Epic Entrepreneurs
Welcome to Epic Entrepreneurs! What does it take to build a real and thriving business in today’s world? As entrepreneurs and business owners, we went into business to have more freedom of time and money. Yet, the path of growing a business isn’t always filled with sunshine and rainbows. In this chart-topping show, host Bill Gilliland; author of the best-selling book “The Coach Approach” leverages his decades of experience coaching proven entrepreneurs to make more money, grow the right teams, and find the freedom of EPIC Entrepreneurship.
Epic Entrepreneurs
Paver Perfection: Building a Niche Business Empire with Garfield Jones
Carving out a specialized niche might seem limiting, but for Garfield Jones of Paver Perfection, it's been the foundation of his entrepreneurial success. Broadcasting from Palm Beach - what Garfield calls "the paver capital of the world" - this episode delves into how focusing exclusively on paver restoration created a thriving business that commands premium prices while fixing other contractors' mistakes.
Garfield doesn't mince words about the hard lessons he's learned running a growing enterprise. "Be the boss. Don't try and be friends with your employees," he advises after sharing how he once had to release his entire team and rebuild from scratch. His candid insights challenge common misconceptions about entrepreneurship, especially the notion that business owners are "made of money." As he explains, "You could start the week off with 40 grand in your business checking account and by the end of the week you're down to five because there's so many expenses."
What truly separates Paver Perfection from competitors isn't just technical expertise (though Garfield is a master certified contractor) - it's his approach to winning clients. Rather than pressuring prospects to close deals, he focuses on education: "I don't go on an estimate to close the estimate. I go on there to educate you." This philosophy consistently wins him high-ticket projects even when competing against lower-priced alternatives. Behind his business drive lies a powerful personal motivation - providing his family opportunities he never had growing up. His integration of family into the business operations creates a unified approach where everyone contributes to their shared success.
Whether you're considering specialization in your industry or struggling with leadership challenges, Garfield's journey offers valuable lessons about finding your niche, maintaining high standards, and building a business aligned with your deepest values. Ready to elevate your entrepreneurial mindset? Listen now and discover how a specialized focus might be exactly what your business needs.
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Bill
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Bill
Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I'm Bill Gilliland, your host. I am also the principal of Action Coach, business Growth Partners and the Asheville Business Summit. I am super pumped about our guest today. I can't wait to hear his story. It's got to be interesting. He's found a nice niche and it's working for him, so I can't wait to tell you. But hey, just a reminder the Asheville business summit coming up on September 23rd, it is not too late to get your tickets. Make sure you go out to wncsummitcom and pick up your tickets today. Um, hey, but let's get on with our guests. I have got Garfield Jones from Paver Perfection, so welcome to the podcast, garfield. Tell us a little bit about you and your business.
Speaker 2:Nice to meet you, man. Thanks for having me. My name is Garfield. I own a company called Paver Perfection. We specialize in nothing but paver restoration from paver stripping to paver sanding to paver sealing. That's what we do. Been in business around five years now, and I am Floyd's two full-time guys at the time.
Speaker 1:How do you, how in the world do you get into a niche like that?
Speaker 2:Well, getting to a niche like this, let me tell you it's not easy. Um, it takes a lot of organic growth. Um, people have to trust you. It is so many paver ceiling companies out here. Um, one thing that separates us from the rest is we're the only one that advertises paver stripping. So all these fly-by-night contractors that are sealing pavers and they're turning white within six months or doing terrible jobs, that's what we specialize in man, fixing their mistakes. And um, in palm beach, man, um, it's like the paver capital of the world. Pavers everywhere. So it's a nice market, man, but it's all about education because at the end of the day, homeowner's gonna tell you hey, this is nothing about the driveway, you know, but um know it adds property value, adds curb appeal.
