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Acquiring Minds
Buying a Business & Having a Blast
00:45:48
@Fundof1 was searching for a business in a tight geography, and found a great fit in a $760k appliance repair company.
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Transcript63 lines
- [00:11]
A
Welcome to Acquiring Minds, a podcast about buying businesses. My name is Will Smith. Acquiring an existing business is an awesome opportunity for many entrepreneurs, and on this podcast I talk to the people who do it. Today's guest just bought a company, an appliance repair business in South Carolina. John, keeping his last name private, talks about the challenge of buying a business in a small geography. The numbers behind his acquisition, why appliance repair is a good business, and of course, how it's been. For this first month as new owner, I found John on Twitter where he's writing about his journey under the handle Fundofone. And as you'll hear him say at the end, he's eager to help, having gotten so much value himself from other acquisition entrepreneurs. So don't be shy about reaching out to him. Here he is, John in South Carolina. John, thank you for joining me tonight on Acquiring Minds.
- [01:07]
B
Thanks for having me, Will. I'm glad to be here.
- [01:10]
A
John, you are the new owner of a residential appliance repair business in South Carolina. You've been in the seat now for just over a month. So I think October 22nd was your was your close date. And so we're going to hear the story of the acquisition of this business and what this first month has been like. You have been, you're a great follow on Twitter. You've been tweeting almost daily reports of what it's been like as, as the new president and owner of this business. And so we're going to, we're going to hear the story of the acquisition and then, and then drill into some of these, your more interesting tweets from the last 30 days. But start us off with your two minutes on your backstory and what it was that led you to want to go out and buy a business.
- [01:55]
B
Sure. So I grew up in South Carolina and after college became a civil engineer and enjoyed that somewhat, but kind of became ready for the next thing. I wanted to do something a little more entrepreneurial, but frankly just had no ideas, no money and a family to support and no idea what to do. So my company offered me an opportunity to move up to Virginia in a different role. And so that seemed like the best option at the time. So we did that five years ago and shortly after moving, actually, Mills Snell, a guy that's also active on Twitter, kind of of put the bug in my ear about buying a company. And I kid you not, it took me months to figure out what buying a company was, what there was to buy about one, and where the value was in a company. I just was starting from scratch and did slowly learn more about that. And as I did, it just became more and more clear that this is what I wanted to do. And so never really had any sort of doubts or back and forth on it. It was just the more I learned, the more I wanted to do it. And so it became a matter of getting the family situation and the job situation and the finances right to be able to pursue this. And so earlier this year we finally got everything lined up in about April. And so I started searching for a company and we decided that we wanted to be back in South Carolina, close to family and some very old dear friends. And basically searched until I found going through brokers and just public listings is about as traditional biz buy, sell kind of stuff as you can get.
- [03:48]
A
And when Mil Snell first introduced you to the idea of buying a business, did that mean that you never considered starting something from scratch? It was just such a good, the idea. All the benefits of buying instead of starting from scratch were so obvious. You never really considered or talk me through that.
- [04:03]
B
Sure. I had actually been considering starting from scratch prior to that. That was the only other option that I knew. And I knew I didn't have a great idea. I went round and round and round, spent many a night on the laptop researching various and sundry things that I thought maybe I could do and was just never anywhere close to confident enough. Never thought of any sort of idea that could produce revenue quickly enough for it to be a viable option.
- [04:33]
A
So you kind of get your ducks in a row, get the family situation to the point where everybody's on board for this next, this next chapter. You're still in Virginia at the time, but you know you're going to move to South Carolina. Your goal is to move back to South Carolina, so you start searching in South Carolina. Is that right?
- [04:50]
B
That's right. Yep. We.
- [04:52]
A
So tell me about this search some.
- [04:55]
B
Yes. Yeah. So we decided, I mean, first off, the big thing is we knew exactly where we wanted to live. I mean, I'm talking within like a 30, 35 minute radius. Not even like a general area or region or something like that. And that was just really important to our family. So we, we did that. It's a severely constrained geographically kind of thing. And, and you know, we're not in a, in an enormous city with, where businesses are listed every day. So I started looking in April and basically my criteria evolved pretty quickly. But I started with, just to give you some actual numbers here, I wanted a floor of about 250,000 in owner's earnings, which I thought would be enough to replace my salary, pay a loan that I was going to need to get and provide a return that would be commensurate with the risk and allow me to build and grow company, reinvest in the company basically. And then a ceiling of something like 1.8 million, which is what I thought I could max out with a SBA loan and seller financing and the cash that I had. Turns out that part was a little bit rosy, but we didn't get up near that ceiling, so we didn't have to worry about it.
