Introduction

The episode features Roggen Frick, an entrepreneur who began his journey in the construction industry at a young age, influenced by his father's entrepreneurial spirit. He shares his experiences managing teams, navigating challenges, and ultimately transitioning from a welding business to a manufacturing powerhouse.

Key Insights

Early Experience and Management Skills

• Started managing crews at age 16.
• Gained valuable skills in planning and resourcefulness.
• Learned to operate heavy machinery from a young age, fostering a deep interest in construction.

Transitioning to Manufacturing

• Initially focused on welding, the business evolved into manufacturing products for the excavation and construction industry.
• Roggen's passion for motocross led to the need for a workshop, which sparked the idea for the business.

Overcoming Challenges

• Faced cash flow issues and operational hurdles.
• Utilized AI and automation to streamline processes and improve efficiency.
• Developed a culture of openness, encouraging employees to share insights and solutions.

Product Development and Market Strategy

• The main product, a rock screen, helps separate rocks from soil, catering to various construction needs.
• Shifted to an e-commerce model, allowing for transparency in pricing and easier access for customers.
• Implemented a just-in-time inventory system to meet urgent demands while managing costs.

Logistics and Shipping

• Initially handled deliveries personally, later hired an operations manager to optimize shipping processes.
• Focused on reducing shipping costs while ensuring timely delivery to customers.

Future Growth and Opportunities

• Identified potential for vertical expansion by introducing complementary products.
• Emphasized the importance of maintaining a strong company culture and employee engagement.

Conclusion

Roggen's journey illustrates the power of adaptability and innovation in business. By embracing technology and fostering a collaborative environment, he has positioned his company for sustainable growth. His story serves as a reminder that challenges can be transformed into opportunities with the right mindset and approach.

Key Takeaways

• Be Honest and Transparent: Building trust with customers and employees fosters a positive work environment.
• Focus on Solutions: When faced with problems, prioritize finding solutions rather than dwelling on the issues.
• Encourage Open Communication: Engaging with employees at all levels can lead to valuable insights and improvements.

Transcript

00:05
electricas I was 16 when I started actually managing people kind of in a form and sense I had the work experience from a young age and I just would have to make sure that everybody was ready and make sure that they're going through the day and they have all the supplies

00:19
they need so it really taught me how to like plan ahead and be resourceful and I think that learning that at a younger age than a lot of people do really set me up for success as I started moving towards my professional career welcome to think business with Tyler sharing our methods and strategies

00:37
for success join in on our conversations with business owners as we highlight their triumphs and detail how they overcame the challenges they faced while continuing to grow and scale their business it's time to think life think success and think business with your host Tyler Martin have you ever

00:55
struggled with keeping your business's cash flow in check or faced the daunting task of managing operations while staying ahead of demand if you're nodding an agreement today's episode is tailor made for you we're diving into the story of an entrepreneur who not only faced these exact challenges but

01:13
turned them into opportunities for growth and Innovation by leveraging cuttingedge Technologies like Ai and automation he transformed a simple welding business into a thriving manufacturing Enterprise catering to the excavation construction industry today he's here to share his invaluable

01:33
insights on how to streamline operations manage cash flow effectively and create a culture of openness that empowers every employee to contribute to the company's success so buckle up and get ready to uncover the secrets behind operational efficiency and sustainable

01:51
growth hey rogin welcome to the think business with Tyler podcast show how's it going today good how are you I'm really good thanks for uh asking I've been looking forward to talking with you you've got a kind of a fun story before I get into it I'd love to know first

02:06
what you do professionally if you'd share that and then what you like to do personally if there's some personal things that you enjoy doing I'd love to learn a little bit there too yeah so professionally I have a welding business that's kind of transitioning into a

02:19
manufacturing business um we make some different products for the construction industry specifically like excavation construction and then on the personal side of my life I actually race Motocross wow which to The Very extreme sport uh but it's really fun very exciting keeps my life bright and

