What does it take to turn a family carpet cleaning business into a thriving enterprise amidst economic downturns and personal challenges? Join us on CV Hustle as we sit down with Josh Willis, owner of Carpet and Tile Care Company, who shares his incredible journey from Fontana to the Coachella Valley in the early '80s, and how he transformed his family's home-based operation into a successful company. Josh reflects on his formative years working for his family's business during high school summers, where he honed his skills in customer service and learned the ropes of running a home service-based enterprise.
Discover the highs and lows of managing a family-owned business as Josh narrates his experiences of buying and growing the carpet cleaning business with the support of his family and innovative advertising strategies. We explore the impact of the 2008 financial crisis and how Josh's resilience and adaptability helped the business evolve. From a temporary move to Denver for health reasons to returning to Palm Desert, this journey highlights the significance of overcoming personal and professional obstacles to achieve success.
In the final segment, Josh discusses the importance of diversifying services and seizing unexpected opportunities that come from saying "yes" to various job requests. He shares insights on the unique challenges of running a cleaning business during the COVID-19 pandemic, which surprisingly resulted in a surge in demand. Listen as Josh delves into the balancing act of work and family life, the complexities of expanding services, and maintaining reliable service for short-term rental properties. This episode is a treasure trove of practical advice and inspiring stories for entrepreneurs navigating their own paths.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate,
inform and inspireentrepreneurship here in our
Coachella Valley.
Hello everyone, I'm Robert Mraz.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And I'm Fina Mraz.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And we are CV Hustle, the podcast dedicated to
educating, inspiring andinforming local entrepreneurship
here in the Coachella Valley.
And today we got a specialguest, fina, an illustrious
guest, that's right, we got aspecial guest.
We got Josh Willis of theCarpet and Tile Care Company.
Thanks, for joining us.
(00:39):
Thanks for having me.
So anybody out there that'sthinking about going into a home
service based business, this isthe podcast you want to listen
to, because we're going to havea lot of tidbits on how you can
get into into that industry.
And then, once you're inpeople's houses, how do you make
sure that you have, you know,repeat customers, because it's
not an easy thing to do.
It's something that's that'snot not easily done.
(01:00):
So we've got an expert here tokind of guide you, guide you in
this so easily done.
So we've got an expert here tokind of guide you, guide you in
this.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
So, josh, thanks for coming out, thanks for having me
today, so start at thebeginning man we want to hear
about Josh's story and going wayback.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, we want to go way back to, you know,
elementary school.
Are you originally a CoachellaValley native or where are you
from?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
originally Born in Fontana so kind of close and I
think we moved out here about 8283.
My dad was a construction guyand there was a construction
boom going on and oh yeah,there's lots of, yeah, a lot of
building, and right there wemoved at the bottom of the cove
looking to the kinta man, you'regonna keep the native so
Speaker 2 (01:38):
you guys have been in the kinta forever for, yeah,
since the early 80s.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, I didn't realize that.
Okay, yeah so then you ended upgoing to what lakinta high
school, I'm assuming yep, yep,so my, they didn't have a lot of
schools in lakinta when I wasyounger, so, uh, van baron was
my first school kindergartenokay um, I think, kindergarten
through second grade and thenthen finally they opened up
truman adams when I was infourth grade, so just moved on
(02:04):
over there.
Yeah, yeah, so I was.
I was over there in india for alittle bit you know india
school guy?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
yeah, originally, that's right, that's right, yeah
, yo guy.
So he was one of those covekids that you know, came.
Yeah, everybody hated on atfirst, you know, had to prove
himself yeah, he's from adifferent hood.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Went to the boys and girls club in india for a little
bit.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
We grew up together that was a good place to kind of
grow up, cut your teeth overthere yeah, oh yeah, so you're
from Coachella, so you'rebasically a native.
You came here when you wereprobably really young, right?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Like three, four, yeah.
So you've seen this placereally really grow right, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I mean, back was nothing between Jefferson and
Washington, right, it was desert.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, all deserts.
The streets were all likepebbled and no drains.
The water would just go outinto the desert, you know.
So now it's that old town, Nowit's a lot of people.
It's I don't know 10 desertsleft to build up there.
The houses are completely takenover, like boom, boom, boom,
(03:06):
boom.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Now it used to be like a house and lots of land
and then a house.
Yeah, so all right, so talk, solet's, let's move it up a
little bit.
So you went to La Quinta highschool, yep, and you graduated
from there and then what?
Speaker 3 (03:20):
so while I was in high school, my parents actually
opened the carpet and tile carecompany.
They actually were working fora company called Rapid Dry,
who's still around.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So my mom was an office guy for Gary Ramey Shout
out to Gary and Dean was a techfor him for a long time and they
were like looking aroundthey're like, hey, I think we
could do this.
So they opened their own and itwas just carpets and it was
just dry cleaning back then, nosteam, um, and uh, yeah, they
just built it pretty quick.
(03:54):
After a couple years it was umthree or four vans run in.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I was working for them and, um, oh, so you were in
high school and you werehelping your parents out I would
do it every summer.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Fifty dollars a day, that was my pay.
It was 12 hours a day could be14.
I'm 50 bucks.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
That's what I got, I got that slave labor what work
permit?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
all right, well they're your parents.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
You can't sue them.
Hey, I didn't pay rent.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So it was hey, it was all.
It was all.
I like this fine, it was allprofit for you, right?
There was some light days mixedin there but yeah, 50 bucks a
day and but I I got taught askill.
I got to go get taught to walkinto someone's house, not wreck
the place because you'rebringing in heavy equipment.
There's a skill to setting upand um talking to customers,
sales and setting expectationsand executing and it was fun it.
(04:45):
I got burnt out of it prettyquick, though I'm not going to
lie, it was, I don't know,getting paid an hourly wage and
day after day doing the samething.
I was like I don't know if I'mgoing to do this.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, I think there's other things for me out there,
yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, Real quick.
So after a few years of workingwith them I just moved out to
the high desert and just didsome odd jobs here and there.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So when you say the high desert, you mean, like
where Yucca Valley?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Joshua Tree, Morongo.
Oh, you lived out there.
I didn't know that.
I bounced back and forth acouple times, but I love it out
there.
It's beautiful.
I play music and there's a lotof stuff to do.
What do you mean?
I play music, and and there's alot of um a lot of stuff to do
that when you play music, alittle music back in the day,
yeah, guitar, a little bit ofdrums, yeah, all right long time
(05:35):
ago, a long time ago.
Yeah, in a band or yeah, justlike a jam band, is that's okay?
We play at the beatnik up thereis like some it's like an ice
cream shop slash.
Yeah yeah, like it was.
It was pretty fun up there.
It was.
I had a lot of a lot of fun.
I wasn't making a lot of moneyup there, though we had, you
know.
So eventually I had to, youknow, call mom up and ask her
(06:00):
for a job, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And was she still doing the same thing, or what?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
ask her for a job, you know?
And was she still doing thesame thing, or what?
Um, so they had actually brokenup.
So my, my stepdad and mom brokeup, um, and with the divorce
they split the business.
He got the, the tile divisionand she got the carpets um, so
that's how they did.
They agree on that yeah, yeah,that's how they did it um yeah,
they broke it up and and theyeach went their separate ways.
(06:26):
And when I called, though, Iasked you know, I need a job mom
like, and she goes, yeah, comeon in, I just bought a payroll
company.
I was like, what?
So I bought a payroll company?
Uh, I need someone to runpayroll for me.
I was like, okay, that soundsawesome.
I did not want to clean carpets, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I'm gonna do this office job, this sounds awesome
and um did not want to cleancarpets.
I'm going to.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I'm going to do this yeah, nice cushy office job,
this sounds awesome.
And because I think she boughtthe payroll company because she
couldn't do the work herself.
So, even though she had thecarpets, she didn't have, you
know, dean, to rely on to do thework anymore.
So she thought that you knowshe can do payroll, so she
bought that and she kept thecarpets going.
But, um, when I got, when I gotdown there and and started
(07:08):
learning the payroll business,shout out, bobby yeah, and still
in it.
Uh, I started to learn all theins and outs of that.
I saw the carpet vans justsitting there.
They weren't moving.
She I was like what's up withcarpets?
And she's like, oh, it's justbeen slow.
She had some um guy ste runningas a family friend and I don't
know what was going on.
I wasn't paying attention, butthey weren't, it was just
(07:29):
sitting.
You know one job a week wasvery much.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
But I was like all right, that's fine, I'm just
doing payroll, but you hadpayroll clients that you were
servicing for other businesses,right Yep.
So that was kind of yeah yeahthey would fax in their hours.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I would get the hours .
I'd put them in the software.
The checks would spit out.
I'd put the checks in a paperfolder.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I'd put the paper folder and then she would so
wait a minute, Because she usedto run that part of their
business so she was comfortable.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, yeah, she was always the office person in our
business and then she couldn'tdo the carpets herself
physically Sure In our businessand then she couldn't do the
carpets herself physically Sure.
So I think you know when theysplit she felt a little
vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And so she rolled some money into the payroll
business and you go with whatyou know, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
And I think the idea was to keep the carpets going.
But I think it was tough.
You know, she relied on somepeople and I don't think they
were getting it done.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So is that, when you kind of what?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
year?
What year are we talking about?
Right like is this after?
You're a football I know youfrom football so I know you were
a football player in collegewhen was this after your
football career?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
yeah, so that was.
Uh, yeah, college was 98 99.
This was probably 2004 2005still relatively yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
yeah, you're just trying to find your next journey
, right?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
At the time I was just trying to get paid.
I needed a paycheck.
I wasn't even thinking aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
You just didn't pay that rent, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
And I liked office work.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I didn't want to move back to my mom's past so I had
to pay rent right.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, and then even in the older days I I used to
bounce back and forth I'd helpmy mom in the office and then
I'd help dean out in the field,and I was like one of the only
guys.
I could do both.
Yeah um, so you're, you had yourhand in everything, yeah yeah,
I like the office work becauseyou get a system down, um, uh,
you the job comes in, do the job, you complete the job, you mark
if it's paid or not and thenyou file away.
(09:20):
Like everything has astep-by-step procedure and I
like that.
So it was.
It was soothing for me whenthat job got completed.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I was like get it off your plate yes, kind of being
prepped to kind of be anentrepreneur yeah, I didn't know
it at that point, becauseyou're doing the office back and
stuff which we all have tolearn how to do.
Yeah, when you take overbusiness.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
It's easy to do it once, but you get a large volume
all of a sudden, things startto get lost and you know, if you
don't have that system, it'syeah, so you're training on that
portion while you're still inthe field?
Yeah, while I was learning theactual cleaning and and and you
know the front end as far asdealing with the customer and
and sales and, um, how to talk,and you know how to do the, the
(10:02):
actual, you know cleaning so soyou're, you're a jack of all
trades at this point, yeah yeah,I was.
You know, I'll help whoever.
Wherever you need, I'm jumpingout and helping, so you
mentioned the vans that weresitting.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
There was that kind of your little light ball moment
um, so was it vans, or what wasthat?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
um, it wasn't me, it was my brother, uh, jake.
Um he, he came up with the idea.
Just he's like hey, we shouldbuy the carpet cleaning company
for mom.
