactly like I want it to see. I don't like that one. Let's flip to another one. Let's flip to another color. I think that's super cool.
Speaker 2:And then at Festum Home, there's a good chance that each window may have a different color or type of lighting 100% From one room to another.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, great. You can truly customize it to whatever you want.
Speaker 2:And then are you able to save each window into a file and then send it to the customer.
Speaker 3:So how we quote is every single window, yeah, and that's just best practice within the industry for that exactly. But you can email it off to them or bill people like this. So what we do is, once we finish with this and we align and everything they want, you're going to get a down and this is not industry standard, but this is something we do. You're going to get a down to the penny quote on the spot. You're not going to wait a week, you're not going to wait two weeks.
Speaker 3:You're not. We have the ability, if you want, right then and there, to close the deal. On top of all that, if it's not enough, we do a couple other things. One we warranty back everything we do. It's going to depend on the product, of course, but we have excellent warranties On top of that, we do what's? Your minimum warranty, would you say Depends on the product. Yeah, completely yeah.
Speaker 1:Not. Yeah, completely yeah. I mean not to put you on the spot.
Speaker 3:But that's pretty on the spot. But he's pretty on the spot.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you what? I'll give you our best one, which is a little more exciting. So we work with a company called Elegant which does our white label and say you do shutters with them, which are a great shutter supplier. You can actually wreck the shutters once, twice, so you have a dog that runs through them and they will fix them no questions asked. No other shutter company out there is going to do that. You're going to get maybe a year, two-year warranty fading, cracking, all of those kind of things but that's a great one that not necessarily anybody else in the marketplace can offer, plus the cost of that shutter, which these guys will know you won't. Shutters are quite expensive. I own starters are quite expensive. Um, I do that thing.
Speaker 2:Okay, they add value to your home, which is great, yeah, emily actually ordered a whole set. I meant to tell you that um, yeah, you want to see it. Actually we have it on a. We can play it. We can play it for you here, um it feels too expensive gg blackouts as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, yeah, sheer all the way to blackout. The one thing I will say this, like I, I don't like using the term blackout and here's why there's two ways to do it. It's typically a roller or it's going to be cellular. Cellular is going to both, both. The best way to do is going to be inside the window frame. Here's the thing you can't perfectly collaborate the tracks, the only way you could really get full blackout A lot darker than what I have now Correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we always tell people that I know when the sun comes up. But if you think about it and I'll share this, because we had this happen to us we wanted a blackout roller. We got one and then we realized as soon as it was down, with our you know, at that point, six-month-old trying to sleep, it's not a blackout because the corners, the lighter set on it. So we had to go get drapes and cover it. So we do drapery as well to cover. But I always like to say at the customers, because I wasn't told that, I wasn't informed of that in the same process.
Speaker 2:We had it in a movie room, but it had channels on the side, so it didn't really. It did play, yeah, but you had to have channels, yeah. So you do drapery as well, or only for a certain situation?
Speaker 3:yeah, absolutely so. We do blind shade shutter drapery and we also do exterior screens, a lot of drapes.
Speaker 2:You do exterior screens, we do exterior screens oh whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1:Yep, so like screening some outdoor patios.
Speaker 3:So we can do, yes, effectively. It's not no, we don't do, or our specialty isn't like a full-time static right, but we have track systems. So our biggest partner is Universal Screens screens which is really like kind of best in class in the industry. Um, if, for example, you're building a house and we're building, we're there with you, we can put those tracks into the build. So when that screen comes down, it's seamless. If it's post-built, yeah, you know drill, you're gonna have tracks on the side. Yeah, but those tracks can come straight down. But that's a huge it's cool.
Speaker 2:That's big for our area. Yes, we've seen a ton of people wanting, like you do, retractable outdoor screens, not static. Correct, retractable outdoor screens, not static, which is nice, because then you I don't know if you do, you guys do where you can also do like a pb, it's like a clear plastic for in the winter and the screen.
Speaker 3:Um, that is a good question I don't to mine, I don't think so, but I I am gonna look at this.
Speaker 2:Yes, because that's what you have or you can do one and then in the winter you can pull it towards like more of a solid, kind of like yeah, but I'll throw a cool curveball at you so universal.
