Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep # 144 How A Family Electrician Turns Everyday Fixes Into Lifelong Customers
Want an electrician who actually calls back and shows up on time? We sat down with Rey from R&J Brothers Electric, a family-run team serving Bergen County, to unpack how a service-first approach turns everyday fixes into lifelong relationships. Rey shares why he focuses on small jobs—troubleshooting outlets, installing ceiling fans, swapping GFCIs—and how fast estimates, clear pricing, and warm manners create trust that lasts.
We dig into the real work of running a trade business: pricing, financing and maintaining trucks, hiring techs who care, and building a brand that lets you charge fairly without haggling. Rey’s marketing playbook is refreshingly simple and effective—consistent posting, neighborhood groups, door hangers, yard signs, before-and-after shots—designed to reach local homeowners where they are. The result is a steady pipeline without burning cash.
The conversation also explores two big growth areas. First, electric vehicle chargers: what drives cost, how panel location affects wire runs, and how partnerships with PSE&G unlock valuable rebates many homeowners miss. Second, smart home and landscape lighting: from Ring video doorbells and floodlights to thoughtful LED low-voltage designs that highlight trees, paths, and roof peaks while keeping energy costs low. You’ll hear practical design tips, install best practices, and honest talk about budget, efficiency, and long-term reliability.
If you care about reliable service, smart upgrades, and getting more beauty and safety out of your home, this one’s worth your time. Subscribe, share with a neighbor who’s been ghosted by a contractor, and leave a review to help more locals find the show. Got a project on your list? Tell us what you’re planning and what’s holding you back.
R&J Brothers Electric
Rey Guedes
New Milford, NJ
973-951-2005
Office@rjbrotherselectric.com
rjbrotherselectric.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Doug Drohan:Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, coming to you live from Bergen County, from Harrington Park, actually. And my name is Doug Drawn. I'm the owner of the Bergen Neighbors Media Group and the host of the Good Neighbor Podcast in Bergen County. Today we are joined by Rey Guedes. Rey is the owner of R and J Brothers Electric. They're based out of my wife's hometown of New Milford, New Jersey. She's a New Milford High School grad. Rey, welcome to the show.
Rey G:Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, Doug.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, good morning. Good morning. So, you know, listen, there's a lot of electric uh companies, electricians, I should say, um, certainly in this world and and more specifically in Bergen County. Um, when did you like start, you know, when did you become an electrician and and kind of like why?
Rey G:Why yeah, I actually started in high school, 1998. So I I I attended to I went to uh Passaic County Tech and I did uh three years in high school. And well, long story short, I I didn't get to graduate high school, you know, whatever, but but I did return and I um to Bergen Tech. I continued my education through Bergen Tech, where I am actually now the um I'm on their board as advisors. Oh, right two times a year. I do speak to the kids, I talk to them about how to how to approach this field, the cur their career path, and how to take advantage of the opportunities that's you know, uh so this way they could grow in the in the business, right? Everyone has different goals. But uh I started in 2013 and I aim primarily in the uh service business.
Doug Drohan:Okay. So so what does that mean exactly?
Rey G:Meaning uh we don't really do new builds or anything like that. I'm not in the construction business or anything. Uh we just work with uh just everyday calls, service calls. My lights are not working, my outlet just sparked, you know. So we we provide prop service calls, uh repair, troubleshooting, you know, basically your everyday small jobs that may be small for other contractors, but it's it's our bread and butter, you know.
Doug Drohan:Okay, yeah. I mean that's that's the issue that uh as a homeowner, I hear this all the time from other homeowners is that they call somebody and maybe the job's not too big enough for them, so they don't want to bother. They never call you back.
Rey G:Right, right.
Doug Drohan:Sometimes these guys come to your house, and and I'm not just talking about electricians, but any any contractor, they come to your house and they spend an hour with you going over the project or the scope of what you need or may want. And then you never hear from them again. You're like, what the hell, man? I guess my money's no good, huh?
Rey G:No, no. So we we actually are a little different uh as far as that goes. We actually send estimates and quotes either right on the spot or that same day, you know?
Doug Drohan:Yeah.
Rey G:Two days, no more than two days. Sometimes we get a little overwhelmed with all the calls. So uh, but but you know, no more than two days, you know, which is I think it's fair.
Doug Drohan:Yeah. Now, did you automatically start your own business or did did you work for someone else out of out of school?
