On this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, Sid Graef sits down with Lev Golosov, founder of Garage Floor Masters, to talk about what it really takes to build a successful home service business from nothing. Lev immigrated from Russia, started in pressure washing with no experience, and eventually grew into multiple service lines, multiple locations, and a more systemized business built around people, persistence, and constant improvement.

This conversation is especially valuable for home service owners who are still in the messy middle of growth. Lev shares lessons from losing $30,000 worth of equipment before Garage Floor Masters ever really got off the ground, why he believes taking care of employees comes before taking care of customers, and how referral systems, reviews, Google, yard signs, and multiple marketing touches all work together. Sid and Lev also talk about AI, entrepreneurship, immigrant mindset, financial discipline, and why the people who win in business are usually the ones who refuse to quit.

Resources:

The Huge Insider Podcast Action Guide

The Huge Mastermind Info Page

Facebook Group

The Huge Convention

Garage Floor Masters

Garage Floor Masters Facebook

The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly

Transcript:

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations podcast. I'm Sid Graef out of Montana. I'm Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. And I'm Sheila Smeltzer from North Carolina, we are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders in. The industry folks that have already built seven and eight figure businesses and they want to help you succeed. Yep. No fake gurus on this show. Just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders. And every episode is 100% experience, 0% theory. We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guest will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the wild. Journey of entrepreneurship. Let's dive in. Welcome back to the Huge Transformations podcast. I am really glad to see you here. Today's gonna be fun, whereas they all are, but this is really cool because we get to interview a good friend of mine. His name is Lev Golo. Lev in Russian means lion. So you're gonna meet my friend, Lev the Lion. We've known each other for about six years, and currently we're in the same. Mastermind together, the huge Mastermind, which is a mastermind that is, that is ideally situated for home service business owners that are at or above that $1 million threshold in annual revenue and want to five x 10 x their business in the next few years. And it's a very. Deliberate Mastermind. It's not just a bunch of guys sharing ideas, but there's a curriculum. We've got leaders and uh, co-host or owners that have grown businesses to. 2 million, 5 million, 40 million. And if you are on a growth trajectory or you want to grow and you feel stuck, you gotta check out the huge mastermind because getting in the room with like-minded business builders that are all at seven figures, eight figures and above, like if you wanna grow to that point, that's the room you need to be in. So with that, let's talk about Lev. Lev and I have known each other for six years. He immigrated from Russia. Over a decade ago and started a home service business with no experience, no money, and no connections. It now operates a almost completely automated multi seven figure business in Knoxville, Tennessee, also Atlanta, Georgia, and they're soon to open a third location. I don't think it's public yet, so I won't say it. You know, love is quiet, spoken, and very modest. But if you listen carefully, you're gonna get nuggets and takeaways and wisdom that could shave years off your learning curve as a small business owner. With that, everything that we talk about, if there all the resources that we mention, um, as well as the huge mastermind, all of that's gonna be in the show notes. You can just poke and click and hit the resource page so you can get all the links. And we made it easy for you. There's a tunnel learning here. Enjoy the conversation with my friend Lev, Lev the Lion. Hey everyone, it's Sid with the Huge Transformation Podcast, and I have my good friend Lev Golo on as a guest today for, to interview. And I'm really excited because Lev, um, we were chatting about something recently by text, and you sent me a photo from six years ago. It was at Responsive Con in Arizona in February of 2000, and I always refer to that event as the day before the world changed. It was the last live event that I was at before COVID hit and everything shut down. Yeah, so it was kind of a momentous. Time and I was really glad you reminded me. Lev has, uh, you, he's got a couple businesses. He's got garage floor masters we're gonna talk about a lot, and also a power washing business out of Knoxville, Tennessee with a partner. And you've been at it for a good while. Everybody, welcome. Lev. Lev, thank you for being here. How are you this afternoon? Hey Syd. Thank you so much. I am honored to be on your podcast. Thank you for inviting me. I'm doing good. Appreciate. Yeah. Everything you said is correct. We met first time, 2020 of, uh, February in Phoenix, Arizona. It was, it was a beautiful, beautiful time, beautiful day. I met a lot of good people, including you. Yeah. Thank you. And that was, it was a ton of fun, um, in a good event. But here, here's what I would like to ask you is like, at that time, put yourself back six years ago where at that conference you have. I don't know how long you'd been in business at the time, but Right. Then you had the power wash business and that was all correct. Yes. Kind of describe it to me, like where were you in business six years ago? What were your, your biggest challenges? How big was your business? Um, what things were you working on? Just kind of paint a picture for everybody. Yes. Um, I actually, me and my partner Eugene, we just started, uh, year prior. 2019 officially we opened in September of 2019. When we start our pressure washing business, we had zero knowledge. Um, I didn't even know that that kind of service exists at this kind of business. So we started doing, you know, old school, grabbing the wand and blasting the all that PSI on a siding and, um. After the first job, which was awful, right? I, I, I start thinking like, this is not correct. Like, how will people make money if we spend two of us with ladder and one pressure washer? It took us like, I don't know, uh, three hours to do one side of the house and how people make that money, you know? And client was asking very cheap, like $150 or something. So then we start. From get go. That was a good experience. It's actually turning point for me. I would say that, uh, I realized that running business is not just, you know, physically running around, um, doing things with your hands. It's about gaining knowledge and, um, you know, becoming better and improve yourself. So that's why same year, 2019, we decided to go to, um, there was another training. At Nashville. Uh, pressure washing training was absolutely free, but back then we could not afford anything else. Mm-hmm. And it was amazing and we were amazed how, uh, what people were talking, uh, about pressure washing and, uh, you know, they make so much money. Back then, it was like a lot of money for us. First time we met, uh, Rob Anderson, he was a speaker there and, uh, also Pat Clark was there. So, and that's where we. You know, took a journey of learning, um, not working on business, but, uh, not working in the business, but working on it. So, and, uh, soon as I learned there's other places that you can go out and, uh, learned from experienced guys. Um, I, you know, jumped on it, and that's where I first time I met you in February, that following year in, uh, Phoenix, Arizona. Yeah. So when, when, uh, you and your partner Eugene first started, what was your, what was your biggest goal? Like when you just, you, you guys spent, you know, three hours on one side of the house. What was your biggest goal at that time? So at that time, it was no goal. Uh, we would just, okay, let's try, let's start. Uh, that was the, the whole, the, the biggest goal was to start it and then, uh, when. We went to Nashville training when people were talking that, oh, they do a million in revenue per year. And that's where our, you know, reality shattered basically saying, oh, by doing pressure washing you can do that much so, and um, that's was our first financial goal is, uh, million dollars in revenue. Yeah. Okay, good. And you answered my next question was like, after you met Rob and, and Pat Clark and listened to, you know, met somebody who is further just, they're not smarter, they're just further down the road and you go, oh, here's an opportunity that you didn't see. So at that point then you started you getting hungry and looking for more education to, to shorten your learni...