Speaker 1:I definitely think paver sealing is the best. Yeah, yeah, no, it's great. And I mean, you know, not everybody gets up. I mean you probably, when you were a kid, you probably didn't get up in the morning and say, hey, I want to be a paver sealer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not at all man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, it's good. Well, we'll take it from there.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you some questions about business. So if you had to start over from square one, what would you do differently? Differently, I wouldn't change anything, except for my marketing strategy. So in the beginning I wasn't a believer in SEO. I thought it was just a big high-time scam, that that you dumping thousands of dollars in every month and seeing nothing. So I wish I would have started SEO a lot faster than I would have had a lot more organic growth. Currently we get plenty of jobs, but they're high ticket leads. I'm currently running about 5K in advertising in my magazines a month, you know. So that's money that could be in my pocket if I started SEO a long time ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what advertising works best for you?
Speaker 2:Well for us. So, like I said, we're a niche place so we have to reach customers that are looking for us. So I advertise in home fix up mags, like one of them is local living and one of them is resource, and homeowners go in here and look for things that is going to fix up their property and that's how we reach 90% of our customers. On the other hand, I do a little Facebook ads.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got it, got it, yeah. So the advice is get some organic marketing going as well as the paid ads.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, people have to know you. In Palm Beach we have a rep that says they all say paper perfection is very expensive but they do great work and I don't mind that rep. We do awesome work and our work is not cheap. You know, I'm actually a master certified contractor in this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, I no. I love that. I love it when people in fact, I think that's one of the goals as a contractor is to get it. Hey, they're not the cheapest, but they're the best. Yes, that's, that's what I want to hear. So give us some of your learnings as a business owner and employer, since you started your business.
Speaker 2:My learnings. First thing and foremost, man, be the boss. Be the boss. Don't try and be friends with your employees. You know, it's all right to be cool. I learned the hard way. You know, I was the guy that I was just so friendly, so nice, and when it looks they're taking advantage of you and it puts you in the spot to say something because, oh, y'all are friends now, you know. So that's something I I highly speak against, Um, keep it professional business at all times, you know. Um, that's about it, man. I think that's the major thing that held me back a while until I got out of that and I let everybody go, man, and I started over from scratch, you know. And now we're booming back again, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a hard move. That's well done on making that decision. That's a tough move to say, well, these guys aren't working anymore because they've done what they can and then move on. So what are some misconceptions about running a business?
Speaker 2:Everybody thinks it's easy. You know they think it's the easiest thing Like, uh, uh, you're made of money. You know, I tell people I said you could start the week off with 40 grand in your business checking account and by the end of the week you're down to five because it's so many expenses that goes out, you know. But yeah, it all comes back, but it's a rotating door. So I tell business owners, when you get into business, man, save your money. You know, save your money. Just because you see a nice amount of checks in there, you want to go buy this, buy that. Save your money because there is seven to eight K a week, which is terrible, which is it's a.
Speaker 2:It's good to other guys, you know, but for a company of my size, with the advertising and stuff we spend, that's terrible. We're used to 12 to 15 a week. But the summertime, this is what happens every summer. So you have to save money because at the end of the day, your employees depend on you and I'm very passionate about that. I don't call my guys and say, hey, we don't have no work today, so everybody's staying home. No, everybody come to work. We're going to find something to do. Because at the end of the day, you got a family to feed too, you know, so you need a paycheck. So that's how I feel about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. What do you attribute your growth to?
Speaker 2:Attribute my growth to man is to wanting better for my family, man. You know, I didn't grow up rich man. I kind of grew up kind of poor, you know, but I strived and I'm here busting my butt because I want my kids to have the house and the backyard and you know all the stuff that I didn't have growing up. So I grind, man. I wake up every morning six o'clock, you know, and I don't come home sometimes till after six, you know, because I'm out there grinding.
Speaker 1:So I love that. Yeah, you got a good why.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You got a good reason to get out there. Yeah, I love that. So, speaking of, which is your? Why is your personal? Your family, what is? How do you balance that? The personal life with the business?