Rey G:Yeah, straight after school, I I I started uh I started working for con other other small businesses, contractors, yeah. And it just so happened that for the most of my career, it was it was I was I worked for service business companies, you know. So that's it's almost like a no-brainer when I went into business. I chose that same path. Yeah. Um, but I personally love it, uh, Doug, because uh I I mean I like I like people, you know, if I'm sitting on the bus or I'm I'm on a park bench or something, I I just tend to talk to people, man, you know, and yeah, so I I I get to I get yeah, I I I I we meet people every day, and you know, you never know who you meet, and it's it's cool. I like it.
Doug Drohan:Yeah. So I mean, one of the things that um you know, it when you work for someone else, they tell you where to go. You don't have to worry about bringing revenue in, they're paying you a salary. That is true, and uh you don't have to worry about hiring guys or people quitting or uh having insurance and having a truck and dealing with a team. And so when you go to uh you know back to Bergman Tech and and advise uh these students that want to become electricians, what do you tell them what it's like to actually own your own business? Do you do you share that experience with them too?
Rey G:You know what? No, that's actually a good question, though, because everything that you mentioned was the hardest part of running a business, in my experience, right? I thought running a business was oh, just replacing some outlets, running some wire. No, I it was the complete opposite. It was pricing, it's remaining profitable, knowing your margins, uh, truck expenses and uh hiring, you know, it's all like things that you go you come up in the business, not really learning because you're not the boss, you know, you're you're an employee at that point. But um, but I had to learn, but I was grateful that I went in my come up, Facebook groups are around too, you know. Yeah, and there's uh electrical contractors in New Jersey, New Jersey electricians only, groups like that where you um you reach out to one another and you learn from people, you know.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, because you know, no not too many schools. I mean, you go to college for anything. Uh, you know, I often say like college teaches you how to work for somebody else, you know, teach you how to get a job. You know, I'm I'm going to college now, I'm going to apply for a job. I'm going to intern somewhere and you know, I got to work for somebody else. There are very few entrepreneurial, I mean, there are some today, but it's not like a major that I know of. Um and like you said, you know, what knowing how to handle a profit and loss statement and being responsible for marketing. How do you get, you know, a lot of a lot of marketing issues I see that new business owners make is they they get a beautiful website, maybe they have a storefront, maybe they got their social media page, but they're not doing anything to buy their customers. Like, what are you doing for marketing? How are people finding you? And everybody loves to work on word of mouth, but you know, when you go out and invest in a truck and all the equipment and the insurance, and you're gonna work on word of mouth, that's a little scary, right? Like, so how did you in all these years uh have how have you gone about building your business?
Rey G:Well, for one, I I think it budgeting, right? I think biting more than you can chew or spending more than you can afford, I think it uh puts people in trouble. Yeah, I started off small, I'm gonna be honest. I was I don't like impulse decisions, or whenever I do make a milestone decision, and I'm so nervous, but it is what it is, and I know like I've been there so many times that I know it's gonna work out, right?
Intro/Close:Yeah, yeah.
Rey G:Uh buying a new truck was always always made me nervous. Oh, what am I doing? It's another $60,000 uh expense, but it but it always works out, you know, because I am pretty strategic in how I do things.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah.
Rey G:Um and it's staying cost effective. There's ways of marketing staying cost effective as well. I mean, there's there's Facebook groups, it doesn't cost you a thing.
Intro/Close:Right.
Rey G:Um, you know, my office, we get a lot of help in the office, and we market every Monday or every Friday, every other day on Facebook. Um door hangers, door hangers are still a thing, man. You know, it's on the ground, yard signs. Nice, you know, nice it's it's you know, getting your name out there. You market so much, you're actually in the branding yourself, you know.
Doug Drohan:Well, that you're speaking to the choir. That's that's what this show is all about, right? And everything I do is about building a brand because um you could charge more, you don't have to haggle with people once you know you're recognized and people trust you. Of course, easier to attract and keep clients and then get referrals that way. So um so so one of the things you talked about was you know, you're gonna do these small jobs that a lot of electricians won't touch. So um, I mean, you're not gonna change a light bulb, but would so a job like installing a ceiling fan, uh helping somebody with their outdoor lights, or maybe their light over their front door isn't working, or something like that.
Rey G:All that, man. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like maybe a GFI trip, or it's shot, or it's no longer working. Small jobs, every day, every day, small jobs, man. And I and I feel like I'm actually I like it. I like it because I I like the gratitude that I get from people, Doug. Yeah, you know what I mean? They call somebody, and that same day I disc we end up dispatching somebody, the job gets done. Yeah, uh, people say thank you, and and I I like that, man.