She's not working, it, it'sjust there yeah, and I was like
no way, dude, I like this job,dude I like running payroll yeah
, yeah, I was like you also hadto be like monday through friday
.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I mean, I guess your business probably still is now,
but I mean yeah, it's, it's,it's a lot.
Oh yeah, you work a lot ofhours.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Okay, sorry, I interrupted no, it's okay.
So he's like no, we'll split it70-30.
He gets 70, he'll do all thework he said and I can just
answer the phones and book thejob, do the back end stuff and
keep the payroll job.
I was like double my pay.
Oh, that sounds awesome, let'sdo that?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, I was like double my pay.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That sounds awesome.
Let's do that.
Yeah, sure, sure, I guess.
Stay in his office.
Yeah, it was good and we didthat.
Started advertising again, gotthe business going again.
We got booked for like fiveweeks out really quick.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, I want to know what the conversation was with
your mom.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Oh, how do you go?
Yeah, that's a mom.
I want to buy this.
Yeah, can you?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
give a kid a break here.
So we did it.
The conversation went.
She was.
It went like what do you thinkit's worth?
And she's like I've beenoffered 100 grand for it, right
now and and I was like it's noteven moving.
But she had the phone number,she had repeat business, she had
two vans or three vans and Iwas like what's up with the
family discount?
Take payments?
She said she did.
(11:47):
She gave 50 grand.
That's awesome Really.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, a thousand dollars a month.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
No down payment, just start paying her a thousand
bucks a month and you can haveit no way, thank you mom, Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
You did get that family discount yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Does your son get the same deal?
Yeah, if you want.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I'm trying to push him to something else, but it's
there if he wants it, it's 100%.
It's in the family man.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Do you look back now and go damn, that was pretty
cool.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, I didn't realize what was going on, but
looking back that was prettymonumental.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And you also probably said 50 grand is a whole ton of
money.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I'm only a 50% owner.
I got me and Jake in it rightat this moment, so we're
splitting revenue.
It's half-half.
It was 70-30.
Like I think I got 30%, he got70% because he's doing.
But once you started gettingbusier, Well, he got burned out
fast, so we were hitting it andwe got all the customers back.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
He's like you've got to start coming clean.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, and all of a sudden about I don't know, a
year in, maybe less, I need somehelp out here.
I'm like, okay, what do youwant to do?
So we'll do 50-50, and we'llswitch or alternate days.
So on the days he got to stayhome he'd answer phones, and
then when I was out in the fieldhe'd answer phones.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
so we and we split.
That sounds kind of like asweet deal.
Yeah, I mean as a kid.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So what year is this?
How old are you at this point?
This was 2007.
Oh so you're still a kid yeah,you're still barely 50 owner
yeah, you're barely out ofcollege how old?
Were you um you're still inyour 20s, right?
Yeah?
20, 27 wow wow, so you're,you're already a business owner
at 27 years old, yeah, you know,because I mean that's pretty.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, no, it was good it was.
I didn't plan on it and yeah,it was working out.
Because it was booming, it wasbooked.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
How did you get business if you were?
Saying your mom wasn't doing it.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
We did our old thing advertised through Money Meller.
I don't know if you rememberthat.
Thomas King Shout out to ThomasKing.
It's like Valpak.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Isn't that like the penny saver?
Yeah, Valpak's still around.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Valpak's around.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
yeah, oh he had the blue envelope that comes in the
mail.
They come in the mail and youopen them up and you get coupons
.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
MoneyMailer is a different company, very similar,
the same execution.
You can only have two carpetcleaners or two of the same
businesses in there.
I opened ValPak the other day.
There were like cleaners inthere, so I don't change that
rule.
Yeah, so about.
Yeah so um, but we, you know,and there's, you didn't have to
(14:23):
do the whole coachella valley,you can just do sections which
is nice because there werecertain areas that you wanted to
target and higher end, yeah,and like sun city was nice,
because they're, you know,they're at the age where they
don't want to do anything aroundtheir house, so they're,
they're getting those carpetscleaned in and then you can
target those right.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You target those packs and put them in the
neighborhood you wanted.
So where did you learn that?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
technique from.
Was that something your parentswere doing?
Yeah, my mom's very good, savvybusiness.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
So okay, I'm still trying to understand something.
So you had a payroll companynamed what?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I think it was Jay Leon's and Associates.
It's still around, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Jackie, um, I don't.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I think it was jay leone's an associate just still
around.
Oh yeah, yeah, shout out tojackie.
Yeah, shout out to jackie, yeahand so like then.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
But then you had the carpet so you were answering
like two different phones fortwo different businesses um,
yeah, but I didn't really answera lot of phones for for um, for
my mom's company.
Uh, it came in through, faxedyou just yeah, I just did the
numbers.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I didn't do the front end on that.
That was her, she was takingcare of that, but I had a phone
next to me that I would um, youcan you know you can forward the
number to any phone and Iforward the business to the to
the number right here.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So I would just pick it up.
And yeah, I was getting paidtwice working those kids that
work from home, and then theyyes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I read in the early I was, I was, I was loving, it
was you're like a pioneer ofthat, of that technique.
It was my favorite time working.
I loved that job.
It was fun.
I went in there, just worked inthe office.
I got paid really well and itwas fun.
Um, oh my gosh, but yeah.
So then jake needed help, so Ihad to get out there and start
(15:55):
sweating again, and it was fun.
I I was making, we were rolling, it was good, and then 2008 hit
and it just stopped.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Real estate affects your business pretty heavily
right.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah, and it just gas prices shot up.
We're living in Morongo.
Oh, you're still up in the highdesert.
Yeah, I was driving back andforth.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I was going to say so was most of your business down
here in the desert.
All of it, yeah, all of it Wow.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So why didn't you?
Guys advertise over there, ifyou lived there we did a little
bit, but it's not the volume upthere.
It's a very slower pace of life.
Okay, it's just it's hardbecause the roads aren't paved
in Morongo.
Oh, that's true, it's harder onthe vehicles You're bouncing
around the big old equipment,it's just not.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Brakes are out again, alignment's out again.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, for real, for real.
So it wasn't worth reallytargeting that market.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
No, and we kept the vans down here at that time.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
So we were commuting with our vehicles.
Because those are gas guzzlers,you know?
Oh, sure, for sure, because youhave equipment inside of those.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Equipment.
Yeah, and they're big old vansand they're full of chemicals.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That must be fun, if one ever breaks down.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, maybe you break down.
Yeah, the motors inside breakdown too.
Oh my, gosh.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Okay, so then at that point, 2007, 2008 hits, and
then what?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Well, not only financially was it a shitty day.
Sorry, can I cuss?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Please do.
We invite you to cuss.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I got really sick so I was playing football semi-pro
football being dumb, but I got abad infection on my leg.
I got tackled on the baseballpart of the field, the dirt, and
it was road rash dirt and itlike was road rash and it got
infected and I got really sick.
So for about five or six weeksI was on antibiotics and it
fucked me up like, uh, I finallygot rid of the infection, I was
(17:50):
got the old and my ears startedringing.
Oh, my gosh oh shit, and justfinancially I was hurting.
Then I had a house.
I was going to lose a house.
Gas prices were shocked.
I was like and me and Gretchenjust started to start talking
about this time a little beforethis and she's like Gretchen,
your wife now.
Yeah, shout out to GretchenLove you babe.
(18:11):
Yeah, she offered to let mestay.
She was in Denver, she wasgoing to college out there, she
had a little studio out there.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
She's all come live with me I was like that's right,
she did move out there say nomore.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I got on a plane and I left California.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Wow what year was?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
this 2008-9 so then the.
So then your brother kept thebusiness yeah, so I.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
So I worked out.
I was like dude, I got to takecare of myself.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I'm not healthy right now.
I need a reboot.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah, I'm in bad shape.
And he said no problem, Iworked out, I forwarded the
phones to Denver.
So if you're calling for carpetcleaning in Palm Desert, you're
calling Denver, love it Callcenter.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, Target attention the call center center
yeah and we worked outsomething.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I got like 100 150 bucks a week just to answer
phones and I, I, just I did thatfor him and he continued to
work the business.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's worth it's worth .
Did he end up hiring somebodyto take your place, kind of um
no, it got so slow.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It got so slow.
He did all of it and we, we hadsome van payments, we, we
really just shaved a lot of thebusiness down.
We got, we had some loans out,we just took care of time to
pivot yeah, we had to slim downoh, absolutely strap that you
know strap that up, yeah, um,okay.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
So then you were in denver, right.
And then how did you end upback in the desert, because you
know the desert always?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
calls you back.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Bobby came back too, so I was getting better out
there, I was feeling better, butI was still having some
problems my ear so I was comingback for doctor visits.
Every now and then I'd fly backand on one of those visits,
jake just came up and said I'mdone.
I was like what, you're gettingburnt out.
You want me to jump out thereand clean carpets?
He's like no, I'm done, I'mgoing to pivot, I'm going to get
(19:51):
a job somewhere where there's acorporation.
I'm going to move up the ladder.
They have uh health care, theyhave um stocks.
And so he went and uh got a jobat home depot.
And I was like, oh shit, he wasdone with the business.
Yeah, he didn't want to do itanymore and it's a grind, it can
you know.
You guys know it's, it's younever stop working and that's
(20:14):
like physical labor too it is,and so we pivoted and yeah, we
worked something out, so Ibecame the.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
So you said hey, gretchen.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Not coming back, babe , sorry.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Really.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Now I'm in business.
Hey, we got work to do, wow.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So where did you live ?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I got a cheap place in Morongo, I mean.
Oh, so you still went back outthere and then, well, I I think
I flew out one more time, gotlike, got my stuff and flew back
out and started running a cheaplittle studio and you were
still doing the commute thenyeah, down there so who was
answering your?
Phones.
I was the whole time I was, soyou're doing everything just
like he does today at this time,yeah, at this time.
(20:55):
And now it's go time and I I sawthat my mom and dean got burnt
out.
Um, jay got burned out, I gotburned out.
So my whole approach when Ifirst got the business was I'm
not gonna burn myself out, I'mgonna do like one, two jobs a
day, that's it and that backthen for me I didn't have a lot
of overhead.
It was like 300 $300 a day.
(21:16):
I was like I'm fine, I can dothis forever.
I was off by 12 o'clock.
I was drinking by 2 or 3.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
I was like I'm good man.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
I was happy it was working perfect until it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
What year was this?
Now you take over the business2010-ish, 2011.
You're doing $300 a day,feeling good, living your best
life, Loving it yeah, we didn'thave a lot of bills.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I was still living pretty cheaply, didn't have a
house yet and you hit some bumpsin the road.
Was there?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
a bumpy road.
Well, so that first year, two,year, three, I did really well
and I got hit with a big taxbill.
Well, it sounds like our story.
It caught me slipping.
I didn't have all the money inthe bank account.
I was like, oh, so I had to setup payments.
So I started setting uppayments.
(22:12):
My mom was giving me the stuff.
She says just pay them on thedue date.
So I was doing that.
And then three months afterthat that my truck mount went
out so I had to total rebuildthe the motor and the truck
mount, not the car motor.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
The truck mount.
Now I can't now I'm out ofbusiness without that right.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
It's done so I, so I had to pivot money from taxes to
get that.
I have to get that up right.
That's every day.
I have to get that up aboutthis time going on.
I asked Gretchen to marry me,so we had a wedding to save up.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Geez you like to throw all kinds of.
