August 11, 2025 • 41 mins
What does it truly take to build a multi-million dollar service business from scratch? Pete and Alicia Green's journey from operating a one-truck plumbing company out of their garage to managing a 65-employee multi-trade powerhouse offers profound insights for entrepreneurs at any stage.
The husband-wife team behind Go Green Plumbing Heating Air and Electrical reveals the strategic decisions that fueled their growth since 2015. Their commitment to flat-rate pricing—providing customers upfront costs while rewarding technician efficiency—created a foundation for sustainable expansion. But their most valuable lessons came from mistakes, particularly when adding HVAC services without proper systems in place.
"Most people in leadership roles tend not to be leaders; they tend to be managers," Pete explains, drawing a crucial distinction that many business owners miss. "Managers manage things like warehouses and products. Leaders lead people." This perspective transformed how they built their team and company culture.
The Greens candidly address the misconceptions surrounding business ownership. From customers assuming owners are "playing golf" when unavailable to employees believing owners pocket most of the revenue, these assumptions create unnecessary friction. Their solution? Radical transparency—spending hours educating every new hire about business finances and creating clear boundaries between their own roles as co-owners.
For couples considering business partnership, their advice is refreshingly straightforward: "Know your lane and stay in it." Through formal operating agreements and weekly leadership meetings, they've created a framework that minimizes conflict while maximizing their complementary strengths.
Whether you're contemplating starting a business or looking to scale your existing operation, this conversation offers practical wisdom about leadership, systems development, and maintaining perspective through the inevitable challenges of entrepreneurship. As Pete wisely notes, "No decision is worse than a bad decision"—a powerful reminder that action, even imperfect action, moves businesses forward.
Ready to transform your business thinking? Listen now and discover how intentional planning and leadership development can create extraordinary growth opportunities in any industry.
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Bill
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there and welcome to this week's episode of Epic
Entrepreneurs.
Hi, I'm Bill Gilliland withAction Coach Business Growth
Partners and I am super pumpedto have Alicia and Pete Green
from Go Green Plumbing HeatingAir and Electrical and that is a
mouthful, but it does tell uswhat they do and I think that's
(00:23):
a good way to name your company.
So I don't know who wants to gofirst, but tell us a little bit
about your company.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So the company was founded in 2015 by my wife and I
and actually her father, whichis now passed and we originally
operated out of our garage slashbasement.
We were a one-man truckoperation in 2015, and we slowly
(00:53):
grew the business.
You know, the business operatesas a flat rate provider.
We're in the residentialservice sector.
Flat rate provider.
We're in the residentialservice sector, which accounts
for over 99% of our revenuestream, and today we are roughly
(01:14):
around 60 to 65 employees,depending on how many
apprentices we take on.
And that's about it in anutshell.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Cool.
So I know what a flat rateprovider is, but I'm guessing
that some people listening don't.
So tell us what a flat rateprovider is.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So flat rate is a set upon price up front prior to
proceeding with any work.
Proceeding with any work, andwe, basically we operate on a
billable hour instead of a timeand material type thing.
So, essentially, I'm going topull and reset a toilet.
Here's the price.
It's a set price.
(01:56):
As long as all I'm doing ispulling and resetting a toilet,
you can be confident, mrCustomer, that this price won't
change.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, and the better the technician, the faster
that'll happen.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, your efficiency .
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah so essentially, instead of rewarding you know,
rewarding a company based ontime and material.
You know, any business ownerwould love to send their slowest
plumber out there so he canrack up as many hours, right,
and there's really no reward fora plumber that, or an
electrician or an HVACtechnician that is quick and
(02:30):
efficient and has a low callbackratio, things like that.
So we're more like rewardingproductivity versus time.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, no, a hundred percent.
Yeah.
At one I owned a shop and weflat rate technicians.
It worked the same way thebetter the technician, the more
money they could make and thebetter.
The customers were happierbecause everything happened
faster and more productively andthe quality was first rate.
So that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
You also knew how much it was going to cost them.
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, it wasn't just like oh well, we'll be here for
a while and get out your wallet,it's that kind of thing.
So I think that's awesome.
We'll come around toapprentices a little bit later.
I've got a question about that,because I do think that's an
interesting one.
So congratulations on yoursuccess so far.
Let me ask you something If youhad to start over from square
(03:28):
one, what would you dodifferently?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So, you know, we recently did another podcast and
they asked us this question andI really I'm actually extremely
grateful for the opportunity toanswer again, because I don't
think that I highlighted enoughduring that podcast the fact
that there were a lot ofmistakes made, but every single
(03:54):
mistake was such a great lesson.
You know, without those lessonswe wouldn't have the right SOPs
in place.
But when we originally started,I mean, we had just a little
drafted handbook and our goalwas never to be a one-man
operation.
So, with our goals being whatwe've created and what we're
(04:18):
continuing to grow, I would saythe biggest lessons I would take
away is just the planning, thepre-planning, having SOPs in
place, policies and proceduresin place, you know, having the
right people in place, makingsure that they understood
(04:40):
business as well and settingreal good, clear expectations.
I think that you know, I thinkthat you can do a lot without
having a lot of money to startup front.
We didn't have a lot of upfront money to start, but
investing the money that you dohave wisely.
So, branding immediately,making sure that your branding
(05:05):
is on point.
Now I feel like we started witha great brand.
We had a really nice, cleanlogo.
We started with a big box truck.
We were able to do same dayservice from the beginning.
Those things have always beenin line for us, knowing what our
(05:25):
flat rate was.
We understood gross margins, soI'm grateful for those things.
But as we added trades, eventhough we had the knowledge, so
we started with plumbing onlyand when we added HVAC, I feel
like some of those things wekind of forgot about At the time
(05:47):
and I'm not sure why we didthat.
You know, looking back at thetime in 2019, we added HVAC and
we probably should haverebranded fully then, like we
have a new.
You know we rebranded in 2024.
I think we really should havedone that in 2019, not expanded
(06:09):
our entire fleet and had added awhole bunch more 20 more
vehicles to our fleet.
It made branding a lot moreexpensive to rewrap that many
vehicles.
You know just all of thatvehicles.
You know just all of that.
(06:29):
It made it a lot of people justreally knew us by plumbing and
it made advertising HVAC a bitmore challenging.
So I just feel like we shouldhave done some of those things
quicker.
I feel like we weren't quickenough to implement.
We heard we have a lot of greatmentors, we have amazing
business coaches, but we justweren't fast enough, you know,
(06:51):
on implementation of the thingsthat we probably needed to
implement at that time.
I would say those are some ofthe biggest lessons.
I feel like like we learned,you know, the wrong people, the
wrong people in the seat for toolong, allowing that to go on
too long, not rebranding quickenough, not having SOPs in place
(07:15):
.
I mean again, we started in2015 with plumbing only and we
learned along that path that wehad to create all these SOPs,
and then we started HVAC withoutSOPs in place.
So I don't know why we did thatagain.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
You know, um, who's the SOP person?
There's usually one, that'sthat's.
Who's good at that.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Uh, I think that she would probably do about 90% of
them, about 90% of them.
Um, I've written a few oncertain things like um, I take
care of the um, incentive, pro,uh, programs, um, you know, I'm
kind of more of a numbers guy.
Figure out, you know, if thisis going to be a win-win
(07:59):
situation, uh, win for theemployee, win for the, the
business, and then of course,the customer has to win too.