02:36
interesting so the these are like dirt bikes going over Hills type of thing yeah yeah and it's funny because that's actually kind of the whole reason I got into this business in the first place actually has to do with just trying to find a shop to have for my dirt bike and

02:51
a way to be able to do that wow don't want to be Debbie Debbie Downer here but you know I'll never forget I had a buddy that was really into that and he always talked about about how when people crash it could you know it it obviously could have some like serious type injuries

03:05
does that ever scare you or has that ever even happened it has happened and it actually uh put a hold on this business at one point really uhhuh and I I understand the risks of it and I try to ride within my skill level I've learned lessons there to try to make sure that I'm safe as possible but yeah

03:22
it's definitely dangerous sport you like the thrill clearly I definitely do yes more power to you I I I'll sit behind my desk I think that's right now working for me it seems relatively injuryf free hey so I do want to kind of get into your story so I'd love to hear the story

03:37
you know I there's two points that I know about you that that I think are like oh aha moments for me like one when you were age three and you're actually operating heavy equipment let's talk about that a little bit how does that even happen yeah so my dad my whole life

03:53
has been an entrepreneur when I was born he had a construction company and he used to close and safeguard aband mines for the state of Colorado he was a contractor that did that and so I grew up we had heavy equipment outside our house and he would let me operate it

04:09
just for fun and so i' I've got a lot of experience from a young age just learning different trades just because I've been around it I've been growing up with it and I've done it my whole life and that's where I learned how to operate equipment where I got an interest in construction and how I

04:25
learned how to weld as well does cash flow have you down profit not where you think it should be maybe it's the long hours let's meet to see if I can help I Bridge driving the financial performance of your business to hit growth and success targets book a complimentary

04:43
meeting at meet forrow tocom to get started now once again that's meat forrow decom I look forward to talking with you and thanks for listening to the show how to operate equipment where I got an interest in construction and how I learned how to weld as well yeah that's cool I mean what like I don't

05:02
know about a three but what young kid wouldn't want to be driving around in one of these like you know big old pieces of Machinery that must be kind of cool yeah yeah I mean like it's like every kid's dream right playing with the little toys in the sandbox then actually

05:15
getting to operate it and they have some cool programs like that like Richie Brothers auctioneers they put on a on a deal where you can bring your kid and put them on the lap of a equipment operator and they'll teach him how to run the excavator and let him dig some

05:29
holes it's a pretty cool event that they do that is pretty cool that's awesome and then like kind of next point in your life that I think is interesting is you started managing crws at a young age how did that come to be and what was that like at what age were you and what was

05:44
that like so I was 16 when I started actually managing people kind of in a forance sense um and it has to do with my Dad running his own businesses he had me helping out in the summer so I you know I got I had the work experience from a young age age and then when it

06:02
was time that I you know I had a vehicle and I could actually go from job to job well he sent me up there and he said you know this is what we need to do and so we usually have like two or three people on a crew and it it's usually like a welding operation pretty straightforward

06:18
and I just would have to make sure that everybody was ready and make sure that they're going through the day and they have all the supplies they need um and you know these jobs are up in the mountains of Colorado so it's not like you have all the applies it you on times

06:31
so it really taught me how to like plan ahead and be resourceful and I think that learning that at a younger age and a lot of people do really set me up for success as I started moving towards my professional career very cool did you find you know 16 and you're Foreman of

06:47
probably much older people yeah I mean to some degree you were you were the dad's son so I'm sure you got a certain amount of respect just because of that but did you find people weren't kind of buying into sometimes you being the the foreman you know luckily with it being a

07:02
smaller company uh some of the people that we had working for us were a little bit more laidback so I think that they didn't have too big of an issue with it but funny enough like when I started moving into construction management got my degree in that and started running

