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Monkey Business Radio
Welcome to Monkey Business Radio, the go-to podcast for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to take their business from the ground up to a multi-million dollar success. Hosted by Rusty Dripedge and Dennis Siggins—better known on the Cape and Islands as Bobby Downspout—this show dives deep into the real-world strategies, hard-earned lessons, and fundamental truths behind building a thriving business from scratch.
Each week, we cut through the noise of trends, quick-fix solutions, and empty advice to bring you the practical insights you need to grow and sustain a successful company. From candid conversations on overcoming challenges to expert interviews with those who’ve made it big, we’re here to give you the tools, tips, and motivation to build your own success story.
Whether you're starting your very first business, looking to break through the $1 million mark, or aiming to scale even further, Monkey Business Radio has something for you. Join us as we share the journey, from the humble beginnings to the highs (and lows) of reaching multi-million dollar status. Tune in, get inspired, and let’s build your dream business together!
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Monkey Business Radio
Episode #14 - Dealing With Competition
Starting a business and finding yourself surrounded by competitors? That’s not a problem—it’s validation. In this episode, Chris and Dennis dive into what competition really means for a new or growing business and how to navigate it without panicking, discounting, or losing sight of your value.
From naming and branding to customer service and quality control, the conversation highlights what it takes to stand out—especially in saturated markets. Real-world stories from the Cape Cod Gutter Monkeys show how the right approach to differentiation can help you grow a loyal customer base and even earn the respect of your competitors.
They also explore how consistency in marketing, a strong brand identity, and clear communication help build long-term customer relationships. Whether you're launching a new venture or looking to take your small business to the next level, this episode is packed with insight on how to win smart—not cheap.
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 14, Dealing with the Competition, starting a new business and realizing you've got competition. Good, that means there's demand. In this episode, dennis and I break down how to approach competition the smart way, without spiraling into panic or paranoia. We talk about why being different beats being first, how delivering real value keeps customers coming back, why the name on your truck might just matter more than you think, and we share a few tales from the gutter about outservicing the so-called pros. So let's get into it. Grab a cup of coffee, sit back, relax and welcome to Monkey Business Radio. Hello Dennis, chris, how are you doing today? Good, I'm doing really well, that's good.
Speaker 1:I just can't help but notice, in the 13 episodes we've done, you've always had your Gutter Monkey shirt on, and today you do not have your Gutter Monkey shirt on. What's going?
Speaker 2:on with that.
Speaker 1:You're going to distract all of our viewers. You're commenting on my attire. Yeah, you're distracting our viewers. What day is today?
Speaker 2:What day is today? What day is it Wednesday? We do the podcast on Thursday. Oh, I'm sorry, today is not Thursday, it's Wednesday. Didn't you get the memo? No, I didn't get the memo. Wednesday is casual dress.
Speaker 1:Wednesday. It's casual Wednesday. You're out of uniform today. Okay Well, sorry about that. We always go out to dinner on Wednesday. I came for the free food today.
Speaker 2:All right, that's the reason for the attire change. Every Wednesday is Casual Wednesday here at Gutter Monkey headquarters.
Speaker 1:It's kind of strange because most places casual, you dress down, but for a gutter company you guys work in t-shirts anyway. So I guess this is your version of dressing up, dressing down. I guess, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Casual. It's up to interpretation. However, you view that I'm coming from a corporate world.
Speaker 1:My head is all spun around by this whole thing. Okay, what are we doing today? What are we talking about? We're talking about competition. Competition Kind of came around. We've been talking about some ideas the last couple of weeks and this is one came up fairly recently.
Speaker 1:I work with a lot of our franchisees, or potential franchisees, and a lot of them. This is the first question that comes up. Okay, you want me to invest in a gutter company in Worcester? Worcester has 25 gutter people running around town. Why would I do that in that space? Then also in my past, I was looking at doing a couple of small businesses. This is an issue I actually struggled with as well, because I was interested in actually doing the concrete, decorative, concrete block for patios and stuff like that, maybe opening a business to sell that material. And I went around town and there was practically one on every corner. So that was kind of a passion I had. But I was kind of scared off by the potential competition there. How would I differentiate myself? So I guess you know, coming from it from both points of view, you know where would I start with this whole thing. You know where do I start evaluating competition?
Speaker 2:There's like 10 things that every startup is afraid of right Funding, hiring employees, creating the name competition. There's so many things that can pop up on the screen and every one is another reason to scare you off. Yeah, that's the constant theme in any level of business. Whether I'm talking to my clients, whether I'm talking to a franchisee, it always comes up. Oh, this guy undercut me, he's a cheaper price. Business is all about competition. I think you had commented at one time that if there's a lot of competition, one way to look at it is there's a market for it out there.
Speaker 1:It's a good sign actually. Yeah, People actually want that service.