So it'd be a win-win-win typescenario and, to balance, that
is a very fine line to ensure.
And we've made mistakes alongthe way too.
Instead of programs that werekilling the business and the
(08:24):
employees are walking away, uh,celebrating um, and then vice
versa, you know, ones thatworked in the business's favor
and didn't work really too muchin the employee's favor.
So you know, we've we've playedaround with incentive programs
and SOPs on that front as well,um, and we've changed the type
of programs we've done, I mean,quite a few times.
(08:46):
So, yeah, there are somemistakes made along the way too
with things like incentiveprograms.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, it's pretty hard, I've found over the years
it's pretty hard to develop anincentive program that somebody
can't figure out how to game.
Yeah, and I don't think likethat.
So I have to like test it andsee what happens.
Yeah, you know, or run it by afew people who do think like
that.
So, uh, it's an interesting,it's a very, it's a very, it's a
(09:14):
very interesting one.
Um, what was?
How did you decide?
Was it always in the plan toadd other services?
Or because you could have gonethe other way and just blown up
plumbing, you know?
and yeah and other areas orother geographies or whatever.
So yeah, was that always partof the plan?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
It was.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, um, but you know, you know what.
You know that you don't know,uh, or at least good leaders
know what they don't know, um,and we had waited until 2019 to
do that.
Um, you know, and and we hadasked, you know our business
coach to kind of, um, do ananalysis on our business, figure
(09:55):
out if we were ready to do thator not.
Um, because you know the newshiny things.
Uh, adding a trade is is a biginvestment, and we, we knew
enough to know that.
Um, and uh, you know ourbusiness coach said yeah, you,
you guys are, you guys areshowing a good net profit.
Uh, year over year.
(10:15):
Uh, you've shown good growthyear over year.
Uh, your numbers are in line.
Uh, we think you're ready andso, uh.
So then we, we added HVAC andand I'll tell you, um, you can't
run any trade the same as theother.
You can, they're closely, youknow, they're closely similar.
(10:35):
Um, but the way each businessruns, is is a separate type of
entity and and the people workdifferently, the jobs are
completed at different levels.
Um, the the gross profitmargins are much different, the
KPIs are different.
So, you know, I think we wentin thinking, hey, we're going to
(10:57):
run this Like we've doneplumbing and not realizing.
You know, I'm a plumber bytrade, for, you know, 25 years
now and I look at certainaspects of HVAC and I go why are
they doing that Like, why don'tthey just do it like we do?
And you know after what, almostsix years of having HVAC in the
(11:19):
business, I'm realizing youknow that they are very much
different beasts.
They are.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
But when we sat down, you know we knew that we Pete
really told me that he wanted toopen his own company back in
2002.
So we've been dating since wewere in high school.
You know high school kids andnow married I guess not dating.
We started dating when we werein high school.
You know high school kids andnow married I guess not dating.
We started dating when we werein high school.
(11:48):
We've been married now 25 years.
But he told me back in 2002 whenhe went into plumbing, like I
want to open a plumbing company.
So that was always in his plansand and I, I went to nursing
school.
I, you know, um went, went thatkind of path and went into
different leadership roles andthen learned business and um
(12:12):
went to school for for businessso that we could operate.
So we sat down with this plan,um, starting in 2014, really sat
down.
We sat on our back you knowtable on our back porch and we
we wrote out a business plan.
We were really intentional.
We we didn't just start itovernight, we did create SOPs.
(12:36):
You know what do we want thecompany to look like.
We wrote out five-year goalsand HVAC and electrical were in
those.
But we were starting with withplumbing because, you know, that
was really the background thatwe understood.
And then we made sure to followmentors along the way.
We joined Nextar, became Nextarmembers, you know, we listened
(13:02):
to our business coaches.
We provided a lot of trainingand education for our entire
team.
We continue to do so and listento a lot of that advice, but it
was always in the grand plan.
Our grand plan, like I said,was never to be a one-man show,
and that's great for those thatwant that.
(13:22):
You know, if that's your goal,that's fantastic.
Um, just make sure you'repriced right, you know, so that
you're able to retire one day.
But, um, if you're, if yourgoal is to to be different, to
be a larger company or to addmultiple trades, I think that
you have to plan differently.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Um, I think that you have to plan differently, I
think that you have to structuredifferently.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I think, from the first day you really need to
know that that's your goal andyou need to operate in a
completely different fashion.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah, I've had clients in all those trades and
most of them don't do what youdid.
That's why I asked the question, because they are different.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And I mean you would think they would be the same and
there are a lot of similaritiesbut, like you said, different
margins, different.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Model.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Different end models, different incentive structures,
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, you know, there's enough nuance to make it
, yeah, interesting with thatEven just the little things like
relationships of vendors isvery different you know from one
to another.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
So so, yeah, yeah, a hundred percent, yeah, it's,
it's, it's crazy, um.
So let me, um, let me get acouple of learnings from each of
you.
Uh, what you've learned as abusiness owner?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Um, so I was a general manager of another
plumbing business before Istarted mine and, um, I had, uh,
I had some decent businessknowledge, had been to a lot of
trade, trade specific uhseminars on business.
Um, you know, we, we went outthe gate, um, you know, with
flat rate, and we were using anext door model.
(15:03):
Even before we were even nextdoor members.
My previous employer was a nextdoor member, so I really got a
lot out of that.
What I've learned is you know,you can know your numbers, you
can know that the industry andthe trades really well, but if
(15:25):
you don't know how to leadpeople, then it's going to fall
apart.
Especially, you know a businesslike ours, so many trucks, so
many people working in and outof the business.
You know, if you're a one-mantruck, then essentially all you
got to lead is really one person, right?
But what I've learned is thatmost people that are in
(15:49):
leadership roles tend to not beleaders.
They tend to be managers.
You know, and what I explainedto my managers is managers
manage things like a warehouse,a product, a SKU.
Leaders lead people.
(16:10):
So, and there's a bigdifference between the two and
you know we have, we've gonethrough the exercise of.
There's a book out there calledthe Motive.
We've gone through that andit's yeah.
And if you don't understand yourmotive of why you want to be a
leader and and you're steppinginto this role of a manager
(16:33):
leader thinking that it's justthe next step, then you're in
the wrong position.
So that's probably one of thebiggest things I've learned.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, that's cool.
I've found that you need both.
You need management andleadership.
You got to have both.
You can't.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
You need those numbers people yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Well, you got to have people that can manage, you
know that, know how to manage,and then some of them get to be
leaders.
Hopefully, yeah, they're inthere, I don't know.
So do you have one, alicia?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I would say that investing in your team, company
culture, I think, is one of thebiggest things that I feel like
a lot of people do not focusenough on.
A lot of people make thecustomer number one.
You know, and a lot of theFacebook groups out there
everybody's talking about, youknow well what's the lifetime
(17:28):
value of this customer and youknow you got to do everything to
save that customer and reallynot every customer is your
customer.
What's the lifetime value, pete, I always say, of your employee
?
They probably are going tobring a lot more in sales,
revenue, retention and companyculture than any one customer is
(17:52):
going to right.
So I think having anexceptional company culture is
one of the biggest things thatcan help you be successful.
Now, at the same time, I thinkthat you have to be and this is
something that we learned hardlessons on right.
(18:12):
You do have to challenge that,that sense of entitlement or
things too.
That becomes really challengingsometimes when you're a leader
and you feel like you'reconstantly giving and giving and
giving and your team is likethey.