07:18
throughs at an older age that's actually when people started questioning my age a little bit more at at an older young age just not an older young age it it is true I uh you know when I ran my second business I would hire relatively young people at times and this is when I say relatively

07:36
mid 20s and they were interacting with you know 40-year-old managers often times and it was hard I mean for them I really you know I had to coach them a lot in terms hey don't let that be a mental block because they had their own mental block that how people were perceiving them and what I found you

07:54
know if you're great at what you do I that that age barrier goes away really quickly like people don't care nearly as much or even it doesn't even enter their mind that much if you're good at what you do yeah I think it's breaking through that like initial stigma of like

08:08
okay this person's young they probably don't know anything or like how are they going to tell me how to run this operation or do this job but once you prove yourself you know then you'll find that you get a lot of respect from people but uh it's it's just that initial part you know and we we deal

08:24
with that wherever we're at in life for different reasons and it's just something you have to overcome with your workers and try not to hold it against them because you know you got to look at it from like their perspective oh you know I've been doing this for 30 years

08:39
and now all of a sudden this 20-year-old kid's going to come out of college and tell me how to build this building or build this thing yeah for sure so let's get into the story and what really attracted me to learn more about your story is you're working for your dad and

08:53
then I think it's you went off to college and your dad kind of had his main business and then they kind of had something that was a side hustle and tell me that story where I think I'm not sure if it's you saw opportunity or you made it into an opportunity there was

09:07
more than just a side hustle yeah so when I went off to college I went to do construction management and that's where the dirt bike part comes in I was I wanted to have a take my dirt bike with me to school but I need a place to put it need to be able to have a place to

09:21
work on it and so I needed a shop and he said hey you know we built a couple of these Rock screens and we've been sending them auction don't you just get a shop and then you can weld those up and we can sell those and then you can pay for your shop that way I was like

09:36
okay so I had a dirt bike that I had put back together rebuilt the engine on it and I sold it and that got me my first month's rent in the shop so I got the shop and then started building some of these screens with the intent to send them the auction but I was like you know

09:49
I can probably build a website and probably Market these online a little bit and maybe get some more sale that way I can have some more money because it' be nice to be not a broke college student and actually have some money to be able to buy food and do some different things that I want to do so I

10:04
started started getting some more demand and then pretty soon I needed to hire some help so I found another student at uh at CSU that or Colorado State University that was in the engineering program I said hey how about you come help me uh cut the steel and I'll I'll

10:21
do the welding and I'll run the sales and so it kept going and then all of a sudden I'm getting like demand like crazy pretty soon I'm in a bigger shop I got a four Bas shop now I have two part-time employees I got a for Clift and I'm like actually running a full business here I'm doing all the

10:38
accounting myself I'm doing all the marketing selling I'm even doing the delivery deliveries uh because I didn't know how to do shipping at the time and how to put it out on load boards and so I'm like driving all over the place and then it's like getting a little bit too much

10:54
overwhelming I'm like okay well you know my classes are starting to suffer a little bit and should I go with this business or should I go with school I'm sitting here trying to make the decision that's when I actually had an accident on my motorcycle erect it uh had a

11:08
little bit of a back injury not you know I walked out the hospital everything was fine but enough that I couldn't pick up steel and be a welder anymore and so that's why I'm like okay well life made the decision for me let's just set this business down I'll just continue with

11:20
school so then my whole intent was to just continue with construction management go get a good job at a a good construction company and that's going to be my life so fast forward a couple years I'm working for a a company called FCI Constructor in Colorado being a

11:38
project engineer starting to learn the construction management process and starting to manage some decent projects for them and then my dad he he's been on and off with large construction companies he was went back and forth between being an entrepreneur and working for companies like kiwit

11:52
throughout his life and he said I don't want to be at the time he was in Louisiana working like seven days a week 12 hours a day on this liquid natural gas project and he said I don't want to do this anymore so he's like you know the the rock screen thing that you had