Speaker 2:So Well, also, when you're starting out, you have to have a game plan. You have to have a business plan if you really want to be dynamic. And one of those questions you want to ask yourself is how are you going to compete? Are you going to compete on price versus value? You got a product, you got a service and you got price. If a company claims to have the best product, the highest level of service and the cheapest price, they're lying to you. One of those things is not true. You can't have the most expensive product and the highest level of service and the cheapest price, Right, If you have the first two you got to throw out two of the third at least.
Speaker 2:Well, what we say is pick two of those and then throw one of them out, because you're not going to. The only thing that we do here is premium quality. We are a high priced product but in our world we have extremely high-quality employees doing our installs. Our process is significantly better than what my competition is, and nothing against my competition. I have many competitors here in my field on the Cape that I have lunch with. I've had my competitors over to my house for swimming and cannonballs and playing horseshoes in the yard. Nothing wrong with competition. But when you're looking at what's going to separate you from your competitor, start with that Product, service and price and value yeah, that's one of the places you want to start.
Speaker 1:I'm seeing that kind of demonstrated here, kind of looking over your shoulder the last couple of months. Things like you have a 10-point inspection free thing for going up on the roofs and checking, flashing and all for gutter cleaning. Yeah, we do a 10 point topside inspection. You always paint behind the gutters before you put them up and things like that. You know these other little things that other companies don't do. They make a big difference, because that's your, that's your value differentiator, I guess.
Speaker 2:I had a call today. I happen to be in the office and my office manager, molly. She's due with her second baby in about two weeks, so the whole office staff other than me. They planned a shower, so all the girls were in here in the main room and I was in the office.
Speaker 2:Right and I was in the office alone and the phone rang. So I'm manning the phones during this and a lady called, and she lives here on the Cape. So I'm manning the phones during this and a lady called, and she lives here on the Cape, and she asked about gutter cleaning for her home. I went online and I pulled up all her info and I said here's the process. And we clean your gutters, we clean and we flush out the gutters and the downspouts. Gutters come loose, we tighten them, we adjust and tighten downspouts because they come loose too.
Speaker 2:If you're missing hangers or straps or elbows, we put them in Full cleaning, full tune-up X is what it will cost. And she said what if you just clean the leaves out of the gutters and don't do any of the tune-up? And I said we don't do that. And she said well, if you did, how much would it cost? I said we don't do that. If you're looking for someone to stand on a ladder and blow the leaves out of your gutter with a leaf blower, call someone else, because that's not what we do. And she said OK, thank you very much.
Speaker 2:I hope that we can afford to do the service and maybe we'll get back to you, but that's the truth of the matter is we don't just go in and clean your gutters. Yeah, we don't just go in and clean your gutters, because I told her, if you haven't had your gutters cleaned in a long time, you know, whatever five years, they're going to be loose and we just can't overlook that. This is what we do. That's our differentiator. We don't do a commodity-level service. We are a high-level service and that's what separates us from our competitors. Do you have a company that you use that? I don't know it's a pizza place, or you know where you get your haircut or something. Is there any company that you personally use, chris? That it's a commodity. You can go anywhere, but you use that guy and only that guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I pretty much do. I have two of them.
Speaker 2:Tell me why.
Speaker 1:My haircut guy. Oh, you go to the same. Why do you go there? I've been going to Ned. My kids' first haircuts were all at Ned. Now they're my grandkids hair. Why do you go to Ned? Well, first it went to Ned is because basically he was my age.
Speaker 2:He understood the sort of haircut that I wanted Most of the guys in my area were kind of old, old men, you know, and I guess it's 30, 40 years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was a young guy in that space, he was just starting out, which I really liked. I kind of could relate to him, but he did really good work and he would spend you know most places you go in the 15-minute haircut things. He would spend you know 45 minutes, you know, working on my hair. He did a really good job. So he took the time and he's been my barber for 30 years. So that's number one. And the other one is my car guys. And kind of the same thing with those car guys you know I went in the original. One guy was named fuzzy car. That's actually my first guy was. Fuzzy car was his name. My current guy is David Bolt, if you can imagine that, but fuzzy car. And I went in and told him you know, I'll y'all be your customer forever, just give me fair prices. And he said no problem. And I went in there and you could eat off the floors of his garage, which I really liked. I immediately that meant quality.
Speaker 2:So what's the differentiator? You go to Fuzzy. Because of what? Quality? Quality. Okay, you went to the guy that cuts your Ned, because of he. Just he knew me.
Speaker 1:He knew who I was and what kind of haircut I was interested in.