- [06:18]
A
But that is a broad range. So 250, up to 1.8 million in earnings.
- [06:23]
B
Up to 1.8 million in total cost. So that, you know, maybe would have been a half a million in earnings, something like that.
- [06:30]
A
Yeah.
- [06:32]
B
So with those financial parameters, I also knew I didn't want to own a restaurant or healthcare or educational, something like that, or a retail space that I just didn't feel gifting in any of those areas. Also no online only kind of stuff. So home services businesses fit the bill. But frankly, there weren't enough businesses that go on the market in this tiny little geography that I chose to get too concerned with that. So I looked at anything and everything that met that criteria and it amounted to about, I think I actually seriously considered about 15 where I got to the point where I actually modeled them out in a spreadsheet and, you know, requested more info and that kind of thing. And the business I ended up purchasing I first saw in July, I think it had been listed in June actually. And since that time I have not seen a single business. This is now almost the end of November when we're recording this. Since that time I haven't seen a single business that I would have rather taking a look at over the one I got. So just not a lot of businesses hitting the market. And I was really, really fortunate to find this one that checked all the boxes and turned out to be a really great company.
- [07:54]
A
And. But there were 15 that interested you enough that you modeled out? In what time span did you find those 15, like all at once or. I mean, how long was your search is another way of asking. And then of those 15, like, how much, how far did you go down the path with any of those?
- [08:11]
B
Mm, yeah. So let's say, let's say there were 15 that I looked at between when I started in April until I think I, I think I stopped really looking in September when I knew that this deal had a really good Shot at getting across the finish line. Of those 15, I think probably eight were. After doing the modeling, they turned out to be companies that I could see myself buying and running and had, you know, a list price that was something close to reasonable. And then of those, I got to. I, I submitted only one other loi. I got beat out by a local strategic on that one, but none of the others even got to the LOI stage. So, yeah, I guess not all that far.
- [09:10]
A
And so what were you going to do, John, if this deal hadn't worked out and the deal flow was kind of a trickle and you were just only kind of looking at what was coming up on biz buy sell? Like, what if nothing came and another six months came and went? What was the plan? Were you ever going to reach out to brokers, for example, or it was just only a biz buy sell strategy? Talk me through your thinking there.
- [09:37]
B
Yeah, I had been making a point of talking with the brokers as I would see the listings, and so I was slowly getting to know some of them. I did, actually, when I went through a dry period in, in the summer, I did start pulling PPP data, using that to target a couple of industries. My background is in stormwater and sanitary sewer engineering. And so I, I've been watching those contractors for years, just. And from my perspective, it sure did look like they were making a killing. And so I looked into those companies and did not quite get to the point of doing proprietary outreach, but that would have been that next step and just essentially more networking. And we had really made a plan that this coming summer we were going to move down to South Carolina either way, and we would basically figure it out. So it was, it was kind of a. I don't know if triage is the right word, but we, I did the really public, easy stuff first. I was moving towards more individualized broker and even proprietary outreach to owners. And then if we had gotten into the spring, that then it would have transitioned to more of looking for some form of temporary job or finding a role in the industry that I might want to target. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that might have been a disaster.
- [11:07]
A
Well, it, it does say. I mean, the more you describe the situation, the more, More fortunate it sounds that this, that this business came along. And so what do you like about this business? Was it, I mean, other than the financials, or was it basically a picture of the financial picture that you liked about it? Or were there other things? Like one of your tweets was kind of your due diligence on the Industry. So talk to me more about what you liked about this opportunity.