Speaker 2:Oh man, there is no balance, man, it's everybody's part of the business man. You know, it's just what it is. My wife is my full-time admin. You know, she takes all the calls, does all the scheduling. My daughter, she takes care of the tools. You know, she charges all the batteries every day that needs to be charged. You know, and everybody know, when daddy come home, he still has to do estimates, he still has to do this, but I'm definitely going to make time for them and they understand, you know. So that's how I kind of balance it. I mean, it's not really a balance, but it's the best I could do right now. You know, and they understand, because, like I said, we're in grind mode, man. You know we're looking to buy a house within the next month. Actually, we're going through closing and stuff right now. You know, congratulations. Yeah, man, we didn't just get here by just getting up and doing a couple of jobs here and there. No, we got here by dedication, you know.
Speaker 1:And getting it done Right. You got to do what you got to do until you can. Yeah, I see great futures for you. What qualities do you look for in employees? I mean, you talked about what you didn't look for. Yeah, let's talk about what you do look for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, number one quality. And I say, without this I won't hire you. I don't want you to have experience, because everybody I've hired who are experienced, they don't do it my way, so I have to retrain them. You know, one thing I look for is that you got to be teachable. You know, you can't be the hothead coming in here. I think you know everything. You gotta be teachable and you gotta learn how to listen, man, and take constructive criticism. You know, um, other than that, you'll go far. You know, if I could teach you and tell you hey bro, you doing doing this wrong, this is how you're supposed to do it, and then you could learn, then there's plenty of room for you here to grow.
Speaker 2:I mean, I have a, I have a, my lead tech, right now. I think he makes two, 75 a day, you know, and he's killing it. You know, I'm probably going to give him a raise within the next two, three months and and I think I'm gonna put him at $300 a day because he's worth it. You know, cause he, he, he gets on a job, no complaining and he gets stuff done. You know, nah, no complaining, and he gets stuff done, you know.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, I love that, I love that. Hey look, you know my tagline is be epic, so we have some. It's an acronym. So I'm going to give you what what the letter stands for, and then I want to get like a sentence or two about each letter. Just a quick. We call it a quick fire round, okay, so the B stands for bring the energy. We call it a quick fire round. So the B stands for bring the energy. You've obviously got a lot of energy.
Speaker 2:Tell me about your thoughts on energy. Oh man, listen, if you are fired up in the morning, it don't matter what size the job is. I mean, we do a lot of big ticket jobs and cleaning 20,000 square foot of pavers is very intimidating if you're not primed and amped up to do it. So, my guys, breakfast is important. We get breakfast, we make sure we are ready to go and everybody's ready. No dead weight, man. You know, if I'm fired up then I usually fire up everybody else and I'm always ready to go. You know, because everybody looks at you, everybody's like okay, the boss is ready, ready, so that means they're going to be ready I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. So the e in epic stands for education okay, education.
Speaker 2:I think that's why I win a lot of estimates. Um, when I first started this business funny story a lot of guys told me I wasn't going to make it in Palm Beach because Palm Beach is predominantly white. And I'm a black guy, a big black guy at that scary big black guy they call me. But the funny thing is that I do more numbers than these same guys that told me I wouldn't make it. And the reason is why is because of education.
Speaker 2:I don't go on an estimate to close the estimate. Yeah, I want the job. I go on there to educate you and when I leave you I tell you I said you don't have to choose me, but here is why you should, and this is why you should look for when you're getting your pavers sealed. And I educate them about the different stuff that's going on and I leave them with knowledge of what they need to look for. And nine times out of 10, man, they get other estimates. But they call me back and tell me you were higher than these other guys. But we like you, you know, and that's how. And I close them bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you've educated them, you've put them on the. Yeah, you're the one who helped them figure out how to make the best decision. So you obviously know more than anyone else about this and since you specialize in it, you must be the guy. So the P stands for planning.