You know you feel like your teamdoesn't, isn't, uh, receptive
(18:36):
or wants more, more moregrateful, um, ungrateful.
I feel like there's been ebbsand flows where we're like, wow,
these are these we're justdoing and doing for people and,
um, you know, nobody's gratefuland um, you know you tend to get
into these jaded moments and alot of conversations that I have
(18:58):
with other business owners andother business owners in the
trade and outside of the tradejust other entrepreneurs in
general, finding a way to youknow the right people to be able
to vent to if you need to, butreally trying to stay out of
(19:22):
that mindset, because you know afew can make you feel that way
quickly, but that really isn'tthe majority and it really
shouldn't deter you from yourpurpose of serving others, you
know.
So I think, just making surethat you stay in the right
mindset, don't become jaded.
It is a grind, it is hard,there are going to be ungrateful
(19:44):
people, but you know, let'sfocus on the majority and not
the outliers.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
It's nice when you I mean, what I just wrote down was
, you know, hire grateful people, you know, cause I mean I, you
know, I had a.
I just invested in a trip for a, you know, training and some
things for one of our teammembers and I got a nice thank
you note.
So I was like, yeah, that's, hegets it, so that's that's, you
know, actually a written thankyou note.
So I was like, yeah, that's, hegets it, so that's actually a
(20:14):
written thank you note in themail.
That was pretty cool.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah,those are the kind of things.
So what do you think a coupleof misconceptions are about
running a business?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
I like the saying rolling in the dough.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Oh yeah, I get it, I'm with you.
I remember my first business.
They all thought I was rich,yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I mean and I don't want to put it like we're in the
poorhouse or anything we have agood life.
If anything, we are probablyupper middle class to the middle
class section or arena, but Ithink that there's a huge
misconception.
It's just not among employees,other business owners especially
due to certain business ownersas well and then the end
(21:06):
consumer.
You know, I had one customerleft a review and he said you
know, I'm having trouble gettingahold of the owner.
Um, he must be on the golfcourse, uh, uh, playing golf.
And I'll just tell you Ichuckled at that.
I was actually at my father'sfuneral.
Um, so that that's why.
(21:27):
But but this is the kind of the, the kind of things that you
get from consumers, and I thinkthat every industry deals with
some type of misconception orjaded consumer idea about
business owners.
But you know, that probablywould be my answer.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, it's hard to you know, in the absence of
communication.
People make up stuff and soit's hard to communicate that
stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So I would even say I would say the same thing,
except a different route, like Iwouldn't even focus so much on
the consumer, more so your team.
Because I see it every singleday in these, in the online
platforms, right, all oversocial media, like I'm going to
go out there and I'm going tostart my own thing.
(22:17):
Because I see it every singleday in these, in the online
platforms, right, all oversocial media, like I'm going to
go out there and I'm going tostart my own thing.
Because, you know, today I putin a tankless water heater and
we charged $8,000.
You know, I should be the onewalking away with $6,000.
And I'm like they really thinkyou know, they have this mindset
that we are really putting$6,000 in our pocket from that
(22:39):
one job and it's just.
It's just not the case, right?
So I think that the biggestmisconception, I think, is that
and I think Michael Gerber saidit best is that there's really
great technicians out there whohave entrepreneurial seizures
and think that because they'rereally great technicians, they
can run businesses.
And a really great tech doesn'tequal a really great business
(23:02):
owner.
They're not exclusive to eachother and, you know, they just
don't understand their numbers.
They don't understand numbersin general, they just don't
understand their numbers.
They don't understand numbersin general, and that's okay as
long as they're open-minded,willing to learn from others.
But I think that is one of thebiggest misconceptions is that
(23:23):
everybody's just rolling aroundlike Google with a 33% net
profit.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I don't even think they get that Back on the beach.
I don't even think they getthat far, I don't.
I think they forget that theyhave bills at home.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
And so they like, oh well, you sold, you know, $10
million.
Well, okay, then you made $10million.
Well, you know it doesn't workthat way.
No, it's not, that's not.
That's not the way it works intheir paycheck either.
And so you know, they get apaycheck and then they have, you
know, they have their mortgageand their bills, and the same in
a business.
It's so interesting.
(23:58):
I have an exercise thatactually I do that sometimes
with employees just to show them, like, how much is actually
left of a dollar after you knowwhen we get a dollar in.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yep, pete does that.
It takes about five or sixhours he spends with every
single new hire, from callcenter to you know, our top
sales guys sit in on ourexercises on what it costs to
operate a business and what thenumbers really mean.
They have to understand itbecause we don't want our guys
out there posting that theyshould have been walking around
(24:31):
with away with 6,000, right,they really understand it.
So I think being transparentwith your team is important.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, and then what that means is you have to teach
them how to read a financialstatement.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Essentially, that's right yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
It's a pretty interesting thing.
So how do you balance thepersonal life and the demands of
the business?
How have you all done with that?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I think that's an ebb and flow as well.
You know, sometimes you knowwe're in the midst of possibly a
crisis in the business and thenthe business becomes the
subject of 24-7.
And then you know, in certaincases we're we're doing very
well in the business and, um,that tends to, uh, maybe fall
(25:19):
off a little bit, um, and we'reable to take some time away from
the business.
So I think it's an ebb and flow.
I think it depends on whereyou're at, where your growth
strategy is, uh, and and howyour profit loss and your
balance sheet's looking.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I think a lot of it depends on who's helping you.
So are you trying to doeverything yourself?
I mean, I could tell you I weara lot of hats but are we still
trying to micromanage everyaspect, or are we learning to
ask for help and delegatingtasks that should be delegated?
We can't grow for micromanaging, so that's one thing for
(26:02):
certain.
So the right people in theright seats you know that are
there too.
This summer we went on a roadtrip.
We drove from North Carolinaall the way up through Canada
into Alaska, came back down.
We were gone five weeks, sothat was the longest we've ever
(26:22):
been away from the business.
But during that time we havebusiness coaches that I
recommend.
Everybody has a business coach,everyone should have a business
coach.
But our business coaches camein for a week and they worked
with our team, you know, whilewe were gone.
But we have a really great team.
We have a really greatleadership team that we can
(26:43):
trust and we stay incommunication.
But, like Pete said, there'sdefinitely ebbs and flows.
There's times where you knowwe're up at one in the morning
like, oh my gosh, what are wegoing to do?
Not so much recently over thelast few years.
But you know, especially earlyon um, that that's a hard time,
that it really is a tough timeum to to balance that there's.
(27:09):
There's definitely no um rewardwithout grit.
So you know, take, take some ofthat.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, yeah, I like it .
No, that's good.
Any advice?
I tend to end up working with alot of husband wife teams, but
so, um, this is usually aquestion I ask is like what do
you have any advice for the, forthe husband wife teams?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Um, know your lane and stay in it, okay, so yeah, I
mean it's pretty.
It's pretty simple, because youknow, um, if your two uh job
descriptions and duties uhmingle or or or kind of um bleed
(27:53):
into one another, then it'sgonna cause possible stripes and
and and issues.
So you know.
The other thing is, you know,just learn when to direct any
subordinates to the properperson, and that goes for
managers too.
I mean, the same thing canhappen with management.
Uh, you know, the buck stopswith the owners, right, or the
(28:16):
owner.
And when you have co-ownerslike us, you know 50-50 split in
the business.
We have to have an operatingagreement, we have to understand
our roles in the business andwe have to stick to those roles.
