Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. # 112 From Hockey Ref to Shower Door King: The Journey of Bill Daubmann
Meet Bill Daubmann, the man behind My Shower Door, who transformed his life from being a professional hockey referee to the owner of a thriving family business. In this engaging episode, Bill shares the extraordinary journey that led to his success, detailing pivotal moments in his personal and professional life that shaped his business philosophy. From navigating personal challenges, such as his son’s health battle, to embracing the world of frameless shower doors, Bill's story is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and the power of family.
Discover how the culture built on strong family values drives My Shower Door to excellence, fostering a work environment where employees feel like part of the family. Bill discusses the innovative approaches his business employs, such as operating showrooms in high-traffic areas, to ensure customers have hands-on experiences with their products, ultimately building trust and satisfaction.
Throughout our conversation, we also dive deep into the challenges faced within the industry, including misconceptions and competition from big box stores. Bill reveals his commitment to quality materials and local manufacturing, all while providing valuable insights that aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from.
Join us for a heartfelt discussion that will inspire you to rethink the values at the center of your own entrepreneurial journey. If you want a glimpse into the life of a successful family business that prioritizes its people above all else, listen now and share your thoughts!
My Shower Door
Bill Daubmann
209 Stuart Andrew Blvd B, Charlotte, NC 28217
info@myshowerdoor.com
myshowerdoor.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Here in South Charlotte and my favorite thing to do is talk with business owners, and I'm super excited today because I'm speaking with Bill Daubmann. He is the president and founder of the nationally ranked company my Shower Door and we've all heard of you. Welcome, bill.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Regina. It's great to be here and thanks for asking us to be on this podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was, you know, doing a little research, and I. You are a very interesting man. There's so much to talk about here, but you know my shower door. I see you on TV. We all know the brand, so let's first start with you and your family history. I know all of this goes way back, so share your story.
Speaker 3:Well, it's a long story. I'm getting to be old. So I was a professional hockey referee way back when, and during the time of a professional hockey referee, I had two boys and I was traveling most of New England. As I grew up in Springfield, massachusetts, I've been married to my wife, donna, since 1975. So we'll be on our 50th anniversary this year. I would do it all again. Also, she's a great, great partner.
Speaker 2:That's inspirational.
Speaker 3:So we've got? We've got two boys that that grew up in the business. But before we started the business again I was traveling a lot and my oldest son, keith, who's now 47, came down with cancer and because of all my traveling I had to retire from refereeing and I had to be home to help Donna take care of Keith. So I wasn't in business for myself yet and we had to figure out what we could do to make ends meet and I could still be around to help. So we started doing closet organizing systems back in about 1986. And we grew that from zero customers to being the largest one in New England. And this is you using the white wire closet made shelving. Now you got to realize this was before Home Depot and Lowe's was ever in existence, so we didn't have the big box stores to compete against. But builders hired us because of our good service. We did installations for them. So I wasn't just selling a product, I was selling and installing.
Speaker 3:Then the economy went bad and I was looking for a product to try and augment what we were already doing for the builders. And one of the builders asked me if we could do shower doors. And I didn't know the first thing about shower doors. But I was willing to learn and at that time a friend that was buying closet shelving from me from Norwalk, connecticut, was starting. He wanted to do a franchise in shower doors but instead we did a license agreement and I bought onto that and he taught me everything about shower doors and we grew together and I started that in 1989. So I was really one of the very first in the frameless shower door industry.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Then, as time moved on, it was 2001 that we decided to move to Florida after my wife took a terrible spill on some of that black ice that they have in New England and she said that's it, I'm done with the snow, it's not safe to carry glass up here, let's move to Florida.
Speaker 3:And my head exploded Like we have a house, we have a business, we have two kids and we're moving to Florida and it was the best move we ever made and I tell her to this day that was the best move we ever made. We opened our doors in Florida after getting all of our licensing and everything in order, in september of 2003 with the three original family members. My other son stayed up with the person that bought our business up north during their transition period. He moved down three months later and then the four of us grew it and to this day day we're at 192 employees, 10 locations, one in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is our first venture out of the state of Florida, and one manufacturer of the year. We've won small business of the year nationally. We are on the Inc 5000 list seven times with my Sh door and twice with our manufacturing company D3 Glass, which makes all the glass for my shower door.
Speaker 3:My goodness it's been a great road.
Speaker 2:I'll say so. What is your secret sauce? What has given you this amazing success?
Speaker 3:I guess my secret sauce is my family. I never would have grown to this size without a very supportive, active wife who's extremely supportive, and my two boys. They grew up in the business, so they know the business inside and out and they work every day at it. So when you have that type of core and the rest of the employees see that we are hands-on owners, the culture of the business, the knowledge and the drive is all there and that's what makes us successful and, as you know, you have good employees that are pulling in the right direction you can do some amazing things.
Speaker 2:This is so true, so true. And to be family owned and operated, and then I'm sure your employees feel like they're part of your family.
Speaker 3:Oh, without a doubt, and we go out of our way to make sure they feel that way.
Speaker 2:Yes, so talk to us about your service. You know what it looks like to, from start to stop it finished to do business with you and get some advice and design.
