Business Talk
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Business Talk
Transformative Home Design through Concrete Solutions
Transform your perspective on home spaces with insights from Damien Charles, the visionary behind Dcrete Durable Concrete Coating. From his North London beginnings to establishing a booming business in Orlando, Damien’s journey offers more than just a change of scenery. Discover how a simple garage renovation inspired him to pivot from a corporate territory manager to an entrepreneur, turning overlooked areas into vibrant living spaces with innovative concrete floor coatings. We unpack the real potential of these coatings, debunking the myth that they’re just painted surfaces and highlighting their durability and transformative power.
This episode also serves as a masterclass in entrepreneurial wisdom. Damien shares the essential steps for aspiring business owners—emphasizing the importance of research, resilience, and adequate capital. Learn the art of identifying and connecting with your target audience, and understand why patience is key to long-term success. With practical advice on choosing the right contractor for concrete coatings and rich discussions on business perseverance, this conversation is a treasure trove of insights for homeowners and entrepreneurs alike. Join us for an engaging dialogue on enhancing spaces and building business success, one concrete floor at a time.
Welcome back everyone to the podcast, where we uncover the stories behind thriving businesses and bring you expert insights straight from the source. I am so excited and delighted to introduce everybody to Damien Charles. He's the owner of Decrete Durable Concrete Coating.
Speaker 2:Good morning, damien, how you doing Good morning, dd, I'm doing pretty well, man, it's a beautiful day today.
Speaker 1:It is, I love that logo on your shirt Very pretty, oh man, yeah.
Speaker 2:Keep it as simple. Decreate, yeah, durable coating. So yeah, man, I see the logo everywhere, we push it everywhere. So yeah, it's all about branding, right.
Speaker 1:Oh man, yeah, Brand is keeping it simple. Less is more Absolutely so. For our listeners that are joining us for the first time, this show is all about bringing you behind the scene experiences to gain valuable insight. This podcast is your go to resource for learning about businesses that shape our communities and discovering how to make the most of their services. If you enjoy this content, please subscribe, please comment, give us some feedback on how you think the show is going and, with that being said, we're going to dive right in and learn a little bit about Damien's background, and we'll go right into that. Let's get started. So tell us about your background.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, so I'm originally born in London, england, so I'm a Brit. Came here in North London. I came here when I was about six, seven years old. So I'm a Brit. Came here in North London, came here when I was about six, seven years old. So I came here with my grandparents. So I grew up in Florida. I'm here in Orlando, florida, so it's actually a sunny day today for those that are in Orlando. But yeah, so I came over here, grew up, went to school here in the area as well. So definitely love the Sunshine State and I would never go back and move to England, even though I do have family there I have my sister cousins but, yeah, that's about as much as I'll do is go back and visit and catch some football matches we call football, which everyone calls soccer.
Speaker 2:Soccer yeah yeah, big Arsenal fan, big gooner, but yeah. So, growing up here and then obviously I was into corporate America space for a while, was a territory manager, so I did that for almost 19 years within the central Florida area and then some of it on the coast as well, going down to Melbourne. So, yeah, I did that for a while and transitioned transitioned from that space into being an entrepreneur and having my own business, which was interesting Definitely not for everyone, I would definitely say. But you know, you've got to make sure you definitely have some drive and be able to persevere. But, yeah, definitely love what, love what I'm doing today. A lot of hard work, but a lot of gratifying work as well too.
Speaker 1:So what inspired you to get into the concrete business?
Speaker 2:That's funny, yeah, Cause it's concrete and we don't. We don't actually lay the concrete, so we're just coding it.
Speaker 1:but it's so funny yeah.
Speaker 3:There's a couple of different things right.
Speaker 2:So one I've always wanted to be in home renovation to have some kind of part in home renovation, um, but obviously that space is, there's a lot, but it's very competitive in a lot of those spaces as well too. But then concrete I mean when we got into our home and I've been here in our house for probably 13 years you know my wife is decorates, and when you have any ideas she's like no, that's not going to go right. So pretty much the only space I had was the garage, which had concrete. That was a space and I was big into organizing it, making it look good, had a TV out there. I could pretty much do whatever I wanted almost out there in that space. And at that time I was like let me go Make the floors look a little bit better, painted them. So we end up getting the DIY kits from Home Depot, put the little flake on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that didn't last. The garage ended up looking good, but the floors didn't last looking good at all. So that was my first taste of getting into that space. But that was years before I was still in corporate America. So when I was going in to look to be an entrepreneur and looking for what kind of businesses I might be interested within the home renovation. You know, garage coatings was something I came across and, uh, it kind of connected back to home all the way and you know it was a whole thing of renovating the garage, full cabinets, but the main piece was really doing those floors right, the decorative floors and doing it the right way. So absolutely, I was intrigued, did some research and took myself up to Wisconsin where the product really is manufactured out there in Wisconsin, and I all started from there.