Speaker 2:I have a similar situation. I go to Charlie the barber down here on the Cape and Danielle cuts my hair. Every time she does a good job. The price doesn't matter. Right, the price doesn't matter and I'm a good tipper, so she's getting the base price plus a tip. I only get my hair cut at what? Every six to eight weeks, yeah, so I don't care what the price is $20, $30, $35. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for my haircut guy. Actually, we've never discussed price after the first time I went in there and every once in a while I have to tell him what's your price now? Oh, you know it's up to. Oh okay, so I have to keep up with that. He never discusses price with me. I don't even care anymore, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I go to Falmouth Toyota. Down here in the kitchen I think we have 12 Tacomas out in the parking lot here. We lot here. We don't go anywhere else. I go to them because they're fair. A Toyota Tacoma, a brand new 2025 Toyota Tacoma is the same, no matter where you buy it. I go to them because I like them. Great service. They give us free service on all the trucks for like two years. Treat us really well, it's service. I go to Rockland Trust, my bank.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we mention it all the time here.
Speaker 2:I love Rockland Trust. I can't say enough things. I will not consider going to another bank. I get special deals and offers from other banks. I don't even look at them. I want to talk about a local micro brew Knockabout. They make the best IPA I've ever had. I stop in there about once a month and I grab a couple of four packs I like to have. If I'm going to have a beer, I want to have a. I don't drink a 12-pack of Bud anymore. I don't. I'm not a 24-pack of Miller Lite and watch the football game. But you're in the better business?
Speaker 2:I don't think so. You're talking about painters. What are two things that every painter has at all times? Paint bucket and a brush, Drug addiction and an ex-girlfriend. Anyway, no, I go to the knockabout because they make a great beer. I don't care what the price is. I only drink one or two beers a week anyway. But if I'm watching the ball game and I sit down after dinner, I want a great beer and I don't care what the price is. So what was the beer that had that.
Speaker 1:What was the? If you're only going to have one beer, it's the beer to have. What was that? Schaefer? Yeah, that's the one beer to have when you're having more than one.
Speaker 2:Okay, there you go, but you know, there are a lot of companies right here in my neighborhood on Cape Cod where I use a specific company. I don't even consider using anybody else. I'm a lifer, I am their customer for life and it's quality of personnel, quality of product, quality service that's their differentiator. And in my business I want to be that guy. I want to be the one that puts out a better service, better product. We are a premium price but we do a better job and we believe that the little bit more you're going to pay to have us come out, it's worth it.
Speaker 1:Plus wraps around too. Because you wouldn't service that woman's gutter, because you couldn't tune it up, knowing that, even if you gave her a great price, you blew the leaves out and now the gutters are leaking, she would call you up and be upset with you and probably give you a bad review. Right, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2:And that question comes up. I have people say well, what if you don't seal, scrape and paint the fascia boards? You're going to take my old gutters down, you're going to put the new ones up? How much would it cost if you don't inspect the trim boards for rot and seal, scrape and paint? I said then we don't do it, we're just we're not doing it, and you can always find a cheaper price. If that's, go find a guy with a cheaper price, that's okay.
Speaker 2:My partner, andy. He always says one of his mantras is I don't pay attention to my competition, I don't know what they're doing, I don't care what they're doing, I only know what we do. And that's a good attitude to have. Occasionally we look out there. We see what the competitors are doing, but for the most part we have our model. We stick to what we do. We want to be like Charlie's Barber, like Knockabout Brewery, rockland Trust, falmouth, dota. Those are the people in my circle down here and I use their product and service and I want them to use my product and service and I want to provide a better product, a better service and a better experience for my customers. That's my differentiator.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let them chase your innovation instead of the other way around.
Speaker 2:That's how we deal with our competition. Now we also. We believe we have a better name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, naming is a big thing. We've always talked about naming here. How important it is, huge, huge Makes me think I was driving down again. Always drive down here, down 495. And I'm always kind of looking at the box trucks as they go by. Sure, check out the competitors or whatever. And again I saw one today. Again it was a painting company, big, huge box truck. I only know it's a painting truck. They probably had a 12 by something, 12 by 12 little sign on the side and I couldn't tell you what the name of the company was Right. But I was actually looking to see. You know what is the name of this company Right? We've talked about this before and already it slipped my mind. Not that I'm kind of a problem I'm having at this age anyway, but I can't remember what the name of the company is. What a shame. You know I drove by this guy. Well, you're never going to forget. I memorable it wasn't a big sign, the box truck was completely empty, no advertising on it.
Speaker 2:You're never going to forget. 1-800-got-junk yeah, that's a great one, right? Yeah, we talked about that. Webuyuglyhousescom, the place called the Fish Bowl, tropical fish, good name, seafood Sam's down here in the Cape. There's some names that are memorable, and having a great name, having a name that is better than all your competitors already gives you a little bit of an advantage, even if you don't market it. But if you have a great name and you spend some money marketing, it's like putting on steroids and then gas on the fire and that thing really takes off, Even like Giant Glass.
Speaker 1:That was the one I was always thinking of too, because Giant really isn't that descriptive about glass or anything. It's not really catchy or anything, but they've got that 1-800-GIANT-GLASS over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you know names are important. Don't overlook it, I can't. I know all my competitors. I mean down here on the Cape. I know most of my competitors in our other areas South Shore, south Coast, southeast Western Mass. I don't know all the competitors kind of I don't physically live there but I know a lot of them, the really good ones. Have a good name, have a great name, gives you a huge advantage right out of the blocks.