Speaker 3:Well, we found out a long time ago that in order to really sell our product right, we should have a showroom. People want to come in and feel and touch. Regina, you know now you probably have ordered things online and they've shown up at your door and they're not what you expected. The picture that was shown either was deceived or the description wasn't accurate enough and you opened it up and said, oh my God, this is smaller, it's cheaply made. So we know that if somebody is going to invest in a good frameless shower door, they want to talk to a professional that can give them advice. But they want to feel and touch that product to make sure it is of the quality that they're expecting. So our business model is different than almost every other glass shop. So our business model is different than almost every other glass shop. We put very nice showrooms in high traffic areas for people to see. We're not off some beaten road in an isolated industrial park just to our showroom. We have knowledgeable salespeople.
Speaker 3:The fact that we make the glass we take the responsibility from the time we measure for the shower door at your house until the time it's installed, and that's a big part of it. When I started the business years ago, I was, like most of the glass shops around the country, a mom and pop shop that would order the glass from a supplier and order hardware from a different supplier, assemble it and install it. But as if we've grown our business. We make our own glass and we have our own proprietary hardware. So we take full responsibility of everything. And that's a big deal. When you want to hire somebody to work in your house, you don't want. When something goes wrong, you don't want them pointing fingers to some other guy and you, as the homeowner, are caught in the middle of a battle. If we sign on to do the job, we're taking full responsibility.
Speaker 2:What is the typical turnaround from the time you give the consultation and measure to installation?
Speaker 3:Typically the lead times are two weeks, depending on. You know, during COVID my gosh our business exploded and we were up to 12 week lead time. And that was just because of the immense amount of orders. People were home, not able to go to work, and I figured let's get some work done around the house. And we had more orders than you could handle and we had to follow all the safety protocols so we couldn't install as many as we could in a normal day. So we had a big backup. But, generally speaking, two weeks. We can push it faster if we have to, but if we like to let things flow in the natural process, two weeks is a good lead time.
Speaker 2:Are there any misconceptions that you find people have when they reach out?
Speaker 3:Oh, lots, don't forget, price-wise we're competing against big box stores who have taken this business to a commodity and have driven the price down and they're importing their. Everything is being imported from Asia. Everything Ours isn't Ours is domestically made. I get our float glass from the Carolinas. It's in Laurenburg, from a big company called Pilkington. They ship it to us and that's where we fabricate it. We cut it down, edge it, put the holes in it for the handles and the hinges and temper it. So that's a really big issue. You know we're different than most.
Speaker 3:But, the misconception is that it should be cheap, that they try and compare it against something that they've had in their house for almost 20 years and it's a totally different product yes, yeah, and the whole frameless concept.
Speaker 2:I guess you said you were on the cutting edge of that whole. Look of it, wow, yeah. What do you wish?
Speaker 3:people knew about my shower doors. Well, I boy a lot. I think what we've just said, that the fact that we manufacture US made products and install them, that they're our own proprietary hardware. Our hinges are second to none. We've won national awards because of our hinging system, where we're transferring the weight to the bottom as opposed to hanging it off a wall, the safety aspect of it and the additional weight that it carries, so we can go with thicker glass than the average customer. And our glass, because of the design of these hinges, is very safe and cannot come out of the hinge like some of the wall-mounted hinges do.
Speaker 3:Regina, it's one of those things that you would only know the difference if you've already had a door before and you know the problems that you go through until you get's one of those things that you would only know the difference if you've already had a door before and you know the problems that you go through until you get to one of our doors and you'll understand the difference. To explain it to a novice that hasn't bought it before, it's a difficult and it's a challenge for us, as many videos that I try and get out there and explain everything. You only understand it better when you've gone through the pain of having something that doesn't work just right.
Speaker 2:Doesn't that make sense? Wow, so that you've had an incredible journey. I love your story and I have to know what are you most proud of as you look back?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm proud of our employees. I'm really proud of my family. You know. I've got the business to the point where my wife and I we both turned 70 this year, so we can start doing some traveling. So I'm very proud of that and that we still have our health, which is really important if you're going to travel. But you know, what I really like seeing is the employees that have been with us 20 years, 19 years, having families. Their kids are in high school, they bought homes. That's important to us. It really is. It's not about us, it's about getting the other people that have dedicated their lives to work with us for them to succeed. That is really heartwarming. It really is.
Speaker 2:You've created a legacy. Well, Charlotte's lucky to have you. Thank you. This is awesome. So how do our listeners find?
Speaker 3:you Well if they'd like to come into our showroom and come around. We have two, I should say two. We have three extremely sharp, professional individuals in our showroom. Now our showroom's at 4209, so 4209B, stuart Andrew Boulevard in Charlotte. Now that's in the Clanton area, right off of exit six. So right there you're in that traffic jam every day On Route 77, you'll see us right on the side of the highway there. But they can see us there. They can go to myshowerdoorcom and get a hold of us. Just scroll through. You can see all the locations. Many people in Charlotte have second homes in Florida and many people in Florida have a second home in the Charlotte-Mooresville area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the word is out, charlotte's hot.
Speaker 3:It is hot. It's Naples North is what we call it.
Speaker 2:Oh really, I haven't heard that.
Speaker 3:So many people from Southwest Florida have a second home or moved back into that greater Charlotte area. Even a lot of the financial institutions are calling Charlotte home, so it's grown tremendously. My son has a house up in Lake Norman and we've just fallen in love with it there.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. I love the lake. Well, bill, it is a pleasure getting to know you learning about my shower door and very excited Congrats on all your success.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks, regina, and also congratulations to you on your success of this podcast. It's a great podcast, great way for people to get to know and hear and learn about other local businesses. So you're doing a great service, keep it up.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's a lot of fun getting to know business owners like yourself. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719.