Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good
Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, hello everyone
and welcome to the Good Neighbor
Podcast of the Tri-Cities.
So I am very excited to have aperson in our studio this
morning, live, and very excitedto have them and to learn all
about what they do.
And I'm sure you'll be just asexcited because today I have the
pleasure of introducing yourgood neighbor, mr Emmett Brost,
(00:36):
who is the owner-operator ofBudget Blinds of the Tri-Cities.
Emmett, welcome to the show.
Yeah, thank you, skip, excitedto be here.
Well, we're glad to have you.
Like I said, excited to learnall about what you do.
So, if you don't mind, whydon't you kick us off by telling
us about your business?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Well, so I'm a
franchisee with Budget Blinds of
Tri-Cities.
We serve all the way from pastMountain City to Kingsport to
down past Greenville city, toKingsport to down past
Greenville.
Um, we are.
We do in-home, free in-homeconsultations to help you pick
out all of your window coveringneeds, as well as some outdoor
(01:12):
living space needs.
So, um, unlike most windowcovering dealers that have one
or two manufacturers that theymay work with, we actually, as
such a big company, um, that wea part of a big brand of budget
blinds.
We have a vendor alliance ofover 30 manufacturers with over
28 different styles.
So we bring a showroom to you,we customize our, what we bring
(01:35):
to you based off of the homeworkthat we do to work with you as
our clients.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Wow, 30 different
manufacturers Incredible.
Yeah, it's a lot.
It is a lot.
It's a lot.
It's a lot to choose from.
Wow, 30 different manufacturersIncredible yeah, it's a lot.
It is a lot, a lot to choosefrom.
Well, emma, how did you getinto this business?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
I got into it.
I came out of restaurantactually, so I always wanted to
own my own business.
I've owned a little Caesar'spizza.
I was getting out of workingwith my brother.
We had, I had helped him runhis gosh.
It was at at one point is a 30unit franchise.
We'd created a burgerrestaurant this is all in
Washington state and I just I'd,I'd burn out on restaurant.
(02:15):
You know, if you can make it inrestaurant, god bless you and
your heart One hundred percentand your family.
And so it just wasn't, wasn'tfor me.
I can still barbecue and dohamburgers really well, I did it
last night, so my degreeactually is in theater.
And my brother, he asked me he'slike what are you going to do
(02:36):
then if you don't want to dothis anymore?
I was like I honestly have noidea.
And so he suggested it to mebecause a couple of his business
partners that owned LittleCaesars one of them had gone
into budget blinds and his heconvinced his brother that this
is the right way to go, is agood, a good job, uh, or good
business to own.
And so, uh, they both soldtheir three stores in iowa and
(03:00):
one moved back to washington andhe was my neighboring franchise
and I talked to him about itand I was like wow, like this
sounds actually like a greatbusiness.
So, honestly, I never.
I never thought like the kindof the joke is, you know, like I
make women's houses pretty.
I never thought that this wasgoing to be the job that I was
going to be doing, but it's beenpretty great.
(03:20):
I've met.
I've met thousands of peopleover the last 11 years.
I've probably been in almost6,000 homes at this point, so
yeah, 11 years.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
you've been in
business.
11 years, wow.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Well, that's
incredible Nothing that says
that at all.
Obviously it's working for it.
Yeah, it is it is Well.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
what are some myths
or misconceptions in the blinds
industry?
Can you think of it?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, the biggest,
the biggest one, I'd say, is our
name, um, and it's you know,unfortunately it was.
It was picked by the five guys30 years ago or so.
Um is budget blinds, a lot ofpeople the misconception is is
the word budget means cheap, um,or really, really, really
inexpensive?
Uh, and so, really, we're astyle for every budget, and
(04:04):
window coverings tend to be moreexpensive, like custom window
coverings, just like all customstuff.
It tends to be more expensivethan what people are
anticipating.
So, but when you are buyingsomething that's custom, it's
going to be something that lastsyou a long time if you're
buying from the rightmanufacturers.
And so we tailor our, I tailormy approach within my office to
(04:28):
what, how long do you want it tolast?
Because we have differentmanufacturers that are going to
last a different period of timeand also, just like with
appliances, it's a good one tobase it off of.
Is that you?
You've heard the saying thingsaren't made like they used to be
, you know, and so, um, whereyou used to be able to get a set
of blinds or something that'sgoing to last you 30 years,
that's really, unless you picklike one or two manufacturers,
(04:51):
you're really not getting 30years out of a product anymore,
just like a refrigerator fromthe 80s still works, but a
refrigerator from the 2010sdoesn't in most cases.
So I'd say that's amisconception.
Misconception, um.
And then also, it's not just,uh, like mini blinds, or wood
(05:12):
blinds, or shutters, or fauxwood blinds, which that's the
correct way to say.
It's not foxwood, it's bowwoodand it's french.
They kind of ruin the word forus.
So, um, it's not.
There isn't just that, thereisn't just vertical blinds, like
, there's literally over 28different styles of window
coverings.
So it's.
You'd be surprised with all thedifferent options that are
available, and so that's our jobis to make sure that you're
(05:33):
aware of them.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Very cool.
Well, who are your targetcustomers and how do you reach
them?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You know that's the
thing is that first time home
buyers, all the way to peoplethat have multi-unit properties,
we are geared to do commercialwe're geared to do.
We have a style for everybudget.
So we have access to a productcalled Lutron Savoia that if,
like you, have the house thatyou're working with architects
and you're hardwiring everythingand you're prepared to spend,
(06:05):
you know, five to ten thousanddollars a window, we have access
to that.