- [11:34]
B
Yeah, the due diligence. That's a short tweet there. I think the first thing that attracted me was that it met my financial criteria. And so that was. All right, let's take a look under the hood here. What I found when I did that was a company where 75 to 80% of their revenue comes from contracts. So we have contracts with warranty companies and manufacturers that will. They have their customers who call them with a broken washing machine and they call us their contracted service provider to go do the work. And we've got pre established rates, they pay for the parts. They're not exorbitantly profitable but they are good steady income. And so I loved the fact that this was not something where I was gonna have to be marketing genius to make it work. We were gonna. We've got calls coming in every day from these contracts. It is also a size that I felt like I was equipped to handle. We've got seven technicians and three office staff plus a part time office staff. And so we're not, you know, that was just something I felt like I could handle but also not a, you know, know three person operation where one person leaves and I'm not going to be able to make my payments anymore. So, so it was a good spot there. And then it was as I looked at the appliance repair industry and, and you know, doing my kind of diligence on the industry as a whole, honestly I didn't do a whole lot of diligence. I really just looked at the fact that they've been steady for a long time. I, you know, just consider the fact that if it's a, in a downturn, it's probably going to be a lot more reasonable to repair your appliances than to replace them. And that, that's our, typically our biggest hurdle when we go and diagnose an issue is whether that individual is going to choose to replace their, their, their machine. And we won't get, you know, paid for the job or do the repair. And so I felt like a downturn might actually be good for us. And in good times people are always going to have appliances. I don't see that going anywhere. And if anything the people spending more time at home since COVID has resulted in more wear and more awareness. You know there's, we've had so many calls from people that are just. Have been dealing with something for a while and are just sick of seeing it every day. But that might not have happened if they'd been spending a lot more time outside of their home. So all of those things just made the company seem more and more attractive, as I kind of learned those in stages. And then getting to know the owners and their philosophy. They just ran a company that was all about supporting the employees and being, you know, they like to use the term family. Um, and. And there's. There was a ton of truth to that. I could see. It wasn't just, you know, something they said and didn't follow up on that. That was a. A real thing with them. And so that made me feel a lot more comfortable, like I'm not just going in with a bunch of mercenaries that are going to quit if they don't like the new boss kind of thing.
- [14:57]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And have you found that to be the case that. That there's a culture there?
- [15:02]
B
I have, yeah. It. It's been really humbling to walk in and just see what the. The sellers have built over the years through the just grueling process of. Of bringing people in and training them and then having them move on to other things and doing that for years and years. And what you. What they're kind of left with at this point is the people that have stayed that have glued together that, um, you know, we've got seven technicians that each get in their own van and they each go to totally different areas of the city every day, but they call each other constantly. They're. They're constantly talking to each other. They've got questions, technical stuff. They call each other when something happens in their life. They're. They're just in. In such great community that I'm walking in here and it. And it is. It is truly the opposite of a turnaround. It is a please don't screw this up kind of case, which is, like I said, humbling just to be aware that this is something that I've kind of inherited more or less, but also really exciting that we've got such a great foundation here.
- [16:13]
A
Yeah. Well, let's talk a little bit more about that and the size of the company. So I think a big part of your criteria was basically your own financial ability that dictated the size of company you were looking at. But there is this philosophical discussion of how big or small one should buy. And if you could, there are ways to use the capital that you brought to the table to buy an even bigger company. In theory, you could have found outside investors to do a down payment and bought a $5 million company. Let's say you use that kind of as an extreme example, but within the realm of possibility. But that also would have meant that you would have inherited a much larger company. And so I'm just curious, put the finances aside now for the moment. But just like you're 30 days into this or 37, 38 days into this, and you are the new guy in a family, the new head of a family.
- [17:19]
B
Right?
- [17:20]
A
Really. And that's great. There's this strong sense of community in the family, but it probably will take some time to build trust or whatever. Could you see yourself like, what if this were a 50 person company or a 25 person company? What are your thoughts on now that you've been in it for a minute? What it would feel like to be doing this but for a much larger company? Do you feel like you could do it or you feel already so overwhelmed even at the size of company that this is. That you wouldn't have wanted to bite off more? Anyway.
- [17:53]
B
That'S a great question and a discussion that I have had with myself quite a bit. I did talk to several people about potentially investing and doing more of a traditional search fund kind of route where I would take some equity partners and be able to buy a larger company. And you had an episode, a few episodes back where you interviewed the two guys that were essentially pushing the merits of that. And I think they had a lot of great points. And I love the model of having some investors in your corner and being able to buy something that's larger where five, 10 people quit and you're still doing just fine and you've got a lot more systems and structure in place in a deal like that. For me it was a matter of, frankly, we've all got a little bit of the imposter syndrome going on, I think. And so just how far can we be an imposter and live with it? So I think this is pretty close to my limit. I think if I walked into a 50 or 100 person company, the imposter syndrome would be crippling. That said, you know, I'm not the type of person to back away from a challenge. So I don't want it to sound like I made that decision out of fear. But the other aspect to that was just taking on investors. And that is just something I wasn't really comfortable with. You know, my handle and website and all that is fund of one, because I really wanted to be the only one that was depending on this, notwithstanding my family. Of course that's enough pressure. But for whatever reason, I think this is just one of these personality things. Where there's not a right answer, there's. It's a something of a level of comfort. I'm fortunate in that it was. I would be just really uncomfortable. And so it wasn't tough to make the decision. You know, I'd be lying if I didn't say that I look at some of these folks that have bought larger companies and feel a little bit of jealousy for some of the good things about that. But just as quickly as those feelings creep in, I remember how much better this fit is for me and how there are so many great advantages to what I've got, and I'm having a blast. And so I don't want to argue with that.