12:06
going on there like I think that we could probably turn this into a legitimate business what do you think I was like I mean I'm not even advertising that heavily and I'm getting it was it was doing well I think we could do this so he quit his job and he went full-time

12:19
started running the operations of the business and I was still working construction I said at night time or on the weekends I'll focus on building the website doing the marketing and making sure that you have the sales that way you can keep some welders employed and

12:36
so we started doing that it started to grow a little bit more and then he got an operations manager in place and the demand was there and then it was like I should go in on this too I should put all of my time into this business because if I dedicate myself to this

12:54
business I think that we can turn it into something legit even more than what it already is so I quit working for FCI and now we expanded our product lines we've expanded our presence we've gotten our shipping figured out and now we've shipped to all 50 states we've exported

13:12
to some different countries and it's like definitely seem to be the right move for me liking my schedule a lot better that's awesome what so these are big heavy like they they sit on top of like is it you know either trucks or even bigger than that larger trucks is

13:32
is that what they are me explain what what they accomplish yeah so the the main product that we sell is the rock screen and so the intent of it is to screen rocks out of your soil and give you a sizable soil whether you need sand and there's a million different reasons

13:46
why you might want to screen something and you think from recycling to just cleaning contaminated soil with litter or actually like screening your soil to a certain size that you need for your construction project and so these our screeners are a screen for like on theight screening

14:03
you set it up and you just take a loader bucket and you dump the soil on top big rocks fall out small stuff falls through you got clean material it saves you on trucking and buying material from a gravel pit because that's they can get expensive really quick if you have to do

14:18
that and so these these things usually weigh depending on the the size of them we make them all the way from a little rideon skid steer that like a landscaper would use all the way up to a some of the biggest loaders that you can buy and uh they typically weigh between 1 to

14:34
3,000 PB wow how's the business model work do you have these made and then you put them in inventory or they like once someone orders them you then start the manufacturing process and it's kind of just in time type stuff how do you Market that or how do you do that from a

14:49
manufacturing standpoint in the beginning it was all made to order somebody calls says I need this size because the sizing of the screen is going to be different depending on what someone needs right some people need a six inch material some people need a quarter inch material so you never know

15:05
what you're going to get and so it had a shift when I came on fulltime because I said let's take this and go e-commerce with it these are a product that people obviously need there's companies out there that make them but they're hard to get a hold of they're hard to get quotes

15:25
people are frustrated so let's just like be transparent let's just put all the pricing on there build a website that makes it easy to buy them so we did that and then with that now we're tracking everything right we've got everything on a skew numbering system for every model

15:42
and variation that you can think of and so now we can say okay the most popular model is which is the Cub Rock screen which is for a Skit Steer it's got a 3-in spacing on the main rails and then usually people buy a 1 and A2 inch removable screen on top and so we get

16:00
insights like that as well as for all the other products as well and we can say okay now we can build some of these stock and have them ready to go because the other thing we learned is that people need these like all of a sudden on a construction site like it's

16:12
something like they dug up something and they didn't expect what was in the ground and they need to get rid of it by next week and construction's like you can't even lose the day sometimes because it might delay your entire project and so people need them like the

16:26
next day and you'll get people all the time calling saying I need this tomorrow so by being able to use that data to find out what what are the most popular models we can keep some stuff in stock keep it ready to go so it's kind of like lean management you know in a way but at

16:39
the same time we're still flexible to be able to make whatever a customer might need how do you get like I mean I Envision these as being pretty big and heavy how do you get them to be able to ship anywhere in the United States you use like some type of break carrier or

16:54
something some type of private party yeah so initially we were I was doing the deliveries myself and then after that we kind of had like a small network of people that we knew that were willing to ship them and it was expensive and especially when you get people so they're they're all manufactured in

17:11
Colorado but there's a big demand for them in the Northeast and so when people are buying them there it's a lot of money to ship and that was losing a lot of sales so we're like we got to figure this out that's why our operations manager came in handy because we hired him because of