All of a sudden 300 bucks A daywas not it's not going to work.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
It's not working.
So we got the wedding throughand then we got pregnant quick
and I needed a car, now SUV, Ineeded a family.
They're not going to let metake my baby away from the van,
no, you can't put the car seatin the van, no.
(23:09):
So I had to.
I you know now it was go time.
So I was like all right, Istarted to to really start to
sell um and work past one.
You know, I started to do three, four jobs a day and it was
starting to generate more moneyand um.
But I needed a vehicle and itwas tough because I wasn't using
credit.
Back then I didn't have creditscore because I wasn't using it.
I didn't have a bad one, but Iwasn't using it.
So I went to the, thedealership and they wanted to
give me like 14 interest rate ona car I was like I can't do
(23:32):
that.
That's terrible, yeah,ridiculous.
I that's a no.
And so I'm like what am I gonna?
I got a baby coming and shoutout to mom again.
I asked her and she had a carthat she wasn't using and it was
a Lexus IS350.
Nice car, fast car, not afamily car.
I got a car seat in there.
(23:53):
She pushed that seat all theway forward on the passenger
side and worked out somethingwith her.
So I started paying her forthat and yeah, so this is all
leading up to something, becauseso I got the car.
It's sitting the driveway, Iwasn't paying attention to it
and, uh, for a couple of weeks,you know, gretchen's got a truck
, I got a van, I'm working a lotand all of a sudden, gretchen's
(24:15):
water's breaking.
It's go time.
We got the backpack, we got theroute we're taking, we jump in
that car and we're driving and Istart to hear a grinding sound.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Wow, really On the way to the hospital, and it
wasn't.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Gretchen.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I looked over at her and she's just like she's very
calm, doing her breathing.
And I turn like I can feel thegrind in the in this.
It's like low profile rim, so Icouldn't tell when I jumped in
the car, but when I was drivingit it was grinding, I could feel
it through.
So I turned up the music alittle bit and I look over holy
shit, I got a baby coming goingdown 111, uh, and I'm on the rim
(24:59):
.
Wow, I'm on the rim driving tothe hospital and so I'm thinking
like who can I call?
What's going on?
Like what?
What are my options?
Right, and I was like I'm gonnadrive this thing until till the
wheels fall off.
I'm going in, coming in hot.
So I kind of I make it intothat hospital roundabout thing.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Get Gretchen Sparks All right, I get to picture it.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Pull the door open and get Gretchen in the the
delivery room area.
They put it right in theWheelchair.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Wheelchair and take her away.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
And I'm like all right, we're good.
I go park it in the closestparking spot I can find we have
a baby.
Connor comes way late at night.
It was a long delivery, like 2,3 in the morning, and I wake up
that morning.
I wake up to some notifications.
Oh shoot, stuff's hitting mybank account.
I'm not getting paid.
So I pull up the app and I got$0.
(25:52):
Oh my God, the day your son wasborn.
The day your son was born, theday my son was born.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
That's pretty much.
It Kids take all your money.
Yeah, I mean, you get used toit right, he was already.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Kids, take all your money.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Dude, I was tripping, I was just like.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Was it the tax man?
Yeah, irs, took it right out,irs took your account.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Yep, just took it out Because I had been truck mount
payments and I was just tryingto juggle everything.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Stressful You're starting.
Now I got to get my shittogether.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Gretchen remember Better or Worse, yeah, during
our vows.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, we were in it, and so I got on the phone and
the IRS was super nice.
Whoever I talked to to the guywas really cool.
He was just like yeah, I toldhim I'm like I just had a baby,
uh, I need, I need, I need somegas money to get home.
I got a flat tire and he's likedon't, don't worry about it,
we're gonna give you half yourmoney back and then we're gonna
set up.
(26:53):
They gave you half your moneyback half it back and set up
payments and he said you have tohave money in there because
those are coming out.
No matter what I go, you're thebest dude.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
And I think it was only like four grand.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, so he gave me two grand back, and yeah it was
like a little lifeline, so Ihave a question, because we've
what did you?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
are you a sole proprietor?
I am a sole prop, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
I still am, I got to come see Bobby.
I yeah, okay, I still am, I gotto come see Bobby.
I've been putting it off.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
No, but this is what we talk about.
When Bobby and I first started,you're supposed to pay yourself
.
What is it?
You know what it is?
It's 12 and a half and 12 and ahalf.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Oh, the self-employment tax.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, so this whole property is subject to
self-employ his tax return everyyear, I think probably since
you started your business yeahbecause you're used to having to
(27:49):
pay the sales employment tax.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
So, yeah, so now, now I'm prepared, but back then I
was not.
And um, yeah, it was a learning, it was a learning.
We were not prepared either.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I mean, we got hit with a pretty nice bill too that
first year, because we had noidea.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
These are things they don't teach you in school right
you know, it's like you have tolearn.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah, trial and error the first year I just I had a
lot of deductions, startup costsand it.
You know it made more sense.
And then that third year, so Ididn't have no cost really and
it was like you're like.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Oh, I thought I better make up some yeah I must
have went to sushi too manytimes that year or something,
because I didn't have it.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
When they came, they came knocking, so so you, you're
, you're okay.
The irs gives you a lifeline uh, yeah, is that like you're very
cool, it was very nice your ahamoment like yeah, I got this
hard and I was over.
Yeah, at that time I was like Ineed new equipment.
How?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
did you get home here ?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
I'll touch up the sun bus so I got, um, there's a gas
station right across streetfrom like catty corn, not across
street, but like right aroundthe corner, from from the
hospital there in palm springs.
I roll up there and it's offthe bead, the, the like it's,
and and I'm like I go in.
I go like dude, I need a tire,can I?
(29:02):
Oh, we don't sell tires here.
And the lady in the front waslike super mad, like basically
tell me, you got, get out ofhere.
You know what I mean.
And then the mechanic heard thewhole conversation.
He goes, uh, let me, let me golook at it.
And he saw it and he's like Ithink I can get it on the bead.
And he and he put a lot ofspray in there and he let him
match and it went and it wentback on the rim and he filled it
(29:22):
up yeah, he's got.
You got a slow reek, uh leak,and I was like, uh, looking on
the tire, he's all I can't findout, he's all I bet you it's in
the rim.
So I had a crack in the rimapparently, so, but it got me
home.
Yeah, that was good news.
Yeah, so it was like the irsgiving your money back, and then
that guy I was so thankful thatguy was like dude, I'm gonna
(29:44):
come clean your carpet, youryour furniture in your house.
Here's my card.
And uh, sure enough, he calledme up like two weeks later.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Oh really yeah, oh yeah, dude on that favor.
Oh nice, yeah, I love it, yeahit was oh that's good karma, man
.
Yeah, he saved me.
So so you were at thisinflection point.
New son, yeah, new business,well, kind of new business,
right.
So when did you decide?
Okay, I'm just gonna go, youknow, I'm gonna go all in on
this and really and really makeit, make it work and make it
(30:12):
profitable and make, make it soI can take care of my that day I
just I was.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I told myself, I'm gonna grind as hard as I can
because this can't happen.
I got a family to protectfinancially.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
This can't happen.
I remember my stepdad, dean,telling me a long time ago
Because he built the business upto five vans when they were
running but they got burnt out.
But he told me if you reallywant to make a lot of money,
just don't say no.
If someone asks you to cleansome windows that you don't
(30:46):
normally do, just say yes.
If, if they want you to cleansaltillo pavers, just say yes.
You know how to do pavers, youknow how to do windows.
I know you don't like to dothem, but just do them so.
And I didn't realize why thatwas so important at the time.
I just thought it was likeextra money.
I'm not, I'm not completelybooked.
Sure it gives me more money,but what it really did was it
opened up new um opportunitiesrevenue streams right.
(31:11):
New revenue coming in from yeah,but now on saturday morning
when I scheduled that windowcleaning, the neighbor saw me
cleaning.
He wants the window clean andthen he finds out I'm doing
carpets.
So he's like, all right, canyou do my carpets?
I'm doing his carpets and helikes the way it came out.
And he's like I got seven,eight vacation properties in the
(31:32):
desert.
I want you to clean them all.
And then they usually have aproperty manager that does
theirs and then they go get ajob somewhere else.
And now that one windowcleaning turned into all this
other revenue because I said yesto something I didn't want to
do.
So shout out to dean, becausehe was the one that told me that
(31:52):
a long time ago really so then,that is that how you started
adding tile to your um name.
Yeah, so the the original namewas carpet care company.
Um, and they just did drycleaning and then they got up to
steam cleaning and then theystarted to do tile, so they
added tile to the name, so itbecame the carpet and tile care
company so what's the differencebetween a dry cleaning and I
(32:15):
mean, obviously I know it'ssteam, but yeah, so what's?
um, it's a they still.
It's still in the industry.
They call it VLM, very lowmoisture cleaning.
So basically they're going totake a cleaning agent and put it
across the carpet and they'regoing to use a buffing machine.
It's not the best cleaning.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Got it?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
It really isn't, but for certain types of sky rises
in hotels where you can't get atruck mount in there, It'll work
.
It'll work and it makes it lookbetter.
Sure, but it's not as good asyou know a steam cleaning.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Have you ever told people this should not be clean?
Just get rid of it and startover.
You're like I'm ready.
That's what I basically toldyou before the show.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
The cost.
You know you've got to startweighing the cost.
Know you gotta start weighingthe?
I'm gonna be here eight hours.
Um, this is time to go, likeyou gotta, and then they'll.
They'll try to tell me I'lljust clean, it, cleans up.
Good, you know, and I'm justlike no, you gotta, oh my gosh
sorry yeah okay, so now do youhave anybody that works through
you?
Yes, correct yeah, so it'sstill family-run business eli,
my youngest brother, who wasborn when I was in high school.
(33:19):
So now, he's now like 26, 27,he's working.
Um, he's running the other van.
He's actually my lead tech.
He does the majority of thework.
Um, I'm in the office againtrying to get back in that
office, uh, half the time.
But I get out there and I catchall the stuff, because I have
stuff that comes in it needs tobe done same day.
Um, it's just so you're like theemergency or the go-to guy on
(33:41):
the yeah turnover stuff yeah,and then when he can't work, um,
you know, of course I jump in.
And then, uh, we alternateweekends because sometimes we
gotta work on the weekends.
We try not to, but commercialaccounts come in there.
You know, the office is fullmonday through friday, yes.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
So I say yes, okay.
I have a question have you doneany murder scenes?
Speaker 3 (34:01):
you know, oh man, when I was young, I think it, I
think I think it was yeah, Iremember it was a blood scene
like a big.
They had a like a whatsomething over it and it was
weird.
It was like I was just young,maybe 19.
I was like, whatever I'mcleaning, Well there's a lot of
blood right here.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Wow, like that, huh.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Yeah, and at the time it was fine.
I didn't think about it, butlooking back at it, I sometimes
think about that, Because theyhad people mourning outside when
I was cleaning.
Oh yeah, why were they mourningLike, why were they just
standing there with coffee?
And they don't have to tell youthat you're cleaning my blood.
(34:45):
Isn't that like a hazardousmaterial?
That's true, right, they didn'ttell.
They didn't tell me until I gotthere and I just started
cleaning it up what you weretold.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
You told me to clean this.
Yeah, I just didn't even.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I was too young and dumb.