Speaker 2:Planning. Planning is key in this game. Man, it's the rainy season right now. You could go from making $0 this entire week because you can't get a job sealed, because you can't sand it in the rain and you can't seal it in the rain. You could clean it in the rain, but you can't seal it in the rain and you can't seal it in the rain. You can clean it in the rain, but you can't see seal it in the rain. So planning goes into it. So we plan ahead all our jobs, man. Everything has to be laid out. Usually early in the morning it's not raining, so that's the time we try to get our ceiling in and we prep in the afternoon. So planning out your schedule in this game right here is a must.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I love that. I love that. The I stands for inspiration.
Speaker 2:Inspiration man. A lot of people is crazy, but I get inspired by the big guys. I want to have 20 trucks, you know, I talk, I talk to other guys that's big in the game and they got 20 trucks, 20 crews out there, 10 crews out out there. You know, um, to me that's inspiration man. You know that it could be done, and especially when you hear their story and realize, man, they came from the same back cage rump, you know, and that that inspires me right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they put on their pants the same way we do exactly. Yeah, it's the same stuff. So, all right, this is going to be a good one for you. The the C stands for commitment commitment man.
Speaker 2:Favor ceiling man. It's up and down A lot of a lot of a lot of people want to get into favor ceiling because it's a higher ticket than pressure cleaning Way higher ticket. But you have to be committed. People don't want to spend the money to get into it. The equipment is not cheap. You know. You're buying cheap up pump up sprayers and you're trying to do the job. It's inconsistent. So in order to make it in this game you got to commit to it. You can't do oh, I'm going to do roof and ceiling. You know it's going to coincide with, it's going to contradict each other and you're going to have to choose which one you want to do or focus on more. You know.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. So what words of advice would you offer other business owners who are looking to grow?
Speaker 2:In my field. If you're looking to get into the favorite feeling game, get some training, man. There is a lot of free training out there. Get some training, man, there is a lot of free training out there. Get some training. Get some training. Pay to shadow somebody. I did that in my beginning Paid a guy to shadow him, just to see the ins and outs, you know. And then I attended a bunch of trainings, man. I became a master, certified tech, you know. So training is very important, man. Everybody thinks it's easy. Any monkey could spray some sealer. It's not all about the sealer, it's about the prep. If you're not prepping the surface properly, you're not going to make it, man. And in this game there's no cheap mistake. You know, to strip off a failed sealer that you put on, you're looking like three, four grand period, you know? Um. So it's not a cheap, easy fix if you mess up.
Speaker 2:Yeah so yeah training, man training I think it's the key I love it yeah, the prep was all the key.
Speaker 1:I have a client who does concrete refinishing and it's all. Yes, it's all about the prep, it's all about the prep was all the key.
Speaker 2:I have a client who does concrete refinishing and it's all about the prep.
Speaker 1:It's not the same, but it's similar to what you're up to, but it's all about the same, hey. Lastly, how does somebody get a hold of you if they want their pavers sealed? Oh, man.
Speaker 2:you can reach us at 561-485-2425. You could look us up on Facebook Paver Perfection. You could go on our website at wwwpaverperfectionproscom. We're on Twitter, we're on YouTube. We're on Instagram Paver Perfection. Everywhere You'll see the big, bold letters. You can't miss us.
Speaker 1:I love it, I love it, I love it. So, letters, you can't miss us. I love it, I love it, I love it. So, hey, really appreciate you. Thanks for coming on the podcast, really appreciate you joining us and being a part of the Epic Entrepreneurs community and I know you're a big part of the community there in Palm Beach area. So, yeah, thanks for all of that.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you having me man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, and until next time. Remember, if you're listening to this and you're in the Western North Carolina area, or if you're going to come visit us, get those tickets to the Asheville Business Summit at wncsummitcom September 23rd, the big day. We look forward to seeing you there. Hey, and until next time. All the best.