Speaker 1:I love that man and you know it's interesting. I talked to a lot of business owners as well as in home improvement, and they all have a story to tell, and it's interesting how you evolved from going from corporate america into becoming an entrepreneur and finding something that you're really passionate about, which is, uh, it in essence helps homeowners beautify their space, which is their garage. So what are some of the key benefits of concrete floor coatings for homeowners that are listening, or even businesses, because I know you do both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think the big thing is you have this. We call it expand your living space. So you have this space that's there. A lot of times you go by, people use it as storage. They have boxes in there, and I always tell people that if you have stuff that you haven't touched for years on years, either it's in your attic or it's in your garage. You probably aren't using it. So why not expand that space?
Speaker 2:Also, the other benefit is you have cracks. You spill stuff on it. It looks all ugly, it looks nasty, right, it's not anywhere you really want to go and hang out with friends or family. So now, not only you're expanding it, but now you're transforming it, beautifying that area, but now you're also protecting it, something that's going to be more protective, right, because when we're going out there, we're fixing cracks, we're fixing pittance, we're really making sure that we're smoothing that surface, and then now we're putting a decorative coating that's going to last. So when you're thinking of people's garage, that's a key part that we do Garages, patios, porches but if you think of a garage, you drive your car in there, you have oil spills.
Speaker 2:You know, whatever comes out of that car, it's usually it's leaving stains when we put this decorative coating that's durable and decorative. It's also easy to maintain. So now soap water cleans right off. It doesn't have to worry about a stripping. But also, now you know you're having something that's going to last for a very long time and then once again you can enjoy that space with friends and family. It looks real nice and it brings some appeal to that area.
Speaker 1:So that's a very good point, and when I was looking at your website, you also offer I think it's 24, 24 different color options.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can do. Those are usually our traditional. We call it premium and then you can customize it as well too. So if you choose to want to customize it, we did one the other day A lady had you know, we call it driftwood which is more of a tan. It has like some light brown, a little bit of black. She wanted to add some more black to it and we're able to do that for her. And as I looked at it, we didn't even have a name for it. But I said this looks like Safari, and one of the guys that's installing with me, he started laughing like yeah, we're calling this Safari, we even told that to them but that you have the ability to customize it, to add more different colors to it and change it up to however you like, which is a good thing I love that let's talk about a story.
Speaker 1:We all want to hear a story of a customer after the project was done, so lead us, talk to us about that experience. If you have one, don't give the name, or anything like that.
Speaker 2:I think the big one of the big ones we've had. We've done a lot. We've done a lot when we've transformed from people taking out carpet and having to. Really you know how they've done things over time and what the garage turned into, how we had to transform. But I think it was a patio we did for a lady. She wanted to change. She never spent time in the patio, she wanted to. Her daughter was graduating from UCF and she wanted to have a party there, you know, to celebrate her daughter's achievements.
Speaker 2:And the concrete, it was just concrete but it had like almost like like these little pebbles on there People might know what I'm talking about and it's usually epoxied on so you can't get it off but those huge cracks, like a huge crack in this concrete. So because of that, she never spent any time out there and she was so, hey, I'm going to have people over. I don't want to. You know she wants more space. Like we always said, expand your living space. But she didn't want them to come out there and see that Friends, family, family she didn't want that at all. So when we went to look today, we're like not only was it cracked, but it was also cracked and lifting. So, yeah, so that was a part of it was definitely a challenge. So we had a partner or someone else we usually stay in our lane, but I referred her to someone else that I know that was able to not only get that to get that off, because you need a certain type of equipment we have a, a grinder but to get those pebbles off. That grinder would have probably maybe done it, but it could have messed up our equipment and messed up her screen as well. So you wanted someone that was expertise to get that off, which they were able to do. So thank you to them. If they're watching, they'll know exactly who they are.
Speaker 2:But from that point we had to go ahead and amend that concrete. So we used our mender, which is a one to one chemical. We mix it with sand. So we went ahead and actually one of my installers that does installs I mean, he's a great guy, jesus, if you're also listening to this he came up with the idea let's mend it first and then smooth out the area and form it to make it leveled with the rest of that concrete slab in the back of the patio. So that was the first thing we did for her. We had to make it leveled with the rest of that concrete slab in the back of the patio. So that was the first thing we did for her. We had to make sure that the prep work was done first, because if we just went ahead and laid this coating down, she would have still had a crack, people would have got hurt and it wouldn't have changed really too much. Yes, it would have looked better, but the crack would have been noticeable. You had to get rid of that first.