You know, I was just 1920, itwas a long time ago.
It was one of my first got atruck mount and um, very crazy
long time ago.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay, I have another.
I hope not.
I have another crazy questionnow.
It's not too crazy.
What happened when covet hitand people like were scared of
being around people?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
so I I was prepared for it to slow down, batting up
the hatches, I was getting readyand that first month it was
slow and um, I was like, allright, but I, I had.
I remember 2008, so I was builtfor it.
I I can slim it down and I cansurvive for a long time if it
shuts down well, and youprobably have more money at this
point and you're probablysmarter, being smarter about
money.
Yeah, I'm still being verycautious about how, uh, how much
(35:32):
um debt I have every month tocome up with.
And I have um to set rules andI abide by that and I was
prepared for it to slow down.
But the second month, I thinkapril- you're like it blew up so
much I could not keep up withyou know why?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
because everybody was home yeah, everybody was sick.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
And looking at that I don't know what it was.
That's what it was.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
I was, both vans were maxed.
I couldn't catch it all I.
I tried my best.
I could not catch it all it was.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
It was crazy and well , that's what, like our business
boomed, I mean, I can't tellyou, so you were on it too.
Yeah, oh, yeah tile sales wentthrough the roof like crazy
numbers, right everybody.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Like they were saying you can't even compare those
numbers to any other panel yeahyear, because it was just
ridiculously crazy I was like,if this stays this, like this,
forever, this is gonna.
You're going.
I'm making a big plan earlyyeah I almost bought a third van
that year because it was sobusy.
I wasn't I don't like notcatching everything, I didn't,
(36:32):
and I was letting stuff go and Iwas like I gotta expand.
And I shout out to billy hayes.
I went down to ford, I startedgetting that third van running
and some just told me like letme just I'm gonna hold off.
It's not real yeah yeah, I justI remember 2008 when I it's the
run-up in prices and I I waitedjust to see.
(36:53):
I'm glad I did, because it didget slow after sure I went slow
down, but now it's speeding backup.
Right now it's um.
Right now you're super busyright, yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
So this is a repeat.
It's like goes in cycles yeah,it's really weird, right?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
so are you gonna add carpet tile and windows to your
name?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
uh, maybe I windows, so after you get busy, um, you
have to really streamline it,and it's I'd have to hire a
whole new van just, yeah, to dowindows, only because we're so
full business.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yeah, windows is big, you're right, because you have
these big, old, massive, youknow outdoor spaces and ladders.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Yeah, different windows, different screens.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Some of those screens are tough to get off, that's
true, yeah, you gotta have awhole clean windows, but only on
the inside.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah right, yeah and you have to have, like soft
water systems.
So so you're not, you know,just putting calcium water on
the window.
It's a whole process.
So, um, we thought about it.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Well, it's not out of the question thinking about
expanding into the next, youknow next service.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Yeah, yeah, the the next, you know next service.
Yeah, yeah that the next thingwould be water restoration or
stone restoration.
Those are like the two areas,yeah good dip into.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Yeah, yeah, I just well stone?
Is it just a tricky thing?
Speaker 3 (38:12):
and then chemicals you use and it's like stripper,
you're using standards, you'rebreathing and stuff in like oh,
that's all the chemicals I use,pretty safe for the environment.
There's not harsh, it's just alittle ph adjustment and a
little bit of an acid rinse andit's good.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
So you were saying you do saltios, do you do?
You used to?
Speaker 3 (38:28):
because they're a pain in the ass.
They are.
It's.
It's rough work.
Yeah, you're stripping, you'rescrubbing, you're cleaning,
you're letting it dry and thenyou're doing coats of acrylic
sealer.
I could do it, but I one of myleast favorite jobs.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Price it to where it's like make it five bucks six
bucks, yeah you gotta price itto make it worth your time right
I have a form that says thetruth about saltios, and it's.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
It's true, it's.
They're cheap on the front endand expensive on the back end.
Yeah, and there are peopledon't realize.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yeah, because the, the acrylic, the dirt gets
embedded, and the only way toget that dirt up is to get that
acrylic off.
It's like nails, right that yougot to strip it all the way
down and rebuild it.
So it's, it's that's a goodanalogy, I like that yeah yeah,
you can use that yeah no, weused to do them a lot and um a
lot, a lot.
Dean was very good at at saltseals.
(39:19):
He taught me how to doeverything and um, I just don't
like doing it yeah so you, youwe've, we hire, we use you
exclusively and we have anairbnb.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
So he just came and cleaned um our master bedroom
couch and the rug in there.
So don't know, you'll begetting a bill I'll be getting a
bill awesome bill bobby, Ithink it's scheduled to go out
tomorrow morning nice yeah, yeah
Speaker 3 (39:42):
this guy never misses a bill.
I got a system.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
I got a system down here.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
When it hits, it hits , it goes out this man.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
You can't miss an invoice.
Yeah, but is airbnb like a bigpart of what you're?
Speaker 3 (39:53):
yeah, it's wrapped up .
I would say about 40 isshort-term rentals and that's
just just consistent.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
You want those accounts right Because they're
consistent, yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
And we adjust the pricing because a lot of times
they don't need a full clean,they need a refresh kind of deal
, because the guests kind ofmess something up and then they
just need a sofa spot cleaned.
So the tickets are a littlesmaller and you usually don't
have to do the whole house, butwe're set up to do it.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
And get there quickly .
Don't have to do the wholehouse so, but we we're set up to
to do it and get that cater toit.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah, very, yeah, very quick and see, that's
perfect, especially in thismarket right because, yeah,
we're going into season whereit's just all airbnbs in our
yeah and you, the check-ins areat four, so you gotta you gotta
get it done before then, so yougotta be ready to catch it as it
comes.
And that's the trick with thoseis gotta gotta be ready, gotta
get in there absolutely timing,right?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
yeah, it's all timing so, uh, how do you, how do you
make time for family, becauseyou do a lot of football it's
tough man during covid I gotyelled at a lot um.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
I don't work weekends .
I try to my best not to workweekends um.
My um my brother will workweekends um, but I try to give
him the weekends off.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Oh, jake, is back.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
No, no, eli, eli, eli , younger brother, I will use
Jake, though he owns.
Shout out, jake, he owns HighDesert, carpentow.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Oh, so he's back in the business now.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Yeah, he got done with Home Depot and came to his
senses and opened his zone upthere.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That's awesome Now.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
I'm trying to get Eli to open his zone somewhere else
.
Branch off, huh.
Like you know, I'm branch off,huh yeah, but then you're gonna
have to hire somebody else.
I know it's tough.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
You guys probably know it's tough to find um
someone that you trust with,with your life right, because
you got it okay, so you're stillanswering all your phones,
right yeah, I feel like the, theface of the company is super
important.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
I feel absolutely they love talk, people love
calling and be able to talk toyou.
That's probably the last thingI'll give up is, is that phone?
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I've done it the whole time forever yeah, and if
I hire someone or their servicesthat call me, they want to do
it, they want to like, set it upand and they'll send me my jobs
and email my clients and likeI'm on the face, like I want,
because you have to also knowwhat kind of I mean I would
imagine you're like qualifyingthese people and and really
knowing what you're getting whenyou go there.
(42:06):
Yeah, and they want estimatesand I know the models of the
house.
I know the location, like wherethey live.
You know roughly so I knowabout how big those houses are.
So the people out of the areaaren't going to know that stuff.
And I just don't.
Every time that phone ringsit's an opportunity.
And yeah, I just take itseriously.
I don't think Every time thatphone rings it's an opportunity.
(42:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I just take it seriously.
I don't think I'm not going togive that up.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
But I'll give everything else up, except maybe
payroll, because I like payrollthere you go More power to you.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
You're going to do payroll in Bobby's house.
I thought about it.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
More power to you, man.
It's a good job I love it, man,it's always changing right.
Yeah, and it's always changingright yeah and me.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
I'm like numbers.
Yeah, he doesn't want to touchit at all, thanks, yeah, like
the design stuff, things, pretty, yeah, yeah, which I'm not good
at, so that would that'd be anightmare for me, my carpet's
pretty yeah yeah, no, it issoothing, I like to.
It's like painting.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yeah, yeah, it's therapeutic yeah, it has it's
like I don't see it I don't doit anymore, so I don't know so I
just we have people way better.
Yeah, I'm still yeah, so we'regetting up towards our time here
, but we always like to ask ourentrepreneurs a couple questions
at the end of the show.
Okay, um.
So first question best businessadvice you've ever gotten?
Speaker 3 (43:22):
um, probably from from dean, my stepdad, saying
don't you know, if you reallywant to make money, just don't
say no.
Don't say no, I mean you'regonna put yourself into
situations where you might notbe comfortable, but if you trust
yourself to get them done andknow you can, you're gonna get
them done and it's gonna lead toopportunities later down the
look down the road.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
So absolutely say no, you gotta be a little thirsty
especially when you're startingright, yeah exactly exactly, you
get full.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
You know you're super full.
Um, you gotta kind of pick andchoose what you can do with your
eight hours a day absolutelybut and what's worth it, and I'm
sure you get phone calls thatare like red flags and you're
like oh forget this.
Yeah, I've been doing enough.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Yeah, yeah, so that when you're starting.
That's a great rule to follow.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
I know I did it too.
I'm like, oh, how do I do thistax return?
Speaker 2 (44:10):
I'll Google it and figure it out real quick yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Because I need this sale right.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, and you figure it out, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
You're good at what you do.
You figure it out.
You'll do just as.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
Having someone rely on you to do something.
It just makes you get it done.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Right True.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
So, yeah, good advice .
I think we've all done thathere.
Okay, last question for youWorst piece of business advice
you've gotten.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Worst piece Saying yes to everything.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Pretty much.
No, I got talked into doingsome advertisement.
You know those golf courselittle magazines, oh yeah, yeah,
the country club ones.
Yeah, they're like 13 countryclubs.
I'm sure they work for somepeople, but I I lost four grand.
I didn't get no calls no callfour grand yeah not one call
yeah, zero yeah I was like issomething broke you guys dropped
(45:00):
these off, or do I gotta to goto these Did?
Speaker 2 (45:03):
it never go out.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
Yeah so that was a fast tax write-off, that was a
learning experience yeah.
I kind of had a feeling becauseI know my clientele.
Not a lot of golf guys call mefor their carpets.
It's usually the old ladiestaking care of their house.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Those are my clients and I'll always go back to what
you've always said to me Kidsand pets.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Keep you in business.
Kids and pets there you go,jesus, how many times have I
called you for that?
Speaker 1 (45:32):
guys, damn dog keep me in business 100, absolutely,
absolutely.
That's the lifeline of yourbusiness it's kids and pets,
that's it that's it so.
So word to the wise out there.
Somebody's offering you a fourthousand dollar ad.
Yeah, at a golf club hey thinkabout it, yeah, you might want
to just stick to social mediayeah there's smarter ways.
Boost a post or something likethat.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Or if somebody's having a baby, give them a gift
card to start fabric cleaning,that's right, that's right,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
So where can our?
You know we've heard a lot ofgood information on home
services businesses.
Where can our audience kind ofreach out to you or find your
work?
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Just a website carpetcare, all one word co.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Do you have an Instagram or a social?
Speaker 3 (46:14):
You do any of that stuff I probably have an
Instagram.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
No, I just have a Facebook.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
I just have a Facebook.