Speaker 3:if say, you have like a, maybe you have a pillar that's not perfectly matched and you've got a little space, they can build a permanent structure that then holds the track system and that could be like a screen door. So that's something actually we're doing, potentially for a friend of ours you know locally. So there's kind of a will, that's a way, and that's really cool. That's probably one of my favorite jobs. We just had a really big screen appointment a little outside the area.
Speaker 2:I wish you did at Static too, because there's so many requests coming for static. You talk to your corporate office Good business opportunity If you're doing up and down. What does static mean? You can make them static. You just put them in and don't hook up the electric.
Speaker 3:There's a workaround If you just keep them down.
Speaker 2:If you touch that switch, they're not in.
Speaker 3:The only thing you say is like if the weirdo really picks up that.
Speaker 2:That would be in matt's uh budget friendly so how long have you been open?
Speaker 3:just a few months, right yeah, so we, we formed the company mid last year and then we launched january 2025 and business has been good. The communities business has been very good. Um, we're, we've been very, uh, very well supported, uh, which we feel great about. And then a lot of you know, I would just say, the work my wife and I have put in to to build the, the right plan you know, for the community has, as is, is, paying off so do you have retail, or what's the business model look like?
Speaker 3:All appointments are gonna be in-home. So we do have a warehouse with a small office and that's where our general manager works and we receive all of our deliveries Exactly, yeah, which makes sense. And then you know our sales guy. We had a cool car, we call it the Humvee oh boom, yeah, boom, yeah, we've got it.
Speaker 2:Here's the, here's another home.
Speaker 3:That's your cover. No, it's a, it's a Kia. I was like yeah.
Speaker 2:I might have one for you.
Speaker 1:It's a Kia. It's a.
Speaker 2:Kia. Yeah, yeah, but it's as cool. You know, you can call them a KIA, it sounds more convincing. That's good, yeah, you do KIA. No, I think that's a great business, because it's hard to find people in lines.
Speaker 1:Well, who have you been using for lines? It's literally an afterthought for you guys right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a few people that we use, but, like I say, we're always looking for others. And the people that I use for blinds, they prefer just to do the quick and expensive in and out, and it's nice to have more options to work.
Speaker 1:Well, for some of the custom homes that you're building, I mean, like that technology, I think it's super cool. Oh yeah, I mean it's. Imagine how impressed the owner of the home is going to be when you're like, well, they're going through all this stuff and taking the time to take a photo of their window, and I don't like that. I like this.
Speaker 2:So cool, that's really cool. No, it's a big deal. And it's like I say, we've tried on our house a few times because we would like some nice blinds in our bedroom, especially because our bedroom faces to the east, so we get the sunrise everywhere.
Speaker 1:You're a topical anyway though.
Speaker 2:Well, I am, but Kerry would like it worse. Hey, that's the one you want, because Kerry's definitely the decision maker.
Speaker 3:That's a question we ask, by the way, precisely.
Speaker 2:You also want to make sure that carrie is seeing the bill, not matt, because matt sees the bill, it'll be yeah justice, but but I mean, like, I think I don't think as a like, I don't think you're a lot of people have visibility to what the options and availability is in your, in your market, like it's, we're all uneducated, we are, we're uneducated and we do it every day. It's like you go to these home builder shows and you're like I didn't even know we could get these kinds of things. Stuff's changing constantly.
Speaker 1:Why we gotta go to home builder shows and have fun too. Of course you guys are in Vegas, but you guys don't pay attention. You're so hungover. We sit and suffer after the, of course.
Speaker 2:Well, you guys are in Vegas, but you guys don't pay attention. You're so hungover you don't see what all of it is. Well, we sit and suffer after the show. With my new lifestyle, I don't drink as much.
Speaker 3:Wow, I haven't seen that Awkward silence there.
Speaker 1:Keep it moving Back to you, Kyle, so how about those estimates that you've been doing? Yes, let's get back to the blinds, kyle, as he's chugging the rest of the burpee. Was that not important? Yeah, it was a small pour, josh. It was a small pour. Here you go, bobby, for those that don't drink as long.