Speaker 1:Damien, you know, what I really took away from that as well is that you said something that is important as a business, or you said, stay in your lane and basically doing what you do best, but actually hiring a team or another company to come in and work with you and working to you know together to accomplish a mission, right To accomplish that goal, and I think that's powerful. So I wanted to kind of let you know that as well. Another thing I wanted to mention to you is there are trends. I talked to a lot of businesses in different, various industries. What are some of the trends? Whether it's technology, whether it's, you know, whatever it is, what's the trends in your industry that are helping your business?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think the biggest thing is just making sure that the awareness that one of the trends that a lot of people know about what we potentially provide. Sometimes they've seen it before, but maybe on TV or they've come across it in a magazine, but until you actually put your eyes on it, that's the biggest thing. Sometimes they've seen it before, but maybe on TV or they've come across it in a magazine, but until you actually put your eyes on it, that's the biggest thing. So it's probably like maybe like a year ago, there's only 5% of people actually have code-ins done from a residential aspect. So I think the biggest thing is making sure you get the message out there.
Speaker 2:Your marketing and, from a trend standpoint, is showing that. So getting videos out there staying, make sure you're on social media, making sure that people see that full project all the way. I think that's a huge trend there is to make sure that people are seeing what the work truly looks like, what you're providing, what it could do, how you're fully transforming that area and the places that you can provide it as well too. So it's an area, it's an opportunity to grow that space and a big reason why I've got into it, because a lot of people still don't have it currently, today, but are looking to now do it.
Speaker 1:So it's basically educating. You know the public or homeowners about, you know what you have and offering that service. So what are some of the misconceptions that people have regarding concrete for coating?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest one is people just think maybe you're putting down some paint. So that goes back to the trend of providing that knowledge, because sometimes they're like, what am I paying for? Or maybe if they're having someone that's maybe just painting the rest of their home, just to roll some paint down in the garage or into their patio or their pool deck area. But the downfall of doing that is how long is it going to last Correct?
Speaker 2:We have a 15-year warranty and we're covering if it's going to strip or peel. But once again I said it's easy to maintain. So that's the big thing is that durability. And people don't realize how durable it is. They think maybe there's no texture. They really sometimes assume it's maybe just some paint we're rolling down. And that's why I said sometimes that picture. If you go into a magazine or you're just seeing a picture of it, you can have a misconception until you really home in or you see it in person, of what you're actually getting.
Speaker 1:I like that. So, last but not least, when choosing a flooring coating contractor, what should homeowners look for? Just the skill set.
Speaker 2:One of our biggest things is the prep work. So if you hear me talk about that lady which she did love it, going back to her, she loved it. The graduation was a success. She couldn't believe what we did to the floor. But just going back to that, it's the prep work. Leave what we did to the floor, but just going back to that, it's the prep work. That prep work. When we get there we usually arrive around 7 to 8 am in the morning we're spending at least that hour and a half, two hours to prep that surface based on the condition it's in, because if you don't then you could see those imperfections as it protrudes through and you don't want that. So that is the biggest thing is making sure you're spending that time to prep that surface. So when you go ahead and then you put in the decorator, that's the easy part. Once you're putting that on there, that's where it's going to make sure it's that durability. It's going to last a little bit for a long time.
Speaker 1:That's great information. So, as we talk about giving some tidbits or advice to those who are listening that want to become business owners or are business owners and trying to get over that hump, any advice?
Speaker 2:If you want to become a business owner, just one thing just make sure you're doing your research, because it's very easy. You can sit back and watch and see other people's success and hear their story. But everyone's story is going to be different and there's going to be some roadblocks. And, trust me, there's definitely been some roadblocks and bumps and potential reasons of hey, why the heck am I doing this today? So make sure you're aware of that, make sure you're prepared in some type of way that you know that, how you can overcome that.
Speaker 2:I think that's a big part. And then also knowing that success isn't going to happen right away either. So, hey, do you have the right amount of capital to put in to withstand that as well too? Because you're trying to build a brand, you're trying to get the name out there, and that takes time and you can't rush that. And remember, it's your audience. You have to find that audience or that client that's going to have that appeal for what you do, and it's not going to be everyone. So you've got to make sure that you have that knowledge and educate yourself.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't happen overnight, and that's another thing that I'm able to take away for so many business owners that I talk to is that you got to stay the course and you're going to take the good and the bad, but just focus on seeing that light at the end of the tunnel and it does get better. Just stay the course. Well, damien, it's been such a pleasure being able to speak with you on this call. Thank you for sharing your insight with our listeners or to our listeners, about your business and about concrete floor coatings and just great advice, and hopefully we can have you back in the near future.
Speaker 3:thank you for having me appreciate pleasure you're very welcome thank you for tuning in to first media consulting podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, subscribe today to nominate a business you would like to recommend to be on our show. Go to first media consulting, calm, or call. Thank you for.