The Carpet and Towel CareCompany.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
So we can vouch for his work and fina been using
josh for years.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
You know, and he does excellent.
I appreciate that I would notuse you again if you were not.
I believe it.
I believe it, fina, she wouldtell you if I know, I know, you
know my wife.
She's very opinionated wealways try our hardest.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
So no, and he doesn't .
He's gotten some stains out ofour couches when our stupid dogs
and and I can attest like it'sa brand new couch.
So guys look him up.
He's best in the valley of whathe does and we appreciate you
guys tuning in.
If you found some value in this, please like and subscribe and
we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Thank you.
Thanks for coming on the showThank you.
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate,
inform and inspireentrepreneurship here in our
Coachella Valley.
Hello everyone, I'm Robert Mraz.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And I'm Fina Mraz.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And we are CV Hustle, the podcast dedicated to
educating, inspiring andinforming local entrepreneurship
here in the Coachella Valley.
And today we got a specialguest, fina, an illustrious
guest, that's right, we got aspecial guest.
We got Josh Willis of theCarpet and Tile Care Company.
Thanks, for joining us.
(00:39):
Thanks for having me.
So anybody out there that'sthinking about going into a home
service based business, this isthe podcast you want to listen
to, because we're going to havea lot of tidbits on how you can
get into into that industry.
And then, once you're inpeople's houses, how do you make
sure that you have, you know,repeat customers, because it's
not an easy thing to do.
It's something that's that'snot not easily done.
(01:00):
So we've got an expert here tokind of guide you, guide you in
this so easily done.
So we've got an expert here tokind of guide you, guide you in
this.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
So, josh, thanks for coming out, thanks for having me
today, so start at thebeginning man we want to hear
about Josh's story and going wayback.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, we want to go way back to, you know,
elementary school.
Are you originally a CoachellaValley native or where are you
from?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
originally Born in Fontana so kind of close and I
think we moved out here about 8283.
My dad was a construction guyand there was a construction
boom going on and oh yeah,there's lots of, yeah, a lot of
building, and right there wemoved at the bottom of the cove
looking to the kinta man, you'regonna keep the native so
Speaker 2 (01:38):
you guys have been in the kinta forever for, yeah,
since the early 80s.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, I didn't realize that.
Okay, yeah so then you ended upgoing to what lakinta high
school, I'm assuming yep, yep,so my, they didn't have a lot of
schools in lakinta when I wasyounger, so, uh, van baron was
my first school kindergartenokay um, I think, kindergarten
through second grade and thenthen finally they opened up
truman adams when I was infourth grade, so just moved on
(02:04):
over there.
Yeah, yeah, so I was.
I was over there in india for alittle bit you know india
school guy?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
yeah, originally, that's right, that's right, yeah
, yo guy.
So he was one of those covekids that you know, came.
Yeah, everybody hated on atfirst, you know, had to prove
himself yeah, he's from adifferent hood.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Went to the boys and girls club in india for a little
bit.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
We grew up together that was a good place to kind of
grow up, cut your teeth overthere yeah, oh yeah, so you're
from Coachella, so you'rebasically a native.
You came here when you wereprobably really young, right?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Like three, four, yeah.
So you've seen this placereally really grow right, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I mean, back was nothing between Jefferson and
Washington, right, it was desert.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, all deserts.
The streets were all likepebbled and no drains.
The water would just go outinto the desert, you know.
So now it's that old town, Nowit's a lot of people.
It's I don't know 10 desertsleft to build up there.
The houses are completely takenover, like boom, boom, boom,
(03:06):
boom.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Now it used to be like a house and lots of land
and then a house.
Yeah, so all right, so talk, solet's, let's move it up a
little bit.
So you went to La Quinta highschool, yep, and you graduated
from there and then what?
Speaker 3 (03:20):
so while I was in high school, my parents actually
opened the carpet and tile carecompany.
They actually were working fora company called Rapid Dry,
who's still around.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So my mom was an office guy for Gary Ramey Shout
out to Gary and Dean was a techfor him for a long time and they
were like looking aroundthey're like, hey, I think we
could do this.
So they opened their own and itwas just carpets and it was
just dry cleaning back then, nosteam, um, and uh, yeah, they
just built it pretty quick.
(03:54):
After a couple years it was umthree or four vans run in.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I was working for them and, um, oh, so you were in
high school and you werehelping your parents out I would
do it every summer.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Fifty dollars a day, that was my pay.
It was 12 hours a day could be14.
I'm 50 bucks.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
That's what I got, I got that slave labor what work
permit?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
all right, well they're your parents.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
You can't sue them.
Hey, I didn't pay rent.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So it was hey, it was all.
It was all.
I like this fine, it was allprofit for you, right?
There was some light days mixedin there but yeah, 50 bucks a
day and but I I got taught askill.
I got to go get taught to walkinto someone's house, not wreck
the place because you'rebringing in heavy equipment.
There's a skill to setting upand um talking to customers,
sales and setting expectationsand executing and it was fun it.
(04:45):
I got burnt out of it prettyquick, though I'm not going to
lie, it was, I don't know,getting paid an hourly wage and
day after day doing the samething.
I was like I don't know if I'mgoing to do this.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, I think there's other things for me out there,
yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, Real quick.
So after a few years of workingwith them I just moved out to
the high desert and just didsome odd jobs here and there.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So when you say the high desert, you mean, like
where Yucca Valley?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Joshua Tree, Morongo.
Oh, you lived out there.
I didn't know that.
I bounced back and forth acouple times, but I love it out
there.
It's beautiful.
I play music and there's a lotof stuff to do.
What do you mean?
I play music, and and there's alot of um a lot of stuff to do
that when you play music, alittle music back in the day,
yeah, guitar, a little bit ofdrums, yeah, all right long time
(05:35):
ago, a long time ago.
Yeah, in a band or yeah, justlike a jam band, is that's okay?
We play at the beatnik up thereis like some it's like an ice
cream shop slash.
Yeah yeah, like it was.
It was pretty fun up there.
It was.
I had a lot of a lot of fun.
I wasn't making a lot of moneyup there, though we had, you
know.
So eventually I had to, youknow, call mom up and ask her
(06:00):
for a job, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And was she still doing the same thing, or what?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
ask her for a job, you know?
And was she still doing thesame thing, or what?
Um, so they had actually brokenup.
So my, my stepdad and mom brokeup, um, and with the divorce
they split the business.
He got the, the tile divisionand she got the carpets um, so
that's how they did.
They agree on that yeah, yeah,that's how they did it um yeah,
they broke it up and and theyeach went their separate ways.
(06:26):
And when I called, though, Iasked you know, I need a job mom
like, and she goes, yeah, comeon in, I just bought a payroll
company.
I was like, what?
So I bought a payroll company?
Uh, I need someone to runpayroll for me.
I was like, okay, that soundsawesome.
I did not want to clean carpets, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I'm gonna do this office job, this sounds awesome
and um did not want to cleancarpets.
I'm going to.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I'm going to do this yeah, nice cushy office job,
this sounds awesome.
And because I think she boughtthe payroll company because she
couldn't do the work herself.
So, even though she had thecarpets, she didn't have, you
know, dean, to rely on to do thework anymore.
So she thought that you knowshe can do payroll, so she
bought that and she kept thecarpets going.
But, um, when I got, when I gotdown there and and started
(07:08):
learning the payroll business,shout out, bobby yeah, and still
in it.
Uh, I started to learn all theins and outs of that.
I saw the carpet vans justsitting there.
They weren't moving.
She I was like what's up withcarpets?
And she's like, oh, it's justbeen slow.
She had some um guy ste runningas a family friend and I don't
know what was going on.
I wasn't paying attention, butthey weren't, it was just
(07:29):
sitting.
You know one job a week wasvery much.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
But I was like all right, that's fine, I'm just
doing payroll, but you hadpayroll clients that you were
servicing for other businesses,right Yep.
So that was kind of yeah yeahthey would fax in their hours.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I would get the hours .
I'd put them in the software.
The checks would spit out.
I'd put the checks in a paperfolder.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I'd put the paper folder and then she would so
wait a minute, Because she usedto run that part of their
business so she was comfortable.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, yeah, she was always the office person in our
business and then she couldn'tdo the carpets herself
physically Sure In our businessand then she couldn't do the
carpets herself physically Sure.
So I think you know when theysplit she felt a little
vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And so she rolled some money into the payroll
business and you go with whatyou know, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
And I think the idea was to keep the carpets going.
But I think it was tough.
You know, she relied on somepeople and I don't think they
were getting it done.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So is that, when you kind of what?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
year?
What year are we talking about?
Right like is this after?
You're a football I know youfrom football so I know you were
a football player in collegewhen was this after your
football career?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
yeah, so that was.
Uh, yeah, college was 98 99.
This was probably 2004 2005still relatively yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
yeah, you're just trying to find your next journey
, right?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
At the time I was just trying to get paid.
I needed a paycheck.
I wasn't even thinking aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
You just didn't pay that rent, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
And I liked office work.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I didn't want to move back to my mom's past so I had
to pay rent right.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, and then even in the older days I I used to
bounce back and forth I'd helpmy mom in the office and then
I'd help dean out in the field,and I was like one of the only
guys.
I could do both.
Yeah um, so you're, you had yourhand in everything, yeah yeah,
I like the office work becauseyou get a system down, um, uh,
you the job comes in, do the job, you complete the job, you mark
if it's paid or not and thenyou file away.
(09:20):
Like everything has astep-by-step procedure and I
like that.
So it was.
It was soothing for me whenthat job got completed.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I was like get it off your plate yes, kind of being
prepped to kind of be anentrepreneur yeah, I didn't know
it at that point, becauseyou're doing the office back and
stuff which we all have tolearn how to do.
Yeah, when you take overbusiness.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
It's easy to do it once, but you get a large volume
all of a sudden, things startto get lost and you know, if you
don't have that system, it'syeah, so you're training on that
portion while you're still inthe field?
Yeah, while I was learning theactual cleaning and and and you
know the front end as far asdealing with the customer and
and sales and, um, how to talk,and you know how to do the, the
(10:02):
actual, you know cleaning so soyou're, you're a jack of all
trades at this point, yeah yeah,I was.
You know, I'll help whoever.
Wherever you need, I'm jumpingout and helping, so you
mentioned the vans that weresitting.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
There was that kind of your little light ball moment
um, so was it vans, or what wasthat?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
um, it wasn't me, it was my brother, uh, jake.
Um he, he came up with the idea.
Just he's like hey, we shouldbuy the carpet cleaning company
for mom.
She's not working, it, it'sjust there yeah, and I was like
no way, dude, I like this job,dude I like running payroll yeah
, yeah, I was like you also hadto be like monday through friday
.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I mean, I guess your business probably still is now,
but I mean yeah, it's, it's,it's a lot.
Oh yeah, you work a lot ofhours.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Okay, sorry, I interrupted no, it's okay.
So he's like no, we'll split it70-30.
He gets 70, he'll do all thework he said and I can just
answer the phones and book thejob, do the back end stuff and
keep the payroll job.
I was like double my pay.
Oh, that sounds awesome, let'sdo that?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, I was like double my pay.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That sounds awesome.
Let's do that.
Yeah, sure, sure, I guess.
Stay in his office.
Yeah, it was good and we didthat.