Speaker 2:So what is the like if someone calls you out? What's the normal, like you can usually get there within a few days, and then what's the turnaround time? I know we have a lot of people that well, especially I have a lot of. We were actually just at our friends at Florida and they were like they had ordered blinds two months ago and I came in and they were wrong, which, like you said, is nice that you guys. It all goes into the computer.
Speaker 3:Exactly, but what is the standard turnaround time for blind? Yeah, so to answer your first question, if you call text, put it up in the warrant. We can get with you as soon as possible, as long as no one's booking ahead of you. That's the only caveat. But yeah, there's 100%.
Speaker 2:Can you bump Bobby up to the top of the list, though, if need be, and then you actually Bobby up to the top of the list, though, of course, and then you actually go right to their house, to where you can show them everything 100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's a deeply personal experience and we respect that and that for me, I know, is at least a fun part of the process. I enjoy that part of it. And then from a lead time perspective I hate answering like this but it does depend. Yeah, we tend to give anywhere between three, max six weeks lead time, and that's just between order, you know, shipping and then install. Everything we do is within six weeks. It's installed as well, ideally. Yeah, that's yeah. So the caveat would be if it's coming from overseas or something like that, but we're going to be communicating that, like we'll know really fast you know, because you have a lot of different options right so yeah
Speaker 3:yeah. So, like you know, a lot of like the full wood or rollers, they tend to ship pretty quick, like if I tell you three weeks typically, I could beat it. Sometimes it might just be coordinating and you're not holding any inventory in your warehouse. Everything is on order. No, yeah, everything, everything's no. Well, I have over. Definitely I'm overhead, but, um, josh, you're in business, right? Um, yeah, no inventory, no inventory. Okay, yeah, so the inventory ideally would come in and we're we're working with our installer team to get those out as quick as possible and obviously the customer wants it right, like if you order something cool, you you want, and I think I think that's neat to hear.
Speaker 2:So you know, if you wanted the electric option, which I think a lot of, I think everyone, wants, that it comes down to you know, do we want to allocate the money to that? But there is an option if they don't have power and there's a solar option, I guess, if they're. Yeah. So I mean all of those things. I didn't know that there was solar, I didn't know it would last a year, the battery.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'll give you like a direct example would be. You know, say you've got a skylight, so now you're probably 12, 14 feet up, maybe higher, maybe two stories. Right, are you going to get a two story ladder to get up there and charge it?
Speaker 2:once a year. That was gonna be my next question. You offer like a service thing where you'll come back out we can like I.
Speaker 3:I would tell the customer do you want to see me once a year for a service fee and a charge, or do you want me to just install solar right into the trap system and you're not going to see it and it's just going to self-charge itself? Answer b yeah, right, typically nobody can say right. Some people do, I wouldn't. They must like you. They want to see you. Yeah, maybe. Well, yeah, the Emily would have liked that, strangely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, funny how that works. Funny how that works.
Speaker 3:I knew it, I knew it Shout out to. Emily Shout out to Emily. Yeah, you're the best Grim.
Speaker 2:Does? Did she listen Only the parts that I make her listen to she?
Speaker 1:doesn't Shout out to Emily, shout out to.
Speaker 2:Emily. But no, that's like I think everyone knowing that, because I think a lot of people that I mean. For my house too, I don't have power but we can.
Speaker 2:Obviously, it feels like you're going to start working with Kyle. It feels like I'm going to talk to him, but you can obviously like you're gonna start with kyle. It feels like I'm gonna talk to him, but we can. You know, you can add it and it's, you can add it. It's not a big deal, but if it's not that big of a deal to have solar, then it's easier. Yeah, and we went for your average customer right. Yeah, for them to go find an electrician.
Speaker 3:Yeah, power, yeah, they're gonna get their head sick you know and we and we like, so we do that. We have preferred partners that are like hey, because sometimes when you install maybe you want to change the paint. We have people we work with that'll do that. We have a preferred electrician so we try to offer a full value. We even have someone that fixes blinds. We don't, we don't fix blinds, but I got a partner that does do that. So something goes sideways right outside of that surgery. We just need some help. I had a customer call and say I don don't need new blinds, I need to fix it, and then we passed them off to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just good business. Yeah, so they called you. They didn't want to replace the blinds. They said, hey, my blinds aren't working.