So you know, when somebodycomes to me about you know
payroll, I'm not even about totalk to them about payroll.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
You know that's why are you coming?
Why are you coming to me Right?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
That's not my department.
Yeah, you know, and I'm notgoing to have an opinion on it
and I'm not going to offer anyadvice on it or what they should
do, shouldn't do, or what'sgoing to happen.
No, you need to.
You need's going to happen.
Nope, you need to speak toAlicia about that.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, I think, having clear, defined roles.
I think that every singlehusband and wife should go into
business without a clearoperating agreement, because you
do need to have those thingsoutlined and designated.
And, um, you know, I think thata lot don't a lot are like,
(29:18):
well, we'll just figure it outor we'll just work together, and
then you're like yelling ateach other and then you're
telling each other you're notgoing to, I don't report to you,
and we've had our moments,right, um.
But but as soon as you learnthat, like this, these are my
job duties and and then you meetonce a week, you have an L10 or
(29:39):
leadership meeting, whateveryou want to call it, within your
organization, we have L10s, we,you know, we sit down and we
all, just we discuss thosethings that everybody can, can
voice in or get your reports on,um.
And I think that that's where,where a lot of people struggle,
(30:02):
is they haven't clearly definedtheir roles, um, and so there's
just a lot of overlapping, um,you know, people feel like
they're taking on more than theother, or something like that,
and it's just, I think, clearlydefining your roles.
Otherwise you could have thesame issue, even if you're not
(30:22):
husband and wife, you just havea co-partner, or you could have
the same issue with your GM orops manager or service manager
or even a technician.
I mean clearly defined roles isso important.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, yeah, I like it .
So I mean, y'all went into thisthing better than most because
you came out of the industry,you were prepared, you did a
plan, but what do?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
you wish you had known, or that somebody had told
you before you went intobusiness.
I don't think it's what I wishI would have known before I went
into business.
I think, for me, it would bewhat I wish I would have
believed before I went intobusiness, you know.
So, human beings, we makedecisions based on pain, and
(31:21):
it's almost like we have toexperience that pain to believe
it exists.
Um, and I'll just you know anexample or an analogy is you
know, as a kid.
You know the stove's hot.
Everybody's told you thestove's hot.
You got to test the theory andmake sure that nobody's lying to
(31:42):
you.
So you touch the stove and it'shot and you get burned.
You know what kid hasn't beenburned in their life?
Right, and now, from that dayforward, now we're going to
believe everybody that tells us.
And the same thing is aboutbusiness.
You know these business ownerstell you it's difficult out
there and what people seegenerally with business owners
(32:04):
is the success that they had inwhatever it is.
They have properties, uh assets, uh material things, um, things
like that.
So I think that everybody comesinto this business thing is
well, they've done it and I cando it too, and that's absolutely
correct.
I mean, if they've done it, youcan do it too.
Um, but just know there isquite a bit of pain involved and
(32:35):
unfortunately, regardless ofhow much advice someone gives to
you, you almost need to makethe mistakes on your own own.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
I would say for me not caring so much what people
think I was.
You know, at first such apeople pleaser and like a bad
review, oh my gosh, if you got,if we got, a negative review,
just tear me up, like I feltlike just such a personal attack
, you know, and you do your bestto combat those and some of
them happen and and you do theright thing by the customer and
(33:10):
fix the situation and some ofthem you can't fix at all and
those were the hardest.
Like you know, this person'sjust absolutely crazy.
We went out of our way for themand those things are going to
happen too.
Um, but letting them fester, or,um, sitting, you know, I let
them occupy my brain way toolong.
Um, they took up way too muchspace in my mind, um, you know.
(33:34):
Or for the years that we werevery underpaid, um, you know,
everybody was cheering us on.
And then the second, we maybebought a new truck, like, oh,
we're going to finally buyourselves a new truck.
You know we've been strugglingall these years starting a
business, and then all of asudden, people you know people's
opinions come out like, oh,they must be making millions.
(33:58):
They bought a new truck, but whydo I care?
Why do I let that occupy anytime in my mind?
Uh, things like that.
I just, you know, allowingthings to take up space in my
mind, that I I never, you know,I shouldn't spend more than a
second on Um, and I I feel like,uh, I'm getting better at
(34:19):
letting those things go and andnot dwelling on them too long,
but I think those are areconstant, constant since the
beginning.
You know constant lessons, thatthings that I've learned.
You just got to let it go andlet others think or believe
whatever they think or believe.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, the older I get , the less I care.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I mean, yeah, I don't know if he ever cared.
Yeah Well, yeah, I mean it.
It takes a while and he was inthe industry for a while.
You came out of nursing.
I mean that's a serviceindustry.
I mean you want to make peoplewell and feel better and you
know that's a hard thing to letgo of.
I mean that's just how you'rebent.
So, um, yeah, I mean that'sjust how you're bent.
(35:02):
So, yeah, I mean it's.
But yeah, you know, I mean whathelped me early days, because I
do want to help everybody.
But you know, what helped meearly days was somebody told me
you know, if you're pleasingeverybody, you're probably not
doing enough.
And it was pretty good advice.
You know you got to go out outand I mean sometimes you just
(35:24):
get the wrong customer.
You know, sometimes sometimesyou get the right customer but
you just can't make them happy.
It just, you know it's some,it's for whatever reason that it
just happens that way.
Um, uh, but I will tell youthat some of our best customers
are people.
In some of my businesses, someof the best customers are people
who, you know, were mad in thebeginning and we were able to
(35:45):
turn them around and then theybecome lifelong.
It became that lifetime valueyou guys talked about.
So one last I love you guys thelast time.
The last question is what's thebest way for people to find you
?
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Go Green Plum, and that's Go Green just like the
color Plum.
B-p-l-u M as in Mary B, as inBoyd dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yep GoGreenPlumcom.
We're on social media.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
We're on.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Facebook, Instagram.
Yeah, we're all over.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
You're everywhere.
I've looked, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
TikTok really.
Wow, that's cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Oh, we love to make some videos.
That's cool.
Yeah, oh, we love to make somevideos.
We are all about making some.
Uh, we got, we got, dancing, wegot dancing plumbers.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
We got dancing plumbers.
Yeah, oh really that's cool.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
You can also find us any any of the Facebook forums
um you know, on business and andtrade trade specific uh of the
more prominent ones.
I'm usually the guy in thereschooling very opinionated.
You know the guy that nobodylikes.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Well, but you're, you know, you're a truth teller.
So, and if they choose tolisten, they'll probably
shortcut some things, and ifthey don't, then they'll
probably feel the pain that youwere talking about earlier.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
I think that the misconception there is a
misconception among businessowners too, and for me and maybe
not every business owner isthis way, but we want everybody
to succeed and when someoneachieves success, I think the
misconception among other peopleis they just want to be alone
at the top, and no businessowner that I've met that's super
(37:28):
successful is that way.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
No, 100%.
I've never met anybody that'sthat way.
That was super successful.
Everyone I've talked to washappy to give people advice, or
share, or you know if you askedright they would mentor.
I mean, there's a you know yougot to be cognizant of their
time sometimes, yeah, and by nomeans am I saying we are super
(37:52):
successful.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
We've been successful , we have a great team, but
we're not at the top of thepyramid by any means.
I mean, there are some reallyreally good operators out there
that are tenfold to us, and allI typically try and do in these
forums or when someone calls me,is just share my expertise in
(38:16):
the subjects that I am confidentin and where we've seen success
.