Speaker 1:You don't want to be Brad's drink.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Brad's drink.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember Brad's drink Became Pepsi-Cola, which is a good move, but yeah, okay. So.
Speaker 2:So if we're going to, if you're talking about separating yourselves from your competitors, you know we might want to look at product service, price and value and naming the company and as we start to grow into a small business. The next thing is marketing. Are you going to differentiate yourself, your company, via marketing? It's a good way to start. Some people don't market A lot of people, especially in the trades. You know, we talked about the young guy that starts out turning a wrench with his dad when he's 10 and maybe he goes into the trade school and when he gets out he goes to work for the big car dealership and at 25, 26 years old he's going to open up his own shop, his own garage. He's not scanning the landscape to determine market trends.
Speaker 2:No, he is a mechanic. He's been turning a wrench since he was a kid and he's been doing very well in the industry. He's 25, 30 years old Now he's going to do it for himself. He's going to open his own shop. And what can be his differentiator? You know, he can start with a great name but he's not looking into the horizon to see where the auto industry is going to be five years, 10 years, 12 years. No, no, he's in the auto industry for life. He's a mechanic. He's been turning wrench since he could walk. This is what he does. He's just going to open his shop. So, initially, the things that are important for that guy is location, parking.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, then name your company, then your hours of service, the quality of service, I mean, that's when just it's all about integrity. After that, what kind of service do you provide? Are you open at seven o'clock in the morning, are you open at six o'clock in the morning, or do you open up at nine o'clock? You know what kind of service, what level of service, are you going to provide? That's just all about the integrity and the passion of the owner and what he wants to do, what he wants to provide, but marketing is key.
Speaker 1:Marketing can be scary because this is again way outside a lot of people's sandbox. You know they know they're a good mechanic and everything like this, but marketing I mean that's there's so many it's kind of a little bit scary, sort of like the like I was talking about before. What do I know about marketing? How do I even prove that my marketing is working? There's so many things to it. We touched a little bit about this. You use a marketing company in particular to help you out with this.
Speaker 2:I use a consultant Consultant, yes, I think right now, company-wide, we're probably on 25 radio stations. So a radio station is a marketing company, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what they do, that's what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, virtually all of their revenue stream is through radio advertising, for example. So yeah, every radio station is like a small marketing company, yeah, and you're using them in your process. So yeah, marketing it's going to increase sales, it'll increase the brand awareness. It can dynamically improve your business if done properly.
Speaker 1:You talk about living rent-free inside people's brains. I guess Branding, branding and you know marketing, you know. Again it goes back to that 1-800-GIANT-GLASS or got junk or whatever. I mean it's just living rent-free in my brain.
Speaker 2:It really is. I was having coffee this morning with a potential client. She's just an upstart in her field and she's real good at what she does. We really didn't get into branding or anything like that or even naming the company yet. We're kind of getting acquainted with one another and what we all do. But it's interesting when you meet with a young person, or even just not necessarily chronologically a young person, but somebody new in a business, and we start talking about things.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I talk to my son a lot because he owns a marketing and public relations company outside of Washington DC. He overuses the word brand a lot Brand this and brand this and my brand, and to me it takes years to create a brand. A brand is, let's say, ll Bean that's a brand. Or Coca-Cola McDonald's, that's a brand. Coca-cola McDonald's that's a brand. Brand meaning it's the name of the company, but the brand the cowboys used to brand the cattle. They would take a hot brand and press it on the hip of the cow and that brand is now permanently scarred into the hip of the cow, so the farmer always knows that that's his cow. Okay, that's what we want to do with our advertising. We want to go into somebody's brain and we want to establish our logo on their brain. We want to brand that and so, as you just said, we're living in their head, rent-free, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. That's branding, and when your company gets to that point, one of my models that I studied there were two of them in particular. Before I started this Cape Cod gutter monkey, which was our original venture into this gutter world, I studied Elliott and Barry Jordan's Furniture. They went from a single location that they took over from their parents back in the 70s to a massive conglomerate here in the Northeast that was purchased a few years ago by Warren Buffett. Jordan's is a brand. The other company that I studied quite a bit was a company that my brother-in-law was working for. It's the Duck Boats up in Boston. The duck boats are part of our culture here in Boston and these are two companies that I studied before I started the gutter monkeys. I wanted to see what they're doing, how they're doing it.
Speaker 2:Let's go to the website. Let me backtrack 20, 30 years and see where this all began. You can learn so much today with what we have available to us on the internet, and when you're talking about branding. You're talking about a recognizable name by your entire target market. That's what you're looking for. So, chris, if you start a pizza place and three weeks into your venture you're talking to me about your brand. You don't have a brand yet. It takes a long time, and I want the upstart business owner to know that you don't get a brand right away, because if it's that simple, then everyone has one.