Speaker 3:They're just not working, and so that'll be a little back and forth and I got a partner in town. That's great. They actually are helping to your point. We try to have like, we try to bring value in you know different ways and also be good community partners. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:How are you guys, um uh, small kids. You and your wife both have big time jobs, both do very well like, how are you balancing, doing all this stuff? Great question that's why I?
Speaker 3:asked yeah, as well as we can. Um, you know, um, uh, it's, it's, it's a daily practice. I think, in love, grace and discipline, that's really what it is. You guys don't know this, but Josh knows this. I've been with my wife since I was 18. Lovely lady, shout out to Mel, shout out to Mel, shout out to Mel. She's the best, she is good, and we got married at 24, so we've been together, you know, 16 plus years, but both type A, very type A, very type A, both of you. Yeah, she works for a large financial firm. We will not shout that out. Yeah, no, shout out A shout out kind of Shout out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's pay the bills. Appreciate you, no, and they've been very good to her. And then, as Josh mentioned, I'm, you know I've been in the consumer product space with you, know a bunch of different brands, um which, which has been fun.
Speaker 1:But this adds a lot more complexity to your life Um yeah, I mean we're.
Speaker 3:So you, you are still both working full time plus this. Yeah, so we're executive owners, which was the plan. So that that was very much the plan. Um, so we have a full-time general and we take care of him in other ways too. Shout out to Ryan you're amazing.
Speaker 1:Shout out to.
Speaker 3:Ryan, he's incredible. And we have a full-time design consultant, matt, who does all the selling.
Speaker 2:Matt we're in on moonlight.
Speaker 3:Yeah, baby we've been meaning to talk to you. Yeah, I gotta leave.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I need the eyes, yeah you don't know how to turn it on.
Speaker 2:Don't give the house away this time.
Speaker 3:I told you I'm in margins, but no, I think it's been, candidly at times, tough. Right, you own and run a business with your wife as well. We all do. Yeah, I think it's been challenging at times on the marriage and relationship. But from that has come a lot of positive things and the reality is we just have really disciplined days. We tend to be up pretty early and we can take care of stuff then From our working hours. We are fully dedicated to our careers because we love what we do, so that's a blessing there. From 5-ish to 8, that's kid time, that's family time. That's sacred for us. We really try to put our phones away, spend the time with the children. We don't want to miss out on anything. We don't want to work ourselves, you know, just to miss out on and all the great things. Right, you're gonna get a nine and a one and a half year old. So we try to be very family focused, yeah, so you got some youngins.
Speaker 1:We got some youngins yeah, so I'm listening to the hours. Yeah, like you're working five to seven thirty and then you're not really able to get to too much of it, unless it's kind of in, it's about time it's a, it's really free time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, weekends, nights, mornings, uh, probably. I would probably say mainly early mornings, weekends, and if we have the energy at night. But I'm big on if you're just completely burnt out, how effective are you gonna be to be?
Speaker 1:Well, I know you also well enough. We've joked about this a few times because we have like Bill and Sheila on from Ozark. We've had the Bill, look Bill. But like you're laying in bed with Mel, right, and you're like hey, like let's snuggle. And she's like can you believe what happened to Blonde today? And it's like just, it just never ends.
Speaker 3:it's there all the time. Yeah, it's hard, it is, it is, it's. It's. Also what I would say is it's, it's, it's our dream, right like, and I think, in the hard moments, knowing like, we chose this, this is what we want to do, we're having fun, and it's hard, and both can be true and they are right, but I wouldn't change it for a second, I really wouldn't. It's been like, you know, a brutally life changing year. You know, for me and then for us doing it together, our family. But you got a one and a half year old. We do, yeah, and he's awesome. It's like buying a franchise. Yeah, I, you know, again, I, again, I, I, at the year ago, if you would have told me, you know, we, we do all this and we're and we're doing it, I, I think, as well as we can with, but the new baby new baby, new baby, newer dog, new job that's right.
Speaker 2:I mean new house, but it sounds like you hired some amazing people as well. Yeah, we did.