Doug Drohan:You know, well, you know, and there's a song by uh a guy. I mean, I used to work in the music business, so a lot of things in my head are related to songs, but from small things, mama, big things when they come is a song by Dave Edmonds. And sometimes those small little jobs uh that you came to that house for all of a sudden they bought an electric car and now they need a car charger. Or, you know, we haven't had a storm in a long time, but maybe somebody wants a generac generator installed. So that small job that you did for a couple hundred bucks, now they remember you and they call you now because they they want to do their that they got they got it.
Rey G:That small job is a foot, it's a step in the door for more jobs in the future to come, you know, especially if you leave with an impression of uh you know if they had a great experience with your services, you'll be helping meet someone in the future.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, no, it's so what are you seeing in terms of trends? So I mentioned electric car chargers. Um, like what kind of jobs are becoming more popular, I guess you could say, from uh from an electrician standpoint.
Rey G:Like man, you hit it on the nail. Uh car chargers. We we do a lease three car chargers a week, you know. That's that's huge, yeah, man. Especially um, you know, we're world-versed with what's out there with resources as far as rebates and and so forth. We're partners with PC and G, so we do help customers out with that, uh with a rebate, which they pay off.
Doug Drohan:Oh wow, I didn't know that. I had one installed a couple years ago. I didn't know about a rebate.
Rey G:See, if you would have reached out to us, we would have taken care of you.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, I paid a couple grand too for that. Yeah, that's my my electric panel is on the far left side of my basement, and then my garage is on the right side. Well, that's so just the the cost of the wiring was what cost a lot because it had to run from the whole length of the house, then in out the backyard, into the garage, and then back outside.
Rey G:So it was a bit of a if it wasn't too long ago, you may still be eligible for that.
Doug Drohan:But it was like two years ago. Yeah. Um that's interesting, and then um, you know, I guess another thing is smart devices, people getting like you know, doing smart homes or you know, rings and things like that.
Rey G:So we're partners with ring. We do get uh so we're a ring dealer, so they do send us uh uh like emails and and uh uh videos to update us with new features, with Alexa enabled devices.
Doug Drohan:Okay.
Rey G:We install a lot of ring floodlights, doorbells, you know, those are everyday jobs for us as well.
Doug Drohan:That's great. And and how big's your uh your team?
Rey G:Right now, I think it's eight of us.
Doug Drohan:Okay, wow, that's great.
Rey G:Um it's me, I got my my cousin, my wife, we're in the office.
unknown:Nice.
Rey G:Then I have my brother. We're a family business, man. Uh that's why that's R and J brother. R and J brother, yeah. My brother's uh one of our lead, you know, he's a lead guy out on the field, and we have a total of five, I believe. Yeah, five five tax.
Doug Drohan:Nice, nice. So then um, so what is um like you know, your service area? Like, where will you guys like if somebody's listening to this, you're based in New Milford? Um, you know, how far out will you go? Do you just focus on the case?
Rey G:Well, here's yeah, here's the deal. I mean, I'm I'm in New Milford. I have a truck in New Milford, and then so we have four trucks on the road, they're take-home trucks, so it's easier to cover ground that way. So we basically cover all of Bergen County and surrounding areas. I do have a truck in Little Falls so sometimes we get calls like you know, Wayne, Little Falls, Verona, you know, that area. We'll we'll service them as well.
Doug Drohan:Okay. And then uh what's the best way for somebody to reach you?
Rey G:Uh they can reach out to us through Facebook, Instagram, give us a call, 973-951-2005.
Doug Drohan:Okay. And then on Instagram, what's your uh, you know, what is it? At RJ Bros Electric. RNJ Brothers Electric, okay. So if I go on your Instagram, so let me uh let me see, like, you know, what why would an electrician what the heck is an electrician post on Instagram?
Rey G:You know, I just put like everyday content, you know what I mean? Everyday small jobs, you know, we put a lot of car chargers on there. Okay, okay. Sometimes even estimates, you know, just how I um how how I view things, you know.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, like you said, everything is uh about building a brand. And the more places people can uh can find you, right? The better better it's gonna be. And I mean, you know, it's funny, like a lot of companies will be uh I see a lot of doctors, they'll they'll post videos of like their staff dancing in the office. I'm like, okay, it's cute, but it's not gonna make me want to hire, you know, run to the doctor because you're dancing on the I mean everybody's all about content, content, content. But I think um it's a lot of words, too, man. Yeah, I mean, listen, the picture is a thousand words, right? And one of the things like on your website like is um I think when you look at landscape lighting, nothing is to me more beautiful than when you're driving by a house or you're in somebody's backyard and they've got some really great lights set up.