Started advertising again, gotthe business going again.
We got booked for like fiveweeks out really quick.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, I want to know what the conversation was with
your mom.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Oh, how do you go?
Yeah, that's a mom.
I want to buy this.
Yeah, can you?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
give a kid a break here.
So we did it.
The conversation went.
She was.
It went like what do you thinkit's worth?
And she's like I've beenoffered 100 grand for it, right
now and and I was like it's noteven moving.
But she had the phone number,she had repeat business, she had
two vans or three vans and Iwas like what's up with the
family discount?
Take payments?
She said she did.
(11:47):
She gave 50 grand.
That's awesome Really.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, a thousand dollars a month.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
No down payment, just start paying her a thousand
bucks a month and you can haveit no way, thank you mom, Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
You did get that family discount yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Does your son get the same deal?
Yeah, if you want.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I'm trying to push him to something else, but it's
there if he wants it, it's 100%.
It's in the family man.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Do you look back now and go damn, that was pretty
cool.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, I didn't realize what was going on, but
looking back that was prettymonumental.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And you also probably said 50 grand is a whole ton of
money.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I'm only a 50% owner.
I got me and Jake in it rightat this moment, so we're
splitting revenue.
It's half-half.
It was 70-30.
Like I think I got 30%, he got70% because he's doing.
But once you started gettingbusier, Well, he got burned out
fast, so we were hitting it andwe got all the customers back.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
He's like you've got to start coming clean.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, and all of a sudden about I don't know, a
year in, maybe less, I need somehelp out here.
I'm like, okay, what do youwant to do?
So we'll do 50-50, and we'llswitch or alternate days.
So on the days he got to stayhome he'd answer phones, and
then when I was out in the fieldhe'd answer phones.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
so we and we split.
That sounds kind of like asweet deal.
Yeah, I mean as a kid.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So what year is this?
How old are you at this point?
This was 2007.
Oh so you're still a kid yeah,you're still barely 50 owner
yeah, you're barely out ofcollege how old?
Were you um you're still inyour 20s, right?
Yeah?
20, 27 wow wow, so you're,you're already a business owner
at 27 years old, yeah, you know,because I mean that's pretty.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, no, it was good it was.
I didn't plan on it and yeah,it was working out.
Because it was booming, it wasbooked.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
How did you get business if you were?
Saying your mom wasn't doing it.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
We did our old thing advertised through Money Meller.
I don't know if you rememberthat.
Thomas King Shout out to ThomasKing.
It's like Valpak.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Isn't that like the penny saver?
Yeah, Valpak's still around.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Valpak's around.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
yeah, oh he had the blue envelope that comes in the
mail.
They come in the mail and youopen them up and you get coupons
.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
MoneyMailer is a different company, very similar,
the same execution.
You can only have two carpetcleaners or two of the same
businesses in there.
I opened ValPak the other day.
There were like cleaners inthere, so I don't change that
rule.
Yeah, so about.
Yeah so um, but we, you know,and there's, you didn't have to
(14:23):
do the whole coachella valley,you can just do sections which
is nice because there werecertain areas that you wanted to
target and higher end, yeah,and like sun city was nice,
because they're, you know,they're at the age where they
don't want to do anything aroundtheir house, so they're,
they're getting those carpetscleaned in and then you can
target those right.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You target those packs and put them in the
neighborhood you wanted.
So where did you learn that?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
technique from.
Was that something your parentswere doing?
Yeah, my mom's very good, savvybusiness.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
So okay, I'm still trying to understand something.
So you had a payroll companynamed what?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I think it was Jay Leon's and Associates.
It's still around, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Jackie, um, I don't.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I think it was jay leone's an associate just still
around.
Oh yeah, yeah, shout out tojackie.
Yeah, shout out to jackie, yeahand so like then.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
But then you had the carpet so you were answering
like two different phones fortwo different businesses um,
yeah, but I didn't really answera lot of phones for for um, for
my mom's company.
Uh, it came in through, faxedyou just yeah, I just did the
numbers.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I didn't do the front end on that.
That was her, she was takingcare of that, but I had a phone
next to me that I would um, youcan you know you can forward the
number to any phone and Iforward the business to the to
the number right here.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So I would just pick it up.
And yeah, I was getting paidtwice working those kids that
work from home, and then theyyes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I read in the early I was, I was, I was loving, it
was you're like a pioneer ofthat, of that technique.
It was my favorite time working.
I loved that job.
It was fun.
I went in there, just worked inthe office.
I got paid really well and itwas fun.
Um, oh my gosh, but yeah.
So then jake needed help, so Ihad to get out there and start
(15:55):
sweating again, and it was fun.
I I was making, we were rolling, it was good, and then 2008 hit
and it just stopped.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Real estate affects your business pretty heavily
right.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah, and it just gas prices shot up.
We're living in Morongo.
Oh, you're still up in the highdesert.
Yeah, I was driving back andforth.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I was going to say so was most of your business down
here in the desert.
All of it, yeah, all of it Wow.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So why didn't you?
Guys advertise over there, ifyou lived there we did a little
bit, but it's not the volume upthere.
It's a very slower pace of life.
Okay, it's just it's hardbecause the roads aren't paved
in Morongo.
Oh, that's true, it's harder onthe vehicles You're bouncing
around the big old equipment,it's just not.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Brakes are out again, alignment's out again.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, for real, for real.
So it wasn't worth reallytargeting that market.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
No, and we kept the vans down here at that time.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
So we were commuting with our vehicles.
Because those are gas guzzlers,you know?
Oh, sure, for sure, because youhave equipment inside of those.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Equipment.
Yeah, and they're big old vansand they're full of chemicals.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That must be fun, if one ever breaks down.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, maybe you break down.
Yeah, the motors inside breakdown too.
Oh my, gosh.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Okay, so then at that point, 2007, 2008 hits, and
then what?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Well, not only financially was it a shitty day.
Sorry, can I cuss?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Please do.
We invite you to cuss.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
I got really sick so I was playing football semi-pro
football being dumb, but I got abad infection on my leg.
I got tackled on the baseballpart of the field, the dirt, and
it was road rash dirt and itlike was road rash and it got
infected and I got really sick.
So for about five or six weeksI was on antibiotics and it
fucked me up like, uh, I finallygot rid of the infection, I was
(17:50):
got the old and my ears startedringing.
Oh, my gosh oh shit, and justfinancially I was hurting.
Then I had a house.
I was going to lose a house.
Gas prices were shocked.
I was like and me and Gretchenjust started to start talking
about this time a little beforethis and she's like Gretchen,
your wife now.
Yeah, shout out to GretchenLove you babe.
(18:11):
Yeah, she offered to let mestay.
She was in Denver, she wasgoing to college out there, she
had a little studio out there.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
She's all come live with me I was like that's right,
she did move out there say nomore.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I got on a plane and I left California.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Wow what year was?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
this 2008-9 so then the.
So then your brother kept thebusiness yeah, so I.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
So I worked out.
I was like dude, I got to takecare of myself.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I'm not healthy right now.
I need a reboot.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah, I'm in bad shape.
And he said no problem, Iworked out, I forwarded the
phones to Denver.
So if you're calling for carpetcleaning in Palm Desert, you're
calling Denver, love it Callcenter.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, Target attention the call center center
yeah and we worked outsomething.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I got like 100 150 bucks a week just to answer
phones and I, I, just I did thatfor him and he continued to
work the business.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's worth it's worth .
Did he end up hiring somebodyto take your place, kind of um
no, it got so slow.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It got so slow.
He did all of it and we, we hadsome van payments, we, we
really just shaved a lot of thebusiness down.
We got, we had some loans out,we just took care of time to
pivot yeah, we had to slim downoh, absolutely strap that you
know strap that up, yeah, um,okay.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
So then you were in denver, right.
And then how did you end upback in the desert, because you
know the desert always?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
calls you back.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Bobby came back too, so I was getting better out
there, I was feeling better, butI was still having some
problems my ear so I was comingback for doctor visits.
Every now and then I'd fly backand on one of those visits,
jake just came up and said I'mdone.
I was like what, you're gettingburnt out.
You want me to jump out thereand clean carpets?
He's like no, I'm done, I'mgoing to pivot, I'm going to get
(19:51):
a job somewhere where there's acorporation.
I'm going to move up the ladder.
They have uh health care, theyhave um stocks.
And so he went and uh got a jobat home depot.
And I was like, oh shit, he wasdone with the business.
Yeah, he didn't want to do itanymore and it's a grind, it can
you know.
You guys know it's, it's younever stop working and that's
(20:14):
like physical labor too it is,and so we pivoted and yeah, we
worked something out, so Ibecame the.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
So you said hey, gretchen.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Not coming back, babe , sorry.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Really.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Now I'm in business.
Hey, we got work to do, wow.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So where did you live ?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I got a cheap place in Morongo, I mean.
Oh, so you still went back outthere and then, well, I I think
I flew out one more time, gotlike, got my stuff and flew back
out and started running a cheaplittle studio and you were
still doing the commute thenyeah, down there so who was
answering your?
Phones.
I was the whole time I was, soyou're doing everything just
like he does today at this time,yeah, at this time.
(20:55):
And now it's go time and I I sawthat my mom and dean got burnt
out.
Um, jay got burned out, I gotburned out.
So my whole approach when Ifirst got the business was I'm
not gonna burn myself out, I'mgonna do like one, two jobs a
day, that's it and that backthen for me I didn't have a lot
of overhead.
It was like 300 $300 a day.
(21:16):
I was like I'm fine, I can dothis forever.
I was off by 12 o'clock.
I was drinking by 2 or 3.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
I was like I'm good man.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
I was happy it was working perfect until it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
What year was this?
Now you take over the business2010-ish, 2011.
You're doing $300 a day,feeling good, living your best
life, Loving it yeah, we didn'thave a lot of bills.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I was still living pretty cheaply, didn't have a
house yet and you hit some bumpsin the road.
Was there?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
a bumpy road.
Well, so that first year, two,year, three, I did really well
and I got hit with a big taxbill.
Well, it sounds like our story.
It caught me slipping.
I didn't have all the money inthe bank account.
I was like, oh, so I had to setup payments.
So I started setting uppayments.
(22:12):
My mom was giving me the stuff.
She says just pay them on thedue date.
So I was doing that.
And then three months afterthat that my truck mount went
out so I had to total rebuildthe the motor and the truck
mount, not the car motor.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
The truck mount.
Now I can't now I'm out ofbusiness without that right.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
It's done so I, so I had to pivot money from taxes to
get that.
I have to get that up right.
That's every day.
I have to get that up aboutthis time going on.
I asked Gretchen to marry me,so we had a wedding to save up.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Geez you like to throw all kinds of.
All of a sudden 300 bucks A daywas not it's not going to work.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
It's not working.
So we got the wedding throughand then we got pregnant quick
and I needed a car, now SUV, Ineeded a family.
They're not going to let metake my baby away from the van,
no, you can't put the car seatin the van, no.
(23:09):
So I had to.
I you know now it was go time.
So I was like all right, Istarted to to really start to
sell um and work past one.
You know, I started to do three, four jobs a day and it was
starting to generate more moneyand um.
But I needed a vehicle and itwas tough because I wasn't using
credit.
Back then I didn't have creditscore because I wasn't using it.
I didn't have a bad one, but Iwasn't using it.