Speaker 3:We were a big focus there and you guys I mean you guys all know this right like you you can't do it without your people, and we're big on creating great processes and great systems, so our people can just free up and do their thing, and that's what they do. And then you know, sometimes you just get lucky, and we got lucky with two great guys.
Speaker 2:So I got a quick question. So when you went to Bumblebee Blinds and you told Northwest Arkansas lines and you told Northwest Arkansas, I'm sure they helped you with the market research, so like what was their feedback about the markets?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, um, it's a very, very hot market and we knew that going in. And then, to your point, it's dimensionalized with a lot of the data that they can provide our consumers, but at the end of the day, we've got more people moving here than we can probably be build houses or apartment complexes to cover and that's not going to slow down. Right, you got Walmart headquarters I send headquarters. Jv hunt headquarters right. Obviously you've got the university none of these things.
Speaker 1:healthcare I forgot all the apartments I mean every apartment needs blinds too.
Speaker 3:Apartments need blinds. Commercials been really big for us. Yeah, shout out to Salt Health, our first customer, jordan's amazing.
Speaker 1:I love Jordan.
Speaker 3:He's in front of us.
Speaker 1:Another Gents Place member, good people, first customer. You guys had them on the podcast. No, we just have Salt Health. Great, great business. We love Jordan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah I mean maybe you guys did this, but Jordan was really cool Love you, jordan. And paid us in full, which he didn't have to, and gave us a check, which was great because we could frame it.
Speaker 1:And that was for us. We did a gents event over there with Jordan. I mean, yeah, Class act, great organization good people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we do. We do some men's groups together pretty consistently, and then we play fantasy football together, you know stuff here Jordan, sorry bud, bobby it's time for your question.
Speaker 1:What discount?
Speaker 2:for the Kyle's been ready for your question. If someone calls you up and says, hey, we serve Bobby on the B-Team podcast, 100%, 100% 100% discount.
Speaker 1:No, I was ready to sign up.
Speaker 3:I'm 100% ready to answer the do not cut the podcast in 100% 100%.
Speaker 2:We'll start over All our viewers. They're tuning in to watch me. Obviously. Obviously Emily and the haircut lady she's blind. If they mention the BTN lady she's blind. Yeah, yeah, if they mentioned the BTN podcast, 100% discount.
Speaker 3:What If they mentioned the BTN podcast? You know all the way. Let's take it all the way through April, end of April this year. All right, so long you got a long time, that's pretty solid, right, all the way through April, 10% off. All they have to do is say man, I heard it on the B team.
Speaker 1:Can we also get an autographed B signed by Bobby? Yes, we signed the.
Speaker 2:Bs, I will sign it. Yeah, the 10% that's off any product, or 10% off any product, any product. Any product Right here at the B team podcast 10% off, any product, any off If I could suggest, if you're interested in shutters and exterior screens.
Speaker 1:He's going hot, there you go.
Speaker 2:Well done. Just one clarifying question Can I not use that discount?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, you can 100% use that discount, oh I see what you did there 10%.
Speaker 2:I love that. I think you know this too. People seeing and feeling when you get it at houses is when the nicer stuff, that's when you can see the value versus showing them. So that's why, robin, I thought if you could give us a deal, we could put some of that nice stuff.
Speaker 1:So I see what you're saying you want a freebie.
Speaker 3:So when people come into your house which, by the way, I've never been invited, then it's like, okay, look what I did a showroom. So I see what you're saying you want a freebie. So when people come into your house which, by the way, I've never been invited Then it's like, okay, look what I did.
Speaker 1:A showroom Electric photographs.
Speaker 2:I put it on your website.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Showroom at the Casa de Mars Kyle. How do people find you Website, instagram, facebook.
Speaker 3:What's the website, all of it. Bumblebee Blinds of Northwest Arkansas. You can go right to the website. You can fill out a form to contact us. You can text us through the website. If you want to do it through Meta, that's fine. We've got Facebook, instagram, linkedin, all of those great things. If you truly want to call us locally, we've got a local number as well 479-512-BUZZ.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:I love that you have a local name. I'm old and I don't like having to call the national. No, I hear you Well, congrats.
Speaker 3:Yes, guys, very cool, Appreciate it guys. Yeah, thank you. Well done Proud of you.