Speaker 2:And how would that differentiate you from me, who I've been in my current business for 11 years? I have probably close to a million or more than a million dollars invested in marketing over the last 11 years to I have probably close to a million or more than a million dollars invested in marketing over the last 11 years to create my brand, and I would say about three or four years in that's when I said all right, we have a small brand Now we can use that term in-house. And I say that because of what people say to me.
Speaker 2:If I'm in the supermarket and I happen to have, it's not let's say, it's not casual Wednesday and I'm dressed like a gutter monkey, sure, you go into the supermarket and I got one of my hoodies on and a lot of people comment. They will say to me no monkeys were harmed in the making of this commercial. They say that because that's that's our, that's our tagline at the end of every commercial. People heckle us when we're driving down the road in one of our trucks and we hit a stop sign and they roll the window down and they yell that at us. Okay, that's really a humbling experience. It lets me know that people know who we are. My attempt at branding is working. Branding is huge.
Speaker 1:It's just huge In terms of competition too. Once you're in there, when someone's brain now the competition has to come in and dislodge you somehow, and that's going to be very difficult to do how do you dislodge? How do you dislodge 1-800-GIANT-GLASS? I mean, it's just very difficult.
Speaker 2:It's so difficult. You see these upstart companies that would compete with 1-800-GOT-JUNK. There's two men in a truck that's a new brand out there. They've been around for a little while. They started elsewhere, but I occasionally see one of those trucks out there College hunks moving junk, they do moving, they do junk removal, some of that other stuff.
Speaker 2:But how do you crack that shell that 1-800-GOT-JUNK has created? It's so difficult because their name is their phone number, it is their domain name and it tells you what they do all in one. You know, when we started the Cape Cod Gutter Monkeys, a couple of things that I liked about it is that it tells you where we are and it tells you what we do, and it's alliterative. Cape Cod and Gutter Monkeys it's two alliterative terms wrapped into one, and we have South Shore gutter monkeys and we have South Coast gutter monkeys and we move on with that All the same colors, everything's all the same Branding is all the same.
Speaker 2:It's hard for Pete and Dave's gutter services to rise above. It's hard to brand that name and it's discouraging.
Speaker 1:They don't want to come into this area. Now. It's like why do I even go into that area? That guy who's thinking about going into gutters first thing he's hit with is Cape Cod gutter, monkeys and all the ads. Why would he go into the gutter business in this area?
Speaker 2:well, he may choose that because he knows there's a well-established market for it down here. One of the reasons that Andy and I chose well, I lived on Cape Cod. But one of the reasons we chose the gutter services is I was in the roofing business my whole life and I hit 50 years old. Damn, that's a young man's game, that roofing thing. And even though I had several crews and I wasn't always on the roof every day I was on somebody's roof, whether I'm measuring it, assessing it, addressing a leaking issue, every day I'm up and down ladders and I'm on roofs. And at about 50 years old I said, okay, I'm going to step away from this. And it was a natural transition over to gutters Because you're dealing with water issues and in my life I'd also built a few dozen houses. I understand roofing gutters and how they all work in concert with one another. So for me it was an easy transition.
Speaker 2:So the next level is what do we call the company? You know one of my the name of my previous construction company was on time construction. Some people would call me and say you know, I went with you because I want to see if you actually show up on time. And then they said the name alone was a challenge. It piqued my interest. Let me call the guy and see if he shows up on time, and I always do.
Speaker 2:I have a sort of an attitude that if you're not early then you're late, and I always try to be 10 or 15 minutes early. Everywhere I go on time construction and oftentimes I would converse with customers and other people and I say, look, I'm always on time because I don't lie. I'm not going to tell you I can complete this job by the 4th of July, when I know I can't finish it till the 20th of July. I'll be honest with you. I will get this job done by the second or third week of July, but it won't be done by the 4th of July. If you need it done by the 4th of July, I just can't do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I was hit with that, my first impression would be this guy has identified the number one concern I have with a construction job is what's the number one thing that always goes?
Speaker 2:wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you always hear it.
Speaker 2:Missing deadlines.
Speaker 1:Missing deadlines. It was supposed to be a two-month job and now it's four months. Someone told me the other day they had a fence done. The guy came, took down the fence, put a port-a-potty in his driveway and went away for three months. I've heard of this, I've heard of this, and so that's the number one thing. So, but the fact that you named your company On Time Construction, you're saying right up front I know, this is your number one concern and I'm going to address it. That's why I did it.
Speaker 2:I actually I kind of commandeered the name from the on-time ferry over on Martha's Vineyard. Oh yeah, do you know that? Oh sure it was in Jaws. Yeah Right, that little ferry that they're riding across.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the on-time ferry.