17:28
his expertise in the shipping industry not because he actually had experience in manufacturing because we could teach him the manufacturing part but none of us know how to do the shipping part and so he came in and he said I know how to do LTL shipping I know how to do FTL

17:42
shipping I know how to ship stuff all across the country and pretty soon our shipping costs are now getting manageable you know we're we're looking at different Avenues to ship each product each week and we're always finding the cheapest way to get them to the customers but it's usually some of

17:58
the smaller ones we can ship in just a bam trailer you know some of them even go FedEx on a pallet but the bigger stuff you know we have to get in a full flatbed trailer and load them up on there and so part of our strategy is trying to say try to you know get some

18:13
loads going in the same direction so it can load out as many on a truck as possible if you're a business owner feeling stuck in your business overwhelmed responsible for everything that happens and working long hours Tyler helps his clients develop processes hire High performing team

18:27
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18:41
your business not in your business schedule a consultation today at think tyler.com think life think success think business hey I'm Ryan Reynolds recently I asked mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation they said yes

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mintmobile.com switch $45 up payment equivalent to $15 per month new customers on first three Monon plan only taxes and fees extra speeds slower above 40 gbes details part of our strategy is trying to say try to you know get some loads going in the same direction so we can

19:29
load out as many on a truck as possible got it but once again you're kind of fighting time you know someone's out on a job site they realize they have this need they need it yesterday every day they're losing so you're kind of battling you're probably battling time

19:44
with how can we also group shipments together so it's kind of like a double- sword propably right yeah because I mean sometimes you'll get a bunch of sales that need to go to the southeast and it's good because you can put them all in one truck but sometimes you'll get

19:57
four sales in each corner of America they all got to go different directions so we try to just manage our costs on that and try to keep it low we actually offer some free shipping on some of our products as well just to be able to make sure that we can offer good value to the

20:10
customers and that customers know what they're going to be paying for too because people don't like getting fees tacked on at the end you know it says it's 5,000 bucks people don't like when they go to check out and all of a sudden it's seven yeah yeah or more and so so I

20:25
think I'm hearing you say one of your big business challenges which you got sound like you're getting ar your arms round and it's showing up probably in the bottom line is the logistics of getting these these big pieces across the United States what about from like a

20:40
scale standpoint like it would seem like seems like a great Niche industry or great niche market you're in but it kind of has limited upside in terms of how much you know how much consumption there is of this type of product do you envision like anything that might be

20:57
vertical to the market or you obviously have these buyers and they spent big money how do I maybe have more opportunity with them so the things that we're doing is we're trying to identify what other products that these same customers need that maybe aren't as commonly produced or are just as easily

21:17
as difficult to procure um we've managed to find a handful of products um one of our products L is called a bedding box that's used in trenching operations um it keeps your fill material in the box and you can pull it along the trench while you're doing that operation to

21:33
keep your soil moving along with you and then another one that we make is called the concrete wash out tub and so when a concrete truck is done pouring concrete on the site you can't just wash out the waste and clean out the truck on the ground the EPA doesn't allow that and so

21:48
they want it contained in a bin and so we make those bins and so just kind of identifying things like that where we can provide good value to the same customer base so we don't have to try to reinvent the and try to go market to an entire different demographic we can just

22:02
try to sell to the same people and that's been key to building our business and something that helps us do that is we put in good systems in place to be able to manage it so like I said we're kind of a welding company that's kind of turning into a manufacturing company and

22:20
so I want to manage it like a manufacturing company so I'm putting those systems in place to say how can we streamline this operation through the shop so it's not okay we got to take these measurements and figure this out every time it's like we know what exactly what we need to make and kind of

22:36
have an assembly line process through our shop and so we use a system called fulcrum uh to manage all of that it does all of our scheduling it tracks all of our inventory and then we can kind of see like what items we're able to make with the stuff that we already purchased