So I went to the, thedealership and they wanted to
give me like 14 interest rate ona car I was like I can't do
(23:32):
that.
That's terrible, yeah,ridiculous.
I that's a no.
And so I'm like what am I gonna?
I got a baby coming and shoutout to mom again.
I asked her and she had a carthat she wasn't using and it was
a Lexus IS350.
Nice car, fast car, not afamily car.
I got a car seat in there.
(23:53):
She pushed that seat all theway forward on the passenger
side and worked out somethingwith her.
So I started paying her forthat and yeah, so this is all
leading up to something, becauseso I got the car.
It's sitting the driveway, Iwasn't paying attention to it
and, uh, for a couple of weeks,you know, gretchen's got a truck
, I got a van, I'm working a lotand all of a sudden, gretchen's
(24:15):
water's breaking.
It's go time.
We got the backpack, we got theroute we're taking, we jump in
that car and we're driving and Istart to hear a grinding sound.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Wow, really On the way to the hospital, and it
wasn't.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Gretchen.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I looked over at her and she's just like she's very
calm, doing her breathing.
And I turn like I can feel thegrind in the in this.
It's like low profile rim, so Icouldn't tell when I jumped in
the car, but when I was drivingit it was grinding, I could feel
it through.
So I turned up the music alittle bit and I look over holy
shit, I got a baby coming goingdown 111, uh, and I'm on the rim
(24:59):
.
Wow, I'm on the rim driving tothe hospital and so I'm thinking
like who can I call?
What's going on?
Like what?
What are my options?
Right, and I was like I'm gonnadrive this thing until till the
wheels fall off.
I'm going in, coming in hot.
So I kind of I make it intothat hospital roundabout thing.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Get Gretchen Sparks All right, I get to picture it.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Pull the door open and get Gretchen in the the
delivery room area.
They put it right in theWheelchair.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Wheelchair and take her away.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
And I'm like all right, we're good.
I go park it in the closestparking spot I can find we have
a baby.
Connor comes way late at night.
It was a long delivery, like 2,3 in the morning, and I wake up
that morning.
I wake up to some notifications.
Oh shoot, stuff's hitting mybank account.
I'm not getting paid.
So I pull up the app and I got$0.
(25:52):
Oh my God, the day your son wasborn.
The day your son was born, theday my son was born.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
That's pretty much.
It Kids take all your money.
Yeah, I mean, you get used toit right, he was already.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Kids, take all your money.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Dude, I was tripping, I was just like.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Was it the tax man?
Yeah, irs, took it right out,irs took your account.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Yep, just took it out Because I had been truck mount
payments and I was just tryingto juggle everything.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Stressful You're starting.
Now I got to get my shittogether.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Gretchen remember Better or Worse, yeah, during
our vows.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, we were in it, and so I got on the phone and
the IRS was super nice.
Whoever I talked to to the guywas really cool.
He was just like yeah, I toldhim I'm like I just had a baby,
uh, I need, I need, I need somegas money to get home.
I got a flat tire and he's likedon't, don't worry about it,
we're gonna give you half yourmoney back and then we're gonna
set up.
(26:53):
They gave you half your moneyback half it back and set up
payments and he said you have tohave money in there because
those are coming out.
No matter what I go, you're thebest dude.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
And I think it was only like four grand.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, so he gave me two grand back, and yeah it was
like a little lifeline, so Ihave a question, because we've
what did you?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
are you a sole proprietor?
I am a sole prop, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
I still am, I got to come see Bobby.
I yeah, okay, I still am, I gotto come see Bobby.
I've been putting it off.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
No, but this is what we talk about.
When Bobby and I first started,you're supposed to pay yourself
.
What is it?
You know what it is?
It's 12 and a half and 12 and ahalf.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Oh, the self-employment tax.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, so this whole property is subject to
self-employ his tax return everyyear, I think probably since
you started your business yeahbecause you're used to having to
(27:49):
pay the sales employment tax.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
So, yeah, so now, now I'm prepared, but back then I
was not.
And um, yeah, it was a learning, it was a learning.
We were not prepared either.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I mean, we got hit with a pretty nice bill too that
first year, because we had noidea.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
These are things they don't teach you in school right
you know, it's like you have tolearn.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah, trial and error the first year I just I had a
lot of deductions, startup costsand it.
You know it made more sense.
And then that third year, so Ididn't have no cost really and
it was like you're like.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Oh, I thought I better make up some yeah I must
have went to sushi too manytimes that year or something,
because I didn't have it.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
When they came, they came knocking, so so you, you're
, you're okay.
The irs gives you a lifeline uh, yeah, is that like you're very
cool, it was very nice your ahamoment like yeah, I got this
hard and I was over.
Yeah, at that time I was like Ineed new equipment.
How?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
did you get home here ?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
I'll touch up the sun bus so I got, um, there's a gas
station right across streetfrom like catty corn, not across
street, but like right aroundthe corner, from from the
hospital there in palm springs.
I roll up there and it's offthe bead, the, the like it's,
and and I'm like I go in.
I go like dude, I need a tire,can I?
(29:02):
Oh, we don't sell tires here.
And the lady in the front waslike super mad, like basically
tell me, you got, get out ofhere.
You know what I mean.
And then the mechanic heard thewhole conversation.
He goes, uh, let me, let me golook at it.
And he saw it and he's like Ithink I can get it on the bead.
And he and he put a lot ofspray in there and he let him
match and it went and it wentback on the rim and he filled it
(29:22):
up yeah, he's got.
You got a slow reek, uh leak,and I was like, uh, looking on
the tire, he's all I can't findout, he's all I bet you it's in
the rim.
So I had a crack in the rimapparently, so, but it got me
home.
Yeah, that was good news.
Yeah, so it was like the irsgiving your money back, and then
that guy I was so thankful thatguy was like dude, I'm gonna
(29:44):
come clean your carpet, youryour furniture in your house.
Here's my card.
And uh, sure enough, he calledme up like two weeks later.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Oh really yeah, oh yeah, dude on that favor.
Oh nice, yeah, I love it, yeahit was oh that's good karma, man
.
Yeah, he saved me.
So so you were at thisinflection point.
New son, yeah, new business,well, kind of new business,
right.
So when did you decide?
Okay, I'm just gonna go, youknow, I'm gonna go all in on
this and really and really makeit, make it work and make it
(30:12):
profitable and make, make it soI can take care of my that day I
just I was.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I told myself, I'm gonna grind as hard as I can
because this can't happen.
I got a family to protectfinancially.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
This can't happen.
I remember my stepdad, dean,telling me a long time ago
Because he built the business upto five vans when they were
running but they got burnt out.
But he told me if you reallywant to make a lot of money,
just don't say no.
If someone asks you to cleansome windows that you don't
(30:46):
normally do, just say yes.
If, if they want you to cleansaltillo pavers, just say yes.
You know how to do pavers, youknow how to do windows.
I know you don't like to dothem, but just do them so.
And I didn't realize why thatwas so important at the time.
I just thought it was likeextra money.
I'm not, I'm not completelybooked.
Sure it gives me more money,but what it really did was it
opened up new um opportunitiesrevenue streams right.
(31:11):
New revenue coming in from yeah,but now on saturday morning
when I scheduled that windowcleaning, the neighbor saw me
cleaning.
He wants the window clean andthen he finds out I'm doing
carpets.
So he's like, all right, canyou do my carpets?
I'm doing his carpets and helikes the way it came out.
And he's like I got seven,eight vacation properties in the
(31:32):
desert.
I want you to clean them all.
And then they usually have aproperty manager that does
theirs and then they go get ajob somewhere else.
And now that one windowcleaning turned into all this
other revenue because I said yesto something I didn't want to
do.
So shout out to dean, becausehe was the one that told me that
(31:52):
a long time ago really so then,that is that how you started
adding tile to your um name.
Yeah, so the the original namewas carpet care company.
Um, and they just did drycleaning and then they got up to
steam cleaning and then theystarted to do tile, so they
added tile to the name, so itbecame the carpet and tile care
company so what's the differencebetween a dry cleaning and I
(32:15):
mean, obviously I know it'ssteam, but yeah, so what's?
um, it's a they still.
It's still in the industry.
They call it VLM, very lowmoisture cleaning.
So basically they're going totake a cleaning agent and put it
across the carpet and they'regoing to use a buffing machine.
It's not the best cleaning.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Got it?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
It really isn't, but for certain types of sky rises
in hotels where you can't get atruck mount in there, It'll work
.
It'll work and it makes it lookbetter.
Sure, but it's not as good asyou know a steam cleaning.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Have you ever told people this should not be clean?
Just get rid of it and startover.
You're like I'm ready.
That's what I basically toldyou before the show.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
The cost.
You know you've got to startweighing the cost.
Know you gotta start weighingthe?
I'm gonna be here eight hours.
Um, this is time to go, likeyou gotta, and then they'll.
They'll try to tell me I'lljust clean, it, cleans up.
Good, you know, and I'm justlike no, you gotta, oh my gosh
sorry yeah okay, so now do youhave anybody that works through
you?
Yes, correct yeah, so it'sstill family-run business eli,
my youngest brother, who wasborn when I was in high school.
(33:19):
So now, he's now like 26, 27,he's working.
Um, he's running the other van.
He's actually my lead tech.
He does the majority of thework.
Um, I'm in the office againtrying to get back in that
office, uh, half the time.
But I get out there and I catchall the stuff, because I have
stuff that comes in it needs tobe done same day.
Um, it's just so you're like theemergency or the go-to guy on
(33:41):
the yeah turnover stuff yeah,and then when he can't work, um,
you know, of course I jump in.
And then, uh, we alternateweekends because sometimes we
gotta work on the weekends.
We try not to, but commercialaccounts come in there.
You know, the office is fullmonday through friday, yes.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
So I say yes, okay.
I have a question have you doneany murder scenes?
Speaker 3 (34:01):
you know, oh man, when I was young, I think it, I
think I think it was yeah, Iremember it was a blood scene
like a big.
They had a like a whatsomething over it and it was
weird.
It was like I was just young,maybe 19.
I was like, whatever I'mcleaning, Well there's a lot of
blood right here.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Wow, like that, huh.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Yeah, and at the time it was fine.
I didn't think about it, butlooking back at it, I sometimes
think about that, Because theyhad people mourning outside when
I was cleaning.
Oh yeah, why were they mourningLike, why were they just
standing there with coffee?
And they don't have to tell youthat you're cleaning my blood.
(34:45):
Isn't that like a hazardousmaterial?
That's true, right, they didn'ttell.
They didn't tell me until I gotthere and I just started
cleaning it up what you weretold.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
You told me to clean this.
Yeah, I just didn't even.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I was too young and dumb.
You know, I was just 1920, itwas a long time ago.
It was one of my first got atruck mount and um, very crazy
long time ago.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay, I have another.
I hope not.
I have another crazy questionnow.
It's not too crazy.
What happened when covet hitand people like were scared of
being around people?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
so I I was prepared for it to slow down, batting up
the hatches, I was getting readyand that first month it was
slow and um, I was like, allright, but I, I had.
I remember 2008, so I was builtfor it.
I I can slim it down and I cansurvive for a long time if it
shuts down well, and youprobably have more money at this
point and you're probablysmarter, being smarter about
money.
Yeah, I'm still being verycautious about how, uh, how much
(35:32):
um debt I have every month tocome up with.