So what I would recommend toany of your viewers if they're,
if they're, business owners inthe trades, I'd recommend that
they they reach out, find amentor, someone that's doing it
better than they are um get abusiness coach, find a, find a
mentor uh, you know weekly callswith that mentor, weekly calls
(38:39):
with that business coach andjust implement.
just if they're successful doingit, just don't question it.
The stove is hot.
Go ahead and do what they tellyou to do.
Just put it in action, do it.
You know, no decision is worsethan a bad decision.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah, that's right.
That's exactly right.
You can always fix it.
So, hey look, this has beenreally good and I appreciate you
guys being here and it's been agreat discussion.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, grateful for having us on.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
I bet you tell all the girls that.
All the girls, all the girls.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
None of the guys.
All the girls, yeah, yeah,anyway, that's fun, hey, and
until next time, all the best.
Hey there and welcome to this week's episode of Epic
Entrepreneurs.
Hi, I'm Bill Gilliland withAction Coach Business Growth
Partners and I am super pumpedto have Alicia and Pete Green
from Go Green Plumbing HeatingAir and Electrical and that is a
mouthful, but it does tell uswhat they do and I think that's
(00:23):
a good way to name your company.
So I don't know who wants to gofirst, but tell us a little bit
about your company.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So the company was founded in 2015 by my wife and I
and actually her father, whichis now passed and we originally
operated out of our garage slashbasement.
We were a one-man truckoperation in 2015, and we slowly
(00:53):
grew the business.
You know, the business operatesas a flat rate provider.
We're in the residentialservice sector.
Flat rate provider.
We're in the residentialservice sector, which accounts
for over 99% of our revenuestream, and today we are roughly
(01:14):
around 60 to 65 employees,depending on how many
apprentices we take on.
And that's about it in anutshell.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Cool.
So I know what a flat rateprovider is, but I'm guessing
that some people listening don't.
So tell us what a flat rateprovider is.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So flat rate is a set upon price up front prior to
proceeding with any work.
Proceeding with any work, andwe, basically we operate on a
billable hour instead of a timeand material type thing.
So, essentially, I'm going topull and reset a toilet.
Here's the price.
It's a set price.
(01:56):
As long as all I'm doing ispulling and resetting a toilet,
you can be confident, mrCustomer, that this price won't
change.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, and the better the technician, the faster
that'll happen.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, your efficiency .
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah so essentially, instead of rewarding you know,
rewarding a company based ontime and material.
You know, any business ownerwould love to send their slowest
plumber out there so he canrack up as many hours, right,
and there's really no reward fora plumber that, or an
electrician or an HVACtechnician that is quick and
(02:30):
efficient and has a low callbackratio, things like that.
So we're more like rewardingproductivity versus time.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, no, a hundred percent.
Yeah.
At one I owned a shop and weflat rate technicians.
It worked the same way thebetter the technician, the more
money they could make and thebetter.
The customers were happierbecause everything happened
faster and more productively andthe quality was first rate.
So that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
You also knew how much it was going to cost them.
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, it wasn't just like oh well, we'll be here for
a while and get out your wallet,it's that kind of thing.
So I think that's awesome.
We'll come around toapprentices a little bit later.
I've got a question about that,because I do think that's an
interesting one.
So congratulations on yoursuccess so far.
Let me ask you something If youhad to start over from square
(03:28):
one, what would you dodifferently?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So, you know, we recently did another podcast and
they asked us this question andI really I'm actually extremely
grateful for the opportunity toanswer again, because I don't
think that I highlighted enoughduring that podcast the fact
that there were a lot ofmistakes made, but every single
(03:54):
mistake was such a great lesson.
You know, without those lessonswe wouldn't have the right SOPs
in place.
But when we originally started,I mean, we had just a little
drafted handbook and our goalwas never to be a one-man
operation.
So, with our goals being whatwe've created and what we're
(04:18):
continuing to grow, I would saythe biggest lessons I would take
away is just the planning, thepre-planning, having SOPs in
place, policies and proceduresin place, you know, having the
right people in place, makingsure that they understood
(04:40):
business as well and settingreal good, clear expectations.
I think that you know, I thinkthat you can do a lot without
having a lot of money to startup front.
We didn't have a lot of upfront money to start, but
investing the money that you dohave wisely.
So, branding immediately,making sure that your branding
(05:05):
is on point.
Now I feel like we started witha great brand.
We had a really nice, cleanlogo.
We started with a big box truck.
We were able to do same dayservice from the beginning.
Those things have always beenin line for us, knowing what our
(05:25):
flat rate was.
We understood gross margins, soI'm grateful for those things.
But as we added trades, eventhough we had the knowledge, so
we started with plumbing onlyand when we added HVAC, I feel
like some of those things wekind of forgot about At the time
(05:47):
and I'm not sure why we didthat.
You know, looking back at thetime in 2019, we added HVAC and
we probably should haverebranded fully then, like we
have a new.
You know we rebranded in 2024.
I think we really should havedone that in 2019, not expanded
(06:09):
our entire fleet and had added awhole bunch more 20 more
vehicles to our fleet.
It made branding a lot moreexpensive to rewrap that many
vehicles.
You know just all of thatvehicles.
You know just all of that.
(06:29):
It made it a lot of people justreally knew us by plumbing and
it made advertising HVAC a bitmore challenging.
So I just feel like we shouldhave done some of those things
quicker.
I feel like we weren't quickenough to implement.
We heard we have a lot of greatmentors, we have amazing
business coaches, but we justweren't fast enough, you know,
(06:51):
on implementation of the thingsthat we probably needed to
implement at that time.
I would say those are some ofthe biggest lessons.
I feel like like we learned,you know, the wrong people, the
wrong people in the seat for toolong, allowing that to go on
too long, not rebranding quickenough, not having SOPs in place
(07:15):
.
I mean again, we started in2015 with plumbing only and we
learned along that path that wehad to create all these SOPs,
and then we started HVAC withoutSOPs in place.
So I don't know why we did thatagain.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
You know, um, who's the SOP person?
There's usually one, that'sthat's.
Who's good at that.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Uh, I think that she would probably do about 90% of
them, about 90% of them.
Um, I've written a few oncertain things like um, I take
care of the um, incentive, pro,uh, programs, um, you know, I'm
kind of more of a numbers guy.
Figure out, you know, if thisis going to be a win-win
(07:59):
situation, uh, win for theemployee, win for the, the
business, and then of course,the customer has to win too.
So it'd be a win-win-win typescenario and, to balance, that
is a very fine line to ensure.
And we've made mistakes alongthe way too.
Instead of programs that werekilling the business and the
(08:24):
employees are walking away, uh,celebrating um, and then vice
versa, you know, ones thatworked in the business's favor
and didn't work really too muchin the employee's favor.
So you know, we've we've playedaround with incentive programs
and SOPs on that front as well,um, and we've changed the type
of programs we've done, I mean,quite a few times.
(08:46):
So, yeah, there are somemistakes made along the way too
with things like incentiveprograms.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, it's pretty hard, I've found over the years
it's pretty hard to develop anincentive program that somebody
can't figure out how to game.
Yeah, and I don't think likethat.
So I have to like test it andsee what happens.
Yeah, you know, or run it by afew people who do think like
that.
So, uh, it's an interesting,it's a very, it's a very, it's a
(09:14):
very interesting one.
Um, what was?