22:51
like how much steel are we purchasing of certain sizes that way we can try to make products out of that but it also sets us up so that if somebody needs some type of custom manuf facturing or custom welded products we can do that too without having to interrupt the flow

23:05
of everything else that's going on very cool what from a cash flow standpoint now that you're kind of getting into or you have been getting into like having some inventory what's the cash flow look like is that a does that create some challenges because it seems like there

23:19
might be a decent cash outlay to have inventory or what does that mean from a business standpoint yeah so the cash flows we've had strength we've had it like go up and down in the business and it just kind of depends on who's buying to keep our operations moving forward we sell our products

23:37
upfront we since we're doing e-commerce right we can charge right at the time of sale yeah we do offer credit to like government entities and very large companies and that can put a strain on cash flow and definitely the inventory can as well we have to be careful with

23:51
what we're putting into inventory yeah you we definitely don't want to put a low margin product in inventory because if it doesn't sell quick enough well then it's probably actually losing money out there and it's holding up cash so we want to try to keep the more profitable

24:04
products in stock or the products that are going to have high demand and turn around really quickly yeah that makes a lot of sense what what are if you give me like even a general range what type of margins are we talking on something like this gross profit margins so it's

24:18
really dependent because we try to do do free shipping to offer the same value across the board to everybody but um you know it can range from 30 to 50% gross okay profit yeah that's that's pretty so 50 is obviously nice give if you give me be around that 50 area but 30 for I

24:37
would think heavy type equipment is especially with the shipping cost that you're absorbing or building into the price that you know that's actually decent too overall interesting wow very cool business what about you on a personal level like what is there any skills recently that you've learned or

24:54
anything that you're working on you say hey this is where I want to take myself to the next level yeah it's it's funny you say that uh you know i' I've had my background has been construction and Industry my whole life and then once we got the operations team set up and they do such a good job at

25:11
actually making the products my whole Focus has shifted into being the marketing department which I've hired a a CMO to help me out with that because you know I'm not an expert in that area and I'm also being the IT department because I believe that there's a lot of

25:27
automation that you can do on a computer right if if it can be done on a computer especially with like how Ai and things are moving forward eventually it probably can just do it itself and so I'm seeing myself constantly trying to like learn how to code and learn like JavaScript and learn how to tie

25:46
softwares together so that I can so I don't have to hire more overhead employees to do to transfer T to transfer maybe data from bulkr the Erp software to QuickBooks the accounting software or save time with stopify and getting all that information into the accounting software and making sure that

26:05
like our sales taxes compliance so I'm always looking at ways to like how can I automate that those processes or automate like some reports that can give me good insights and so I'm taking a completely different trajectory than I even intended and I'm learning new skills in that way wow that's really

26:23
cool yeah automation especially obviously with our age of AI here there's so much opportunity even like in customer service like with the level of interaction that you know you can drive with AI depending on how much you're comfortable with that interaction with

26:38
your potential customers it's just huge I mean that we're going through such a transformation it's pretty pretty crazy in such a short amount of time yeah I mean it's it develops fast and it's always got my head thinking about like how can I incorporate this into my

26:52
business and something that people value with us is a real person always answers the phone and so I'm not going to do that at this stage in the business I don't think that's the the move because our demographic really likes that they don't like automated systems sure but

27:07
there's a lot of stuff on the back end that you can do with AI you know there's a lot of data that you can say hey can you give me some insights or areas to look at or you know trying to identify the source of a Lead You Know by saying well we got this information from the

27:19
lead can you figure out where they came from and so there's definitely good opportunities to do with it it's just trying to learn how to integrate it is probably the hard part especially like tying it into other softwares and stuff like that unless you're a developer

27:33
right yeah that's cool that's that's a fun thing to work on what do you see for the opportunity for this particular business I mean is this like a hundred million doll business some AG you kind of always want to keep it small and kind of family driven what what's your vision