- [20:40]
A
Can you tell us more of the numbers of the actual deal? Sure. You arrived at?
- [20:45]
B
Yeah, yeah, love to. So the. The original seller's earnings was reported at 265,000 and the price was 770 or $799,000.
- [20:59]
A
Okay.
- [21:01]
B
Doing some, you know, slightly better accounting, I'll say the. The real seller's earnings was more like 240,000. And honestly, that was a. The high point from the last several years. They've been growing, and I really only looked at the last three years of data. There were tons of changes in the company that made it really pointless to look at anything earlier than that. So growing up to $240,000 in sellers earnings, and I actually made an offer. I did all my best Excel jockey work and made an offer south of $600,000. And they didn't even respond. I followed up with the broker a little bit later, and she said, yeah, we're really only looking for full price offers. And so I said, okay, I can do that. You set the price, I'll set the terms. Because, you know, I'm on Twitter, I read stuff. So that's how this game works, right? And so I came up with a paragraph and a half of seller forgiveness clauses. I knew I needed an SBA loan, so I couldn't do like, earnouts, but I could say, you know, I'll pay you full price, but you have to meet these hurdles you met this past year in order to actually be owed that money. And I sent that in again, didn't hear anything for a few days. Emailed the broker, I just literally asked, so how hard did they laugh? And she was just like, yeah, that was it. They didn't. They did not want to entertain any of that. So a couple weeks passed, I got back to them and just said, you know, hey, are we still here? Kind of thing. What's the update on this? Have they sold it yet? And broker said no, but we've got some more updated year to date numbers. Would you like to look? And so I did and that basically gave me the ability to kind of look back at it, consider a lot more in terms, just not so much in terms of am I getting a good deal that I can brag about on Twitter or am I getting the deal that I need to do what we want to do as a family and what I want to do for my career and you know, adding in some of those non numeric elements to it. It became clear that I did not want to give up this really great opportunity over a couple of thousand dollars a year in the end is what it would have amounted to. And so, and there were some folks that kind of helped talk me through this. But so I ended up making, we ended up agreeing to a purchase price of $775,000. Working capital was not included in any way, shape or form and they only did a seller financing for 5% of it. And so I provided 15% and got a SBA backed loan for the remainder of it. So in the end we're looking at, you know, call it 240,000 sellers earnings purchase price 775. So squarely within what I think is relatively normal but probably a little bit rich for a company this size. But it, it was, it just checked so many other boxes for me and what, and I, I did genuinely feel like it was a quality company in other ways in terms like the project management software that they had going and, and things like that. And there were so many opportunities that I saw that I did, I felt comfortable kind of overpaying if you will, or paying the median.
- [24:57]
A
Yeah. And you know, the whole overpaying thing, it's like the, the multiples that you hear all the time, 3 to 4x or you know, depending on industry or whatever. Like I don't feel like they take into account, you know, all of the factors in a particular deal. And so in your case like you got to just look at the supply and demand situation. There is not a lot of supply you and that's only been reinforced post acquisition. You're keeping your eye on biz, buy, sell and still not seeing anything that you would have wanted to buy. So when there's very, very little supply, what does that mean? Means the price goes up a little bit. Another way to explain this away is you read Twitter, you know, things is that, you know, this is a long term acquisition, a long term hold and paying a little bit more upfront, really, it barely moves the needle in the long term.
- [25:49]
B
Yeah, that's so true. And if we are able to even just maintain much less actually grow, then it's going to be a great investment. Just ever so slightly more risky than what I intended, what I set out to purchase in the beginning.