How did you decide?
Was it always in the plan toadd other services?
Or because you could have gonethe other way and just blown up
plumbing, you know?
and yeah and other areas orother geographies or whatever.
So yeah, was that always partof the plan?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
It was.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, um, but you know, you know what.
You know that you don't know,uh, or at least good leaders
know what they don't know, um,and we had waited until 2019 to
do that.
Um, you know, and and we hadasked, you know our business
coach to kind of, um, do ananalysis on our business, figure
(09:55):
out if we were ready to do thator not.
Um, because you know the newshiny things.
Uh, adding a trade is is a biginvestment, and we, we knew
enough to know that.
Um, and uh, you know ourbusiness coach said yeah, you,
you guys are, you guys areshowing a good net profit.
Uh, year over year.
(10:15):
Uh, you've shown good growthyear over year.
Uh, your numbers are in line.
Uh, we think you're ready andso, uh.
So then we, we added HVAC andand I'll tell you, um, you can't
run any trade the same as theother.
You can, they're closely, youknow, they're closely similar.
(10:35):
Um, but the way each businessruns, is is a separate type of
entity and and the people workdifferently, the jobs are
completed at different levels.
Um, the the gross profitmargins are much different, the
KPIs are different.
So, you know, I think we wentin thinking, hey, we're going to
(10:57):
run this Like we've doneplumbing and not realizing.
You know, I'm a plumber bytrade, for, you know, 25 years
now and I look at certainaspects of HVAC and I go why are
they doing that Like, why don'tthey just do it like we do?
And you know after what, almostsix years of having HVAC in the
(11:19):
business, I'm realizing youknow that they are very much
different beasts.
They are.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
But when we sat down, you know we knew that we Pete
really told me that he wanted toopen his own company back in
2002.
So we've been dating since wewere in high school.
You know high school kids andnow married I guess not dating.
We started dating when we werein high school.
You know high school kids andnow married I guess not dating.
We started dating when we werein high school.
(11:48):
We've been married now 25 years.
But he told me back in 2002 whenhe went into plumbing, like I
want to open a plumbing company.
So that was always in his plansand and I, I went to nursing
school.
I, you know, um went, went thatkind of path and went into
different leadership roles andthen learned business and um
(12:12):
went to school for for businessso that we could operate.
So we sat down with this plan,um, starting in 2014, really sat
down.
We sat on our back you knowtable on our back porch and we
we wrote out a business plan.
We were really intentional.
We we didn't just start itovernight, we did create SOPs.
(12:36):
You know what do we want thecompany to look like.
We wrote out five-year goalsand HVAC and electrical were in
those.
But we were starting with withplumbing because, you know, that
was really the background thatwe understood.
And then we made sure to followmentors along the way.
We joined Nextar, became Nextarmembers, you know, we listened
(13:02):
to our business coaches.
We provided a lot of trainingand education for our entire
team.
We continue to do so and listento a lot of that advice, but it
was always in the grand plan.
Our grand plan, like I said,was never to be a one-man show,
and that's great for those thatwant that.
(13:22):
You know, if that's your goal,that's fantastic.
Um, just make sure you'repriced right, you know, so that
you're able to retire one day.
But, um, if you're, if yourgoal is to to be different, to
be a larger company or to addmultiple trades, I think that
you have to plan differently.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Um, I think that you have to plan differently, I
think that you have to structuredifferently.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I think, from the first day you really need to
know that that's your goal andyou need to operate in a
completely different fashion.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah, I've had clients in all those trades and
most of them don't do what youdid.
That's why I asked the question, because they are different.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And I mean you would think they would be the same and
there are a lot of similaritiesbut, like you said, different
margins, different.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Model.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Different end models, different incentive structures,
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, you know, there's enough nuance to make it
, yeah, interesting with thatEven just the little things like
relationships of vendors isvery different you know from one
to another.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
So so, yeah, yeah, a hundred percent, yeah, it's,
it's, it's crazy, um.
So let me, um, let me get acouple of learnings from each of
you.
Uh, what you've learned as abusiness owner?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Um, so I was a general manager of another
plumbing business before Istarted mine and, um, I had, uh,
I had some decent businessknowledge, had been to a lot of
trade, trade specific uhseminars on business.
Um, you know, we, we went outthe gate, um, you know, with
flat rate, and we were using anext door model.
(15:03):
Even before we were even nextdoor members.
My previous employer was a nextdoor member, so I really got a
lot out of that.
What I've learned is you know,you can know your numbers, you
can know that the industry andthe trades really well, but if
(15:25):
you don't know how to leadpeople, then it's going to fall
apart.
Especially, you know a businesslike ours, so many trucks, so
many people working in and outof the business.
You know, if you're a one-mantruck, then essentially all you
got to lead is really one person, right?
But what I've learned is thatmost people that are in
(15:49):
leadership roles tend to not beleaders.
They tend to be managers.
You know, and what I explainedto my managers is managers
manage things like a warehouse,a product, a SKU.
Leaders lead people.
(16:10):
So, and there's a bigdifference between the two and
you know we have, we've gonethrough the exercise of.
There's a book out there calledthe Motive.
We've gone through that andit's yeah.
And if you don't understand yourmotive of why you want to be a
leader and and you're steppinginto this role of a manager
(16:33):
leader thinking that it's justthe next step, then you're in
the wrong position.
So that's probably one of thebiggest things I've learned.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, that's cool.
I've found that you need both.
You need management andleadership.
You got to have both.
You can't.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
You need those numbers people yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Well, you got to have people that can manage, you
know that, know how to manage,and then some of them get to be
leaders.
Hopefully, yeah, they're inthere, I don't know.
So do you have one, alicia?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I would say that investing in your team, company
culture, I think, is one of thebiggest things that I feel like
a lot of people do not focusenough on.
A lot of people make thecustomer number one.
You know, and a lot of theFacebook groups out there
everybody's talking about, youknow well what's the lifetime
(17:28):
value of this customer and youknow you got to do everything to
save that customer and reallynot every customer is your
customer.
What's the lifetime value, pete, I always say, of your employee
?
They probably are going tobring a lot more in sales,
revenue, retention and companyculture than any one customer is
(17:52):
going to right.
So I think having anexceptional company culture is
one of the biggest things thatcan help you be successful.
Now, at the same time, I thinkthat you have to be and this is
something that we learned hardlessons on right.
(18:12):
You do have to challenge that,that sense of entitlement or
things too.
That becomes really challengingsometimes when you're a leader
and you feel like you'reconstantly giving and giving and
giving and your team is likethey.
You know you feel like your teamdoesn't, isn't, uh, receptive
(18:36):
or wants more, more moregrateful, um, ungrateful.
I feel like there's been ebbsand flows where we're like, wow,
these are these we're justdoing and doing for people and,
um, you know, nobody's gratefuland um, you know you tend to get
into these jaded moments and alot of conversations that I have
(18:58):
with other business owners andother business owners in the
trade and outside of the tradejust other entrepreneurs in
general, finding a way to youknow the right people to be able
to vent to if you need to, butreally trying to stay out of
(19:22):
that mindset, because you know afew can make you feel that way
quickly, but that really isn'tthe majority and it really
shouldn't deter you from yourpurpose of serving others, you
know.
So I think, just making surethat you stay in the right
mindset, don't become jaded.