Speaker 2:That's the on-time ferry and I always liked Jaws. It's one of my favorite movies. I was a kid when when they were making it and you know it's got that whole New England and Cape Cod thing going, but that was called the on-time ferry, that was a good one and for most of my young life I thought that's a great name for something else too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so at the time I was in the roofing business when I started the new company this is back in 1995, I called it on-time construction and it stuck. People seem to get it, they seem to like it instantly and it worked. And it didn't take long before we established a reputation of being on time, showing up on time, to give you the quote. And I would, let's say in that those days I would say we're going to do your job the first week or two of July and this is in March I'm going to schedule you for July, I'll call you the end of June, and the end of June I've got 14 roofs to do in July. I would call everybody and get them on the schedule and there's always a weather permitting and that type of thing.
Speaker 2:But back in those days I had a bunch of young, rugged kids working for me and if it rained on Tuesday we'd make it up on Saturday. So it didn't really throw us off. But we earned a great reputation for being on time and that was our differentiator price wasn't because I was always a premium price, because we would tarp the house, we would protect the shrubs with a plywood covers, tarp the yard. We took extra, extra good care of the property and then when we're done with the stripping and the messy part, we pull the tarps back, we do a cleanup, we run magnets through the yard. I mean we really take good care of the customer's property and that again kind of flirts with this strategy of under-promise, over-deliver.
Speaker 2:Right, but that was our brand On Time Construction. It worked great, served me very well for 15 years, and that was when we moved to Cape Cod and we became monkeys. But branding is nothing like it. I think it's the highest form of marketing, where you just create some creative form of marketing, advertising and brand awareness all rolled into one, to where people don't even need to know your phone number, they just know your name and they'll say okay, I'm just going to Google the gutter monkeys and get them over here to whatever I need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, by its nature, though, because of the kind of the long, soak time it takes sometimes for some of this branding that you you can't start too early when you're starting your business, right, I mean, it's something you're going to kind of think about from the start and think what image do you have of your business and where you want to be? But it takes a while to develop this branding, as you say, you know, it's not going to happen overnight.
Speaker 2:Well, some people too often ask about the timing of your branding. My busiest season is November, december, because it's when the leaves are falling, busy as heck. But those people call in in, like August, to schedule us. So people say, well, do you advertise more in November, december or less, and more in August? When they're calling, I don't, because I'm not advertising to make the phone ring, I'm advertising to brand my name in your head. So my marketing budget stays the same all year long, month after month. It's exactly the same. We have contracts with all of our radio stations and other places that we advertise. So the monthly budget is identical every month. Because we're not advertising, we're branding.
Speaker 2:And if you can wrap your mind around that, this is a big piece of the puzzle as to what separates me from my competitors. The first thing is I do. I spend an awful lot of money advertising, and advertising and marketing equals branding, and when you put that whole package together, we put a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of money into that and I believe that is the first and most significant differentiator between me and my competition. And the second thing is we choose quality of product and quality of service. I can't beat you on price. You can use a lower gauge aluminum and you don't do the same level of foundation work that we do. I can't compete with you on price. I can only let the customer know that this is what we do.
Speaker 2:I don't know what the other guys do, but here's what we do we remove those old gutters, we inspect your fascia boards and if we find rot, we remove it and we replace it. That's part of the contract. And then we scrape and we seal and we paint. So that's my next level of differentiator is we do the highest quality level of work that we know how to do. And another key piece of the puzzle is my office staff. These girls are great.
Speaker 1:The fact you pick up the phone when people call I mean people, most guys, like I'm learning in this business is that they're running around with a phone in a truck and you know, maybe they'll answer your call, maybe they won't, maybe they'll get back to you in the evening or something like that.
Speaker 2:But when you call in here.
Speaker 1:Someone picks up the phone and you have a quote for your gutter cleaning in a few minutes. Yeah, yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 2:So oftentimes when I talk with a real, true startup which I haven't in a little while, I have a client Now. They weren't even a true startup, but one of my clients down in Virginia, the top dog auto detailing. They had a different name and it was her husband's initials and his best friend's initials and their other best friend from childhood, and it was just five or six or seven, you know, a, b, c, d, e, auto detailing.
Speaker 2:I go boy, that's a tough one to remember Now. Over time I met them. I did a seminar down there about five years ago or it was quite some time ago, and she sat down with me, valerie, after the seminar and we got talking. Then I talked to her husband on the phone, because at the time he was a full-time firefighter and part-time auto detailer, and right away everything I said to them made sense. So right away they changed their name and we were. We were doing some phone conferences in the beginning and I said, well, write down 10 names, and I'll write down 10 names and let's see what we come up with. And they came up with top dog auto detail and I really like it. They have a dog, they snap some photos and I think the dog is in the logo and I mean they're doing well, yeah.
Speaker 1:They've really dogs.