Um, I haven't done that outhere in east tennessee.
Um, as you know, not everybodyhas is getting it done by their
architects.
But then we also have, like yourfirst time home buyer and, um,
like you know, some houses wejust do one window, like we've
done.
Houses where we've gone in justto do the one glass window on
(06:28):
their front door.
Wow, yeah, we'll, it's, it'snot.
We're not doing windowcoverings around like 30 to 50
dollars, like we're not.
That you're not going to.
That's where you just go to alocal you know walmart or
something and you buy some cheapvinyl mini blinds.
The stuff that we're putting inis more.
You're looking to actually havesomething that is really made
(06:49):
for the windows and don't looklike an afterthought gotcha,
gotcha, and how do you reachfolks that have that need?
um, mostly your podcast, nothere you go.
Good answer yeah, right, right,um, so, uh, different avenues of
marketing.
It's nice to be a part of anational franchise because we
(07:10):
have some advertising that goesthrough them.
A lot of word of mouth, uh, ifyou go check us out on Google,
um, my business, then, um,you'll see our different amount
of like.
We have a lot of reviews fromour clientele, um, and they're
they're newer, they're not onesthat are old, like.
We have reviews as of, I think,this week, um, yeah, of our
(07:31):
work, and so you can find usonline at budget blindscom,
forward slash Johnson city, dash, tn, or just Google budget
blinds and it'll come up intoyour area and you can put in
your zip codes because we'refranchised and we have exclusive
territories.
I do have a neighboringfranchise whose budget blinds
(07:54):
are Rogersville.
His name's David, really niceguy, so he would be able to take
care of you.
There's a budget blinds inKnoxville, there's a couple in
Knoxville.
Then the further West you go,there's a lot.
There's a budget blinds inAsheville Really nice guy.
So we all work together likebusiness partners as well.
So, but, yeah, a lot of word ofmouth in our, in our reviews
(08:18):
helps.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Of course, word of
mouth is probably the best
advertising you can get.
No question, no question.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And we have route
vehicles as well.
So we're just a drivingbillboard.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
There you go Well
outside of work.
What do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I have four kids.
So nothing no, I'm kidding, Ihave four kids and so really
trying to spend time with them,like to go hiking.
Last not this last weekend, butthe weekend before that we went
hiking down by Rhone Mountainand it was kind of cool because
we were there's like a where wewent, there's like a stream or
(08:55):
river that goes by, and we alljumped into it.
Kind of cold, but it feltreally nice and my 10 year old
like looked at, or my 11 yearold looked at me.
He's like hey, dad, would youbaptize me?
So it was really cool.
So you know just little thingslike that.
So, um, you know going tochurch, that kind of stuff.
So, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well, best answer of
time with family, absolutely.
Especially if you're asignificant other watches the
podcast.
I'm kidding.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Absolutely Well, if
you could think of one thing
that you would like ourlisteners to remember about
budget blinds of the Tri-Cities,what would that?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
be.
People say it but they hopethat people do this, especially
in the in-home service industryis that we say that we're going
to do something and then we doit, and then we say we're going
to do something and then we doit, and we're consistent like
that.
I've been into too manypeople's homes where, you know,
(09:57):
somebody came to give them aquote and they still haven't
received their quote a weeklater and they're waiting to
compare quotes.
I've been there and a guy youknow, a client, stopped our
consultation because theelectrician showed up and he was
supposed to be there at 8 amand I was like geez, it's 1030.
And he said no, two days ago.
So a lot of times the in-homemarket of people coming and
(10:18):
doing service, they say that thegeneral timeframe of when
they're hoping to try to bethere.
But we, after 11 years, wereally approach it as project,
as project management, and so wegive you like the fair timing
of when we're going to getsomething done and we don't.
We're not going to put you off,so we just do what we say we're
going to do and and I'm notgoing to try to push you into
(10:39):
something that doesn't makesense for you.
I take the information that yougive us and work with that to
make recommendations that arebest for you.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Very cool, Good thing
to remember.
You do what you say you'regoing to do and that's a novel
concept.
Novel concept, that's right.
Well, and you mentioned yourwebsite, if you don't mind again
, how can our listeners, ifthey're interested, need some
blinds, want to get a quote?
How can they learn more?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
You can give us a
call at 423-360-1600.
Give us a call and we can getyou set up.
You can text us at that samenumber.
You can go to our website,budgetblindscom, and then put in
your zip code where it asks for.
You can check us out onFacebook we're Budget Blinds of
Tri-Cities and you can Google usand go to our Google page.
(11:29):
Each of those ways you canconnect with us.
We're also on Instagram, sowe're in a lot of different
places and then just keep youreye out when you're in different
neighborhoods you might see oneof our stepstakes signs out
with our phone number on there.
You know, I jokingly saythey're like our little
political signs of the blindparty.
So it says Budget Blinds on itand our website and our phone
(11:50):
number.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Awesome.
I will keep my eye out forthose blind political party
signs.
That's pretty cool.
That's right, very cool.
Well, emmett, I can't tell youhow much I appreciate you
spending time with us and ourlisteners today to tell us all
about budget blinds, and weappreciate that and hope in the
future.
Wish you and your family, yourfour kids and budget blinds of
(12:14):
the tri-cities all the best.
Thank you you as well, skip.
Appreciate it.
All right, man, we'll talk soon.
Maybe we can get you backsometime.
All right, sounds good.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Thank you for
listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnptry-citiescom.
That's gnptry-citiescom, orcall 423-719-5873.