It is a grind, it is hard,there are going to be ungrateful
(19:44):
people, but you know, let'sfocus on the majority and not
the outliers.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
It's nice when you I mean, what I just wrote down was
, you know, hire grateful people, you know, cause I mean I, you
know, I had a.
I just invested in a trip for a, you know, training and some
things for one of our teammembers and I got a nice thank
you note.
So I was like, yeah, that's, hegets it, so that's that's, you
know, actually a written thankyou note.
So I was like, yeah, that's, hegets it, so that's actually a
(20:14):
written thank you note in themail.
That was pretty cool.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah,those are the kind of things.
So what do you think a coupleof misconceptions are about
running a business?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
I like the saying rolling in the dough.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Oh yeah, I get it, I'm with you.
I remember my first business.
They all thought I was rich,yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I mean and I don't want to put it like we're in the
poorhouse or anything we have agood life.
If anything, we are probablyupper middle class to the middle
class section or arena, but Ithink that there's a huge
misconception.
It's just not among employees,other business owners especially
due to certain business ownersas well and then the end
(21:06):
consumer.
You know, I had one customerleft a review and he said you
know, I'm having trouble gettingahold of the owner.
Um, he must be on the golfcourse, uh, uh, playing golf.
And I'll just tell you Ichuckled at that.
I was actually at my father'sfuneral.
Um, so that that's why.
(21:27):
But but this is the kind of the, the kind of things that you
get from consumers, and I thinkthat every industry deals with
some type of misconception orjaded consumer idea about
business owners.
But you know, that probablywould be my answer.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, it's hard to you know, in the absence of
communication.
People make up stuff and soit's hard to communicate that
stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So I would even say I would say the same thing,
except a different route, like Iwouldn't even focus so much on
the consumer, more so your team.
Because I see it every singleday in these, in the online
platforms, right, all oversocial media, like I'm going to
go out there and I'm going tostart my own thing.
(22:17):
Because I see it every singleday in these, in the online
platforms, right, all oversocial media, like I'm going to
go out there and I'm going tostart my own thing.
Because, you know, today I putin a tankless water heater and
we charged $8,000.
You know, I should be the onewalking away with $6,000.
And I'm like they really thinkyou know, they have this mindset
that we are really putting$6,000 in our pocket from that
(22:39):
one job and it's just.
It's just not the case, right?
So I think that the biggestmisconception, I think, is that
and I think Michael Gerber saidit best is that there's really
great technicians out there whohave entrepreneurial seizures
and think that because they'rereally great technicians, they
can run businesses.
And a really great tech doesn'tequal a really great business
(23:02):
owner.
They're not exclusive to eachother and, you know, they just
don't understand their numbers.
They don't understand numbersin general, they just don't
understand their numbers.
They don't understand numbersin general, and that's okay as
long as they're open-minded,willing to learn from others.
But I think that is one of thebiggest misconceptions is that
(23:23):
everybody's just rolling aroundlike Google with a 33% net
profit.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I don't even think they get that Back on the beach.
I don't even think they getthat far, I don't.
I think they forget that theyhave bills at home.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
And so they like, oh well, you sold, you know, $10
million.
Well, okay, then you made $10million.
Well, you know it doesn't workthat way.
No, it's not, that's not.
That's not the way it works intheir paycheck either.
And so you know, they get apaycheck and then they have, you
know, they have their mortgageand their bills, and the same in
a business.
It's so interesting.
(23:58):
I have an exercise thatactually I do that sometimes
with employees just to show them, like, how much is actually
left of a dollar after you knowwhen we get a dollar in.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yep, pete does that.
It takes about five or sixhours he spends with every
single new hire, from callcenter to you know, our top
sales guys sit in on ourexercises on what it costs to
operate a business and what thenumbers really mean.
They have to understand itbecause we don't want our guys
out there posting that theyshould have been walking around
(24:31):
with away with 6,000, right,they really understand it.
So I think being transparentwith your team is important.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, and then what that means is you have to teach
them how to read a financialstatement.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Essentially, that's right yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
It's a pretty interesting thing.
So how do you balance thepersonal life and the demands of
the business?
How have you all done with that?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I think that's an ebb and flow as well.
You know, sometimes you knowwe're in the midst of possibly a
crisis in the business and thenthe business becomes the
subject of 24-7.
And then you know, in certaincases we're we're doing very
well in the business and, um,that tends to, uh, maybe fall
(25:19):
off a little bit, um, and we'reable to take some time away from
the business.
So I think it's an ebb and flow.
I think it depends on whereyou're at, where your growth
strategy is, uh, and and howyour profit loss and your
balance sheet's looking.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I think a lot of it depends on who's helping you.
So are you trying to doeverything yourself?
I mean, I could tell you I weara lot of hats but are we still
trying to micromanage everyaspect, or are we learning to
ask for help and delegatingtasks that should be delegated?
We can't grow for micromanaging, so that's one thing for
(26:02):
certain.
So the right people in theright seats you know that are
there too.
This summer we went on a roadtrip.
We drove from North Carolinaall the way up through Canada
into Alaska, came back down.
We were gone five weeks, sothat was the longest we've ever
(26:22):
been away from the business.
But during that time we havebusiness coaches that I
recommend.
Everybody has a business coach,everyone should have a business
coach.
But our business coaches camein for a week and they worked
with our team, you know, whilewe were gone.
But we have a really great team.
We have a really greatleadership team that we can
(26:43):
trust and we stay incommunication.
But, like Pete said, there'sdefinitely ebbs and flows.
There's times where you knowwe're up at one in the morning
like, oh my gosh, what are wegoing to do?
Not so much recently over thelast few years.
But you know, especially earlyon um, that that's a hard time,
that it really is a tough timeum to to balance that there's.
(27:09):
There's definitely no um rewardwithout grit.
So you know, take, take some ofthat.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, yeah, I like it .
No, that's good.
Any advice?
I tend to end up working with alot of husband wife teams, but
so, um, this is usually aquestion I ask is like what do
you have any advice for the, forthe husband wife teams?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Um, know your lane and stay in it, okay, so yeah, I
mean it's pretty.
It's pretty simple, because youknow, um, if your two uh job
descriptions and duties uhmingle or or or kind of um bleed
(27:53):
into one another, then it'sgonna cause possible stripes and
and and issues.
So you know.
The other thing is, you know,just learn when to direct any
subordinates to the properperson, and that goes for
managers too.
I mean, the same thing canhappen with management.
Uh, you know, the buck stopswith the owners, right, or the
(28:16):
owner.
And when you have co-ownerslike us, you know 50-50 split in
the business.
We have to have an operatingagreement, we have to understand
our roles in the business andwe have to stick to those roles.
So you know, when somebodycomes to me about you know
payroll, I'm not even about totalk to them about payroll.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
You know that's why are you coming?
Why are you coming to me Right?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
That's not my department.
Yeah, you know, and I'm notgoing to have an opinion on it
and I'm not going to offer anyadvice on it or what they should
do, shouldn't do, or what'sgoing to happen.
No, you need to.
You need's going to happen.
Nope, you need to speak toAlicia about that.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, I think, having clear, defined roles.
I think that every singlehusband and wife should go into
business without a clearoperating agreement, because you
do need to have those thingsoutlined and designated.
And, um, you know, I think thata lot don't a lot are like,
(29:18):
well, we'll just figure it outor we'll just work together, and
then you're like yelling ateach other and then you're
telling each other you're notgoing to, I don't report to you,
and we've had our moments,right, um.