Speaker 2:So so and then, yeah, people love people, love dogs, People love monkeys, People like critters, you know, and um, they have a cool name good business model. They're doing really well. They've made a lot of changes and they used to be originally they were one of maybe five or six local auto detail companies that are designed to travel to your location. Sure, yeah, I was not aware that that was a big thing, but down there it is. Yeah, yeah, Maybe it's spreading around a little bit, but but that's what they did. And then they did some other things. They began adding additional marketing, because prior to that they were only on Facebook. They added some radio, they did some different things and they started to outgrow that little group of five companies and the other four were kind of left behind in their little Facebook world and these guys were outgrowing that and that combination of things was the differentiator for them. It was fun to watch.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, and I still talk to those guys. I mean, we email many times a year. We'll still talk on the phone and we chat once in a while. I'll be heading down there probably in May or June to see my son and his family and we'll probably get together with them. But yeah, they've done really well.
Speaker 1:And they continue to innovate. They don't just stop. They came out. They're probably maybe one of the first guys to show up at your house and do your car in the driveway as other people started offering that service. You know they continue to innovate out of that, you know, out of that space, sort of. There's a great story about Netflix. Remember when Netflix first came out, they used to mail you DVDs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And those guys were very innovative because they realized they own that market. But they realized that digital media is coming down the pike. They completely switched that whole model out.
Speaker 1:And if they hadn't done that, it hadn't looked forward and continue to innovate. It didn't matter how well they did on the first round there sending out the CDs, they would have been out of business.
Speaker 2:Well, when you look at the mobile auto detailing down in Northern Virginia, there used to be about five or six of these local owner-operated companies that Valerie and Anthony Top Dog Auto Detailing belong to and they were all on Facebook and they all banter back and forth and there was sort of like a little bit of sort of friendly camaraderie and competition going on here. And Valerie was in touch with me a lot back at the beginning and she told me they changed her name. It's going really well, things are looking good. They then began to expand through radio advertising Because one of the things they said is it sounds like you're still stuck in that little culture, that small local culture.
Speaker 2:You've got to break that ceiling. If you do that too long, that becomes your norm and it's hard to break out of your comfort zone. And they did. They grew bigger than their competition and as they grow, I'm suspecting there are bigger, bigger fish in that pond that are now their competitors. So as you grow, as you do things, your landscape changes, the view changes. You're going to look around and say, okay, wow, we're now. We broke out of the big fish in the small pond, but now we are the small fish in the bigger pond and so there are more mountains to climb. That's part of dealing with competition is looking around at any given time and seeing who your competition is and potentially what's coming next. Who are your next level of competitors if you grow, if and when you choose to grow or decide to grow as a company. And there's a phrase that I really like. I've got it here in front of me Every once in a while, someone comes along and shocks an established market with a new innovation to a tired industry.
Speaker 2:Elon Musk did it. Elon Musk did something that no one else did. He went from zero to 60 and went right past Chevy and Ford and GMC and everybody else with his electric car, and he did it in the blink of an eye almost. And the reason he did it is he can't be bribed, he can't be bought. I had a client years ago, like 35 years ago. He and his dad had invented a new carburetor and a process that it would probably allow cars to get 70 miles to the gallon back in the 80s, and Ford bought it from them. They either offered them a big price up front, with no royalty, or a small price, and then with a lifetime royalty. So they took the small price 100 grand and a royalty for the rest of their lives and Ford bought it I believe it was Ford and put it in the back closet and never used it. And the reasoning is I had heard whispers and I've read different things over the years the big auto manufacturers will buy up these innovations for short money and then just table them. A lot of history, right. It goes on a lot, and it's not just in the auto industry. But Elon Musk can't be bought. He's got too much money and too much integrity. He can't be bought. And he changed the industry. He created electric cars and now they're all chasing him. He's lapping the field and they don't know it. He's so far ahead. It's impressive what he did because he shocked the establishment. He brought a new innovation to a tired industry.
Speaker 2:At the end of Moneyball, the movie Billy Bean, who's the manager of the Oakland A's, is visiting John Henry, the owner of Boston Red Sox, and John Henry says really what is threatening is their livelihood, their jobs. It's threatening the way they do things. And John Henry goes on to say every time that happens, whether it's the government, a way of doing business, whatever the people who are holding the reins, they have their hands on the switch, they go batshit crazy, and that's so true. You see it on a small, a medium and a large level when someone comes in with a new idea.
Speaker 2:Right, and the Cape Cod times did an article on our company, oh, I don't know about two months ago, and my son picked it up before it even hit the press. I knew it was coming because the um, the Cape Cod times had kind of shot me an email and said, hey, that article is coming out this Sunday. It was about a month ago and but it was also online. And then came the haters. Then came the haters and they wrote a bunch of nasty stuff and I know who they are and it doesn't, but they hate that stuff. We got some free action, free press, so they're writing about their own companies. Well, if you had called so-and-so, then we could have done that job cheaper, and that's what it was, that's what we always see.