27:46
you know I I see it as I think the sky's a limit but you know if it want if we were going to make it a $100 million business I think we'd have to diversify and either get into some more more maybe structural steel and expand upon like the welding part of the business or

28:03
expand the manufacturing capabilities of the business and say okay well let's look into maybe rubbers or Plastics or wood or whatever it might be and try to identify some other products there I think that there's definitely a cap in this part of it because it's like you

28:19
said it's very Niche it's a very specific part that needed to be filled in this industry and so like a lot of the other products that we're trying to bring on to supplement the business and help it grow a little bit are stuff that's commonly available and so trying

28:33
to find out other niches is hard you know there's only so many out there and most people stumble upon them like what we did right right and the problem is they got to be compatible to some degree too so it's like that adds another element if you know what's interesting

28:47
about your business though is I wonder if there are other companies out there that would go wow this would augment our business really well to have this division in it and I wonder if it could potentially at some point make you guys like a a target for acquisition would

29:02
that be something you'd even entertain oh yeah yeah we definitely be into that because you know like it's really like what you make of it right because the company is it's down to the processes that they have in place the culture and the values that you put into the

29:17
business and the people that are running it right I mean you could take this business and you could say you know what I actually just like their welding department and how they manufacture things I don't even care about their goods anymore we just want them to make

29:29
this product that we need to make you know or they could dive more into the e-commerce side if somebody was interested in that and the way that we're you know doing e-commerce in a different way because selling two 3,000 pound products on the internet like this and shipping them directly to your

29:44
address that's not something that a lot of people are doing right and even Shopify is like this is very unique the way you guys are utilizing our platform yeah I'll bet and I mean you there may even be a buyer out there that wants access to the type of customers you're

29:58
working with that is complimentary to their business and that could also be potentially a reason that you'd be attracted to them so yeah that's it's interesting it's it's a fascinating it is a fascinating Niche and it's fun how you guys have turned it into a company

30:14
and sounds like you you guys are on the right path in terms of um continuing to improve and modify your company so you can reach a larger market yeah yeah every day we're trying to think about ways how we can improve the current stuff or build upon what we've already

30:29
done and make it better yeah very cool okay so your website is bearironworks.net bearironworks.net yes if people wanted to reach out to you anywhere else you want them to go or is that the spot to do it you know that's the best place to reach us um we've got an email on

30:45
there got a phone number we're watching that all the time and then we actually have a code too to give to your listeners if they want to if they're in the market for any of our products they'll get 5% off anything in their cart uh they can use code think business

30:59
awesome during checkout I'll put that in the show Notes too think business I do want to before I wrap up and close off though I do want to have your three takeaways so um you were kind enough to share with me three takeaways I I try my hardest sometimes I forget to I try to

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end with three takeaways now you were you were great to share them up front I'd like to just kind of pick your brain a little bit on them your three takeaways that you've learned from being in business are being honest and transparent was the first one uh the second one was when there's a problem

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don't necessarily focus on the problem focus on the solution and then deal with whatever caused that problem or whoever did something wrong on the back end when the time is right and then the last one is be really open and receptive asking questions to everyone in the company at

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all levels because people have their own perspective and they can teach you something anything on those three could you add a little bit of color to those three you know so the ask questions from everyone is probably a good one to kind of elaborate on because you know as a business owner

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the more that you grow your organization the further distance that you have from the person that's bottom of the totem pole or however you want to look at it in your organization chart right and so the further that you are away from that operation the more that you're relying

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on assumptions or experiences from before the organization was at certain size and so an example I have is I always go to the first person in our operation that does he's always unloading the steel from the trucks and he's cutting the material and he's on the other end of

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the shop where it's got slower internet connection and the tablet that he utilizes to clock in and out of the jobs are uh doesn't always function the right way well I don't necessarily know what he's all going through because when I was in that position you you know I'm