- [26:08]
A
I'm surprised that they weren't eager to find, you know, a John. I mean you were like the ideal buyer. There weren't going to be many people like you who were going to be interested in buying this business. So I'm surprised that they were so willing to just like, you know, risk scaring you off and not negotiate with you. Why, why did they have. So why do you think they felt like they had so much negotiating leverage?
- [26:34]
B
Well, they're on the younger side. So the sellers, husband, wife team, mid-50s, she has a full time job elsewhere. This was his, the husband's job and he grew it from, from, he was the first technician in a van by himself, you know, years and years ago. And they were ready, they've got a couple of other businesses. They're real estate agents. They, they are just very busy people and had grown this company to the point where it was taking up a lot of their, well, not taking up more of the time. It was something that I think they were financially ready to move on and wanted to, I guess, yeah, just move on. And so this was something that they could have kept running. And so that's what they told me is look, if you don't want to pay the full price, that's okay, no hard feelings, we're just gonna keep running this and we'll relist it again next year and see if we can get a buyer next year. So they, you know, the husband worked probably 20 hours a week and that's like a, you know, not a joke, that's like a legit. He was out of the door by 9 or 9:30 pretty much every morning, done with his workday here. And so it wasn't killing them to continue and they would just keep on running.
- [28:08]
A
Yeah, yeah, good for them.
- [28:11]
B
Yeah, they were in a great spot. That's, that's when you want to sell a business, when you don't have to.
- [28:15]
A
Exactly. That's right. So, all right, speaking of his 20 hours in the business. So that's actually like, it seems like a great sweet spot to buy business from because it's not, it's not such a small business that it's completely dependent on, on the seller. And they represent this key man. Or it's just like, feels very fragile or like a business that's just like, like just orbits around them and without them, like the bottom could fall out and yet still small enough that you can come in there and really add a lot of value. If you're like, if you're, you know, hungry and really ambitious and want to see this thing grow. Is that, is that a fair characterization? Like what, what do you, what do you feel now that you have taken, have taken over the business from this guy?
- [28:59]
B
Yeah, I think you're spot on with that. Will like it. It is at a spot where I can go, I could go several days without coming into the office and the wheels would not fall off. The day to day is largely taken care of by the existing staff. And my role, obviously there have been tons of transition. You know, the flip side of all these great contracts that I really liked is that they take a ton of work to transition to a new entity. So I've been doing a lot of work with that. But the real, I guess, benefit of all this is that most of my time, especially once we're done with this transitional, will just be about improving the company in various ways. So it's not dependent on me really for sales. It's definitely not dependent on me for repairing any appliances. Our office staff handles even the worst of customer complaints and things like that. So there's just lots of open Runway for me to be able to come in and take the 30,000 foot view and work on the business, as they say. And I'm working that in as I'm doing all of this transitional stuff and doing the day to day and learning, you know, spend a lot of time just consuming what other people are doing and how this company works. I'm also slowly trying to find ways to make people's lives easier, to make processes faster, less redundant. And that's been so far, you know, appreciated to the extent that I've been able to accomplish it. And it looking toward the future, you know, I'm able to say here, here's our biggest bottleneck. I'm going to attack that. And I don't have to shift day to day duties to the side to do it. So it's a really, really great spot to be in.
- [31:00]
A
Yeah, that's awesome. So do you, you had talked about how one of the things you love about the business is that basically business comes to you, you have these contracts with the manufacturers and they send you leads all day or send you customers all day and that, you know, you don't want to. You didn't want to have to be a marketing genius to take over this business and grow demand. Do you see opportunities for growth once you've got all the transition stuff out of the way and once you tighten up operations at some point you're probably going to turn your attention to growth. Maybe not. I don't know. So what value to like, what does year one and year three look like for you?