Rey G:Yeah, as far as you say that I think my last few videos is on landscape lighting. I personally love landscape lighting, man. And again, you hit it on the nail. That's what I love about it, that you enhance somebody's home, you make it look beautiful.
Doug Drohan:Now, let me so let's talk about that because I'm gonna speak um, you know, sort of personally. So I have a lot of uh solar lights I put up around, you know, they work a little bit. Obviously, they don't work as well in the winter, right? They're cheap, you know, but they're not gonna illuminate too much. And then I have these string lights in my backyard that look kind of cool, but I have them all over the bushes and I mean they look great. I have them on a timer. Um, but you know, when you when you illuminate something from the ground up, it's just got that kind of resort feel to it. Is it expensive to do something like that? Like does it cost a lot from your electric bill? Um, you know, you're running a lot of amps, and and you know, obviously the the scope of the job determines how much it costs, but what is the like effect of an on your electric bill when you do landscape lighting?
Rey G:I mean, we mean everything is LED now, so it's a lot more the lighting itself is a lot more efficient than yeah you know, halogen lights and stuff like that, you know.
Doug Drohan:Right, right.
Rey G:Um but we're all we're also AMP, we're also partners with AMP. So they're actually a national, nationwide uh landscape lighting picture company.
Doug Drohan:Okay.
Rey G:Me, which I think it was last year in July that my brother and I flew out to Florida for some training, you know.
Doug Drohan:Okay. And um where do you have to create like if you're running uh in the backyard, you gotta dig up the ground a little bit to run the lines in, right? Like where's power source?
Rey G:There's there's there's tricks of the trade, there's tips of you know, this way you don't you don't you don't want to make an excavation out of the place, right? But you know, there's there's there's ways of going about it and and doing it things in a workman-like manner, you know.
Doug Drohan:Now, in terms of design, like do you advise people on where the lights should be like, yeah, yeah.
Rey G:So landscape lighting, yeah, landscape lighting is ambiance, you know. I that's what I you're enhancing, you're you're making it look giving this uh um uh you know, giving it like a subtle type of lighting, you know, highlighting tanks, architectural lighting, maybe rooftop line uh peaks. I always uh there you go. And in my last couple videos, I I I went over that where you know everyone thinks from the from the ground up, right? Yeah, your pathlights, you know, I mean light up a couple trees here and there, but also lighting up the top half of the house. Yeah, sometimes we have two-story homes. So we like to we like to highlight the peaks, you know, really uh you know, it's not too invasive to do that. No, no, no, no. It's low voltage wiring, so it doesn't need to be dug as deep as um as line voltage, you know. Got it, got it.
Doug Drohan:That's cool. Yeah, so I mean, uh, well, you might have a future customer, we'll see, you know.
Rey G:Yeah, man, give us give us a call, man.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah. So let's just um go again, uh, just re recap. So your phone number, you're based in New Milford, it's R&J Brothers Electric. Uh your website is RJ BrothersElectric.com. Uh the phone number is 973 951 2005. Um, and that's probably the best way to reach out, right? Just go on your website and check out all the different services. And you know, the cool thing is like there's no job too small. That's right. But obviously you do big jobs as well when it comes to panel upgrades and yeah, yeah, yeah.
Intro/Close:Service upgrades are great.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, that's great. Uh so Rey, I I don't know, before uh you know, um, is there anything else you you wanted to uh you know leave us with before we uh we say goodbye?
Rey G:Oh man, um smiling is contagious.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, okay. Like that, you know, yeah, and everybody on your team is has kind of the same uh the same thing.
Rey G:Yeah, yeah. Well, I I tell you what, I mean, we do comp we do monthly company meetings, and I feel like everything starts from the top. Me, and you know, I like to think I'm a stoic person. I like to be uh you know, friendly, be nice, courteous, you know. Yeah, and and I tell and I tell my guys that, man, when you walk into someone's home, you know, shake, you know, shake their hand, you know, greet everybody, pet the dog, you know what I mean? Like everyone gets a greeting, and uh, you just want to leave the house with a good impression, you know. Like, man, you know what? I really like those guys.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, nice. That's great. That's great. Well, Rey, thanks so much for being on the show. We are going to just uh end with a bit of a music, uh, musical outro, and you and I will be right back.
Intro/Close:Thanks for having me.
Doug Drohan:Absolutely.
Intro/Close:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen.com. That's gnpbergen.com or call 201 298 25.