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running the whole thing by myself I'm doing it Hands-On then the saw I have is different everything is completely different from when I used to do that and so some good insights that he's given us is that the tablets that you're not us that you're using are causing

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problems it's causing us to double clock in it's giving you bad data he's giv us showing us uh some safety things about unloading trucks that other people should be aware of so he's adding value to the safety part of that and then he's always coming up with ways to

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hey why don't why are we doing it this way why are we cutting the steel in this way when we could cut it in this sequence and make it more efficient and everybody that works for your company has a different perspective about the company and how it works and they can

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provide very valuable insights to you and I learned that initially in construction because I've always had a background in welding and dirt work so when I started managing commercial construction projects and I've got to manage electricians or drywallers or whatever it might be that's where I

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really learned I've got to rely on the people that are doing the jobs and I can't think that I know everything does cash flow have you down profit not where you think it should be maybe it's the long hours let's meet to see if I can help I Bridge driving the financial performance of your business

34:16
to hit growth and success targets book a complimentary meeting at meet for growth.com to get started now once again that's meat forrow decom I look forward to talking with you and thanks for listening to the show that's where I really learned I've got to rely on the

34:35
people that are doing the jobs and I can't think that I know everything yeah that's good stuff I mean it is huge I mean it's funny how sometimes the perspective of the guy that's got boots to the ground guy or girl sometimes company will be like oh dude you know

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what you're talking about you're not you know you're you're just the one moving items around you're not really in the thick of it of of managing the business and it's I've seen that and it's sad because you're right I mean the people that oftentimes are doing the day-to-day

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work of it have actually the best view of what's actually happening in your business you sometimes us as Leaders we're sitting up and thinking we got this greatest business in the world and we don't realize the inefficiency because we're just not that close to it so it's cool that you have that

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self-awareness and honestly I'm sure it empowers the team too because they feel like they have a voice in how to make things better yeah they do and then something that we even did we took that one level further and we said Hey what if we incentivize these guys to tell us

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what we're doing wrong and just by you know saying hey you know we're going to recognize people for Innovation and we're good we'll maybe buy you guys some lunches and things like that all of a sudden here comes all these things that are like oh this is how we can make this

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process better and this is how we can save money here and they were like all good ideas but people didn't speak up yeah until you start dangling a car in front of them they're like oh yeah yeah I'll tell you A Million Ways How you're running your business wrong yeah that's

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I mean I I agree with you it's definitely the carrot but I also think because kudos to you guys it's people know you care about what they have to say and so they're going to make more of an effort I think there's a you know sometimes culture gets built where it's like ah I'm not going to say anything

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because for whatever reason either they don't think Management's listening or they just just don't want to take the time out of their daily life you guys brought a spotlight to it and said hey we really do want to hear you and oh by the way we'll buy you lunch or whatever

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I think that I mean that's how you Define cultures I mean you create a better culture and and Empower people make them feel like they're part of something so I think that's kudos to you guys too yeah yeah I would say a company with a toxic culture is probably has the

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most inefficiencies out of any business just because people don't care about their jobs because they don't want to work there and they're definitely not going to tell you what they're doing wrong until it's the last day and they give you the middle finger and storm out and leave you

36:51
empty-handed so true so true yeah that's good stuff hey well you know we've run out of time I so thank you for being on the show you brought a lot of wisdom I love hearing kind of your journey from three-year-old six year 16-year-old and then now to bringing you know bringing

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in this Division and turning it into a business I think that's so cool so appreciate your time hope you hope you have a good one maybe in the future we can talk again yeah thank you for having me on this is a great opportunity and appreciate it awesome that's all for

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this episode of think business with Tyler but we have plenty more resources to help you in your pursuit of business Excellence on our website at think tyler.com if you'd like to be featured in a future episode of the show feel free to reach out to us on social media at think Tyler we look forward to

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helping you think life think success and think business electri gast