Speaker 1:We always see there's a great poster. It was one of them. You have a picture of a guy's. You got four guys up on a ladder and I think it's about a 40 foot, probably a 40 foot gutter. It looks like the front of a colonial house or whatever Pretty good size house, and all the haters were on there saying, oh, I could do that with one guy. I could do that too. I do that myself and I do it every day and I'm like, yeah, the whole reason why you have four guys up there is because they do it right. It's going to be leveled correctly.
Speaker 2:I've been building houses, I've been doing roofs, I've been hanging gutters my whole life. I could take my best guy, I crew, two of us cannot properly hang a 40 foot. We could hang it, the homeowner won't notice, but it's not going to be pitched right. I've seen it a thousand times, I would say twice a month. We get a call and we go out and we remove brand new gutters that are not functioning and we get there and we look and go oh my gosh, it's pitched wrong, it's mispitched, it's hung wrong, it's hung too low, water's running behind it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've heard those guys. I had one of those Right in the middle. It was all kind of drooping down. So when?
Speaker 2:the water, all settled in there.
Speaker 1:then it would flow back into the house and there was a porch right there. It went into the porch ceiling, rotted out the whole porch ceiling all the way to the house.
Speaker 2:Two guys cannot properly hang a 40 foot gutter. I've seen two guys hang 60 foot gutters and I just look and go. I know that's not going up, right? No, sometimes we'll see we have a big gutter coming up like a 300 footer. It's on a school and every once in a while we replaced a long gutter. One day and the general manager said it's an 80 foot gutter and it was put up in three pieces and seam was leaking, as they will, because these gutters are designed to expand and contract a little bit with the changing temperatures. They always break at the seams, hence the term seamless gutters. You want seamless gutters? Well, you probably got a good deal, though, right? Well, the general manager said why did they do this? Why did they install it in three pieces? I said because it was probably a two-man crew and they could handle a 30-foot gutter. So two men climb up, hang a 30-foot gutter, then they make another one, they hang another 30-footer, and this is how they do it, and then they create two seams and the seams leak. I believe you get what you pay for, but I don't worry about my competition. I just know that we always try to do the best job we can do.
Speaker 2:I used to be in the food service industry. You know. We just tried to put out when we owned the inn, I tried to put out the best experience, the best vacation experience that I can. I'm not a gourmet chef, I'm just a good cook, you know. We just provided a different experience and people would come back year after year after year for the experience. They're not coming here for the food. My food was good, not great. They could go anywhere. We're in between Cannon Mountain and Bretton Woods ski area. There's a hundred places they can stay. Why are they coming to my place? We had to create that differentiator and that's what we want to do. No matter what we do in business is create the differentiator so that our segment of the market comes to us just like Charlie the barber or Ned is your barber. Yep, you want to be Ned the barber or Charlie the barber. You want your competition. You want your customers to come to you, not go to your competition.
Speaker 1:Check out Ned Marlboro. Okay, well, we're kind of wrapping it up here in our time limit here. Final thoughts, final thoughts.
Speaker 2:I don't dislike my competition. I actually am usually friendly with my competitors. One of my competitors he's a gentleman I've known long before I was in the gutter business and he was and he said as you guys started your marketing, you started growing this company in this industry. He said we all knew what you were doing. You're doing a higher quality and you're charging more money. And what Christian told me was he said ever since you started that I can charge more money. Yeah, he goes. I love what you guys are doing. I'm actually making more money because of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And what a great compliment Number one Rising tide lifts all boats, it does, and he told me that. He told me that he's told me that a number of times, that he appreciates it. Christian's a friend of mine. He said dinner at my house. Stuart is another competitor of mine. He runs a small two-person outfit Again another great guy. I've drank beer and shared burgers with him. I like my competition. I don't have to dislike them or hate them. We're competitors in the field. It doesn't mean we can't be friends. So you know my philosophy on competitors is I think competition is good. It keeps us honest, keeps us clean, it gives our target market a choice. Right, and if I know they have to have a choice, I know I got to do a better job.
Speaker 1:So keeps everybody on your toes, you on your toes, it does, chris. Alright, good time. Thank you so much. Yeah, that was interesting, so I guess we're going to wrap it up here. We'll catch you guys next time. And no monkeys were harmed in the making of this podcast, that's right.
Speaker 1:catch you later. Thank you for tuning in to Monkey Business Radio. If you enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to subscribe, like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps us reach more aspiring entrepreneurs like you, and if you've got a question or topic you'd like us to cover, leave a comment or reach out to us on social media. We'd love to hear your thoughts and keep the conversation going. Don't forget to leave us a five-star review if you found the episode valuable, and make sure to share it with anyone who might benefit from our tips and stories. We'll see you next time. This podcast is produced by American Gutter Monkeys LLC. Build real wealth through business ownership. For details, visit us at AmericanGutterMonkeyscom.