But but as soon as you learnthat, like this, these are my
job duties and and then you meetonce a week, you have an L10 or
(29:39):
leadership meeting, whateveryou want to call it, within your
organization, we have L10s, we,you know, we sit down and we
all, just we discuss thosethings that everybody can, can
voice in or get your reports on,um.
And I think that that's where,where a lot of people struggle,
(30:02):
is they haven't clearly definedtheir roles, um, and so there's
just a lot of overlapping, um,you know, people feel like
they're taking on more than theother, or something like that,
and it's just, I think, clearlydefining your roles.
Otherwise you could have thesame issue, even if you're not
(30:22):
husband and wife, you just havea co-partner, or you could have
the same issue with your GM orops manager or service manager
or even a technician.
I mean clearly defined roles isso important.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, yeah, I like it .
So I mean, y'all went into thisthing better than most because
you came out of the industry,you were prepared, you did a
plan, but what do?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
you wish you had known, or that somebody had told
you before you went intobusiness.
I don't think it's what I wishI would have known before I went
into business.
I think, for me, it would bewhat I wish I would have
believed before I went intobusiness, you know.
So, human beings, we makedecisions based on pain, and
(31:21):
it's almost like we have toexperience that pain to believe
it exists.
Um, and I'll just you know anexample or an analogy is you
know, as a kid.
You know the stove's hot.
Everybody's told you thestove's hot.
You got to test the theory andmake sure that nobody's lying to
(31:42):
you.
So you touch the stove and it'shot and you get burned.
You know what kid hasn't beenburned in their life?
Right, and now, from that dayforward, now we're going to
believe everybody that tells us.
And the same thing is aboutbusiness.
You know these business ownerstell you it's difficult out
there and what people seegenerally with business owners
(32:04):
is the success that they had inwhatever it is.
They have properties, uh assets, uh material things, um, things
like that.
So I think that everybody comesinto this business thing is
well, they've done it and I cando it too, and that's absolutely
correct.
I mean, if they've done it, youcan do it too.
Um, but just know there isquite a bit of pain involved and
(32:35):
unfortunately, regardless ofhow much advice someone gives to
you, you almost need to makethe mistakes on your own own.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
I would say for me not caring so much what people
think I was.
You know, at first such apeople pleaser and like a bad
review, oh my gosh, if you got,if we got, a negative review,
just tear me up, like I feltlike just such a personal attack
, you know, and you do your bestto combat those and some of
them happen and and you do theright thing by the customer and
(33:10):
fix the situation and some ofthem you can't fix at all and
those were the hardest.
Like you know, this person'sjust absolutely crazy.
We went out of our way for themand those things are going to
happen too.
Um, but letting them fester, or,um, sitting, you know, I let
them occupy my brain way toolong.
Um, they took up way too muchspace in my mind, um, you know.
(33:34):
Or for the years that we werevery underpaid, um, you know,
everybody was cheering us on.
And then the second, we maybebought a new truck, like, oh,
we're going to finally buyourselves a new truck.
You know we've been strugglingall these years starting a
business, and then all of asudden, people you know people's
opinions come out like, oh,they must be making millions.
(33:58):
They bought a new truck, but whydo I care?
Why do I let that occupy anytime in my mind?
Uh, things like that.
I just, you know, allowingthings to take up space in my
mind, that I I never, you know,I shouldn't spend more than a
second on Um, and I I feel like,uh, I'm getting better at
(34:19):
letting those things go and andnot dwelling on them too long,
but I think those are areconstant, constant since the
beginning.
You know constant lessons, thatthings that I've learned.
You just got to let it go andlet others think or believe
whatever they think or believe.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, the older I get , the less I care.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I mean, yeah, I don't know if he ever cared.
Yeah Well, yeah, I mean it.
It takes a while and he was inthe industry for a while.
You came out of nursing.
I mean that's a serviceindustry.
I mean you want to make peoplewell and feel better and you
know that's a hard thing to letgo of.
I mean that's just how you'rebent.
So, um, yeah, I mean that'sjust how you're bent.
(35:02):
So, yeah, I mean it's.
But yeah, you know, I mean whathelped me early days, because I
do want to help everybody.
But you know, what helped meearly days was somebody told me
you know, if you're pleasingeverybody, you're probably not
doing enough.
And it was pretty good advice.
You know you got to go out outand I mean sometimes you just
(35:24):
get the wrong customer.
You know, sometimes sometimesyou get the right customer but
you just can't make them happy.
It just, you know it's some,it's for whatever reason that it
just happens that way.
Um, uh, but I will tell youthat some of our best customers
are people.
In some of my businesses, someof the best customers are people
who, you know, were mad in thebeginning and we were able to
(35:45):
turn them around and then theybecome lifelong.
It became that lifetime valueyou guys talked about.
So one last I love you guys thelast time.
The last question is what's thebest way for people to find you
?
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Go Green Plum, and that's Go Green just like the
color Plum.
B-p-l-u M as in Mary B, as inBoyd dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yep GoGreenPlumcom.
We're on social media.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
We're on.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Facebook, Instagram.
Yeah, we're all over.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
You're everywhere.
I've looked, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
TikTok really.
Wow, that's cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Oh, we love to make some videos.
That's cool.
Yeah, oh, we love to make somevideos.
We are all about making some.
Uh, we got, we got, dancing, wegot dancing plumbers.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
We got dancing plumbers.
Yeah, oh really that's cool.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
You can also find us any any of the Facebook forums
um you know, on business and andtrade trade specific uh of the
more prominent ones.
I'm usually the guy in thereschooling very opinionated.
You know the guy that nobodylikes.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Well, but you're, you know, you're a truth teller.
So, and if they choose tolisten, they'll probably
shortcut some things, and ifthey don't, then they'll
probably feel the pain that youwere talking about earlier.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
I think that the misconception there is a
misconception among businessowners too, and for me and maybe
not every business owner isthis way, but we want everybody
to succeed and when someoneachieves success, I think the
misconception among other peopleis they just want to be alone
at the top, and no businessowner that I've met that's super
(37:28):
successful is that way.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
No, 100%.
I've never met anybody that'sthat way.
That was super successful.
Everyone I've talked to washappy to give people advice, or
share, or you know if you askedright they would mentor.
I mean, there's a you know yougot to be cognizant of their
time sometimes, yeah, and by nomeans am I saying we are super
(37:52):
successful.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
We've been successful , we have a great team, but
we're not at the top of thepyramid by any means.
I mean, there are some reallyreally good operators out there
that are tenfold to us, and allI typically try and do in these
forums or when someone calls me,is just share my expertise in
(38:16):
the subjects that I am confidentin and where we've seen success
.
So what I would recommend toany of your viewers if they're,
if they're, business owners inthe trades, I'd recommend that
they they reach out, find amentor, someone that's doing it
better than they are um get abusiness coach, find a, find a
mentor uh, you know weekly callswith that mentor, weekly calls
(38:39):
with that business coach andjust implement.
just if they're successful doingit, just don't question it.
The stove is hot.
Go ahead and do what they tellyou to do.
Just put it in action, do it.
You know, no decision is worsethan a bad decision.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah, that's right.
That's exactly right.
You can always fix it.
So, hey look, this has beenreally good and I appreciate you
guys being here and it's been agreat discussion.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, grateful for having us on.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
I bet you tell all the girls that.
All the girls, all the girls.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
None of the guys.
All the girls, yeah, yeah,anyway, that's fun, hey, and
until next time, all the best.
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