- [31:41]
B
Yeah, it's funny because that's pretty much exactly how I'm thinking of this is where do we want to be years and years down the line and what do we need to be doing right now to get there? And so I'm working on right now. I'm really excited. This is just on our theme of how fortunate I am to found this company. Right now. I've got a couple months to get used to things and then we're going to have January. So I've got just this great opportunity to set 2022. We're going to roll out a new mission. We're going to roll out a vision for the first time and we're going to show how each person has goals related to that mission and that vision. So I'm looking at, for the, for the vision, I'm looking at being an exceptional employer in the appliance repair space. I'm looking at serving our customers exceptionally well and I'm looking at serving our community well. And so we're taking these three things that haven't been rolled out yet, but I'm going to be able to pull those in January and then show how every single thing that we do in this company is a part of making those three goals happen. And so a lot of that is growth. I think that to be an exceptional employer, you need to be providing opportunities for everybody that wants to grow in their career to do that. And so for us, that's going to mean we need to have a lot more customers. We need to have a lot more customers coming in. Just we call them cash customers, the non warranty customers. And that right now will fall on me to work on our Google my business and our Facebook presence and several other things that I have no idea what I'm doing but will be figuring out along the way to bring those in. And so that is what I've kind of identified as our first bottleneck is getting those cash calls. And I know the work is out there because I can go on our competitor's website and see when their next appointment available is. And it is further out than our next available appointment. And so I know the work is out there. So it's about moving up in those Google search rankings and things like that. And so the growth piece is, yes, it's there. I think it's there for the taking. And that's going to be a big part of what I'm working on so that we can accomplish lots of other goals, but not just growth for growth sake or for vanity metrics or something like that, but so that we become a better employee with more resources to serve our customers and our community really well.
- [34:32]
A
John, one of your tweets was.
- [34:36]
B
It.
- [34:36]
A
Feels like nothing has worked the way it should with this transition. So on the one hand, you usually conclude your reports positively that you're having a good time, but on the other hand, obviously there's been challenges and there's been things that took longer than they should have. So elaborate on that tweet. And in doing so, just give me the overall sense of like, how are you feeling? Honestly.
- [35:02]
B
I think that.
- [35:03]
A
Take a deep breath.
- [35:06]
B
There's a lot to unpack. I'll be brief. The impetus for that tweet, I think, was just the sheer number of phone calls I've made, voicemails I've left, emails I've sent to people who won't respond, who have every reason to respond. And I understand there's. The world is understaffed, and so I get that. But it just seems like the telecommunications company that we're working for, you should be able to verify that you're their customer because you're calling them on literally the phone they provided. And the only way they have for you to verify who you are is to send a text message to that phone phone, except that it is a desk phone that they have specifically disallowed receiving text messages and robocalls, so you can't even do the voice option either. And then having to call their customer service, wait on hold for, you know, 20 or 30 minutes, finally get somebody on the phone and they tell you they don't know what to do. All of this is to transfer a phone account. I'm trying to pay people and they won't take my money. And it's it that is just a one example of how pretty much every single account transition has gone. And it, it seems like this shouldn't be this hard. Right? But we're dealing with humans and systems that are flawed and not set up for asset sales of businesses happening every day. And so we've just run into tons of that where it just doesn't work. That way. I love that that has been something I've been experiencing at the same time as I got a call from a customer who called my personal cell phone and said, I tried calling your office and it just had voicemail. And I go, what? And so we listened to our pre recorded message and sure enough, it's confusing as to what you should do to get a hold of a person. And so I am able to kind of take my angst at all of this other stuff happening and say, let's make sure we are not part of this problem for our customers. So I think that will have good results. It's tough to say because we haven't been able to fix it yet because the company that we need to fix it hasn't come back. So it's kind of a cluster in some ways, if you will. But I do, like you mentioned, I do end on a positive note and I like using the phrase this is fun because this is, I mean, this is what I've dreamed about doing for years now. And it is the kind of thing where some days, at the end of the day, I do have to remind myself this is fun. I have to. And that's one of the reasons why I have really enjoyed writing those daily reports. Because I will sit down and think, I did like one thing today. This was just a junk, you know, throwaway trash day. And then I'll think about what happened and start writing and writing and writing and realize, well, I actually moved quite a few balls forward. Maybe I didn't accomplish a whole lot to, you know, to the end to be able to check the task off, but we moved a lot forward. We made a lot of progress. And this is, you know, nothing that is easy is all that worthwhile. Things that are worthwhile are difficult and hard and that that's what I'm getting to do every day. So it's just an incredible privilege and just really fun to do. And so some days I have to remind myself it's fun. But frankly, I mean, you ask how I'm doing most days it really is fun. It really is energizing. I've got lots of great people to work with and to talk with every day. I've got no, you know, real complaints other than all the complaining I just did. But on the whole, this is what I signed up for and it has been a blast so far.
- [39:15]
A
Well, last question on this point. You know, I feel like the, the kind of, the, one of the biggest things that you should be working on. So let me, let me tell you what you should be working on.
- [39:30]
B
I'm listening.