And I have um to set rules andI abide by that and I was
prepared for it to slow down.
But the second month, I thinkapril- you're like it blew up so
much I could not keep up withyou know why?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
because everybody was home yeah, everybody was sick.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
And looking at that I don't know what it was.
That's what it was.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
I was, both vans were maxed.
I couldn't catch it all I.
I tried my best.
I could not catch it all it was.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
It was crazy and well , that's what, like our business
boomed, I mean, I can't tellyou, so you were on it too.
Yeah, oh, yeah tile sales wentthrough the roof like crazy
numbers, right everybody.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Like they were saying you can't even compare those
numbers to any other panel yeahyear, because it was just
ridiculously crazy I was like,if this stays this, like this,
forever, this is gonna.
You're going.
I'm making a big plan earlyyeah I almost bought a third van
that year because it was sobusy.
I wasn't I don't like notcatching everything, I didn't,
(36:32):
and I was letting stuff go and Iwas like I gotta expand.
And I shout out to billy hayes.
I went down to ford, I startedgetting that third van running
and some just told me like letme just I'm gonna hold off.
It's not real yeah yeah, I justI remember 2008 when I it's the
run-up in prices and I I waitedjust to see.
(36:53):
I'm glad I did, because it didget slow after sure I went slow
down, but now it's speeding backup.
Right now it's um.
Right now you're super busyright, yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
So this is a repeat.
It's like goes in cycles yeah,it's really weird, right?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
so are you gonna add carpet tile and windows to your
name?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
uh, maybe I windows, so after you get busy, um, you
have to really streamline it,and it's I'd have to hire a
whole new van just, yeah, to dowindows, only because we're so
full business.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yeah, windows is big, you're right, because you have
these big, old, massive, youknow outdoor spaces and ladders.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Yeah, different windows, different screens.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Some of those screens are tough to get off, that's
true, yeah, you gotta have awhole clean windows, but only on
the inside.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah right, yeah and you have to have, like soft
water systems.
So so you're not, you know,just putting calcium water on
the window.
It's a whole process.
So, um, we thought about it.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Well, it's not out of the question thinking about
expanding into the next, youknow next service.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Yeah, yeah, the the next, you know next service.
Yeah, yeah that the next thingwould be water restoration or
stone restoration.
Those are like the two areas,yeah good dip into.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Yeah, yeah, I just well stone?
Is it just a tricky thing?
Speaker 3 (38:12):
and then chemicals you use and it's like stripper,
you're using standards, you'rebreathing and stuff in like oh,
that's all the chemicals I use,pretty safe for the environment.
There's not harsh, it's just alittle ph adjustment and a
little bit of an acid rinse andit's good.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
So you were saying you do saltios, do you do?
You used to?
Speaker 3 (38:28):
because they're a pain in the ass.
They are.
It's.
It's rough work.
Yeah, you're stripping, you'rescrubbing, you're cleaning,
you're letting it dry and thenyou're doing coats of acrylic
sealer.
I could do it, but I one of myleast favorite jobs.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Price it to where it's like make it five bucks six
bucks, yeah you gotta price itto make it worth your time right
I have a form that says thetruth about saltios, and it's.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
It's true, it's.
They're cheap on the front endand expensive on the back end.
Yeah, and there are peopledon't realize.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yeah, because the, the acrylic, the dirt gets
embedded, and the only way toget that dirt up is to get that
acrylic off.
It's like nails, right that yougot to strip it all the way
down and rebuild it.
So it's, it's that's a goodanalogy, I like that yeah yeah,
you can use that yeah no, weused to do them a lot and um a
lot, a lot.
Dean was very good at at saltseals.
(39:19):
He taught me how to doeverything and um, I just don't
like doing it yeah so you, youwe've, we hire, we use you
exclusively and we have anairbnb.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
So he just came and cleaned um our master bedroom
couch and the rug in there.
So don't know, you'll begetting a bill I'll be getting a
bill awesome bill bobby, Ithink it's scheduled to go out
tomorrow morning nice yeah, yeah
Speaker 3 (39:42):
this guy never misses a bill.
I got a system.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
I got a system down here.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
When it hits, it hits , it goes out this man.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
You can't miss an invoice.
Yeah, but is airbnb like a bigpart of what you're?
Speaker 3 (39:53):
yeah, it's wrapped up .
I would say about 40 isshort-term rentals and that's
just just consistent.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
You want those accounts right Because they're
consistent, yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
And we adjust the pricing because a lot of times
they don't need a full clean,they need a refresh kind of deal
, because the guests kind ofmess something up and then they
just need a sofa spot cleaned.
So the tickets are a littlesmaller and you usually don't
have to do the whole house, butwe're set up to do it.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
And get there quickly .
Don't have to do the wholehouse so, but we we're set up to
to do it and get that cater toit.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah, very, yeah, very quick and see, that's
perfect, especially in thismarket right because, yeah,
we're going into season whereit's just all airbnbs in our
yeah and you, the check-ins areat four, so you gotta you gotta
get it done before then, so yougotta be ready to catch it as it
comes.
And that's the trick with thoseis gotta gotta be ready, gotta
get in there absolutely timing,right?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
yeah, it's all timing so, uh, how do you, how do you
make time for family, becauseyou do a lot of football it's
tough man during covid I gotyelled at a lot um.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
I don't work weekends .
I try to my best not to workweekends um.
My um my brother will workweekends um, but I try to give
him the weekends off.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Oh, jake, is back.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
No, no, eli, eli, eli , younger brother, I will use
Jake, though he owns.
Shout out, jake, he owns HighDesert, carpentow.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Oh, so he's back in the business now.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Yeah, he got done with Home Depot and came to his
senses and opened his zone upthere.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That's awesome Now.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
I'm trying to get Eli to open his zone somewhere else
.
Branch off, huh.
Like you know, I'm branch off,huh yeah, but then you're gonna
have to hire somebody else.
I know it's tough.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
You guys probably know it's tough to find um
someone that you trust with,with your life right, because
you got it okay, so you're stillanswering all your phones,
right yeah, I feel like the, theface of the company is super
important.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
I feel absolutely they love talk, people love
calling and be able to talk toyou.
That's probably the last thingI'll give up is, is that phone?
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I've done it the whole time forever yeah, and if
I hire someone or their servicesthat call me, they want to do
it, they want to like, set it upand and they'll send me my jobs
and email my clients and likeI'm on the face, like I want,
because you have to also knowwhat kind of I mean I would
imagine you're like qualifyingthese people and and really
knowing what you're getting whenyou go there.
(42:06):
Yeah, and they want estimatesand I know the models of the
house.
I know the location, like wherethey live.
You know roughly so I knowabout how big those houses are.
So the people out of the areaaren't going to know that stuff.
And I just don't.
Every time that phone ringsit's an opportunity.
And yeah, I just take itseriously.
I don't think Every time thatphone rings it's an opportunity.
(42:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I just take it seriously.
I don't think I'm not going togive that up.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
But I'll give everything else up, except maybe
payroll, because I like payrollthere you go More power to you.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
You're going to do payroll in Bobby's house.
I thought about it.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
More power to you, man.
It's a good job I love it, man,it's always changing right.
Yeah, and it's always changingright yeah and me.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
I'm like numbers.
Yeah, he doesn't want to touchit at all, thanks, yeah, like
the design stuff, things, pretty, yeah, yeah, which I'm not good
at, so that would that'd be anightmare for me, my carpet's
pretty yeah yeah, no, it issoothing, I like to.
It's like painting.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yeah, yeah, it's therapeutic yeah, it has it's
like I don't see it I don't doit anymore, so I don't know so I
just we have people way better.
Yeah, I'm still yeah, so we'regetting up towards our time here
, but we always like to ask ourentrepreneurs a couple questions
at the end of the show.
Okay, um.
So first question best businessadvice you've ever gotten?
Speaker 3 (43:22):
um, probably from from dean, my stepdad, saying
don't you know, if you reallywant to make money, just don't
say no.
Don't say no, I mean you'regonna put yourself into
situations where you might notbe comfortable, but if you trust
yourself to get them done andknow you can, you're gonna get
them done and it's gonna lead toopportunities later down the
look down the road.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
So absolutely say no, you gotta be a little thirsty
especially when you're startingright, yeah exactly exactly, you
get full.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
You know you're super full.
Um, you gotta kind of pick andchoose what you can do with your
eight hours a day absolutelybut and what's worth it, and I'm
sure you get phone calls thatare like red flags and you're
like oh forget this.
Yeah, I've been doing enough.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Yeah, yeah, so that when you're starting.
That's a great rule to follow.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
I know I did it too.
I'm like, oh, how do I do thistax return?
Speaker 2 (44:10):
I'll Google it and figure it out real quick yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Because I need this sale right.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, and you figure it out, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
You're good at what you do.
You figure it out.
You'll do just as.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
Having someone rely on you to do something.
It just makes you get it done.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Right True.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
So, yeah, good advice .
I think we've all done thathere.
Okay, last question for youWorst piece of business advice
you've gotten.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Worst piece Saying yes to everything.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Pretty much.
No, I got talked into doingsome advertisement.
You know those golf courselittle magazines, oh yeah, yeah,
the country club ones.
Yeah, they're like 13 countryclubs.
I'm sure they work for somepeople, but I I lost four grand.
I didn't get no calls no callfour grand yeah not one call
yeah, zero yeah I was like issomething broke you guys dropped
(45:00):
these off, or do I gotta to goto these Did?
Speaker 2 (45:03):
it never go out.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
Yeah so that was a fast tax write-off, that was a
learning experience yeah.
I kind of had a feeling becauseI know my clientele.
Not a lot of golf guys call mefor their carpets.
It's usually the old ladiestaking care of their house.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Those are my clients and I'll always go back to what
you've always said to me Kidsand pets.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Keep you in business.
Kids and pets there you go,jesus, how many times have I
called you for that?
Speaker 1 (45:32):
guys, damn dog keep me in business 100, absolutely,
absolutely.
That's the lifeline of yourbusiness it's kids and pets,
that's it that's it so.
So word to the wise out there.
Somebody's offering you a fourthousand dollar ad.
Yeah, at a golf club hey thinkabout it, yeah, you might want
to just stick to social mediayeah there's smarter ways.
Boost a post or something likethat.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Or if somebody's having a baby, give them a gift
card to start fabric cleaning,that's right, that's right,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
So where can our?
You know we've heard a lot ofgood information on home
services businesses.
Where can our audience kind ofreach out to you or find your
work?
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Just a website carpetcare, all one word co.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Do you have an Instagram or a social?
Speaker 3 (46:14):
You do any of that stuff I probably have an
Instagram.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
No, I just have a Facebook.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
I just have a Facebook.
The Carpet and Towel CareCompany.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
So we can vouch for his work and fina been using
josh for years.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
You know, and he does excellent.
I appreciate that I would notuse you again if you were not.
I believe it.
I believe it, fina, she wouldtell you if I know, I know, you
know my wife.
She's very opinionated wealways try our hardest.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
So no, and he doesn't .
He's gotten some stains out ofour couches when our stupid dogs
and and I can attest like it'sa brand new couch.
So guys look him up.
He's best in the valley of whathe does and we appreciate you
guys tuning in.
If you found some value in this, please like and subscribe and
we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Thank you.
Thanks for coming on the showThank you.
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