- [39:30]
A
I'm listening. But the conventional wisdom would say that this is, you know, the trust building is really what the first few months are all about, is just like becoming a part of the team. And also you said that the business is already so well functioning that even though some of this transition moving the accounts over kind of feels gummed up, maybe you don't want to be rushing to change a lot of stuff anyway because you don't want to break anything. But anyway, what I wanted to get to was the fact that you've been doing these ride alongs. Right. You've done, I think, three of them or that.
- [40:09]
B
Yes.
- [40:10]
A
How many have you done?
- [40:10]
B
Six so far.
- [40:12]
A
Oh, okay. So six ride along.
- [40:15]
B
I don't promise I've reported them all very well.
- [40:18]
A
Okay. Okay. So you're spending a whole day with each of your technicians. So I guess you've done six. And then you're doing one with each of your technicians. They got one more to go that seems like, you know, you might not have something to come home and you know, you know, check some boxes that you did X, Y or Z. But that seems like such a valuable use. Use of your time. So how is that going? Like, what are the ride alongs? Like, what would you suggest to other new business owners in your shoes? Is this, has this been valuable? Talk to me about it.
- [40:47]
B
Yeah, this is, this actually touches on what I think is one of my bigger weaknesses is, I mean, I'm. I'm an engineer by training and by personality. And so I'm a lot more comfortable with spreadsheets than I am with, you know, motivating people. Yeah. You know, these humans that I'm interacting with on a daily basis. And that's not to say that I'm, you know, I enjoy being around people and all that, but the ride alongs have been really about me asking questions. And I'm not making any judgments at all. I'm not having any, you know, providing any customer service pointers. I'm just asking questions, trying not to slow the guys down too bad. And what I want to come from that is a genuine sense that I do really and truly care about more than how much revenue can you bring in every day. I want to, you know, in my mind, I already know I care deeply about each of the people that I work with. And so part of it is convincing them that that's the case. And so I want to get to know them and their personal stories and their families and things they struggle with and things they like. I'm also asking questions about our company. Why are they working for us? What do they like about this company? What would they want to change down to the nitty gritty of, like, uniforms and what their preferences are and stuff like that.
- [42:23]
A
Yeah.
- [42:23]
B
And so, yeah, I think it has been pretty effective. I know there was some, obviously, plenty of trepidation when, you know, they show up on a Monday morning and a new owner is announced. That is just a fearful situation for anybody. And so I think getting to spend that time is just a time where they've just been able to say, okay, but right. Really, what are you actually gonna change and what do you actually care about? And so it's been a good and valuable from that. It also is the kind of thing that wanes. You go ride in a truck with a guy, three weeks later, if you haven't really spoken much or caught up again, then you start to lose that connection. And so I'm kind of fumbling through, learning how to keep, maintain, grow, reinforce those connections. So. So just this morning, I started a weekly Monday morning meeting. I'm gonna keep it to five to 10 minutes, but just another time to kind of get everybody in the same room and get on the same page about a few things. Yeah, a touch point. And so. And you know, it's a industry where you come in in the morning to get your parts for your van and check in, and then you are off in a van doing work all day by yourself, essentially. And so there's definitely a bent in our company toward more of the. Not the loner is probably not the right word, but the type that doesn't mind being alone, that doesn't really get a big thrill of being around a bunch of other people. And so I'm trying not to fight that. I'm trying to make sure I'm not encroaching too much, but learning how to kind of build that camaraderie and maintain that sense of family and teamwork that they've built here at this company already.
- [44:15]
A
That's great, John. How can people find you online? Is your Twitter the best way?
- [44:21]
B
Probably that is the best at fund of one with the number one. And my DMs are open. I do really enjoy connecting with people publicly and privately in the DMs and happy to hop on phone calls. And I love sharing my story. I know I have just. I'm sitting in this seat today directly because of things that other people have shared. And so I am eager to provide that back to the extent that I can as transparently as I can, and having that anonymous handle allows me to do that in a lot of ways. And so I'm as open of a book as I can be and happy to connect with anybody that wants to connect.
- [45:13]
A
Reach out to John People fund of one. He's really responsive and nothing else. Follow him on Twitter As I said, link in the show notes John, thanks so much for coming on. This was a fun conversation. Thanks for being transparent and let's catch up a year from now and see how things have gone.
- [45:30]
B
Yeah, sounds great. Will I had a blast.
- [45:33]
A
Sam.